Double your Zorro's battery life!

In this video I outline a modification you can make to your Radiomaster Zorro ELRS radio that substantially increases your battery life!
In my experience this doubles battery life when running at the full 250mw output.
Credit for teaching me about this mod goes to Isaac Alich who has a written guide posted here:
isaacs.site/20...
Recommended radio batteries for an additional 50% boost: illumn.com/183... (Flat Top fits better than button top)
Voltage regulator I used:
www.amazon.com...
In my experience the more common "Mini360" buck converters do not start up reliably when used in the radio.

[@BBFPV]

Proof double battery life! It is only the TX board, and i guess it is feeded by 5V from the MB like the TX16S. Much more easy, set TX power to dyn.

[@TropicFPV]

As I show in the video, the TX module is powered off of 2S VBat, not 5v. You can prove this yourself with a multimeter. I agree that enabling dynamic power can also substantially improve battery runtime, but it comes with drawbacks of its own.

[@BBFPV]

@@TropicFPV What drawbacks?

[@revfpv7908]

Excellent video. I’m looking forward to trying mine out after the upgrade.

[@CrashFPV21]

Been looking for a solution like this for sooo long! TY!

[@Alex-yu3ik]

Not yet brave enough and don't need it ... yet. But I kinda want it 😅

[@CostaFPV]

Nice tutorial 🙂👍

[@FATSNAIL-FPV]

where did you get those stick ends? or the STL's? Thanks for making this vid!

[@ako6627]

FYI: I opened my new Zorro Max, which I just got, to apply this hack just to find out that there is an upgraded version of the ELRS module which already has non-linear regulated voltage circutry on it instead of the 1117 LDO. Who knows how to find out what module is built in without opening the Zorro...

[@MachuPichuu]

Looks like Isaac's site is down.

[@JohnStenborg]

…of course there is no real world way to magically double battery amp hour…without double battery amp hour…i built battery packs between the handles for my several zorros…elegant smooth designed and quickmounted…no 3d printer whatsoever involved…my zorros which runs hacked 2watts overkill elrs modules…for hours…

[@rohanbansal2324]

Sub'd. I wonder if it would be possible to ramp up the power to 1w or at least higher than stock? I have the skills to do it but am still exploring associated circuitry and chips.

[@brendangregos1970]

That's an interesting idea. The 4-in-1 internal module for the Zorro is the same as the Boxer's so I speculate that you might be able to just plug in the Boxer ELRS module and hack in a fan somehow.

[@yonseimatt]

@@brendangregos1970 I have a 1wattBoxer ELRS module, and it's quite a bit bigger than the Zorro one. It wouldn't physically fit behind the mainboard.

[@yonseimatt]

Edit: It does fit. Your comment made me curious to revisit the project. It's tight up against one of the gimbals, but it does fit with a bit of persuading. I've set mine to 250mw because I haven't rigged up a fan, I might try to make one that fits on the nano module bay and is powered from that, because if I ever want to put a module on there, the internal module will be powered down and the fan could just be popped off.

[@FPV_Reject]

Thumbs up for the great tutorial! Would the process be the same for the non-ELRS version of the RadioMaster Zorro? Particularly the 4-in-1 version.

[@TropicFPV]

While I can't confirm whether those internal modules have the same voltage regulator (AMS1117) on them, there's a good chance they do. For the 4in1 module in particular, it may be on the underside going off of pictures I'm finding. The battery life gains on those modules will probably less drastic since they use less power than the ELRS version.

[@MikeCarr07]

What bios battery do they use? Mine the date and time keep resetting

[@andrewjones2352]

What are those red stick ends you have? They look good. Where can I get some?

[@TropicFPV]

They're the Thumb Grippies Q-Tips! The radio in this video is a friend's- I use the Grandmaster stick ends myself.

[@andrewjones2352]

@@TropicFPV thanks 😀

[@showdownz]

I really want to do this. My question is do you foresee it causing problems when running external modules on 1 and 2 watts. I have both and external elrs ranger (the big one that allows 2 watts) and a tbs 2 watt module that I intend to run once I get an adapter plate. Will those still work?

[@showdownz]

I guess my question is: Does this effect the output to an external module?

[@yonseimatt]

No, it doesn't. External modules are powered from a 5v pin on the module bay. This mod affects only the internal module, nothing else.

[@showdownz]

Thank you. Btw I did end up ordering the batteries you recommended. Thank You. I haven't had a chance to test their run time compared to the radio master ones I already had, but I did weigh them and they weighed one gram more. While weight isn't the best way to judge a battery because different internal construction can obviously have an effect, it still is a good rule of thumb. This makes me think the mod may be doing most the work as far as extending run time. I'll try to come back and comment once I know. Thank your for your great video, if the batteries don't extend my runtime I will likely do this mod. Your instructions were very well done. @@yonseimatt

[@CrashFPV21]

This is not how my Zorro is. The board is different.

[@CrashFPV21]

It must have got upgraded. This sucks cause I ordered the regulators already. Ughh

[@TropicFPV]

Sorry to hear about that! I'm seeing an updated module in the Radiomaster Pocket teardowns that has a different component in place of the voltage regulator. I wouldn't be surprised if they're putting them in the Zorro too.

[@KidCe.]

i just opened my zorro to make the "charge by top usb port hack" by Juergen Pachur and found out that radiomaster upgraded to a switching regulator

[@Bmxwrx16]

Clever mod. Thanks for the video. Subbed.

[@nikotttin]

Very interesting! Thx!

[@redogg2749]

Are those 18350 okay long term? I'm thinking of getting them but worried the 3A rating isnt enough for elrs @250mw

[@TropicFPV]

I ran them for a year without any issues. Power draw on them should be well under 3A even without this mod.

[@stevecook6136]

I also run them, no prob..even with an external ELRS module.@@TropicFPV

[@stotheak]

Watts=VxA. 3A x 3.7V=11 watts. Even one battery could handle over 11 watts. 250mW is a quarter of a watt.