Only genuine batteries?
- Thread starter Dazzauk
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It seems the forum is sparse on reports on aftermarket battery performance. It might be this is because many are flying them without issues (bad experiences are reported more often than good ones).
Buy and try. If you get good flight times, close to or better than OEM capacity, cell balance is good (healthy drones and phantom pilots log viewer will tell you) then you should be fine. Only negatives are the potential DJI may argue you don't have warranty coverage or that a future firmware/app upgrade may render the battery unusable.
The DJI battery issue is a like OEM printer cartridges. You pay a premium but don't necessarily get better performance.
Buy and try. If you get good flight times, close to or better than OEM capacity, cell balance is good (healthy drones and phantom pilots log viewer will tell you) then you should be fine. Only negatives are the potential DJI may argue you don't have warranty coverage or that a future firmware/app upgrade may render the battery unusable.
The DJI battery issue is a like OEM printer cartridges. You pay a premium but don't necessarily get better performance.
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I have to admit I paid £60 for a 3rd party battery (I done a video review on YouTube about it if your interested) and it was better then the official as it charged 15 mins quicker and gave me an extra 3 mins flight time. But I did sell it after 8 flights due to all the bad things I hear. But looking back on it so many problems on here have usually been with official batteries. Hmmm.... Maybe I should chance it but I am 50/50 on chancing it on the P3A.
But then again if you buy an iphone does that mean you will only use apple earphones and apple speakers as other 3rd party makes are not as good? Of course not. But with the drone we don't want to do that. Odd eh? [emoji1]
Neon Euc
But then again if you buy an iphone does that mean you will only use apple earphones and apple speakers as other 3rd party makes are not as good? Of course not. But with the drone we don't want to do that. Odd eh? [emoji1]
Neon Euc
If the earphones fail I dont have to go fighting my way through dense scrub trying to recover my busted IPhone.
The LiPO cells in the aftermarket batteries may in some cases be better than stock. They might not. You need to be prepared to buy and try.
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It's always going to be 50/50 on buying any lipo products. Official DJI batteries have been known to swell and give bad cells. Very rare I admit but even more rare to hear if 3rd party batteries doing that. I could be wrong but it's just my own experience of being on here.
Neon Euc
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I am never going to buy a 3rd party battery, I know from experience these can fall out of the sky without any warning! If you try to get a warranty repair with DJI while you were using a knockoff, they aren'y fixing anything without charging a few $100 first. There is nothing you can hide from the logs stored on the drone, there is so much data on that I'm sure it could tell you what you ate for breakfast if you look hard enough.
I tend to look at it this way.....if your doing a stellar job flying it and getting some amazing video and then it just comes crashing to the ground, you watch it sink into the water, or you damage someone's property are you gonna think to yourself "sure glad I saved $30 on a battery though"
Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots
Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots
Funny how millions of LiPo's fly millions of models in the world without all this 'crap' !!
The likelihood of a catastrophic failure of a battery is so remote as to be ridiculous. The Phantom is designed to land out if battery power drops ... its designed to RTH if it drops but not so much as to mean it cannot get home.
IF DJI program to refuse a 3rd party battery - then it will not fly. If anyone really believes that DJI program so the battery will make the model fall out of the sky - then I suggest that is rubbish. DJI have been careful to be able to say they have safe models.
The world of LiPo's does not revolve around just DJI.
Nigel
The likelihood of a catastrophic failure of a battery is so remote as to be ridiculous. The Phantom is designed to land out if battery power drops ... its designed to RTH if it drops but not so much as to mean it cannot get home.
IF DJI program to refuse a 3rd party battery - then it will not fly. If anyone really believes that DJI program so the battery will make the model fall out of the sky - then I suggest that is rubbish. DJI have been careful to be able to say they have safe models.
The world of LiPo's does not revolve around just DJI.
Nigel
I have one of these coming next week, and the consensus is that they are genuine DJI batteries, but internationally branded - regional differences (they have some extra Chinese markings on them). $110 is better than $150, but sometimes DJI has a sale on their own site, so it all depends on how soon an owner needs an extra battery. If there is no immediate need, then it might be wise to wait for another official sale. However, I am out flying and I needed a spare, so I will certainly report back when I receive this battery.
The ones i have from banggood work flawlessy, £52 you would never know they weren't genuine. I refuse to upgrade my firmware to be ripped off by DJI disabling the use of perfectly good aftermarket batteries. Im happy for them to warn, and void the warranty, but i wont be told what i can and cant use.
