Uploaded December 2016 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
I bought this SkyRC 4P3 charger with my own money (£200 of it!) as a regular customer (it was actually supposed to be my Christmas present!), it is very expensive so am very disappointing this is not usable with DJI Phantom 3 batteries it is sold to charge, as it causes over voltage errors on the DJI batteries.
Skip to 7m00s if you just want to see the over voltage problem, this seems to be a design issue with the charger, as it affects both units I was sent (first and then replacement).
It appeared to be a clone of the Smart Powercharge SPCP3 which is even more expensive (£300+ and difficult to get in the UK) and has no storage charge function, having bought other (much cheaper) SkyRC products, I thought this was worth a punt.
I already have a 4in1 charger and some light bulb smart dischargers, but this looked a neater solution to charge 4 flight batteries with transmitter and iPad all at once and to discharge to storage charge after flights, or if weather prevented flying.
I couldn't find this in the UK so bought this from a seller abroad, however as I show in video this is unusable for DJI Phantom 3 Batteries, as the charging voltage is too high - 18.8v, when the correct voltage is 17.5v max, which causes over voltage errors on genuine DJI Phantom 3 batteries.
I've queried this with SkyRC in case this was a faulty unit, SkyRC initially suggested this is my user error, but when I show them video of the problem, they claim the high voltage is by design, so I appear to be stuck with a very expensive paper weight ;) I asked if the voltage was adjustable or firmware upgradable and SkyRC have said not.
Hopefully at least others can learn from my mistake buying this.
UPDATE 15/12/16: Just to update, the company I purchased this from have tested all their stock, and found a few chargers (just under 8% of the chargers they tested) have this same fault, but that most of them work correctly and don't over-voltage the battery. The correctly working chargers initially show 18.8v on the battery terminals to detect the battery, but when a switched off battery is loaded, they correctly drop to correct charging voltage. So this is not a one off, but its not common. They are replacing my charger with one they have tested/confirmed works correctly. I am more concerned that SkyRC missed this even when I reported the info they suggested bypassing the error, which doesn't seem a good idea to me.
UPDATE replacement charger has the exact same issue on 2 of my 3 DJI Phantom3 batteries, so is unusable, it seems to me the way this charger works is flawed as it should not present a high voltage to battery at any point to avoid battery errors. Seller has refunded me and taken both chargers back.
I bought this SkyRC 4P3 charger with my own money (£200 of it!) as a regular customer (it was actually supposed to be my Christmas present!), it is very expensive so am very disappointing this is not usable with DJI Phantom 3 batteries it is sold to charge, as it causes over voltage errors on the DJI batteries.
Skip to 7m00s if you just want to see the over voltage problem, this seems to be a design issue with the charger, as it affects both units I was sent (first and then replacement).
It appeared to be a clone of the Smart Powercharge SPCP3 which is even more expensive (£300+ and difficult to get in the UK) and has no storage charge function, having bought other (much cheaper) SkyRC products, I thought this was worth a punt.
I already have a 4in1 charger and some light bulb smart dischargers, but this looked a neater solution to charge 4 flight batteries with transmitter and iPad all at once and to discharge to storage charge after flights, or if weather prevented flying.
I couldn't find this in the UK so bought this from a seller abroad, however as I show in video this is unusable for DJI Phantom 3 Batteries, as the charging voltage is too high - 18.8v, when the correct voltage is 17.5v max, which causes over voltage errors on genuine DJI Phantom 3 batteries.
I've queried this with SkyRC in case this was a faulty unit, SkyRC initially suggested this is my user error, but when I show them video of the problem, they claim the high voltage is by design, so I appear to be stuck with a very expensive paper weight ;) I asked if the voltage was adjustable or firmware upgradable and SkyRC have said not.
Hopefully at least others can learn from my mistake buying this.
UPDATE 15/12/16: Just to update, the company I purchased this from have tested all their stock, and found a few chargers (just under 8% of the chargers they tested) have this same fault, but that most of them work correctly and don't over-voltage the battery. The correctly working chargers initially show 18.8v on the battery terminals to detect the battery, but when a switched off battery is loaded, they correctly drop to correct charging voltage. So this is not a one off, but its not common. They are replacing my charger with one they have tested/confirmed works correctly. I am more concerned that SkyRC missed this even when I reported the info they suggested bypassing the error, which doesn't seem a good idea to me.
UPDATE replacement charger has the exact same issue on 2 of my 3 DJI Phantom3 batteries, so is unusable, it seems to me the way this charger works is flawed as it should not present a high voltage to battery at any point to avoid battery errors. Seller has refunded me and taken both chargers back.
