Inspire 2 battery charging

[3001]

Hi everybody,

my drone is the Inspire 2.

I want to charge the Inspire 2 batteries with the „Smart charger H4“ on my car.

I had a Phantom 3 and Phantom 4 and I could easily charge the batteries with my equipement (smart charger H4 connected Directory to the 12V Motor-battery).

Now I tried to charge the Inspire 2 Akkus. I also tried to charge the via the charging hub,
but this did not work. I do not know, Hey the battery is not "starting to charge"?!

I attached some photos to this Email, so you can see my equipement.

Do you have any help for me?

Hope to hear from you!

Thank you in advance,
Stefan from Cologne, Germany

 

[JoePGM]

hello, did you try charging the battery with the charging hubs AND THE ORIGINAL POWER BRICKS from your I2 package?

 

[3001]

hello, did you try charging the battery with the charging hubs AND THE ORIGINAL POWER BRICKS from your I2 package?

Yes. This is working. 2 Batteries in 90 Minutes. Puh!

But I want to charge them faster, 4 at once. This was possible with my setup, as I did earlier with the Phantom 3+4 Batteries.

As I wrote: The "smart charger h4" does not start. Maybe I choosed the wrong electric settings?

 

[JoePGM]

what I read from some other forums post, DJI integrated part of the balancing circuit into the Inspire2 battery. The balancing operation and certain voltage/current distribution are now done inside the battery, that maybe the reason why a balance charger not working.....

 

[3001]

what I read from some other forums post, DJI integrated part of the balancing circuit into the Inspire2 battery. The balancing operation and certain voltage/current distribution are now done inside the battery, that maybe the reason why a balance charger not working.....

There are balancers in the P3 and P4 batteries, too. But I could still charge them. But sure, there must be a "mechanism" in the Inspire 2 batteries, that prevents the charging this way?!

There is one guy doing it this way:

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[JoePGM]

There are balancers in the P3 and P4 batteries, too. But I could still charge them. But sure, there must be a "mechanism" in the Inspire 2 batteries, that prevents the charging this way?!

There is one guy doing it this way:

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in that video , the guys charging only 2 battery out of 4 at the same time (you can see only 2 battery LED blinking on the top of the hubs). I think the setup from this guy is an alternative "DIY car charging kit" rather than "charging 4 battery at the same time" as what you expect....

 

[JoePGM]

if you are really looking for "charing 4 battery at the same time", I think there are no hacking method at the moment but buying another charging hubs and charging in 2 battery each....

 

[AcesAreWld]

I'm working on something that will charge 6 Inspire 2 batteries (3 flights) from a car OR A/C power in ~35 mins (all 6 batteries in 35 mins). Stay tuned...

 

[Flyfox99]

I'm working on something that will charge 6 Inspire 2 batteries (3 flights) from a car OR A/C power in ~35 mins (all 6 batteries in 35 mins). Stay tuned...

Must have!

 

[AcesAreWld]

Must have!

We'll see if you agree when you see what it costs

 

[JoePGM]

I'm working on something that will charge 6 Inspire 2 batteries (3 flights) from a car OR A/C power in ~35 mins (all 6 batteries in 35 mins). Stay tuned...

That looks cool mate!

Instead of a full charging station (I recall DJI announced their ground charge station sometime early this year), I'm more interested in some "balance charging cable". I come from Yuneec drone, their battery (and many FPV Lipos) could charging very well with professional Lipos charger. The charging cycles, speed, information are absolutely satisfy. We could also "discharge" our battery using those built-in discharge function so precisely control the terminal/storage voltage. The Lipos charger could work very well with car battery as well.

I'm looking forward to see kind of balance cable in short future for I2

 

[Eric Braun]

I'm working on something that will charge 6 Inspire 2 batteries (3 flights) from a car OR A/C power in ~35 mins (all 6 batteries in 35 mins). Stay tuned...

These batteries aren't designed to charge at 3C, which would be required to finish a charge in 35 minutes because of charge tailing. DJI has opted for light weight over charge C. I can fly continuously on 5 battery sets and 3 chargers. Be careful, though... drawing over 500 watts from your car can require a call to AAA! I use my Prius which can deliver 1kw to the aux battery.

 

[Eric Braun]

I'm working on something that will charge 6 Inspire 2 batteries (3 flights) from a car OR A/C power in ~35 mins (all 6 batteries in 35 mins). Stay tuned...

Also, you're going to need roughly 2kw for that charge rate. Where are you going to get that in a car?

