https://www.amazon.com/DJI-Phantom-...m 3 battery&qid=1461723256&ref_=sr_1_4&sr=8-4
Not $99 but cheaper than they used to be.
Fly Well My Friends
Sky Eye Images
Not $99 but cheaper than they used to be.
Fly Well My Friends
Sky Eye Images
Could not find $99 batteries but found this on Amazon
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alokbhargava
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That's the listing I used when I bought mine about a month ago. Haven't had any issues as it's a legit DJI battery.
Mike
Whoa... careful there Mike and alokbhargava... that'll be the one I pointed out yesterday to those bemoaning the fact that cloned/"fake" battreries no longer work with the latest FW... you'll have Vertigo telling you in a minute that you cannot possibly be sure its not a fake!
Random question, do we ever see the supply of the P3 batteries becoming limited and then prices climbing back up. Does the p4 use the same battery? If so we are good for a few more years however if the P4 is a different battery then that means the P3 battery will be discontinued sooner rather than later and then you might start to see prices start climbing a few years down the road.
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msinger
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does DJI still make phantom 2 batteries. Are there acceptable generic P2 batteries?
For example the P1 had many many different acceptable LIPO manufacturers thus competition and supply.
The Phantom 3 has some knockoffs however MOST people realize that this is ill advised and to stick with the OEM P3 battery. Therefore little to no competition. When DJI decides to stop making P3 batteries, there will not likely be a big supply of alternatives.
Does the P2 battery fall more into the category of the P1 or the P3. If it is like the P1 and there are plenty of acceptable knockoffs then it is not a good indication going forward. If it is like the P3 and the only option then that will give a good indication of the market going forward.
I hope to own my P3 for another 5 years but dont want to get into a situation 2 years down the road when I cant find a new battery at a reasonable price.
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OK cool, so we can at least hope that DJI will provide supply and support for P3 batteries for several more years. You never know if their business plan is to drop all support asap everytime they come out with a new model to try and force people to keep upgrading. I hate companies like that.
Yeah, I've heard some horror stories. It seems like (maybe early on), they were shipping clones but maybe they don't anymore? I was happy when mine arrived and it came in a DJI box with the recognizable foam insert. The battery does have some (Chinese?) writing on it but I saw some posts where people got that straight from DJI. Anyway, I've updated both batteries once to 1.8.80 and again to the latest 1.9.x and they both operate identically. Down to the minor deviations in cell 1 just like the DJI battery that came with my P3P.
Mike
nevermind this post, didnt see the seller was DJI. Keeping my text anyway just to make myself look stupid
edit 2: looks like the seller is NOT DJI. So the post below would still be true. Dont blame me, I almost never use amazon since they typically dont ship to my country.
A few minutes, was too busy ordering some more fakes.
Seriously though, how do you tell? This battery:
4500mAh 15.2V 4S Intelligent Battery For DJI Phantom 3 Professional Advance Standard Versions
looks exactly the same AFAICT. It works with all GO versions. Buyers seem happy.
But its not genuine (and if it works, I dont care, but you would).
You honestly think no one on amazon wants to make money selling fake/grey market batteries ? There are plenty of reports on amazon to the opposite. Heck, some vendors may not even know they are selling non genuine or grey market parts.
But by all means, buy it. Save yourself $50, and I mean that without sarcasm. It probably works just fine, but I see no evidence its a "genuine" battery.
edit 2: looks like the seller is NOT DJI. So the post below would still be true. Dont blame me, I almost never use amazon since they typically dont ship to my country.
A few minutes, was too busy ordering some more fakes.
Seriously though, how do you tell? This battery:
4500mAh 15.2V 4S Intelligent Battery For DJI Phantom 3 Professional Advance Standard Versions
looks exactly the same AFAICT. It works with all GO versions. Buyers seem happy.
But its not genuine (and if it works, I dont care, but you would).
You honestly think no one on amazon wants to make money selling fake/grey market batteries ? There are plenty of reports on amazon to the opposite. Heck, some vendors may not even know they are selling non genuine or grey market parts.
But by all means, buy it. Save yourself $50, and I mean that without sarcasm. It probably works just fine, but I see no evidence its a "genuine" battery.
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DJI Intelligent Flight Battery for Phantom 3 CP.PT.000161 B&H
$118. Free shipping. And its an authorized DJI dealer.
