$140 for an extra battery!?!

[brianb87]

I have owned many nitro powered RC's. Ever priced a gallon of quality nitro fuel? Runs about $40 a gallon and they suck it down fast. I also paid $160 for P2 batteries back in the day so $140 for a battery isn't all that bad when you think about it.

Who is paying 1400 for a p3a?!?? Insane!! Craigslist with case can screen $800. Maybe not new but close enough. Mint condition.

 

[mohan]

Couple of things about DJI batts
Been trying to assemble own lipo packs for extending flight times - both P3 and Inspire. So getting a feel for the issues involved.

1. DJI Lipo cells charge upto 4.35v and not usual 4.20v. This slightly higher peak voltage cells are very hard to find and are a lot more expensive even at Hobbyking. This extra voltage does make a difference to flight times. Have not managed to source cheapish HV lipo cells.

2. DJI cells are really low in weight - watt per gram. They are more energy dense. Typically a Inspire 6S battery (5700ma) with electronics and plastic weighs 670g. I cannot find a single 6S Lipo pack that weighs less than 700g which is 5700ma in the RC websites. All hobbyking batts are way heavier than this. Nanotech cells that are higher C weigh upto 1000g in weight for 6000ma packs. This is a big no no when you want to fly longer. Even 10% extra weight kills flight times.

3. The DJI batteries are truly intellegient - they monitor charge cycles and discharge, tell the aircraft capacity remaining while in flight, temp of battery and self discharge if left in storage. Yes a lot of redundant electronics but each pack lasts typically 100-150 flights so you should get a fair usage. The telemetry that you receive in flight increases confidence and takes the guess work of gauging your battery condition.

Do I like the price ... no.

However considering what it does I realise that anything after market doesn't come close - even if it does the price differential is not great as seen by the P2 batteries. I must admit that in every industry - printers, power driils etc the consumables are way over priced but when I messed with after market ink cartridges I ended up with mixed results. DJI have taken a lot of steps to make it difficult to simply make a aftermarket battery by ensuring the flight controller constantly interrogates the battery to see what is plugged in before starting the motors. That is very smart.

 

[cleaner1369]

LimeFuel.com makes a P2V+ battery that SMOKES the oem's both in mAH and in durability/recharge cycles. I used many of them with great results on my P2V+.

Eagerly waiting for them to make a battery for the P3.

 

[kevin.vn68]

You can buy: Nine Eagles Galaxy Visitor Quadcopter Aerial Photography From Amazon

 

[quietleader]

I found a possible source of low cost, authentic DJI batteries. There's a relatively new company that has decided to overthrow amazon.com with a new business model. They charge $50 per year for a membership and make money on memberships only. Their retail operations are break-even at best and they are happy to sell things at cost and even lose money on popular items....just to beat amazon. There's an in-depth article about them in a recent issue of "Business Insider." The company is called "jet." The bottom line here is I recently purchased a new DJI battery for my phantom 2 for $29. They decided to give me $10 off because it was my first purchase, so the actual list price of that battery is $39. That's approximately a $100 discount. Not bad! (P.S. they give you a 3-month trial membership for free. So I haven't even paid the $50 membership fee yet)

 

[phantom13flyer]

I found a possible source of low cost, authentic DJI batteries. There's a relatively new company that has decided to overthrow amazon.com with a new business model. They charge $50 per year for a membership and make money on memberships only. Their retail operations are break-even at best and they are happy to sell things at cost and even lose money on popular items....just to beat amazon. There's an in-depth article about them in a recent issue of "Business Insider." The company is called "jet." The bottom line here is I recently purchased a new DJI battery for my phantom 2 for $29. They decided to give me $10 off because it was my first purchase, so the actual list price of that battery is $39. That's approximately a $100 discount. Not bad! (P.S. they give you a 3-month trial membership for free. So I haven't even paid the $50 membership fee yet)

I just looked on the jet website and they didn't have any p3 batteries only p2 batteries for 129 which is retail and they're selling p3's for 1259 which is also retail . All their prices were actually retail .

 

[quietleader]

see attached invoice

 

[phantom13flyer]

But that is a great deal on those . Let us know how they work out

 

[wordsmith]

Back in late July when the site first came on-line they were selling P3's for less than the listed price. The thread is here:
Jet.com Launched Today. Lower Price Than I Paid. | DJI Phantom Forum
But it seems like they just hold the price down long enough to get a few people hooked and raving about the site on line, then jack up the price again to what everyone else is selling the items for.

 

[quietleader]

I just realized this is a P3 forum. My purchase from jet was for a phantom 2 battery because I own and fly a phantom 2 vision+. sorry if this is out of place.

 

[brianb87]

I just realized this is a P3 forum. My purchase from jet was for a phantom 2 battery because I own and fly a phantom 2 vision+. sorry if this is out of place.

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