Geebax Posted at 2016-1-4 22:21
"The GO app is the one that tells the phone how much power it needs and there needs to be a balance  ...

Very technical reply there, thanks for disproving everything I said.

I award you an A+, I also loved your use of 'very processor intensive' makes you sound like Bill Gates himself.

Ipads > Iphone.  When you are running live video via the app, its a phone battery killer.  This is why I stopped using my iphone 3 months ago.  This isn't a new issue.

I am new to the Phantom 3. I've only take it out for two flights. Both times, my iPhone 6 has shut down after about 10 mins of flying. The first time I thought it was weird since I started with my phone at 86%. Today during the 2nd flight, I started at 73% and it shut down 8 mins after I started.

why doesnt somebody try using a usb splitter cable to charge and connect to the controller at the same time

I work on iphones and the iphone 6's batteries are crap

Yes! There is something up. I have an iPhone 6S and it was almost fully charged when I went out for a flight yesterday. Not long after flying I looked down at the screen and it was black. Pressed the home button to wake it up but nothing - the phone had turned itself completely off. Powered it back up and the phone had 67% battery left. 2mins later it did it again only this time it would not come back on and showed the empty battery image to advise you the phone is completely flat. Anyway I gave up on the flight and returned to the car, at this point I tried turning the phone on again and it powered up with 60% battery again! It's important to add that I rely heavily on my phone and it has NEVER exhibited this behaviour before only when running the app during a flight. It was a bad flight all in all what with the gimbal shakiness as well.

No such problem with my 6S+. I switched to the mini4 for the extra real-estate but I've used my phone plenty and although it drained my battery it wasn't nearly at the rate some here describe.

yea i know several people thats had bad batteries in them brand new. swapped them out and they work fine. I also know other people thats had no problems with them

I have flown twice (had to send it back for warranty after second )  But i used my iphone 6 plus and i lost about 15% on each flight.

Similar story for me. Had 50% battery before taking off.  P3A was coming back in from a final loop and the IPhone 6s died.  Restarting it just showed the apple icon.   Hit RTH button on the remote many times but nothing.  Heard the low power alerts from the remote then silent.  Quickly put my phone on a charger and it was immediately at 35%.  Something is up, no way it can rebound that fast.  Good news is the DJI App led me to where it crashed landed; so off to get repaired on Monday. Questions is why did RTH fail, and why did my phone die at 35%.  I had the RETURN TO HOME height at 75 meters, seemed like it hovered then landed, but never made an attempt to RTH.

The Bat Drone Posted at 2016-1-5 05:11
This true, I'm sure it's being looked into but beware of updates just incase it comes with GEOFENC ...

Try doing a restore on your iPhone and setting it up as a new phone and just put the GO app on your phone and see if you still have the battery drain, also before you try a restore, go into the new battery setting and see which app is using the most power, it will show by percentage. Also try what some people suggested about turning off video cache and hardware decode and auto upload of pictures to see if those help

I have had the same issue with iPhone (multiple models), including the latest iPhone 6S Plus.  Something is going on with the RC's power draw.  When flying in cold weather, it puts such a strain on the phone that it actually causes the phone to shut down prematurely.  I can immediately reboot, but as long as it is plugged into the remote it will almost immediately turn off again, even when it has plenty of power left.  

I decided to order a Mophie battery case for the iPhone 6S Plus in the hopes that it would act as a bridge between the iPhone and the remote, allowing data out of — and charging into — the phone.  The case arrived today, and sadly it only seems to confirm some strange voodoo employed by DJI.  The case works fine when on the phone. I can plug it into my laptop or wall power and it syncs/charges fine.  However, when I connect the provided micro USB cable to both the remote and the Mophie, it disables the charging to the iPhone after about 1/2 second, powers off the case (despite the physical switch to the case being engaged in the "on" position), and starts drawing down the iPhone battery rapidly (roughly a percent a minute or faster).  Once unplugged, the case fails to respond to the position of the physical switch, and only after the phone is physically pulled out of the case and then re-inserted does it begin to charge again.

