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DJI Power 1000 Portable Power Station Review | Fast Charge Your Drones!
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Nov 1, 2024
Photographer Dustin Abbott shares a detailed review of the DJI Power 1000 Portable Power Station than has some direct integrations with DJI's drones. | Check out the text review: | Purchase the DJI Power 1000 @ B&H Photo https://bhpho.to/3XfvS6r or Amazon: https://amzn.to/3yZ5Zjj Check out the DA Merch here: https://bit.ly/TWIMerch | Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/dustinabbott | On the Web: http://dustinabbott.net/ | Sign up for my Newsletter: http://bit.ly/1RHvUNp | Instagram: http://bit.ly/DLAinsta | Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1nuUUeH | Flickr: http://bit.ly/1UcnC0B | 500px: http://bit.ly/1Sy2Ngu Follow Craig @ https://www.instagram.com/craigstoffersen/ Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo: http://bhpho.to/1TA0Xge Adorama: https://howl.me/cjU0LKdp3LN Camera Canada: http://bit.ly/DLACameraCan Sony Canada: https://www.thesonyshop.ca/?ref=abbott Amazon: https://amzn.to/3HrY64d Amazon Canada: https://amzn.to/3qG1p18 Ebay: http://bit.ly/DustineBay Into the AM Clothing: https://bit.ly/intotheAMda and use code DUSTIN10 for 10% off Fioboc Clothing: https://tinyurl.com/FiobocDA20 and us code DUSTIN20 for 20% off Make a donation via Paypal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/dustinTWI ============================= Table of Contents: ============================= 0:00 - Intro and Concept
View Video Transcript
0:00
[Music]
0:11
hi I'm Dustin Abbott most of us know the
0:13
DJI brand above all for their drones
0:16
maybe you also know them for gimbals or
0:18
microphones or other cine based
0:21
accessories but now they have expanded
0:22
into the realm of power stations though
0:25
there is some kind of overall synthesis
0:28
between their various product lines they
0:31
have a few bonuses in the case of the
0:33
DJI power 1000 that I'm reviewing here
0:36
for those of you that already own their
0:38
better drones the power 1000 stands out
0:41
above all for having an extremely robust
0:43
inverter that will provide up to 2200
0:46
watts of continuous output the ability
0:49
to provide a sustained surge power for
0:51
at least 30 seconds and the 2600 watt
0:54
range and then all the way up to a brief
0:57
surge power of 4400 Watts those big
1:00
devices to just have a lot of extra draw
1:03
at startup that's well above what most
1:06
other units are going to offer in this
1:08
price point which is well under
1:10
$1,000 and so that stands to me as being
1:13
a particular area of strength now
1:15
there's other areas that I am less
1:17
impressed and so I'm going to detail
1:19
everything here as a part of this review
1:22
now while the inverter is extremely
1:24
impressive here I would say that it
1:25
somewhat outclasses the overall battery
1:28
storage we have 1,024 4 wat hours of
1:31
battery storage uh using highquality lfp
1:34
cells and while that's good it's
1:36
certainly not as exceptional as what the
1:38
inverter specs are here we have
1:41
batteries that are rated for up to 4,000
1:43
charge cycles that's up to
1:45
70% and so that gives you well over 10
1:47
years of daily recharge cycles and so
1:51
obviously that it's going to last you
1:52
for a long time bottom line as noted in
1:55
the intro one of the main things that
1:57
this unit is built around is a
1:59
proprietary
2:00
bir directional Port here and there's
2:03
actually two on the power 1000 only one
2:05
on the power 500 but on the power 1000
2:08
we have what they call both an SDC and
2:10
then an SDC light now ironically there
2:13
isn't any difference between at least
2:14
right now between the specifications for
2:16
either the SDC or the SDC light but as
2:19
noted they are biral and what I mean by
2:22
that is you can both receive power input
2:25
but then also output power through these
2:27
ports and it's these ports in
2:28
specifically that you can use to fast
2:31
charge various DJI drone batteries and
2:34
you can save about 20 minutes in many
2:36
cases of that charge and so if you're
2:38
using this kind of on site maybe you're
2:40
out in the wilderness somewhere and
2:42
you're doing a lot of drone related
2:44
footage this is where this could really
2:45
come in handy while also probably
2:48
providing for other of your needs on
2:50
site camping or whatever the case may be
2:52
so for example with the mavic 3 you can
2:54
go from a 10% to a 95% charge in
2:57
approximately 32 minutes again saving
