Dual Battery Mod

Phantom751874 · Mar 7, 2016

UnknownCaller said:
It is available right now on the mid west site

Phantom 3 Power Mod V3 - Midwest Horizon FPV Antennas

If you have your own packs I believe it's only $94 for the mod that's not a bad price.

Nice. I just paid chose to ship them 2x P3 batteries. They took payment but zero details given as to what to do next? Where do I ship and how do I let them know I paid?

Phantom751874 · Mar 7, 2016

Phantom751874 said:
Nice. I just paid chose to ship them 2x P3 batteries. They took payment but zero details given as to what to do next? Where do I ship and how do I let them know I paid?

Nevermnd there was a follow up email. My batteries will be mailed to them tomorrow.

Ed209 · Mar 7, 2016

Silverwingflinx said:
Hi ED209 yes that's what I have been thinking.faulty batts faulty charger or just EXTrem cold causing the problem.so no more cold weather flites below 50%. Expensive lesson to learn.thax for your advice.as far as solder I am useing electrical rosin core.variable temp gun.when I did the solder connections it went easy I had no issues.

Got everything finished. When I plug into charger is says "REVERSE POLARITY". WTF.. My wires are right. Checked voltages of each 2S pack and also checked them in the Y adaptor. All is good. Checked balance connectors and even tried swapping the Pos and the +- around. Nothing. I don't get it.

Phantom751874 · Mar 8, 2016

P3P Canada said:
gO aPP 2.6.1 WARNING!!

Careful my Friends !! Looks like the DJI go all 2.6 doesn't allow for 3rd party batteries !!!

I know we are all messing around with different battery configurations and would be a shame to have that all ruined by another update!!

Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

I'm not sure it would be able to detect the external batteries in parallel. The voltage reports as if its 1 battery. Either way I'm not upgrading yet. I'll let someone else who's running externals "test" it out beforehand. Besides my 2x DJi batteries are shipping out to Midwest Horizon USA tomorrow

Ed209 · Mar 8, 2016

Strange...I reversed polarity on the charger and now it's charging. My wires to the XT60 are correct. I quadruple checked with DMM.

Silverwingflinx · Mar 8, 2016

Ed209 said:
Strange...I reversed polarity on the charger and now it's charging. My wires to the XT60 are correct. I quadruple checked with DMM.

What really I did not have any problems charged them as 2s HV at 1.3A 2 hours to charge.i will try 2.0 A next time.have not had a chance to fly it yet.

Silverwingflinx · Mar 8, 2016

Ed209 said:
Strange...I reversed polarity on the charger and now it's charging. My wires to the XT60 are correct. I quadruple checked with DMM.

What did you decide to charge them at?

Ed209 · Mar 8, 2016

Silverwingflinx said:
What did you decide to charge them at?

I charged them up to storage mode at 4A. I had discharged them to 20% before doing the mod so just wanted to get it to storage voltage. Everything looks good. I still don't understand why I had to change polarity on the charge cable. I would think when making a 2S battery it doesn't matter which pos & neg tabs get soldered together. So I have no clue what the deal is with that. All voltages test out OK with the DMM on the XT60s, balance connectors and with the Y harness. I wont be able to test out until Wed though.

Silverwingflinx · Mar 8, 2016

Ed209 said:
I charged them up to storage mode at 4A. I had discharged them to 20% before doing the mod so just wanted to get it to storage voltage. Everything looks good. I still don't understand why I had to change polarity on the charge cable. I would think when making a 2S battery it doesn't matter which pos & neg tabs get soldered together. So I have no clue what the deal is with that. All voltages test out OK with the DMM on the XT60s, balance connectors and with the Y harness. I wont be able to test out until Wed though.

Yes I agree why does it matter what side you use on the Dji batt each end has +\- very strange.i plan on doing another batt mod soon so I hope I do not run into that problem.but you have it working now I guess the real test is what about when you hook it up to the p3 is it going to work?

Ed209 · Mar 8, 2016

Silverwingflinx said:
Yes I agree why does it matter what side you use on the Dji batt each end has +\- very strange.i plan on doing another batt mod soon so I hope I do not run into that problem.but you have it working now I guess the real test is what about when you hook it up to the p3 is it going to work?

