Battery carrying pouch/bag/fanny-pack/bum-bag?

[Ezookiel]

G'day all.
Every fortnight I have a professional shoot where I have to shoot the 4 sides of a major construction site right in the middle of a town-centre. To get to each of the four empty carparks that I shoot from by car would take ages with traffic lights and intersections, so it's actually easiest just to pick the bird up and walk to each corner with the bird in one hand and the controller in the other. The painful part is that I carry a total of 4 batteries, so I can use a new battery at each location. One in the bird is easy enough, but short of wearing cargo pants with pockets all over them, I've still not come up with a good solution for carrying 3 or more spare batteries on my person.
Has anyone come up with some kind of battery carrying pack? Something like what we'd call a bum-bag, but I believe gets called a fanny-pack over there, or some kind of belt with Slots for the batteries?
I'm actually toying with the idea of going to someone that does sewing or leatherwork, and getting something made, unless it's already been done of course. Has anyone seen such a thing, or know of something I could use?

 

[Ezookiel]

Actually, once I refined my google search terms to "battery pouch" rather than "battery carrier" "battery bag" and "battery holder", I was able to find the google image below.
I might just take a battery with me to an army surplus or disposals store, and see what I can find like this...
Mind you, I don't want to look like a suicide bomber either, and wearing a heap of these around your belt with them full of batteries, might create a bit of a concern - I'd hope the Inspire in one hand, and the controller in the other, would make people realise it's all part of the gear.

 

[davidjmurray]

Why not just put the batteries in a standard small day pack? If you are worried about fire risk you could store them in individual fireproof LiPo charging bags within the pack. These are available on Amazon.

 

[Ezookiel]

It's just to carry them. The fire risk isn't an issue for just carrying them around for a half hour or so from place to place.


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[The Editor]

It's just to carry them. The fire risk isn't an issue for just carrying them around for a half hour or so from place to place.


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How about a fishing vest?
Something like........Classic Fishing Waistcoat @ First Tackle

 

[Ezookiel]

How about a fishing vest?
Something like........Classic Fishing Waistcoat @ First Tackle

Not a bad idea, and I actually thought about that, but I would be wearing it with a hi-vis vest with my accreditation and certification details on it, so something around my waist seemed less bulky than a vest under a vest, and wouldn't want to cover the hi-vis by putting this over it.
I've been told of a company here that supplies to our Military but have a civilian outlet as well, with every make shape and variety of system like the military use for adaptable and adjustable pockets/pouches/clips/straps/gear etc
I'm told they have them all in black, camo, khaki, etc as well. I'll go in and have a look for something there. If that doesn't have what I need I'll be quite surprised, but I still have the contact details of a custom leather worker I met at a stall at a folk festival, and I imagine he'd have no problem making up a very nice custom made belt with purpose designed battery holders for me. Probably cheaper than the military stuff if my guess is correct - that outlet isn't famous for low prices

I'll let people know how it goes. It's not just this fortnightly shoot that it would be useful - my last real estate shoot was a large vineyard, and the DOP was leading me all over the property to grab the stuff he wanted, and I was lugging batteries all over the property that day too.

 

[ADSSER]

G'day all.
Every fortnight I have a professional shoot where I have to shoot the 4 sides of a major construction site right in the middle of a town-centre. To get to each of the four empty carparks that I shoot from by car would take ages with traffic lights and intersections, so it's actually easiest just to pick the bird up and walk to each corner with the bird in one hand and the controller in the other. The painful part is that I carry a total of 4 batteries, so I can use a new battery at each location. One in the bird is easy enough, but short of wearing cargo pants with pockets all over them, I've still not come up with a good solution for carrying 3 or more spare batteries on my person.
Has anyone come up with some kind of battery carrying pack? Something like what we'd call a bum-bag, but I believe gets called a fanny-pack over there, or some kind of belt with Slots for the batteries?
I'm actually toying with the idea of going to someone that does sewing or leatherwork, and getting something made, unless it's already been done of course. Has anyone seen such a thing, or know of something I could use?

I like the idea of a single pouch for each on the belt, or even better, an "over" belt that has several bags (perhaps as many as 7 or 8) on it that can be rotated around the body easily for better/faster access, rather than in a day pack or in separate bags within a pack. The whole idea is to have them conveniently available and the single pouch idea works best for that.

 

[Ezookiel]

And it separates used from charged. That's pretty important.


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[IrishSights]

I carry 4 batteries in a padded SLR case. They are kept toasty warm by a microwavable heat pad it the bottom. Easy to carry and stay warm.

 

[Ezookiel]

I carry 4 batteries in a padded SLR case. They are kept toasty warm by a microwavable heat pad it the bottom. Easy to carry and stay warm.

I like that idea - I had a dawn shoot at a vineyard where I had to walk all around the property and got my first every warnings about the battery being too cold.
That won't be a common problem for me, but this solves both issues if I ever do have a cold morning shoot.
Thanks for sharing.

 

[Ezookiel]

The "Military Shop" in Fyshwick, set me up with a belt and 4x 'radio pouches' that are the perfect size and depth to carry an Inspire battery.

It's set up now to carry the 4 that I currently have, and can add as many more pouches as needed while ever there's still room on the belt.

The hard part will now be wearing it without being reported as a suicide bomber, because this is going to look quite weird when in use. I'm hoping the drone in my hand and controller around my neck, will help assure people I'm not set to explode.

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[MacDyver]

I carry 4 batteries in a padded SLR case. They are kept toasty warm by a microwavable heat pad it the bottom. Easy to carry and stay warm.

