Powerbank as additional power source?

[Cappydrone]

Hi guys. New to donning and just ordered a Mavic Mini as my starter drone.

I had an idea and just wanted to see if any Es done it or if even possible.

Is it possible to strap a light weight power bank to the Mavic and plug it into the charging port effectively topping up the internal battery as it drains? Or does the drone not operate when plugged into power?

Cheers

 

[PhantomFandom]

Hi guys. New to donning and just ordered a Mavic Mini as my starter drone.

I had an idea and just wanted to see if any Es done it or if even possible.

Is it possible to strap a light weight power bank to the Mavic and plug it into the charging port effectively topping up the internal battery as it drains? Or does the drone not operate when plugged into power?

Cheers

Sorry to rain on your parade but I think that is a very bad idea all around:

• The MM already gets 30 minutes of flight time on a full charge. How much flight time do you need?
• The MM is a small drone and not rated for any additional payload. I would not put any additional weight on it; and especially not something as heavy as a power bank.
• How would you plan on mounting this big heavy power bank to the MM? You can't mount it on the bottom because you would block the sensors. You can't mount it on top because it would likely block the propellers and would definitely block the GPS sensor.
• Beyond adding weight, it would also likely shift the CG and perhaps cause control issues.
• A power bank would charge the battery very slowly. During the flight time of a full battery, the gained charge from the power bank would be negligible and probably be far outweighed by the decreased flight time due to the extra weight.

 

[YellowJacket]

Hi guys. New to donning and just ordered a Mavic Mini as my starter drone.

I had an idea and just wanted to see if any Es done it or if even possible.

Is it possible to strap a light weight power bank to the Mavic and plug it into the charging port effectively topping up the internal battery as it drains? Or does the drone not operate when plugged into power?

Cheers

I'll try it with a 10k mAh battery I have for my phone. Will report back.

 

[GadgetGuy]

I'll try it with a 10k mAh battery I have for my phone. Will report back.

A smaller, lighter one of ~3k mAh might be a better choice, if it will gain anything at all.

 

[WithTheBirds]

A smaller, lighter one of ~3k mAh might be a better choice, if it will gain anything at all.

It’s an interesting question.

What does a 3Ah power bank weight? 100grams?

With the phantoms each gram of payload added equated to 1.2s in flight time loss. How does that translate to the mini? Your looking at over 10mins in reduced flight time and that is assuming the mini can even lift it.

Reality probably is the mini couldn’t carry the weight- if it couldn’t it would fly like a pig.

Assuming flight characteristics were acceptable the reduced flight time could not be replenished fast enough to have a net positive effect.

This is like trying to design a 747 to employ reinforced concrete in the fuselage and deliberating over the colour of the hostesses uniforms.

 

[GadgetGuy]

It’s an interesting question.

What does a 3Ah power bank weight? 100grams?

With the phantoms each gram of payload added equated to 1.2s in flight time loss. How does that translate to the mini? Your looking at over 10mins in reduced flight time and that is assuming the mini can even lift it.

Reality probably is the mini couldn’t carry the weight- if it couldn’t it would fly like a pig.

Assuming flight characteristics were acceptable the reduced flight time could not be replenished fast enough to have a net positive effect.

This is like trying to design a 747 to employ reinforced concrete in the fuselage and deliberating over the colour of the hostesses uniforms.

I, too, am skeptical about any net benefit. However, as to your concern about ability to carry the weight, there is already a YT video of the Mini successfully carrying a Go Pro Hero 8 mounted on top during flight, so we can use that as a baseline for a potential maximum payload. Pretty incredible!

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[YellowJacket]

Instructions unclear. Got genitals stuck in props. DJI help

 

[WithTheBirds]

I, too, am skeptical about any net benefit. However, as to your concern about ability to carry the weight, there is already a YT video of the Mini successfully carrying a Go Pro Hero 8 mounted on top during flight, so we can use that as a baseline for a potential maximum payload. Pretty incredible!

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Sick....

 

[GadgetGuy]

It’s an interesting question.

What does a 3Ah power bank weight? 100grams?

With the phantoms each gram of payload added equated to 1.2s in flight time loss. How does that translate to the mini? Your looking at over 10mins in reduced flight time and that is assuming the mini can even lift it.

Reality probably is the mini couldn’t carry the weight- if it couldn’t it would fly like a pig.

Assuming flight characteristics were acceptable the reduced flight time could not be replenished fast enough to have a net positive effect.

This is like trying to design a 747 to employ reinforced concrete in the fuselage and deliberating over the colour of the hostesses uniforms.

A couple of additional observations and considerstions:

When the payload is a battery adding extra power, the 1.2s/g flight time loss is more than offset by the gain in flight time from extra power. On the P3P and P4, I added 500g of weight in two external 2800 mAh batteries comprising 5600 additional mAh of power. Stock I was getting 18 minutes at a continuous 30mph. With the externals hooked up under the same flight conditions, I was getting 27 minutes, for a roughly 50% increase in flight time. If the 1.2s/g loss of flight time is accurate, by adding 500g of weight, I lost 10 minutes of flight time, so the 9 minute gain was from adding battery power capable of delivering 19 minutes more of flight time, which is roughly correct. The stock battery was 5300 mAh on the P4, and I was adding 5600 mAh. Roughly a 50% increase in flight time by adding 105% of the stock battery power. That was the sweet spot for me, factoring in additional battery weight and highest mAh available per gram of weight in externals.

