Solution for Mavic 3 disastrously bad battery charger design?

lomposlapos · Dec 15, 2022

Similarly to the M2P's battery charging hub, the battery charging hub (CP.MA.00000427.01) for M3 is the least on-the-go friendly design. Try using it in the car while driving off-road and the batteries will fly all over the place.

I am using gaffer tapes, 3 printed shapes, clothes for cushion, etc. that kind of make it work.

How do you solve this problem? Charging 6 (six) batteries while driving on rough off-road terrain?

Yorkshire_Pud · Dec 15, 2022

Why disastrously bad design?
I doubt that charging batteries whilst driving off-road is something that many people do, as such why should the designers design for it?
I would bet the hub works perfectly well for those that use it at home or on paved roads. The Mavic 2 hub works perfectly well for me at home, both genuine and pattern versions which, in that respect, are identical.

SmilingOgre · Dec 15, 2022

I bought a Smatree single battery charger that has a good solid connection to the battery. Having said that, I don't mind changing batteries on the charger as even with the DJI charger batteries will only charge one at a time.

mcde · Dec 15, 2022

Disastrous? This charger is designed to stay on a desk for example and so that the batteries can be easily attached to / detached from it. You should probably be looking to buy a different charger.

Eagle Eye 62 · Dec 15, 2022

I agree with the comments above. This charger was never designed to be in a high vibration environment. I would suggest using some heavy duty double sided tape to hold down the charger and a piece of Gorilla Tape across the top to hold the batteries in or possibly a thick rubber band instead.

lomposlapos · Dec 15, 2022

So no one uses the drone in remote locations on-the-go away from office desk or kitchen table?

Filmarik · Dec 15, 2022

lomposlapos said:
Similarly to the M2P's battery charging hub, the battery charging hub (CP.MA.00000427.01) for M3 is the least on-the-go friendly design. Try using it in the car while driving off-road and the batteries will fly all over the place.

I am using gaffer tapes, 3 printed shapes, clothes for cushion, etc. that kind of make it work.

How do you solve this problem? Charging 6 (six) batteries while driving on rough off-road terrain?

Wrap the whole thing in a right size towel, so it fits neatly into the glove box and put the charger with 3 bateries there. Problem solved.

lomposlapos · Dec 15, 2022

Filmarik said:
Wrap the whole thing in a right size towel

batteries must be taped and a spacer/frame must be inserted, otherwise they will fly.

I am still looking for someone who also uses drones in places where the only option to charge is a moving car or boat for 2 weeks.

Yorkshire_Pud · Dec 15, 2022

lomposlapos said:
batteries must be taped and a spacer/frame must be inserted, otherwise they will fly.

I am still looking for someone who also uses drones in places where the only option to charge is a moving car or boat for 2 weeks.

Did you read post 3? Which says:-

"I bought a Smatree single battery charger that has a good solid connection to the battery. Having said that, I don't mind changing batteries on the charger as even with the DJI charger batteries will only charge one at a time."

Filmarik · Dec 15, 2022

lomposlapos said:
batteries must be taped and a spacer/frame must be inserted, otherwise they will fly.

I am still looking for someone who also uses drones in places where the only option to charge is a moving car or boat for 2 weeks.

Are you looking for problems or solutions? I've done off-road driving with the charger and batteries wrapped in towel and tucked in glove box without any issues at all. What kind of off-road driving are you going to do for this simple solution not working?

moldorf · Dec 15, 2022

lomposlapos said:
batteries must be taped and a spacer/frame must be inserted, otherwise they will fly.

I am still looking for someone who also uses drones in places where the only option to charge is a moving car or boat for 2 weeks.

I'm one of those people who travels a lot on rough roads, and I think some others posting to this thread are a little too dismissive of your issue

I have a Mini 2 and a Mini 3. The configuration of their charging hubs makes it so you can charge batteries while traveling on rough roads. The batteries are a lot more locked in place by the walls of the hubs. I can charge even when I'm on really bumpy 4X4 roads

I will be getting the Mavic 3 and I've definitely noticed that the charging hub isn't built for rough road charging. But I'm planning on having 3 batteries. I'd go out (from camp for instance) with 3 fully charged batteries. Stop and take a flight draining one battery down. Then travel to the next stop. While traveling I'd be charging the drained battery in the drone.

When I'd stop for my second flight of the day, I'd take the partially re-charged battery out of the drone and place it in the hub while continuing to re-charge; put a fresh battery in the drone and take a 2nd flight. Then rinse-repeat the process.

yeah, it's a little extra effort and it would be 'better' if the hub was like the Mini 3 hub, but I see ways to overcome that 'flaw'

moldorf · Dec 15, 2022

Filmarik said:
Are you looking for problems or solutions? I've done off-road driving with the charger and batteries wrapped in towel and tucked in glove box without any issues at all. What kind of off-road driving are you going to do for this simple solution not working?

do you have a charging port in your glove box?

Macinfo · Dec 15, 2022

lomposlapos said:
batteries must be taped and a spacer/frame must be inserted, otherwise they will fly.

I am still looking for someone who also uses drones in places where the only option to charge is a moving car or boat for 2 weeks.

I think your solution other than jury rigging a charger & batteries to a fixed position in a vehicle that you're driving on unstable roads or on water is to get more batteries, have them fully charged before you head out.

You should be able to determine to some degree how much flight time your going to need on average for your back road/ over water trip.. And perhaps recharging some while you're not on the go if you're at a destination. There has to be some downtime where you could actually do that, if not, you're going to have to try and see what jury rig works best. The DJI battery design for some drones does not lock them into a fixed position. The Mini 3 series does... 3 batteries can slide into a case and charge if you can keep it plugged in on the run. But you have an M3..

Filmarik · Dec 15, 2022

moldorf said:
do you have a charging port in your glove box?

No. I have USB charging cable long enough to connect the M3 car charger in the 12V socket located in the central console of my car with the glove box. If you are really fussed, you can gaffer tape the cable allong the way so it is not dangling around. Man, this is not that complicated, really

SmilingOgre · Dec 15, 2022

Yorkshire_Pud said:
Did you read post 3?

"I bought a Smatree single battery charger that has a good solid connection to the battery. Having said that, I don't mind changing batteries on the charger as even with the DJI charger batteries will only charge one at a time."

I use an inverter.

RocketBrew · Dec 15, 2022

I built my own battery case and charging system.

lomposlapos · Dec 16, 2022

moldorf said:
I'm one of those people who travels a lot on rough roads,

Exactly, you seem to understand the problem. please let me know if you have a good solution. Charging in the drone is not a good solution for my purposes. we drive most of the day and I need to recharge 6 batteries between morning to afternoon shoots .

lomposlapos · Dec 16, 2022

RocketBrew said:
built my own battery case and charging system

Nice! Do you have the wiring diagram to share so we could consider to build the same or similar? Have you ever got battery error message because of not charging in the factory setup?