How to charge P4 battery without charger

[The_Jam]

Hi,

I'm currently on vacation. I brought my drone with me, but I left my charger at home. Is there a way to charge the battery without the charger?

If I plug the micro-usb into the drone, will it charge the battery? The place that I'm vacationing at is quite isolated. I haven't been successful in getting a charger delivered.

Thanks

 

[Neon Euc]

Afraid not. Although it may be possible to make a charger I wouldn't recommend it

 

[msinger]

Is there a way to charge the battery without the charger?

No.

If I plug the micro-usb into the drone, will it charge the battery?

No.

 

[alokbhargava]

There is no voltage booster in P4 to raise 5v to 17.2+ volts this you can’t use USB port to charge the batteries.

 

[Helihover]

There is no voltage booster in P4 to raise 5v to 17.2+ volts this you can’t use USB port to charge the batteries.

Although you do need a LIPO charger, input voltage has nothing to do with it.

Many chargers run from a 12v power supply and charge 24v lipos with no issues.

OP keep your eye out for other drone activity and you never know who you might meet with a charger. Have you exhausted all overnight shipping options?

 

[alokbhargava]

Although you do need a LIPO charger, input voltage has nothing to do with it.

Many chargers run from a 12v power supply and charge 24v lipos with no issues.

OP keep your eye out for other drone activity and you never know who you might meet with a charger. Have you exhausted all overnight shipping options?

Chargers working on 12V battery to charge higher voltage batteries have built in boosting mechanism.

 

[Helihover]

Chargers working on 12V battery to charge higher voltage batteries have built in boosting mechanism.

No they don’t. Chargers don’t have “boosters”. Where did you arrive at this?

Chargers charge by the cell. You need no more voltage than 4.2 to charge virtually any LiPo. The charger type will determine how big of a battery you can charge. All the amps and “power” voltage etc. come from the power supply (car battery, dedicated power supply, wall transformer), the charger disperses this voltage accordingly.

 

[alokbhargava]

No they don’t. Chargers don’t have “boosters”. Where did you arrive at this?

Chargers charge by the cell. You need no more voltage than 4.2 to charge virtually any LiPo. The charger type will determine how big of a battery you can charge. All the amps and “power” voltage etc. come from the power supply (car battery, dedicated power supply, wall transformer), the charger disperses this voltage accordingly.

Chargers can’t charge by cells if end points of each cell are not exposed.

One of the ways to boost DC voltage in these DC to DC converts is to use L-C circuit with high frequency chopping. Inductive energy is pushed to capacitor and voltage rises. There is a control circuit to maintain required voltage and limit the current.

I know this cause I was a designer.

 

[With The Birds]

No they don’t. Chargers don’t have “boosters”. Where did you arrive at this?

Chargers charge by the cell. You need no more voltage than 4.2 to charge virtually any LiPo. The charger type will determine how big of a battery you can charge. All the amps and “power” voltage etc. come from the power supply (car battery, dedicated power supply, wall transformer), the charger disperses this voltage accordingly.

The DJI packs don’t “charge by the cell”, they are charged in series connection, charger sees full battery voltage.

 

[Helihover]

The DJI packs don’t “charge by the cell”, they are charged in series connection, charger sees full battery voltage.

Wrong.

Explain how the car charger works then on 12 volts.

Auto LiPo chargers (like the one that came with your drone) charge off each cell. If they charged in series they couldn’t balance.

 

[Helihover]

Chargers can’t charge by cells if end points of each cell are not exposed.

One of the ways to boost DC voltage in these DC to DC converts is to use L-C circuit with high frequency chopping. Inductive energy is pushed to capacitor and voltage rises. There is a control circuit to maintain required voltage and limit the current.

I know this cause I was a designer.

With every LiPo balancing charger, all cells are exposed, otherwise the charger couldn’t balance.

So did you design the DJI charger? If not, what brand of balancing LiPo charger have you designed?

 

[With The Birds]

Wrong.

Explain how the car charger works then on 12 volts.

Auto LiPo chargers (like the one that came with your drone) charge off each cell. If they charged in series they couldn’t balance.

