Mavic Pro Battery Mod

Natedoggz · Jun 3, 2017

Natedoggz said:
11% exactly, what happened, I tried holding up stick but nothing, right 10% it landed on my ipad

Natedoggz said:
yes I did

MacIak said:
Bummer! Did you recover it?
Wth means 11% landing battery?!

MacIak · Jun 3, 2017

So it autolanded when it entered critical battery? Not able to fight it? That's weird.
Really happy that you got it back though..
Dont want to criticize but what the heck were you doing? Looking at the data you were riding the wind outbound. Trying to return at 48% into the wind?

Edit: have some 2200mAh packs on the way also. Want to try this and see what the extra 800mAh and 60g added weight does compared to 1800 packs.
Have not decided yet if i will try the megapacks, time will tell...

Natedoggz · Jun 3, 2017

MacIak said:
So it autolanded when it entered critical battery? Not able to fight it? That's weird.
Really happy that you got it back though..
Dont want to criticize but what the heck were you doing? Looking at the data you were riding the wind outbound. Trying to return at 48% into the wind?

Edit: have some 2200mAh packs on the way also. Want to try this and see what the extra 800mAh and 60g added weight does compared to 1800 packs.
Have not decided yet if i will try the megapacks, time will tell...

yes fighting the wind but no choice to go any other direction! But I did notice I wasn't going to make it back at 26,000ft as was like I'm going to look for a place to Land, got familiar with some land marks and just waited for auto land both sticks up as starting to desend, but lose of signal due to trees and then I seen the soybeans! So it's safe, charged back up and going again 47% and turn around!!! [emoji41][emoji41][emoji41]

MacIak · Jun 3, 2017

Natedoggz said:
yes fighting the wind but no choice to go any other direction! But I did notice I wasn't going to make it back at 26,000ft as was like I'm going to look for a place to Land, got familiar with some land marks and just waited for auto land both sticks up as starting to desend, but lose of signal due to trees and then I seen the soybeans! So it's safe, charged back up and going again 47% and turn around!!! [emoji41][emoji41][emoji41]

You rascal! Well done, love the attitude!

CyberNate · Jun 3, 2017

Natedoggz said:
dual 2200 venom 3s lipo, didn't make it [emoji53]
Airdata UAV - Flight Data Analysis for Drones

You flew out with the wind. When you're going with the wind you need to be in sport mode and running close to 40mph for max efficiency. Going into the wind, you need to keep your power meter below 80%. With 6mph wind you lose 20‰ extra battery into it and gain 20% going with it. You would need to turn around before 60% battery level using 40% out and 60% coming back. If you'd gone out in sport mode, you would have covered the same distance in much less time and battery leaving enough to get home.

dwallersv · Jun 3, 2017

We'll never get a response, let alone implementation of the feature, so I'm going to hit up the Litchi team on this.

With the IMU gyro data, heading, GPS groundspeed, and individual RPM data for the motors, the wind speed and direction can be estimated pretty well. It would be nice if this was calculated and displayed.

Natedoggz · Jun 4, 2017

CyberNate said:
You flew out with the wind. When you're going with the wind you need to be in sport mode and running close to 40mph for max efficiency. Going into the wind, you need to keep your power meter below 80%. With 6mph wind you lose 20‰ extra battery into it and gain 20% going with it. You would need to turn around before 60% battery level using 40% out and 60% coming back. If you'd gone out in sport mode, you would have covered the same distance in much less time and battery leaving enough to get home.

I'm trusting the machine now, I will try your recommendations in the future, also it seems I just can't get a straight line out while in sport mode and also seems like I just can't keep at level speeds playing with tach %, sometimes I look down and I'm actually slowing my speed too!
I guess to much information at one time right now for me (just now trusting this thing so much)
But with practice I'll get it, but I just got into drone racing too, and modding is a way of life with that and I LOVE IT, LOL! So hopefully I can keep up with you guys still!

Rnl · Jun 4, 2017

Why can't you use two mavic batteries ? I've looked through this massive amount of info don't see an answer.

AMars32 · Jun 7, 2017

Rnl said:
Why can't you use two mavic batteries ? I've looked through this massive amount of info don't see an answer.

Ha. That is a very good point, I'm surprised it hasn't come up yet. The problem with using a second mavic battery is that it would need to be taken out of its housing. The battery outside of its housing is not cased well (its shell is not sturdy). Also, once the battery is taken out there is not an easy way to hook it into the Mavics power, this does not mean it can't be used, I am simply saying that buying an external battery is easier.

Rnl · Jun 7, 2017

looking for that answer for awhile. People are cutting the battery to wire direct why not two one male one female plug together?

Kiowa · Jun 7, 2017

AMars32 said:
Ha. That is a very good point, I'm surprised it hasn't come up yet. The problem with using a second mavic battery is that it would need to be taken out of its housing. The battery outside of its housing is not cased well (its shell is not sturdy). Also, once the battery is taken out there is not an easy way to hook it into the Mavics power, this does not mean it can't be used, I am simply saying that buying an external battery is easier.

It's discussed here, but nobody seems to want to test this....

CyberNate · Jun 7, 2017

Finished the direct battery mod last night. Did mine like @digdat0. Only issue, I picked cables that are a bit too thick. Difficult to solder when the wires are so thick in that tight space.