Using your 100g estimate of dead weight, and the 1.2s/g loss of flight time from the Phantoms, that would only be a 2 minute loss (120 s) rather than 10 minutes, before the gain in flight time from extra battery power is taken into consideration. I just question whether a power bank can supply the power at a fast enough rate to supplement a drone battery during flight!

 

[DanMan32]

I doubt it will work. If I remember correctly, the MM without FMK charges the battery though the AC. I doubt it will go into charge mode while powered on, or power on while charging.

Power alone probably won't be the problem as the charger is an 18W QC compatible charger with the AC also being QC compatible, in order to charge the battery in a reasonable period of time. Charger puts out 12v for full charging power when it sees a QC device at the other end.

 

[GadgetGuy]

I doubt it will work. If I remember correctly, the MM without FMK charges the battery though the AC. I doubt it will go into charge mode while powered on, or power on while charging.

Power alone probably won't be the problem as the charger is an 18W QC compatible charger with the AC also being QC compatible, in order to charge the battery in a reasonable period of time. Charger puts out 12v for full charging power when it sees a QC device at the other end.

With the Phantom battery mods, the externals were hooked up in parallel with the internal battery, and the aircraft had to be booted up with the externals disconnected, and then the externals could be attached in parallel for flight. After landing, the externals had to be detached first before powering down the main battery. If the externals had more voltage per cell than the internal battery (say 4.33V per cell and the internals were at 4.30V per cell), as soon as you hooked the external batteries up, the internal battery would shut OFF, and the externals would then start charging the internal battery! One had to bleed off external batteries voltage to below the internal battery voltage before the externals could be used for flight.

 

[WithTheBirds]

A couple of additional observations and considerstions:

When the payload is a battery adding extra power, the 1.2s/g flight time loss is more than offset by the gain in flight time from extra power. On the P3P and P4, I added 500g of weight in two external 2800 mAh batteries comprising 5600 additional mAh of power. Stock I was getting 18 minutes at a continuous 30mph. With the externals hooked up under the same flight conditions, I was getting 27 minutes, for a roughly 50% increase in flight time. If the 1.2s/g loss of flight time is accurate, by adding 500g of weight, I lost 10 minutes of flight time, so the 9 minute gain was from adding battery power capable of delivering 19 minutes more of flight time, which is roughly correct. The stock battery was 4300 mAh on the P4, and I was adding 5600 mAh. Roughly a 50% increase in flight time by adding 130% of the stock battery power. That was the sweet spot for me, factoring in additional battery weight and highest mAh available per gram of weight in externals.

Using your 100g estimate of dead weight, and the 1.2s/g loss of flight time from the Phantoms, that would only be a 2 minute loss (120 s) rather than 10 minutes, before the gain in flight time from extra battery power is taken into consideration. I just question whether a power bank can supply the power at a fast enough rate to supplement a drone battery during flight!

You can’t expect the 1.2s/gram to apply to the mini. It will be significantly more than for a phantom. It will be over 5 times as a function of weight alone. Easy to see how I arrived at 10 minutes as a rough estimate. It’s a fair starting point.

 

[GadgetGuy]

You can’t expect the 1.2s/gram to apply to the mini. It will be significantly more than for a phantom. It will be over 5 times as a function of weight alone. Easy to see how I arrived at 10 minutes as a rough estimate. It’s a fair starting point.

Agreed. Thanks for clarifying. I misunderstood where the 10 minutes came from.

 

[DanMan32]

With the Phantom battery mods, the externals were hooked up in parallel with the internal battery, and the aircraft had to be booted up with the externals disconnected, and then the externals could be attached in parallel for flight. After landing, the externals had to be detached first before powering down the main battery. If the externals had more voltage per cell than the internal battery (say 4.33V per cell and the internals were at 4.30V per cell), as soon as you hooked the external batteries up, the internal battery would shut OFF, and the externals would then start charging the internal battery! One had to bleed off external batteries voltage to below the internal battery voltage before the externals could be used for flight.

Well there you're talking about raw external battery connected directly to the OEM one. They're talking about a power bank, which I assume they mean a USB power bank connected to the USB port of the AC.

 

[AMann]

I think you will more than double the flight time simply by attaching a helium balloon to it.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Well there you're talking about raw external battery connected directly to the OEM one. They're talking about a power bank, which I assume they mean a USB power bank connected to the USB port of the AC.

By analogy, when the external battery had more juice than the internal, it started charging the internal battery, which then shut off. I strongly suspect a power bank connection would cause the internal battery to also shut off while charging, meaning it couldn't be used during flight as a supplemental battery supply.

 

[WithTheBirds]

By analogy, when the external battery had more juice than the internal, it started charging the internal battery, which then shut off. I strongly suspect a power bank connection would cause the internal battery to also shut off while charging, meaning it couldn't be used during flight as a supplemental battery supply.

Easy enough to test.

Power on mini and connect charger.

Does your phone turn off when you connect the charger? There is more correspondence of similarity in that scenario to that of your proposed analogy.

We get back to where you were initially. Depletion rate will likely exceed that or charge.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Easy enough to test.

Power on mini and connect charger.

Does your phone turn off when you connect the charger? There is more correspondence of similarity in that scenario to that of your proposed analogy.

We get back to where you were initially. Depletion rate will likely exceed that or charge.

No Mini to test. Waiting for the FlyMore Combo. Anyone else?

 

[Keule]

No Mini to test. Waiting for the FlyMore Combo. Anyone else?

 

[WithTheBirds]

View attachment 85724

What happens if you try?