Mavic looses RC Signal after take off when < 2m away

[kabauterman]

Hello allready or soon to be / want to be Mavic Pilots,

I have my Mavic sinch a month and in 21 Flights I faced the same problem twice which just occurs under very special conditions.

No matter what firmware, it happend one time on 1.02.9 and yesterday on 1.03.

I'm getting ready to fly, power on my Mavic, connect the controler, wait until the App is started, check the status and wait for GPS.

I stand < 2m (< 7 ft) away from the Mavic then take off, and hover a short time over the take-off point.

In exactly this cases my Mavic lost the RC Signal twice, I wasn't able to control anything, drone just hovering in 2m hight. RC first still shows "GPS Mode" but the App allready telly me "No Signal".

As far as I know the Mavic and other drones should retrun to home or even land when they loose RC Signal. Maybe I havn't waited long enought but my Mavic did nothing else then hovering there.

Because the mavic was within my reaching distance I just grabed it from the buttom (VPS sensors didn't make it go up again) and pushed it upwards until the motors turn off. When you try to pull it down it wants to retain its height, so If you ever face this problem, make sure you push it up.

In one case, the RC didn't reconnect at all, but in yesterdays case, shortly after I grabbed it and the motors turned off, the connection was reestablished.

I wasn't in a crowdy place, there were no WiFis or other interferences near by.

I allready told DJI support about my problem, they first just told me to make IMU, Compass and RC calibration and rebind the RC. I did.

I send them the flighlogs, but I think they didn't even downloaded them...

Now I contaced them again yesterday after the second encounter of this problem. And now they tell me I should send my Mavic in for Investigation and Repair....

Come on I think it is clearly something software sided what is messed up here, when I can fly 1000 m away without any problem or loosing signal, but twice after take off, in close distance it looses connection and cant reestablish it. I know this from the Taranis Remote when it is to close the signal gets messed up, but to close mostly meant indoor < 50cm in this cases.

What do you think?

Should I send it in, and maybe get another one back with camera problems or something else, after waiting another two months? For now this is no option for me.

If someone want's the logs, to digg in, tell me.

 

[CactusJackSlade]

My very first flight I had the same issue, complete loss of connection, then the app froze.

Second flight no problem, still do not know what to expect on flight #3... Just received Mavic yesterday afternoon and now weather is windy and rain so it will be a while before my 3rd flight...

Silly question, but when it is that close your antenna are not pointing straight at it, but rather perpendicular to it correct? There is kind of a "hole" in the radiating pattern - I noticed it when if flew directly above me where the antenna was pointed, but it was just a blip, no loss of connection.

Sorry I can't help much.

 

[Mako79]

Antenna orientation?
Bad usb cable?
Killed all apps and wifi?

 

[kabauterman]

Antenna orientation?
Bad usb cable?
Killed all apps and wifi?

Antennas, 45° angle like they should, pointing to the mavic in both cases like they do most of the time when I fly.

USB Cable works fine, even a bad USB Cable will no make your RC disconnect from the aircraft, I can unplug my phone in flight and still retain full control.

No WiFi and not killed all apps. But I think you havn't read my text, I loose the RC to Drone connection not the phone to RC connection.

 

[Mako79]

Rebind.
Or nominate 10mhz or 20mhz

Antennas, 45° angle like they should, pointing to the mavic in both cases like they do most of the time when I fly.

USB Cable works fine, even a bad USB Cable will no make your RC disconnect from the aircraft, I can unplug my phone in flight and still retain full control.

No WiFi and not killed all apps. But I think you havn't read my text, I loose the RC to Drone connection not the phone to RC connection.

 

[Kilrah]

As far as I know the Mavic and other drones should retrun to home or even land when they loose RC Signal.

Yep, which means it wasn't lost.

I would try disconnecting the phone when that happens. The remote may be waiting for something from the phone, but not getting an answer becasue the connection is flaky (can happen if the plug is misaligned/you didn't remove the plastic slider). Disconnecting the cable makes it clear there's no phone anymore and the remote should take direct control again. If that still fails reboot the controller.

So check that cable/connection, if it happens again try these troubleshooting steps, and if that still fails then yes you do want to send it in.

 

[kabauterman]

Rebind.
Or nominate 10mhz or 20mhz

I allready did, like I wrote above.

Yep, which means it wasn't lost.

I would try disconnecting the phone when that happens. The remote may be waiting for something from the phone, but not getting an answer becasue the connection is flaky (can happen if the plug is misaligned/you didn't remove the plastic slider). Disconnecting the cable makes it clear there's no phone anymore and the remote should take direct control again. If that still fails reboot the controller.

So check that cable/connection, if it happens again try these troubleshooting steps, and if that still fails then yes you do want to send it in.

The remote has shown "connecting" in the first case imidiatly and in the second case with 20-30 seconds delay, the signal was definatly gone.

Guys, this is NO phone connection Issue, I had phone connection problems, but they did NEVER made the drone unresponsive, and a problem with the phones connection will not make the RC and Drone loose thier Signal.

 

[Kilrah]

Aha, good to know, previously the only clear thing you said about the remote was

RC first still shows "GPS Mode"

So did you try turning the remote off and on again? Did the bird initiate RTH while the remote was off? Did it reconnect when the readio is back on?

 

[halley]

Antennas, 45° angle like they should, pointing to the mavic in both cases like they do most of the time when I fly.

The antennae should not "point to the" target (mavic). They should be parallel to each other, and will give their best RX and TX strength when pointing about 90º away from the target.