ZALEXANDERK · Jun 7, 2017

CyberNate said:
Finished the direct battery mod last night. Did mine like @digdat0. Only issue, I picked cables that are a bit too thick. Difficult to solder when the wires are so thick in that tight space.
View attachment 14490 View attachment 14491

What AWG would you recommend...Thanks..

digdat0 · Jun 7, 2017

CyberNate said:
Finished the direct battery mod last night. Did mine like @digdat0. Only issue, I picked cables that are a bit too thick. Difficult to solder when the wires are so thick in that tight space.
View attachment 14490 View attachment 14491

Looks good, I ran into the same with the thick wires. I'd try and do 18g if I did it again ...

ZALEXANDERK · Jun 7, 2017

ZALEXANDERK said:
What AWG would you recommend...Thanks..

Ok..found it 14 gauge...lol

CyberNate · Jun 7, 2017

digdat0 said:
Looks good, I ran into the same with the thick wires. I'd try and do 18g if I did it again ...

Worked great! Should have done the change sooner. I always suspected that this was limiting me.

CyberNate · Jun 7, 2017

One issue I just realize with the direct battery mod. When you connect directly to the main power leads of the Mavic, the external batteries actually have a better connection than the Mavic main battery. By better, I mean there is less resistance. This means that the main battery actual voltage will be slightly higher at the battery (lower at the main leads in Mavic) than the external batteries as it has a BMS and a less robust connection with the small pins. This means that the 0% on the battery meter is not right for external. 0% for the external battery is more like 3% per the Mavic meter, where the external batteries are completely depleted and take a nose dive. Previously when I had a little resistance with the clip mod, the batteries lined up with mavic or slightly lagged the main battery. Now my external batteries are flat lining BEFORE the main battery. This is something all of us need to be careful about when coming in with landing mode. I mean, really, it's a good thing in a sense because we get more out of the external before the landing mode. You just need to realize that 3 or 4% is really close to 0% on the external and they will take the voltage way down as they nose dive at the end. I guess if you wanted all batteries to flat line together, you'd need a small amount of resistance in the external battery connection.

CyberNate · Jun 7, 2017

CyberNate said:
One issue I just realize with the direct battery mod. When you connect directly to the main power leads of the Mavic, the external batteries actually have a better connection than the Mavic main battery. By better, I mean there is less resistance. This means that the main battery actual voltage will be slightly higher at the battery (lower at the main leads in Mavic) than the external batteries as it has a BMS and a less robust connection with the small pins. This means that the 0% on the battery meter is not right for external. 0% for the external battery is more like 3% per the Mavic meter, where the external batteries are completely depleted and take a nose dive. Previously when I had a little resistance with the clip mod, the batteries lined up with mavic or slightly lagged the main battery. Now my external batteries are flat lining BEFORE the main battery. This is something all of us need to be careful about when coming in with landing mode. I mean, really, it's a good thing in a sense because we get more out of the external before the landing mode. You just need to realize that 3 or 4% is really close to 0% on the external and they will take the voltage way down as they nose dive at the end. I guess if you wanted all batteries to flat line together, you'd need a small amount of resistance in the external battery connection.

I have an idea. Previously I complained that the Multistar LIPOs had too high of a resistance as compared to the LiHV when i used them on the battery clip. I was seeing lagging voltages of .7V per cell. I bet that this won't be an issue anymore if I use them with the direct mod. This could be good because the High Capacity 4000Mah Lipo is significantly lighter (40grams for 2 batteries) than the 4000mah LiHV. So now the batteries would better line up better with the main battery. In addition to this, you could overpack them to 4.32V or more to get somewhere around 9200-9500 mah (guessing) total capacity. Lighter weight, more capacity, and better alignment with main battery when connected directly to main leads. I may have to try this. Anyway I've toasted my LiHV by running them down twice in 24hours to 3.18V. They are already puffing a bit and have reduced capacity.

hookalakupua · Jun 7, 2017

Seriously. Some of you are way to smart. That or maybe I'm just dumber than I thought! haha
Pretty impressive guys as would love to try this sometime!

dirtybum · Jun 8, 2017

CyberNate said:
I have an idea. Previously I complained that the Multistar LIPOs had too high of a resistance as compared to the LiHV when i used them on the battery clip. I was seeing lagging voltages of .7V per cell. I bet that this won't be an issue anymore if I use them with the direct mod. This could be good because the High Capacity 4000Mah Lipo is significantly lighter (40grams for 2 batteries) than the 4000mah LiHV. So now the batteries would better line up better with the main battery. In addition to this, you could overpack them to 4.32V or more to get somewhere around 9200-9500 mah (guessing) total capacity. Lighter weight, more capacity, and better alignment with main battery when connected directly to main leads. I may have to try this. Anyway I've toasted my LiHV by running them down twice in 24hours to 3.18V. They are already puffing a bit and have reduced capacity.

you have your own experiences and that's great, but it doesn't seem conducive to the experiences of long-distance flyers and the results with batteries for the last year and a half!
I have ran 40 different batteries of all different types and they don't have the results that you're seeing with the battery sag and the running them down past a certain voltage and then after recharging they're not as good. Believe me I've had lots of batteries that I've had issues, not all batteries are great! not all batteries live through what we put them through as long distance junkies and battery rebuilders, but just be careful stating battery facts as actual facts, because they do come up occasionally when you Google search.and some of our actual experienced external mod pilots don't get that Google search credit even though we have real life experience