Would this save us time, weight, portability and convenience, if we could charge our drone batteries via a USB-C port on the battery itself, therefore removing the need for charging bricks and different connectors between our drones, instead we could charge all of our drone batteries directly via the same chargers that we use for our mobile phones!



DJI PLEASE could you pass this to your R&D team for serious consideration?

+1 great idea.

I agree with you.

And when the connector gets bad you have a bad battery. Also will add more weight and more possible point of failures + fires because of the heat... DJI won't want to be liable for that.
I don't know if I like the idea. The less point of failure inside the battery the better.  

ZeuS-FL Posted at 10-27 09:07
And when the connector gets bad you have a bad battery. Also will add more weight and more possible point of failures + fires because of the heat... DJI won't want to be liable for that.
I don't know if I like the idea. The less point of failure inside the battery the better.

Charging bricks are more fire prone than a low voltage USB-C port, this is simpler actually and less risky!

sergeant Posted at 10-27 09:32
Charging bricks are more fire prone than a low voltage USB-C port, this is simpler actually and less risky!

I prefer to having the risk outside the battery instead of inside.

Hello sergeant, thank you for reaching us out and I appreciate the video you have shared. We currently only have separate chargers for every drones to ensure the battery safety but I will forward this feedback to our developers. After the evaluation of the engineers, significant suggestions or requests will be implemented via the firmware update, app update, etc. For any updates, please stay tuned to the latest news in our DJI official website at www.dji.com or by checking the Release Notes specific for your product.

Thank you for your support.

Keep in mind that there is a weight penalty for the drone -- the charging circuitry doesn't come free in terms of mass and size. It's not going to be much, but DJI already goes to great lengths to keep weight down, optimizing materials and mechanical designs.

Also, unless you have a USB C port that supports Power Delivery, charging the 3500 mAh batteries is going to take many hours.

+1 for the idea

Nice, thanks for sharing

MisterFrag Posted at 10-27 09:50
Keep in mind that there is a weight penalty for the drone -- the charging circuitry doesn't come free in terms of mass and size. It's not going to be much, but DJI already goes to great lengths to keep weight down, optimizing materials and mechanical designs.

Also, unless you have a USB C port that supports Power Delivery, charging the 3500 mAh batteries is going to take many hours.

We'll the Anafi takes just 70 minutes to full charge via USB-C and a regular 2amp supply, so it actually wouldn't take a considerable time. Plus the batteries are super lightweight despite containing all that is required to charge them.

ZeuS-FL Posted at 10-27 09:07
And when the connector gets bad you have a bad battery. Also will add more weight and more possible point of failures + fires because of the heat... DJI won't want to be liable for that.
I don't know if I like the idea. The less point of failure inside the battery the better.

Out of curiosity, which USB-C devices do you have where the "connector gets bad"? What about the Osmo Pocket/Pocket 2, which both ONLY have USB-C charging, how about most leading mobile phones, which only have USB-C?

Sorry, but your argument falls over entirely...USB-C charging is STANDARD now for almost all consumer devices, including $2000 laptops...

Cool - thanks for sharing

Great idea

It would be great to see DJI implementing this idea.

Great idea.  Agreed that almost everything is either using USB-C or migrating towards that.
Note that the Mavic Mini already uses a USB port on the aircraft for charging the battery while inside the drone - except that it's a Micro USB...  At least one of leaked photos of the aleged to be soon released Mini 2 shows that it changed that to a USB-C - so there is hope...
And yea, I know that the Mini battery is much smaller than the MA2 or 2MP...

sergeant Posted at 10-27 11:27
We'll the Anafi takes just 70 minutes to full charge via USB-C and a regular 2amp supply, so it actually wouldn't take a considerable time. Plus the batteries are super lightweight despite containing all that is required to charge them.

The Anafi has a smaller capacity battery and the time to fully charge it is 70 minutes with a 24 Watt USB-C Power Delivery compatible charger. With a regular USB port as the power source, charge times will be almost five times as long.

It would most certainly be cool!
But slow probably.

There are a few points:
1. Number of cells, my phone has 1 cell battery (4Ah) while MA2 is using 3 cell setup (3,5Ah). My stock PD wallcharger for phone can output 3A at 5V and 1,5A at 12V (18W, not the most powerful in the world but not that old) while DJI brick outputs 2,8A at 13,2V (38W).
2. Connector setup, USB-C is designed for Data, Video and Power transfer between devices with specified pin layout but DJI needs high power connection* for proper (balanced) charging of multi cell Smart battery.
* This means battery +, battery -, cell 1 +, cell 1 -, cell 2 +, cell 2 -, cell 3 + and cell 3 - high power pin connection. Aditional device to supply power in Smart battery from USB-C port to individual cells would generate heat.

So it would be nice to have one wallcharger for all devices (I don't mind charging phone, controller and batteries one by one in most cases), but I don't believe this gonna happen soon as it needs to be developed precisely.

MisterFrag Posted at 10-27 20:01
The Anafi has a smaller capacity battery and the time to fully charge it is 70 minutes with a 24 Watt USB-C Power Delivery compatible charger. With a regular USB port as the power source, charge times will be almost five times as long.

Via a regular USB port from a device, yes, but from a mobile phone charging brick which provides 20 watts (such as the latest iPhone chargers) would charge quickly. And a reminder again, the DJI Spark and Mavic Mini/Mini 2 charge only via USB charging, smaller batteries yes but it really doesn't take at all long to charge.
Just to be clear, this doesn't even have to replace charging bricks, but just be an accompanying feature to give consumers options, maybe even a choice of battery, one with the port and one without.

Read the comments on the video, this idea is VERY popular.

I'm not familiar with the technical difficulties of the matter, but it could be very handy to have a dual charging system. Keep the current system for charging when at home, implement the USB charging for a charge when out in the field and need that one extra battery to get some shots.

It would be pretty cool to know that you can charge a battery even from a powerbank when needed.

+1 great idea.

The Mini 2 has USB-C apparently... seems they are adding it now.

itsdavesdrone Posted at 10-28 14:32
The Mini 2 has USB-C apparently... seems they are adding it now.

Yes but not directly to the battery.

I 1000% second that

+1 great idea.

I disagree

This must be regulated by governments also. PD technology has enought for any kind of charge. DJI sure will take some action in near future. TypeC PD charge ok, but also the battery connection terminals need to be fixed size and shape. There is no reason to change connection terminal on any new device. Save the world DJI and all others, take the necessary actions.

Oh YES, I noticed that during the Spark / MP era (https://forum.dji.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=132759).

Please DJI, stop this mischief.