2:59
about about 20 minutes which can be very
3:01
very useful with the air3 you can go
3:03
from 10% to 95% charge in about 30
3:07
minutes the Inspire 3 you can go from
3:10
10% to 95% in about 28 minutes and if
3:13
you're using both of these ports
3:15
Advantage being also you can can charge
3:18
two of those simultaneously with the
3:19
fast charging and then with the matrice
3:22
30 you can go from 10% to 95% in
3:25
approximately 32 minutes and so that's
3:27
going to be a really positive feature
3:29
for those you that are already invested
3:30
in dji's uh kind of drone infrastructure
3:34
there now the input for the AC is rated
3:37
up to 12200 Watts solar is as I'll
3:40
detail a little bit Mo in a moment solar
3:43
is a little bit more complicated but
3:44
each one of these ports technically can
3:46
receive up to 400 watts of solar input
3:50
though I'll detail some of the
3:51
complications as a part of that the unit
3:54
itself does not have an IP rating and so
3:56
you're going to need to protect it
3:58
though they do have this option bag that
4:00
you can store it in that is going to be
4:01
able to provide uh protection for it and
4:04
make it a little bit more useful and by
4:05
the way also easier to transport uh when
4:09
using it in the elements I really like
4:11
this bag by the way it's very well
4:13
executed lots of extra storage on it and
4:16
the fact that it has the ability to
4:18
carry it one hand means that rather than
4:20
carrying with two hands you can actually
4:22
quite easily carry this with one hand
4:24
more on that in just a moment there's a
4:26
5year warranty here the unit itself
4:29
weighs 28.6 lb or about 13 kg and so I
4:33
mean it's certainly very manageable as
4:35
far as the overall weight and certainly
4:38
I've used much much heavier units than
4:40
this one the overall dimensions is it is
4:43
17.6 uh in in width or 448 mm
4:49
9.1 in in height 8.9 in in depth so
4:53
that's 230x 225 mm one thing that this
4:58
is lacking that a lot of times units
5:00
will have particularly for you know kind
5:02
of around camping or power outages
5:05
there's no kind of light on here
5:07
anywhere and so if you're looking for to
5:09
have some light maybe while you're
5:11
getting things set up in the dark that's
5:12
going to be lacking here you're going to
5:14
need to provide that elsewhere as has
5:16
become increasingly common with these
5:18
units there is no external power brick
5:20
but rather you're just using a pretty
5:22
standard AC cord to plug it in and that
5:25
does enable it to have some UPS
5:27
functionality uh and the UPS Works quite
5:30
well with a turnover time of
5:32
0.02 seconds and so good enough to even
5:36
with fairly sensitive equipment you can
5:38
handle that Passover quite quickly there
5:41
now as far as the ports here there is no
5:43
Wireless pad if you're looking for
5:45
something like that what is interesting
5:47
and unique here is there's also not any
5:49
kind of 12volt uh car output kind of
5:52
this you know standard what we used to
5:54
call cigarette lighter type input here
5:57
and so our output and so that is
5:59
something that you're going to have to
6:00
handle again via adapter now the idea of
6:03
adapter is going to become a pretty
6:05
common theme because because they're
6:07
using these proprietary stdc ports they
6:10
you just have to use adapters to get to
6:12
pretty much everything else and so more
6:14
on that as we go we do have
6:17
two uh 20 volt grounded plugs again 2200
6:22
Watts total between those we have two
6:24
usba a ports these are a little bit more
6:27
high-powered than I've seen in any of
6:29
these units previously you can get up to
6:30
a 24 watt output uh through the USBC or
6:34
usba ports which is useful USBC ports
6:37
are also extra powered here enabling
6:40
output of 140 Watts a piece so again the
6:44
total potential of 280 Watts out via
6:46
USBC which is a lot of power for
6:50
that now one interesting thing here for
6:52
your input for your charging via AC
6:55
there's actually a switch right here on
6:57
the front that allows you to go between
6:59
either a 1200 watt maximum input or a
7:02
600 watt maximum input the idea around
7:05
here is that you can really control the
7:06
sound if you set it on the 600 watt
7:09
input it makes basically no sound while
7:11
you're charging it but what I find is
7:13
that this unit in general is just
7:14
extremely quiet and even when charging
7:16
it at the higher setting it's much
7:18
quieter than other typical units uh when
7:20
charging in that aspect now I noted that
