I had a flight where the RC PLUS controller wasn't fully charged, and the battery got low. I replaced it with a fully charged one, but it couldn't provide enough power to keep the controller on. I tried another fully charged battery, but the same thing happened—it shut down again. Has anyone else experienced this issue with a low battery on the controller? If so, what's the point of having removable batteries if they can't keep it powered?

How low was the RC+ internal? We always keep it at 75%, and swap external without issues. Also you can use the USB-C to charge/power it when using it.

AR_AirPrecision Posted at 8-15 05:07
How low was the RC+ internal? We always keep it at 75%, and swap external without issues. Also you can use the USB-C to charge/power it when using it.

It was low enough it auto shut down. I didnt charge the controller before that flight and fresh fully charged battery packs wouldnt provide enough power to keep it turned on to finish the flight or bring the drone back on my own. I even plugged it into the USB-C and that didnt provide enough power as well. It was completely useless until it charged back up. Seems like a failure on the design as the battery pack should provide enough power. Very irritating that I had to drive 2 hours to fly the job again. Feel free to test for yourself. let your controller battery die, insert a charged battery pack and see how well your controller stays on during a flight.

MappingPro Posted at 8-15 20:45
It was low enough it auto shut down. I didnt charge the controller before that flight and fresh fully charged battery packs wouldnt provide enough power to keep it turned on to finish the flight or bring the drone back on my own. I even plugged it into the USB-C and that didnt provide enough power as well. It was completely useless until it charged back up. Seems like a failure on the design as the battery pack should provide enough power. Very irritating that I had to drive 2 hours to fly the job again. Feel free to test for yourself. let your controller battery die, insert a charged battery pack and see how well your controller stays on during a flight.

We don't and never 'll fly our controller lower than 75%, so I won't test it :-)

We swap external battery after each flight, so we never have "surprises". C2 link lost is defined into our OM as a critical issue and we have to report it to our NAA...

AR_AirPrecision Posted at 8-16 00:08
We don't and never 'll fly our controller lower than 75%, so I won't test it :-)

We swap external battery after each flight, so we never have "surprises". C2 link lost is defined into our OM as a critical issue and we have to report it to our NAA...

Good for you. We fly 2000-3000 acres per week and this kind of  stuff happens. Shouldnt be a concern with a controller getting low.

MappingPro Posted at 8-16 06:59
Good for you. We fly 2000-3000 acres per week and this kind of  stuff happens. Shouldnt be a concern with a controller getting low.

Why would it happen more when flying 3000 acres/week? You still have to swap M300 batteries, so you can swap external WB on RC+.

AR_AirPrecision Posted at 8-16 07:15
Why would it happen more when flying 3000 acres/week? You still have to swap M300 batteries, so you can swap external WB on RC+.

It happened because we never thought the controller battery getting low would become a critical iissue. Drone battery gets low, yes you replace it and it works as it always has. You must not have read my initial post. I did swap to another charged battery but because the controller internal battery was so low, the swap battery wouldnt charge it. I had 2 fresh charged externals with me.

MappingPro Posted at 8-16 07:23
It happened because we never thought the controller battery getting low would become a critical iissue. Drone battery gets low, yes you replace it and it works as it always has. You must not have read my initial post. I did swap to another charged battery but because the controller internal battery was so low, the swap battery wouldnt charge it. I had 2 fresh charged externals with me.

You flew until the RC+ auto-shutdown and you expect it to power on from the external battery: from the manual, the external battery only gives power when the RC is on.

Flying a RC to auto-shutdown is dangerous and could result in accident with consequences for the entire drone industry.

Why not just charge the internal battery too? You can use the RC Plus while it's charging. The newer battery charging station has a rapid charger built into the USB C port. Dimming the brightness on the display would also help if your that low of battery. The display is the biggest power draw so dim it, charge it and fly. Keeping a minimum of a 75% charge on the RC is a bit overkill but there's no excuse for flying with less than 20% of a charge.  

Johnnokomis Posted at 8-18 09:00
Why not just charge the internal battery too? You can use the RC Plus while it's charging. The newer battery charging station has a rapid charger built into the USB C port. Dimming the brightness on the display would also help if your that low of battery. The display is the biggest power draw so dim it, charge it and fly. Keeping a minimum of a 75% charge on the RC is a bit overkill but there's no excuse for flying with less than 20% of a charge.

I tried that as well. Actually in an attempt to have everyone understand the issue here that seem to be struggling, Here is the exact steps of what happened.

-- Battery Low Warning: I swapped in a fresh fully charged battery pack. At this point, I believed the new battery was charging the controller so the flight continued.

- Battery Low Warning continues: I quickly plugged the controller into the charging station, that was plugged into a power source. Shows it as charging. Flight continues.

- Shut down warning: Immediately attempt to land the drone.


What you all do not understand: If the internal controller battery gets low, The controller will not power itself either plugged into the charger or by installing a freshly charged battery. That's the problem and it should be fixed. end of story.

MappingPro Posted at 8-26 10:47
I tried that as well. Actually in an attempt to have everyone understand the issue here that seem to be struggling, Here is the exact steps of what happened.

-- Battery Low Warning: I swapped in a fresh fully charged battery pack. At this point, I believed the new battery was charging the controller so the flight continued.

Did you check at that time the status of the internal and external battery ( after you swapped ) ? We never ( until now ) encountered this, so you may have a defective unit. Contact your DJI reseller if you think it's not working as it should.

On the previous Enterprise RC, we had once the case that we swapped the battery but it wasn't perfectly inserted and so after status check we saw it wasn't detected...we just reinstalled it and it "worked/charged".