Check out my new solution for charging the Spark in the field

[MrDee427]

Not to spoil the fun (sorry), but have you tried to charge "all 3 of your batteries 5 times over"? I bet it won't work. Reason is simple: the 24000 mAh are at 3.7V, while spark batteries are at 11.4V. A better measure is the energy: your power bank is rated as 88 Wh, a spark battery at about 17. This gives 5 charges in total (single battery) assuming a pretty high efficiency, which I'm not sure you'll have if you use the account outlet and the AC charger (you go from 14.8 V internal to 110 outlet to 11.8 with the charger... A lot of conversions).
Other than that, seems a pretty good solution for certain scenarios.

 

[Fred Moore]

The LESHP 27000 mAh Power Bank appears to be identical to the Omars 24000 mAh. It takes just under 3.5 hours to fully charge the LESHP from empty to full. I placed 3 cold (not hot) Spark batteries (each discharged to 20%) in the Fly More Spark 3 battery hub and connected it to the fully charged LESHP AC outlet with the hub AC power adapter. They all started charging simultaneously. The battery in the furthest hub bay from the hub plug connection (bay 3) reached full charge in about 50 minutes. The other 2 batteries ceased in about 65 minutes. All three batteries were at 96-100% after charging.

I discharged the the 3 Spark batteries down to 20% again, let them cool, and performed the same charging procedure as above with the LESHP partially discharged from the first 3 battery charging. All batteries started charging simultaneously as before. Three of the four LESHP lights were lit at the start of the second charge but within 5 minutes went to 2 lights and 1 light at 25 minutes into the charge. At 32 minutes that one LESHP light began blinking. At 37 minutes into the charge the LESHP stopped charging. The battery in the bay furthest from the hub plug (bay 3) was 69% charged, the middle bay was 92% charged, and the first bay was 72% charged. The middle bay battery (92%) stopped charging before the other two on the second charge. This was not the same battery as had been in bay 3 in the first charging. (Btw, that first bay 3 battery is a $39 refurb Spark battery from ebay. It was in bay 1 on the second charge. I have had no issues with the refurb battery.) The 92% battery stopped charging before the others. Apparently the LESHP is programmed to stop charging the highest charged battery at some point and to concentrate on its weaker mates.

From giac's comments earlier, the LESHP would also be expected to charge less than 6 batteries. Although rated at 99.9 Wh capacity, it would still at best charge 5.88 batteries (99.9/17). Furthermore, the batteries in the test were at 20% rather than 0% at the beginning of the charge. This suggests planning on charging a total of 5 Spark batteries with a fully charged LESHP 27000 mAh Power Bank.

I have ordered a Smatree SP92 Spark 3 bay portable charging station (currently 3 left at amazon with a 15% discount for a before tax/shipping cost of $62.89). At 92 Wh rated capacity, it probably wont fully charge 6 batteries either. But it is lighter and smaller than the LESHP and doesn't require the Spark hub converter. There is the trade-off of it being useful only for Spark batteries. Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to comparing it to the LESHP.

 

[GearHead83]

Well with my original posted solution I can definitely charge all 3 of my batteries twice and still have juice left. So those thinking it's not a good solution are mistaken, I have been thoroughly enjoying having this power pack in my kit.

 

[Fred Moore]

Well with my original posted solution I can definitely charge all 3 of my batteries twice and still have juice left. So those thinking it's not a good solution are mistaken, I have been thoroughly enjoying having this power pack in my kit.

Good to hear. What were the charge levels on the spark batteries when charging began? Mine were at about 20% and could not charge 3 batteries twice.

 

[GearHead83]

Good to hear. What were the charge levels on the spark batteries when charging began? Mine were at about 20% and could not charge 3 batteries twice.

My batteries are typically sitting around 20% when I get them on the charger. I have charged all 3 batteries at once like this to 100% in about an hour. It is surprisingly fast.

 

[Fred Moore]

Agree. My first three charged simultaneously from 20% to 100% in about hour. I depleted all three to 20% and charged them again with whatever was left in the charger. This time the charger went dead at about 35 minutes leaving the three batteries at 69%, 72%, and 92%. I'll repeat the test and see what happens.

 

[GearHead83]

Agree. My first three charged simultaneously from 20% to 100% in about hour. I depleted all three to 20% and charged them again with whatever was left in the charger. This time the charger went dead at about 35 minutes leaving the three batteries at 69%, 72%, and 92%. I'll repeat the test and see what happens.

Shoot man, even if we get 5 battery charges while out in the field and retaining the ability to fly while charging I'd say that is a win!

 

[Fred Moore]

Shoot man, even if we get 5 battery charges while out in the field and retaining the ability to fly while charging I'd say that is a win!

5 charges from 20%-100% is good. I'm thinking of working with 5 batteries. With the ability to recharge them all, that is effectively 10 batteries or about 2 hours of flying.