This was tested multiple times.  The results are consistent.  DJI is doing something dodgy with the USB power, and whatever it is, it needs to stop.  The remote is causing the phone to shut down mid-flight, and it is a major risk/safety factor which is 100% unacceptable.  

macwise7@gmail. Posted at 2016-2-16 16:10
I have had the same issue with iPhone (multiple models), including the latest iPhone 6S Plus.  Somet ...

Yet it does not do anything like this if you connect any of the later generation iPad devices to it.

I have a Similar problem I am in the middle of shooting Video and my Phone will Suddenly Shut off when I try to power it on it gives me the "Connect to charger" Icon  and When I Do it powers up and it has like 78% or some high Battery remaining   :/ Just Kind of Frustrating

Geebax Posted at 2016-2-15 22:56
Yet it does not do anything like this if you connect any of the later generation iPad devices to i ...

What does that prove?  The iPad and iPhone are designed differently.  As a mere example, if the DJI remote is somehow drawing power from the iOS device, then perhaps it is putting a larger proportional load on the iPhone vs. the iPad, thereby causing one to fail and not the other.  The other issue could be one of heat, lack thereof, or both.  

My understanding is that the iPad does the same charging/not charging dance as I see on the iPhone as soon as the remote is connected through the lightning cable.  Is this the case?  Also, the Mophie case provides another sample by which to demonstrate errant behavior of the remote, and I've also seen android users complaining of the same issue.  All signs point to a flaw (deliberate or otherwise) in the remote.

macwise7@gmail. Posted at 2016-2-17 08:23
What does that prove?  The iPad and iPhone are designed differently.  As a mere example, if the DJ ...

Yes, but one thing all those complaints ignore is that the DJI Go App is very processor intensive. This is why some devices won't work when running it. It uses a lot of power to process the video from the aircraft, and in some devices, it causes overheating.

I am not convinced that the RC unit is 'drawing power' from the device at all. It does not need to, it has a very large capacity battery of its own, and it is not compatible voltage wise with the device. The USB connector supplies or sources only 5 volts. The battery in the RC unit is 7.4 volts.

Geebax Posted at 2016-2-16 15:35
Yes, but one thing all those complaints ignore is that the DJI Go App is very processor intensive. ...

I never said it WAS drawing power from the phone. I used that as a simple example of how the phone might act differently from the iPad.  

And if this is just a processor-hungry app, explain the fact that even when the go app is closed and not running in the background, both the phone and the Mophie case wig out the moment the RC unit is plugged into them (phone shows charging indicator for 1/2 second then charging indicator goes away; Mophie STOPS charging and is bricked until phone is removed and re-inserted)?  

Yes, I agree, the app is resource intensive.  There is more to the story than just the app being resource intensive. Something nasty is happening with regards to the physical interface between the RC and the USB device.

macwise7@gmail. Posted at 2016-2-17 19:55
I never said it WAS drawing power from the phone. I used that as a simple example of how the phone ...

"However, when I connect the provided micro USB cable to both the remote and the Mophie, it disables the charging to the iPhone after about 1/2 second, powers off the case (despite the physical switch to the case being engaged in the "on" position), and starts drawing down the iPhone battery rapidly (roughly a percent a minute or faster)."


Your quote.

I'm having the same issues with an iPhone 6. Im reading a lot of comments on here and there are a lot of people making arguments based on nothing. My friend is a lead software engineer with Apple and he's raised the issue for me somaybe I can report back in due course.

The facts though. The DJI Go App appears to be making ios / iphone believe it has drained the battery much more than it has. Im not arguing that the battery isnt under a fair bit of strain, but its nothing like the drain i keep experiencing. 10 mins of flight time can see my battery go from around 47% to 1% and turn off. I got a warning today at 20% when i had been flying for 8 mins, by minute 9 it was 10% so i brought it back and landed, turned off the drone and the phone showed 1% and then turned off.

