DJI Mavic, Air and Mini Drones
Friendly, Helpful & Knowledgeable Community
Join Us Now

Mavic Mini Low Battery Take Off

Bobob5511

New Member
Joined
Jan 5, 2020
Messages
2
Reactions
6
Age
40
Location
IL
So I found something out about my Mavic Mini this weekend! Apparently if the battery is less than 20% it won’t take off. Good to know, but the circumstances in which I learned this were less than ideal! I was flying around the yard with no real mission and decided to land on the top of my house and see what the elevation was. We have a tall two story with a flat roof and a walkout basement, so it is quite high from the very bottom (46ft. I now know). As I was descending on the roof the 20% low battery warning came on. I didn’t think anything of it because I had planned on taking off right away again and only had a few feet to get back tot the home point. Needless to say, it would not take off due to the low battery. So there I sat, with 1/5 of my battery remaining and no way to take off! How dumb is this! I tried every menu option I could think of to no avail. I began to panic since 1) I don’t have a ladder high enough to reach the top and 2) and terrified of heights!
Luckily after some pondering of the situation and a few beers, using my friends Phantom 4 with a line and the biggest treble hooks in the tackle box we were able to make a successful recovery! Lesson learned! But seriously this seems like a useless safeguard. The only thing comes to mind is battery protection, but even at that a simple acknowledgement would suffice and if I choose to ignore it then any negative consequences are on me.
I will try to get the video of the recovery, it was quite comical! Similar in frustration to crane games at the supermarket, but extremely satisfying when we got it!
 
That is odd, mine landed with 16% about a week ago, I then took off again and flew it about 40 feet to the garage door, where I was going to be going inside through.
 
I have this 20% threshold too, it's not a problem once you know it exists but, as you found out, if you do not know it is there or forget...oooops!
Since we have 2 yeahs and one nay it makes me wonder is it a firmware thing or a quirk of a battery setting. I will post mine in the morning
 
Honestly I don’t think it is a good idea to start a flight with a battery less than half. I didn’t want to wait for fly more combo so I was only working on one battery at the beginning i was out on a beautiful day and my first flight out over water and the first opportunity to fly with minimal interference half way out I stopped recording and took some pictures I then hit the rec button on the controller once and kept going. Once it was getting a little laggy I decided to fly back didn’t want anything to go wrong over the Atlantic Ocean lol i only used 35% battery so i did a coastal shot till battery depleted and then I wanted to look at the video and realized that from the point I took the pictures I wasn’t recording ( only hit button it once ) anyway I wanted some footage as it was off cape spear (most eastern point in Canada) so I plugged in my charger into the ac outlet Of truck and charged battery for a bit I believe when I checked it was 55% so I figured it was more than enough to get a bit of footage . Only used 35 first time. Lol well I learned the first 50% lasts longer than the last 50% Especially when it gets below 30 . Was my first sketchy situation and I can almost guarantee that if it wasn’t for you guys and this forum I would have likely panicked and be another lost mini. When i got the battery rth warning i was heading back then the wind started and the screen is going crazy with wind and battery warming and it was getting ready to enter auto landing Battery % so before it did I lowered altitude shoved it in sports mode just to fight the wind and get it over land then took it out of sports mode and kept up on the sticks to climb as much as I could to get it as close to me as I could. Because even in auto land u still have some stick control. Ended up landed in grass 30 ft away from me . So I thank you guys bcause when panic started to kick in and I was watching the mini barely moving with full forward stick with low voltage I immediately Thought abouT post here that said panic leads to bad decisions i took a breath and tried to remember the stuff I read and this being my fith flight and first risky situation I truly believe I would have lost my drone sorry for the long post lol post was only supposed to be about the battery going down faster when lower
 
and im pretty sure it warns of auto land at around twenty percent but doesn’t actually start until 10% i had some control until zero tho and able to guide it to a soft landing
 
and im pretty sure it warns of auto land at around twenty percent but doesn’t actually start until 10% i had some control until zero tho and able to guide it to a soft landing
I believe that the setting is adjustable for amount of battery left, and if it is to land, or return home.
Mine is set to automatically return home when it gets down to 25%.
 
  • Like
Reactions: hiflyer201
I believe that the setting is adjustable for amount of battery left, and if it is to land, or return home.
Mine is set to automatically return home when it gets down to 25%.

