I'd like to see a remote battery shut off feature made available in the main Menu.

Once I flew the aircraft into a distant clump of trees and wasn't able to hike into the area until the following day.

Of course, by that time the on-board battery was dead and impossible to connect to the craft.

Had I been able to initially shut down the battery remotely to save power, I could have fired it up the next day and enabled 'find my drone'.

Needless to say, that would have of great assistance in retrieval.

Anyone think this would be a useful feature?

And what say you DJI?

If you can turn it off you must  bee connected.
If you are connected you have location of the drone.
If you walk to that location the drone is there + - 10m.
I'm not so sure it would bee good to turn it of, let it wait overnight  and then turn it on.

... bad idea... I already see it happen:  battery shutdown mid-air... another DJI-Refresh needed...

Last location of the Drones GPS is in your remote/device... only thing you have to do is go there next day and search the area...

Heheh how on earth are you going to turn the battery back ON if you don't even know where the drone is???  I know, I know, you're going to say "I'll turn the battery back on remotely".  Think about that for a few minutes.

Irate Retro Posted at 2017-10-27 09:48
Heheh how on earth are you going to turn the battery back ON if you don't even know where the drone is???  I know, I know, you're going to say "I'll turn the battery back on remotely".  Think about that for a few minutes.

Frankly, I don't see the problem with having this as a Menu option.

You would deliberately have to select the option in the Menu, so it's dummy proof.

In cases, where you can't get at the craft immediately and have to wait a day or so would be useful.

When you go within the vicinity the ability to re-activate/connect with the craft remotely, select the 'find my drone' option and subsequently, have a beeping/flashing activated would help to pinpoint the location.

geoffz Posted at 2017-10-27 15:24
Frankly, I don't see the problem with having this as a Menu option.

You would deliberately have to select the option in the Menu, so it's dummy proof.

How are you going to activate 'find my drone' beeping/flashing when the Mavic receiver has absolutely no power supply with the battery switched off?  Radio receivers need power to work.

geoffz Posted at 2017-10-27 15:24
Frankly, I don't see the problem with having this as a Menu option.

You would deliberately have to select the option in the Menu, so it's dummy proof.

How are you going to turn it on when the power is off?  With the power off, there's no way to command it!

Haha this thread made me chuckle. ...if u lost your drone you will and should have last coordinates in find my drone anyway when battery finally shuts down...also u wont be able to turn the drone back on remotely reciever and esc's need power

Like others have mentioned, once the aircraft is off, it will lose communication with the mobile device and therefore the app. It would unfortunately make it unable to turn on remotely and ultimately defeating the purpose.

DJI-Jamie Posted at 2017-10-27 19:06
Like others have mentioned, once the aircraft is off, it will lose communication with the mobile device and therefore the app. It would unfortunately make it unable to turn on remotely and ultimately defeating the purpose.

If I close the app power off the monitor but the battery of the craft is still on.

I can restart the app, reboot the monitor and then reconnect with the drone.

As long as the battery on the drone is operable I can reconnect.

So what's so complicated about having the ability of turning the battery off remotely then turning it on and reconnecting the app and the monitor.

I've done this before and it works fine.

The only caveat is the drone must be within reach to turn on the battery.

geoffz Posted at 2017-10-27 22:02
If I close the app power off the monitor but the battery of the craft is still on.

I can restart the app, reboot the monitor and then reconnect with the drone.

I understand your point, but it seems not practical in many scenes. You would not expect a coming rain when the drone was outside overnight. Also, if one accidentally touch the option, the drone will power off in the mid-air and crash directly. It's very dangerous.

DJI Susan Posted at 2017-10-28 00:25
I understand your point, but it seems not practical in many scenes. You would not expect a coming rain when the drone was outside overnight. Also, if one accidentally touch the option, the drone will power off in the mid-air and crash directly. It's very dangerous.

Thanks for your understanding.

You would simply make it IMPOSSIBLE to power off when the drone was in flight.

Quite easy to achieve that functionality.

Take this to R&D, I'd be curious to see what engineers have to say.

In fact, I know one I'll contact.

But, once again, if you have the crashed location already stored in your remote, why would you need to turn the power back on again?

geoffz Posted at 2017-10-27 22:02
So what's so complicated about having the ability of turning the battery off remotely then turning it on and reconnecting the app and the monitor.

The 'turning it on' part is what's "complicated".  More like impossible.  What part about this aren't you getting?  If the battery is off the aircraft is not receiving any power.  Without power the aircraft cannot do ANYTHING via remote commands, especially not have an Inspector Gadget mechanical hand fold out and press the battery button.  When the battery is off it's a dead piece of plastic.  It's not possible for it to listen for commands from the remote because it's dead!  As in off!

