Charge the Vision battery with a 12v leisure battery?

Amra · Dec 4, 2013

Hi, I've just ordered the Phantom Vision a couple of days ago and am thinking about what accessories to get. Going to get myself a case, and one thing will be to maximize uptime in the field, so I need a good solution for power.

I own a 12v 75AH leisure battery that I use for example for my camera when I leave it in the field to take timelapses. I have 3x car plug sockets attached to it to power various stuff.

Could I use these plugs to charge the Phantom Vision's battery? Any idea how many batteries I would need to have permanent uptime? (That is, until the leisure battery runs dry.)

Is there a place where I can find cheaper third party batteries for the Vision yet and what other things do I need to safely charge the Vision's battery of my leisure battery?

Any help is appreciated!

Pull_Up · Dec 4, 2013

Hi. I have an inverter in the car that I can use to plug the Vision charger into - you should be able to use one of those. The Vision charger pulls 1.8A max out of anything from 100 to 240v AC (according to the rating plate on the back of it).

Amra · Dec 4, 2013

Wouldn't it be better to find a 12v charger I can attach directly to the leisure battery or to one of the car plugs?

So the charger puts out 1.8A, that means it takes 3 hours to charge the vision battery from zero. Hmm that's a lot of batteries, unless I can charge with higher amperage somehow.

Pull_Up · Dec 4, 2013

No, the charger puts out 12.6V DC at 4A.

It draws 1.8A max at 240v AC input.

The connector on the Vision battery is proprietary - only the Vision charger fits it out of the box. You could modify something else to put out 12.6V at 4A I guess, but at $150 a battery I wouldn't like to be the one to experiment with jury rigging something that might cause it to go pop...

Amra · Dec 4, 2013

Ah okay, I'll look for a inverter then!

Amra · Dec 4, 2013

Should I just buy one of these inverts? http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-1500W-Auto- ... 53ff76787a

They are really inexpensive.

Driffill · Dec 4, 2013

Amra said:
Wouldn't it be better to find a 12v charger I can attach directly to the leisure battery or to one of the car plugs?

So the charger puts out 1.8A, that means it takes 3 hours to charge the vision battery from zero. Hmm that's a lot of batteries, unless I can charge with higher amperage somehow.

You are correct in what your saying. The most efficient way to charge from you 12v battery would be with a 12v lipo charger, and if you were an owner of an "original" phantom that would be the best and most efficient option, however . . .

Currently, the only way to charge the Vision battery is with the DJI supplied power supply/charger. So for what you need to do, a small inverter should do the job.

Vision batteries are currently ~$150ea, in time the price will drop (a la ZenMuse, NAZA v2 etc) and then stocking up on batteries won't require taking out a 2nd mortgage, better yet, someone may hack a method to attach the DJI "smart" section of the Vision battery to third party batteries

Amra · Dec 5, 2013

Driffill said:
You are correct in what your saying. The most efficient way to charge from you 12v battery would be with a 12v lipo charger, and if you were an owner of an "original" phantom that would be the best and most efficient option, however . . .

Currently, the only way to charge the Vision battery is with the DJI supplied power supply/charger. So for what you need to do, a small inverter should do the job.

Vision batteries are currently ~$150ea, in time the price will drop (a la ZenMuse, NAZA v2 etc) and then stocking up on batteries won't require taking out a 2nd mortgage, better yet, someone may hack a method to attach the DJI "smart" section of the Vision battery to third party batteries

Yup, makes sense. Thank you all for the information, very helpful.

I went with the inverter above, and later on when they've hacked the technology I might try something else. I think I would need1 more charger & 2 more batteries to stay in the air constantly until the leisure battery runs dry. That is if the battery can manage to charge up fully in about 50 minutes.