msinger
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A lot of people do this, but I prefer to follow DJI's advice. They made a point to mention it (for some undocumented reason), so it's probably wise to do as they say.
Ok guys here's my 2 cents worth. Yes you can, but there's a risk.
For as long as I have been flying my P3 advance, I always charged my battery and remote control at the same time but never knew you're not supposed to until a friend told me against doing this per the DJI manual. That goes to show I never really cared reading the DJI manual thoroughly. But what I discovered from my carelessness was this:
1) When you charge both remote and battery, the charger will get hot and this is what DJI is trying to prevent for safety reasons. As for my case, the remote and battery almost charged fast enough before the charger got too hot. DJI designed both the battery and remote from overcharging by each shutting down when either is fully charged. (Good for them)
2) After flying my P3, I noticed that my battery is drained way more than my remote which still has a good 2-3 bars left. So when I charge both together, the remote gets full first before the battery. This is the reason why the charger does not overheat as much, as the remote would shut down first (or sometimes vice versa), ergo less strain on the charger. *Note: This situation may not be the same with the others like when both units are fully drained, the charger may overwork/overheat.
3) A forum member suggested here that if you wish to charge both battery and remote at the same time, wrap the charger with an ice pack protected by plastic and towel to prevent condensation. Other forum members that tried this were delighted it worked. Others said to acquire instead a heavy duty charger or just get 2 chargers, one for each unit.
4) When charging your units, its a good idea to monitor the process but once I left it overnight and nothing really bad happened though this is not recommended. Both the remote and battery turned itself off eventually and when I felt the charger, it was cool to the touch so lucky me no untoward incident happened.
So for those of you in doubt, better charge your units one at a time to prevent overheating of the charger and possible fire but those of you adventurous like me, can opt to perform the above however AT YOUR OWN RISK.
Ok dudes that wraps it up and I'm outta here.
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I thought this was only with the 57w advanced charger? And when using the pro 100w charger it was no problem ?
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Just charge them separate, when charging both you are splitting the power going to each, charge the batttery with the 100w alone, and when you see your controller is getting low charge it. I get 20 flights out of a controller. not a big deal to throw it on charging for 30 minutes when its at 2 bars.
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The 100w will be built a lot heavier / more heavy duty. It's def going to affect the 57w one more.
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I have the p3p, and the 100 watt charger that came with it, and a total of 4 batteries + the charging hub. I got a second 100 watt charger for xmass. I normally put the 3 batteries with the highest charge on the hub, and the low one on the second charger. When the remote needs charging it gets its own charger, and all 4 go on the hub. Anyone else have a remote that takes a lot longer to charge then the flight batteries?
As you know the manual says NO. However this is unacceptable to me. There are two questions to ask as to why you should not. 1) Can the semiconductors handle the maximum current required? 2) Can the semiconductors handle the resulting temperature generated.
Having designed many power circuits in the past, I am going to assume that the devices can certainly handle the maximum currents required, but that the semiconductor junction temperatures will rise enough to damage the power handling devices inside the charger. Normally when potting a circuit (like DJI does with their charger) one would use an electrically insulating, but thermally conducting epoxy material. Thus the heat is conducted away for the hot spots inside.
Here is my solution, and it is working great for the last three months. I purchased 3 more DJI 100 watt chargers. I mounted all 4 chargers on a small plywood base with 3/4" spacing between each charger. Then I mounted a quiet 4" 115 volt AC fan (radio shack fan) 1/2" above the 4 chargers, blowing down directly on the 4 chargers. All the chargers an the fan are powered by one AC plug. This gets rid of the heat and keeps the thermal conducting potting material much cooler, which keeps the transistors inside much cooler. No problems, and I can charge 4 batteries at once, along with the RC controller. All 4 batteries arrive at full charge about the same time, and the RC just takes a little longer.
That is my solution. Working great.
I will let you know 1 year from now, how well it is still working.
Don't do what I say, do what DJI says.
Joe
KC7GHT
Yes, but I figured it's due to the fact it's a larger battery capacity in the RC unit.
I charge my RC and intelligent flight batteries together all the time. ;-)
Of course I bought a second 100w charger, like the one that came bundled with my awesome Phantom 3 Pro' kit. So never a fear, here.
RedHotPoker
Of course I bought a second 100w charger, like the one that came bundled with my awesome Phantom 3 Pro' kit. So never a fear, here.
RedHotPoker
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