The phone wouldnt turn back on and asked for the power cable to be connected. I ignored this request repeatedly and left the phone for about 5 mins. It then powered up without having to connect a charger and had 37% battery remaining. 6 hours later and its at 13%. This is the same most times i fly the drone.

Therefore, you can only logically conclude that something in DJI app is presenting a major issue for iOS resulting in the phone believing it has critical battery when it clearly doesnt. I tested this theory a couple of times. flew the drone for 15 mins with 96% battery, then drained the device and turned off the phone. when i turned back on eventually (takes a couple of attempts) without connecting a charger it had 84% remaining and the phone lasted until the following morning.

I'd be interested if DJI are aware of the issues and looked into it?
Chris

I haven't seen anyone mention that the DJiGo app also used the GPS, which can REALLY suck down some battery. The screen, GPS, and LTE chip are the 3 hungriest components in your phone. If you're not using the feature where the Phantom follows the GPS in your phone, it might be worth turning off location services while flying. It would be a good experiment anyway.

Its not that its draining battery life, its that its convincing the phone for a period of time that battery life has been drained when in fact if you leave your phone shut down for 5 mins then re boot the battery performance is still there. Something is going wrong on the software side not the hardware

cjmc Posted at 2016-2-24 10:47
Its not that its draining battery life, its that its convincing the phone for a period of time that  ...

The Go App is not 'convincing' the phone of anything. It is a very processor intensive function, and the phone itself is deciding that its power reserve is low. It is most likely noting the amount of power being consumed while running the app and making an assumption that the power drain will continue for a long time.

There is nothing DJI need to do about this, the Go App needs to make those demands on the iPhone in order to work correctly, if the phone is not up to the task, then it needs to be taken off the recommended list.

thats weird , i  can do more than 4 flights of 25 minutes , and still have like 40% of the battery of the phone 6+

I fly my P3P with the ipad mini 4. I flew Friday and Saturday last week and each day used 3 batteries. I started each day with the ipad fully charged and ended with 70% the first day and 76% battery charge the second day.  The only difference between the 2 days was the temperature. Friday was about 15 degrees cooler than Saturday.  

I have the exact same problem as the original poster. Brand new Phantom 4 + iPhone 6. Hardware acceleration turned on or off, I can't make it through a whole Phantom battery before my iPhone battery is "depleted" to 10% and then to 0. I say "depleted" because there is simply no way the battery is being draining within 10 minutes without the phone getting super hot. It's more like the Remote Control is drawing a charge from the phone, and taking all of the power.

Hugely problematic, as I can't even fly this thing for 15 minutes.

This was my solution to fixing my battery draining issue. I had an old solar panel that would charge a lipo battery. The solar panel stopped working so I stripped it to just the battery and used that. I wrapped It in foil, incase the battery is to explode on me or start smoking, it should hopefully give me a few seconds to rip it off before it starts melting my transmitter. I then putt some plastic on the back so when I se the transmitter down on a hard surface, nothing will puncture the battery, the plastic is more for protection. The circuit board on top is the original board that came with the solar panel which has 4 status LED's, micro usb for charging the battery, and a usb for outputting voltage. Just taped it on to the back of my transmitter, put in a lightning USB cable for my iPhone, and I'm all set.

I found the Similar , huge sudden drops in power in my iPhone 6 + , but  I believe its not just solely a problem with the DJI app in my case. The Phone itself seems to have very unpredictable battery loss, switching off at 15%, other times working at 1% for over 30 minutes. From reading around, I understand that a DFU may fix this problem, I just haven't got round to doing it.

In the meantime I find flying with low battery mode on, makes a huge difference to flight time.

DJI-Autumn Posted at 2015-5-24 20:38
I have not heard this problem before. Did anyone with ip6+ have this issue?
If you do not unlock the ...

Yes, I had the same issue since December with my P3S. I've even had my phone (iPhone 6s Plus) turn off during flight. I started plugging my phone into an external battery while I fly and it hasn't been a problem since.

