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Thats a great deal considering the packs used to $50ea and the portable charger is $89
It has arrived......Portable Charging Station
- Thread starter djmaincheese
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MASERONE
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MASERONE
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Virtual1
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FWIW I went looking for an economical but effective larger scale battery charge system, and here's what I came up with: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075K37YT5
(they got taken apart for modification, and I found they were designed much better than I was anticipating, they're microprocessor-controlled and adequately rated, though they could use better cooling)
I bought three of these, $18 ea. So for $54 I can charge six Spark batteries at a time. (plus a controller and phone/tablet) They run off 12v, so I hardwired them to a single 12v harness (powerpole connector actually) to an 18AH SLA battery. You can get the 7AH SLA's all over the place and charge them with any cheap low powered battery charger or maintainer, but an 18 will hold a lot more power - those are often referred to as "fire alarm batteries" and can be found where commercial fire products are sold such as fire extinguishers. (or just lug a car battery, cheap from the local auto salvage) Take that out to the park and you can charge lots of batteries. How much you can recharge is only limited by the size of the 12V battery you bring. (car battery or in-car = a lot more) Spark rates their batteries at under 17WH. If we want to guess 85% efficiency, an 18AH battery (@12v) contains 216 WH (12*18), 85% of that is 183WH, so we can top off at least 10 (completely dead) 17WH Spark batteries using that. Since we don't run them flat usually, forget the 85% and we can just call it an even dozen charges?
I'm expecting this "single conversion" method to be significantly more efficient than inverting 12 up to 120 and then back down using say the flymore charging sled. (each conversion wastes some power) It also costs a lot less if all bought separately - $10 less for the charger, save $15-20 more not having to buy a small inverter, all while charging twice as many batteries at a time. I'm guessing a typical car battery (~500WH) would charge around 30 Spark batteries. (or essentially unlimited in a periodically-running vehicle)
Does anyone spot any errors in my math, or see any grossly bad or wild assumptions?
(they got taken apart for modification, and I found they were designed much better than I was anticipating, they're microprocessor-controlled and adequately rated, though they could use better cooling)
I bought three of these, $18 ea. So for $54 I can charge six Spark batteries at a time. (plus a controller and phone/tablet) They run off 12v, so I hardwired them to a single 12v harness (powerpole connector actually) to an 18AH SLA battery. You can get the 7AH SLA's all over the place and charge them with any cheap low powered battery charger or maintainer, but an 18 will hold a lot more power - those are often referred to as "fire alarm batteries" and can be found where commercial fire products are sold such as fire extinguishers. (or just lug a car battery, cheap from the local auto salvage) Take that out to the park and you can charge lots of batteries. How much you can recharge is only limited by the size of the 12V battery you bring. (car battery or in-car = a lot more) Spark rates their batteries at under 17WH. If we want to guess 85% efficiency, an 18AH battery (@12v) contains 216 WH (12*18), 85% of that is 183WH, so we can top off at least 10 (completely dead) 17WH Spark batteries using that. Since we don't run them flat usually, forget the 85% and we can just call it an even dozen charges?
I'm expecting this "single conversion" method to be significantly more efficient than inverting 12 up to 120 and then back down using say the flymore charging sled. (each conversion wastes some power) It also costs a lot less if all bought separately - $10 less for the charger, save $15-20 more not having to buy a small inverter, all while charging twice as many batteries at a time. I'm guessing a typical car battery (~500WH) would charge around 30 Spark batteries. (or essentially unlimited in a periodically-running vehicle)
Does anyone spot any errors in my math, or see any grossly bad or wild assumptions?
HoboDan
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How long did it take from ordering until shipping did it take for u? Still no shipping news for me... Hope I get it before Xmas.
That is correct. I think is a good deal considering that after the batteries the charger is only $50.
Nice look you have going there.
How is the performance of those 3rd party blades?
3rd party blades---
I have the red ones... they work great... but maybe a bit fragile if you hit something...
I have the red ones... they work great... but maybe a bit fragile if you hit something...
So far I have found a few things I like about the docking station. You don’t need a gimbal cover because it fits in the dock so perfectly. The dock is almost the same size as the spark and extra batteries nest under it. With the bag they are selling that holds the dock and controller it should end up being even smaller than most bags although it will be a bit heavier. ( my bag hasn’t arrived yet) You can also charge your phone off it. The best part is that there are no wires and connectors. Just one neat tight little package.
MASERONE
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I ordered mine last night since I didn't get the flymorecombo. According to DJI it shipped today and I'll have it on Thursday. Will update when I get it. I missed the case for this i'll have to check it out.
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High-capacity mobile charging station that's great for traveling
Charges up to three batteries for up to 48 minutes of flight time
USB port provides power to mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets
Adjusts charging current automatically according to temperature
Convenient for storing the aircraft and batteries when not charging
