So it looks like my battery charger dock, that can hold 4 batteries, will only charge one at a time. When I plug in a battery by itself, it will start charging as it should. When I plug in a second battery, the first one will stop charging and the second one will start. Once the second battery is fully charged, the first one will begin charging again. So both batteries do charge fully, but it takes twice as long as it should. I'm using all DJI charging hardware and batteries. No 3rd party hardware anywhere.

Is this normal? I figured it would be able to charge 4 batteries all at the same time.

That is normal

Jeff7577 Posted at 2018-6-16 14:10
That is normal

Ugh, well that's kind of a let down. I guess I should have researched that a little more. It just seems silly that it wouldn't charge all at once.  Thanks for the reply, though!

Captain Mal Posted at 2018-6-16 14:15
Ugh, well that's kind of a let down. I guess I should have researched that a little more. It just seems silly that it wouldn't charge all at once.  Thanks for the reply, though!

Why would it be silly? You'd only have to wait longer before you can fly again. Either way the end result for all batteries to charge to full would take the same amount of time. Or at least a higher capacity charger would be needed.

same way with mavic pro, and prob same with pro II whenever that happens.   it makes sense, less stressful to charger to charge 1 battery at a time at max charge rate, vs trying to charge all batteries at once at same full rate..  

The charging hub is intelligent. It will charge the battery that is closest to full 1st to ensure your back in the air ASAP.

It starts with the battery that needs the biggest charge and works up from there. Is normal.

Folkestone Posted at 2018-6-16 14:53
It starts with the battery that needs the biggest charge and works up from there. Is normal.

its the other way around... picks the battery that it will complete fastest and works backwards from there to ensure your back flying asap.

HereForTheBeer Posted at 2018-6-16 15:50
its the other way around... picks the battery that it will complete fastest and works backwards from there to ensure your back flying asap.

That's what mine does... charges the fullest one first!

Captain Mal Posted at 2018-6-16 14:15
Ugh, well that's kind of a let down. I guess I should have researched that a little more. It just seems silly that it wouldn't charge all at once.  Thanks for the reply, though!

There are after market chargers that will charge all of them at once,  but DJI admins will advise against using them.

LoSBoL Posted at 2018-6-16 14:31
Why would it be silly? You'd only have to wait longer before you can fly again. Either way the end result for all batteries to charge to full would take the same amount of time. Or at least a higher capacity charger would be needed.

Quite right.
A charger able to charge 4 at once would be at least twice the size to handle the current so most people would be complaining about the unnecessary bulk they had to carry around.

Get 3 more batteries, a second charger and second hub then you can charge 6 batteries with 2 charging in pairs (50 minutes quicker than 4 batteries on one hub) and all 6 will be ready in 2.5 hours and will give you 1.75 hours of real time flight without touching a charger in the field.

Captain Mal Posted at 2018-6-16 14:15
Ugh, well that's kind of a let down. I guess I should have researched that a little more. It just seems silly that it wouldn't charge all at once.  Thanks for the reply, though!

I was hoping it wasn’t so. That’s so trash. What’s the point of having a 4 battery charger

Captain Mal Posted at 2018-6-16 14:15
Ugh, well that's kind of a let down. I guess I should have researched that a little more. It just seems silly that it wouldn't charge all at once.  Thanks for the reply, though!

I was hoping it wasn’t so. That’s so trash. What’s the point of having a 4 battery charger

djiuser_kU1yG1SD1IGY Posted at 4-24 16:54
I was hoping it wasn’t so. That’s so trash. What’s the point of having a 4 battery charger

Seriously, get a 4 battery parallel charger. There are some good ones on Amazon. Power is not critical as it only takes 104 watts of power to charge 4 Mavic Air batteries at once. I have been using a parallel 4 battery charger for my M2P for over 1 year now. The one I have now not only has intelligence charging in parallel but also a complete discharge which is recommended to be done every three months or so and a safe for storage charging/discharging mode as well as full power charging. The charger runs very cool and does NOT heat up the batteries.

