This charger can make all of us happy

[tranaee]

Seems too good to be true guys. Just for 140 you have 3 charged batteries in a less than a half an hour. With less bucks than one spare you have 3 in 20 minutes or so. Can we trust this thing?
Phantom 4 Thor Super-Charging Station Triple Battery Charger Hub

Sent from my SM-G935F using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[KennyN]

I cannot imagine that the fast charging cycle will do much for the overall life of the cells in the batteries.

 

[daytona125]

I think I'll let others try it before I buy it. Stuff like this scares me. There is not only the risk of damaging your smart batteries by charging too fast but the real risk I would think is fire. explosion. We all know how hot the stock charger gets while charging 1 battery, now put 3 batteries and the controller together and see how much power and heat this charger will make. I do see a fan but I think it would still be risky> I know the stock charger draws 300 watts from the inverter I have in my cay. Thats a lot of power to charge 1 battery. Now put 3 batteries together at twice the charge rate, nothing good can happen. And I bet it would drastically reduce the life of your $225 dollar (Canada) battery. And. I think DJI would have offered a higher capacity charger if they thought the batteries could handle it(although they would sell less batteries) Like I said. This stuff scares me, just youtube lipo fires you'll see.

 

[QuadPop]

It looks exactly like the "inferior black- colored chargers" with red anodization and slightly higher amperage. 15.7A as opposed to my "inferior black-colored charger" at 13.5A total.

I use this one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FKH027S/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

My Anbee is 4.5A / 79W per connector. OEM is 100W. 20% longer charge time.

 

[N017RW]

Seems too good to be true guys. Just for 140 you have 3 charged batteries in a less than a half an hour. With less bucks than one spare you have 3 in 20 minutes or so. Can we trust this thing?
Phantom 4 Thor Super-Charging Station Triple Battery Charger Hub

Sent from my SM-G935F using PhantomPilots mobile app

Not endorsing this or do I own one.

Not sure that's what they're saying (emphasis added above).
It may be 'marketing-speak'... If you can charge 4 things at once then it's 4x faster even if the individual charge time is the same as the OEM charger.

Having said that many LiPos can be safely charged a 2C or more but I don't believe that's possible with an 'intelligent battery' as it is internally regulated.

 

[tcope]

4 times faster... in in you can charge 3 bateries and the conroller at the same time. They compare this to one battery at a time with the stock charger and then 1 controller. That is 4 devices one at a time. So this is "4 times" faster. They stat 15.7 amps but this is all chargers added together. Look at the outside picture, it shows 4amps right on the cover.

This is the SAME $50 charger with the name "Thor" on the front so they charge 3 times as much!

 

[John Locke]

First of all Drone World is a bit shady, as we have seen them sell DBS2.2 Itelite antennas for $500 (ripoff). So I don't trust them in the first place. That said.....

4X is simply not possible with the stated 15.7amp output. That is not 4X because the DJI OEM charger puts out at 5.7 amp (100W /17.4V= 5.75A). If you divide 15.7amps by 3, each battery will receive about 5.23amps to charge, which is about 1/2amp less than the OEM charger PER BATTERY. But I believe they divide by 4 (the 4th being the RC line), so it's more a like 4amps per charge line. So this charger "might" charge your batteries about 3X faster, but individually the batteries are not getting more juice than using the OEM charger. This setup will simple charges 3 batteries + the RC simultaneously at the same time, whereas the $90 DJI 3X charger does it one at a time, taking 3X longer to charge all 3 batteries, and it requires the OEM charger to power the $90 cradle for 3 batteries.

DJI charger = 5.75A
Thor charger = 15.7A
15.7 / 5.75 = 2.73 (or about 3X more juice)

This Thor charger may be a fine charger, it's just not 4X as stated, it's 3X. I have little concern of it charging batteries too fast, because individually it's less amps per battery.

Pick your price;

$99 from Drone World

$149 from Drone World

$59 from Skytreat (slightly less power output)

 

[Erised]

First of all Drone World is a bit shady, as we have seen them sell DBS2.2 Itelite antennas for $500 (ripoff). So I don't trust them in the first place. That said.....