7:24
right now there is no specification
7:25
difference between the SDC and the SDC
7:28
light and I don't know really how to
7:29
differentiate them at this point because
7:32
specification wise they're identical
7:34
ports I'm assuming that there will be at
7:37
some point in the future they're
7:38
expanding the functionality of these in
7:40
some ways and there is some hint even
7:42
that through firmware they might address
7:44
that in the future but at the moment you
7:46
have basically two redundant ports and
7:48
again these are a proprietary input and
7:52
so that means that even for solar as
7:53
I'll get to in just a second you're
7:55
going to need to use some form of
7:57
adapter for getting input into it
7:59
because I'm not aware of any solar
8:01
panels at the moment that have this
8:03
proprietary input or output form on the
8:07
cables now I did a variety of tests as I
8:10
always do with these units just to see
8:11
how they're going to handle a variety of
8:13
situations so this is an extremely
8:15
powerful inverter so there's going to be
8:17
very few household items and even power
8:20
tools that are going to be able to
8:22
really phase this and so it's going to
8:24
be able to run pretty much everything
8:26
and everything that I did throw into I
8:28
could run no problem and so I did a 1500
8:31
watt uh electric tea kettle and uh I was
8:34
able to obviously that's well within the
8:36
power rating of this and it showed zero
8:38
hesitation ran everything just fine but
8:40
what really stood out to me is not so
8:41
much that it could run it which I
8:43
obviously expected from the
8:44
specification but that it did it without
8:46
any kind of loud fan sound coming on uh
8:49
this is a really incredibly quiet unit
8:51
and so that may be one huge Advantage
8:53
for you if you need to work in a really
8:55
quiet environment because certainly it
8:57
was able to handle that even you know
8:59
fairly heavy load without making any
9:01
kind of really obvious noise I was able
9:04
to run both a uh 1200 wat and then 1100
9:08
watt blender two different blenders
9:10
without any issue I ran a toaster
9:13
without any kind of problem I was able
9:15
to run my wife's hair dryer which draw
9:18
is rated at 1875 Watts was able to run
9:21
that with no issues as well I was
9:24
looking for something to run a heavy
9:26
load to run it all to way towards the
9:29
end and so and something that needed to
9:31
deplete a lot of battery cuz we started
9:33
off in the 50% range or so and also I
9:35
wanted to kind of run it into the ground
9:37
so to speak and to see if it could
9:38
continue to sustain that great power
9:40
output even as the batter is depleted
9:43
and so I had my wife she was going to do
9:45
some ironing so I had her hook up the
9:46
iron and run it off of this unit and so
9:49
I just checked in periodically to see
9:51
how the draw was going and how it would
9:54
get to depletion so I actually managed
9:56
to be there right at the moment that it
9:57
actually uh finally C Ed out and so it
10:00
actually was still showing a 6% charge
10:02
level at that point so I'll give it a
10:05
little bit of a knock for for that not
10:08
showing you know actually getting down
10:10
to 0% but what I will also say is that
10:13
she was able to keep ironing with that
10:15
heavy draw sometimes well over 1800
10:18
watts and it was just continuing to draw
10:21
consistently and so there wasn't any
10:23
kind of fade of power and I've seen
10:25
these kind of units cheat before where
10:27
they don't output the same power as to
10:29
get towards the end to try to extend the
10:31
overall run time in this case it was
10:33
able to run it right towards the end I
10:36
did things like charging an ebike
10:38
battery something that could be useful
10:40
again if you were out kind of camping or
10:42
overlanding and wanting to go out on
10:44
Trails on the ebike was able obviously
10:46
to do that with no problem even as a
10:48
photographer I was interesting in the
10:49
potential of running lights for kind of
10:52
a portrait setting or filming and
10:54
obviously able to do that no problem the
10:57
light I was using main light was drawing
10:59
about 200 watts and so it could run for
11:01
quite a long time and sustain that
11:03
without issue I also did obviously the
11:06
charging side of things and so I charge
11:08
via solar and AC now I ran into some
11:11
complications when it came to solar so
11:14
solar charging because it's a
11:16
proprietary input you have basically a
11:18
couple of options for that now if you
11:20
