Why is there no phone battery info on DJI GO4?

[Robbyg]

I am a bit puzzled as to why DJI did not put the phones battery info onto the app screen and put it on the top row. I have seen many YouTube flights were people on devices suddenly got the 20% warning and had to slide off the warning message. A dead phone is really bad if your far away away from your landing point.

I would think that DJI would add in some simple code to show the phones battery life on the screen.

What do you think?

 

[Former Member]

I am a bit puzzled as to why DJI did not put the phones battery info onto the app screen and put it on the top row. I have seen many YouTube flights were people on devices suddenly got the 20% warning and had to slide off the warning message. A dead phone is really bad if your far away away from your landing point.

I would think that DJI would add in some simple code to show the phones battery life on the screen.

What do you think?

This is a question I have always asked myself. The phone battery is important while youre flying, maybe not as important as your flight or controller battery, but DJI Go takes up the whole screen so to check your phone battery you need to switch windows.

I have noticed sometimes that the controller will actually charge one of my phones while Im flying. Anyone else know about this?

 

[Robbyg]

This is a question I have always asked myself. The phone battery is important while youre flying, maybe not as important as your flight or controller battery, but DJI Go takes up the whole screen so to check your phone battery you need to switch windows.

I have noticed sometimes that the controller will actually charge one of my phones while Im flying. Anyone else know about this?

The funny thing is that they do have the space because as you know you can toggle on the battery voltage. I would much rather have the ability to toggle on the phones battery percentage. Also this is already a standard call in the iDevices API. so It would take DJI almost no time to implement it.
I am pretty sure its the same for Android devices.

Rob

 

[Robbyg]

I have noticed sometimes that the controller will actually charge one of my phones while Im flying. Anyone else know about this?

Yes lots of threads on this. I looked to see if I could locate a cable that does not have the 5V line but no one sells one. You would have to manually hack the cable and cut the wire.

Rob

 

[Cyberpower678]

Yes lots of threads on this. I looked to see if I could locate a cable that does not have the 5V line but no one sells one. You would have to manually hack the cable and cut the wire.

Rob

Speaking as an electrical engineer, cutting the 5V power will cause most USB receivers to not acknowledge the device as the circuit is now open.

 

[Cyberpower678]

I am a bit puzzled as to why DJI did not put the phones battery info onto the app screen and put it on the top row. I have seen many YouTube flights were people on devices suddenly got the 20% warning and had to slide off the warning message. A dead phone is really bad if your far away away from your landing point.

I would think that DJI would add in some simple code to show the phones battery life on the screen.

What do you think?

Yes. I wonder about that too. Add a battery indicator in the app. Though if worse comes to worse. RTH is something I can bet on and observe on my controller.

 

[Robbyg]

Speaking as an electrical engineer, cutting the 5V power will cause most USB receivers to not acknowledge the device as the circuit is now open.

I am also an EE but to be honest I have not fooled around with USB ports Vcc all that much but I have seen several devices that do not seem to be using the Vcc or dragging it down with a resistor. I would figure that if the D+/D-/Gnd are connected it should communicate just fine so long as the other side is not depending on the Vcc. Worth a test, the worst that can happen is that the device is not recognized. I see no chance of anything burning out.

 

[Robbyg]

Yes. I wonder about that too. Add a battery indicator in the app. Though if worse comes to worse. RTH is something I can bet on and observe on my controller.

Except if your in Atti mode then things become really dicey if your phone goes dead

It boggles the mind that DJI has not implemented such an easy feature.

Rob

 

[Cyberpower678]

I am also an EE but to be honest I have not fooled around with USB ports Vcc all that much but I have seen several devices that do not seem to be using the Vcc or dragging it down with a resistor. I would figure that if the D+/D-/Gnd are connected it should communicate just fine so long as the other side is not depending on the Vcc. Worth a test, the worst that can happen is that the device is not recognized. I see no chance of anything burning out.

It's a small world isn't? The worst that happens is you accidentally ground the Vcc connection and that will fry something. Don't put it in backwards either, that may just confuse the hell out of the computer, if not burn it out, the bits may be flipped.


Sent from my iPhone using MavicPilots

 

[Robbyg]

It's a small world isn't? The worst that happens is you accidentally ground the Vcc connection and that will fry something. Don't put it in backwards either, that may just confuse the **** out of the computer, if not burn it out, the bits may be flipped.


Sent from my iPhone using MavicPilots

I use to think that it was a small world but I have noticed that a lot of EE's seem to be drawn to the same hobbies
I bet we have a lot of Ham operators that fly Mavics and are also EE's, I know Peter Homer is a Ham Operator and I think he is a retired EE.

As for the Vcc, it's not something I would recommend for a complete novice. You need an ohm meter and the you need to double check and triple check that you have cut the right wire and tape it off properly.

Rob

 

[Former Member]

I'm going to do a test tomorrow with 3 different phones to see how much my phone's battery percentage drops from the beginning till the end of the flight.

