Mavic Pro Battery Mod

sprtbkrydr · Jun 20, 2017

ZALEXANDERK said:
And.....now know what Sugru is. lol

Yeah that's what was throwing me off!

MacIak · Jun 20, 2017

Got to drill using a dremel, large bit. But very careful cause upstream the leads are pushing against the shell. If done, use pg 19/20 as reference of what to expect around the solder joints. These are covered with yellow silicone which is easy to peel off. Some sugru will replace this and should close the holes nicely.

ZALEXANDERK · Jun 20, 2017

MacIak said:
Got to drill using a dremel, large bit. But very careful cause upstream the leads are pushing against the shell. If done, use pg 19/20 as reference of what to expect around the solder joints. These are covered with yellow silicone which is easy to peel off. Some sugru will replace this and should close the holes nicely.

Cheers..

Quad808 · Jun 20, 2017

MacIak said:
Got to drill using a dremel, large bit. But very careful cause upstream the leads are pushing against the shell. If done, use pg 19/20 as reference of what to expect around the solder joints. These are covered with yellow silicone which is easy to peel off. Some sugru will replace this and should close the holes nicely.

Nice Mod, looks easy to do and doesn't mess up the Mavic. I think I can sacrifice one battery to try this, since I have lots and lots of lipo's at home from home built drones.
Come to think of it...someone should do this mod for a fee!

CyberNate · Jun 20, 2017

CyberNate said:
For those of you running direct battery mod, meaning that you have xt60 leads directly connected to Mavic main battery leads, are you guys see any compass issues? I've noticed some compass errors along with "Compass Redundancy switch set" or something like that. I'm thinking that this may be due to the internal wires I've added. Perhaps I should have twisted those wires to reduce magnetic field affect on Mavic compass. I remember @Unknown Caller mentioned that he has some compass issues after he did the mod, but we weren't sure what caused that. @digdat0, you see any compass errors after the mod?

Ok, I found that compass 1 is bad. It has nothing to do with the battery mod as Compass 1 is in the very rear. Just coincidental. It was intermittently bad until I waved a magnet around it after removing the cover. Now it fails 100% of the time in disconnected state. It's actually better having it disconnected as the Mavic would sometimes use Compass 1 which caused some very poor flight characteristics when it was acting up. Now I simply need to replace it once I get back to the states. Compass sensors are only $25 for the Mavic on Ebay.

MacIak · Jun 20, 2017

Quad808 said:
Nice Mod, looks easy to do and doesn't mess up the Mavic. I think I can sacrifice one battery to try this, since I have lots and lots of lipo's at home from home built drones.
Come to think of it...someone should do this mod for a fee!

It's fun and a lot easier than doing the version where the leads are accessed from the front side. Had to eyeball (not lucky normally) but these huge joints are hard to miss.

MacIak · Jun 20, 2017

CyberNate said:
Ok, I found that compass 1 is bad. It has nothing to do with the battery mod as Compass 1 is in the very rear. Just coincidental. It was intermittently bad until I waved a magnet around it after removing the cover. Now it fails 100% of the time in disconnected state. It's actually better having it disconnected as the Mavic would sometimes use Compass 1 which caused some very poor flight characteristics when it was acting up. Now I simply need to replace it once I get back to the states. Compass sensors are only $25 for the Mavic on Ebay.

Always nice to know what actually is causing it! You still keep flying i hope? Lots of nice places to explore..

CyberNate · Jun 20, 2017

MacIak said:
Always nice to know what actually is causing it! You still keep flying i hope? Lots of nice places to explore..

Yes, still flying. I'm very cautious with the bad compass. My luck, compass 2 will go out on me as well when I'm at a distance. It's flying fine using the front compass only so far.

CyberNate · Jun 20, 2017

MacIak said:
Did this.....

View attachment 15410 View attachment 15411
Before i realized i ran out of Sugru...

So now you need to go test it. You should see a bit better flight time than the battery clip.

