Iphone battery life with Dronelink

August 03, 2022 14:31
3 comments

I was recently flying a mission in a remote area of Newfoundland which was a multiple battery mission. My iphone 11 which was fully charged at the start ran low on battery part way through the mission, so I had to close down to recharge the phone- I had adequate MA2Pro batteries on hand. Since the weather at this location is quite variable and would affect whether we could complete the mission, I tried using one of those dual lightning connections that allow charging while using the second lightning port , but was unable to get my phone to connect Dronelink to the mavic controller. Is there some other solution to add external power to the iphone while connected to the DJI controller for longer mapping missions?

Comments

3 comments

Barry Houldsworth Dronelink Expert
- August 03, 2022 21:26
Since Dronelink uses virtual stick it has to constantly make calculations and send those to the drone - that takes a lot of CPU power. Plus, typically, when flying outside the brightness of the device will end up being set to maximum to enable you to see it clearly - often using the adaptive screen function.

Some strategies I use because of this:
- Always start with a fully charged device
- Set the controller to charge the device while flying. Note - that works well on something with a larger battery such as a P4P but might not be your best option for something like a M2P because your device will then last longer than the controller.
- Turn the brightness on the device down - this makes a HUGE difference
- If you can, convert the mission to use onboard components - that way the device does not have to keep calculating the corrections to send the drone. Learn more about that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F-W4HKJlmA
Hope that helps.
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Mike (Arizona Wyldwest) Dronelink Expert
- August 04, 2022 00:47
Curious what the estimated flight time is for the plan ?

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mark smith
- August 05, 2022 15:53
The flight time wasn't that long -32 minutes. My phone was charged overnight and it took about 3 hours to get to the location half of which was overland in Argo ATV so no phone charging there. Converting the mission probably would have been the better choice for these mapping missions . I did have some USB battery banks with me and could charge th M2 controller while flying but my attempt to charge the phone while connected to the charger was a fail.

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