have the typical car adapter here which
11:23
is going to allow you to charge from
11:25
cigarette lighter it actually has an
11:27
input that is a stand
11:29
xt60 connection point there and so I was
11:32
actually able to connect a single solar
11:34
panel uh to that and run it into the
11:38
kind of the proprietary plug here what I
11:41
found is that I was limited to only a
11:43
200 watt panel I tried hooking up
11:44
through these means a 400 watt panel and
11:47
I got zero input from it so they have a
11:50
more dedicated solar solution but again
11:52
it's another accessory and that is this
11:55
mppp um adapter here that's going to
11:58
allow you to actually connect three
12:00
different
12:01
xt60 uh ports into it so if you're
12:04
receiving the input from as much as
12:06
three different solar panels per each
12:08
one and by the way you can hook two of
12:10
these up to the actual two different STC
12:13
ports you have on here but what I found
12:16
is that I still felt like my solar was a
12:18
little bit limited obviously you're
12:20
having to add on an accessory this
12:22
accessory can be attached right to the
12:24
chassis of the actual you know the
12:27
actual Power Station itself but again
12:28
it's something that kind of sticks out
12:30
you got a cord sticking out here it's
12:32
just it's not a to me it's not a very
12:34
elegant solution now as mentioned DJI
12:37
has a little bit of a different approach
12:38
when it comes to solar charging and I
12:40
can't say that I'm necessarily a big fan
12:42
of that you have to obviously as
12:44
mentioned have to use the mppt
12:46
controller so you can get multiple
12:48
inputs but I will say that the solar
12:50
panels that they sell as a sister
12:52
company are under the company umbrella
12:54
they sell them under the zenas brand but
12:56
these solar panels are really fantastic
12:58
now they only come as at least from what
13:01
I've seen in 100 watt configurations as
13:03
I've got here so I would like to see you
13:05
know maybe a 200 watt configuration at
13:08
the same time I have seen as much as 95
13:11
96 Watts off of these panels which is
13:14
really really fantastic efficiency uh
13:16
better than what I'm typically going to
13:17
see on them I also really appreciate
13:20
that they have a very nice form factor
13:23
here to where they fold up into a nice
13:26
compact package they have a a carrying
13:29
strap that makes them very easy to bring
13:31
along obviously very easy to pack away
13:33
and then also I appreciate the fact that
13:35
the cord itself is 3 m or about 10 ft
13:39
long so that gives you a little bit more
13:41
flexibility on placing them and being
13:43
able to run them to the place where you
13:44
actually have the particular module that
13:47
you're trying to charge so while I
13:49
actually prefer the AC charging on this
13:51
particular unit the fact that you can
13:52
get up to 1200 watts of input is very
13:55
appreciated I'm not as big of a fan of
13:58
the actual solar charging process but I
14:00
do actually really like the solar panels
14:02
themselves so how about some things that
14:04
I like I love the very powerful inverter
14:07
that's unfazed by everything I threw out
14:09
it I feel like the unit is pretty easy
14:11
to carry around and so if not absolutely
14:14
lightweight for this class I feel like
14:16
the weight was wellmaintained I really
14:19
like the optional bag now again like a
14:21
lot of these accessories you're spending
14:22
extra money to get to this but as noted
14:24
I really did like the bag itself I like
14:27
the fact that you can charge it fairly
14:29
quickly via AC a little less impressed
14:31
on the uh you know charging via solar
14:34
which is my preferred way to do I feel
14:36
like there's a fairly good price to
14:38
Performance ratio with the unit and that
14:40
you're getting a lot of power as far as
14:42
the inverter for a reasonable amount of
14:44
money obviously if you own dji's drones
14:48
the ability to fast fast charge those
14:50
drones unfortunately I don't I do have a
14:52
DJI drone but not one that is compatible
14:54
with the fast I think I have the air to
14:57
so not something that's compatible with
14:59
the fast charging there so I wasn't able
15:01
to test that aspect I like the fast UPS
15:05
uh switch over and the again just having
15:07
UPS functionality in these to me is
15:09
pretty huge I love how quiet it is this
15:12
is the quietest unit that I've ever used
15:14
so I was very impressed by that
15:16
particularly under under a noise load I
15:19
