Samsung S6 Overheating

[HollWaz]

I've started having trouble with a Samsung Galaxy S6 shutting down the DJI Go 4 app and telling me it's overheating, it won't let me restart the app for about a minute while it cools down. After restarting the app it appears to work for the rest of the flight but when I land the phone is very warm, close to being hot. I fly in airplane mode, the screen is turned down to 50 % brightness and I've closed all other apps, don't know what else I can do. If this happens at the wrong time it could make it very difficult to get my MP back home. Is anyone else having this problem?

 

[Former Member]

Is it in its case? That would make it tend to get warm. Also, dont worry so much about your Mav not returning home if your phone shuts down. Thats what the RTH function is for if set properly.

 

[Former Member]

Oh BTW how long do you get out of your battery if using it as a phone vs. flying with it?

 

[HollWaz]

I've removed from the case and the battery is good for a solid day of use with around 30% typical when I put it on the charger at night. That said, I've had it get hot in my pocket and run the battery down in less than an hour, when I look at the battery usage it doesn't show any specific app that's draining the battery. I'm assuming that I've got a problem with the phone but I thought I'd see if anyone else is having the same problem. I do understand about the RTH function but that isn't foolproof since it will be flying itself and I tend to fly in areas with quite a few obstacles in the landing area. The good news is that you can still fly it by sight with the controller, IMO this is a fantastic feature on the Mavic compared to the Phantom line with no display at all on the controller.

 

[Former Member]

Sound like its time to get it repaired or use a different device.

 

[HollWaz]

This problem came on fast and only after an update of the DJI Go 4 app so I wanted to make sure it wasn't an app problem before I throw money at the situation and find that I didn't solve anything. Thanks for the input.

 

[Former Member]

That said, I've had it get hot in my pocket and run the battery down in less than an hour

Do you think that just having the DJI Go 4 app on your phone is draining your battery in an hour while its in your pocket? I can understand if you are flying, but just having it installed doesnt make sense.

You can try force stopping DJI Go and then see what happens.

 

[HollWaz]

It's not the DJI app when it does the 1 hour drain, I force close it after every flight when I exit Airplane mode and turn my phone back into a phone. The lack of replies from other people with this problem tells me it's 90% probability that it's my phone. I've already started looking for a replacement.

 

[Former Member]

It might be your battery, but I dont think the S6 battery is replaceable. If you do go shopping for a new phone, dont get an S7, its not on DJI's list of approved devices any more.

Here is a list of approved devices. The S7 is on there, but some DJI reps on the DJI forum have said it should not be on the list.

Best Tablets/Phones for DJI GO | Phantom Help

 

[hilbish]

I have a theory about the overheating. I haven't flown much yet so this theory needs more testing. I noticed when the RC and the phone are at different charge levels the phone overheated in 15-18 min. When they are at the same level, 100% for this flight, there was no overheating at the end of 25 min. The phone was just modestly warm.

 

[HollWaz]

I have a theory about the overheating. I haven't flown much yet so this theory needs more testing. I noticed when the RC and the phone are at different charge levels the phone overheated in 15-18 min. When they are at the same level, 100% for this flight, there was no overheating at the end of 25 min. The phone was just modestly warm.

That's interesting and worth testing out. The phone is charging from the controllers battery when it's connected, if it's at 100% then it won't need to charge and charging does create quite a bit of heat. Thanks for the idea and I'll let you know what I find.

 

[hilbish]

Thanks for joining the experiment. The weather turned bad so can't fly for a few days. But I had the same overheating while doing flight sims when the RC and phone had unequal charges. So will try the flight sim today with equal charges.

 

[HollWaz]

My guess is that it's more about the phone being at 100% when you start but we can try all combinations.

 

[apu]

Your not alone. My S6 does this occasionally as well. To that end I have been having increasing episodes of battery drains in shorts periods of time even when not in use and when not using the DJI app. I am frequently in areas of poor cell signal strength and attributed it to the data radio constantly hunting for a usable signal. Turning data off seemed to help most of the time. My phone is 2 years old now and although it seems perfect otherwise I am starting to think this is perhaps some sort or hardware or battery degradation issue. Its been happening with increasing frequency the last couple of months and I am not sure I can entirely blame software changes during that period.

 

[HollWaz]

Your description is exactly like my phone right down to the age. I've noticed a couple of updates a year ago that caused the rapid drain problem that got better again after another update. I think Samsung's S7 fire issues have probably caused them to be more conservative regarding shutting down when it detects any excess heat and the DJI app causes a lot of heat with processor running at full speed and the screen on all the time. I'm looking to leave Samsung when I upgrade this phone in a couple of months.

 

[apu]

I starting to think I might try an apple product after several years of flagship Samsung products. They have awesome cameras but I am slowly getting disappointed with their longer term reliability. The prior phone was a S3 which was a great phone except that after a couple of years it started becoming fussy about taking a charge because of a failing micro usb connection.

 

[Riteguy]

I too have Samsung S6. Just bought my Mavic a week ago so I could shoot on the Big Island of Hawaii. So much to take in when learning to fly and shoot. My S6 has gotten so hot the back case is separating making me think the battery might be swelling to cause this separation. I take it out of the phone case so it will fit in the clamshell holder, yet the phone will get extremely warm 10 minutes into the flight. Could the caching of the video back to the phone be the cause?

 

[hilbish]

I too have Samsung S6. Just bought my Mavic a week ago so I could shoot on the Big Island of Hawaii. So much to take in when learning to fly and shoot. My S6 has gotten so hot the back case is separating making me think the battery might be swelling to cause this separation. I take it out of the phone case so it will fit in the clamshell holder, yet the phone will get extremely warm 10 minutes into the flight. Could the caching of the video back to the phone be the cause?

I had problems with overheating when I first started to fly. Now I don't because I start with a fully charged Samsung S6 and RC even when it is over 80 F outside. It is the charging of one unit or the other that is causing the overheating.

 

[Riteguy]

All my batteries are full charged, yet the problem continues.

 

[hilbish]

Hmmm... Make sure all the apps are turned off and it is in airplane mode. Many of the apps are hidden and run in the background.Click on the settings icon and go to the apps section and look at each one and disable it or remove it. I disabled all of mine except just a few I consider essential to basic phone operation.