Inspire 2 battery charging

[Puck Quentin]

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?

Hello,
DJI has made some changes to Inspire 2 TB50 batteries from P3/I1 batteires.
You can't turn them on by doing the double push on the button as you could with the older batteries.
TB50 batteries turn on when you turn the Inspire 2 on. Also these TB50 batteries can be turned on if you use the DJI TB50 -> RC charging adapter. There is a resistor in between the data pins, that the battery pcb recognizes and turns the battery on.

Now these oldschool smart LiPo chargers won't start to charge the TB50 batteries if it's not turned on, because it checks if the battery is connected. For the charger it's the same situation when TB50 battery is turned off or there is no battery connected at all.
Dumb LiPo batteries are always on and don't have any fancy circuit to protect them.

 

[3001]

Hello,
DJI has made some changes to Inspire 2 TB50 batteries from P3/I1 batteires.
You can't turn them on by doing the double push on the button as you could with the older batteries.
TB50 batteries turn on when you turn the Inspire 2 on. Also these TB50 batteries can be turned on if you use the DJI TB50 -> RC charging adapter. There is a resistor in between the data pins, that the battery pcb recognizes and turns the battery on.

Now these oldschool smart LiPo chargers won't start to charge the TB50 batteries if it's not turned on, because it checks if the battery is connected. For the charger it's the same situation when TB50 battery is turned off or there is no battery connected at all.
Dumb LiPo batteries are always on and don't have any fancy circuit to protect them.

Thank you for this information.
I understand, you are right. The TB50 batteries cannot be "turned on". You can only press the battery "one time", to show the capacity.

I tried to connect the original DJI Inspire charging hub to my set up, the smart charger h4, but this also did not work.

Can you see my photo? I tried to connect it this way on my setup. Do you mean this charging hub?

 

[AcesAreWld]

Hello,
DJI has made some changes to Inspire 2 TB50 batteries from P3/I1 batteires.
You can't turn them on by doing the double push on the button as you could with the older batteries.
TB50 batteries turn on when you turn the Inspire 2 on. Also these TB50 batteries can be turned on if you use the DJI TB50 -> RC charging adapter. There is a resistor in between the data pins, that the battery pcb recognizes and turns the battery on.

Now these oldschool smart LiPo chargers won't start to charge the TB50 batteries if it's not turned on, because it checks if the battery is connected. For the charger it's the same situation when TB50 battery is turned off or there is no battery connected at all.
Dumb LiPo batteries are always on and don't have any fancy circuit to protect them.

Correct. With the TB50's there are "control" pins in the connector that turn the battery on - this is how the Aircraft powers up the battery as well as how the transmitter charging cable that comes from the battery works. If the battery is powered on, it will not accept a charge, so my charging setup is designed accordingly. I should have the remainder of the parts completed by the machine shop this week so I can start final assembly.

 

[DamesNY]

Hurry up before dji puts this out on the market
http://www5.djicdn.com/assets/images/products/inspire-2/s10-2-3-a40ff7e0a41f49c28ba1b4bb8e5047c7.png

 

[AcesAreWld]

Hurry up before dji puts this out on the market
http://www5.djicdn.com/assets/images/products/inspire-2/s10-2-3-a40ff7e0a41f49c28ba1b4bb8e5047c7.png

I'm not too worried. Theirs is only 800 watts where mine is 1500 watts. And theirs needs AC power but mine will work from AC or car power sources. Plus when DJI says "Coming Soon" it means quite the opposite

We'll see who's is cheaper. I expect theirs will be very pricey, but I believe mine will still cost more.

 

[**Kyle**]

As much as I would love to quick charge my batteries, I have heard some controversy over quick charging these intelligent batteries. Most warn against this due to the delicacy of the internal components of the battery. They have a specific memory they keep. I'm sure if you ALWAYS quick charge they may be fine but if you charge them normally then fast charge then normal etc.-logic tells me they may get messed up. DJI claims that you should not use your batteries to fly if they are so far apart in voltage and worries me that quick charging will cause the pair to no longer be unified.

BUT....I'm no doctor.

 

[DamesNY]

4 in 1 For DJI Inspire 2 Drone 16A Charger Intelligent Battery & Remote Control

 

[AcesAreWld]

4 in 1 For DJI Inspire 2 Drone 16A Charger Intelligent Battery & Remote Control

Nice... but only 16 total amps (4 amps per channel) and requires AC Wall Power to power it.