I'd like to see something like this but plastic with a battery/Adapter cooling fan so I can start recharging faster.

 

[jkajfes]

new to all this drone stuff but I've already collected 5 batteries allowing me a good hour flying time for learning... now that the weather is getting colder Canada eh!.... I've been trying to find solutions to keeping batteries warm...f the microwave rice thing might be adequate for some but I was thinking of something along the lines of plugging into a 120 outlet or DC charging in a van...
I saw the warming LiPo bags but then thought maybe an electric heating pad used to relax muscles in the bottom of a pouch or bag with it's high/medium/low setting might work and be cost effective?

Then I saw the post above about being to cool down the batteries after they are discharged so that you'd be able start the re-charging process more quickly if you need to...

I then started thinking about those ac/dc type car coolers and heaters... you flip a switch and it goes from heating to cooing or vice versa. So so start off with it in the warm mode and once all the batts are discharged you put it in cooling mode for the trip home so when you arrive you can start the re-charge process...

....the trouble is the cold/heat switch is just that... I don't think you can control or monitor the temperature easily... It don't think there's thermostat setting on the smaller vehicle units which I think some are an ideal size for our purposes... there might be but I haven't found any just yet....

you could get two of these cooler/heaters.... one one for warming the batteries and one in cold mode for the discharged batteries for the trip home...

just some thoughts and would welcome other opinions... some of the coolers look compact enough to probably hold 8-10 batteries....

 

[jkajfes]

I'd like to see something like this but plastic with a battery/Adapter cooling fan so I can start recharging faster.

I have seen these soft coolers in Canadian Tire see this is reference to a Woods product... maybe there's something similar to where you live? It has some kind of plastic cooling module on the rear, which might work for your purposes.... I just don't know if they'd drop the temperature too much before you got home... I guess you'd have to experiment to a degree. I'd assume the more batts you put in it the longer it would take to cool them down... but I don't know the magical number... if you don't have enough batts yet you could use some filler thing until you did... might be worth the experimentation...
I know I've just put the used batts back in the case have gone home and found they still need about an hour to cool down before I'd recharge them.... this obviously depends on the length of the trip home for me was 45 minutes.

| Canadian Tire
another reference Woods™ | Products - Woods 12V Soft Cooler, 13 L
I realize it's not completely plastic like you wanted but it still might work....

 

[Lesmess]

I use a hot water bottle, one with a woolly cover, keeps my five packs warm for over an hour.


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[Phatzo]

I have seen these soft coolers in Canadian Tire see this is reference to a Woods product... maybe there's something similar to where you live? It has some kind of plastic cooling module on the rear, which might work for your purposes.... I just don't know if they'd drop the temperature too much before you got home... I guess you'd have to experiment to a degree. I'd assume the more batts you put in it the longer it would take to cool them down... but I don't know the magical number... if you don't have enough batts yet you could use some filler thing until you did... might be worth the experimentation...
I know I've just put the used batts back in the case have gone home and found they still need about an hour to cool down before I'd recharge them.... this obviously depends on the length of the trip home for me was 45 minutes.

| Canadian Tire
another reference Woods[emoji769] | Products - Woods 12V Soft Cooler, 13 L
I realize it's not completely plastic like you wanted but it still might work....

in winter or colder days why use a cooler?
strap it on the outside of the car or while flying leave the used batteries outside and they cool down fairly quick
i used to do that. in summer i crank up the AC and put the bat close to the outlet and leave it there to cool.

just an idea.
m


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[jkajfes]

in winter or colder days why use a cooler?
strap it on the outside of the car or while flying leave the used batteries outside and they cool down fairly quick
i used to do that. in summer i crank up the AC and put the bat close to the outlet and leave it there to cool.

just an idea.
m


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worth considering... but some drives home in the winter can be more than a couple of hours... and I'm all for an easy life... but I'm not driving home with the temps around zero and all the windows cranked down... haha...
I'm a newbie and I've got 5 batteries already just to get a decent amount of learning flight time... It's not hard for me to imagine having 8-10 batteries and at that point I think you need a more formal organized way of dealing with the heat/cool aspects of these TB suckers....

 

[Phatzo]

worth considering... but some drives home in the winter can be more than a couple of hours... and I'm all for an easy life... but I'm not driving home with the temps around zero and all the windows cranked down... haha...
I'm a newbie and I've got 5 batteries already just to get a decent amount of learning flight time... It's not hard for me to imagine having 8-10 batteries and at that point I think you need a more formal organized way of dealing with the heat/cool aspects of these TB suckers....

I did not think of cranking down the windows and looking like a bear to not freeze to death in the own car with heating on... lol...
what I was thinking about was (as far as my creativity goes) if you have a roof rack, get some zip ties and put them on for lets say half the way if it´s a long way home... if not leave em on and take them off when you get home... or if you have a JEEP not a an offroad car but a JEEP then you can easily put something on to strap them suckers on the car and you can drive home in a cosy warm car...


m

 

[MacDyver]

I did not think of cranking down the windows and looking like a bear to not freeze to death in the own car with heating on... lol...
what I was thinking about was (as far as my creativity goes) if you have a roof rack, get some zip ties and put them on for lets say half the way if it´s a long way home... if not leave em on and take them off when you get home... or if you have a JEEP not a an offroad car but a JEEP then you can easily put something on to strap them suckers on the car and you can drive home in a cosy warm car...


m

And I live in South Fl. Not much exterior cooling effects to be had.