DJI,
I would guess at minumum phantom owners own two batteries and most own 4 or more. Why not create a 2 battery and 4 battery charger and just price it a little higher and drop your single battery charger. I've got 4 batteries and 2 chargers and what a bunch of ewaste.  I'd be fine spending $59 for a 4 battery charger and think of all the resources you'd save.

Please forward to your product development department.

Your idea is great. We are considering to develop an accessory to charge several batteries once. Please pay attention to our website.

Please include a "Storage Charge" button, which will charge to 50% and stop.

Also, faster charging would be helpful as well.

Thanks!  

DJI-Bruce Posted at 2014-11-7 16:53
Your idea is great. We are considering to develop an accessory to charge several batteries once. Ple ...

And include the possibility to connect to the computer to read battery status and possibility to update Battery firmware without the use of the Phantom.

swomilan Posted at 2014-11-7 22:06
And include the possibility to connect to the computer to read battery status and possibility to u ...

Like       

away-point Posted at 2014-11-7 20:59
Please include a "Storage Charge" button, which will charge to 50% and stop.

Also, faster charging  ...

You may see what you expect in the next-generation Phantom.

away-point Posted at 2014-11-7 20:59
Please include a "Storage Charge" button, which will charge to 50% and stop.

Also, faster charging  ...

LiPo batteries can't be fast charged like other batteries. If you push them to hard they will explode. Just a fact of LiPo life. Storage charge function would be nice though.

rethuringer@icl Posted at 2014-11-8 02:21
LiPo batteries can't be fast charged like other batteries. If you push them to hard they will explo ...

Well, there certainly is "faster" than what we have.  

DJI-Bruce Posted at 2014-11-8 02:19
You may see what you expect in the next-generation Phantom.

Well don't make it too nice, or you'll put me in the poor house!   lol

away-point Posted at 2014-11-8 02:27
Well, there certainly is "faster" than what we have.

I have been flying electric aircraft with LiPo's for a number of years and the DJI charge time is right up there with the rest of my fleet using Pro Grade Chargers. They have to be charged slo-n-gental.

This might help you.  I have one and it works great.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/DJI-Phan ... hash=item43c905517e

rethuringer@icl Posted at 2014-11-8 02:36
I have been flying electric aircraft with LiPo's for a number of years and the DJI charge time is  ...

LiPo batteries can be charged up to 1C without problems and with a 5200mA battery that would be 5.2A whereas the current DJI charger only supplies 4 Amps.  So yes it can be done faster.
Also one thing I don't like about the current DJI charge system is that it seems to be a CC push system and not a CC with CV soak like a good LiPo charger would do

swomilan Posted at 2014-11-8 02:52
LiPo batteries can be charged up to 1C without problems and with a 5200mA battery that would be 5. ...

Current Phantom charger is a CC=4A then CV=12.6V charger.

You may expect even more than 1C fast charging in our future batteries. Maybe less than 1hr to fully charge your battery. Don't need to wait so long as before.

DJI-Bruce Posted at 2014-11-8 02:56
Current Phantom charger is a CC=4A then CV=12.6V charger.

You may expect even more than 1C fast c ...

Bruce,  CV 12.6V would be correct however the amperage should drop while in CV but if I measure the input on the battery while charging it will show full 4 Amps all the way until the battery shuts down.  

swomilan Posted at 2014-11-8 03:09
Bruce,  CV 12.6V would be correct however the amperage should drop while in CV but if I measure th ...

For a normal battery, it will be CV charged till the current is reduced to a very low level (e.g., 200mA). But for a battery used for a while, cells in the battery may be different from each other. One cell may be charged faster than others, and it reaches fully charged state faster than others. In this case, the battery need to turn off to prevent any over-charge. This may explain why you didn't see the current dropping down during the charging process.

Try a relatively new battery and give it another shot. You will see what you expect.

DJI-Bruce Posted at 2014-11-8 03:18
For a normal battery, it will be CV charged till the current is reduced to a very low level (e.g.,  ...

Bruce, tried several times and with 2 different batteries, result is always the same,  4 Amp CC push and no CV soak period.  Even with unbalanced cells it should not remain at full amps until the bitter end ;)

swomilan Posted at 2014-11-8 03:28
Bruce, tried several times and with 2 different batteries, result is always the same,  4 Amp CC pu ...

Could you shot a picture of your charger?

If cells in the battery are imbalanced, it is highly possible that one cell reach over-voltage protection point. In this case, the battery will shut off to protect itself. This is designed in the battery board. But, this case only happens if the battery is severely imbalanced. Could you please shot a photo of the battery information through the Phantom Assistant when you plug your Phantom? I would like to have a check on it.

DJI-Bruce Posted at 2014-11-8 03:39
Could you shot a picture of your charger?

If cells in the battery are imbalanced, it is highly p ...

