I’ll preface this post with the caveat that there is a very strong possibility that, putting it mildly, the word salad below is complete Science Fiction.
I have a suspicion that Parrot migh employ a similar balancing method that Fatshark employ on their 2s LiPo’s used to power their goggles. The Fatshark batteries have what appears at first glance to be a balance port put this is actually just a tap from the cells to power the goggle’s internal fan, and balancing is achieved with an internal circuit connected directly to the main power plug.
From the only teardown video of an Anafi battery I have seen the board with the micro USB C socket serves as:
1. A USB to serial converter for accessing the Anafi’s SD card and diagnostics.
2 A circuit to provide a slow and controlled discharge after a period of time (SMART).
2. A voltage converter/regulator for upping the voltage from 5Volt to 8.4Volt.
The 8.4Volt is passed to a smaller pcb which, as well as supporting the primary power plug, also has two discrete IC’s which “may” monitor the charge of the two cells and “maybe” responsible for balancing, based on the two wires in addition to the two primary power wires connected from this board to the two cells.
If the above is actually the case then there is a probability that the Anafi batteries will still be balance charged when using the charging device linked by the original poster.
The eight tiny pinouts between the +ve and -ve on the battery connector will probably be used for serial communications, and for sensing when the battery is connected to the Spark as the batteries will not provide any output when not connected to the Anafi.
As jmbsmt63 commented it would still be prudent to charge via USB once in awhile if what I wrote above has no semblance on the real World. I will admit that at one weekend race meet I forgot to pack the balance leads for my four port charger so the only option I had was to charge without. I estimate I charged and discharged the six LiPo’s I was using about twenty times each over the two or so days and I didn’t notice any deterioration in performance. Four years down the line I’m still using the same packs and each cell (four in each pack) are within just a few milliVolt of each other.
Regards
Nidge.
