Energen - DroneMax A20 Portable Charger

I am looking at buying a Energen - DroneMax A20 Portable Charger for about $250 for use in the field when shooting multiple locations within the same day. I have a Phantom 4 Pro v2 with two batteries (plan to buy a third soon). Does anyone have any experience with these or other portable chargers? I am looking for the best value for the dollar. I have heard that Energen "in general" makes a good product.

Ken Heron a Drone Photographer and YouTuber rated the A40, a model up and twice the cost, as a pretty darn good device.


Here is the one I am looking at the Energen Drone Max A20

Hi there, thank you for reaching DJI forum. Just a friendly reminder, we don't recommend you to use a 3rd party charger because we are unable to ensure the performance and compatibility. Thanks for your understanding.

DJI Paladin Posted at 2018-10-4 04:35
Hi there, thank you for reaching DJI forum. Just a friendly reminder, we don't recommend you to use a 3rd party charger because we are unable to ensure the performance and compatibility. Thanks for your understanding.

I get that but I am not aware of a portable charger offered for the Phantom 4 Pro batteries or remote. Does DJI offer one? If they do please point me in that direction and I will happily look at it.

There are plenty of P4 chargers that work from car ciggy plugs .............. even multiple battery charging ...

There is no need to spend silly money either .............

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Car-C ... :g:p3cAAOSweIlbAjW7



That's just one example ...

You can get a single battery charger adaptor for the car for small money ...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-in- ... 439f5951:g



Nigel

The DroneMax P40 – Portable Drone Battery Charging Station looks like the one you should go for.

$400 ????????

I gotta lie down .....

A bunch of standard LiFe packs and a lead set as I linked above would do the job for less than a 1/4 of that ....

That leaves over $300 for a fancy carrying handle !!

Seriously - I really wonder why people waste such money ...

Nigel

ATJ Posted at 2018-10-4 10:42
The DroneMax P40 – Portable Drone Battery Charging Station looks like the one you should go for.

That looks like a great way to go,  but $400.....that's alotta doe rae me.

Since I don't/can't do alot of walking/hiking,  I have the following,  which might work for you if you are as frugal as I am......

Deep Cycle Marine Battery $100
400 Watt Power Inverter       $40  https://www.amazon.com/Cobra-CPI ... s=400+watt+inverter
The Car Charger ...................$25  https://www.amazon.com/gp/produc ... 1?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Total $165   so I bought an extra battery  $139 = $304   Now I have 4 batteries......

Start with 4 batteries, then charge 2 at a time ( 3 if you have 2 stock power supplies )  and you can go almost all day flying various places....

Like I said this works for me,    YMMV

Randy

rwynant V1 Posted at 2018-10-4 11:18
That looks like a great way to go,  but $400.....that's alotta doe rae me.

Since I don't/can't do alot of walking/hiking,  I have the following,  which might work for you if you are as frugal as I am......

Thanks everyone for the responses. I was looking at the A20 which is $250...not the A40 features in the video. I supplied that as an example of what I am looking at. The A40 is way to expensive for my taste. I will probably buy an inverter for now (only $40) and figure out another solution or save up for the A20...my concern with an inverter/car thingy is the car has to be running and the A20 is actually supposed to be a faster charge than an inverter or even the house hold plug in.

rwynant V1 Posted at 2018-10-4 11:18
That looks like a great way to go,  but $400.....that's alotta doe rae me.

Since I don't/can't do alot of walking/hiking,  I have the following,  which might work for you if you are as frugal as I am......

I thought about that way too...I will end up buying more intelligent flight batteries eventually...this just seemed like a better short term solution than buy two more flight batteries and still not having a way to remotely charge. Plus this is pretty portable which to me is sometimes worth the extra money.

solentlife Posted at 2018-10-4 10:21
There are plenty of P4 chargers that work from car ciggy plugs .............. even multiple battery charging ...

There is no need to spend silly money either .............

Is this compatible/safe to use with the DJI batteries? I already had a comment from DJI that they don't recommend third party chargers...LOL

KennyB Posted at 2018-10-4 11:40
Thanks everyone for the responses. I was looking at the A20 which is $250...not the A40 features in the video. I supplied that as an example of what I am looking at. The A40 is way to expensive for my taste. I will probably buy an inverter for now (only $40) and figure out another solution or save up for the A20...my concern with an inverter/car thingy is the car has to be running and the A20 is actually supposed to be a faster charge than an inverter or even the house hold plug in.

