Mavic Pro Battery Mod

[Gh0stxSinghx]

Which best LiHV batteries or LIPO Batteries? I have already ordered the LIPO Batteries. can use work Lipo? 30c is fine?

 

[CyberNate]

The max of 650 g doesn't mean you should go any where near that much weight. At least for me the max I would go is 300 g and I still wouldn't feel completely safe flying.

I'll be just over 400 grams with battery mounting and adapter, but I'll get a little more power out of the motors with 3 parallel batteries. The current will be spread over 3 packs , all of which are LiHV. I'll get less voltage sag. I think it will be ok. Definitive pushing the maximum limit. Will be curious how warm the motors get in my test flight. The Mavic battery will get a light workout with the 2 external batteries taking over 60% of the load.

 

[CyberNate]

I received my battery mod today. Unfortunately after waiting for more than 1 month, they sent me the V1 mod with the splitter cable instead of V2 which has 2 plugs directly on the battery connector. I wanted V2 for simplicity and less weight. The V1 mod is very heavy. Oh well.

I went ahead and tested the mod with a pair of regular 1500mah lipos as I haven't received my 3000mah LiHV batteries yet. Lipos are not a good match for the Mavic as I saw 4.33V/cell on the Mavic after turning it on and then I connected my lipos which are at 4.18V/cell. This is wasted energy with the discrepancy and it was noticed in the first 10% of battery consumption which went quickly, in fact I was at 96% by take off after some fiddling around. It's important that the external batteries have a similar voltage to avoid any current flow between the batteries. The mod has no diodes to protect against reverse current flow.

Anyway, the Mavic flew fine, but it does use 40% "Power" on the tachometer just for hovering. Normally that should be your ideal RPM for efficient cruise speed. Anyway, I found that once you get up to speed, there is more lift available and you can cruise along at 26mph or so at around 40 to 50% RPM "Power".

Normally when I fly these distance runs, I fly in P mode with Obstacle Avoidance off. This is normally the efficient speed at around 29 to 32 mph depending on the wind. I see that this is no longer optimal with the battery mod. The Mavic will go the same speed as without the mod, but it's ramping up the RPM "Power" far too high. Electric motors waist energy when they are turning higher than optimal RPMs. This means that for a proper distance run, you will need to use sport mode and find the green/blue intersection to get the optimal RPM. On this run, I just did the normal P mode with full stick. I got just under 60,000 feet distance (51,000 of it for a distance run out and back) with 15% battery remaining and 23:40 time on battery. I took off with only 96%. The flight was into a 5-7mph wind.

Certainly the batteries will do MUCH better if try this again and use sport mode tachometer to regulate the power. I expect the cruising speed to be around 26 for this load. My arriving batteries are 50% heavier, so it's be interesting if I can actually run the motors in the optimal zone and achieve enough lift and speed.

The batteries added around 7-8 minutes over what I'd get without the mod, but that is because the motors were turning near sport mode RPM even though I was flying in P mode. Sport mode full power is VERY inefficient for the motors. I expect to see an extra 3-5 minutes or more if using optimal motor power which is around 40% on the tachometer. Anyway, the real test will be with the LiHV batteries which I believe will give stellar results with double the power of these 1500mah and only 46% more weight (376 grams vs 256 grams for 2 batteries), but I could be wrong if the RPM greatly exceeds 50% power just for cruise speed. We shall see.

 

[Natedoggz]

What battery mod did you get? And from whom? And price?
I've already done the antenna mod now looking for more flight time for med range flights. Any input is greatly appreciated, thanks

 

[CyberNate]

What battery mod did you get? And from whom? And price?
I've already done the antenna mod now looking for more flight time for med range flights. Any input is greatly appreciated, thanks

Mavic Battery Mod

 

[CyberNate]

Ok, I got my LiHV batteries today. Just did a flight just under 35 minutes and covered over 71000 feet just flying around. Projected battery was just under 38 minutes if I had ran it all the way down. I was flying at speeds between 22 and 30 most of the flight and many changes in direction. That's nearly double battery life. I think cruising straight I'd get closer to 40 minutes.

 

[Red_Raven]

Here is the new long-range from FPVcustoms.com . It ties into the main power cable. Also included is a battery bracket. A 3s LIHV battery (3000 to 4000ma) is recommended for use with this mod. This mod is hardwired.

This is way to much modding in my opinion, giving that at maxxuav you'll simply attach a little clip into the battery connector. Completely reversible.

I draw the line where the hardware of the drone is changed in unreversible way.

But probably a great mod. [emoji106]

 

[AMars32]

View attachment 9525 Ok, I got my LiHV batteries today. Just did a flight just under 35 minutes and covered over 71000 feet just flying around. Projected battery was just under 38 minutes if I had ran it all the way down. I was flying at speeds between 22 and 30 most of the flight and many changes in direction. That's nearly double battery life. I think cruising straight I'd get closer to 40 minutes.

Incase other would like to try this including myself, would u mind providing the brand of LiHV batteries you used?
-thanks

 

[CyberNate]

Multistar, 3000mah LiHV. You can get them at Hobbyking.com. Having a single 4000mah is also a good option for less weight. I might go that route for simplicity.

