When I connect the controller on my mavic air to a tablet it charges the tablet. Is that normal?
Will this reduce the battery power significantly?
On Android devices this is normal.
With my phone I’ve found that the RC is still good to fly through 4 MP batteries, by which time you’ll be recharging them anyway, so hasn’t been an issue.
A tablet may use a little more power, I guess.
If you have more than 4 MP batteries and fly them all, one after the other, you might have a problem.
I always carry a good sized phone external battery with me, and tend to instinctively keep the RC topped up between flights, to provide a better safety margin … and reduce the charge time when I do plug everything in to recharge.
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If you don’t like your controller charging your mobile device/tablet you can look into rooting your device and then stopping the device from charging when a cable is plugged in. I believe there’s some risk involved.
Or you can use Apple devices, they do not drain the controllers battery.
Thanks for the reasurance. I will follow up the idea of a charger. Not sure that I want to go rooting 
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You’ll probably find that you rarely need a powerbank to recharge.
I’ve done a lot of hiking with my MP … and use one to keep phone and RC topped up between flights as I walk.
They’re useful things to have, tho.
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Thats what I want to do eventually. my problem is the steep learnig
Curve and my cautios nature.
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I hope to trek in the Dolomites next year. I’ll be worried more about the steep slopes of the mountains! 
Is that another win for iphone/ ipad users?! 
One of the reasons why I’m tempted to get a plus sized iPhone even though I bought myself a dedicated android phone to fly with. Have to keep the android phones battery close to a 100% so it doesn’t drain the controller too much.
Weird, the CrystalSky (Android) doesn’t do this.
Is there such a thing as a USB cable with data-only, as in, the power lines or pins aren’t connected?
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Doubt it mate.
Pretty sure the usb controllers are normally inactive until they sense +5v on the vcc pin.
Could certainly try though. Small strip of insulating tape covering the +5v pin on usb A side would be least destructive method.
This is an old thread over at XDA and it appears the answer is ‘no’ you can’t have data only…
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With my iPhone battery health at 88% and dji go app open all the time at max brightness - I’m happy for the controller to charge my phone.
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@joe.k Apparently it doesn’t with an iphone 
I make sure that my phone and controller are fully charged before flying and have never had a problem with the controller running out before I get through 3 batteries on the Air.
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Does the CS charge though the micro-USB?
Sorry Dave, I don’t know - I use the DJI CS mount which has a built in USB-C connector, the other end is USB-A to the bottom of the (mavic) controller.
Ah - only happens with a micro-USB connector on the device, I believe. Standard charge point for most Android devices.
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