Power up and down the Mavic 2 via the remote?

silverdragon · Jun 7, 2019

Do you think it can be done? Are there any reason why it shouldn't be done. For Safety reason, not practical, laziness factor etc....

I would like to walk it out 30 feet or so from where I will be standing, sitting, etc and flip a power on button at my convenient time then launch.....Do the same when I land the craft... flip a switch, it powers off and I then walk out to it a my leisure.

Starz · Jun 7, 2019

I’m not thinking that will be possible with a DJI product.
(unless you have an in with someone at a very high level at that organization)

msinger · Jun 7, 2019

silverdragon said:
Do you think it can be done?

It cannot be done today since it's not a feature of the Mavic 2.

silverdragon · Jun 7, 2019

msinger said:
It cannot be done today since it's not a feature of the Mavic 2.

I should of clarified that. In the future on the DJI drones made in the near future. My question should of been, would that be a feature that the pilots would welcome to the controller?

silverdragon · Jun 7, 2019

But, it is possible? Would anyone like that feature incorporated into the controller... I see it as something unique that other consumer drones dont have.

Congoblue · Jun 7, 2019

It is technically not possible since the radio comms part of the drone needs to be powered up in order to receive the commands from the remote controller. If the drone is powered off how is it going to receive the command?

In fact this is effectively the state the drone is in when you've pressed the power button, but before you start the motors. It's just sitting there with its radio systems powered on waiting for a motor start command from the remote control. Likewise at the end when you turn off the motors using the remote control. I am not sure how this is different from what you are asking.

Starz · Jun 7, 2019

silverdragon said:
But, it is possible? Would anyone like that feature incorporated into the controller... I see it as something unique that other consumer drones dont have.

Possibilities are endless.
As always, boils down to dollars and space.

Maviac · Jun 7, 2019

silverdragon said:
I should of clarified that. In the future on the DJI drones made in the near future. My question should of been, would that be a feature that the pilots would welcome to the controller?

I don't see any benefit to it, but the way it could be done would be to have a switch activating radio receivers that's turned on by unfolding the legs that could then receive the command for a full power on. But it seems like a convoluted process that would lead to an additional failure point in the system, and I'm not seeing any added safety or convenience.

Kilrah · Jun 7, 2019

That is technically posible of course, but would need a second radio link incorporated for only that one purpose that is low power enough to not drain your battery in less than a day in standby like the main one would...

NikkiSixx · Jun 7, 2019

I feel like this comes from PlayStation and Xbox thought, but those are always plugged in.

Cymruflyer · Jun 8, 2019

If you have a switch that is waiting to be activated, as a power on switch, via the controller, then you would need that switch to be always on, in order for it to receive a signal to power the drone up. That means a constant drain on a battery while it sits there inactive, waiting for the power on signal, so a battery draining situation.

The other problem is that you would not want a simple on off switch, it should be a multi switch function, other wise the user may accidentally push that switch/button at some point during flight and shut the aircraft down while in the air. Not a thing you would want to do while in flight.

The 737-200 has two switches in the overhead panel that are referred to as Unemployment switches, because if you turned either of them off during flight, they could not be reset in the air, you had to land and have an engineer reset them. And if you did switch them off, you had better have a good reason for doing that in flight or you were going to be unemployed, after touch down, hence the name they were given.

Such a switch on the controller for a drone, as you suggest, brought to mind those 737 switches.

Joe4flight · Jun 8, 2019

silverdragon said:
Do you think it can be done? Are there any reason why it shouldn't be done. For Safety reason, not practical, laziness factor etc....

I would like to walk it out 30 feet or so from where I will be standing, sitting, etc and flip a power on button at my convenient time then launch.....Do the same when I land the craft... flip a switch, it powers off and I then walk out to it a my leisure.

I think that’s a great idea. I had both my MPP and controller turned on. Propellers were idling. My controller screen showed a connection error and my iPhone was not picking up a video feed from the drone. So I decided to power the controller down as an attempt to reboot the controller. As soon as the controller was turned off, the drone took flight on its own. It went straight up hitting the branches of a tree then came crashing down to the ground. Enough damage occurred that I received a replacement drone from DJI via their Care Refresh program. I posted about this incident earlier this year and received lots of great responses about what could have caused the drone to take flight on its own. I’m convinced it was because I powered the controller down causing the drone’s RTH function to activate. I’ll never do this again, but having a button to power the drone on and off would be a great feature.

silverdragon · Jun 8, 2019

Joe4flight said:
I think that’s a great idea. I had both my MPP and controller turned on. Propellers were idling. My controller screen showed a connection error and my iPhone was not picking up a video feed from the drone. So I decided to power the controller down as an attempt to reboot the controller. As soon as the controller was turned off, the drone took flight on its own. It went straight up hitting the branches of a tree then came crashing down to the ground. Enough damage occurred that I received a replacement drone from DJI via their Care Refresh program. I posted about this incident earlier this year and received lots of great responses about what could have caused the drone to take flight on its own. I’m convinced it was because I powered the controller down causing the drone’s RTH function to activate. I’ll never do this again, but having a button to power the drone on and off would be a great feature.

Thanks for all + and - 's..... for some reason i like the idea of that option. I can picture me utilizing it.