Mobile phone & battery drain

[Dronernator]

Last week I took out the mini with 3 full batteries and a fully charged controller. I know the controller charges the phone and until recently the controller would drop to around half full after an hour's flying with the 3 batteries.

I've recently got a new phone and kept my old phone as a satnav device and for the mini. When flying, my drone phone is tethered to the new one through a hotspot so the drone/controller/phone has an internet connection. I've noticed I don't get the orientation display at the bottom of the screen but you can see the same from the map view.

What did surprise me was the controller's battery life after flying for an hour, it's still on 4 lights, and the phone battery had drained as if it's been using GPS with the screen on and unplugged for an hour.

I'm out again whenever the wind drops to a mini-acceptable level and I'll check again but after this one flight, it feels like the controller isn't being drained by the phone. The phone wasn't quite fully charged before I used it with the mini.

Anyone else noticed this?

 

[ff22]

Last week I took out the mini with 3 full batteries and a fully charged controller. I know the controller charges the phone and until recently the controller would drop to around half full after an hour's flying with the 3 batteries.

I've recently got a new phone and kept my old phone as a satnav device and for the mini. When flying, my drone phone is tethered to the new one through a hotspot so the drone/controller/phone has an internet connection. I've noticed I don't get the orientation display at the bottom of the screen but you can see the same from the map view.

What did surprise me was the controller's battery life after flying for an hour, it's still on 4 lights, and the phone battery had drained as if it's been using GPS with the screen on and unplugged for an hour.

I'm out again whenever the wind drops to a mini-acceptable level and I'll check again but after this one flight, it feels like the controller isn't being drained by the phone. The phone wasn't quite fully charged before I used it with the mini.

Anyone else noticed this?

If I follow, you are using the old cellphone with the controller but that old phone is no longer looking for cell coverage which probably takes a lot of battery power. So possibly, since the old phone is not draining as much, it does not need to be recharged as much? I hope my guess will be corrected if I'm off base.

 

[Dronernator]

If I follow, you are using the old cellphone with the controller but that old phone is no longer looking for cell coverage which probably takes a lot of battery power. So possibly, since the old phone is not draining as much, it does not need to be recharged as much? I hope my guess will be corrected if I'm off base.

The opposite. The old phone drained more than usual, as much as I'd expect from a phone using WiFi to connect and GPS, it was more than it used to drain when it had a SIM.
I'm hoping to be out again Monday, I'll monitor it closely and check if the phone charge indicator comes on.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

Precisely what phone do you have connected by cable to the controller?
What steps did you take to connect the two phones?

 

[Dronernator]

Precisely what phone do you have connected by cable to the controller?
What steps did you take to connect the two phones?

Old phone is a OnePlus 5 (O5) running OxygenOS 9.0.11. New phone is a Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Pro running Android 9.

The old phone, O5, is connected to the controller. SIM is in the Mi.

Enabled mobile hotspot on the Mi and connected to it from the O5. It's the O5 that had the battery drain with little drain (according to the LEDs) on the controller.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

Hmmmph, it might be useful if you could rig up something like this to measure the current being drawn from the controller, I've checked mine and the phone draws between 380 and 410 mA from the controller. That was a Samsung S6 on the MM controller and a Samsung S5 and then a Note 4 on a GL300* from a phantom 3

 

[Dronernator]

Hmmmph, it might be useful if you could rig up something like this to measure the current being drawn from the controller, I've checked mine and the phone draws between 380 and 410 mA from the controller. That was a Samsung S6 on the MM controller and a Samsung S5 and then a Note 4 on a GL300* from a phantom 3

The data so far is anecdotal but it certainly feels like less drain on the controller. Time to take a look at the USB monitors on wish.com.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

Agreed your experience is anecdotal but it is well worth investigating. Even your previous experience differs significantly from mine, 2 full battery flights and I am below 50% charge on the controller

 

[Dronernator]

Agreed your experience is anecdotal but it is well worth investigating. Even your previous experience differs significantly from mine, 2 full battery flights and I am below 50% charge on the controller

That's what I was used to when the O5 had a SIM.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

What does the O5 show now as the USB connection mode?

 

[Dronernator]

What does the O5 show now as the USB connection mode?

Plugged in to the controller, the O5 says No data transfer. I've not bothered print out into debug mode to mess with all the advanced options. The system icons also say it's charging from the controller. I'll watch it more closely on Monday, wind permitting.