Recently I found my self looking for suitable spare batteries for a Carrera Mario-copter drone. The Mario-copter is a fun entry-level drone for kids (8y+). It is reasonably priced and easy to handle. However, due to its light-weight build it can carry only minimal weight. As a consequence, the tiny batteries only give you around five minutes of drone fun.

Short-story: you can now find spare batteries for a Carrera Mario-copter drone at the ThingPulse store.

Need for spare batteries

If you only get five minutes of drone fun for a single battery charge – and recharging takes >30min – then you will likely want to have a handful of fully charged batteries around. Swap batteries and take-off again!

Easier said than done!

I didn’t find any spare batteries for the Carrera Mario-copter drone for purchase. What I did find though are comments by fellow Mario-copter owners with the same problem. Therefore, in my role as ThingPulse co-founder I contacted our trusted battery supplier in Asia. They carry what I needed and sent me some samples.

Those batteries fit perfectly and they perform even slightly better than the original. Hence, together with my co-founder Dani I decided to stock these batteries and start selling them through the ThingPulse store.

Carrera design flaw

Swapping the Mario-copter battery is not difficult but a bit cumbersome. In my opinion the battery enclosure design is flawed as it offers sub-par user friendliness. The lid is secured with a screw. While that ensures the lid will not accidentally open mid-flight it prolongs the battery pit stop.

We tried without the screw thereby relying solely on the snap fit mechanism of the lid. Try that at your own risk but I found it works well. I haven’t had a “lid-malfunction” so far.