Those devices are chargers, but DJI batteries do not need chargers, as the charge circuitry is built into the battery. So in effect, you are wasting your time and money on those high priced chargers because they cannot charge a DJI battery any faster than the DJI power supply and all the supposed intelligent features are totally wasted. If you want to charge the battery in the field, then the DJI field charger is fine for the job: https://store.dji.com/product/phantom-4-car-charger-kit

Or if you want to save money, then this one on eBay is also fine: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-in- ... 5951:g%3Cimg%20src=\
And yes, it is poerfectly safe and compatible with DJI batteries, DJI always say they don't recommend third party devices.

KennyB Posted at 2018-10-4 11:46
Is this compatible/safe to use with the DJI batteries? I already had a comment from DJI that they don't recommend third party chargers...LOL

This one in particular (with dual plugs) must be very slow since cig lighter socket is usually fused at around 20A. Note that reasonably fast 5A charging current for single Phantom battery will drain twice that much from car battery, much more if inverter and standard charger is involved. It's very demanding process. Bottom line: avoid inverter, opt for DC to DC converting device(s), provide direct 12V heavy duty wiring from car battery or separate storage battery of possibly big capacity.

I use solar panel to battery then either inverter with mutiple output simultaneously charge power supply or multiple cig socket chargers connected to battery depending on my requirments at the time.
If solar not getting the job done then i use an inverter generator to supply the power.

All...you need to look at these closer. I know car chargers are cheaper and will do the trick and will probably get one. What you are paying for with these are...these are battery packs. You can charge your drone batteries, cell phone, tablet anywhere as long at the battery pack is charged.

Not the same as a car charger. Kind of like those portablr battery packs for your cell phone except that this is for Drone batteries...so it has to be bigger.

KennyB Posted at 2018-10-4 16:35
All...you need to look at these closer. I know car chargers are cheaper and will do the trick and will probably get one. What you are paying for with these are...these are battery packs. You can charge your drone batteries, cell phone, tablet anywhere as long at the battery pack is charged.

Not the same as a car charger. Kind of like those portablr battery packs for your cell phone except that this is for Drone batteries...so it has to be bigger.

Yes, it contains a 207 Watt/Hour battery, which maybe can charge two P4 high capacity battery packs and it is done. And it's claim of being able to charge a Phantom battery faster than the DJI charger is an outright lie. The charge time is controlled by the battery, not the device powering it.

That is why I posted. I never claimed that they were right. The video above...for the A40 gave it a good review...but I don't have any experience with this product.

The chargers I linked to work fine.

As others say - DJI always warn against 3rd party ... EVERY manufacturer does whether car / drone / boat etc. They want to sell THEIR gear and its usually high priced as well. If they sold at real price - then more people would buy and 3rd party would not be in question.

Some try to use the Warranty angle - thats total rubbish. The only way DJI could ever know you used a non DJI charger is if YOU tell them !!!!  And even then - they are on very unsafe ground to refuse warranty.

I am always surprised at the lengths and setups people go to when putting together field systems. I have a large hangar full of LiPo powered models .. I have 4 real boats ... which all mean I need a solution for basically 12V and LiPo needs. Do I go for the setups I see some have ? Certainly not. My car has a good alternator that can feed the car battery while it charges up LiPo's .... my boat has a very good alternator as well to do similar. Inverters ? Fine ... but why ?

Say you want to use your home DJI charger ... so you go and buy an inverter. You will need a CLEAN output inverter - that cheap one will be useless because of the dirty AC it puts out.  But anyway - you have an inverter and it works. Now we have 12V bumped up to 110 / 220V supplying your charger with at best 10 - 15% losses. Your charger is now dropping that 110 / 220 down to 17.5V with again  10 - 15% losses ... Poor old car battery banging that lot !!

Get a DC - DC adaptor at about $10 ... 12V bumped up to 17.5V with maybe 10-15% loss only.  Car battery happy.

Nigel

I use the car 12v socket route  - using one of theses between locations to re charge -  works great plus will charge the TX and the tablet/phone all at the same time - well worth the money. - LINK

solentlife Posted at 2018-10-4 10:21
There are plenty of P4 chargers that work from car ciggy plugs .............. even multiple battery charging ...

