Welcome DJI Spark Pilot!
Jump in and join our free Spark community today!
Sign up

It has arrived......Portable Charging Station

I like the idea of the charger, but wouldn't you be better of just buying an extra 2/3 batteries for roughly the same amount? Less to carry?
I guess you can. I think the idea of this is that it acts as a charger that doubles as a carrier as well as an external charger. In other words I usually have this plugged in at all times and when I'm ready to go I grab the whole thing. I guess you can do that too with batteries.
 
Also I don’t need gimbal protector and propeller fixed tool since charging station fits spark perfectly.
I will sell battery charger, bag and one extra battery from flying combo set. Hopefully I will get around $140 so I can even out with $140 charging station cost haha.

BTW I want to have “grab and go” bag. Charging station bag has small space. I want to put charging station, controller, charging station power cord and propeller guard. Hopefully shoulder bag.

The Bag from flying combo is too small to even put charging station so I don’t even need anymore T_T
 
Can you charge the station from a portable USB battery bank and USB cable?
Yes you can also charge a cell phone or controller using the charge station. It has USB ports. I have to see again whether I can charge the charge station using a portable battery bank.

Of course if you have this you can. I actually bought this as well for my Mavic.

Screenshot_20171227-204027.jpg
 
Just noticed my Portable power pack and case has shipped :):). Its the version with the 2 batteries included. Just waiting on my controller to ship from Amazon. I decided not to get the flymore combo because the power pack plus case will store everything I need for the Spark. I have a Goal Zero Sherpa 100 power pack so that will come in handy if I need to charge the power station when I'm travelling or on the go.

Chris
 
Got the Station for Christmas! (Love my parents :)) So far it's been exactly as advertised! Planning to buy the bag to go with it soon, carrying it around just as itself isn't the most efficient way in the world :p
 
Ordered mine December 23rd. It left DJI in Shenzhen at 5PM, to Hong Kong 6 hours later. After 24 hours it was sitting in customs in Cincinnati, Ohio where it sat for almost three days. Now it's sitting in Milwaukee, where it's been ... all day, all night. "The Estimated Delivery Date is currently unavailable." But it says, "Scheduled for delivery as agreed..." whatever that means... especially because delivery was scheduled for two days earlier. One day to get from China to US, nearly 5 days here and no status update.
 
I'm super impressed with the charging station. Apart from the ~70 mins of flying time you can achieve by having one with only a short break required to allow the flat (~30% rem) batteries to charge, it's also a perfect storage unit, protects the gimbal & blades and you can charge your RC and phone using its AC adaptor with the dual USB outlets. It is expensive but it costs approx the same as 2 additional batteries but it provides 3 additional batteries worth of charge, a complete no brainer. The ability to further charge the station with a power bank is an added bonus.
 
  • Like
Reactions: pfhemi
Ordered mine December 23rd. It left DJI in Shenzhen at 5PM, to Hong Kong 6 hours later. After 24 hours it was sitting in customs in Cincinnati, Ohio where it sat for almost three days. Now it's sitting in Milwaukee, where it's been ... all day, all night. "The Estimated Delivery Date is currently unavailable." But it says, "Scheduled for delivery as agreed..." whatever that means... especially because delivery was scheduled for two days earlier. One day to get from China to US, nearly 5 days here and no status update.
Probably DJI sold out portable charger and sent the item from China??? Mine was shipped from CA and arrived in 4 days to GA. Can’t blame DJI because of high volume of shipping especially online shipping is higher and higher. I had several items delayed due to shipping companies from every companies. My USPS priority service package took 13 days to deliver to San Jose CA from GA in this holiday season.
Nothing to do with DJI and be patient with it ^_^
 
I'm super impressed with the charging station. Apart from the ~70 mins of flying time you can achieve by having one with only a short break required to allow the flat (~30% rem) batteries to charge, it's also a perfect storage unit, protects the gimbal & blades and you can charge your RC and phone using its AC adaptor with the dual USB outlets. It is expensive but it costs approx the same as 2 additional batteries but it provides 3 additional batteries worth of charge, a complete no brainer. The ability to further charge the station with a power bank is an added bonus.
Actually price of charging station is not bad since their reguar battery charger is almost $60.
Honestly I prefer to see this for flying combo package or make premium combo package which includes this charging station.
Three batteries, propeller guard, two pair of propeller, charging station and controller kit might be good and get rid of bag option from flying combo set.
Everything fits so well and does not need gimbal protector and propeller protector. I think I can easily use my old laptop bag and put together everything (in that case, I might need controller case but controller case is not that expensive).
 
I think I can easily use my old laptop bag and put together everything

That is what I use and it is perfect. Except that it's not crush or water proof.
But it was free and convenient :).

Although I don't have the charging station (yet), the bag does work well.

It's a nice big padded bag that holds the Spark with the prop guards attached, controller with the tablet mount and mini4 already attached, with plenty of room for batteries and compartments for other stuff.

I can be powered up in less than a minute and can be up and flying as soon as I get a "Home Point"

Less time fiddling, more time flying :cool:.
 