I know. I was thinking and thinking. It doesn't matter which tabs get soldered together because whatever ones you solder, determine the flow of energy. I guess we'll see what happens when I plug it into the P3 lol. I'm feeling confident because as you see in the pics above, voltage is nominal for each 2S pack and also when connected to the Y harness. All in all it was pretty easy especially now that I got the right materials. Btw, I highly recommend this stuff for soldering the tabs. The flux makes the bond very strong.
Harris 500K Al-Solder 500 Aluminum Solder Kit https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001HWFM9Y/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awd_d7N3wbEZJESYV

Silverwingflinx · Mar 8, 2016

Ed209 said:
I know. I was thinking and thinking. It doesn't matter which tabs get soldered together because whatever ones you solder, determine the flow of energy. I guess we'll see what happens when I plug it into the P3 lol. I'm feeling confident because as you see in the pics above, voltage is nominal for each 2S pack and also when connected to the Y harness. All in all it was pretty easy especially now that I got the right materials. Btw, I highly recommend this stuff for soldering the tabs. The flux makes the bond very strong.
Harris 500K Al-Solder 500 Aluminum Solder Kit https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001HWFM9Y/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awd_d7N3wbEZJESYV

Yes I will see if I can find it here if not I will order it thax ED 209. Yes the mod is easy!!

FredzMaxxUAV · Mar 8, 2016

P3P Canada said:
gO aPP 2.6.1 WARNING!!

Careful my Friends !! Looks like the DJI go all 2.6 doesn't allow for 3rd party batteries !!!

I know we are all messing around with different battery configurations and would be a shame to have that all ruined by another update!!

AFAIK, this only detects 3rd party main batteries (non DJI). Since we all mod a stock DJI battery, I don't think the app can detect our aux batteries. Haven't tested it, though, as 2.6.1 only exists for Android, not for iOS, for now.

Silverwingflinx · Mar 8, 2016

UnknownCaller said:
I'm actually running 1.32 I just now put boosters back on my controller I run the 3000 milliwatt boosters but there's no difference between them and the 2500 the only reason I have the 3000 MW is the fact that they're black matches my bracket and antenna

World record for DJI platform is just over 10 miles.dbs mods useing matrix.looks like you will be ready to set a new record.go for it!!! Fly safe wish you the best.i hope I am right about the world record

dirtybum · Mar 8, 2016

Silverwingflinx said:
World record for DJI platform is just over 10 miles.dbs mods useing matrix.looks like you will be ready to set a new record.go for it!!! Fly safe wish you the best.i hope I am right about the world record

Yeah, i cant wait until all this moves into the "flying stage" i'm starting to wonder if any of you have interest in taking these batteries/flighttimes and actually converting them into miles (aka FLYING)!

Ed209 · Mar 8, 2016

dirtybum said:
Yeah, i cant wait until all this moves into the "flying stage" i'm starting to wonder if any of you have interest in taking these batteries/flighttimes and actually converting them into miles (aka FLYING)!

I've got over 20 flights, 4+ hours and 120mi in the 1 month since I've been messing with batteries. Keep in mind, it was brutally cold most of last month here. I flew at night whenever I could just to get the batteries broken in. I bought a P3A specifically for pushing the limits. If I'm not testing something, I'm not flying it. I have the P3P for FPV and use that more as a recreational bird.

dirtybum · Mar 8, 2016

I hope you know there was no insult intended their Ed209! I too have been restricted to about the same amount of mileage and time that you have with this winter it's starting to get nicer and I can't wait for all of us. You know I appreciate the time that you guys are put into giving these new ideas a try or else I wouldn't be following along

Ed209 · Mar 8, 2016

Not taken as an insult but not sure what you meant. We're all doing what we can as time, and conditions allow.

dirtybum · Mar 8, 2016

Some people love this hobby purely for the modification/tickering aspect, some for flying, some both. If you followed certain battery mod/flight time/ battery test threads you probably noticed where simply hovering in the front yard to test the minutes of flight time was the only result that was offered. I dont have the knowledge/experience yet to take these batteries and split them like you Ed, Silverwing and others so i cant judge, i can only ride along and see if this is a thread thats going to have positive long distance results.

If not i still learned from your pioneering so it was worth following[emoji41]

Ed209 · Mar 8, 2016

Ah I see what you're saying now. Yeah just loading up batteries and hovering is not a good baseline for real run-time when it comes to distance. We know hovering takes more power but if you're going to be trying for max distance, just hovering will only give you insight into what you might be able to do. You have to actually fly to see what kind of runtime you will get. I agree with your observation

Really, the mod isn't that complicated. It's more just delicate because of the disassembly of the DJI battery which is still not that hard since you don't have to worry about putting the battery back in the casing. You just have to be careful to protect exposed contacts when soldering and also not to apply heat too long to a lipo tab. I'm hoping to get out today if I can manage it and test out the 2x2S mod.

Ed209 · Mar 9, 2016

Status update:

Battery mod complete (2x2S). Also modded another one of my DJI batteries (had 36 flights on it) to accept external bats. I'm a little disappointed... 26min landing at 9%. I'm not sure if my batteries are crapped out or what... But this is worse performance Hyperion G6 2400s and even the 1800s. There was about a 5-7mph wind and I was constantly flying/moving, not hovering. Not sure if aggressive flying would drain more battery than WOT straight out and back like in distance runs but I'm a little perturbed.

Temp was 57f