 

[kabauterman]

Aha, good to know, previously the only clear thing you said about the remote was


So did you try turning the remote off and on again? Did the bird initiate RTH while the remote was off? Did it reconnect when the readio is back on?

No I havn't turned it off and on again, RTH did no start, but maybe I haven't waitet long enought? How long does it usually take until RTH after Signal Loss starts?

I catched the Mavic before something more strange happened so I havn't really "tested" much in this two situations

The antennae should not "point to the" target (mavic). They should be parallel to each other, and will give their best RX and TX strength when pointing about 90º away from the target.

With "Point to" I mean exactly what your picture shows, flat sides in direction of the drone, I understand how radio signals work and still even when you are 2m away there should be no "dead spot" or at least it should reconnect fast enought.

 

[Kilrah]

It's about 3 seconds of signal loss before RTH. But I meant that you should have gotten RTH after turning controller off, if you didn't it's irrelevant.

Catching the Mavic is really the very last thing I'd do after trying anything else possible. I have no problem catching it under normal control but in such a situation I really wouldn't try, control is not working so it can do anything at any time..

 

[kabauterman]

It's about 3 seconds of signal loss before RTH. But I meant that you should have gotten RTH after turning controller off, if you didn't it's irrelevant.

Catching the Mavic is really the very last thing I'd do after trying anything else possible. I have no problem catching it under normal control but in such a situation I really wouldn't try, control is not working so it can do anything at any time..

I just hold my hand under the Mavic to see if the VPS Sensors do anything, but they didn't.
I rather catch it then let it do something out of my control :/

I havn't turned the controller off, but it was showing "connecting" for more then 3 sec for sure.

 

[Fahr]

Hello allready or soon to be / want to be Mavic Pilots,

I have my Mavic sinch a month and in 21 Flights I faced the same problem twice which just occurs under very special conditions.

No matter what firmware, it happend one time on 1.02.9 and yesterday on 1.03.

I'm getting ready to fly, power on my Mavic, connect the controler, wait until the App is started, check the status and wait for GPS.

I stand < 2m (< 7 ft) away from the Mavic then take off, and hover a short time over the take-off point.

In exactly this cases my Mavic lost the RC Signal twice, I wasn't able to control anything, drone just hovering in 2m hight. RC first still shows "GPS Mode" but the App allready telly me "No Signal".

As far as I know the Mavic and other drones should retrun to home or even land when they loose RC Signal. Maybe I havn't waited long enought but my Mavic did nothing else then hovering there.

Because the mavic was within my reaching distance I just grabed it from the buttom (VPS sensors didn't make it go up again) and pushed it upwards until the motors turn off. When you try to pull it down it wants to retain its height, so If you ever face this problem, make sure you push it up.

In one case, the RC didn't reconnect at all, but in yesterdays case, shortly after I grabbed it and the motors turned off, the connection was reestablished.

I wasn't in a crowdy place, there were no WiFis or other interferences near by.

I allready told DJI support about my problem, they first just told me to make IMU, Compass and RC calibration and rebind the RC. I did.

I send them the flighlogs, but I think they didn't even downloaded them...

Now I contaced them again yesterday after the second encounter of this problem. And now they tell me I should send my Mavic in for Investigation and Repair....

Come on I think it is clearly something software sided what is messed up here, when I can fly 1000 m away without any problem or loosing signal, but twice after take off, in close distance it looses connection and cant reestablish it. I know this from the Taranis Remote when it is to close the signal gets messed up, but to close mostly meant indoor < 50cm in this cases.

What do you think?

Should I send it in, and maybe get another one back with camera problems or something else, after waiting another two months? For now this is no option for me.

If someone want's the logs, to digg in, tell me.

I have exactly the same problem, connection lost & video freezes I need to close and restart the App it works a will then same thing! I dare not to fly away from me more than a few yards 100 yards max. Hopefully next update sort it out.

 

[kabauterman]

I have exactly the same problem, connection lost & video freezes I need to close and restart the App it works a will then same thing! I dare not to fly away from me more than a few yards 100 yards max. Hopefully next update sort it out.

Doesn't sound like the same problem, I have no problem using the app, I have RC - Drone Signal loss. App works fine.

And everything works fine when I'm far away, just not near to the drone, sometimes.

 

[Kilrah]

You really need to try walking away when it happens to confirm distance really has something to do with it.

 

[kabauterman]

You really need to try walking away when it happens to confirm distance really has something to do with it.

I will next time, for now DJI nearly "insists" in sending it in for RMA... they tell me something about "Normally, it will take 10 working days . (Exclude the data analysis), But it depends on the different situations, the delivery and the product in stock"

So I know I have to wait at least two months, no way I will send it back for now.

 

[halley]

flat sides in direction of the drone, I understand how radio signals work

Great! Glad you cleared it up. Not everyone does so I thought a diagram was in order.

 

[Kilrah]

So I know I have to wait at least two months, no way I will send it back for now.

Many people have actually had 1-week turnarounds on their repairs, with reports of one-day fixes so the only time is that of shipping back and forth. They seem to be much quicker to repair one than to deliver one.

 

[CanadaDroneFly]

That's very strange. There must be something wrong with your Mavic. I can start my Mavic on the porch while I'm sitting inside and fly it 500m around my house with no connection issues.
Hopefully this doesn't happen during a longer flight. Good luck!

 

[socalvn]

Before Christmas would be a better time to Rma than after when all the nubies are messing things up