Broken Battery Charger

[drawinglines]

I've had my Phantom for a few weeks and everything has been working great. But this afternoon I think I fried my battery charger. I connected my OEM Phantom battery to the alligator clips and then started to insert them in the charger (unplugged from the wall). BUT I screwed up and touched the red clip to the black terminal. When I started to insert the black clip into the red terminal I got a little spark. I backed them both out immediately and corrected the problem. But now the charger will only charge for a few minutes before the charge and 2s light start blinking and then it goes dead and starts again.
Guess I am going to by a new charger. Any suggestions?

 

[Gizmo3000]

I've always plugged-unplugged at the TX connector.
It's unfortunate that the design of the chargers makes it possible to plug a battery in the wrong way.

If it's the charger that you fried, you might possibly have difficulty finding a "DJI Phantom" battery charger in-stock, as it seems most parts are not available at the moment. But on a good note, perhaps there's other generic DJI chargers available, and no doubt there's other brands of chargers available for Lipo batteries.

 

[drawinglines]

Thanks Gizmo3000. You're right, the DJI chargers are sold out everywhere I looked so I ended up buying an Onyx235 and am really happy with it. Sure, it's more expensive than a simple Lipo Battery Charger but I am really pleased with it's performance. I've had it less than hour and already charged my batteries and am ready to fly again!

Here's the Onyx 235 on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/DuraTrax-DTXP...e=UTF8&qid=1361321250&sr=8-1&keywords=Onyx235

 

[brskier]

Hey I just picked up one of these Onyx 235 chargers and doesn't seem to have the XT60 connection on it. Anybody know how to make this thing work?

 

[pwright]

Does it not use the same output banana plugs as the charger that comes with the Phantom? Looks like it from the pictures.

Plug the XT60 to Banana Plugs stub you already have into the new charger and you're good to go.

 

[drawinglines]

Hey I just picked up one of these Onyx 235 chargers and doesn't seem to have the XT60 connection on it. Anybody know how to make this thing work?

I used the banana plugs from the DJI battery charger.

 

[brskier]

I did that, but I was hoping this would be a second charger so that I can do two at once. I'll figure out another place to get the banana plugs to XT60. Thanks.

 

[George]

I have a phantom charger that I don't use you can have if you pay the shipping. Let me know.
George

 

[Robertmh]

Hi,

I did exactly this on the 1st day I had my phantom, but fortunately it is actually very easy to repair of you have some very basic soldering skills. The spark you saw was actually one of the tracks burning out on the board, and this is most likely the only damage amazingly. All you need to do to repair it is open it up by removing the four black feet from underneath the unit, remove the 4 screws and the examine the board closely. You will probably find that the wide section of track between the black, negative terminal and the large resistor (bent fat piece of wire on the board) is burnt out and therefore broken. Easy fix. Just clean the burned varnish off the track and rejoin the 2 ends with a small bridge of solder. Took me less than 5 minutes to fix and now works perfectly.

I just think it is madness that there is nothing in place to prevent you making this mistake.


Robert

 

[Jumeirah32]

Hi,

I did exactly this on the 1st day I had my phantom, but fortunately it is actually very easy to repair of you have some very basic soldering skills. The spark you saw was actually one of the tracks burning out on the board, and this is most likely the only damage amazingly. All you need to do to repair it is open it up by removing the four black feet from underneath the unit, remove the 4 screws and the examine the board closely. You will probably find that the wide section of track between the black, negative terminal and the large resistor (bent fat piece of wire on the board) is burnt out and therefore broken. Easy fix. Just clean the burned varnish off the track and rejoin the 2 ends with a small bridge of solder. Took me less than 5 minutes to fix and now works perfectly.

I just think it is madness that there is nothing in place to prevent you making this mistake.


Robert

Hi Robert,

I followed your instruction but I heard spark noise and smoke started coming out as soon as I plugged in the battery.
.
Now I really need a new charger.

Regards

 

[Jumeirah32]

I have a phantom charger that I don't use you can have if you pay the shipping. Let me know.
George

Hi George,

Do you still have the phantom charger you do not use? How much would it cost sending it to Australia?

Regards

 

[tmcgowan]

Hi,

I did exactly this on the 1st day I had my phantom, but fortunately it is actually very easy to repair of you have some very basic soldering skills. The spark you saw was actually one of the tracks burning out on the board, and this is most likely the only damage amazingly. All you need to do to repair it is open it up by removing the four black feet from underneath the unit, remove the 4 screws and the examine the board closely. You will probably find that the wide section of track between the black, negative terminal and the large resistor (bent fat piece of wire on the board) is burnt out and therefore broken. Easy fix. Just clean the burned varnish off the track and rejoin the 2 ends with a small bridge of solder. Took me less than 5 minutes to fix and now works perfectly.

I just think it is madness that there is nothing in place to prevent you making this mistake.


Robert

Well, I did the exact same thing this morning. Burned out the battery recharger! However, I found your post and heated up the old soldering iron and it worked PERFECTLY! Thanks Robert!!

It was so convenient of the folks that made the recharger to use the circuit board as a fuse! I guess it saved then a penny or two!

Best regards,

Todd

 

[TickTock]

I bought a new charger the day after I got the Phantom. Look for one that does balance charging, fast charging, as well as discharge and "storage" modes. The batteries don't like to be stored full or discharged so if you know you won't be flying for a few days it's good to be able to keep them at the optimal level for longevity. I can recommend the Dynamite Passport Ultra Duo 400W. It works well, can run off wall power or a car battery, and can charge two batteries simultaneously to reduce your down time when flying conditions are optimal.