$118. Free shipping. And its an authorized DJI dealer.
I thought along the same lines but realized that batteries are probably a much bigger money maker to DJI then the drones are. Sure, they make a good profit with each Phantom they sell but with each owner buying 2+ extra batteries they have a revenue stream for years to come.
Same as mine. 100% Genuine.Yeah, I've heard some horror stories. It seems like (maybe early on), they were shipping clones but maybe they don't anymore? I was happy when mine arrived and it came in a DJI box with the recognizable foam insert. The battery does have some (Chinese?) writing on it but I saw some posts where people got that straight from DJI. Anyway, I've updated both batteries once to 1.8.80 and again to the latest 1.9.x and they both operate identically. Down to the minor deviations in cell 1 just like the DJI battery that came with my P3P.
Mike
Unless you are now being sarcastic, that banggood battery is a non DJI unit, Virtigo. Check out the power level LEDs vs the genuine battery on Amazon or B&H (or your own for that matter). I wouldn't touch that with a barge-pole. And I'm 100% sure that DJI will continue to rework the firmware to block non-OE batteries and, IMHO, with good reason. I'm not prepared to fly my £700 aircraft with anything other than an OE battery.nevermind this post, didnt see the seller was DJI. Keeping my text anyway just to make myself look stupid
edit 2: looks like the seller is NOT DJI. So the post below would still be true. Dont blame me, I almost never use amazon since they typically dont ship to my country.
A few minutes, was too busy ordering some more fakes.
Seriously though, how do you tell? This battery:
4500mAh 15.2V 4S Intelligent Battery For DJI Phantom 3 Professional Advance Standard Versions
looks exactly the same AFAICT. It works with all GO versions. Buyers seem happy.
But its not genuine (and if it works, I dont care, but you would).
You honestly think no one on amazon wants to make money selling fake/grey market batteries ? There are plenty of reports on amazon to the opposite. Heck, some vendors may not even know they are selling non genuine or grey market parts.
But by all means, buy it. Save yourself $50, and I mean that without sarcasm. It probably works just fine, but I see no evidence its a "genuine" battery.
Didnt mean to be sarcastic, just posted the wrong link. The banggood one I linked is the obvious clone, they make no secret of it and I like them for it. I have 2 on order.
Cant find the other link, but this one will do to illustrate the point:
Amazon.com: Powerextra 15.2V 4480mAh LiPo Replacement Battery for DJI Phantom 3 Drones DJI Phantom 3 Professional,DJI Phantom 3 Advanced and DJI Phantom 3 Standard DJI Intelligent Phantom 3 Battery: Camera & Photo
Yeah I can tell by the label where they deliberately changed "phantom" with "compatible with PH3", but I wouldnt bet money others dont ship with a different label.
As for the blocking; it seems to be an afterthought and however it works, it cant be very sophisticated if the cloners 'cracked' it so quickly. Maybe DJI can, maybe they cant detect aftermarket products in the future, I'll find out. But even if they can -and Im sure the next Phantom will detect them reliably- do you really want DJI to block non OEM batteries? I respect your choice of wanting to fly a OEM battery, but wouldnt you be just as happy if the app informed you, but let us have the choice to fly with them or not? Let you benefit from lower prices on DJI batteries due to competition from the "cloners" ?
As for the risk associated with non oem parts; I think its mostly a red herring. Like all other components in our drones, batteries can and do fail, thats a fact of life; if you cant deal with that risk, you shouldnt fly something that relies on a single battery, or cant cope with a single motor failure. But these days, its pretty rare for them to fail spectacularly and in a way a platform so stuffed with sensors and intelligence cant cope with. A battery isnt magical or mystical, it just produces a voltage between 0 and 4.2v per cell, whether it has a DJI sticker or not. Ive been flying RC for decades and lipo's since they where introduced. In 100's of hours, Ive not had a lipo battery fail me in flight in a way that prevented me from landing. And I pretty much only use 'cheap' hobbyking batteries.
More over, these batteries are not actually produced by DJI, they just source the lipo cells from whatever factory gave them the best terms, no different than hobbyking or the cloners, and quite possibly they are sourced from the very same factories. There is no reason to think DJI batteries are in any way better and reviews dont show this either.