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Never knew banggood done them so cheap. I admit the last 2 years of being with banggood I never had any issues with any of their electronics. And also you can get it cheaper by using your points that you collected from past purchases
Neon Euc
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I feel like I participate in a genuine battery thread once a week. If you are only going to buy one or two batteries, the savings probably aren't worth it. However, the more batteries you buy, the more you will be saving. Personally I need a bunch of batteries, so third party batteries make sense for me. My experience with them so far has been pretty good. I have never had a single issue with any of them. They weight exactly the same and fit perfectly in my phantom. I get the same flight time as dji batteries and I've updated firmware on my phantom several times without any issues. There are 2 differences that I've noticed. The LED lights on them are much dimmer than dji batteries. The second difference is my only complaint that I have on them, they do not seem to auto discharge in the amount of time that I have them set to. They do discharge, but the process does not begin at 2 days like my dji batteries.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Does not begin at 2 days like my DJI ......
I assume you set up each battery individually for auto discharge ?
I'm not one to try destroy original company business - but I also am not one to allow profiteering.
I will buy and use 3rd party gear on whatever I own - except when in warranty period such as a car.
My P3S gets reasonable gear - and I am comfortable with that.
I have subsequently found out that my Irish seller is not selling genuine DJI battery's - but who cares when they work exactly the same and are a lot cheaper ? Being Chinese battery anyway - it would not surprise me if the battery's were coming from same factory as the DJI ones !
Pal of mine was R&D Manager of Nokia before MS took over. He told me straight that the Nokia deal to replace clone battery's was designed to re-inforce the Nokia brand name and even though it cost them a fortune replacing peoples battery's - it turned out to be good marketing. The fact was though - most of the battery's they replaced were perfectly OK and came from same production lines as the Nokias.
Nigel
I assume you set up each battery individually for auto discharge ?
I'm not one to try destroy original company business - but I also am not one to allow profiteering.
I will buy and use 3rd party gear on whatever I own - except when in warranty period such as a car.
My P3S gets reasonable gear - and I am comfortable with that.
I have subsequently found out that my Irish seller is not selling genuine DJI battery's - but who cares when they work exactly the same and are a lot cheaper ? Being Chinese battery anyway - it would not surprise me if the battery's were coming from same factory as the DJI ones !
Pal of mine was R&D Manager of Nokia before MS took over. He told me straight that the Nokia deal to replace clone battery's was designed to re-inforce the Nokia brand name and even though it cost them a fortune replacing peoples battery's - it turned out to be good marketing. The fact was though - most of the battery's they replaced were perfectly OK and came from same production lines as the Nokias.
Nigel
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Yeah, I've set each battery individually. It doesn't seem to take with the knockoffs
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I have bought and used many non DJI batteries and have had no problems
I was wondering when sense would prevail !!
Good ... nice to hear.
I for one will be using non genuine and genuine - all decided by price and observation.
NOT by scaremongering Warranty crap.
Nigel
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It's not a scare tactic -- just something those who venture beyond OEM DJI batteries should know.
Don't give DJI or your insurance carrier and excuse to deny your claim. Stick with DJI batteries. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Thats fine when INSIDE warranty period ... IF you want to ..
Once outside of warranty period ... then it makes no odds at all ...
And this repeated rubbish about DJI batterys better than 3rd party ... DJI must be loving all this 'patriotic fervour' !!
Now how many - hand on heart - when their car comes out of warranty ONLY go back to Dealer and have genuine parts and work done ? With the crap talked about 3rd party batterys for our P3S .. the car question is a far more serious item ...
No disrespect "msinger" ..... but you are no ordinary owner user - you are a VENDOR with vested interest in DJI products.
Nigel
Once outside of warranty period ... then it makes no odds at all ...
And this repeated rubbish about DJI batterys better than 3rd party ... DJI must be loving all this 'patriotic fervour' !!
Now how many - hand on heart - when their car comes out of warranty ONLY go back to Dealer and have genuine parts and work done ? With the crap talked about 3rd party batterys for our P3S .. the car question is a far more serious item ...
No disrespect "msinger" ..... but you are no ordinary owner user - you are a VENDOR with vested interest in DJI products.
Nigel
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It's not rubbish at all. DJI makes batteries that were designed for the Phantom. They are also tested and more widely used. There's no telling which (if any) 3rd party batteries work well. I cannot imagine they are all bad though.
I'm an ordinary user just like you. The difference is that I recommend products that I know work well. And, I disclose things like the possibility of voiding the warranty. Yes, I do run a business too, but it's only a result of spending countless hours helping people online. I do it because I enjoy helping people -- not because I'm attempting to fill someone else's pockets with money by recommending their products.
You're suggesting that people go out and use any 3rd party battery they come across. That's dangerous advice. If you want to be helpful, start recommending 3rd party batteries that you know work well.
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