Quad808 · Jun 20, 2017

Since I had no clue as to what Sugru was....I found this site:
How to Make Your Own Sugru Substitute: 15 Steps (with Pictures)

cruzroy · Jun 20, 2017

ive been working and family things came up, and also trying to get my 3d printer soldered up, i have to make parts......but did a little video, not the best quality,, had camera problems too.....just a bad month

cruzroy · Jun 20, 2017

if you want to donate towards stl files.......thanks

Hobby | Redpah

MacIak · Jun 21, 2017

cruzroy said:
ive been working and family things came up, and also trying to get my 3d printer soldered up, i have to make parts......but did a little video, not the best quality,, had camera problems too.....just a bad month

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NOTE: THIS MOD AS EXECUTED HERE DOES NOT WORK!! PLEASE CONTINUE READING THREAD FOR FURTHER INFO!!
Hey! Why you quit on modding the battery? The clip is nice, my problem is that i cannot keep it on the mavic cause of space in my bag. Taking it off/on too often will wear down the connectors in on the mavic side. Will keep it if i want to quick-adapt for more batteries than the modded ones.
Got sugru, have used.

ZALEXANDERK · Jun 21, 2017

MacIak said:
Hey! Why you quit on modding the battery? The clip is nice, my problem is that i cannot keep it on the mavic cause of space in my bag. Taking it off/on too often will wear down the connectors in on the mavic side. Will keep it if i want to quick-adapt for more batteries than the modded ones.
Got sugru, have used.

View attachment 15471

Nice job..way to go I think. Well I like it...

cruzroy · Jun 21, 2017

MacIak said:
Hey! Why you quit on modding the battery? The clip is nice, my problem is that i cannot keep it on the mavic cause of space in my bag. Taking it off/on too often will wear down the connectors in on the mavic side. Will keep it if i want to quick-adapt for more batteries than the modded ones.
Got sugru, have used.

View attachment 15471

i have mooded lipos too, and yes clip wont last, thats why video for people that dont want to spend 40-50 dollars for clip.....just make your own for 5 bucks...but some are affraid to open lipos, i did video on lipo mod too

MacIak · Jun 21, 2017

cruzroy said:
i have mooded lipos too, and yes clip wont last, thats why video for people that dont want to spend 40-50 dollars for clip.....just make your own for 5 bucks...but some are affraid to open lipos, i did video on lipo mod too

Haha..seen that vid (the last one too) and decided im not doing that! This is much easier. Ok, does not look very pretty but in this case functionality beats esthetics.
There was a guy earlier in this thread where the direct battery mod did not help improving flighttime. Still curious what could have caused this..
@ZALEXANDERK : thanks. Maybe should have mixed some black sugru in there for different shade of gray..or just black.
At least it's safe again. Something i cannot stand when connections are open like that.

ZALEXANDERK · Jun 21, 2017

MacIak said:
Haha..seen that vid (the last one too) and decided im not doing that! This is much easier. Ok, does not look very pretty but in this case functionality beats esthetics.
There was a guy earlier in this thread where the direct battery mod did not help improving flighttime. Still curious what could have caused this..
@ZALEXANDERK : thanks. Maybe should have mixed some black sugru in there for different shade of gray..or just black.
At least it's safe again. Something i cannot stand when connections are open like that.

Yes I will try a grey/black mix lol...but it's a very good mod....well done.

sprtbkrydr · Jun 21, 2017

That looks much better.

digdat0 · Jun 21, 2017

i disassembled the battery today. Intent of being able to mod it and put it all back together without huge holes or cutting chunks out. Here's pics, haven't modded yet, ran out of xt60 connectors. Also curious if i can hookup the smartboard to externals .. it worked on the p3, should work on the Mavic. thought id share pics. opening it was pita, a few parts are glued and the glue has to be broken.

MacIak · Jun 21, 2017

digdat0 said:
i disassembled the battery today. Intent of being able to mod it and put it all back together without huge holes or cutting chunks out. Here's pics, haven't modded yet, ran out of xt60 connectors. Also curious if i can hookup the smartboard to externals .. it worked on the p3, should work on the Mavic. thought id share pics. opening it was pita, a few parts are glued and the glue has to be broken.

That sure is sweet! Why the ##&! didn't you post this say...yesterday BEFORE i turned my batteries into Frankenstein

.
Things aside: i thought it would require serious cracking to open these, didn't bother. Thanks for sharing!
Edit: i think you can add the board to externals but adding the 2 wires directly on the battery is just the same. Adding externals to the board you d also need a way to align it back with the pin connectors if the shell is omitted.
More experimenting needed!

Edit edit: sidenote. When adding wires id go for not thicker than AWG16. I modded another and only had thicker awg12 around. This becomes serious pain to solder when little room to do so. Also a bit overkill (unless you plan to draw 30-40 c).
Oh and.. if you push in the Sugru or something else, do not force it in uncontrolled. Since the holes are pretty close to the button the goo could prevent it from correct functioning!