4X is simply not possible with the stated 15.7amp output. That is not 4X because the DJI OEM charger puts out at 5.7 amp (100W /17.4V= 5.75A). If you divide 15.7amps by 3, each battery will receive about 5.23amps to charge, which is about 1/2amp less than the OEM charger PER BATTERY. But I believe they divide by 4 (the 4th being the RC line), so it's more a like 4amps per charge line. So this charger "might" charge your batteries about 3X faster, but individually the batteries are not getting more juice than using the OEM charger. This setup will simple charges 3 batteries + the RC simultaneously at the same time, whereas the $90 DJI 3X charger does it one at a time, taking 3X longer to charge all 3 batteries, and it requires the OEM charger to power the $90 cradle for 3 batteries.

DJI charger = 5.75A
Thor charger = 15.7A
15.7 / 5.75 = 2.73 (or about 3X more juice)

This Thor charger may be a fine charger, it's just not 4X as stated, it's 3X. I have little concern of it charging batteries too fast, because individually it's less amps per battery.

Pick your price;

$99 from Drone World

$149 from Drone World

$59 from Skytreat (slightly less power output)

I got that black one as soon as they came out for about $50.00. they work well and like John said the output is less then OEM, The black charger has 3 outputs supplies inside the charger ,one for each top cables and one output for the two bottom cables. I never had any problems and it takes about 1:30+ to charge 3 batteries and rc. I usually land between 15% and 20% (i aim for 20)

 

[Kengi]

It looks exactly like the "inferior black- colored chargers" with red anodization and slightly higher amperage. 15.7A as opposed to my "inferior black-colored charger" at 13.5A total.

I use this one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FKH027S/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

My Anbee is 4.5A / 79W per connector. OEM is 100W. 20% longer charge time.

QuadPop:

I'm new to the Phantom world and just bought a 4. I've got three batteries. How you liking the charger you mentioned on Amazon?

 

[AlecW]

I won't mess with anything battery related that is not original DJI.

Someone I know was charging a RC car battery in his RV with an off brand charger. It was in the center console and It almost killed him and his family. He got some pretty bad burns trying to get the RV to the shoulder after it exploded. RV lost, kids and wife all got out fine.

 

[Kengi]

I won't mess with anything battery related that is not original DJI.

Someone I know was charging a RC car battery in his RV with an off brand charger. It was in the center console and It almost killed him and his family. He got some pretty bad burns trying to get the RV to the shoulder after it exploded. RV lost, kids and wife all got out fine.

HOLY CRAP! OK, well then does DJI make a rapid charger??

 

[tcope]

I won't mess with anything battery related that is not original DJI.

Someone I know was charging a RC car battery in his RV with an off brand charger. It was in the center console and It almost killed him and his family. He got some pretty bad burns trying to get the RV to the shoulder after it exploded. RV lost, kids and wife all got out fine.

So this would not have happened with a DJI charger? By their very nature Lipo batteries can explode at any time.

 

[AlecW]

So this would not have happened with a DJI charger? By their very nature Lipo batteries can explode at any time.

No idea but personally I will not use a non DJI charger and won't charge in the car while driving. Could care less what other people use and do, non of my business but I thought I'd share what can happen.

 

[AlecW]

HOLY CRAP! OK, well then does DJI make a rapid charger??

I don't know. I use their 3 battery "slow" charging hub. I keep 3 batteries with it set to storage mode (50% charge) in the garage (or hotel) and change to the charging mode a couple of hours before I want to fly. I have a 4th battery I try to keep charged in case I want to snap a quick sunset picture.

 

[tcope]

No idea but personally I will not use a non DJI charger and won't charge in the car while driving. Could care less what other people use and do, non of my business but I thought I'd share what can happen.

Something to keep in mind is that DJI uses "smart batteries". That is, just like smart phones, the battery itself controls the charge. The charger simply supplies a certain voltage at a certain wattage, just like your every day USB cable.