Thanks for the input guys. Really helped me out. I was a little concerned about my charger hub. I have a Tello and I think the charger hub charges them all at the same time, so I though there might be something wrong with my Air 2 charger hub. Turns out it's normal. Thank you for the information.

djiuser_kU1yG1SD1IGY Posted at 4-24 16:54
I was hoping it wasn’t so. That’s so trash. What’s the point of having a 4 battery charger

Being able to charge all the batteries without any intervention by you.  For example, drop all the batteries into the charger and go to bed.  No getting up every couple hours to start charging a different battery.

I wondered about this when I first started charging mine as well.  Thanks for explaining how it works.

K6CCC Posted at 8-20 17:29
Being able to charge all the batteries without any intervention by you.  For example, drop all the batteries into the charger and go to bed.  No getting up every couple hours to start charging a different battery.

No disrespect here, but this advice is terrible and unsafe.  Please don't charge Lithium polymer batteries when you are not monitoring them in a safe environment.  Do not go to bed while charging and risk having a fire in your home while you are sleeping.  Come on now, shame on you.

Just because the batteries have built in safeguards does not mean you should be taking chances like this.

Millions (or is it billions) or people worldwide charge cellphones and other assorted devices with Li batteries of one chemistry or another overnight EVERY night.  Rarely is there a problem.

LoSBoL Posted at 2018-6-16 14:31
Why would it be silly? You'd only have to wait longer before you can fly again. Either way the end result for all batteries to charge to full would take the same amount of time. Or at least a higher capacity charger would be needed.

well that’s why it’s silly... you have to wait longer when one expected to wait a shorter time since it’s a battery hub

LoSBoL Posted at 2018-6-16 14:31
Why would it be silly? You'd only have to wait longer before you can fly again. Either way the end result for all batteries to charge to full would take the same amount of time. Or at least a higher capacity charger would be needed.

well that’s why it’s silly... you have to wait longer when one expected to wait a shorter time since it’s a battery hub

LoSBoL Posted at 2018-6-16 14:31
Why would it be silly? You'd only have to wait longer before you can fly again. Either way the end result for all batteries to charge to full would take the same amount of time. Or at least a higher capacity charger would be needed.

well that’s why it’s silly... you have to wait longer when one expected to wait a shorter time since it’s a battery hub

NightThunder Posted at 2020-4-25 11:08
Seriously, get a 4 battery parallel charger. There are some good ones on Amazon. Power is not critical as it only takes 104 watts of power to charge 4 Mavic Air batteries at once. I have been using a parallel 4 battery charger for my M2P for over 1 year now. The one I have now not only has intelligence charging in parallel but also a complete discharge which is recommended to be done every three months or so and a safe for storage charging/discharging mode as well as full power charging. The charger runs very cool and does NOT heat up the batteries.

Hey, which one do you have? I will go for a long video shoot and would charge 6 packs.

djiuser_qyMT8KZeJBIl Posted at 6-17 09:27
Hey, which one do you have? I will go for a long video shoot and would charge 6 packs.

Then buy two of the chargers.

Thank you for this post, as I had the same problem. I assumed as did others that the batteries would be charged up all at the same time, as I have seen other chargers that actually do that. So whilst I do not think this is a good method compared to the usual expentation, as all being charged simultaneously then trickle fed would be better, I am guessing (not always a good thing to do) that there is a boost in only charging one at a time, if not, not very practical.

If charging at the same time, it will be very slow to charge the three pieces together.
Charging a block first allows us to use it in advance at special moments, isn't it better?

Wilson 000 Posted at 4-6 19:43
If charging at the same time, it will be very slow to charge the three pieces together.
Charging a block first allows us to use it in advance at special moments, isn't it better?

That all depends on the capacity of the charger... There's no technical limitation preventing a charger design capable of charging all the batteries at the same time at the same speed the provided charger operates - it would just be bigger and more expensive, and DJI estimated most people would be satisifed with a smaller cheaper charger.