P4 external battery mod operation

[ant123drone]

Hello all thought I would share my experience with doing the external battery mod. Overall the job was a pain in butt, I would happily pay someone $250 to do it had I had to do it over again. Also right after I took it all apart I saw that Uavmaxx (I believe that's the company/guys name) has designed it through the battery. Anyhow splitting the case wasn't that bad, and taking it all apart wasn't to bad either, the problem is soldering in the wires, I saw where some people T spliced into the black and red wires because they didn't want to solder on the circuit board, I tried that 1st, meaning I left the wires soldered to the board and cut back some of the insulation. Total pain In the butt. Not to mention I was dissatisfied with how it looked, basically a big glob of solder that could easily rub through the other wire. So I ended up removing the black and red wires from the circuit board and soldering them while the where disconnected from the drone. I actually just ran new wires, still t spliced but was able to heat shrink and have a 1/2 way decent splice. Problem #2 was trying to flush mount the connectors to the drone also pain in the butt, I sat there for probably 2 hours with a little file and it still didn't come out the way I envisioned it. Overall I'm about %80 satisfied everything works still and I don't have wires hanging out of the drone. If anyone attempts this I will help if they have any questions and good luck
Anthony

 

[ant123drone]

 

[ant123drone]

 

[wa5tef]

Hey, that's not bad! Anytime when you are working on small electronic components like that, it gets double tough. Especially when a major goof-up could mess up your drone. Have you had time to try it out and if so, what difference did it make?

Thanks,
Jim
WA5TEF

 

[ant123drone]

I tried it and made sure it worked, but the batteries I bought need to be split so I'm trying to figure out how to do that. But it does work as soon as I get the batteries split I will do some test to see range

 

[ant123drone]

Not range I mean battery life, which I guess will equal more range

 

[Nick H.]

Hello all. I've been looking to do a similar mod to my Inspire 2 but have been coming up short on ideas. It isn't as straight forward as the Inspire 1 or Phantom 3. I apologize for hijacking the thread, but I'm out of ideas. I came here because I believe the P4 batteries are similar to the Inspire 2 with the only difference being that the Inspire 2 takes two batteries on board wired in parallel while the P4 only takes one.

Please look at the picture below.

This is the power distribution board to the Inspire 2. The two small circuit boards that say "Battery Terminal" is where the two Inspire 2 batteries plug into the quad. You'll notice that the two batteries are wired in parallel and directly go into the motors. The motor terminals are plugs that plug into the wires that go to the ESCs. The other two power wires go to the power distribution board which powers up all the sensors and other onboard stuff.

The big difference between this and the Inspire 1 is that the motor wires used to come from the power distribution board where as they bypass it on the I2.

This brings me to the P4 forums. The P4 battery is like the I2. It isn't just two large battery contacts, it is many small ones. Clearly, all of you that have modified your P4s are not not soldering directly on the power distribution board. It looks like you are wiring into power wires going to the motors. Is this true? Would it make sense if I tapped into the gold plugs that go to the ESCs then to motors? I could easily wire in a parallel splice right onto the gold bars you see on each plug. Looking for suggestions. Thanks.