Today I upgraded the DJI Fly App to V 1.11.0 for my Mini 2...

[LoudThunder]

I fly the Mini 2 and I just updated my DJI Fly App to Version 1.11.0. The Update Pop-Up was a vague as ever from DJI…



I use three Android devices to run the App, a Motorola Smart Phone, a 10" Galaxy Tablet, and an 8" Galaxy Tablet and after checking all three devices, all the settings were my original settings, even the Upward Gimbal Rotation…

I tried to find any release notes on this new version and the DJI Download Web Page only lists the endorsed devices for Android and iOS.

I understand that the update is really for the Air 3, but did give the Mini 2 and others some extra capabilities with the LightCut Video Editing App.

I went out flying around my neighborhood. First thing, I noticed was how quickly the satellite count hit 20+ satellites. In addition, the "New Girl's voice" is still there… I took off from my back deck and then "walked" the drone down the driveway to the street (I live at the end of a cul-de-sac) and started testing the App and the Drone response. All was as expected for the first battery, still photos, video, and some quick shots (Circle, Rocket, Dronie, etc…) and all seemed normal…

During the second battery, after about 15-minutes, I was practicing manual "circles" out about 12-15-feet and about 3/4 of the way around, the tablet's screen went Black and White, and froze. A Pop-Up message came up on the screen saving the Drone was not connected to the controller. However, the controller still controlled the drone. I quickly moved drone out of the roadway and landed. I did not notice the color of the "tail light". I turned off the controller and back on and everything was back to normal. I ran the battery down to 20% and landed. This is not new, but only happens once every 10 batteries or so…

Now, I put in a third battery and again the drone and controller operated perfectly. However, when the drone battery hit 20% (at 5-minutes), I started walking the drone back to the back yard to land it on the deck. During the walk, the battery hit 4-minutes and a warning that I have never seen before came up…

Some background here, when my battery is approaching 20%, at 5-minutes, I am almost always close to my landing pad. I am one of those who has never performed a distance check and I've never been more than a couple of hundred feet from my pad when the battery is running down (yeah, I know, I'm a wuss…).

Back on point, at the 4-minute mark, a warning came up, saying the battery is near exhausted and the drone was going to do a Return to Home…

I quickly cancelled it as the back deck has a huge Elm tree partly covering it and I did not want to take a chance that the drone might clip a branch… Also, the drone was not more 5-feet from me and about 6-foot off the ground (the RTH altitude is set to 350'), and the drone was less than 30-feet from the home point.

I understand that the RTH will only function when the drone is over 20-meters from the Home Point (I've tested this in the past…). So I do not know if the drone would have tried to RTH being so close to its Home Point.

Tomorrow, weather permitting, I will test this 4-minute battery RTH issue as I'll take off from the drive way and not have to worry about any trees and I'll see if it works under the 20-meter distance…

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Just to be clear, are you saying that you have never seen a warning, irrespective of how it is phrased, that a "Low battery RTH" is about to commence?
I think I have seen it quite often with either the Mavic Mini or the Mini 2 or perhaps both, there might be some sort of colour change in the battery level indicator associated with the charge level.
I would also suggest to try experimenting with the RTH height setting to see if that height influences the percentage at which the warning is triggered.
I think 380ft is quite a high RTH if the height was not needed and risks putting the drone up into strong wind.

 

[LoudThunder]

Just to be clear, are you saying that you have never seen a warning, irrespective of how it is phrased, that a "Low battery RTH" is about to commence?

