Mavic Pro Mobile Charging

[AVsupport]

Or if you trust Made In China.... you can try this car charger that can charge the mavic battery and the controller as well.... unlike that DJI put out with NO USB CHARGER?? wtf....... Oh they want you to charge the mavic battery, then put on the adaptor to the battery then plug in the usb cable to the remote... haha who thinks of these things. Here is the link, I ordered one of these too... Notice the input voltage... 12 - 16 Will work when car off.
Car Charger Adapter Battery Charging For DJI Mavic Pro Quadcopter RC Transmitter | eBay

Nice ideas there, thanks, I have purchased a portable car starter kit from Jaycar, which doesn't charge for the obvious reasons.
12V 3-in-1 Jump Starter with Spiral Wound Battery | Jaycar Electronics
Have you got your (above) China-adapter yet? Does it work? Do you have any concerns re' there not being any smart electronics inside (..'what could possibly go wrong'-moment)
I will try the step-up idea perhaps first, as I can probably get my hand on one of those around the corner..

 

[AVsupport]

added info to above:
Couldn't get a 'step-up converter' I could trust could handle the expected 8A throughput load..biggest was 2A..(25W?) so I left this idea...
Was thinking: all my pro audio Li-Ions are 14.4V, so are most pro camera batteries...maybe this is a road worth pursuing?

 

[Dogtown]

I go on a 10 day Elk hunt every year, way out in the woods. I use a Shorai Lithium Iron battery that is super light! Its a motorcycle battery that can crank a 1000 cc twin. I just hook up an ac cig lighter to the battery via a sae connector and its good to go! Its usually good enough for the entire trip of charging phones, 4 walkies everyday, cam equipt, and a Jambox music system.... If it gets low I can charge it on Solar (really friggin slow) or use my ATV

 

[AVsupport]

these 'step up converters seem quite pricey.. one that might fit the bill I spotted at Element14: ~AUD $120.
http://au.element14.com/mascot/8862-12-12v/converter-dc-dc-40-5w-12-12v/dp/1183943
MASCOT 8862 12/12V DC/DC Converter, Switch Mode, Fixed, 1 Output, 10 V, 16 V, 81 W, 13.2 V
Mavic car charger needs 12.3-16V, 78W / 6A, right?
but still not a $2 solution.. :-/

EDIT:: WARNING Better double check..the PDF manual suggest it's the other way..input fixed, output var...

 

[stratos]

I remember seeing a crank charger (not for a mavic) but it was for a phone.
Yeah it was manual and yes, you have to crank it like 500 times to get 5-10% battery or something.

 

[idiogenic]

Hey guys, I posted my experience with the DJI car charger and a step up transformer here:
Electronics gurus - hacking the car charger?

DJI really dropped the ball on this one. I should have bough a crappy ebay car charger for $19 rather than the DJI one for $80 + transformer $30!!!!!

 

[AVsupport]

Hey guys, I posted my experience with the DJI car charger and a step up transformer here:
Electronics gurus - hacking the car charger?

Thanks @idiogenic, I read your thread, very interesting!
I am currently persueing the other direction: Li-ION motor cycle batteries, NiMH options. If they're high capacity 14.4V, shouldn't be an issue...I sifted through B&H photo for some power packs, but $$ and not all have the Amps required...

 

[idiogenic]

Sounds interesting, look out for voltage drop - the DJI charger at least (not sure about the cheap ones) will cut off if voltage drops too much. Given that the DJI charger can pull up to 8 amps, voltage drop can be a significant issue (the auxillary battery in my 4WD drops from 12.6 to 12 volts at peak load from the DJI charger).

That being said, I think you should be ok with high performance lithium batteries, I don't think they drop much. NiMH - I wouldn't think so, but happy to be corrected if I'm wrong.

I'd love some sort of solar charging setup for hiking and cycle touring but it looks pretty difficult. I think you'd need to be able to easily generate 8 amps of power from the panels (which means you probably need panels that can generate >10-12 amps according to their 'specifications' to allow for real world conditions) or find a way to trickle charge the Mavic batteries at low amperages. Maybe the cheap ebay car chargers for the Mavic allow this, but given the batteries themselves still have all kinds of internal charging control I wouldn't like to bet on it.

 

[AVsupport]

yes, this is approx. ~80W continuous charging!... that's a little more than your average Engel car fridge that cuts in and out every so often...! I noticed even those promising Bikemaster Li-Ion batteries Lithium Ion Batteries don't really hold a lot of Ah for their size...shows you how tightely those Mavic batteries are packed!
also, re above, they don't like the heat, so if they come off the bird, they're too hot, and won't charge; solar=sun=heat, problematic, yeah. Trickle for me no go, as I want to quickly reuse while in the field, turn over 3x batts, recharge while flying. But this seems quite difficult at the mo...

 

[Aerial Gopher]

I developed something that may be of interest to you guys. I created a new topic... Its for using Battery Banks and the OEM charger to charge the mavic battery's. I got 7 Battery Cycles on this set up!

Hiking Mavic Pro - Battery Bank Charging System - Proven
Get some popcorn, its a long post!

 

[Kilrah]

I take one or more of my 4s 6600 lipos (have 3 of them, 100Wh/$32 each) and a $27 RD CC/CV power supply module.

 

[Aerial Gopher]

Nice ideas there, thanks, I have purchased a portable car starter kit from Jaycar, which doesn't charge for the obvious reasons.
12V 3-in-1 Jump Starter with Spiral Wound Battery | Jaycar Electronics
Have you got your (above) China-adapter yet? Does it work? Do you have any concerns re' there not being any smart electronics inside (..'what could possibly go wrong'-moment)
I will try the step-up idea perhaps first, as I can probably get my hand on one of those around the corner..

I got the charger from China, it worked, and I used it with a lead acid battery, but the problem was that it stopped working after 1 battery charge. I opened it to see, and it was a simple problem, they had two strands of the positive wire soldered tot he board that broke off. I re-soldered it, but.. Opps. I accidently left one strand touching another component.. and.. the smoke came out of the capacitor! You know how hard it was to catch the smoke to get it back in there? I didn't get all of it!

I did make a different set up that I posted the link above in another post reply, that uses the OEM charger with two laptop battery banks that worked like a charm.

The Chinese charger was an 80 watt charger, it got pretty hot when used, other versions of it had a fan, but no USB charger with it. I might fix the capacitor. Honestly, after all the troubles I went through, stick with the OEM charger, safer. Just find a way to power it, either by step up/regulated, or the battery bank idea I had if you want a portable Hiking solution.

 

[Morphin]

I take one or more of my 4s 6600 lipos (have 3 of them, 100Wh/$32 each) and a $27 RD CC/CV power supply module.

View attachment 9142

Great Idee. How many Ampere do you charge? Does it also charge if you deliver only 2A?

Andy

 

[Kilrah]

Sure lower currents work too. I tend to charge at 1C.

 

[Heeler]

Sure lower currents work too. I tend to charge at 1C.

Kilrah can you provide links and or more detail on this setup please? Like number of recharges per 6600? And where to buy bits? Cheers.