Battery hot swap

[NickU]

has anyone else tried this...? I'm sure I read or saw somewhere that the batteries could be hot-swapped to speed things up. However, I've not been able to find the reference again, so may have mis-read something!

Anyway, My second battery pair arrived today, so after their first flight, I thought I'd try out the hot-swap feature....

With the aircraft landed, but still powered up, I ejected one of the batteries, replaced it with a full one, then did the same with the second one. Easy to do on the outer button ring, I fumbled the button on the inner ring on the second one and managed to eject both. Hmm, ok, maybe not so simple. Tried again after the second flight finished, replacing the batteries with the first set. This time I used a blunt stick to depress the inner button first, popped the battery out, fresh one back in, outer button pressed, battery out and next one in... yay It worked and the aircraft stayed powered up .

But... the status line in the top left of DJI Go was complaining about a battery fault and mismatched something or another... so powered down as there wasn't enough in the batteries for flying anyway. Also, I forgot to note the exact wording I guess ithe system got itself tangled with battery serials/pairs etc and that hot swap isn't a real feature .

Anyone else heard of the feature and tried it? And did you have any success?

 

[droneseyeview]

Will try it out and report back when I get my second pair of batteries


Sent from my iPhone using InspirePilots

 

[DavidB]

I have tried it a few times as a test. I had seen a YouTube clip where the pilot maintained some pressure on the back of the battery that was to stay and pressed both buttons. Sure enough the other battery popped out, was replaced and the procedure repeated with the second battery. I have found this technique much easier than trying to press only the inner or outer button. Plus at my age I keep forgetting which button is which.

 

[NickU]

Did you notice if it flagged any errors or alerts in DJI go?

 

[DavidB]

I have just tried and again and sure enough I got the error message "Incorrect battery position. Re-attach all batteries". The battery info was still available. Sorry I hadn't noticed this before, as I was really just testing the technique, and with only one set of batteries at this stage was wasn't doing it in the field before flying. Hopefully this will be corrected soon.

 

[NickU]

Yup, That's the one . Checking the battery stats showed everything in place & ok, but the message didn't disappear . I didn't have enough juice left in to power up and fly, so I'm not sure if it'd have cleared on take-off, or even if it'd let me take off.

 

[Maverik]

That is a bit confusing to me.. Why would you hot swap a battery if your batteries are paired? I suppose if you are hot swapping both of them, perhaps.. Just thinking out loud.

 

[DavidB]

Its my understanding that you "hot swap" one battery and then the other, with a new paired set. As such you do not have to wait for the gimbal to do its dance, the "new home point" doesn't have to be determined, and any camera or aircraft settings changed during the use of the first set of batteries do not need to be changed again.

 

[Inspire1vision]

I tried this yesterday and the app flashed red battery disconnected even though I had replaced both batteries, one at a time, so the everything stayed connected. I ended up just powering it down then back up again so I had the safe go fly green again.


Sent from my iPad using InspirePilots

 

[delucenay]

Any other info on hot swapping batteries?

 

[SanCap]

Any other info on hot swapping batteries?

I hot swap all the time and get no warnings unless I screw up and put in 2 batteries that are not equal in charge.

 

[Advexure]

That is a bit confusing to me.. Why would you hot swap a battery if your batteries are paired? I suppose if you are hot swapping both of them, perhaps.. Just thinking out loud.

Its my understanding that you "hot swap" one battery and then the other, with a new paired set. As such you do not have to wait for the gimbal to do its dance, the "new home point" doesn't have to be determined, and any camera or aircraft settings changed during the use of the first set of batteries do not need to be changed again.

Correct and correct. One battery is removed while the other is supplying power to the aircraft and then once the new battery is installed the other one in the pair to removed and replaced with a fresh battery.

Objective: Reduce down time by avoiding the start up sequence every time batteries are swapped.

 

[SanCap]

Correct and correct. One battery is removed while the other is supplying power to the aircraft and then once the new battery is installed the other one in the pair to removed and replaced with a fresh battery.

Objective: Reduce down time by avoiding the start up sequence every time batteries are swapped.

I did several hot swaps one time and my Airdata (healthy drones) account showed a 109 minute flight! That messed up my stats.

 

[delucenay]

I hot swap all the time and get no warnings unless I screw up and put in 2 batteries that are not equal in charge.

Do you have a special tool then?

 

[SanCap]

Do you have a special tool then?

I have one of these but really anything will work like a pen cap and carbon fiber tube of the correct dimension.

Inspire 2 Battery Hot Swap Tool - FlyHighUSA

 

[Advexure]

Do you have a special tool then?

I have a hard plastic "poker" tool that works great. Stole it from our technician's toolbox. Many objects laying around work great. Just needs to be able to press the inner button and then the outer button (or vice versa) of the battery eject button assembly.

Inner circle ejects the left battery.



Outer circle ejects the right battery.

 

[NickU]

Just use your finger to depress both battery buttons, but hold one battery in place with your other hand until you've released the button. Replace ejected battery with new one, Then repeat for the other battery, holding the new battery in place instead.

When done, don't forget to check both batts are firmly locked in place.

Works 99% of the time, 1% is when you don't apply enough back pressure on the remaining battery and both end up popping out together.

As to error messages, none.

Saves a fair bit of warm-up & calibration time, prob about 4-5 minutes each time.

Healthy drones didn't have a problem, with flight time... each flight showed separately & for the correct time for me.