PARROT BEBOP 2 Battery advice

Questions & Answers
1

Hi
I have to say upfront I’m not a drone owner! I am volunteer aid worker in Ukraine.

Someone has donated a drone (PARROT BEBOP 2) for me to take out. (it will go to the Emergency services in one of the cities - for search and rescue etc).

HOWEVER, When I try to charge it I get a red flashing light - google research suggests the battery is knackered. The battery is “Parrot BEBOP2 POWER Lithium -ION POLYMER RECHARGABLE”

I’m trying to buy a replacement - but I cant find one that matches the exact specs on the battery specifically, My battery has:

“Rated Voltage 11.4 V” - but I can only find batteries with “Rated Voltage 11.1 V”. Can I use this ?

“Rated capacity” is 3350mAh - I cant find one with this… does it matter if I go bigger?

Apologies for what I expect are very basic questions - but I need to make sure I get the right battery…for obvious reasons.

Many thanks

Paul

2

Hi Paul and welcome to GADC

Have you a picture of the battery label

Tagging @Nidge as he’s the only one I know with a Parrot Bebop :grinning:

3

20230225_131445
20230225_1314453024×4032 2.14 MB

4

Hope this works…!

5

The original batteries were quite rare 4/5 years ago so will be pretty tough to find these days now they are discontinued.

You may get lucky with used or clearance stock.

There were some Chinese copies on the market but again as it’s an old drone the costs won’t be cheap.

Good luck either way

6

Hi Howard,

Thanks for the info… much appreciated. I can find some batteries on line that say they are for the same drone…but the battery specs are not the same…and I dont know if they will work…that’s my problem! (e.g the “rated voltage” is different… )

I will keep digging…

thanks again

7

There’s quite a few on the bay, some new some pre owned. Get the right one tho’ as the Bebop and Bebop 2 batteries are different.

8

The ones on eBay tend to have a larger mah rating.
This is not unusual and shouldn’t cause anything more than a longer flight

9

If everything else fits, a small difference in the voltage will be ok.
(When a battery is supplying current, its terminal voltage drops anyway.)
Higher capacity will be a benefit, it will just take a bit longer to charge.
The charger must be compatible, limiting the current to avoid overheating, and cutting off when the battery is full (at it’s maximum voltage).

10

Hi @paulN

My apologies for the very late reply, I’ve been below periscope depth for the last month or so.

Surprisingly I don’t have a Bebop2 in my collection but I might be able to shed some light on your battery issue.

The original battery has a quoted nominal voltage of 11.4Volt. This is sometimes referred to as HV, or high voltage, as 3Cell batteries usually have a nominal voltage of 11.1Volt. To be honest you won’t see very much difference between the two in use, and using a battery labelled with 11.1Volt nominal voltage will work just fine.

In drone years the Bebop2 is quite old now, and the batteries originally sold with it will have aged disgracefully, especially if the previous owner practised poor battery husbandry. This is why you can not charge the battery as one or more of the cells will have depleted well below 3Volt, and considered unsafe to charge. All is not lost however as the original battery was just a regular 3cell pack in a proprietary plastic box. Because there is no “Smart” circuitry in the battery this means that they are easy to replicate by third party manufacturers. Even Amazon Prime have these third party alternatives listed for sale. I’d take the claims of higher capacity with a very large pinch of salt. The only way to increase a battery’s capacity is to either use physically larger cells, or use cells with a lower power density or C rating.

11

:scream: :scream: :scream: :scream: :scream:

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