There is no need to spend silly money either .............

... including the one produced by DJI... :-)

Aerial-Image Posted at 2018-10-4 22:27
I use the car 12v socket route  - using one of theses between locations to re charge -  works great plus will charge the TX and the tablet/phone all at the same time - well worth the money. - LINK

[view_image]

Unfortunately you can't get these in the U.S. at least not these ones.

KennyB Posted at 2018-10-5 12:48
Unfortunately you can't get these in the U.S. at least not these ones.

You were given links to extremely cheap 'chargers' on eBay that plug into the cig socket, do you simply discount them because they are cheap? All that is required to charge a DJI flight battery is a DC supply of 17.5 volts, and that's what they provide. I will try again, then I am done: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-in- ... 5951:g%3Cimg%20src=\

No those would work. The other link was also in the UK but they were clearly labeled...will not ship to U.S.

FWIW car power inverters don’t seem to work well. I tried to use the one I had and the batter I had plugged in would charge for maybe 30 seconds and then the inverter would kick off sounding an alarm. I quickly stopped this because I was worried about excess wear on my precious and expensive PVP battery.

I opted for the DJI branded car charger.

Just my experience.

KennyB Posted at 2018-10-5 16:47
No those would work. The other link was also in the UK but they were clearly labeled...will not ship to U.S.

They are just examples .... you will find on eBay plenty that ship internationally. You just need to enter the search term in eBay and up they come ...

Only reason the links I did were UK based - is because I default to UK / EU eBay ...

Nigel  

Geebax Posted at 2018-10-4 16:58
Yes, it contains a 207 Watt/Hour battery, which maybe can charge two P4 high capacity battery packs and it is done. And it's claim of being able to charge a Phantom battery faster than the DJI charger is an outright lie. The charge time is controlled by the battery, not the device powering it.

I thought the same that the board would restrict charge rate ... but in fact when I connected to one of my LiPo chargers - I found I could bang in max rate from the charger ... in fact the charger max'd out in Watts.

It was only as the charge level rose that the charger started to drop back ... which they do anyway regardless of board or not.

But it was purely a test because I posted on another site similar - that I believed rate was capped by the board, but another posted that it wasn't. So I discharged one of my P3 batts and plugged in and set max rate etc. He was right !!

I would not advise charging at higher than about 5A though ...

Nigel

solentlife Posted at 2018-10-5 23:04
I thought the same that the board would restrict charge rate ... but in fact when I connected to one of my LiPo chargers - I found I could bang in max rate from the charger ... in fact the charger max'd out in Watts.

It was only as the charge level rose that the charger started to drop back ... which they do anyway regardless of board or not.

No, the whole management system in the battery is probably cxalibrated to the rate given by the DJI charger.

Geebax Posted at 2018-10-5 23:41
No, the whole management system in the battery is probably cxalibrated to the rate given by the DJI charger.

?? Sorry but doesn't make sense imho ...

Having plugged in and set the charge rate at over 90W ... the P3 battery took it and according to another guy who tested as well ... he was a lot higher than I achieved.

It appears that the rate is not capped by the board but set by the limited wattage of the DJI power brick ... on the P3S its in the 50W range ... the P3A and P in the 70W range.

I was totally surprised ... maybe there is a max setting ... but according to the other guy he didn't find it either.

The 'counter' surely wont care as long as it reads the voltage / amp / time ... it will calculate accordingly. I know when I charged that time - the resulting full charge was same as if I had used DJI gear.

Nigel

solentlife Posted at 2018-10-6 01:19
?? Sorry but doesn't make sense imho ...

Having plugged in and set the charge rate at over 90W ... the P3 battery took it and according to another guy who tested as well ... he was a lot higher than I achieved.

Sorry, I did not make that clear at all. What I was saying is that DJI state the input to the battery is 17.5 volts, which I measured and is correct. To charge at a higher rate, you would have to apply a voltage greater than 17.5 volts, and that would be a bad idea. I can't check at present, as all my test gear is packed away ready to move.

The Phantom 3 Pro OEM DJI charger is 100w.

I bought a second OEM DJI 100w charger for my four intelligent flight packs, charging convenience...