As a side note I always try to completely charge my my device battery before I fly. Part of my PreFlight checklist.

Flight battery at least 90%, controller battery at least 75%, phone battery at least 90%

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N920A using MavicPilots mobile app

 

[Filmscum]

I was wondering this same thing last week. It was minus 4F and I knew my iPad mini 4 was getting dangerously low. I always hate closing the Go app mid flight. I mean I know it's generally not an issue but still there's a bit of pucker factor!

It would be such an easy thing to add to the app it seems.

 

[Anthony Viscomi]

I'll speak from the programmers point of view in regards to the phone battery icon question. Simply put, it would be a developers "nightmare". There are 2 OS (IOS & Android) that can be used with the Mavic, thus provisions would have to be made for both. They (developers) may even have to pull the value(s) from the phone/tablet firmware which could be a large undertaking given the various devices that could be used. I believe that the Android devices are more of an issue than IOS because of the various manufactures of those devices. Simply put, if a device uses IOS its an Apple device. If a device uses Android, it can be 1 of at least 30 different manufacturers.

 

[Former Member]

I'll speak from the programmers point of view in regards to the phone battery icon question. Simply put, it would be a developers "nightmare". There are 2 OS (IOS & Android) that can be used with the Mavic, thus provisions would have to be made for both. They (developers) may even have to pull the value(s) from the phone/tablet firmware which could be a large undertaking given the various devices that could be used. I believe that the Android devices are more of an issue than IOS because of the various manufactures of those devices. Simply put, if a device uses IOS its an Apple device. If a device uses Android, it can be 1 of at least 30 different manufacturers.

Yes and add to that compatibility issues, firmware upgrade issues, probably be a nightmare for them to make it work, and just generate thousands of new calls and chats as to why my phone battery charge is not showing on DJI Go app or the controller.

But it sure would be nice to have.

 

[Cyberpower678]

I'll speak from the programmers point of view in regards to the phone battery icon question. Simply put, it would be a developers "nightmare". There are 2 OS (IOS & Android) that can be used with the Mavic, thus provisions would have to be made for both. They (developers) may even have to pull the value(s) from the phone/tablet firmware which could be a large undertaking given the various devices that could be used. I believe that the Android devices are more of an issue than IOS because of the various manufactures of those devices. Simply put, if a device uses IOS its an Apple device. If a device uses Android, it can be 1 of at least 30 different manufacturers.

Let me add a counterpoint from also a programmer. Apple has oodles of API calls in the OS which would make its implementation easy. Now think of this. It's not unreasonable for the Android OS to also have an API that apps use and one of them is likely to get battery information. I mean the OS can do it on all devices running it, so that app should clearly be able to as well.


Sent from my iPhone using MavicPilots

 

[Former Member]

While we're on the subject, what information does the controller get from your phone? We know that the phone gets telemetry, video feeds, etc, from the controller but what info is the controller reading from your device? Seems like the device is a slave to the controller.

 

[Cyberpower678]

While we're on the subject, what information does the controller get from your phone? We know that the phone gets telemetry, video feeds, etc, from the controller but what info is the controller reading from your device? Seems like the device is a slave to the controller.

Not much. Just commands you issue to the drone from the app.

 

[Filmscum]

I'll speak from the programmers point of view in regards to the phone battery icon question. Simply put, it would be a developers "nightmare". There are 2 OS (IOS & Android) that can be used with the Mavic, thus provisions would have to be made for both. They (developers) may even have to pull the value(s) from the phone/tablet firmware which could be a large undertaking given the various devices that could be used. I believe that the Android devices are more of an issue than IOS because of the various manufactures of those devices. Simply put, if a device uses IOS its an Apple device. If a device uses Android, it can be 1 of at least 30 different manufacturers.

I just opened every app on my iPhone and iPad. Every single one other than Fed Ex had the battery percentage display. The iOS and Android Go apps are already completely different, with features on one platform completely missing from the other. Sorry I'm not getting your point.

 

[Anthony Viscomi]

I just opened every app on my iPhone and iPad. Every single one other than Fed Ex had the battery percentage display. The iOS and Android Go apps are already completely different, with features on one platform completely missing from the other. Sorry I'm not getting your point.

Those types of apps a bit different in design, by that I mean that they are 100% mobile apps and are in portrait format. Open up Safari and rotate to landscape format, let me know if you still see the battery meter along with the other stuff.

 

[Kilrah]

I have seen many YouTube flights were people on devices suddenly got the 20% warning and had to slide off the warning message. A dead phone is really bad if your far away away from your landing point.

What's the problem with the 20% warning? Plenty of time to come back with that (unless you have one of them iPhones with the defective battereis that shut down unexpectedly at random percentages, but that's another problem).

I am pretty sure its the same for Android devices.

On android you just swipe down and see the top bar with the battery level, no need to put the app in the background.