Evening all,
I have read the 4 or so previous posts about charging drone batteries (and controllers) when camping, hiking or otherwise not being near mains electricity. I noted though, that some posts are a few years old, and technology has progressed.
I have (well, in 2 days time hopefully) the DJI Neo 2 with three batteries and the 3-battery charger. Looking at the rating, they are 1,606mAh. The two-way charging hub needs a minimum of 45W to be able to fast charge all three batteries at the same time.
What about something like the ‘UGREEN Nexode 140W 25000mAh Laptop Power Bank’. Ugreen is a very good trusted company. Having 140W is way more than required, but not a bad thing. The 25,000mAh battery is nice and large. You should expect between 15% - 30% energy loss from a battery pack, so at worst this will have 17,500mAh or 21,250mAh at best. This should then be able to charge a Neo 2 battery between 10 & 13 times. This could be a perfect solution for under £50. Any thoughts?
You may be just dividing 21250 by 1606 watt-hours to get to 10-13 charges, but that won’t take in to account the voltage differences between the power bank and the DJI battery.
I’d realistically expect 6-7 charges.
But £50 quid is still cheaper than buying DJI batteries at £35 a pop
You are very right, I did just do that. I didn’t think about the voltage difference at all.
Thank you for pointing that out. As you said though, is still cheaper than buying extra drone batteries, and takes up less space. I think I will get one, but will see if the price comes down in a few months.
Yes for cables for sure. I have a 200w power supply for my laptop and wondered why it wasn’t charging well. Found out I left my 100w USB-C cable at home, and took by mistake on my work trip a fabric braided mobile phone charging cable instead. That hurt me for the week.
I want to sort something ready for the Big Meet, as don’t want to be limited by my 3 batteries. I have a EV car that has a 13Amp 3-pin socket built into the back seats, but also don’t want to keep running over to my car to charge batteries, then find I can’t get home! (Although sure the car battery can cope with a few drone battery charges!).
Thanks @Seadog, I do like Anker so will add this to my short list.
I will see how I go over time, but think my best option for a kit list while I am away camping with the family is the below. That is intending the odd photo/video of us on hikes, then some play flying time by myself.
6x Drone batteries
2x Battery hub
2x Power banks
For now though I will get just one power bank and the three batteries + battery hub.
Before you go too far down the Neo 2 route with these purchases, Alan @WooleySheep:
Pause for breath for a moment
It looks like you’ve caught our contagious drone bug already and experience tells us that the Neo 2 won’t be the only drone in your fleet for long
You might want to lean more towards investing in universal charging options (power banks, power stations, etc) than investing in more specific batteries for a single model of drone.
Investing in the portable power station route might be wise as you can use that to charge your drone batteries (of any make and model), your drone controllers, your drone goggles, your smartphone, etc
Don’t worry, when I say in the future, I am talking 6+ months time, or probably longer. I know the trap for jumping into a new thing and going too fast. I did this with 3D printers. Bought a Bambu Lab P1S, then a X1C, then an A1 mini. Sold the P1S & X1C to buy the H2D, then bought a H2S so I could have two large printers. That was all in the space of a year and a half!
While yes, there is very high chance I will want another different style drone in the distant future, I would need to spend more time trying to figure out how I can get one without my wife killing me!
Your points are very valid (and appreciated), and I will do what I can to restrain myself, and remember I must think about what the future may hold for me, and don’t lock myself into one thing!
Yes I know, famous last words. “Trust me, I know what I am doing”…
Will have to see what the future holds for me, and how I get there. All I care about is doing my best to enjoy what life throws at me. Hopefully my object avoidance is as good as the DJI drones when my wife finds out about this new hobbie!
That drone bug is a voracious little b*stard, harder to get rid of than bed bugs (I’ve never had bed bug’s & don’t want them).
I fancied a Phantom when I first saw someone flying on over farmers fields yrs ago, the. More or less forgot about it, just occasionally looking on interweb but a bit pricey.
Then a couple of years ago I was impressed by photos posted by someone on facef*ck. so looked again into obtaining a drone, I fancied a Mavic pro, but soon realised I couldn’t fly one where I wanted to fly so opted for the cheapest little sub 250g one I could find a mini 2SE.
Soon after DJI released the Neo ooh I thought got to have one of those, endless minutes of entertaining the cats.
By now the drone bug had really got established and I looked again into the bigger Mavic series & ended up with a 6 yr old Mavic 2pro.
About the time I bought my mini 2SE, they released the mini 4 pro but at the time was considerably more than I wanted to lay out (fear of crashing it and losing a grand). But after Christmas 2025 I thought to hell with it and by Feb had payed my hands on one.
So in less than 12 months I’d bought 4 drones and by Christmas 2025 I’d added another the Air 3S. Only the 2SE £ Neo new, the Mavic second hand from MPB, the others DJI refurbished.
I now fancy an Avatar 2, I think I need treatment.
if you build your packs yourself, or can do simple soldering / spot welding - a 15 AH (based on 21700 cells) pack 6S with a simple transformer can provide you 45w via USB:
