Mavic2 Battery Mods

beanbubba · Nov 13, 2018

I picked up these brass strips and was able to make a battery clip with XT30 plugs without too much trouble. BUT, I am having great difficulty cutting out the tiny slits that slide over the battery pins on the bird.

Any mechanical engineers or metal workers out there that could give some pointers how to make those precision slits in the brass strip??

SkyNinja · Nov 13, 2018

beanbubba said:
I picked up these brass strips and was able to make a battery clip with XT30 plugs without too much trouble. BUT, I am having great difficulty cutting out the tiny slits that slide over the battery pins on the bird.

Any mechanical engineers or metal workers out there that could give some pointers how to make those precision slits in the brass strip??

View attachment 53223

There is a couple of videos on YouTube. The simplest way is to cut slots in the ends then solder the ends close.

beanbubba · Nov 13, 2018

SkyNinja said:
There is a couple of videos on YouTube. The simplest way is to cut slots in the ends then solder the ends close.

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Thanks! I think I will try the cutting wheel to make slots then solder and buff. That looks pretty straight forward.

mlash · Nov 13, 2018

SkyNinja said:
You should not have a problem at that weight, my last distance flight out to 58k and back was at AUW 1489g.

What battery setup was you using. My AUW with 2 MS 4000's is 1583g. I can probably loose about 15g once I strip them and change to xt30's.

beanbubba · Nov 13, 2018

beanbubba said:
I picked up these brass strips and was able to make a battery clip with XT30 plugs without too much trouble. BUT, I am having great difficulty cutting out the tiny slits that slide over the battery pins on the bird.

Any mechanical engineers or metal workers out there that could give some pointers how to make those precision slits in the brass strip??

BTW - the 0.025 brass is way too thick, I ordered some 0.016 and it looks just like the UAVMODs units and measures nearly identical on the calipers.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00G3F3NDC/

Here is the inside of the UAVMODs clip I just opened up:

beanbubba · Nov 13, 2018

Aumoe said:
I got mine in mail yesterday and was on 1000 fw and said same thing I didn't upgrade it yet. It worked fine in the house but Raining till Friday so no fun for meView attachment 53214

I have another zoom on order too. I am not going to mess with it at all and try a heavy hover first thing.

SkyNinja · Nov 13, 2018

mlash said:
What battery setup was you using. My AUW with 2 MS 4000's is 1583g. I can probably loose about 15g once I strip them and change to xt30's.

My 2 MS4000 setup weight is about AUW 1585g and my single HobbyStar setup weight is 1489g.

mlash · Nov 13, 2018

SkyNinja said:
My 2 MS4000 setup weight is about AUW 1585g and my single HobbyStar setup weight is 1489g.

Yeah, I just did a 15 minute hover test with AUW of 1441g and all went well (no auto land). My new M2 will be here tomorrow so I will test it with the two MS 4000's first thing!

SkyNinja · Nov 13, 2018

beanbubba said:
I have another zoom on order too. I am not going to mess with it at all and try a heavy hover first thing.

I don't believe it's a firmware issue, I'm on the same firmware as you. But I've been wrong more than once

beanbubba · Nov 13, 2018

The solder technique works pretty good. It's a little tricky and needs a lot of gentle sanding and buffing.

SkyNinja · Nov 13, 2018

beanbubba said:
The solder technique works pretty good. It's a little tricky and needs a lot of gentle sanding and buffing.

View attachment 53242

View attachment 53243

View attachment 53244

View attachment 53245

Nice job! a lot cheaper than buying a new clip.

lolo780 · Nov 13, 2018

I haven't opened mine up yet, but is there a good way to solder direct to the ESC board? Maybe cut away some plastic on the top side and wrap/solder wires around the pins? Or to the bottom side of the board.

SkyNinja · Nov 13, 2018

lolo780 said:
I haven't opened mine up yet, but is there a good way to solder direct to the ESC board? Maybe cut away some plastic on the top side and wrap/solder wires around the pins? Or to the bottom side of the board.

You can try soldering to the backside of the board. I just found it easier and safer to lightly solder the battery clip pieces to the pins. Take a look at the photo of bottom side of the board in Bean’s post #36.

lolo780 · Nov 13, 2018

I think I mentioned this before, but one way to fool the current sensing is to do your battery mod on the MOSFET side, after the shunt resistor. On the M1 there are large copper areas that can be scraped and soldered to very nicely. I would think the M2 ESC board is similar.

beanbubba · Nov 13, 2018

lolo780 said:
I think I mentioned this before, but one way to fool the current sensing is to do your battery mod on the MOSFET side, after the shunt resistor. On the M1 there are large copper areas that can be scraped and soldered to very nicely. I would think the M2 ESC board is similar.

Please post us when you figure this out and test it

lolo780 · Nov 13, 2018

beanbubba said:
Please post us when you figure this out and test it

For sure. My new arm should arrive this week and I'll install it same day. While I have the shell open I'm going to do some sort of hardwire battery mod. I'm not fond of auto landing so will be doing whatever it takes to get rid of it for good.

beanbubba · Nov 14, 2018

lolo780 said:
I haven't opened mine up yet, but is there a good way to solder direct to the ESC board? Maybe cut away some plastic on the top side and wrap/solder wires around the pins? Or to the bottom side of the board.

I just went over the ESC board closely and there is only one factory test point that could be large enough for the main power supply. And one contact is completely covered by a DJI sticker and one would assume that is the positive terminal. If this ain't the main power, I don't see anywhere else on the board that would be another candidate.

Good luck Lolo, we are all supporting you in spirit from afar!!

EDIT: and you should by a replacement board before you start

beanbubba · Nov 14, 2018

After careful inspection with a magnifying glass, you can follow the circuit board and see where all the battery pins direct connect on the ESC board. I also noted the separate pair of pins that have to be the battery controller serial link (because they do not connect to the +/- and they have a separate factory test point).

Hope this helps Lolo...

beanbubba · Nov 14, 2018

I went ahead and wired up the ESC on these test points to external battery connectors. She booted right up and got the DJI chime loud and clear. Gonna put her back together and see if she flies