Can you charge the Anafi battery with a batterypack?

[LivinLarge]

Indeed, I bought two PD power banks and one will charge annafi (about two charges) but the nicer one gets confused and tries to use it as a power source running it down.

The one that works is no longer on Amazon UK so no link

But was a

1 X Usb Type C Power Bank, Puridea QC 3.0 Quick Charger + 18W PD 20000 mAh Portable Charger with Power LCD Display (18W Faster Charger Input,QC 3.0 USB Po
Sold by Baokudi
£18.99

So Watt Hours equals 3.7x20=74Wh allowing for no losses and the battery actually having that capacity.

The one that does not work http://amzn.eu/d/9rCVE0G so don't get one of these.

The Anafi battery specs

SMART BATTERY
- Type: High density LiPo (2 cells)
- Capacity: 2,700mAh
- Flight time per charge: 25min
- Charging port: USB-C
- Weight: 126g
- Voltage: 7.6V
- Max charging power: 24W

So it is a 20.52 Watt Hour battery (VxA)

Charging with a "real" solar panel system connected to a regulator with USB output should be possible but not from the joke solar panels on the side of a power bank. A lot of power bank sellers also greatly exaggerated the capacity of the battery fitted.

The first one you mentioned is available in the US where I am located. I will order that and see if my solar panel will charge it. Thanks for the input.

 

[LivinLarge]

I think the solar aspect, combined with the canoe aspect makes this use case a bit unique - I don't think you'd want a regular solar panel either, you want a marine one built to deal with potentially being dunked, and probably a powersports battery or larger to charge from the panel, running a car charger or inverter off of that. You should be able to get 5 or 6 charges from a bigger battery if it's full, which will give you some buffer between sunny and cloudy days. You'll want to keep an eye on the charge level, so get a cheap led digital voltmeter that just shows the battery voltage, that way you can keep an eye on the battery level and know if you're killing it - completely discharging it will reduce the battery's capacity - you'll need to know what voltages it should be, and when to stop using it before charging again.

You'll probably also want a way to orient the panel, ideally a way to slew it around to face the sun whichever way you're headed in the boat. On top of that, you won't want to get up to the bow every time you change direction to orient it, so tye some string or get a remote throttle lever like for an outboard and attach that to the pivot mechanisim so you can turn it from your seat while paddling.

This setup will be in the way a little for seeing in front of the boat, so you'll probably want a way to remove it quickly for dangerous sections of river, lest you miss the cues for rocks, and things in the water. If you put it at the back of the boat you'll just forget it's there and not orient it. Maybe you're travelling north sout mostly and can just have the panel pivot left to right. Maybe you get a big panel and just lay it flat, but you won't get much charge at any time other when the sun is overhead - pointing a smaller panel at the sun will certainly get you more charge than a panel twice as big that doesn't face the right way.

This presupposes that you're in the boat most of the time and want to charge from the boat.

Are you always in the boat, or are you boating somewhere to a destination in the backwoods, staying a week or two then shipping out? I assume you boat all day most days and camp in the evening for your trips, but if you're staying at camp for multiple days at a time and just using the boat to get in and out, get a big folding panel, put it in your drybag or barrel or wherever, and use your battery to charge along the way.

Finally, the Anafi has very similar requirements for charging as most phones, the uniqe aspect here isn't the drone itself, it's the combination of trip length and mode of transportation - the solar part, and to a lesser extent the battery bank that's suitable to be charged by solar from the boat is more of a canoe/kayak trip forum question I think - there are going to be lots of people on a dedicated small human powered watercraft camping forum that charge their phone somehow for long trips.

Thanks for your suggestions. We will be in large rafts and not crowded, 16 of us in six 18 foot rafts, so there is room for a panel to lay flat on the back. One person will be on the oars rowing and the others just riding along. The river twists and turns so it would be difficult to keep the panel angled towards the sun, but perhaps a passenger could tend to it. During the day we will be on the river and camping on the banks at night. We will be in deep canyons much of the time so the best light will be mid day when we are on the river. Much of the trip will be relatively calm water but there will be more than 80 big rapids in 280 miles. The solar panel would have to survive being splashed or dunked. We would have to stow it as we approach the larger rapids.
At camp, in the evenings, we would have a few hours of light before the sun drops behind the canyon walls and in the mornings perhaps an hour of sun before we hit the river again.

 

[IM35461]

On the same sort of subject the Anafi batteries at 5v can charge at at least 1.65amp and my little Amazon charger can do three at the same time!

 

[IM35461]

The controller BTW only charges at 5v even when connected to a PD charger.

I also use one of these to backup all my flight videos.

https://www.lacie.com/gb/en/products/dji-copilot/

 

[LivinLarge]

Wow that's rather expensive. I can buy a lot of cards for that amount.

 

[Dirk_ANAFI]

I am planning to buy a powerbank 20000 mAh, USB-C PD 3.0.
Before buying I wrote to the vendor: "I have to charge a battery with USB-C connector and PD ability (Parrot Anafi battery) with your powerbank. Is it possible to set the powerbank's USB-C port to OUTPUT only? I ask because otherwise my battery could try to charge the powerbank."
Answer: " No, that is not possible. But if you switch the powerbank on before you connect your USB-C battery, then your battery will be charged by our powerbank."

Did you experience this too? Is it possible that a powerbank acts as current source, if it was turned on before connecting it to a battery?

 

[AugerIn]

I haven’t had that issue with my powerbank, ( a non pd anker ) but I can see the anafi does try to provide power to things when I connect to them with a meter. The meter has a dedicated input and output, and beeps when you connect a power source to the output instead of the input. If I don’t turn on the powerbank first, I always get that beeping. The charge indicator lights up solid on the anafi.