@Motorcycle Rider, can you point out where that setting is? I haven't noticed that you can set what the mini does when the battery gets low and that the level is adjustable. I'll have to do a screen recording on a future flight and watch what happens after the 20% warnings that I see start. I usually don't let it get that low.
 
@Motorcycle Rider, can you point out where that setting is? I haven't noticed that you can set what the mini does when the battery gets low and that the level is adjustable. I'll have to do a screen recording on a future flight and watch what happens after the 20% warnings that I see start. I usually don't let it get that low.
When you have your phone attached to the controller, and all things turned on including the mini. Tap the three tiny dots on your phone screen, and then in the settings there are menus. I don't remember the exact menu, but would be happy to find it again tomorrow and then get back to you again. Mine came factory set to return home at 25% battery left, and i haven't changed it. You can get it to just land wherever as well, but that seems like a terrible idea. I'll pm you my number to, incase you want to text.
 
@EyesWideShut sorry it took me a while to get the answer. You have two PMs from me as well.
In the Fly app, tap the three dots in the upper right corner, then under Safety, scroll to the very bottom, and click Advanced.
In advanced you will see more choices, including what you request your mini to automatically do when the battery gets low. Mine came set to Return To Home as the factory setting.
 
Last edited:
@EyesWideShut sorry it took me a while to get the answer. You have two PMs from me as well.
In the Fly app, tap the three dots in the upper right corner, then under Safety, scroll to the very bottom, and click Advanced.
In advanced you will see more choices, including what you request your mini to automatically do when the battery gets low. My came set to Return To Home as the factory setting.

I think the the three choices you are talking about (RTH, Hover, Land) are what the mini will do if there is a loss of signal between the AC and controller, not a low battery I believe the battery warning to RTH is fixed at 20% with the current Fly version and will auto land when the battery gets lower. I'm not sure what that % is set at.
 
So I found something out about my Mavic Mini this weekend! Apparently if the battery is less than 20% it won’t take off. Good to know, but the circumstances in which I learned this were less than ideal! I was flying around the yard with no real mission and decided to land on the top of my house and see what the elevation was. We have a tall two story with a flat roof and a walkout basement, so it is quite high from the very bottom (46ft. I now know). As I was descending on the roof the 20% low battery warning came on. I didn’t think anything of it because I had planned on taking off right away again and only had a few feet to get back tot the home point. Needless to say, it would not take off due to the low battery. So there I sat, with 1/5 of my battery remaining and no way to take off! How dumb is this! I tried every menu option I could think of to no avail. I began to panic since 1) I don’t have a ladder high enough to reach the top and 2) and terrified of heights!
Luckily after some pondering of the situation and a few beers, using my friends Phantom 4 with a line and the biggest treble hooks in the tackle box we were able to make a successful recovery! Lesson learned! But seriously this seems like a useless safeguard. The only thing comes to mind is battery protection, but even at that a simple acknowledgement would suffice and if I choose to ignore it then any negative consequences are on me.
I will try to get the video of the recovery, it was quite comical! Similar in frustration to crane games at the supermarket, but extremely satisfying when we got it!
Usually at 20% battery level it is time to return home !! not start flying?
 
I tried it this morning, after reading this thread. I was able to take off with 14% battery life but when I tried at 9% the Mini wouldn't respond. The message on screen was simply that the battery needed charging. Sorry, I didn't think to take a screen shot...
 
I tried it this morning, after reading this thread. I was able to take off with 14% battery life but when I tried at 9% the Mini wouldn't respond. The message on screen was simply that the battery needed charging. Sorry, I didn't think to take a screen shot...
I kept trying mine today as well as the battery got lower and lower, it would take off fine at 15%, 14%, 13%, 12%, and 11%, but at 10% it wouldn't let me take off anymore.
 
I was in my office a couple days ago and was letting the MM hover while I checked out the menus and what all is available. I decided to see what would happen if you let the battery run completely down. It was in my office, not outdoors but it went completely to 0% and then landed. It was neat to listen to the warning as the battery ran down.
 
For a long battery lifespan it is best not to fly it below about 30%. So there is plenty of reserve in case of an emmergency.
 
Lycus Tech Mavic Air 3 Case

DJI Drone Deals

New Threads

Forum statistics

Threads
130,594
Messages
1,554,211
Members
159,599
Latest member
jordy