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Controller charging phone battery?

Tried it with my Nexus 7 - 2013. Tablet is still indicating "in charge" but the RC is not charging it anymore :)
 
Hello, my phone is not rooted but I had an other idea. Why not cutting the 5V cable on the Mavic cable? We could also add a on/off switch on it. I will try with another cable and will let you know.
 
Why not cutting the 5V cable on the Mavic cable?

I tried that, but it seemed that without it ,the tablet (Nvidia Shield) did not know anything was connected at all. That meant that the DJI Go 4 app didn't make the data connection to the remote controller. It was as if the power wires needed to be connected to tell the table to pay attention to the signal wires.

Different tablets may have different results...
 
Has this been resolved by a later version of Android?

I'm getting some heat from a guy commenting on my latest video about rooting your Android android to stop the RC charging the phone. They claim that my source is wrong when I use this thread as the reference.

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I'm not sure how many people are on recent versions. There was a thread about someone here updating to Oreo and being OK, but it's the only data point I've seen. Many, including the vast majority of Shield owners it would seem looking around here and the DJI forum, aren't willing to update! May not get much data regarding recent Android versions.

I plug my Shield into the lower USB port of the controller. I have 2 batteries. Flying through both of them, combined with some dorking around checking my RTH and camera settings first, looking at maps between batteries, and so on and I've got my tablet plugged in for almost an hour. At least 45 minutes. I am pretty consistently at about 65% power left on the RC after all this. So while the tablet does drain the RC batteries, for my uses that's fine. I know if I was trying to perform an actual film shoot and had to be up for a few hours straight I'd be frustrated and running out of juice. But for a hobby I'm good.

Couple notes:
* The RC shows a strange battery % while the tablet is plugged in, I have learned not to trust it. It shows the 65% or so after I've unplugged the tablet and started packing up. It shows this same amount when I get home and put it on the charger. Not sure why goofy %'s show up w/ the tablet plugged in, maybe it's some wort of weighted average? I haven't looked into it.
* It does appear you can use the USB port on the side with a battery pack. The issue with the lower USB port not working simultaneously is limited to the iphones / ipads. DJI is doing something interesting to keep them from charging from the controller, and whatever that is keeps both ports from working at the same time. Android can use both. Well, mine can (and my iphone definitely cannot). I've tested that this works, but have not bothered to see how well it works (how much power is restored / not lost to start with / run through the RC from the battery pack to the tablet) since I realized I don't actually need it.
 
I got my Mavic Pro today & have solved the "charging the phone" issue. Strip a little insulation of the micro USB cable (not sure what the USB-C is like, as I'm using an old phone for the controller) and cut the black wire. The controller will no longer charge your phone. Simple! It may freak out a bit trying to connect before you open the DJI app though, but don't worry.

Please buy a spare cable first, as the colours may be different, if made by different manufacturers. I just followed the USB pins with a continuity tester & cut the power return.
 
Definitely get a spare cable for the attempt. It seems it varies from phone / phone and tablet / tablet. Some can run without the power wires attached and use the data wires only, some need the power wires to wake up and use those data wires. Nvidia Shield is in that latter group.

Glad it worked for you!
 
I have noticed that my phone indicated "Charging" when plugged into the controller, and I always wondered why the Samsung Tab A we normally use from the bottom USB port didn't seem to lose much charge during flights. It seems that, on my Mavic Pro, the controller does indeed charge the device.

Frankly, I wish it didn't. That 10 inch tablet soaks up a lot of power and I'm not sure I could burn through 2 full AC batteries before the RC battery gave up. (I always put it on the ground when the AC complains about Low Battery at 30 %. I'm a new Mavic user and I don't want it to have to crash land in tree because I pushed the battery too far. I never use a full battery.)

I read with interest the post about cutting one conductor on the USB cable. Good job, but I'm not that brave. I'll just have to let it charge.:)
 
It's not hard, and you should cut the +v line (power), not the power return or grnd. The grnd line can act as another grnd/sheild line for the data lines.
 
Actually the data lines are differential signal and might not rely on ground.
But best practice would be to keep the ground connected.
 

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