 

[JoePGM]

How many current output per battery in DJI charge hub?

 

[AcesAreWld]

How many current output per battery in DJI charge hub?

About 3.45 amps per cell with the DJI power supply (180 watts)

 

[AcesAreWld]

Here are a few more teaser shots... Progress is moving along well! Had it operating just over half-capacity (~900 watts) with NO excess heat issues AT ALL! I've tested powering it off of an AC wall outlet, my 12V car battery (via jumper cables), and a 2200 watt (1800 continuous) gasoline generator (modified SIN wave)

 

[JoePGM]

I'm curious the TB50 battery connector and internal circuit about how it handle cell balance charging? Your setup looks really cool, and I could see all battery are connect with a XT60 connector, is there any balance connection from your station (probably out of camera) to the battery so giving all cell balance charging?

 

[AcesAreWld]

I'm curious the TB50 battery connector and internal circuit about how it handle cell balance charging? Your setup looks really cool, and I could see all battery are connect with a XT60 connector, is there any balance connection from your station (probably out of camera) to the battery so giving all cell balance charging?

I modified the $12 OEM Cable from DJI that allows a TB50 to charge the remote controller so that instead of powering on the battery it now charges it when power is sent down through it. I then put an XT60 at the other end to mate with the connections on my custom made charger case.

The balancing and all battery maintenance functions are done in the battery itself -- the chargers, cables, etc are all dumb and simply supply power to the battery.

 

[AcesAreWld]

Teaser shot time is over. The project is now complete! I will hijack this thread no longer and start my own detailing all the aspects of this project. I'll post a link here after I create the new thread. This is INDEED THE ULTIMATE Inspire charging solution!!!

Link to my thread on this project:
The ULTIMATE Inspire 2 battery charger

 

[Hogster]

Sorry to hijack this thread ... but I thought here was a better place for the discussion than in your new thread

Am I right in thinking that if you provide the plug on the end of this cable:

Buy Inspire 2 - Remote Controller Charging Cable

with 26.3V, you can charge a TB50?

If so, the SmartPowerCharge unit for Inspire1 batteries has two of these ports on the side, and presumably, the double-pin sockets in the 4x charging bays themselves output the same voltage and power as well ... So would canibalising 4 of these cables and fitting double-pin sockets to the end (by canibalising this cable) allow the SmartPowerCharge unit to charge up to 6 TB50s?

Many thanks for your help

David

 

[AcesAreWld]

Sorry to hijack this thread ... but I thought here was a better place for the discussion than in your new thread

Am I right in thinking that if you provide the plug on the end of this cable:

Buy Inspire 2 - Remote Controller Charging Cable

with 26.3V, you can charge a TB50?

If so, the SmartPowerCharge unit for Inspire1 batteries has two of these ports on the side, and presumably, the double-pin sockets in the 4x charging bays themselves output the same voltage and power as well ... So would canibalising 4 of these cables and fitting double-pin sockets to the end (by canibalising this cable) allow the SmartPowerCharge unit to charge up to 6 TB50s?

Many thanks for your help

David

David,
I did indeed use the cable you specified -- this one, however it had to be modified in order to send a charge INTO the battery instead of taking power FROM the battery to power a transmitter as it was designed to do. So simply sending the proper voltage (AND amperage!) down the pipe will not work as intended.

The OTHER cable you linked to could indeed take power from a SmartPowerCharge unit and deliver it to an OEM DJI Charge hub. The limitations are that you will not be able to use the discharge/cycle functionality of the SmartPowerCharge and you will also not be charging very quickly since the hub can't take super high amperage (the connector won't handle it) and the power is being split across TWO batteries at a time on the OEM DJI Charge hub.

Ultimately, if you cut up and modified the one cable to pull power FROM the SmartPowerCharge, and wired it to the battery connector on the OTHER cable (with appropriate modifications) ... yes -- you could use the SmartPowerCharge to charge TB50 batteries. I do not, however know the amperage parameters of the SmartPowerCharge so keep that in mind. Also you wouldn't be able to discharge or cycle your TB50's with that setup either because they would be modified to only send power down in 1 direction (TO the batteries) at that point. Seems like a lot of work for a pretty minimal gain :-/

 

[Hogster]

Hi AcesAreWild,

Many thanks for your detailed reply!