I thought DJI had balancing built into the SMART BATTERY Charging.

rethuringer@icl Posted at 2014-11-8 03:54
I thought DJI had balancing built into the SMART BATTERY Charging.

It DOES have the balancing feature in the smart battery. However, the balance feature has its upper limit. For a serve imbalanced battery, it can levitate the problem but cannot totally solve it. This is prevalent in the electric car system also. We're trying to enhance the balancing capability of the smart battery and make it "smarter" using some new balancing mechanism. You may experience this in future products.

The charger must have 2 USB Ports to support 5 Volt to charge the remote an the wlan repeater.

DJI-Bruce Posted at 2014-11-8 03:39
Could you shot a picture of your charger?

If cells in the battery are imbalanced, it is highly p ...

Bruce, there is not imbalance of the cells, they are all within a couple of mV of each other.  What I'm saying is that imbalance or not there should not be a CC push all the way.

welcome to the forum Bruce. Im delighted to see you here
you REALLY know your stuff.

Guys,
Bruce is the man, i know this guy. when it comes to technical there is simply no one to touch him.

DJI-Bruce Posted at 2014-11-8 03:39
Could you shot a picture of your charger?

If cells in the battery are imbalanced, it is highly p ...

here a pic of the charging set-up with a meter in between,  also can use my RC battery charger instead of the DJI power supply and use data logging on my computer.

swomilan Posted at 2014-11-10 01:10
here a pic of the charging set-up with a meter in between,  also can use my RC battery charger ins ...

Thanks for your sharing.  I will arrange an internal test on the charger to see if it is a common problem or just a single case of yours. I will let you know the result.

swomilan Posted at 2014-11-10 01:10
here a pic of the charging set-up with a meter in between,  also can use my RC battery charger ins ...

If there is no CV period during charging process, what will the final stat of charge? Could you please read it from the Phantom Assistant after the full charge? Theoretically speaking, if there is no CV, the battery can never been charged fully to 100%. A charger with only CC can charge the battery up to around 90%. Please have a check on it. Thanks.

DJI-Bruce Posted at 2014-11-10 12:15
If there is no CV period during charging process, what will the final stat of charge? Could you pl ...

It's close to the 4.2v per cell however a feat that can also be achieved with higher Voltage per cell in a CC push ( not healthy for the LiPo though ) but to prove that I'd have to disassemble the battery to connect directly to the cells but my batteries are not old enough for me to risk that.  
Please do your tests and see,  IMO there is something fishy with the DJI inteli charging system because a LiPo should not swell up if left at 4.2V per cell for extended periods of time.  It may age/lose capacity more than if at a storage charge but should not swell up unless it is overcharged.

swomilan Posted at 2014-11-10 22:13
It's close to the 4.2v per cell however a feat that can also be achieved with higher Voltage per c ...

We tested a same charger in our lab and found it perform well CC and then CV charging. I wonder if this is just a single case of yours. If you would like to dig further on this problem. Could you please help ship your charger back to me and I could arrange to ship a new one to you.

Thank God DJI is starting to listen to it customers!!!  I know that there have been some issues dealing with support but finally getting a real DJI employee to answer and work with us is freaken amazing!!!  

On this topic of being able to charge more then one battery at a time, I fly with a minimum of 6 charge batteries at a location.  You can imagine how much of a pain in the @$$ it was to try and charge 6 batteries over night (set the alarm clock for 1 hour and 45 minute intervals, wife was not a happy camper).   I do not know much about the batteries themselves, all this talk about 4.2v charging at 12 amps blah blah blah is alien to me.  Like a lot of us newbies I started searching the internet for a charger that would be able to charge multiple batteries at once.  Long story short i DO NOT RECOMMEND buying a multi charger unless it has been designed for and by DJI.  I purchase a "charging bar" that you can plug 3 batteries into and then use your stock charger to charge with.  

First thing, the batteries charged at the same rate as they had before, meaning it took close to 6 hours to charge the 3 batteries (I have since learned that if you want to charge 3 batteries at once you need to have a charger that is 15 amps[or so the internet says]).  2 of the batteries charged just fine, the third batter almost got fried, it only charged to 75%, I was so scared that the battery would not be recoverable, but luckily after 4 regular charging cycles it was was able to be charged back to 98%.

DJI-Bruce Posted at 2014-11-12 15:17
We tested a same charger in our lab and found it perform well CC and then CV charging. I wonder if ...

Bruce,  by now I don't really use the DJI power supply anymore unless i'm in a bind.  I charge them now with my trusty RC charger with which I can push it to charge faster at 1C or take it easy with charging at less C  if I have time and can do my storage charge/discharge if needed.  With it I'm sure that a good CC with CV soak is done ( thankfully the battery internal charge controller allows standard external LiPo charge ) .
Thanks for the offer but shipping from Mex would cost more than the charger is worth