Mini 2 poor battery life..

HomeyJay · Oct 2, 2022

I bought my Mini 2 plus flymore kit just a few days ago and am having battery issues with the drone.
Ive never been in anything other than normal mode and am just getting used to the drone but whatever I do, I just can’t seem to get more than 16mins out of it. Today I flew around in the fields behind the house at 10m/s with no wind whatsoever and a temp of 20c and the Mini 2 landed with less than a minute of time left till a forced landing - I just made it back home!
The other battery was pretty much the same too. I’ve not tried the 3rd battery out yet.
I was hoping to get 20min out of it like most others seem to but for some reason, I’m not.

Is there anything I can do / try?

mooncusser · Oct 2, 2022

What are you seeing for battery charge level before you take off? The batteries can discharge while being stored, by design. So if you charge them to 100% and don't fly for a while, they may not still be at 100%. Did you buy the kit new, or refurb, or used? If not new, batteries do start to lose capacity over time as they're used.

HomeyJay · Oct 2, 2022

Battery life was 100% before take off. I bought it all new a week ago!
I just looked into the last flight on the app and it was actually 15 mins and 8 seconds before I was forced to land!

fgurnee01 · Oct 2, 2022

Have you added anything to the drone that increases the weight? Big impact. Also if you see the message about "payload mode" it will decrease also.

HomeyJay · Oct 2, 2022

No, I was thinking of ordering one of those 5g strobes but haven’t done it yet!

karlblessing · Oct 2, 2022

Seems you already accounted for wind speed causing shorter battery life.

If the drone is naked (ie: no added accessories) and you are sure the props are secure, the only other question I can ask, is where do you live?

The reason being, depending on your elevation, thinner air density requires more motor power to create lift. Closer you are to sea level, the easier it is to create lift (when all other factors remain the same).

Mynah · Oct 2, 2022

HomeyJay said:
Battery life was 100% before take off. I bought it all new a week ago!
I just looked into the last flight on the app and it was actually 15 mins and 8 seconds before I was forced to land!

You should get better than that, I have 2× Mini 2 refurb fly more combos, six batteries in total and I average 19 to 24 mins per battery with heavy flying. Maybe give them time to 'break in' then evaluate again, I'd say about 5 recharges.
Good idea to set up a free Airdata account to keep track of drone and battery performance. The logs give detailed reports of batt temp and performance.
Airdata UAV - Flight Data Analysis for Drones