Phone charging when connected to Mavic Mini RC

[Da Jimmer]

Newbie on this site; begging forgiveness if question has been asked and answered. Using Samsung Galaxy S9+ connected to RC for display of DJI Fly app when flying Mavic Mini. I note that, instantaneous the phone connects to the RC, my phone displays that it is charging; I assume from the power source it identifies within the RC. I have adjusted the settings on my phone to prevent "fast charging," but cannot find a way to completely disallow the charging behavior. The result, of course, is that the behavior results in faster discharge of the battery source within the RC itself. Any suggestions?

Thank you in advance for any helpful guidance.

 

[MrChris]

It's ingrained into Android phones, in order to successfully connect via USB the pins in the cable that provide power have to be connected which results in charging of the phone. It's not unique to the Mini or DJI but pretty much any drone that uses the phone via USB.
It is possible if you have a phone that can be rooted to disable USB charging, though you'd either have to charge wirelessly only or remember to re-enable it when done. But the newer Samsungs generally have locked bootloaders and cannot be rooted. There has been limited success specific to certain phones in uses "data only" USB cables but most phones will then act as if they are disconnected from the remote, the success rate has been pretty low.

Lots of people complain, lots of rocks thrown at DJI to "fix this" but ultimately the only two options are live with it or use an Apple device or the Smart Controller if you have a model that is compatible with it as it is an all-in-one solution that skips the phone, it is an Android issue and not a DJI issue. Some people argue otherwise but I've found if I start with a full charge on my phone the draw on the remote is relatively small and really doesn't impact my use.

 

[Da Jimmer]

Thanks much! Very helpful to better understand the dynamics in play here. After discovery of the issue and inability to disable USB charging on my newer phone, I, for sure, begin flights with a full or near full charge on my phone. Thx again.

 

[maohmc]

Good afternoon Da Jimmer. Android phone can have USB connection configured, in your case I suggest looking at this link: Samsung Galaxy S9 - How to fix USB connection issues
Have a good evening!

 

[Tiagostb]

I don't know why dji do this but I do know that I will never buy a dji product again. They don't deserve our respect as we don't have their!

When I bought my Mavic zoom wasn't an option to stop charging Android phone from the controller until they release the famous update for dji go 4.3.0, and the option was there on mine Huawei p9.
I could select to charge or not charge my phone and everything was working really good until the next fw update.
I'm very very stupid. Why I did it??
Now there is no more option to stop charging the phone. And I'm feeling very stupid because nobody is talking about it. You only know that there is no option for that and they are telling us that Android need to be charging to transfer data, but that it's not true, because I already saw that option and already worked with mine Huawei p9 many times before the last update I did. My controller battery now sucks and I think I can't even fly 3 battery's on my Mavic without total drain the controller.
Now, two years after Mavic 2 release and a bunch of fw updates still no solution for this.
This is something not only related (if it's related...) to Dji Go 4 app fw, but with the controller firmware as well, because I already tried to install older versions and the famous 4.3.0 version, with charging phone feature that I saw with my own eyes and had used it many times, and that option it's missing because the remote controller fw update as well.
The only solutions that dji give us for that are, or buy a iPhone or buy the smart controller... It's unacceptable after wasting 1000€ on this ....
I'm very frustrated with that and I will not recommend dji to anybody, and I will never buy a dji product again.

 

[MrChris]

I don't know why dji do this but I do know that I will never buy a dji product again. They don't deserve our respect as we don't have their!

When I bought my Mavic zoom wasn't an option to stop charging Android phone from the controller until they release the famous update for dji go 4.3.0, and the option was there on mine Huawei p9.
I could select to charge or not charge my phone and everything was working really good until the next fw update.
I'm very very stupid. Why I did it??
Now there is no more option to stop charging the phone. And I'm feeling very stupid because nobody is talking about it. You only know that there is no option for that and they are telling us that Android need to be charging to transfer data, but that it's not true, because I already saw that option and already worked with mine Huawei p9 many times before the last update I did. My controller battery now sucks and I think I can't even fly 3 battery's on my Mavic without total drain the controller.
Now, two years after Mavic 2 release and a bunch of fw updates still no solution for this.
This is something not only related (if it's related...) to Dji Go 4 app fw, but with the controller firmware as well, because I already tried to install older versions and the famous 4.3.0 version, with charging phone feature that I saw with my own eyes and had used it many times, and that option it's missing because the remote controller fw update as well.
The only solutions that dji give us for that are, or buy a iPhone or buy the smart controller... It's unacceptable after wasting 1000€ on this ....
I'm very frustrated with that and I will not recommend dji to anybody, and I will never buy a dji product again.

