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Skycontroller 3 drain issue

Back in April of 2018 on the Autelpilots forum there was a pretty heated debate as to what is actually going on with the battery drain. Now I only know what I have read about it from different forums and believe there to be a transfer of power from one device to the other but one of the members over there said he is a expert and this cannot happen. Here is what he said at the time. Not my words but his. What are your thoughts on his statement?

"Both software and/or hardware can cause a device to use/consume more power. This is because software can cause a processor or even a display to work harder. This could be a reason that some devices display a 'low-battery' when connected to a drone controller.
But, I can assure you (with 100% confidence and knowledge) that a drone controller does NOT consume power/current from a phone or tablet - and visa-versa. The ONLY thing that is transferred between the units is DATA. If your phone, or tablet is indicating a low-battery when connected to a drone controller, it is because it is working harder than usual to process the 2-way data that is being sent by, and received by it, as well as additional video processing and any other needs which are controlled by the software.
If DJI owners report increased power usage when they are operating their drones, it does not mean that it is a fact that power/current is being drained out of their phone, or even transferred to the controller from their phone. Likewise, it is preposterous to assume, or base an assumption that, because DJI owners have experienced and symptom, that it's reason or cause would apply to the design and operating characteristics of an Autel product. While it might seem that power is being transferred or consumed by one device which is connected to another device (via a DATA cable), in reality, it isn't that way. Rather, their tablet/phone is simply working harder than usual to handle the increased processing that is needed to complete the task at hand. "
 
Kilrah, you are right.
But the relation between iOS and Android operation seems to be calculated correct. Possibly a step-up regulator is active in each of the operation modes.
 
But, I can assure you (with 100% confidence and knowledge) that a drone controller does NOT consume power/current from a phone or tablet - and visa-versa.
That guy is full of BS, completely wrong. Easy to measure which many have done, and even reading the manual tells you it does.
 
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I have noticed my android devices do drain faster on the sc3 but to me it seems perfectly obvious why and I think anyone of us can recreate the issue off the sc3. The SC3 is providing enough current to convince you device it's plugged in so all the power saving features of your device shut down. (I'm not talking about the battery saver options in the UI, I'm talking in hardware and baked into the OS). But now your running power requirements on the device greatly exceed the 500ma the sky controller so it drains. So if your phone has a standing battery load of 300ma, but runs a 950ma when plugged in, when on the sc it will be getting 500ma from the sc but drawing 450ma from the battery which is 50% more draw than normal. If this is a big issue for you, I'd recommend one of these, a usb extender cable and a powerbank in your pocket.

To test my scenario, take the device you are having the issue, fully charge it and with it on, connect it to a usb charger that is much smaller than the one it was supplied with. With my HTC one M8, any charger 1 amp or less will do it.


Edit: Your device has to be doing something while testing to show the behavior. Running youtube continiously over works for my test.

Edit Redux: And to really speed things along, in both tests, turn on bluetooth but don't connect to anything.
 
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It's not "hardware and baked into the OS" stuff that eats power... it's the app you actually using aka FF6 that's a heavy load on resources.
System stuff typically only runs when on charge AND the screen is off so as not to slow down your experience.
 
It's not "hardware and baked into the OS" stuff that eats power... it's the app you actually using aka FF6 that's a heavy load on resources.
System stuff typically only runs when on charge AND the screen is off so as not to slow down your experience.


Please note I said nothing about Free Flight. You can recreate what I'm talking about with most phones, youtube and a charger in the right range of power. High enough to put the phone into full performance, but not enough to supply full performance from the charger.

I manage to do it all the time with my tablet in the office if I'm listening to music on youtube over bluetooth and I plug it into the wrong charger. With the right charger it at the end of the day it's 100% charged. With the wrong charger it's at 30%. If it's on battery all day its around 55% charged.
 
Well, I've got this little workaround on this at the moment. I'm simply plugging in a power bank to the controller in case my phone isn't all charged up and when I suspect it might drain the controller more than usual.
I don't know how that'd affect the controller battery with a charge and discharge cycle happening simultaneously but it does stay at 100% as per the FreeFlight 6 App this way. Also, I'm not using this method all the time so it seems to be working fine for the occasional need.
 
are USB cables "handed" in that one end is a host and the other a peripheral? I recall having issues with the first OTG cable I bought for my spark, when connected the controller would start charging from my phone. Using a combination of adapters I got round the issue until I found on amazon cables designed for the mavic/spark (with the unusual square ended micro connecter rather than the trapezoid).
 
Hello Everyone, if you are having problems with the controller power being exhausted too quickly by your phone or tablet, you can modify your USB cable. I made a video on this matter, see my youtube channel:
Cheers, Ton
 
Hey so I am trying to use my Honor 8 with the Anafi's controller ( Controller 3) and while everything else works fine for connectivity the controller also seems to be charging my phone, something that I don't want as it appears that it also causes the controller battery to diesee quite fast. What's the fix on this, any clue?
See this link:
 
Ton, one question:
Why did you not cut the +5V line and replace it with a 39 ohm resistor?
Reason for my question: GND is normally the base line for charging and data transfer, so would be best to keep low resistant.
 
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Ton, one question:
Why did you not cut the +5V line and replace it with a 39 ohm resistor?
Reason for my question: GND is normally the base line for charging and data transfer, so would be best to keep low resistant.
Yes I know, that was my first attempt too, but only spliting the gnd works for a Non-shielded usb cable. For a shielded cable you have to cut the Red wire=5V. Due to minor impedance differences and the way how the circuitry works, it is like this. It's a kind of empirical result ?
 
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Does the SC3 battery drain faster when in FCC mode as opposed to CE mode as the output power is greater?
From my experience I would definitely say yes. I have occasionally experienced rapid battery drain from the controller - but only in FCC mode. Does the SC3 adjust power output based on signal quality?
 

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