It's like expecting the remote starter on your car to do anything when the battery cables are disconnected.  

Irate Retro Posted at 2017-10-28 10:46
The 'turning it on' part is what's "complicated".  More like impossible.  What part about this aren't you getting?  If the battery is off the aircraft is not receiving any power.  Without power the aircraft cannot do ANYTHING via remote commands, especially not have an Inspector Gadget mechanical hand fold out and press the battery button.  When the battery is off it's a dead piece of plastic.  It's not possibly for it to listen for commands from the remote because it's dead!  As in off!

It's like expecting the remote starter on your car to do anything when the battery cables are disconnected.

Let him sleep on it!

ghostrdr Posted at 2017-10-28 10:59
Let him sleep on it!

He did.  Then he came back today saying that it still shouldn't be that complicated!!  Heheheh

geoffz Posted at 2017-10-27 22:02
If I close the app power off the monitor but the battery of the craft is still on.

I can restart the app, reboot the monitor and then reconnect with the drone.

"The only caveat is the drone must be within reach to turn on the battery."

And that right there is when you shot down your own argument. If you crashed your drone half a mile away and shut off your battery, you're just doing so to conserve the power of your battery, which is utterly pointless.

AEM74 Posted at 2017-10-28 12:39
"The only caveat is the drone must be within reach to turn on the battery."

And that right there is when you shot down your own argument. If you crashed your drone half a mile away and shut off your battery, you're just doing so to conserve the power of your battery, which is utterly pointless.

Batteries circuitry can easily be re-activated.

Happens with orbital sat systems.

Consult engineers.

Logical thinking is not everyone´s task

There IS already a function that works out what You want to achieve: it is called "emergency shut off" of motors. (both RC sticks downward inward).

MP motors shut off, MP drops where it hovered but batteries are still ON. Depending on how much juice was left You got ample time to search for the MP with RC/smartie connected to drone.

geoffz Posted at 2017-10-28 22:22
Batteries circuitry can easily be re-activated.

Happens with orbital sat systems.

Maybe everyone already realizes this and just hasn't said it, but it sounds like what you really have in mind is some sort of low power / standby mode where the aircraft has shut down some / most functions (e.g., the video feed) but can still receive and respond to commands from the remote. Assuming that I've understood you correctly, though, that's not really the same as powering off the battery.

Powering off the Mavic's battery is like unplugging a desktop computer that has no UPS (backup power source): there's nothing the computer can do to reactivate itself, because it only functions as long as it has power. I believe that's the point the others who've responded to you are trying to make.

DroneFlying Posted at 2017-10-29 07:51
Maybe everyone already realizes this and just hasn't said it, but it sounds like what you really have in mind is some sort of low power / standby mode where the aircraft has shut down some / most functions (e.g., the video feed) but can still receive and respond to commands from the remote. Assuming that I've understood you correctly, though, that's not really the same as powering off the battery.

Powering off the Mavic's battery is like unplugging a desktop computer that has no UPS (backup power source): there's nothing the computer can do to reactivate itself, because it only functions as long as it has power. I believe that's the point the others who've responded to you are trying to make.

yes, I agree, a stand-by mode/select power down mode would definitely be of value to extend battery life emergency situations.

Just to clarify, what I was getting at initially was (when you reach down with your finger and press the battery-on-start-button twice in succession to initiate power)...could, for example, a signal be sent remotely (via the RC) to the intelligent battery to do the same operation i.e. to initiate and power-on the drone battery?

I'd like to hear from a certified DJI engineer(s) on the subject.

geoffz Posted at 2017-10-29 12:24
yes, I agree, a stand-by mode/select power down mode would definitely be of value to extend battery life emergency situations.

Just to clarify, what I was getting at initially was (when you reach down with your finger and press the battery-on-start-button twice in succession to initiate power)...could, for example, a signal be sent remotely (via the RC) to the intelligent battery to do the same operation i.e. to initiate and power-on the drone battery?

Ok, so apparently they understood you correctly and I'm the one who didn't.

I'd like to hear from a certified DJI engineer(s) on the subject.

Good luck with that, but I believe the previous answers you already received are correct.

What you want would certainly be possible by adding a radio receiver and antenna to each battery.  OR redesigning both the aircraft and the battery.

Me, I don't want to pay $40 extra per battery to accommodate users who like to crash their drones.  I think those that need it should spend that money on a tracker which can be affixed to the drone.

Yea geoff but im sure orbital sats if they go down have some kind of redundant power source. I'm sure engineer's have thought of this especially sending a sat out to space!
With the mavic pro the only problem is once the power is off how are you going to turn it back on? It's pretty impossible unless you have an extra battery on board that is always on low power standby for such occasions talking with reciever