Mavic Pro Battery Mod

[TheLightSpeed!]

Sorry, I never saw this post. Yes, those boosters with good antenna would help significantly; however what do you mean by 40, 50 feet down? You mean at an altitude of 40 or 50 feet. That really depends on the terrain. Anytime you have objects between you and craft, signal is cut way down, even when boosted. If there is mostly clear line of sight, no problem.

Cost is around $80 per amp and antenna mode is around $150 depending on which one you choose and whether you install yourself or have it installed. If you are using dipole or panel antenna like nanosync, one amp should be good for Transmit side. You can amp the receiver side as well, but it's a small gain.

Guys don't buy from "Drone-World" they claim their system has "amps" built into the remote, which has been proved to be a lie.

They are super overpriced too.

 

[CyberNate]

Guys don't buy from "Drone-World" they claim their system has "amps" built into the remote, which has been proved to be a lie.

They are super overpriced too.

Why are you quoting me? I have nothing to do with drone world. I was talking about my own setup.

 

[Natedoggz]

One thing I've noticed with the battery mod which attaches to the Mavic battery pins is that the contact with the pins is not sufficient. This is apparent if you see that the external batteries are not depleted after your flight. I noticed that as the battery mod was repeatedly removed and mounted, the connection gets worse and the external batteries are not as effective. It becomes necessary to put a drop of solder at the contact point of battery pins and the copper plate of the battery mod. You should always check the external battery voltage after flight to verify that the amount of power used is in line with the Mavic main battery. If not, you have poor contact with battery pins. I think many are seeing this issue, as I remember one guy saying he could get 2 flights out of the external batteries before needing to charge them. This should never happen. The voltage of external batteries should always match the Mavic battery after flight. If Mavic cells are 3.7V/cell, that's what you external cells should read, or be very close.

I also noticed that as well, and was hoping for some clarification to that, because every flight with the mod on the Mavic, left all my batteries about the same level (as it should be). But a little weight off my shoulders as I was always wondering why I've heard that.

 

[digdat0]

Hey guys, new here but am a big phantom 3 modder. My mavic shows tomorrow and would like to do a battery mod. Are there any how tos for opening the mavic for a hard wire power mod? I just read all 13 pages and saw pics of it installed, but no disassembly pics or steps. Thanks, lotta great info here and look forward to learning more!

 

[Natedoggz]

Check out some of the mavic teardown videos on YouTube

 

[TheLightSpeed!]

Why tear it down when you can add the battery XT adapter?

 

[digdat0]

Why tear it down when you can add the battery XT adapter?

Cost mostly, but I tend to lose things I'd rather just have the wire there permanately and not worry about it. I have extra xt60 wires already so the mod should be pretty easy. I can then take the $ I would have used on a clip and buy batteries.

 

[CyberNate]

Cost mostly, but I tend to lose things I'd rather just have the wire there permanately and not worry about it. I have extra xt60 wires already so the mod should be pretty easy. I can then take the $ I would have used on a clip and buy batteries.

Hard wiring is a better option amyway. There is too much resistance with the clip mod. I'm not able to get all the power out of my external batteries. I improved it some solder and squeezing clip with pliers to make the fit tighter, but still not where I want it. My external batteries and lagging by 2.1V (.7V/cell) behind Mavic battery. That's wasted energy. I think the clip with led has some inherent resistance which I will measure today. I had over 1100 Mah remaining in my 5200mah when craft reported 12% battery level.

I also see far less performance with lipo vs lihv. I was getting much longer flight times with lihv. Perhaps if I can get rid of resistance lipo would work better.

 

[TheLightSpeed!]

Well I've seen plenty take it apart. All you have to do is get the nose top off and solder your leads.

It looks MUCH easier than the Phantom 4 variety

 

[digdat0]

So it does look pretty simple, take off the top and the power leads are right there to solder on. Probably hardest part is where to run the lines.

 

[cruzroy]

One thing I've noticed with the battery mod which attaches to the Mavic battery pins is that the contact with the pins is not sufficient. This is apparent if you see that the external batteries are not depleted after your flight. I noticed that as the battery mod was repeatedly removed and mounted, the connection gets worse and the external batteries are not as effective. It becomes necessary to put a drop of solder at the contact point of battery pins and the copper plate of the battery mod. You should always check the external battery voltage after flight to verify that the amount of power used is in line with the Mavic main battery. If not, you have poor contact with battery pins. I think many are seeing this issue, as I remember one guy saying he could get 2 flights out of the external batteries before needing to charge them. This should never happen. The voltage of external batteries should always match the Mavic battery after flight. If Mavic cells are 3.7V/cell, that's what you external cells should read, or be very close.

you are correct, even tho the mod cost 50 bucks from certain places it wont last unless you leave it on and don't remove it, I made on a little different, and it bites the pins a lot better, I will post after testing, but still the best mod is to open top of mavic and solder wires directly to pin board, but this voids care refresh and warranty

 

[cruzroy]

So it does look pretty simple, take off the top and the power leads are right there to solder on. Probably hardest part is where to run the lines.

most people run thru front arms

 

[digdat0]

most people run thru front arms

thanks! will see where we end up .. I guess i better order some 3s batteries now!