Right.......

The charge circuit is in the battery, have you wondered why it needs 17.4VDC on the input to charge a 4cell series LiPO pack? Simple because the cells are charged in series. There is no mystery as to how cell balance is achieved. Bleed resistors on the cell taps (R1-R4) are switched in on the highest voltage cells.

I am sorry to disabuse you of your notion however fact is the car charger adapter also supplies 17.4V to the pack, it uses a simple switch mode inverted to increase the voltage.

 

[Helihover]

So your saying our “chargers” are simply power supplies and really not a charger at all? I’ll buy that. I keep forgetting these are smart batteries.

All my above comments refer to an actual Lipo charger.

Edit: And the car charger is actually a power inverter and not a charger.

 

[With The Birds]

Yes, the battery simply needs a regulated DC supply to charge, the charger is in the battery.

You are still WRONG in your belief re LiPO charger operation. With the possible exception of some cheap OEM charges supplied with models all LiPO chargers bulk charge the cells in series connection employing the balance taps to bleed off cells that approach higher voltage state earlier in the charge phase.

 

[THECaptainKirk]

I’m pretty sure I saw a MacGyver episode where he constructed one. So, to say it can’t be done.....pfffft!!

 

[With The Birds]

I’m pretty sure I saw a MacGyver episode where he constructed one. So, to say it can’t be done.....pfffft!!

He will need more than a couple of pounds of lemons, nails, alligator clips, hook up wire, graphite pencil and a utility knife to pull this one off...

 

[Helihover]

Yes, the battery simply needs a regulated DC supply to charge, the charger is in the battery.

You are still WRONG in your belief re LiPO charger operation. With the possible exception of some cheap OEM charges supplied with models all LiPO chargers bulk charge the cells in series connection employing the balance taps to bleed off cells that approach higher voltage state earlier in the charge phase.

Yes and no. Yes the balancer will bleed off, but you still don’t charge on series with REAL Lipo chargers.

With my experience I’ve owned cheap and very high end chargers. My Hyperion charger could run off 12 and 24 volt input. I charged 6 cell 5000 mah packs two at a time (2 channels). I had a custom power supply built from PC power supplies. It was awesome. In fact my buddy down the street is still using this setup that I sold to him. Anyway, having a high end charger allows you to see and monitor everything that’s happening from input to output to C and CV etc etc. I charged 6 cells all the time off 12 volts. I could pull more amps from a 24v PS, but that’s another topic. I’m simply speaking from my experience with charging lipos, not charging smart batteries. My experience tells me input voltage has nothing to do with charge voltage as I seen first hand on a daily basis.

 

[Helihover]

If in fact our “chargers” are power supplies, the whole “power booster” theory just got blown out of the water.

 

[With The Birds]

If in fact our “chargers” are power supplies, the whole “power booster” theory just got blown out of the water.

Blown out if the water how?

The “car charger” steps up 12v to 17.4V, we might say that is boosting the voltage?

 

[With The Birds]

Yes and no. Yes the balancer will bleed off, but you still don’t charge on series with REAL Lipo chargers.

With my experience I’ve owned cheap and very high end chargers. My Hyperion charger could run off 12 and 24 volt input. I charged 6 cell 5000 mah packs two at a time (2 channels). I had a custom power supply built from PC power supplies. It was awesome. In fact my buddy down the street is still using this setup that I sold to him. Anyway, having a high end charger allows you to see and monitor everything that’s happening from input to output to C and CV etc etc. I charged 6 cells all the time off 12 volts. I could pull more amps from a 24v PS, but that’s another topic. I’m simply speaking from my experience with charging lipos, not charging smart batteries. My experience tells me input voltage has nothing to do with charge voltage as I seen first hand on a daily basis.

Think about your 2 cell charging setup. Was it only the balance leads connected? I suspect you also had the main battery power leads going to the charger also. I charge up to 6 5Ah 6cell packs on occasion. All balance leads and main power connections from packs are parallel connected to the charger.

This is how multi charing power boards are wired...

The cells (in each pack) are series connected to the charger- FACT....