How do I bring Mavic home when tablet/phone disconnects without using RTH?

pogopilot · Feb 28, 2017

Today my Galaxy s7 edge disconnected and in spite of closing and re-opening DJI go 4 and re-connecting cable to RC. I totally lost connection with my screen. Now I did initiate RTH on remote without issued but is there another way to know how to bring it home by just using the remote and not hitting RTH?

Slantnose79 · Feb 28, 2017

pogopilot said:
Today my Galaxy s7 edge disconnected and in spite of closing and re-opening DJI go 4 and re-connecting cable to RC. I totally lost connection with my screen. Now I did initiate RTH on remote without issued but is there another way to know how to bring it home by just using the remote and not hitting RTH?

Look at the distance on the remote. Get to a safe altitude first. Then move the AC forward while watching the distance. If it's increasing, then turn it a bit. Get to where the distance is decreasing rapidly. Hope that u get the distance close enough to see the AC or reconnect the screen.

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Robert Granata · Feb 28, 2017

I think if I had to I would yaw the mavic a little, then move forward and see how the "distance" changes on the remote. There will be two spots where the distance doesn't change much and those spots will be where you are basically travelling along the curve around the home point. Best guess halfway between those points and start heading home.

Robert Granata · Feb 28, 2017

Slantnose79 said:
Look at the distance on the remote. Get to a safe altitude first. Then move the AC forward while watching the distance. If it's increasing, then turn it a bit. Get to where the distance is decreasing rapidly. Hope that u get the distance close enough to see the AC or reconnect the screen.

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Yea, what he said.

bostonlines · Mar 1, 2017

Best place to practice is using the flight simulator.

WIMMPYIII · Mar 1, 2017

pogopilot said:
Today my Galaxy s7 edge disconnected and in spite of closing and re-opening DJI go 4 and re-connecting cable to RC. I totally lost connection with my screen. Now I did initiate RTH on remote without issued but is there another way to know how to bring it home by just using the remote and not hitting RTH?

I have had this crash too. The only fix seems to be truing the controller off and back on. I have not tried this while the mavic is still mid flight though.

borislip · Mar 1, 2017

Sadly, the RC shows some useless things, such as E/V and SD csrd presence, but not the compass reading, which could be useful just for this. Trial and error with the distance reading pretty much means you trust the RTH location, cause thats the distance it shows. As long as you have the RTH altitude set high enough, don't bother poiting it at you with the distance reading, just use RTH. I have to say the Go4 app really is unstable, and i already had to bring it back with the failed app once, but the app has failed while the machine has been looking, more or less, in my direction, so i didn't have to RTH, just go higher and fly forward.

borislip · Mar 1, 2017

And BTW, the VERY LAST thing i'd do is reboot the RC mid flight! Mind it, having the controller still linked means you can cancel RTH when the drone enters visual range, regaining control. Shut the RC down, and i am no longer sure if it connects again.

Wacker2611 · Mar 1, 2017

You don't necessarily have to reboot the RC. Just disconnect the USB and reconnect. On the rare occasions when I've had a disco, that has worked every time for me.

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Ronin229 · Mar 1, 2017

I had this happen with my S7 edge this weekend after the update. The phone didn't shut off, but the app just closed mid flight. I didn't unplug the cord (was using the usb at the bottom of the RC ) but just restarted the app and it connected. A little scary, I even considered getting an iphone lol.

borislip · Mar 1, 2017

Wacker2611 said:
You don't necessarily have to reboot the RC. Just disconnect the USB and reconnect. On the rare occasions when I've had a disco, that has worked every time for me.

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I did actually try that, it did connect for a brief moment, and disconnected again. This keeps happening often on my G4, but seems stable with my Nexus 7 tablet, so i no longer fly with the G4 as my screen. Still a pitty they provide so much info on the controller, but not the compass reading, nor last known gps coords.

Andrew F · Mar 1, 2017

WIMMPYIII said:
I have had this crash too. The only fix seems to be truing the controller off and back on. I have not tried this while the mavic is still mid flight though.

If you did this, RTH would be engaged. The best way I've found to avoid this is to NOT use DJI GO 4 on the Samsung S7 edge. I use the GO 3 app and have never had a problem.

Andrew F · Mar 1, 2017

Ronin229 said:
I had this happen with my S7 edge this weekend after the update. The phone didn't shut off, but the app just closed mid flight. I didn't unplug the cord (was using the usb at the bottom of the RC ) but just restarted the app and it connected. A little scary, I even considered getting an iphone lol.

Use the older app - no disconnects.

Robbyg · Mar 1, 2017

+1 on why don't include a compass arrow. I woul say scrap the large LED space used for motor RPM and dedicate it to compass plus a line to the home point

borislip · Mar 1, 2017

I'd say even now, when they can no longer change the RC hardware, let us have an option of turning the RPM bar off and displaying the compass degrees reading instead of the RPM value. Still possible to do, but i really doubt they will do it.

pogopilot · Mar 1, 2017

Slantnose79 said:
Look at the distance on the remote. Get to a safe altitude first. Then move the AC forward while watching the distance. If it's increasing, then turn it a bit. Get to where the distance is decreasing rapidly. Hope that u get the distance close enough to see the AC or reconnect the screen.

Sent from my iPhone using MavicPilots

Terrific idea!

msinger · Mar 1, 2017

Slantnose79 said:
Look at the distance on the remote. Get to a safe altitude first. Then move the AC forward while watching the distance. If it's increasing, then turn it a bit. Get to where the distance is decreasing rapidly.

This would work as long as the downlink did not disconnect.

AlanTheBeast · Mar 1, 2017

pogopilot said:
Today my Galaxy s7 edge disconnected and in spite of closing and re-opening DJI go 4 and re-connecting cable to RC. I totally lost connection with my screen. Now I did initiate RTH on remote without issued but is there another way to know how to bring it home by just using the remote and not hitting RTH?

The suggestions regarding range closure will work. I've used them myself.

OTOH, if you're "out there" the safest practice is the RTH button. At least the drone will be pointed precisely in the right direction.

Face it, we're all breaking the rules with this thing (US, Canada) when it's out of our visual range - the safest and most reliable thing is to tell it to boogie to home point. That nice fat button sends the memo toute suite.

J-Dub · Mar 1, 2017

Would setting the Mavic up with "Home Point Lock" help whenever disconnects occur, and LOS is "faint"...?

rydfree · Mar 1, 2017

If you're further out than line of sight do as suggested and fly by looking at the distance . Using the RTH is ok but why not use the time to learn to fly and not depend on the automation ? The distance read out is the same info it is using to return to home anyway . If that were inaccurate RTH would not work anyway . The first thing you do in a crisis is Always Fly the Aircraft .