Yes, I have never seen a RTH message due to low battery in the almost 2-years and 150+ miles, 70+ hours, of flying my Mini 2…

Before I bought my drone, I was YouTubing all the Drone videos and I also watched the "Blooper" videos of what not to do… (Side Point: I welcome every Newbie in the "Pilot Check In" sub-forum and I advise them to watch the bloopers too so they learn from other's mistakes and what not to do…). And back then, I saw a video of a flyer flying his drone in a busy park, lots of people and loose dogs… He ran his battery down and had to land his drone and as it was a few feet off the ground, a dog jumped and snatched it and the video continued to record as the dog ran off with the drone and started to eat it…" And that really struck a chord with me…

I do not fly in busy parks but with the drone up for about 30-minutes per battery, it often gets noticed and some folk wander over and some even let their dogs run loose. And I may "tease" the dog a bit to see if it looks like I will have a problem with it, and if the owner does not leash their dog; well, read the past posting I'm made on the subject…

Hi from San Francisco

Just picked up a Mini 2 fly more kit on Craigslist from someone who bought a 3 Pro. It’s my first drone and I’ve been doing a few training flights, but SF is pretty locked down. I quickly found that I lost sight of the little mini, so hoping this wrap helps with that.

mavicpilots.com

So, with this experience, as I wrote, I keep the drone close when the battery is getting low (25% or so) and when the 5-minute, 20% warning goes off, I usually land…

So once again, I have not ever seen this warning previously. I am not saying I have always landed before the count-down hits 4-minutes, but I have never seen this alert before.

The weather if nice today and I intend to run my batteries down, down, down to check this out, and I will have a clear Home Point to also see if the drone really does a RTH when the Home Point is only 20 or so feet away.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Yes, I have never seen a RTH message due to low battery in the almost 2-years and 150+ miles, 70+ hours, of flying my Mini 2…

Wow
Just checked with a Mini 2 screen capture of a 1.3 App and the warning popped up and the drone RTHed.
I DO NOT think it is set flying time remaining trigger, I am pretty certain the percentage varies with distance. That would make sense to me, X% or Xmin might get you home if you were Yft from the home point but X%/min might not get you home if you were at 15Yft.
I haven't checked if the percentage varies with the length of the climb to RTH height AND the necessary descent from that height but again it would make sense to me for the vertical distances to be taken into account, especially when you bear in mind that the forced landing percentage varies with height.

.... s a few feet off the ground, a dog jumped and snatched it and the .......

I had a similar experience, I was over the home point with plenty of battery to spare but a dog would not p off, its owners were useless and it was only a cocker spaniel. In the end the battery was getting dangerously low so I hand caught and whipped the drone behind my back.

 

[LoudThunder]

Just got in from testing and I ran the batteries down further than I have ever done previously.

As DJI has published, the Return to Home will only function if the drone is over 20-meters from the Home Point. When I received the warning yesterday as I walked the drone down the driveway towards the back-deck, I might have been more that 20-meters (60-feet) from the deck…

Test one, I run the battery down, but kept the drone under 20-meters from the home point. At 5-minutes, 20% charge remaining, I received my first warning, "Low Battery. Return to Home Promptly," Second Warning at about the 3-minute mark, "Critical Low Battery. Aircraft Landing Automatically" with a smaller warning below, "Forced Landing in progress" And the Terminal Warning at around 1-minute, "LOW BATTERY LANDING -- Critical low battery. Aircraft landing in current location after countdown. Continue operating remote controller to help the aircraft avoid obstacles. -- CONFIRM X"

At this point I landed the drone.

Test Two, I ran the battery down but I kept the Drone about 25-meters (75-feet) from the home point, I received all that above warnings except the "Critical Low Battery. Aircraft Landing Automatically . . . ". In place of that warning, was, " WARNING The remaining battery is only enough for RTH. Return Home Now". Then a Large Pop Up came up, "Aircraft will return to home point in X seconds Low Battery. Aircraft will Return to Home at the end of countdown. Confirm or Cancel. Do not show this again after Cancel."

Since the drone was a straight shot from the Home point and I had reset the RTH altitude to 49', I let it count down and the drone did it thing and it returned to home with like 1% battery left…

As I wrote originally, I usually land at the 5-minute mark and had never seen these other messages previously. So, now I am educated and my subsequent research indicates these messages are not new…

And I had no more issues with loosing contact between the controller and the drone…

And I remain an advocate not to run the battery down as you will have few options if you are on your last few electrons, not only that, it's bad for the batteries…