POWER BANK TO CHARGE MAVIC BATTERIES

bartjes · Oct 21, 2018

A powerbank is a battery, so why not just buy an extra drone battery ?
I'm going hiking next year for 8 days without power socket anywhere AND I have to carry all my stuff. I am therefore more interested in a solar charger for my phone, Mavic Pro controller and maybe the battery if it has sufficient power and the right cables can connect.

covpack · Oct 21, 2018

I agree, you would be better served just buying another DJI battery if you go hiking. You cannot depend on solar panels. I tried a solar charger for my telephone, in anticipation of a 10-day back-country hike. It was the top of the line 1X4 foot foldout 4 panel laptop size solar panel pad. Issue was anytime it was not in the direct sunlight it did not even provide enough power to even allow the my Samsung G7 phone to even enter charging mode. The DJI battery is also intelligence battery,like one in my samsung phone. My hunch is that if the solar panel cannot provide enough power/amps then the DJI battery would stop charging, or if the battery gets to hot, which will happen as you have to leave the solar panel and battery in direct sunlight. i.e. one minute solar panel is in sun and providing enough amps to battery and then cloud comes and solar panel output decreases, which stops charging the DJI battery. The alternative was to charge a battery and then charge my phone or DJI battery. However, you must remember that you loose more power when transferring a charge from a battery to another battery/device. That 5 hour you used to charge that battery only provided about 50 percent charge for the phone. To get a meaningful charge you would also have to leave the phone plugged into the solar charger for 5-10 hours in direct sunlight. That would double if you charged a much larger DJI battery. Unable to do when you spend most of your daylight hiking and moving in and out of trees/shadows. Good luck it you live or hike in areas with constant cloud cover.
However, if you are working out of vehicle, a off road vehicle in my case, then having a portable battery to charge is cheaper than buying several DJI batteries.

bartjes · Oct 21, 2018

Thanks for the tips on solar chargers, I'll get a powerbank instead for phone & controller and maybe I'll buy an extra Mavic battery then. I have the combo pack but the three batteries are almost 2 years old now.
I was reading this thread and saw some complicated or expensive solutions passing by so I thought we were missing the obvious ;-)

covpack · Oct 21, 2018

bartjes said:
Thanks for the tips on solar chargers, I'll get a powerbank instead for phone & controller and maybe I'll buy an extra Mavic battery then. I have the combo pack but the three batteries are almost 2 years old now.
I was reading this thread and saw some complicated or expensive solutions passing by so I thought we were missing the obvious ;-)

Good luck. I ended up buying extra batteries for my overnight hikes. However, I hate hauling heavy batteries, as every ounce counts when you backpack. I have a Mavic Air and Mavic 2. Mavic air and batteries a much lighter.

Chasing Light & Shadows · Oct 22, 2018

I prefer to carry more batteries rather than power pack. The thing with individual batteries is that you can distribute the weight better. If you have a large powerpack it has to go in your backpack, with the individual batteries you can distribute them in your pockets. When you're carrying a large backpack with a ton of camera equipment already then it can make a big difference.

Rock n Mavic · Nov 4, 2018

Wayno1 said:
Yeah ordered one of these through KickStarter but still waiting delivery, I'm told December delivery for Aussies

You will love it when it arrives.

tbever · Feb 10, 2019

I was trying to figure this out as well. Basically the issue with powerbanks is that they need to supply enough current (Amps) to charge the battery. Most smaller power banks can't do it. There is a video on youtube where two power banks are connected in parallel and that worked. However this doubles the cost. I have a Jackery powerbank with an AC outlet that works and will charge the battery twice (I have only tested it once).

I already had a Maxoak K2 50000 mAh powerbank for my laptop and I wanted to try to see if that would work. I already had the DJI car charger but as others have pointed out the car has to be running.

I got this https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B078Q1624B/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00__o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 DC-DC converter: it takes DC in at 20V from the maxoak and allowed me to adjust the output suitable for the car charger. I set it to output at 15V (the DJI car adapter accepts 12-16V). The Maxoak shuts down if the current is sustained at greater than 4.5 Amps, but there is a potentiometer on the converter to limit the current output which I set to 4.5 A using a multimeter. So far it seems to work OK: I haven't tested it enough to determine the charging times or to make sure the batteries are 100% charged.

However it was only $17.00 plus the cost of a 12V female power adapter (6.00) and 2.1 * 5.5 mm DC power pigtail cable (2.00). I already had the powerbank and car charger of course. I think if Energen comes out with cables for their device that would be the way to go, but until then this will work as an offgrid solution

Ram85 · May 2, 2019

How many charges would you be able to get on a mavic pro 3850mah battery using a 42000mah powerbank with ac ports. Specifically: HP-200-Portable Solar AC Power Bank-Portable Solar AC Power Bank,Power Generator .
Reason I'm asking is that this would be perfect for long hiking/camping trips if it was able to charge 4 batteries (30%-100%) and have the flexibility to charge other devices too if needed. The cost in South Africa is about $199 and an extra mavic pro battery is about $100. Would love to hear any real world experience.

