FC40 camera Battery

[Jebb]

Rockdweller, re your Amazon batteries , suggest repost on new/different thread to avoid confusion.

Back to topic, my fc40 camera is no longer giving any red solid or blinking lights when charging. I was using an ipad charger (2.1a) and an iphone charger (0.5a) indiscriminately, but now I am using a 0.7a charger from an old Samsung phone. When getting ready to fly, my green LED works fine, first fast blinking, and then telling me when I am booted (solid). Then slow green blinks when recording. But no red LED's when pluggged in to any USB outlet. I've tried my laptop, my desktop, as well as a Philips external device and the ipad and iphone chargers. BUT, the camera is still charging up well. When I plug in to charge, the camera goes hot for a while (charging), then turns cool after 20 to 40 minutes(charging complete). And it did warn me on screen in the app when the camera battery was low. Since then I have re-charged and recorded for over 20 minutes of video. SO, it still works fine, but I have no red LED indicator lights when charging. The quad did take a heavy hit once, where it took a while to get the camera working again, so I'm guessing it was either that incident or the high amps of the ipad charger that fried the red LED's.

 

[Rockdweller]

Mine is doing the same.

 

[Rockdweller]

Does anyone have a link where I can buy a new battery like this takes? All I have found only have two wires whereas this one has 3. I'm quite sure my battery is bad.

 

[Rockdweller]

I have this camera that is very similiar to the FC40 but can't seem to get the drivers to make it work. Is anyone familiar with this? I got it from Banggood.com. It's got more features than the FC 40 but not much good if it doesn't work. I need drivers or some kind of software to make it work and am not getting any results from banggood. I got a disc with it but it's all in chinese or some kind of language.

 

[Jebb]

Rockdweller, re your banggood.com camera, from what I got off the zip file on the website, you need to connect the camera to your iPhone via wifi, then possibly you can use the dji app to connect to the camera, otherwise you will have to get the banggood canera's app to connect. But the instructions don't tell you the name of the app! ( I'm assuming you DID find the zip file and you are using an iPhone to connect to the camera ). Btw, what makes you so sure the battery in the fc40 camera is bad?

 

[Rockdweller]

I don't have an iphone but a samsung but even so I don't think you can connect the camera that way. I think you have to have the app that comes with the camera. I did finally find the app for the camera but it still doesn't work anything like the DJI app works. And about the battery in the fc40. I think these cameras might lay on the shelf for long periods of time and lipos are very sensitive to how they are stored and used. The reason I know the battery was bad is because I took the camera apart and hooked it to one of the cells of the helicopter and it works perfectly. I've ordered some connections and when I get them I will post a mod showing how to hook the camera to a single cell in the helicopter's lipo battery. So far I can't see how it has hurt the helicopters battery and a big plus is when that particular cell drops below a certain voltage, the smart phone registers a low battery on the camera and you know to bring the helicopter home. It still gives you plenty of time to bring it home.

 

[jerrymac12000]

Use the usb cable, connect to a usb adapter. Then connect to a wall outlet. It can take up to four hours. The camera may get warm. When finished the camera will be cool. Works every time for me.

 

[larryleibo]

My experience is that the fc40 cam does not charge when connected to the pc and does charge fully when connected to a a charger using a wall socket.
When connected to a wall socket and is charging, a red light will blink, when the charge is full, it will stop blinking.
forget charging with the pc.

 

[tomwalshco]

My experience is that the fc40 cam does not charge when connected to the pc and does charge fully when connected to a a charger using a wall socket.
When connected to a wall socket and is charging, a red light will blink, when the charge is full, it will stop blinking.
forget charging with the pc.

Agree ... same for me. PC always want to look at it as a storage device and it doesn't charge. Need stand-alone - my LG phone chargers work fine.

 

[Jebb]

Tomwalshco and larryleibo, could you possible post the amperage of your chargers? I am guessing they are 700 milliamperes (aka .7 amp).

 

[Lonewolf]

hi when i plug mine into the computor via usb it does not flash red it just stays solid red

When plugged into the computer the red led tells you the driver has been installed and the sd card is ready to download what you've recorded onto your computer.

 

[Mandrake]

I charge all my camera batteries including the FC40 via a cigar (ette ) lighter socket USB charger at 1000 ma ...
All of my camera gear and rechargeable toys have 12 V adapters so I don't have to rely on mains power ...
Steve

 

[tomwalshco]

5V / 850ma on 1
4.8V / 400ma on another
Both work fine

Have also used cig lighter adapter that's works fine. Not sure of Vs or As.

 

[purtiscreek]

The camera will charge well if plugged into a regular phone charger. It will get warm. Light goes off when charged. Had no luck charging thru computer usb port. First charge will take a while.

 

[J.James]

Just reading over these posts and thought I would chime in. My FC40 camera will only charge when plugged into a standalone USB charger. It will not charge when plugged into a computer. When I plug it into my PC, it opens as a mass storage device on the PC and I can view the media on the devise however the red light is not flashing thus I believe while its data is being accessed, it is not charging. I even electronically 'ejected' the devise while still plugged in.

Ya that happens to a lot of people The fix for that is to put the pc or laptop in to sleep mode then it will start to charge instead of connecting to it threw the usb to view the video files on the sd card.

 

[renagade]

Hi guys
Having problems figuring out my FC40 battery plugged it into the usb port on my computer but when i go out to use the camera via wifi it starts out ok then comes back with a low battery from the camera dose the camera battery have a shut off when its fully charged or how do i charge it also is there an indication from the status light on the camera when its fully charged i can't find any info on this anyone have info on this.

Dennis

Hi Big Guy
I do believe that the camera charges better from your phone charger,I have never had a full charge when I charge from my apple i mac.
Give it a go.

 

[renagade]

How do you charge your fc40 battery? y connecting to the computer? using a wall plug like the iphones little white box?
I asked the DJI Support center and never answered.

I think you are better off using the mobile phone charger,I get a quicker charge this way. Just a thought.

 

[J.James]

yes a wall charger will charge much faster then a pc being most wall chargers put out more amprage.

my fc40 camera is no longer giving any red solid or blinking lights when charging. I was using an ipad charger (2.1a) and an iphone charger (0.5a) indiscriminately

The replacement camera I got back in December the blinking red light that shows it charging gave out after about the 2nd time using it. and no longer works either.

So now the only way I know its done charging is when it stops charging and is not warm to the touch.

 

[IflyinWY]

yes a wall charger will charge much faster then a pc being most wall chargers put out more amprage.



The replacement camera I got back in December the blinking red light that shows it charging gave out after about the 2nd time using it. and no longer works either.

So now the only way I know its done charging is when it stops charging and is not warm to the touch.

How do you know when it's on or recording? Do you have to look at a screen to tell, or does the green light still work?

 

[J.James]

How do you know when it's on or recording? Do you have to look at a screen to tell, or does the green light still work?

yes the green light still works and the orange when its doing loop recording. The red led even blinks for other things just not when its charging. Just when it first plug it in it will blink for a few seconds