For the past couple of years, ive had a couple of 5000Mah 3S LiPos laying around after I lost the aircraft they went in (long story). I began wondering if i could use these on my P2 (no gimbal, short range FPV equipped)

In short: I soldered a Deans connector in parallel with the wires that go from the stock battery to the main board.

Because capacity monitoring is done in the smart battery and relayed to the drone digitally, this setup wont interfere with the battery indicator. All it will see is less current draw than usual, and the low battery signal will be accurate for both packs because they're forced to remain at the same voltage.

I've yet to fly it with the second battery attached (though ground tests so far look promising ) and chances are I'll scrap this idea if I don't see improvements in the range of 35-50%. I also need to weigh the craft to get an idea of how much stress I'm gonna be putting on the speed controllers.

What do y'all think of this (admittedly dumb) idea?

I like the idea and would like to see a video of it flying. Thanks

Mr Pete Posted at 2017-4-27 08:04
I like the idea and would like to see a video of it flying. Thanks

Can do! Tonight I'm supposed to receive a replacement GPS module that will (hopefully) let me fly again.

My buddy added a 10000 mah multistar to his P3A, so yeah, I'd say it's possible!  

http://www.phantompilots.com/thr ... age-77#post-1142628

Yea I do this with the Inspire 1 right now.  Works good.

I tried this setup the other day after finally repairing my drone. I'm not sure if I will personally use it.

I will probably experiment with this in cooler weather to alleviate stress on the electronics, because I really "feel" like the speed controllers & motors are struggling under the increased weight.

I have seen other drones on other sites and videos with different battery setups. Even with extra battery added. I was going to buy a drone last year which had after market batteries, and the guy showed me them working and yup, it works. Good luck.

Back to the drawing board I guess.

The baseline endurance for a single battery on my drone is 21 minutes. I flew the 10Ah setup and got 16 minutes. The stock battery was noticeably warmer than usual and the external one was also slightly warm, so surely current was being drawn from both batteries.

Gonna try again, this time making sure both batteries are 100% charged.