Not A Speck Of Cereal · May 2, 2019

Having multiple Mavic batteries is a given, even for just running around town. Of course, it's handy to have extra batteries rather than a power bank for overnight backpacking.

But the OP didn't say anything about backpacking. For road trips, I certainly bring a charging solution. I can go through my 5 batteries during the day, but not be near AC mains for days.

On multi-day road trips, I bring the Goal Zero Yeti 400. When I'm away from AC mains for more than a day, I bring an extra AGM battery chained to the Yeti 400 (~$100US cost to double the life of the storage). This solution is of course also good to keep the DSLR batteries, laptop / tablet, etc. charged up.

If that's too much, the Goal Zero Yeti 150 is good for a lot of charges (168Wh) and is cheaper than the Drone Max 360. The inverter delivers 80W cont. / 160W surge which is fine for a Mavic Pro, but the rapid charger for my Phantom 3P would trip the circuit (which is why I also ended up with a Yeti 400 @ 396Wh, 300W cont / 600W surge AC).

I also have solar panels for long back-country stays, but if you're going to hit a motel every couple of days, the Yeti 400 usually lasts that long.

Chris

fenea · May 26, 2020

I've did some digging in this matter as I'm trying to find a way to charge my batteries, so here are the options I've found, starting with the most convenient but pricey to cheap/more DIY alternatives but hard to carry or without much value:

1. Just buy more batteries, Mavic batteries are very compact for what they give, that ~3600 mAh for MP1 is at ~12V, which translates to ~11000 mAh for 3.7V which is usually the voltage at which power banks are rated. Most probably you won't be able to find something lighter for the same power and when considering the loss it becomes a big difference.
2. AC power banks, RavPower, DroneMax 360, etc, useful not only for drone charging but pretty expensive as well.
3. Special power banks: Smatree mavic charger: Amazon.com: Smatree Mavic 2 Pro 148Wh Portable Charging Station High Speed Docking Compatible for DJI Mavic 2 Pro/Mavic 2 Zoom Drone Intelligent Flight Battery: Toys & Games
While cool, has more limited use but I believe they're a bit better with power loss.

The following ones are a bit related, but are all on the cheap side:
4. Use a PD faker on a power bank that supports PD 20V and drop the voltage to get an acceptable output: .
The above approach charges directly the battery which I don't really like, I'd like using the car charger to avoid any power spikes from damaging the battery (I'm not an expert, so it might be safe).

My guess is that the above approach won't work with adding a car socket there because PD3.0 has a max output of 20V/3.25A(65Wh) and the battery accepts 13V/3.8A(50Wh) while the car charger needs 14V/6.5A(91Wh),
I've took the above values from Mavic charger and there is probably a range that is ok, this can yet be tested.
5. Connect multiple 12V power banks to deliver the needed power, as shown here: , now I'm no electrician but from my understanding this is bad, you'll have to keep the power banks charged at same level or the voltage will differ, they'll try to balance it and it'll be bad. Also I believe nobody has a some 12V power banks laying around meaning that it is also expensive. NOT RECOMMENDED
7. Create your power bank most power banks are using 18650 batteries, most of the above options are converting voltage even multiple times, the car charger requires ~15V which is pretty close to having 4 sets of batteries series, so having a battery which can deliver ~15V/6.5A will most probably be able to charge the Mavic batteries.
Here is a video showing how it works: I'm planing to test it, with a 4S6P battery which should give me about ~3 charges for about 900grams at ~40$, well it is heavier than Mavics batteries (240g) but not that expensive. I'm still expecting the
I also believe this is the best approach because it bypasses all the voltage converts which most probably are losing power.

Most of the options are taken from dji forum: Can I charge a Mavic battery with a USB power bank?

fenea · May 28, 2020

Update: 4S6P battery I was looking for had a maximum discharge of 0.5c which means half of its capacity, a cell capacity was 2000mAh x6 making the max output 6Ah which is a pickle below what I need.

As per the video above I've attached he's using a RC battery which has a greater discharge ability and are lightweight.

So I've bought an 4S3P RC battery with 2c and 3400mAh cell capacity. waiting to see the results. should give me about 2 charges, at ~500g + a portable car socket. the price was only 35$ but I'll also need a special charger.

Physopto · May 29, 2020

This was the preliminary idea I had for charging batteries. But it is the cost of DJI battery chargers that is putting me off. I wanted DJI as the only multicharger I have tried damaged a battery. I posted a warning in new pilots when I joined the forum.
See "
Charging on the go.
But any 12 volt source would do if of sufficient capacity.