also thought it was kind of cool that
15:21
even the various noises that are made as
15:24
you turn it on and off or you turn on
15:26
different functions it actually is your
15:28
typical DJI sounds and so it's similar
15:31
to you know either their drones or their
15:33
gimbals so I thought that was kind of
15:35
cool how about some things that I don't
15:37
like well I don't like that it doesn't
15:39
have an IP rating and it's something I
15:40
think that more of these units should
15:42
Aspire towards in theory these are
15:45
designed to use Outdoors camping
15:47
overlanding things like that and so just
15:50
having a little bit more protection on
15:51
them I think would be
15:53
valuable something I was actually
15:55
surprised by that this is lacking is any
15:57
kind of Bluetooth control and so if you
16:00
know you don't have the ability to
16:01
remotely monitor it via a bluetooth app
16:04
and so or to you know set various
16:07
settings and so I was surprised by that
16:09
and that's an area where it's lacking
16:11
compared to a lot of competitors at this
16:14
point I really don't love the fact that
16:16
this proprietary SDC input means that
16:19
you have to buy adapters for pretty much
16:21
everything now they're not overly
16:23
expensive with the adapters you know
16:25
some of these you know standard adapters
16:26
are going to cost you uh about $19 $20
16:30
for them so that's not too bad but of
16:33
course when you get into something like
16:34
the mppt controller it's like another
16:36
$60 etc etc and having to use adapters
16:40
for everything all the time just means
16:42
that I feel like it's a little clunkier
16:44
in operation as I noted previously it's
16:46
not an elegant solution I also found
16:49
that while I like that if you're going
16:50
to have to use this adapter that you can
16:52
mount it to the side of the unit I also
16:54
found that it no longer fit into the bag
16:56
quite as well I can force it in there
16:59
but much diff more difficult to get it
17:01
in and out and so again I didn't love
17:04
that part of it and I would say as a
17:06
negative you probably need to anticipate
17:09
spending probably an additional $100 if
17:11
you really want to unlock the full
17:13
functionality because it is so reliant
17:15
on adapters and using this proprietary
17:18
type solution so right now I noticed at
17:21
B&H Photo this is currently available
17:23
for 699 us and that feels like a very
17:26
strong value it's less of a strong value
17:29
at the full th000 MSRP and I suspect
17:33
that a lot of times you're probably
17:34
going to find some price variation
17:36
between these those two points they
17:38
probably never at the full pop but maybe
17:41
not always at a $700 level and I think
17:44
at $700 level I could definitely
17:46
recommend it as a good value my
17:48
conclusion is this I like the PowerHouse
17:51
nature of the inverter and also the the
17:54
various DC outputs are you know they
17:56
have a lot of potential to them I don't
17:59
love that it has less overall outputs
18:02
than a lot of competing units do I
18:05
definitely do not like having to attach
18:07
adapters and accessories to achieve even
18:10
common functions and so I would
18:12
recommend the power 1000 primarily if
18:14
you are attracted to the idea of the
18:16
Drone integration maybe you're already
18:18
invested in the DJI ecosystem and this
18:21
is something that's really going to add
18:22
extra function and value to you that
18:25
other units are not going to match if
18:27
you're not in that case or if you don't
18:29
value the idea if you've maybe you're
18:30
looking at the SD sddc infrastructure
18:33
and saying oh I see a lot of potential
18:35
in that with you know both input and
18:37
output then great I think you need to
18:40
just kind of consider its main appeal
18:42
here as being something that is valuable
18:44
to you yourself and if it's not there's
18:45
a lot of other alternative units that
18:47
will offer a lot of similar
18:49
specifications and have some other vant
18:51
advantages in other areas but it's
18:53
really if you're going to use this
18:55
infrastructure for your drones or other
18:58
accessories that is going to make the
18:59
most sense I'm Dustin Abbott and if you
19:01
want more information you can find links
19:04
in the description down below both to my
19:05
text review and then also some buying
19:07
links there as always thanks for
19:09
watching I hope this has helped have a
19:11
great day and let the light in
19:14
[Music]
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