 

[webvan]

Great insight in this topic, thanks for sharing guys.
For my upcoming roadtrip I cheaped out and got this 2x battery car charger for $11 : 3 in 1 Car Charger USB Battery Charging Remote Control for DJI SPARK Drone Parts 648747154909 | eBay but that LESHP 27000 mAh is tempting I must say. On the other hand it looks like a bit of a monster and I'm not sure it's really needed unless you go on multiple day hikes or really do a lot of flying ;-)

 

[Fred Moore]

Great insight in this topic, thanks for sharing guys.
For my upcoming roadtrip I cheaped out and got this 2x battery car charger for $11 : 3 in 1 Car Charger USB Battery Charging Remote Control for DJI SPARK Drone Parts 648747154909 | eBay but that LESHP 27000 mAh is tempting I must say. On the other hand it looks like a bit of a monster and I'm not sure it's really needed unless you go on multiple day hikes or really do a lot of flying ;-)

That is a handy device for the car. Or an inverter to power the three bay hub.

 

[Tafische]

I have been doing a little testing with the batteries trying to determine my charge solution. Just as an example -

I measured the power used to charge a battery using the Spark via the usb --

Spark Battery - 11.4v volt, 1480 mAh

Charger - 5 volt, took 4,099 mAh to charge it

So that makes pretty good sense sense. Battery capacity is 16.872 watts and the charge took 20.495 watts. The remaining 3.623 wats were likely lost in heat and conversion circuitry. I think I have that right anyway

 

[Fred Moore]

I am very satisfied with the 3-bay Smatree SP90 Portable Spark Battery Charger. It consistently charged 6 Spark batteries - from 20% to 100% - in 45-50 minutes. The SP90 itself takes about 4 hours to fully charge with the supplied quick charge AC-DC converter. The converter gets quite hot. Be careful of what the converter is touching while charging. It could possibly melt polyester material or potentially catch fire in a tightly enclosed situation. The SP90 charger itself does not get particularly hot either while being charged or while charging batteries.

Assume 12 minutes to fly (100% to 20%), 12 minutes to cool battery, and 48 minutes to charge battery. With 6 fully charged batteries you can fly pretty much continuously (with battery changes) for about 2.5 hours with a 12 minute break half way through.

Battery #1 flight starts at 10 am. Ends at 10:12. Charging of cool #1 in bay 1 begins at 10:24. Fully charged at 11:12.
Battery #2 flight starts at 10:12. Ends 10:24. #2 charge in bay 2 begins 10:36. Fully charged 11:24.
Battery #3 starts 10:24. Ends 10:36. Charge bay 3 10:48. Full 11:36.
#4 starts 10:36. End 10:48. Charge in bay 1 at 11:12. Full 12 noon. Note there is a 12 minuet lag before bay 1 is free to charge another battery.
#5 start 10:48. End 11. Charge in bay 2 at 11:24. Full 12:12.
#6 start 11. End 11:12. Charge in bay 3 at 11:36. Full 12:24.
#7 (1) start 11:12
#8 (2) 11:24
#9 (3) 11:36
#10 (4) 12 noon. Note 12 minute lag for #10 (4) to be fully recharged.
#11 (5) 12:12
#12 (6) 12:24. All batteries down at 12:36.

 

[Djr01974]

AC Outlet Portable Laptop Charger, Jackery PowerBar 77Wh/20800mAh 85W (100W Max.) Travel Laptop Power Bank & External Battery Pack for MacBook, HP, Thinkpad, Notebook and other Laptops Robot Check

I use this in the field for my spark. You can change all three batteries plugged into the outlet with the charger , the spark with one battery in it plugged into the usb and also the rc plugged into the other usb. You get one charge out of this brick fit everything. Works great for me.

 

[Fred Moore]

The advantage of AC outlet chargers is versatility of use. The SP90 has no AC outlet. It does have a micro USB port for charging cell phones, etc. The primary advantage to the SP90 is not having to use the Spark charging hub and its attendant AC DC converter. More stuff to carry around. The converter itself cuts down considerably on the efficiency of charging with the AC outlet chargers. The LESHP 27000 mAh Power Bank with AC (which I had briefly and returned) only charged 5 Spark batteries (20% to 100%) versus 6 with the more portable SP90. Furthermore, the Spark hub is limited to charging the first battery in about 50 minutes and the remaining two in about 65 minutes.

Efficiency: The SP90 capacity is rated at only 8100 mAh. The LESHP 27000 mAh has over 3 times that capacity, yet charges fewer batteries. Is that all being lost in the AC-DC conversion?

Finally, the SP90 is currently available for only $69.

 

[Gavieboydgi]

I just bought the Omars portable power bank on Amazon. This thing is a beast and with a 24,000 mah capacity it can charge all three of my Spark batteries five times over. The real treat about this unit is it has an AC connection so you can literally power any household device up to 80W, incredible! I use my 3 battery charger dock from the fly more kit and this way I can quickly charge my extra batteries while still being able to fly. This thing is a bit larger than my 22,000 mah USB power bank but the weight is almost the same. It also charges itself from empty to full MUCH faster in about 4 hours compared to my USB power bank which takes around 7 hours. With this unit you can charge 3 batteries, your controller and phone/tablet all at the same time! The price to performance ratio is better than anything else I've seen. This is an excellent piece to add to your field kit in my opinion.

Ive got the RavPower 27.000 mah a.c that I use to charge my spark bat's and mavic when im out in the field. use it all the time.