Solution: Skycontroller 2 Replacement Battery (silver joysticks)

[flyingblind]

There's a vendor on Amazon that sell's a square 7.4v 2000mAh Lipo battery that just so happens to fit nicely inside the Skycontroller 2 battery compartment. It's 700mAh less than the stock battery so it only lasts for 1.5 to 2 hours but that's plenty of time for most weekend pilots... also, you can quickly swap it out with another battery because they're affordable (buy two!). The battery is capable of more current draw (8C) than the stock battery so it meets the necessary specs.

Two issues:

#1: The battery has a standard 3 pin JST connector that doesn't fit the Skycontroller's plug.. but that's easily solved with a custom wire harness that I will make available. It's only a couple centimeters long and converts the JST plug to the exact plug the controller uses. It even has a 3 wire lead so that you get battery telemetry just like the OEM battery.

#2: You can't charge it with the OEM charger, you have to use a ~$15 JST balance charger and take the battery out of the controller to charge. It just is.

Total out of pocket for 1 battery (~$16), 1 charger (~$15), and one wiring harness ($20) is about $50-$55 dollars. That's just a little more than half what an OEM battery replacement commonly costs (IF you can find them).

If you're interested in this solution and need the wiring harness you can email [email protected]

Happy flying






DISCLAIMER: I am not associated with any Amazon vendors listed in this post.

 

[bcow]

Thumbs up for this recommendation - I actually need one! But as I am having some spare controllers, there wasn't enough pressure to keep all of them going. But eventually, the current battery will die as well at some point in time ...

 

[flyingblind]

So many old Skycontroller 2s out there with dead batteries, or worse, spicey pillows that'll go up in flames during their next charge. 9 year old drone with nearly-as-old unstable controller batteries is bad bad; They're likely to fail at the most inopportune time, possibly causing significant damage that could be quite costly.

So, we improvise, adapt, and overcome with a bit of ingenuity and some Google Fu. $55 is cheap insurance to be able to continue flying as much as you would want to, imo.