 

[CyberNate]

thanks! will see where we end up .. I guess i better order some 3s batteries now!

Get the multistar ones from Hobbyking. They also have Lihv if you want the best match for Mavic battery which is also lihv type. Just have to be careful to slightly undercharge LiHV to around 4.32V/cell rather than 4.35V/cell. Unfortunately the Lihv are often out of stock. I think the 3000mah 3s is available.

 

[CyberNate]

Hard wiring is a better option amyway. There is too much resistance with the clip mod. I'm not able to get all the power out of my external batteries. I improved it some solder and squeezing clip with pliers to make the fit tighter, but still not where I want it. My external batteries and lagging by 2.1V (.7V/cell) behind Mavic battery. That's wasted energy. I think the clip with led has some inherent resistance which I will measure today. I had over 1100 Mah remaining in my 5200mah when craft reported 12% battery level.

I also see far less performance with lipo vs lihv. I was getting much longer flight times with lihv. Perhaps if I can get rid of resistance lipo would work better.

I should add, the clip mod works fine if you stay with smaller capacity batteries. If I run dual 1500mah lipos, I get all usable energy from the cells with perfectly matching cell voltages to the Mavic. It's only when I go with the larger sizes such as 4000 and 5200mah that I see that the cell voltages are lagging. This is due to the extra current coming from external cells which exceeds the limitation of the small contact points between the clip and mavic battery pins. It's like trying to run fire hose amount of water through a garden hose. The path is too small.

Yesterday I ran with 2 x 4000mah batteries on the Mavic. That's nearly 500 grams of weight in total. It actually flew fine for close to 30minutes at 30+ mph. I was looking forward to checking my flight log and for some odd reason only half of my flight was logged and the rest cut off. You guys ever see that? Anyway, I would NOT recommend running this setup and especially not in any kind of wind. It was just a test. After running the Mavic down to around 15% battery I checked my external batteries and they were still at 3.77V/cell. I charged them and them only took 2670mah each. Due to the poor contact point of the battery clip, I was not able to leverage the whole external battery, leaving 2660mah of unused capacity in total. With a hard wired setup, I could have flown for close to 40 minutes. I will likely wire a cable directly to the power leads as well.

 

[Natedoggz]

CyberNate and Cruz Roy, what are your ideas for doing connectors and wires (ga. Length, ways of soldering, y-pigtails, exit points, trim the plastic on the sides so the it's still foldable or plug in top) if you were to soldier. I'm willing to hack my mavic shell up to make it more custom/factory look instead of a war machine. And also still want to keep the sleek look for when not flying the mod.

 

[CyberNate]

CyberNate and Cruz Roy, what are your ideas for doing connectors and wires (ga. Length, ways of soldering, y-pigtails, exit points, trim the plastic on the sides so the it's still foldable or plug in top) if you were to soldier. I'm willing to hack my mavic shell up to make it more custom/factory look instead of a war machine. And also still want to keep the sleek look for when not flying the mod.

I'm not the person to ask. I'm terrible with hands-on. I can probably half *** it and getting it working. I'm debating about either going through the front arm hinges, or drilling a small hole in the top cover with a rubber grommet to seal. Not sure yet until I get in there. Unfortunately I don't have a lot of free time to tinker at the moment. Through the top I'd probably have a single connector which would need a y adapter for those time when you run 2 side batteries. For me it does seem preferable to run 2 batteries with one mounted on each side, so will see if running through the arm hinge will work. Top mount gets in the way of the power switch and gps sensitivity.

 

[TheLightSpeed!]

I'm not the person to ask. I'm terrible with hands-on. I can probably half *** it and getting it working. I'm debating about either going through the front arm hinges, or drilling a small hole in the top cover with a rubber grommet to seal. Not sure yet until I get in there. Unfortunately I don't have a lot of free time to tinker at the moment. Through the top I'd probably have a single connector which would need a y adapter for those time when you run 2 side batteries. For me it does seem preferable to run 2 batteries with one mounted on each side, so will see if running through the arm hinge will work. Top mount gets in the way of the power switch and gps sensitivity.

What you could do... is, FLUSH mount the XT leads into the sides of the nose shell. Or on top. That way while in use you have smooth plug ins and when not in use they could have a cap.

 

[Natedoggz]

Thanks looking for ideas, I'm a car fabricator, I deal with everything! Paint, plastic, fiberglass, wiring, mods, alarm/remotestart, motorized hidden spots! But I get bored with usual and try to go above and beyond. So any ideas, 2nd thoughts, wishful thinking or just some cool views other then mine helps alot!
Thanks

 

[TheLightSpeed!]

Thanks looking for ideas, I'm a car fabricator, I deal with everything! Paint, plastic, fiberglass, wiring, mods, alarm/remotestart, motorized hidden spots! But I get bored with usual and try to go above and beyond. So any ideas, 2nd thoughts, wishful thinking or just some cool views other then mine helps alot!
Thanks

Why don't you give it a paint job too! No more wrap!