Finally, a fun fact. My friend works for a company that flies a sensefly ebee. Thats a ~€15K aerial platform. They fly with €99 aftermarket batteries after having received 2 DOA's from sensefly. Of course, sensefly doesnt try to block aftermarket products and since its business model doesnt rely on squeezing customers on overpriced batteries or spare cables, it will stand by its product regardless of what brand of battery you use. Perhaps there is a difference there.
edit: afterthought; if you had a DJI S900; what battery would you fly with? AFAIK DJI doesnt even sell batteries for it. So DJI tell you to trust a "clone" battery for their high end heavy lifter platform, but it would be too dangerous for their smallest consumer drone?
Cant find the other link, but this one will do to illustrate the point:
Amazon.com: Powerextra 15.2V 4480mAh LiPo Replacement Battery for DJI Phantom 3 Drones DJI Phantom 3 Professional,DJI Phantom 3 Advanced and DJI Phantom 3 Standard DJI Intelligent Phantom 3 Battery: Camera & Photo
Yeah I can tell by the label where they deliberately changed "phantom" with "compatible with PH3", but I wouldnt bet money others dont ship with a different label.
As for the blocking; it seems to be an afterthought and however it works, it cant be very sophisticated if the cloners 'cracked' it so quickly. Maybe DJI can, maybe they cant detect aftermarket products in the future, I'll find out. But even if they can -and Im sure the next Phantom will detect them reliably- do you really want DJI to block non OEM batteries? I respect your choice of wanting to fly a OEM battery, but wouldnt you be just as happy if the app informed you, but let us have the choice to fly with them or not? Let you benefit from lower prices on DJI batteries due to competition from the "cloners" ?
As for the risk associated with non oem parts; I think its mostly a red herring. Like all other components in our drones, batteries can and do fail, thats a fact of life; if you cant deal with that risk, you shouldnt fly something that relies on a single battery, or cant cope with a single motor failure. But these days, its pretty rare for them to fail spectacularly and in a way a platform so stuffed with sensors and intelligence cant cope with. A battery isnt magical or mystical, it just produces a voltage between 0 and 4.2v per cell, whether it has a DJI sticker or not. Ive been flying RC for decades and lipo's since they where introduced. In 100's of hours, Ive not had a lipo battery fail me in flight in a way that prevented me from landing. And I pretty much only use 'cheap' hobbyking batteries.
More over, these batteries are not actually produced by DJI, they just source the lipo cells from whatever factory gave them the best terms, no different than hobbyking or the cloners, and quite possibly they are sourced from the very same factories. There is no reason to think DJI batteries are in any way better and reviews dont show this either.
Finally, a fun fact. My friend works for a company that flies a sensefly ebee. Thats a ~€15K aerial platform. They fly with €99 aftermarket batteries after having received 2 DOA's from sensefly. Of course, sensefly doesnt try to block aftermarket products and since its business model doesnt rely on squeezing customers on overpriced batteries or spare cables, it will stand by its product regardless of what brand of battery you use. Perhaps there is a difference there.
edit: afterthought; if you had a DJI S900; what battery would you fly with? AFAIK DJI doesnt even sell batteries for it. So DJI tell you to trust a "clone" battery for their high end heavy lifter platform, but it would be too dangerous for their smallest consumer drone?
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You could always disassemble the packs, put in new lipo bits and keep the official firmware. That's how aftermarket battery builders work for countless other products although these are typically NiCad or plain lithium instead of Lithium Polymer.
Given the number of P3s in existence, if DJI doesn't continue to build batteries, somebody else will. You can always clone the firmware as well.
Yep, you make your points well and I respect your views, and I hope that your investment in non-OE batteries is rewarded. I'll stick to my four OE units.
Not always, in fact, usually you cant. It looks like its not a problem with DJI's current implementation, even more since the battery detection and rejection is built in to the GO software rather than the Phantom itself, but its certainly not difficult to make that detection watertight and protect your firmware in a way thats virtually impossible to copy. Its a standard feature of most FPGA's these days. And if DJI really wanted to, it wouldnt even be that difficult to prevent swapping of the lipo cells on a OEM battery PCB undetected. A simple antifuse bricking the board or some intrusion detection in the battery module should do the trick. Or make it really hard at least, and both ways are trivial and cheap to implement..
So for the P3 (and I assume p4), there is most likely no major problem in making and thus sourcing clone batteries. But I'll go on record predicting that for the P5, it will be impossible. At least if that is what DJI wants.
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