Fr Robert Ballecer, SJ I 've been thinking random thoughts and while looking at my cell on it ...

[G+_T Nohands]

Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ I've been thinking random thoughts and while looking at my cell on it's wireless charging stand and thought about how it had a lipo battery similar to most power hungry devices. I then thought what about putting the components for wireless charging on a drone? If the components are light enough drones could land on a charging pad and continue on after being charged. Could that be possible to safely wire and operate Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ?

[G+_Michael Shada]

Sounds like a good idea.

I haven't done the calculations but I think it may take a few days to charge a quad copter battery though.

[G+_Ben Reese]

Michael Shada

Maybe not... The battery in the Know How build is <600 mAh. The battery in the S7 is 3,600 mAh. It might take an hour or so to charge wirelessly, but that's not terrible..

[G+_Michael Shada]

Ben Reese Your probably right. Right off the top of my head I was thinking of larger quads, and didn't think of the smaller ones and the smaller battery. (Don't own a quad)

[G+_JD Fuller]

Could be interesting. Hardware is all out there...

Rolls Royce prototyped (or suggested) a charging pad idea like this. Now that would take a while to charge

[G+_Ben Reese]

Michael Shada Yeah, I don't own a big quadcopter yet - just a small Hudson X5 (a lot more things I'd rather spend $200 on).

 

I checked out the show notes for episode 115 which has the parts list for the KH450. It's using a 2200 mAh battery (https://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=8934) which is still under that 3600 S7 (which is crazy!)

 

I'm still not sure it's really feasible for most builds though...

With the current model, you can have 5 batteries and swap them out; but wireless charging implies you only have the 1 battery and are ok with waiting for it to charge.

I believe the newer wireless fast charge will do 10W - which is fast, but not as fast as the 50W you'd get in a wired charger. To add more would require adding more wireless charging circuitry.

Now, all the charging circuitry is in the charger. To charge wirelessly we'd probably have to move that all to the craft.