"Ultimately, if you cut up and modified the one cable to pull power FROM the SmartPowerCharge, and wired it to the battery connector on the OTHER cable (with appropriate modifications)"​

This is what I was trying to describe – you just did it much better than I did!

Each of the four bays on the SPC are rated at 26.3V and 8.5A. Then add to this the additional two 26.3V / 8.5A ports on the side of the unit, and theoretically I should be able to charge TB50s simultaneously, just as I could with the 6-cell 4750mAh Inspire 1 batteries – AND nearly twice as fast as the 180W DJI Inspire 2 charging hub (which splits the 180W across two batteries, as I understand it).

As far as I understand, if I bought 6 of these cables:

Buy Inspire 2 - Remote Controller Charging Cable

Two of these could already be used to directly connect the TB50s to the two round charging sockets on the side of the SPC. Then I would need to cut off the ends of the other four cables and attach the two-pin sockets from four of these cables:

Buy Inspire 2 - Inspire 1 Charger to Inspire 2 Charging Hub Power Cable

Are you happy to share what modifications you had to make to the remote charging cable in order to send power into the battery instead of draw power from it?

Regarding not having the ability to discharge or cycle the batteries using the SPC ... these aren't features I've used anyway so far

Many thanks again for your help, it's much appreciated

David

 

[AcesAreWld]

Hi AcesAreWild,

Many thanks for your detailed reply!

"Ultimately, if you cut up and modified the one cable to pull power FROM the SmartPowerCharge, and wired it to the battery connector on the OTHER cable (with appropriate modifications)"​

This is what I was trying to describe – you just did it much better than I did!

Each of the four bays on the SPC are rated at 26.3V and 8.5A. Then add to this the additional two 26.3V / 8.5A ports on the side of the unit, and theoretically I should be able to charge TB50s simultaneously, just as I could with the 6-cell 4750mAh Inspire 1 batteries – AND nearly twice as fast as the 180W DJI Inspire 2 charging hub (which splits the 180W across two batteries, as I understand it).

As far as I understand, if I bought 6 of these cables:

Buy Inspire 2 - Remote Controller Charging Cable

Two of these could already be used to directly connect the TB50s to the two round charging sockets on the side of the SPC. Then I would need to cut off the ends of the other four cables and attach the two-pin sockets from four of these cables:

Buy Inspire 2 - Inspire 1 Charger to Inspire 2 Charging Hub Power Cable

Are you happy to share what modifications you had to make to the remote charging cable in order to send power into the battery instead of draw power from it?

Regarding not having the ability to discharge or cycle the batteries using the SPC ... these aren't features I've used anyway so far

Many thanks again for your help, it's much appreciated

David

Good information. I would agree (in theory, I don't have an SPC and haven't tried it myself) that everything you said would work, and I do agree that does have some great value if indeed each of those outputs is regulated to 8.5 amps! Remember, it needs to be REGULATED to 8.5 amps, not just have a max rating of 8.5 amps... because you can DELIVER 100 amps to the TB50 if you wanted to, but it will NOT charge from it. It will only charge from 9.9 amps or less... so the current HAS to be regulated from the SPC.

As for the mods, I'm not comfortable discussing it because I did it in a way that works for me. I'm not 100% sure it will work for everyone, I'm not sure if there is a better way, etc. I tested the electronics and came up with a plan that worked for that I needed -- but don't want to recommend something that I don't know is 100% right to everyone publicly.

Get out the multi-meter and be ready to risk destroying a TB50... that's how I did it!

 

[Hogster]

Thanks for your reply I would guess the output from the SPC is regulated as otherwise I'm assuming the Inspire 1 batteries wouldn't charge ...

Re: the mod, presumably the remote charging cable has a diode / something similar inside the connector's housing to prevent power flowing the 'wrong' way through the connector? Might PM you for more info ...

Thanks again

David

 

[AcesAreWld]

Thanks for your reply I would guess the output from the SPC is regulated as otherwise I'm assuming the Inspire 1 batteries wouldn't charge ...

Re: the mod, presumably the remote charging cable has a diode / something similar inside the connector's housing to prevent power flowing the 'wrong' way through the connector? Might PM you for more info ...

Thanks again

David

Most likely it is a regulated 8.5 amp output... but note that I don't think the Inspire 1 batteries the same over-current charge shut-down that the Inspire 2 TB50's have. Just something to keep in mind.