Mavic Pro Battery Mod

[Ed209]

Hey can you post a picture of your "smart hack" battery solder points?

I'm not a total newbie for this kind of thing but this is my first venture into the battery mods.


How did your hacked smart board battery perform?

I think you misunderstood me or let me clarify... I totally removed the "smart" board. Since one of my DJI batteries had the "authentication error" message. That battery smart board is no good (the firmware is on the smart board). I cut the leads off the battery that connected to the smart board. After removing the smart board and disconnecting the balance and temp sensor lead, you're left with this:

The board is clearly marked so I soldered my XT60 to the B1- and B3+. The balance leads go just as any 3S would. Pos on pos, Neg on neg and the 2 middle wires on the balance go to the B1+ B2- and B2+ B3- points.

I could have cut the board off as well but then you'd have to solder the lipo tabs back together and soldering lipos is dangerous and heat can damage the cells. The board probably doesn't weigh that much anyways.

 

[TheLightSpeed!]

Thanks man... I was thinking of buying a Phantom4 pro battery once and cutting it apart for the cells but they're a little pricey...They're 5350mAh but i don't remember if they're 4 cells or 6...if its 6 then it may be worth it to try on the Mavic...

Well guess what? I fixed my battery! I was getting already to cut it open and decided to give something a chance. This battery was totally fine and was my longest flying battery at 23 minutes actually.

So I open DJI Assistant 2 to try to update only the battery FW, much to my dislike you can't do that without doing he bird. That's not happening. So I opened the Dev Console, etc. and set the battery to "non DJI battery" and viola, it works like a charm!

I am so happy! F-DJI. I can't believe they wouldn't warranty my stupid battery.

Well I'm leaving it set to this setting. All three cells are charged and even across.

Good News!

 

[Ed209]

This is the kinda stuff I love to do. Just weighed single P3 4480mAh cell:

73.5g
x3 = 220.5g

Balance, XT60 & 3M Dual Lock = 18g

Total weight 238.5g ea for 4480mAh. Still lighter than a MS 4000 but I don't know if it will perform as well.
Put these side saddle and you have an additional 8960mAh. 960mAh more than dual Multistar 4000s and 73g less (when running dual).

 

[Ed209]

Well guess what? I fixed my battery! I was getting already to cut it open and decided to give something a chance. This battery was totally fine and was my longest flying battery at 23 minutes actually.

So I open DJI Assistant 2 to try to update only the battery FW, much to my dislike you can't do that without doing he bird. That's not happening. So I opened the Dev Console, etc. and set the battery to "non DJI battery" and viola, it works like a charm!

I am so happy! F-DJI. I can't believe they wouldn't warranty my stupid battery.

Well I'm leaving it set to this setting. All three cells are charged and even across.

Good News!

Do you still get the battery info in DJI Go with it set to non-DJI battery? Also, I believe that setting is on the bird, so ALL batteries will be treated that way. Not sure what other effects it has. But that's good to know.

 

[chazz]

Well guess what? I fixed my battery! I was getting already to cut it open and decided to give something a chance. This battery was totally fine and was my longest flying battery at 23 minutes actually.

So I open DJI Assistant 2 to try to update only the battery FW, much to my dislike you can't do that without doing he bird. That's not happening. So I opened the Dev Console, etc. and set the battery to "non DJI battery" and viola, it works like a charm!

I am so happy! F-DJI. I can't believe they wouldn't warranty my stupid battery.

Well I'm leaving it set to this setting. All three cells are charged and even across.

Good News!

I guess no target practice then?

 

[TheLightSpeed!]

Do you still get the battery info in DJI Go with it set to non-DJI battery? Also, I believe that setting is on the bird, so ALL batteries will be treated that way. Not sure what other effects it has. But that's good to know.

Yes still got all the same readings? I can't tell the difference.

 

[Ed209]

Yes still got all the same readings? I can't tell the difference.

Maybe @digdat0 can confirm if flying with "non DJI battery" enabled when using an authentic DJI battery has any negatives?

 

[chazz]

Do you still get the battery info in DJI Go with it set to non-DJI battery? Also, I believe that setting is on the bird, so ALL batteries will be treated that way. Not sure what other effects it has. But that's good to know.

It supposed to effect smart battery go home crap i think..TheLightSpeed! Maybe you should do a search on what you'll be losing so you're prepared...

 

[Ed209]

Here's an interesting comparison of tests I ran...
Dual Mavic hacked batteries vs dual MS 3000 in a test "oval flight pattern"...

2x Mavic batteries side saddled:

2x MS 3000 side saddle:

2x MS 3000 side saddle - 8.05mi distance run:

You can see the dual Mavic batteries and the MS 3000s performed almost identical. During the oval test flights, the Mavic batteries were slightly behind the MS 3000s but they caught up at the end. The Mavic batteries caught up at the 20% mark. Pretty interesting.

In real world distance testing the MS 3000 were running a minute better than the test oval pattern at the 20% mark.

This is why I say flying in a large oval is a good way to test your batteries for distance without having to fly too far away in case of unpredictable behavior.

My preliminary verdict: Dual Mavic batteries perform similarly to MS 3000s. But the Mavic batteries carry an additional 830mAh each which seems to have no effect in terms of performance gains. The Mavic batteries do not compare to MS 4000s.

 

[sprtbkrydr]

You get the same readings from the internal battery but you loose the smart features. This is where I run mine all the time because I do not like the auto landing when the battery gets low and this does away with that crap.

 

[TheLightSpeed!]

It supposed to effect smart battery go home crap i think..TheLightSpeed! Maybe you should do a search on what you'll be losing so you're prepared...

Well the way I knew about this setting was through @digdat0 .

I believe the point he said was to reduce the minimum voltage to 3.5v for critical. But the biggest reason to change the batteries behavior when the warning happens, and ultimately the critical happens. I have had mine set for some time to "led only", so it doesn't force land, and RTH when the battery gets to it's warning level for Home.

I've flown with it like this before, but returned it to stock after my issue with losing GPS at one point. Ultimately I believe today that was the area I was in, not the settings.

 

[sprtbkrydr]

It supposed to effect smart battery go home crap i think..TheLightSpeed! Maybe you should do a search on what you'll be losing so you're prepared...

Yes, you loose all smart features.

 

[Ed209]

Yes, you loose all smart features.

Understood that part which most of us don't use anyway. But what about flight time estimate? Is that still calculated and displayed on the top bar in DJI Go?

 

[sprtbkrydr]

Understood that part which most of us don't use anyway. But what about flight time estimate? Is that still calculated and displayed on the top bar in DJI Go?

Can't remember but I don't think it's there when you run it in this mode. I never used it anyway so I don't look for it.

 

[Ed209]

Can't remember but I don't think it's there when you run it in this mode. I never used it anyway so I don't look for it.

This is what I thought. What about battery percentage remaining? Does it still calculate that?

 

[TheLightSpeed!]

Understood that part which most of us don't use anyway. But what about flight time estimate? Is that still calculated and displayed on the top bar in DJI Go?

Yes it's all still there. There's no difference.

 

[sprtbkrydr]

This is what I thought. What about battery percentage remaining? Does it still calculate that?

Yes it does.

 

[sprtbkrydr]

Yes, looks like the green bar is still at the top of the screen.

 

[Ed209]

I guess even though non dji battery is set, it still calculates % based on voltage. Unless it's still getting its info from the dji smart battery circuit.

 

[TheLightSpeed!]

I guess even though non dji battery is set, it still calculates % based on voltage. Unless it's still getting its info from the dji smart battery circuit.

That I don't know. Can you try it and see what you think?