FWIW

[EricJT]

Learned a lesson today when flying my 6th battery off the day...I was about 300 meters out and 75 meters up when I got a SC alert of only 10% battery remaining.

I jumped to the conclusion the M2P's battery was the issue, not taking a deep breath and thinking about why I didn't get my typical 25% warning first.

Anyway, I brought it back quickly and landed. That is when I noticed the M2Ps battery circle indicator lights showed it still had more than a 75% charge. Looked at the SC and saw it was the 10% culprit...I guess not surprising as I said earlier I was on my 6th battery.

Lesson learned....during each flight I monitor my M2Ps battery, so now I will also watch my SC's charge remaining!

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

It is easy to overlook that for sure, 5 or 6 batteries is about the limit for my M1P controller too, depending what I fly the drone batts down to (usually down to 20% or so at most).
I have 6 batteries but rarely fly that many in one hit, think I could just make it.

 

[EricJT]

It is easy to overlook that for sure, 5 or 6 batteries is about the limit for my M1P controller too, depending what I fly the drone batts down to (usually down to 20% or so at most
I have 6 batteries but rarely fly that many in one hit, think I could just make it.

I don't typically fly 6 batteries in an outing, but today when I headed out it was threatening rain. Since I am retired I decided to go ahead as I was trying out my new GoPro as a dashcam.

Well it only threatened rain and the gray clouds made for some really nice shots (panos mostly) as well as some good auto-circling routes with the M2P facing inwards for one lap and outwards for the 2nd....changing the altitude in flight as well.

A well spent 4 hour outing!

 

[Arnold LeVine]

Does anyone know if inserting a power stick in the usb-c slot of the SC extend the battery life during the above 6-battery flight? (Like in the case of a large low altitude cross hatch pattern mapping mission?)

 

[EricJT]

Does anyone know if inserting a power stick in the usb-c slot of the SC extend the battery life during the above 6-battery flight? (Like in the case of a large low altitude cross hatch pattern mapping mission?)

Not 100% sure but I would think if it did work, the amps and capacity of the externally connected USB battery would be critical. I know the wall wart SC charger is higher rated than your typical USB charger.

After posting my original comments, I was thinking of an unused USB battery I have lying around and if plugging it into my SC while traveling between flying locations would help increase the SC's charge. But then I realized that if I brought my SC's wall wart charger with me, I could plug it in to the 120V outlet in my SUV!

 

[Arnold LeVine]

My second hand SC did not have the factory charger, but research ended with me buying a 3amp wall charger, which works well, fast charges.
I have not tried operating with the charger plugged in, if you do let me know if there is any problem. I did not see any reference in the online manual to charging while operating.
The scenario I asked about was a continuous mapping mission. Recharging between flight locations in the SUV would work for you.
My scenario is kinda like the RC for my Phantom also keeping the charge on my phone up while flying.

 

[Cymruflyer]

I had the same thing happen to me a few weeks ago. I took off with a full battery and notice a warning that only 12% or so was remaining on the SC. I thought that I would have time for a few minutes of flying to get a quick photo. Very soon after a warning of 10% came up but since the SC seems to always last a long time when flying, I still felt I was okay.

Suddenly there is the critical warning showing and I'm about 100ft up and maybe 130 feet away, above some trees and near the edge of a 50ft drop to Lake Erie. Suddenly the screen goes off and I panic. I try a restart but nothing, the sticks don't do anything and the drone is just sitting there. I tried another restart but still nothing (Obviously).

Then the drone started to slowly fly out into the lake and I had no control, I thought that was it, I would finally loose my M2P. Then about 15 seconds later it returned, did a bit of a circle, then went off again out to the lake disappearing over the trees. Then it suddenly came back once more about a few seconds later.

It then started to come down, stopped, rotated a bit and moved back over the picnic table I took off from and then finished landing. It landed about an inch from where I took off, just amazing!!! My heart was pounding and I was soooo thankful for incredible technology. I don't know why it started heading out into the lake at first, but it did just what they say it will do, it starts a return to home once the signal is lost and it lands very accurately.

I will never again fly with less than half charge on the SC, even if for a short flight, I learned my lesson. Thank you DJI.

 

[Arnold LeVine]

On the SC, is there a safety function at critically low battery to shut off the screen to save power and maintain connection to the AC? If that is so, that could explain the SC screen shutoff, and for future gut scares, mean to simply hold down the RTH button on the SC. Can anybody verify this idea?
without the logs, i would guess that the AC eventually went into its own critical battery RTH.
As to the flight pattern, I seem to have a dim memory of RTH along the original flight pattern so as to avoid obstacles in a direct beeline back to homepoint. So maybe the behavior was repeating your flight in reverse? Am I dreaming this? or can someone verify or steer me to the correct conclusion?

 

[Cymruflyer]

On the SC, is there a safety function at critically low battery to shut off the screen to save power and maintain connection to the AC? If that is so, that could explain the SC screen shutoff, and for future gut scares, mean to simply hold down the RTH button on the SC. Can anybody verify this idea?
without the logs, i would guess that the AC eventually went into its own critical battery RTH.
As to the flight pattern, I seem to have a dim memory of RTH along the original flight pattern so as to avoid obstacles in a direct beeline back to homepoint. So maybe the behavior was repeating your flight in reverse? Am I dreaming this? or can someone verify or steer me to the correct conclusion?

There was plenty of battery life in the drone and plenty left after it landed itself. The SC has no safety feature of screen first going off then control sticks. When it stops, it all stops. Since it lasts a long time in use I did not think that 10% was going to stop that quickly or I would never have flown with it that low.

Once the screen went off, I had no control with the sticks at all. I don't know why it hovered for several seconds then flew off away from me and then came back but not straight back in the same line it left me, it was maybe fifty feet off to one side of the track it flew away on. I have the return to home set to about 30m so it won't just fly into a tree if I am lower and that would happen. My actual flight from lift off was just to climb to about 100 feet, rotate, then move about 50 feet away from me, that's when I had the warning it was shutting down (SC). It did not even allow me time to bring the drone back down, since it was right by me. The track it took once it lost signal was all new and had nothing to do with a reversal of what I was previously flying with it.

I am assuming the signal was lost so the drone had a little think about things then flew off for something unknown but at least it did come back. In all, it took maybe two minutes for it to go off and come back and move around the sky a little and then drop down and land at the exact same spot it took off from. I had trees around me so I am pleased it did not fly around much before touching down or it could have been much worse.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

I don't know why it started heading out into the lake at first,

I think the M2 does the short route retrace, to minimise risk if obstacle collision, before starting the true return to home.
That’s probably what that action was.