You might want to rethink your angst. This is NOT a DJI problem or limitation. It IS an Android/Phone manufacturer issue.

While SOME Android phones depending on the exact model and version of Android can be used successfully with a "data only" USB cable, generally it is a very hit or miss proposition and you run a risk, albeit a small one, of damaging your phone using those data only cables. But many phones and the way they implement their USB connections will not make a connection to the controller using the data only pins in the cable. They check for a connection on the voltage pins and if its unavailable ignore the connection. DJI has no control over this.

DJI had two basic choices. Make their devices Apple compatible only or make them Apple and Android compatible despite the charging issue. They chose the second option and most people using Android like myself would prefer them to work with Android despite the charging issue than not.

But beyond that this limitation is hardly a show stopper in fact very few people are actually, truly affected by this charging issue. I have 6 batteries for my M2Pro and if I start with my phone at 90% charge or higher, I can get through all 6 batteries before I need to charge my controller. If I have to charge all 6 batteries, charging the controller at the same time just isn't a big deal.

But I've also tried it with the phone much lower and starting with my phone at 50% I can get through 3 full batteries on the bird and part way into a 4th before the controller is drained enough that I land and even then the controller was at 17%.

So if you have only 1 or 2 or 3 batteries, you'll literally never discharge the controller because it's charging your phone, before all your flight batteries are drained. So its totally a non-issue. But if you still have a problem with it complain to your phone manufacturer. That is where the issue is and its not limited to just DJI or just with drones.

 

[Tiagostb]

I'm telling you, I already had this feature on my dji Mavic zoom with my Huawei p9 and it worked perfect, no data lose, no drained controller, no problems, all was perfect. So, I didn't update the phone, but I did update the dji app, drone and controller, and now this feature wasn't there anymore. how it's a Android problem?
And my question it's that, anyone else have experienced the same as me? Anyone had used this feature with their Android and then missing it again? Because I do!!

 

[MrChris]

I've had the M2Pro since it was released and the Zoom for over a year. There has not ever been that setting on the DJI side and if by some chance there was, it would likely cause issues particularly for Samsung phones so it wouldn't have lasted long and if that is the case it wouldn't make sense to have that feature work for a Huawei and crash Samsung phones given Samsung's vastly larger market share outside of China. Some Android phones have a setting for it, most do not however USB charging is totally controlled on the phone side of the connection. It is not unique to DJI, it happens with every other brand of drone compatible with Android. It happens with my flash controllers using the Android app over USB with my studio flashes. In the cockpit I use Foreflight on an iPad and its connected to an ADS-B device and Garmin panel, very early on Foreflight tried to do Android and couldn't with the charging issues being one of the reasons and rather than try and work around it, they dropped Android before it left testing and made it IOS only for this very same reason. It is well discussed on a variety of forums from multiple brands be it Autel, Yuneec or the dozens of other lesser brands.

 

[Bill_H]

OK.. now, how about going the other way... I wanna be charging my phone from the Mini controller (which it's not doing at the moment and the controller seems to be 'loaded' giving me lotsa juice available). Note: all Androids I have wouldn't even see the DJI Fly app on the Store, so I went and bought a used iPhone6S. Is there an on/off feature to be found either in the iPhone, or, in the DJI Fly app itself? Thanks in advance.

 

[zappy54]

don't no if the Dji Fly APP As the on and off switch but the Dji go4 does.

 

[Gleno0h]

OK.. now, how about going the other way... I wanna be charging my phone from the Mini controller (which it's not doing at the moment and the controller seems to be 'loaded' giving me lotsa juice available). Note: all Androids I have wouldn't even see the DJI Fly app on the Store, so I went and bought a used iPhone6S. Is there an on/off feature to be found either in the iPhone, or, in the DJI Fly app itself? Thanks in advance.

don't no if the Dji Fly APP As the on and off switch but the Dji go4 does.

It is in the fly app settings, but only with apple products.

These are somehow a bit better supported.