DIY aftermarket chargers for the EVO

lukappaseidue · Apr 23, 2020

hidroela said:
hi guys quick question, does this mod could be applied to the new Evo 2 batteries.
thanks in advance.

no

Quad808 · Jun 7, 2020

Yes, it can. Just did it today. Works great.

parkgt · Jul 12, 2020

Quad808 said:
Yes, it can. Just did it today. Works great.

So the E2 having 12 pins doesn't make any difference?

I also noticed in the video posted above that he cut the extra plastic on two of them from one side and the other one from the opposite side and it didn't seem to make a difference?

Quad808 · Jul 12, 2020

No, the pins don't matter. Look at the charger I modded for the Evo I batteries. Same charger works on the EVO I batteries and the EVO II batteries. CUtting the plastic just allows the charger ends to connect to the battery. Just cut them like the picture below. The side you leave on doesn't matter. If I cut off all plastic sides, then the connecter could be connected either way to the batteries. Leaving a side on, just makes it more secure on the battery.

parkgt · Jul 12, 2020

Thanks for the pictures and reply.

Ender · Jul 15, 2020

Hi all,
is it safe to assume that a Mavic Pro car charger then also should work fine on my EVO 2 (two) battery?
Did someone do that? If so i would be glad for a product link...

Greetings,

Ender

Flip · Jul 15, 2020

I need to pose a question about charging...

I have 2 Li-Ion battery banks that I run my CPAP machine on when I go hunting in emote areas (with no power). Can I use them to charge my Evo batteries and controller?

I charge my cell phone with them now.

They both have USB ports and charge monitors on each.

They would fit nicely in the case my EVO came in, in the bottom.

Ender · Jul 15, 2020

BTW thats also nice to be able to use various sources for charging:

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Quad808 · Jul 15, 2020

Remember about charging. Its very simple with these "smart" batteries. They regulate the amount of "charge" going to the battery. So, the Mavic multicharger puts out a max power, just under what the Autel Pro chargers max is. Completely safe. The battery will regulate the charge going in, and because you are not using a more powerful charger than the specs of the original one, the battery circuit can handle this easily. The "smart" batteries are different than regular Lipos that don't have the smart charging capabilities. Those....with the wrong charge going in, can be very dangerous. Keep in mind I am not a battery expert, but know enough to be dangerous....So, Ender, I believe you would be completely safe using a Mavic car charger, and Flip, same to you. When the output of the charger is less than maximum, it will just take longer to fully charge a battery.

Jagerbomb52 · Jul 15, 2020

Quad808 said:
Remember about charging. Its very simple with these "smart" batteries. They regulate the amount of "charge" going to the battery.

Not owning either the EVO I or the EVO II I do not know how the OEM charger is like but I do know the older X-Star chargers did all the balancing of the cells. Are you sure the EVO batteries now do all the balancing?

If you read through the partial tear down of the X-Star there is a really good section on the charger and explains on how it works. Like I said not sure if the EVO's have a new way of charging batteries but I was just wondering.

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Quad808 · Jul 15, 2020

Yes, the "smart" batteries with the circuit boards in them do all the cell balancing. The chargers now are dumb chargers, unlike the lipo chargers that need the balance lead plugged into the charger to regulate individual cell charging. I can't remember where but someone did a tear down of the mavic batteries a while ago just to answer that question about cell balancing and how the "smart" circuits handle everything now instead of the charger. In order for the charger to do the balancing you would need the charger to have the ability to read each cell, something that the pin outs on the batteries don't have.

parkgt · Jul 15, 2020

In essence what they call a charger is really a power supply. And as such many including Autel's are way overpriced.

Quad808 · Jul 16, 2020

I didn't think of it that way, but you are absolutely correct in that statement! Thats a great way to look at "chargers" for smart batteries.

Jagerbomb52 · Jul 16, 2020

You also have to include the fact it monitors heat and voltage. So if the battery over heats it is suppose to shut down. It is also suppose to shut down when the voltage reaches Max. Not all power supplies do this. Perhaps for the higher cost.

Quad808 · Jul 16, 2020

The battery does all the monitoring with the smart board I believe. Pretty sure the chargers are "dumb" nowadays, but not 100% sure. Need to see the pinouts of the connector to see if there are any active monitoring pins, or just + -

Jagerbomb52 · Jul 16, 2020

Quad808 said:
The battery does all the monitoring with the smart board I believe. Pretty sure the chargers are "dumb" nowadays, but not 100% sure. Need to see the pinouts of the connector to see if there are any active monitoring pins, or just + -

I do not have any info on how the chargers work. You could be right but I do have to caution people from trying to use something that is not OEM from Autel. We cannot promote DIY solutions without stating you are on your own if anything should happen to your very expensive UAV.

Ender · Jul 16, 2020

Well, at least for Spark & Air and Parrot Anafi i can acknowledge that the power supplies wer just that: power supplies.
(I repaired / disassembled / DIY power supplies for those, in case of the Anafi its even"just" a regular PD 18W 9V charger)

The chargers *should* have a precise Voltage. If the Voltage is too high the regulators in the smart battery will get (too?) hot, and if its too low the battery either throws an error or is unable to charge to 100%.
AND that Voltage is to be held constant even when discharging with full Amperage.
In the case of some 3'rd party supplies i had i was actually more concerned of them going up in smoke setting the house on fire than if they charge correctly, so the cooling for that kind of Wattage should be okay ;-)

So e.g. in case of the EVO its not a 3 Euro power supply but a 10 Euro supply

Add to this the more or less proprietary connector and you probably end uo with 12 Euro full production costs

Ender

Jagerbomb52 · Jul 16, 2020

Yup we don't want to see anything like this happening so thats why we say use caution as you should even with a OEM charger, bad things can happen.

parkgt · Jul 16, 2020

Wish we had the option to buy this one. It will charge to full, charge to storage, discharge to storage or discharge; and handle four batteries concurrently.

Used with my M2P for months, pleasure to use since it solve several issues with others. Nice not to have to monitor batteries to get each one to storage level or fully charge and then wait for auto discharge.

And the price is right for the features set. It is made by YX the same as many of the others being hacked.

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