 

[John Locke]

I won't mess with anything battery related that is not original DJI.

Someone I know was charging a RC car battery in his RV with an off brand charger. It was in the center console and It almost killed him and his family. He got some pretty bad burns trying to get the RV to the shoulder after it exploded. RV lost, kids and wife all got out fine.

I'm not sure how relevant this explosion drama is to charging DJI smart batteries. Many RC cars don't come with a charger, you get to pick from a variety of 3rd party chargers, and there are many to choose from. Those car batteries are dumb batteries. The owner may have over charged it with a dumb charger, thinking the battery was dead, when it wasn't. A good charger for dumb batteries needs a microprocessor to charge and equalize the battery properly, maybe the owner didn't know that. The circumstances are unknown. Many times battery explosions are operator error, possibly not having a smart charger for dumb batteries, or potentially connecting the equalizer wire backwards. It's much easier to make a mistake with a dumb battery.

DJI smart batteries cannot be overcharged. DJI batteries help eliminate human error and will not take a charge unless it needs it. I'm not saying explosions can't happen to a DJI smart battery, however I haven't hear of an incident yet. Has anyone else?

 

[AlecW]

This guy's story hit a large non drone related forum and generated about 30 pages of arguments by experts and non experts. What I got out of it was don't fawk around with batteries no matter how smart they are.

I could well be wrong and probably am. I wish I never bothered to share.

 

[John Locke]

I don't know. I use their 3 battery "slow" charging hub. I keep 3 batteries with it set to storage mode (50% charge) in the garage (or hotel) and change to the charging mode a couple of hours before I want to fly. I have a 4th battery I try to keep charged in case I want to snap a quick sunset picture.

Just to clarify, an individual DJI battery cannot charge any faster than it's designed to charge, due to the smarts in each battery. Generally speaking it's a 1C battery, when other dumb batteries can be 25C, charging 25 times faster than a 1C DJI battery. So the stress on a DJI battery is quite low in comparison to other dumb battery charge rates, but both use a similar chemistry, LiPo. Because of this slower charge rate, the DJI battery will exhibit a longer use life than dumb batteries. This 1C charge rate also makes them much safer than a 25C RC CAR battery. The only way to increase the speed to charge your 3 DJI batteries is to do it in parallel, such as the Thor parallel charger. However, individually they will not charge any faster with any aftermarket charger. If you're only charging one battery, the Thor charger will do this at about the same rate. It's limited by the smarts in each battery.

The standard 100W charger from DJI provides 5.7A @ 17V. The Thor provides about 5.2A @ 17V per battery, so individually the batteries may not charge as fast, and it will be less stress (only slightly) on the battery. But with 3 batteries charging in parallel, you'll be done sooner, about 2.7 times sooner.

Personally I like the DJI 3X cradle, charging batteries in series. Yes it takes longer (less than 3hrs) but usually I'm not in a hurry. I just like the convenience of putting them in to charge and I don't have to remember to swap out batteries two times during the day. The storage charge mode is also really nice. If you run your batteries down to 20% and you know you won't be flying for a few weeks, the storage charge mode will charge them to 60% and stop, ideal for storage. That's really nice to maintain a good healthy battery.

 

[Darren Roach]

As with all types of battery make up, heat is the biggest factor. With something as costly as these batteries, do you really want to be taking a chance on a none genuine part to charge them which may or may not be perfectly matched to the very batteries they are meant to be charging? If I needed to charge all my batteries at the same time I would simply buy more genuine chargers, simples

 

[John Locke]

If I had the need to do parallel charging, I would not have a problem using a Thor charger for DJI batteries. Quality chargers is their core competency, and looking at their spec they have a conservative approach to charging the DJI batteries with only 5.2A charge rate for each battery, versus 5.7 from DJI's charger. I see very little risk in that. I'm personally using the 3X DJI cradle with std charger because it's small enough to fit in my backpack when I travel, and it's convenient to leave 3 batteries charging while I'm out to dinner.