Any Phantom 2 flyers still about?

Ok Nidge,thankyou for the expertise and advice. If you have time, could you tell me which one of these balance digital chargers I should buy? I have the power supply to furnish the adequate amount of voltage and amperage to the chargers.thankyou very much for taking the time to help me. I really appreciate it, and as you said ,it can be dangerous do manipulate these batteries if one is not experienced.

Me personally? I would not consider any of those chargers, especially those sold with a multi-balance board. The B6 Charger was originally manufactured by SkyRC and in its day was a reasonable low end charger. But like many things that gain popularity it was copied with varying degrees of quality. Some were/are downright counterfeits claiming to be an original SkyRC IMAX B6 but when examined closely their calibration and performance were severely lacking. SkyRC always placed a holographic security sticker on the back of their chargers, but still these counterfeit and poor quality copies flooded onto the market. I don’t believe SkyRC make the B6 charger anymore.

I would look at chargers manufactured by the likes of ISDT, Overlander, GT Power, Sky RC, Traxxas, and other well established names in the RC industry. If you want to charge two or more batteries simultaneously don’t use one of those balance boards you have pictured, but rather look at a charger that has separate monitored outputs. I’ve seen a few instances at the flying field where someone using one of those balance boards needed the assistance of a fire extinguisher.

As an aside I too hold an amateur radio licence. I’ve held it for nearly 40 years as I took the theory and Morse tests when I was 16yrs old. But in recent years I’ve lost my enthusiasm for it as it is no longer what I’d call a technical hobby. It’s one of the reasons I got into SUAS as it brought together many disciplines, including RF design, electronics, coding, fabrication, etc. Skills that amateur radio these days fails to promote any longer. I’ll stop now before I get very ranty :rage:

Nidge.

Hi Nidge, thank again for a fast and inforative responsems. I was also a VE2 operater for many years and am starting to get back into the hobby out of consern for the importance of security comunications related to disaster and in particular the possibility of emf damage from a Corona. As for the balanced charger, I have many good quality PS2 batteries/5200mA/11.1V and would like to figure out a way. To use the lipo Cells to build a couple batteries for these PS3 adv,and pro models that I have. I am down to 1 battery for the p3mdls. What do you think?what type of balance unit do I buy…the fake balancers have no hollowgram on the bottom of the units. I noticed that the gold unit has a hollowgram in the pics… What is your advice of a model for me to buy. Thanks for your help Fidge. Gratitude and appreciation…Mike…

Ok. Nidge, just went back over messages and see the models you sudgested…thankyou

Ok Midge, taking your advice and will buy the first one on your suggestion list. Thanks again for your time and help.

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This battery might be worth a punt @Nidge

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/dji-phantom-2-drone-Spares-Or-Repairs/333511887315

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Thank you for the heads-up, Rich. Unfortunately I’ve been very irresponsible, financially speaking, this month and my Wife has started making strange murmuring noises.

The three batteries I purchased a couple of weeks ago are all now performing as they should after each was recalibrated.

Regards

Nidge.

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Neither of my batteries managed 3 minutes. :stuck_out_tongue:

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I reckon mine might do the same Dave !.
Must get it out and try it before the week is out.
Although mine do charge, or they give the impression they are !, will be interesting to see how long they last.

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One has been charging (?) for 10 minutes and not got past one flashing LED.

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Strange. It took 50 mins to recharge. Sounds about right. Somehow, whatever was preventing it from cycling correctly must have reset by magic.

Battery #2, now.

PMSL!!! The other battery stopped charging after 90 seconds.

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Oh ,Er !, does not sound good !

Even the other one didn’t last a reasonable amount of charging time when I last charged it. :man_shrugging:

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Does not sound good from my point of view, will be gutted if mine are f**ked !.
Better check the P3A and P4 batteries as well, while I’m at it !

15 minutes to run - up to £67. :man_shrugging:

Edit: Sold £77 … and not to me.

Nor me, surprisingly :crazy_face:.

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Battery #2 is a goner.

Whilst I didn’t break it open and do resets. I did cycle several times. Things improved … marginally … after about 10 cycles, but only to the point that it would keep the idling P2 on for about 20 minutes.
After I’d had a break from repeated charges/discharges, and returned an hour later, it was back to where it had been.

I’ve given up on that battery.

So - battery #1

Following it taking a reasonable charge the other day, today I switched it on and “left it flashing away in the corner” (to quote @Nidge) … deciding a nice long slow discharge wouldn’t do it an harm, and it lasted for 9hrs 30mins, .

After that I recharged it, and it took 67mins!!!

So - whatever is really happening inside the battery (I’ve not bothered with Assistant as yet) it certainly took a much bigger charge!

I think the next thing is to give it a test hover, and see how long I get.
Then I may try another charge / slow discharge / charge, and see if the battery gets any more hungry.

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Sometimes, even with the best will in the World, things unfortunately cease to be. That was the case with the original battery that was supplied with my P2.

However.

I remembered I had a junker drone in my playroom. This was the failed, as they usually are, HexoPlus+ drone that was funded on Kickstarter. The previous owner had connected it to Mission Planner and tried a firmware upgrade that totally trashed the flight controller. I’ve been able to flash various bootoaders and firmwares to the STM F4 chip but as this was a proprietary build none actually started the Mavlink.

Thankfully the battery is in very good shape. It’s a 5000mAh 3S 55.5Wh pack and on initial inspection appears to fit in the P2 battery case. I’ll just need to make a few mods to the balance connections and it should be good to go.

Nidge.

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Luckily, judging purely by the charging time for now, I seem to have one suitably resurrected battery.

This should provide me with enough flying time to have some proper fun with it … some full-on manual flying, and some flips. :smiling_imp: :

If that’s the case, then I’m more than happy …. and it’s not cost me a single penny (other than a few recharges of electricity) … nor any slicing open of a battery (:fearful: :boom: :fire:) .

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