DJI, any chance for something like this?

An Inspire 1 “emergency” alternate chemistry flight battery (perhaps NiCd or Nimh, etc., or even a one-shot battery) that could be kept fully charged for times when you may need to get in the air quickly. For example: news crews, police, or anyone who may want to have an on-call Inspire 1 ready to go but would rather not keep fully charged LIPOs on call.

That would be a bad idea, only Li-Poly batteries have the energy to weight ratios that gives us our 15 minutes, or so, of flight time. If you used Nimh shed maybe 5 minutes, Ni cad, you'd lose over 50% of airtime. Just 'manage' your batteries; get another charger and top them up before you use them.

daniel.frederik Posted at 2015-7-9 02:44
That would be a bad idea, only Li-Poly batteries have the energy to weight ratios that gives us our  ...

TB47/48 LiPo batteries are not an option in this scenario.  For example: a police owned Inspire may have been stored for weeks or even months before needed. The pilot in these "emergency" situations may need to be airborne in minutes and does not have time to plan ahead and charge a LiPo battery. The point here is that a fully charged TB47/48 LiPo battery cannot be stored long term.

They use Lithium-Polymer (LiPo) batteries because they have second biggest size to capacity ratio, the first biggest one is Lithium-ion but they are not capable of producing current big enough to lift a camera drone, let alone Inspire or Phantom so they are used in devices that use little current like Phones, tablets, cameras etc. Currently LiPo batteries are the best choice for drones even though they explode easily when damaged and they wear out quickly.
As for Police and military drones they may wanna look into supercapacitors that charge very quickly and could easily give enough power to carry an Inspire or even S1000 however they wouldn't be able to stay airborne for any longer than average as capacitors have poor capacity to size ratio and they can be pretty heavy not to mention they don't maintain stable voltage.

I know that some new battery chemistry's are on the horizon that will shake up the industry. Lets wait and see what happens in the next year....

I could not recommend using anything other than the DJI smart battery at this point

Rich

Perhaps a better option is to find alternative use cases for the UAV, so that it is in more regular operation.
An emergency service responder I have been working with has created partnership arrangements with other organisations to utilise their flight operations capability in between their primary call outs.
This not only solves any issue of battery storage, but also improves the business case and keep pilot skills up.

Nah...bad idea...  Stick to the technology intent.  If the use-case requires the use of the drone (the police in this example), then they should manage the conditions of the technology appropriately.  I.e. Maintain the LiPo's in a ready state, for when it's required.  Band, yes, the science behind the choice in cell chemistry is such for a reason...