I can’t turn the battery bank on after and have it charge, it won’t start with the anafi attempting to provide power. If I turn on the power bank first, it charges the anafi as expected.

I thought maybe with the meter I could direct it one way or another, but the battery bank doesn’t seem to want to acknowledge the anafi as a power source.

I kind of wanted that ability to discharge the battery if I thought I was going to use it, charged it to full, then couldn’t use it for some reason - not good for the battery storing it fully charged.

 

[Grim Reaper]

I have a Ravpower Super-C Series 26800mAh Portable Charger Type-C + iSmart 2.0
I can’t get it to charge my Anafi batteries, I can’t get the charging leds to light up in the same way they do when connected to a mains charger. It looks like the anafi battery is charging the power bank up but a USB C power meter in circuit reads 5volts at 0 amps.
The power pack is supposed to be able to be turned into a source by pressing the button for 5 seconds but I can’t get it to work.

 

[Dirk_ANAFI]

I have a Ravpower Super-C Series 26800mAh Portable Charger Type-C + iSmart 2.0
I can’t get it to charge my Anafi batteries, I can’t get the charging leds to light up in the same way they do when connected to a mains charger. It looks like the anafi battery is charging the power bank up but a USB C power meter in circuit reads 5volts at 0 amps.
The power pack is supposed to be able to be turned into a source by pressing the button for 5 seconds but I can’t get it to work.

Did you press the button before connecting Anafi battery?

 

[Grim Reaper]

Did you press the button before connecting Anafi battery?

Tried the long press before connecting but the powerpack doesn't respond, if I do it after connection I can get the anafi pack to stop flashing but it doesn't look like it's charging.

 

[jeremiah23]

I used this battery pack to charge my Anafi battery on a camping trip last weekend. It worked just fine, though it was a slow charge (about 5 hours from 15 percent to 100). I also used the USB cable that was included with the drone.

 

[Grim Reaper]

Apparently the ravpower battery pack has the wrong type of smart charging protocol to work with the anafi battery.

 

[Landbo]

I used this battery pack to charge my Anafi battery on a camping trip last weekend. It worked just fine, though it was a slow charge (about 5 hours from 15 percent to 100). I also used the USB cable that was included with the drone.

Yes with 5 Volt 2 Amp from the battery, it will definitely take its time. I using a charger that was with one of my tablets. It is labeled 5 Volt 3.5 Amp and can charge my Anafi batteries in about 2 hours. Therefore, I do not want to spend money on a PD charger that only lets the battery charge a little bit faster. I actually want people to buy a real charging cable for their Anafi as the first accessories because there's usually a big loss in a regular USB-C cables.

Regards Leif.

 

[FliteDoc]

Indeed, I bought two PD power banks and one will charge annafi (about two charges) but the nicer one gets confused and tries to use it as a power source running it down.

The one that works is no longer on Amazon UK so no link

But was a

1 X Usb Type C Power Bank, Puridea QC 3.0 Quick Charger + 18W PD 20000 mAh Portable Charger with Power LCD Display (18W Faster Charger Input,QC 3.0 USB Po
Sold by Baokudi
£18.99

So Watt Hours equals 3.7x20=74Wh allowing for no losses and the battery actually having that capacity.

The one that does not work http://amzn.eu/d/9rCVE0G so don't get one of these.

The Anafi battery specs

SMART BATTERY
- Type: High density LiPo (2 cells)
- Capacity: 2,700mAh
- Flight time per charge: 25min
- Charging port: USB-C
- Weight: 126g
- Voltage: 7.6V
- Max charging power: 24W

So it is a 20.52 Watt Hour battery (VxA)

Charging with a "real" solar panel system connected to a regulator with USB output should be possible but not from the joke solar panels on the side of a power bank. A lot of power bank sellers also greatly exaggerated the capacity of the battery fitted.

Not sure I understand how you can charge a 7.6V battery pack w. a 5V charger ... which is what I've been doing - 10W, 2A 5V USB standard charger w. USB-C cable .. ??? Are there 5V cells hooked in series w. a voltage regulator that reduces the voltages to 7.6V for the drone

 

[Kilrah]

A boost converter in the charger that turns the 5V input into 8.6V to charge the battery.

 

[Liger 1956]

It is a 2 cell pack in series. Each cell has a nominal voltage of 3.8 volts and is fully charged at 4.2 volts. A 5 volt supply is perfectly capable of charging each cell to 4.2 volts.

 

[IM35461]

Not sure I understand how you can charge a 7.6V battery pack w. a 5V charger ... which is what I've been doing - 10W, 2A 5V USB standard charger w. USB-C cable .. ??? Are there 5V cells hooked in series w. a voltage regulator that reduces the voltages to 7.6V for the drone

Most of these USB Powerbanks only have a 3.6v battery in them and boost the output voltage to 5 with the electronics in them.

Anafi's battery must either do something similar to charge or as also suggested charge the cells in parallel.

The USB C battery input seems happy to use 5v, 9v or 12v from a Power Delivery USB source.

It also can be used to access the micro SD card if Anafi is turned on.

 

[Kilrah]

They do not charge in parallel, that would be way more complicated to do than regulate the input up or down as required (which is trivial nowadays and a de-facto capability on most things USB-C) to the 8.6V pack voltage.

 

[LivinLarge]

I just received my Anafi and tested 2 different power banks, one 10,000 mAh and one 20,000 mAh. Both were able to charge the Anafi batteries, but took a while. Neither is a type C or PD power bank. I can charge either of the power banks with a fold up solar panel. So I finally have a solution to charge batteries on my extended river trips.

 

[loyukfai]

Charging from a USB PD power bank, ~16W