RS2 Field Power Solution

For those of you having issues with the RS2 battery dying in the field, we’ve started using this as a solution. It’s a MyCharge Adventure Turbo 20,100 mAh battery. Works fantastic to keep the base station running. Both of our rental systems have these with them. You should get at least 8 hours between the internal battery and the external. I haven’t done a full function test of it, but will be doing so soon.
MyCharge Adventure Turbo 20,100 mAh battery

1 Like

Wowzer! I normally just duct tape a spare 8000mAh battery bank if I’m doing multi day observations! Then again, leaving a big battery in the open like that in Africa is just asking for trouble!

@AreDub What settings are your RS2 on? I am wondering if the LoRa radio is broadcasting RTK corrections. Having the RTK on really drains the battery. If it’s on, you can turn it off and see if it helps the battery.

I just did 3 days of flying and still haven’t charged the RS2, but I did last night. It still had 2 lights off battery

2 Likes

I charge mine like once every few flights, maybe. Its supposed to get like 16 hours of life. I have charged mine in the field one time and it was because I left it on in my office for an entire night and it still didn’t even die

The RS2 suffers terribly when used in low temperature conditions. Often it will not even start up if its super cold despite being fully charged. Sometimes it just needs a “boost” to get it cracking again with a external power source.

But the battery indicator on the RS2 is really a thumb-suck (it has always been a bone on contention with Emlid users and testers) and I often just use common sense as to how long it still has in it. Basically, I wouldn’t log more than 12 hours without starting to sweat whether or not it still has enough juice in it to la…!

We’ve got everything turned off that doesn’t need to be on. I’ll get more feedback from the guys in the field this week.

Either way, the power bank is a good backup. We run small LiPo batteries on the CHC base, but those internal batteries are much more unpredictable.

1 Like

In your testing perhaps you can get some numbers and maybe we can see what kind of actual drain it uses per hour. I’ve got some ideas stirring in my head, and I’m gonna do the same, but it would be interesting to compare your data with mine.

1 Like