Almost tripled my flight time

[ol' Sparky]

Wanted a portable charger, but was not thrilled with the time it takes to charge with the DJI portable charger. Found a good deal on epay for the Smatree SP90 and grabbed it. Tried it out today and was impressed. I have 4 batteries total, and if I drain the first one and put it on the charger first thing, it is ALMOST fully charged by the time I finish using (then putting on charge) the other 3. Was cold and windy today so didn't do a full cycle of charging each one twice, but the first one was showing 4 lights by the time I was too cold to continue and brought her in with about 40% on the 4th battery. They claim it will fully charge 7 batteries, so starting with 4 fully charged, it's like having 11 batteries worth of flight time. I'm happy!

Smatree Portable Charging Station Compatible with DJI Spark Drone Intelligent Battery (Spark Battery not Included) (SP90)-Smatree Gopro Accessory

smatree offers the top Gopro mounts, pole, and case etc Gopro Hero 4, 3+, 3, 2, 1 HD, Hero camera accessories in United States, UK, German, Spain, France, Italy, Canada, and Japan etc.

www.smatree.com

 

[Spark 317]

I don't have one myself but have read good reviews on them.

There were a few from the first batch released a while back that may have caught fire, but that's been remedied.

 

[jimlips]

I don't know if this is true (maybe someone with more knowledge can comment), but doesn't charging the batteries faster than designed shorten their life (number of recharges)?

 

[Troy]

The only problem I see is that one should NOT put a battery on a charger freshly after flying . I think one should wait for the battery to cool before recharging .
Just my practice.

 

[ol' Sparky]

The only problem I see is that one should NOT put a battery on a charger freshly after flying . I think one should wait for the battery to cool before recharging .
Just my practice.

Good practice to follow. It was freezing Fricking cold the other day....battery was pretty cool after flight. Might have to get a 5th battery when it gets hot out

 

[Spark 317]

The Spark batteries are "intelligent" and will charge when ready.

I follow the same practice, let it cool down a little before putting it on the charger.
Force of habit.

It doesn't hurt anything and it may be beneficial to the self contained portable charger as it doesn't have to waste it's time trying to charge a battery that doesn't want to be charged yet.

 

[I B Spectre]

If you're using the DJI three battery hub charger, it won't begin charging if the battery temp is too high. That's why the indicator LED will turn red when you put a battery on it. After it cools it'll turn green and charging begins. Unfortunately the manual doesn't say anything about this, but a kid posted a YT video on it.

 

[ol' Sparky]

The Smatree comes with a warning slipped into the center slot to let the battery cool before charging.

 

[rangemaster728]

There are two versions of the Smatree SP90.

Early version (v1)is charged by a micro-USB port:

These were subject to overheating and were discontinued by Smatree. There were some reports of heat-related failures...as in plastic melting, smoke, etc.

Amazon.com

www.amazon.com

The SP90 was updated internally (v2) and now has a coaxial charging port and power supply ‘brick’ that runs off AC power and charges the internal battery pack much quicker than the old version.


Some dealers still had the old v1 units NIB and were dumping them on eBay for as little as $25.

I bought one of these v1 units last year off eBay and bench tested it with an IR gun...it ran significantly hotter than the newer version.

I contacted Smatree , had a discussion with their engineering/support folks and they said ‘Do not use it, we’ll send you the updated model...properly dispose of the old unit’. They did not want it back even though I offered to return it.

I like the current version and have used it quite a bit with no problems.

If you bought the v1 unit please be careful. Always exercise proper caution when dealing with any battery charger or batteries.

 

[ol' Sparky]

Got the newer one with the brick. Thanx for the heads up tho.