RedHotPoker

Geebax Posted at 2018-10-6 15:08
Sorry, I did not make that clear at all. What I was saying is that DJI state the input to the battery is 17.5 volts, which I measured and is correct. To charge at a higher rate, you would have to apply a voltage greater than 17.5 volts, and that would be a bad idea. I can't check at present, as all my test gear is packed away ready to move.

17.5V ??   Yes we know that the voltage is CV at 17.5

The rate is usually expressed in AMPS ... as that is what the time to charge calculation is based on.

Take any LiPo charger - you set the pack cell size ... which sets the voltage at the required level. You then set the RATE of charge in amps.

The DJI board in fact does not regulate the voltage - that is done by the CV regulated DJI power supply. The board doesn't even regulate the amp rate ... that is done by the max output of the DJI power supply and reduces because of the increasing voltage and resistance to charge of the pack as it gets full.

Nigel

RedHotPoker Posted at 2018-10-6 21:31
The Phantom 3 Pro OEM DJI charger is 100w.

I bought a second OEM DJI 100w charger for my four intelligent flight packs, charging convenience...

I stand corrected ... for some reason  I confused the 72W car charger I have with the 100W mains charger.

The standard of course has the 57W version.

Nigel

solentlife Posted at 2018-10-6 21:54
I stand corrected ... for some reason  I confused the 72W car charger I have with the 100W mains charger.

The standard of course has the 57W version.

All good.



RedHotPoker

solentlife Posted at 2018-10-6 21:51
17.5V ??   Yes we know that the voltage is CV at 17.5

The rate is usually expressed in AMPS ... as that is what the time to charge calculation is based on.

Yes Nigel, I am well aware of the relationship of voltage and current. As I mentioned to you some time ago, I invented the world's first micro-processor controlled charger, and have a patent for same. But, if as you say, you can increase the rate of charge, then given that it normally does 5 amps at 17.5 volts, then the only way you can increase the rate is to increase the voltage so that the pack charges at a greater ampere rate. I always assumed that the battery pack itself controlled the charge rate/current, but if it can be forced to charge faster, then there is no constant current regulator in the pack, so an increase in voltage will be required.

KennyB Posted at 2018-10-5 16:47
No those would work. The other link was also in the UK but they were clearly labeled...will not ship to U.S.

Try this links - LINK

Why do you need to increase Voltage ? The DJI brick is a Constant Voltage unit (regulated CV) and designed to pump 17.5V (DJI say 17.4 .... but that's actually not strictly true as it needs a slight overvoltage to 17.5V to complete to 100% charge) to a max output of 100W.

If connect another charger that also has voltage set at 17.5V - I can choose whatever amps that charger can deliver which increases charge rate. Only when the battery itself voltage increases does the rate reduce.

If that was not true - then why does any decent charger have adjustable amps even when volts are set.

Nigel

Aerial-Image Posted at 2018-10-6 23:29
Try this links - LINK

Thanks A lot...I will probably get this one and see how it goes. I appreciate your help and comments.

UPDATE - Hey all...I ended up buy the Energen DroneMax A20 Portable Charger and have already used it once. It worked really well no issues although it only worked to charge two batteries before it ran out of a charge itself. On a side note I bought a car charger which FAILED. I still plan to buy an additional battery or two as that seems to be the best option (more batteries...YAY!!!).

The usual reasons a car charger fails are :

1. The fuse in the charger blows
2. The end positive terminal button does not mate properly in the cars socket
3. The fuse in the cars circuitry is blown ... car ciggy sockets are usually rated to a 10A fuse ... means about the 120 - 140W max .... but many will blow below 10A because the fuse is usually a quick blow type to avoid any chances of problems.

Given that car chargers for DJI and other gear are so cheap ... its a throw away item and buy another.

Nigel

I use a DJI 12v charger ..........  seems to work for me,  no drama,  no fuse blowing,  no problem.  I haven't compared the re-charge time as compared to a 240v charger,  but I can't see why there should be any difference.

Hehehe,  you've got plenty of info to work on anyway !

solentlife Posted at 12-20 02:42
The usual reasons a car charger fails are :

1. The fuse in the charger blows

It is a brand new charger and actually a brand new car so I wouldn't think it is the fuse issue. Maybe it was in the socket right although I checked that. I will have to try again.