I've heard that turning off the video cache feature in the DJI Go app will help the issue but I kinda like having instant video available on my phone (even if it is low quality).

So I strongly recommend an extra battery. Plus it's always nice to give your phone a little juice anyway.
I do not have battery life issues with any other app. This is solely a DJI Go app issue. If they clean up their code it'll likely get fixed and I believe the last app update they mentioned something along those lines.

close all the apps running on phone, turn wifi off, and don't connect your phone to some guy in a parks computer...never sync with strangers

I fitted a HDMI board to my p4 tx, ever since then it charges my iPhone 6 or iPad 4 while flying, my inspire one also does the same through the HDMI out port, never had a flat battery issue.

I have read every single comment in this thread, all comments in other threads on this site and other sites relating to power issues so I feel I have a good understanding of the majority's stance on this issue.

From other readers experience and my own it appears the power issue is:

1. Not only isolated to Apple as Samsung / Android devices are also having issues.

2. One iPhone 6+ user can be having this issue yet another 6+ user isn't having an issue - makes it seem like an apple issue due to iOS version possibly (but wait!)

3. %100 phone battery and I can't even cycle two full battery's through the quad using the Go app before my 6+ Goes flat, plug in my phone to charge and it instantly starts at %75.
So I open Litchi and fly using five P3P batteries and my 6+ only looses %35 capacity - makes it seem like a DJI issue.

This is a real world problem and it is ongoing, it doesn't seem to have any rhyme or reason as I have all firmware upto date on ALL devices, with all calibration conducted, all back ground apps closed, airplane mode, away from frequency / signal noise, screen shade on with my brightness down blah blah blah.

I am literally grounded using the DJI Go app, yet I can use Litchi across 7 P3P batteries and my phone doesn't go flat.

I'm not barking at Apple, Samsung or DJI (I apologise for being frustrated) but I will say this to the couch experts that blame Apple I ask why is it Litchi works all day on my phone yet Go app kills my phone with in 2 P3P batteries? I think many responders read the first initial comment then skip to the last page and start gobbing off uneducated.
The truth is that we need to forget the loyalist brand war and acknowledge there issue is across all brands as my research on other forums has show, many people voice the same concerns no matter device brand.

This problem still isn't fixed and when I can use 128 Apps on my phone including Litchi with out issue but as soon as I open Go my phone plummets %10 every 5 minutes

Well.. I don't know what to say other than Apple is a DJI approved device, so if an iOS is updated, then the Go App develops issues, DJI best work with Apple to sort it, DJI need Apple, Apple doesn't need DJI and this is one of the reasons why Apps have updates, to keep pace with device manufacturers which isn't happening here with DJI.

Today the 27th July 2016 the problem continues.

user6eeb361393 Posted at 2016-7-27 14:29
I have read every single comment in this thread, all comments in other threads on this site and othe ...

Interesting, are you using the latest version of iOS? This issue was very popular a long time back, but since Apple have issued an update to iOS, it has not even been heard of.

The app uses a tonne of power, regardless of your phone, or the condition of the battery inside. The weakest part of the chain is the battery technology in our devices.

I often need to fly 6-10 batteries for a job and my iPhone (pilots monitor on a Inspire) goes flat very quickly. I'm hoping that there are a bunch of smarter people than me out there that could come up with a way of attaching an external power supply (like one of those battery banks people use) to the usb cable running between the controller and the monitor. I am assuming that in the cable, the data line/s and the power and ground are separated, and if the controller is not supplying that power to the phone, then couldn't we "jack in" to that line and add the power, valve it with a diode, etc.
Thoughts?

Got the same at iPhone 6, battery drain badly, but when I reboot device charge comes back, that's awful

Yes we are having the same issue. We just had to upgrade our phone after the new DJI Go ap no longer worked on my Iphone 5 (not happy) and now with our new Iphone 6 the battery completely drops out. Like goes from being fully charged to then turning itself off and saying connect to charger after about 3-5 minutes of flying.....