Probably DJI sold out portable charger and sent the item from China??? Mine was shipped from CA and arrived in 4 days to GA. Can’t blame DJI because of high volume of shipping especially online shipping is higher and higher. I had several items delayed due to shipping companies from every companies. My USPS priority service package took 13 days to deliver to San Jose CA from GA in this holiday season.
Nothing to do with DJI and be patient with it ^_^

Certainly my situation is "on the shipper" and probably affected by the holiday and customs. I understand delays, it's just those circumstances where you receive NO indication of why there is a delay. In November I ordered a Mavic as a gift and it was hung up in the DJI system, somewhere between "Payment Successful" and "Shipped" Nothing was resolved for over a month, no inquiries -whether email, phone call, or chat, resulted in answers. I ended up cancelling, getting a refund, and ordering from another source.
 
@Virtual1, I'm doing the same. Female 12v socket clamped to an SLA, and this charging setup plugged in. We have a few 36AH SLAs here for camping with a trailer, so it's perfect!

Check out the current draw on several batteries. I got out my case and went to top off all my batteries for flying (they had all self-discharged to 65%) and so with all six on charge, it was drawing 25 amps at 12v.... wow!
 
Check out the current draw on several batteries. I got out my case and went to top off all my batteries for flying (they had all self-discharged to 65%) and so with all six on charge, it was drawing 25 amps at 12v.... wow!
Sorry for the less technical inclined is this a good thing. :). I'm trying to understand this.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bubbles!!!
Sorry for the less technical inclined is this a good thing. :). I'm trying to understand this.

Just demonstrating these batteries charge fast and so the chargers draw a lot of power. Charging six batteries at a time is a bit of a stretch for most people though. Fortunately they only draw that huge current when doing the early stage of charging, the draw drops a lot when the batteries get closer to full charge. The 25 amps is more of a "shock value" number here, to remind people just how beefy of a battery you need to be able to charge six Spark packs at the same time.

My Spark batteries are rated 17Wh. (watt-hours) Applying a little easy math, a 12v battery rated 18Ah (amp-hours) is (12x18) 216Wh. If you assume the inefficiency in charging about cancels out the "my batteries aren't totally dead", that means I can charge about 12 (18*12/17) Spark batteries off my 18AH cell. If I were to instead use an inverter to go to 110vac and then the charge sled to drop back down to battery level, that would be one more stage of conversion (and inefficiency) and would probably drop my capacity a charge or two. (also, my little inverter starts to overheat when I get several batteries on charge) So I figure using these direct 12v chargers will get me a few more charges.

So the guy wth the 35Ah battery can charge around 25 (35*12/17) Spark batteries. If all you have is a little 7Ah hobby battery, you won't be able to charge more than 5 (7*12/17) Spark batteries with it. (it somewhat blows my mind that five "little" Spark batteries can wipe out a 7Ah battery, they're pretty powerful for their size)
 
Last edited:
Ordered mine December 23rd. It left DJI in Shenzhen at 5PM, to Hong Kong 6 hours later. After 24 hours it was sitting in customs in Cincinnati, Ohio where it sat for almost three days. Now it's sitting in Milwaukee, where it's been ... all day, all night. "The Estimated Delivery Date is currently unavailable." But it says, "Scheduled for delivery as agreed..." whatever that means... especially because delivery was scheduled for two days earlier. One day to get from China to US, nearly 5 days here and no status update.

That's actually pretty quick to get through customs. I regularly have items sit there for three weeks. Electronics are usually just a couple of days though, but the tea I order seems to set something off (it's just tea... from China... it's a thing).

Hopefully the carrier will come through soon, they're all still swamped with late Christmas stuff as far as I can tell.
 
That's actually pretty quick to get through customs. I regularly have items sit there for three weeks. Electronics are usually just a couple of days though, but the tea I order seems to set something off (it's just tea... from China... it's a thing).

Hopefully the carrier will come through soon, they're all still swamped with late Christmas stuff as far as I can tell.

Carrier came through this AM (29th- US CST) DHL delivered and even though it was "signature required" (which I first learned from a text message while I was 10 miles from home), the driver delivered it.
Received the Charging Station, two batteries and the Station carrying case. Very nice, well build, and will get it's maiden challenge tomorrow. Quite pleased to be able to charge the station, batteries, and Spark all at once and carry the re-charge with me. It's like having 6 batteries for 90 minutes of flight.
Thanks for listening, everyone.
 
So the guy wth the 35Ah battery can charge around 25 (35*12/17) Spark batteries. If all you have is a little 7Ah hobby battery, you won't be able to charge more than 5 (7*12/17) Spark batteries with it. (it somewhat blows my mind that five "little" Spark batteries can wipe out a 7Ah battery, they're pretty powerful for their size)

And I have two =D

My favorite for hobby stuff are the 12v 12ah/14ah SLAs. Nice size, OK weight, and nice bit of power.

I think these batteries plus an inverter with the OEM DJI charger to do the charging might be the best of all worlds (at least assuming you're using a giant SLA that isn't very portable, but still want some portable recharge power when you're out of the vehicle).
 

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
14,600
Messages
118,816
Members
18,012
Latest member
NoeFolk502