 

[AcesAreWld]

These batteries aren't designed to charge at 3C, which would be required to finish a charge in 35 minutes because of charge tailing. DJI has opted for light weight over charge C. I can fly continuously on 5 battery sets and 3 chargers. Be careful, though... drawing over 500 watts from your car can require a call to AAA! I use my Prius which can deliver 1kw to the aux battery.

They charge at about 2C. The batteries will STOP charging (they limit themselves) at 10 amps, which is ~250-260 watts. Since they are 100 watt hour batteries that means they would charge in ~30 mins if everything were 1:1, but with balancing and the exponential charge curve of a Lithium battery it takes about 35 mins to charge AND balance each battery from 30%. I always try to land at about 30% left in the pack -- sometimes I get as low as 25% left by the time the aircraft is on the ground.

The charger is 1500 watts total capability when on AC power. From a car I limit it to about 1200 watts (100 amp continuous draw) MAX. But remember that is assuming you're charging 6 very-dead batteries all at the same time at max power. There are current knobs (one for each channel) to limit the amount of power so you can slow/trickle charge the Inspire batteries OR fast charge them, and you can try NOT to destroy your car by pulling too much power by limiting the charge speed as well

 

[AcesAreWld]

Also, you're going to need roughly 2kw for that charge rate. Where are you going to get that in a car?

1500 watts (from AC power) and about 1200 watts from the car (so yes it will take a little longer) ... see my other reply with current draw details. It indeed takes a LOT of power assuming you're running everything at 100% max speed on 6 fully dead I2 batteries all at once!

 

[Eric Braun]

1500 watts (from AC power) and about 1200 watts from the car (so yes it will take a little longer) ... see my other reply with current draw details. It indeed takes a LOT of power assuming you're running everything at 100% max speed on 6 fully dead I2 batteries all at once!

Well, honestly... you DO seems to know what you're talking about. I guess I still think that the charge tail taking the charge time out another 5 minutes is a little optimistic. When I charge a 5C battery it takes 20 minutes.... adding 66% to the theoretical 5C charge time of 12 minutes for the charge tail. And I watch the amps to see it does start off at 5C. You are allowing just 17% additional time for the charge tail.

In any case, I'd sure be careful about charging these batteries at 2C.

 

[AcesAreWld]

Well, honestly... you DO seems to know what you're talking about. I guess I still think that the charge tail taking the charge time out another 5 minutes is a little optimistic. When I charge a 5C battery it takes 20 minutes.... adding 66% to the theoretical 5C charge time of 12 minutes for the charge tail. And I watch the amps to see it does start off at 5C. You are allowing just 17% additional time for the charge tail.

In any case, I'd sure be careful about charging these batteries at 2C.

2C is no problem at all. The OEM DJI 180-watt charger (purchased separately) is charging at nearly 2C (but usually gets split between 2 packs so ~90 watts each) but again, the batteries limit themselves to prevent charging too fast. And 2C is NOT harming the cells at all.

But again -- you don't NEED to charge at 2C, the current is adjustable so you can fully control it with the device I've built.

 

[Eric Braun]

2C is no problem at all. The OEM DJI 180-watt charger (purchased separately) is charging at nearly 2C (but usually gets split between 2 packs so ~90 watts each) but again, the batteries limit themselves to prevent charging too fast. And 2C is NOT harming the cells at all.

But again -- you don't NEED to charge at 2C, the current is adjustable so you can fully control it with the device I've built.

Interesting... I'll test that and see if it still draws 180 watts when charging just one battery. It would be SO GREAT if we could charge at even 2C! I really miss the 5C charge packs of my larger multi-rotors. I just couldn't get a gimbal to work reliable and went to DJI with their incredible gimbals.

 

[AcesAreWld]

Interesting... I'll test that and see if it still draws 180 watts when charging just one battery. It would be SO GREAT if we could charge at even 2C! I really miss the 5C charge packs of my larger multi-rotors. I just couldn't get a gimbal to work reliable and went to DJI with their incredible gimbals.

I hear ya. I came from the same place! ~35 mins to charge up to 6 Inspire batteries is a pretty sweet deal. Having the ability to use this charger at home or on the road (without the need to bring a generator) is pretty great too. It's all working and proven-out, I'm in the final stages of assembling it into a nice buttoned-up professional Pelican case.

 

[Puck Quentin]

I'm working on something that will charge 6 Inspire 2 batteries (3 flights) from a car OR A/C power in ~35 mins (all 6 batteries in 35 mins). Stay tuned...

Nice job, where do you get the TB50 battery connectors for the charger?