3rd Party Batteries

WilsonFlyer · Sep 20, 2019

I've been looking at some of the TBxx battery mods over on the DJI forums, here and on Youtube and it dawned on me that this is not a very sustainable model over the long term. Eventually supply is going to run out. There has to be a better way. And then it dawned on me. A "Duh" moment if you will.

Has anyone done any realtime monitoring of the communications and pin streams going between the battery and the RC while under power? What we really need to know is what those pins are and what they carry in realtime and if there's some sort of handshake that we need to replicate in order to fool the Inspire.

I'm surprised somebody hasn't been down this road. This seems to be to be a much better long-term solutions where we could eliminate part and parcel of the TBxx's to begin with. Unless, and probably even if, there's some sort of handshake, it ought to be fairly straight forward to provide that plus every other piece of data the controller in the Inspire needs from the balance lead on any standard LiPo or LiHD on the market. Is that "smart board" sending data streams or is it only sending that a standard LiPo balance lead has to begin with? Are we sure the board isn't just there for charging, discharging and safety during charging and storage?

I applaud all the efforts here, and I fully intend on trying some of these experiments, but there's got to be a better long-term solution. Are we over complicating the problem here folks?

Anybody?

Donnie Frank · Sep 21, 2019

The route I will eventually take is to move the TB48s cell pack to the TB48 brains and cap. TB48s batteries are readily available whose cell pack is exactly the same size, weight and electrical spec at the TB48 counterpart. With TB48 batteries going up in price while TB48s battery prices come down, eventually they will meet. Right now I'm seeing a $20 difference between the two, with the latter being the more expensive option. If the Inspire battery market isn't eventually filled by a third party battery manufacturer, I may actually turn "refreshing Inspire 1 batteries" into a business. But that's a ways down the road and assumes that the change-over of electronics is as simple as I believe it will be.

D

adwb · Sep 21, 2019

I am surprised given the large ,I think, numbers of I1 owners and also given the investment some have made in cameras chargers and other 3rd party accessories that the batteries and the props have not appeared as available from other supplies than DJI.

I understand that DJI have to pull the plug at some point but it seems given batteries and props are almost consumables they have been a bit quick to pul the plug.
Also the low resale values now being offered by buyers makes keeping the kit a very attractive option.

That all said I applaud your intentions over the batteries after all smart drill batteries are repackable and I’m sure someone with a decent 3D printer should be able to produce props.?
Watching this space with interest .

InspireEagle · Sep 21, 2019

Donnie Frank said:
The route I will eventually take is to move the TB48s cell pack to the TB48 brains and cap. TB48s batteries are readily available whose cell pack is exactly the same size, weight and electrical spec at the TB48 counterpart.

D

Good idea is that something you will try in near future?

WilsonFlyer · Sep 22, 2019

I find it somewhat humorous how people seem so willing to sell-off and "retire" their I-1s just because there's a new model and DJI isn't making batteries anymore. They must not be any good anymore.

The I1 is a tremendous flying machine that just happens to have a camera mounted on it. Even without the camera, it would still be a tremendous flying machine.

I've been flying RC for over 30 years, and my "trainer" still hangs in my shop... and I still fly it on occasion. I have plenty of very expensive big birds with 10'+ wingspans and gasoline engines that are 15-20 years old and every one of them still fly fine. More importantly, they still do everything they ever did, and most of them do those things well.

Some of them originally doned NiCad batterries and later NiMH, and most of them have LiPo now. As the time changed, I updated them with current technologies, but it didn't change the timelessness of the aircraft themselves.

There ain't a **** thing wrong with the I1 except it runs proprietary batteries that we have ridiculously allowed DJI to bind them to mandating how long we can fly these birds. As a 30 year RC pilot and a 35 year+ private pilot, that baffles my mind. I come from a generation that didn't just throw something out because something newer was out there that we could afford. If what we had was perfectly fine for our needs, we maintained it and updated it and kept on using it.

That we allow the company that manufactured it to dictate how long we can use a product is purely asinine to me. We are better than this and smarter than this.

{Jumps off soapbox... albeit likely temporarily.}

WilsonFlyer · Sep 22, 2019

Donnie Frank said:
The route I will eventually take is to move the TB48s cell pack to the TB48 brains and cap. TB48s batteries are readily available whose cell pack is exactly the same size, weight and electrical spec at the TB48 counterpart. With TB48 batteries going up in price while TB48s battery prices come down, eventually they will meet. Right now I'm seeing a $20 difference between the two, with the latter being the more expensive option. If the Inspire battery market isn't eventually filled by a third party battery manufacturer, I may actually turn "refreshing Inspire 1 batteries" into a business. But that's a ways down the road and assumes that the change-over of electronics is as simple as I believe it will be.

D

What are you going to do when they stop making those batteries, assuming you can get them to work seamlessly to begin with? If you're good with that, good for you (Seriously), but some of us are looking a longer term solution independent of any one manufacturer that may be gone in two years anyway.

Dobmatt · Sep 25, 2019

WilsonFlyer said:
What are you going to do when they stop making those batteries, assuming you can get them to work seamlessly to begin with? If you're good with that, good for you (Seriously), but some of us are looking a longer term solution independent of any one manufacturer that may be gone in two years anyway.

I agree with you wholeheartedly. However, with DJI's "smart battery" concept things are more complicated than you may think. Charging and balancing aside (which is a standard. well known and common procedure), the battery in use is constantly monitored and controlled by DJI Go app via telemetry. Genuine DJI cells itself are of more advanced kind than these commonly used, providing slightly higher voltage. This may create problems not existing in RC hobby world known to us. Sourcing 6S LiPo pack of proper size is challenging enough. Cannibalizing depleted DJI battery to re-cycle "smart" circuitry, developing and fabricating useable mutant, finally calibrating are other challenges only the most skilled hobbyists may attempt to solve. Seemingly doable, but at what cost?