 

[AMars32]

Multistar, 3000mah LiHV. You can get them at Hobbyking.com. Having a single 4000mah is also a good option for less weight. I might go that route for simplicity.

Thank you!

 

[Gh0stxSinghx]

View attachment 9525 Ok, I got my LiHV batteries today. Just did a flight just under 35 minutes and covered over 71000 feet just flying around. Projected battery was just under 38 minutes if I had ran it all the way down. I was flying at speeds between 22 and 30 most of the flight and many changes in direction. That's nearly double battery life. I think cruising straight I'd get closer to 40 minutes.

Great get that's flight time 34mins, I will buy it all 2 x battarys and clip mod. Which you using to GPS mode and off VPS for flight time?

 

[FireFlyer451]

Cybernate, can you post photos of your setup with battery mounted. Thx

 

[CyberNate]

Cybernate, can you post photos of your setup with battery mounted. Thx

It's not pretty, but gets the job done. I will be trying a single mounted battery as recommended by MaxxUAV website in the near future. This setup is a bit on the heavy side, and it flies fine until battery gets under 20%. At that point, not so stable, especially on final descent.

The battery is Velcro'd to the craft and extra strap.

 

[FireFlyer451]

Thanks for posting. Good Lord, that is 2X 3000 lihv 3S batts! It must be crazy heavy

 

[AlanTheBeast]

It's not pretty, but gets the job done. I will be trying a single mounted battery as recommended by MaxxUAV website in the near future. This setup is a bit on the heavy side, and it flies fine until battery gets under 20%. At that point, not so stable, especially on final descent.View attachment 9580 View attachment 9581 View attachment 9582

The battery is Velcro'd to the craft and extra strap.

At first glance I'd be worried about it shifting in flight. I assume the tie wraps are put on quite tight?

What do you mean by instability under 20%? Lack of power for stability?

I really think a big problem is no blocking diodes to the original battery - impossible in this config, I know. But by lifting the MP battery up a circuit could go in to provide blocking for both batts. Just a thought. But that might fix your "under 20%" issue.

What is the net mass change?

 

[Wingmn]

WOW

View attachment 9525 Ok, I got my LiHV batteries today. Just did a flight just under 35 minutes and covered over 71000 feet just flying around. Projected battery was just under 38 minutes if I had ran it all the way down. I was flying at speeds between 22 and 30 most of the flight and many changes in direction. That's nearly double battery life. I think cruising straight I'd get closer to 40 minutes.

CyberNate, you have some great eyesight to see the Mavic that far away from you! My eyesight is NOWHERE near that good....

 

[CyberNate]

WOW


CyberNate, you have some great eyesight to see the Mavic that far away from you! My eyesight is NOWHERE near that good....

Those lime green batteries help a bunch ;-).

 

[CyberNate]

At first glance I'd be worried about it shifting in flight. I assume the tie wraps are put on quite tight?

What do you mean by instability under 20%? Lack of power for stability?

I really think a big problem is no blocking diodes to the original battery - impossible in this config, I know. But by lifting the MP battery up a circuit could go in to provide blocking for both batts. Just a thought. But that might fix your "under 20%" issue.

What is the net mass change?

At 20%, the voltage is much less and therefore you have much less power as compared to fully charged batteries. The diode won't help with that. Diode would help with then you first connect the external batteries to the Mavic, as the voltages will not match exactly. After you start flying, the batteries will line up, as those with higher voltage will provide more current until they are in line with the other batteries. There is a battery error when you connect the external batteries due to the voltage mismatch. You have to power it on twice before it will really start up. This error doesn't happen with regular lipo's, but with the LiHV, apparently they can exceed the Mavic battery slightly. MaxUAV website recommends to charge the LiHV batteries to slightly below the 4.35V/cell normal charge to avoid the battery error, perhaps to 4.30 or so.

I just had another flight in BIG wind with these batteries, perhaps over 17-20mph. I didn't like the way it flew. It used a lot of battery and I had Max Motor RPM messages while trying to ascend while going into the wind. I still managed to get out to 26000 feet into the wind, but it used a lot of battery to do that. I feel hesitant to recommend the configuration I'm using. I think you need a bit lighter configuration for good flight characteristics. This setup is really testing the very limits of the Mavic. They also sell 1800mah LiHV batteries which would be a good setup in a pair. MUCH lighter. Running a single 3000 might be good enough, mounted on top. I guess it depends on what you're trying to achieve. If you want to be top on the leaderboard for distance, the dual 3000mah batteries should get the job done on a day with no wind. It should be good for close to 80,000 feet round-trip on the right day and with proper flight speed.

 

[CyberNate]

At first glance I'd be worried about it shifting in flight. I assume the tie wraps are put on quite tight?

...

What is the net mass change?

The batteries will not move. The are velcro'd to the entire side of the Mavic and also to the velcro strap. The batteries are very well secured and do not move. Yes, it's important because the battery or cables could come into contact with the prop if they move.

The batteries are 376 grams combined plus the connector, splitter, and velcro. It's probably well over 410 grams altogether additional weight, but just a guess. I'll say that with the dual 1500mah lipo's it flew much more stable. If you got some 1800 LiHV, they'd likely be just as light, or lighter with more runtime.

 

[Xcel]

How are the motors after a windy flight like that? Are they warm/hot?