What steps to take when Mavic 2 Pro disconnects mid-flight

[macfawlty]

I'm new to MavicPilots. Been flying/posting to PhantomPilots for the last couple years.

So, just got the Mavic 2 (an upgrade from my P3 4k). I went through all of the firmware/software (DJI Go 4) updates on the M2 and iPad. I was flying from a steep hilltop about 700' or so above the Potomac River in Harper's Ferry, WV (from the bluff at the abandoned hotel). I got a little more than 1/2 mile out, 200' or so above my launch elevation (clear LOS) and the DJI Go 4 app on my iPad mini (connected to the larger M2 controller USB port) indicated 'Disconnected'. No data or video feed. I'm not 100% fluent in the controller functions yet, but it did indicate the height and distance, so the controller was still connected. If I recall correctly, the RTH on the controller did not initiate RTH, but I could be mistaken. I had about 40% battery left at the time, but was obviously concerned about getting back (into a 10mph headwind) with no video/data feed. I wasn't sure of a safe troubleshooting protocol mid-flight and the best I could manage is checking my distance reading unsure of the exact orientation. If the distance was decreasing, I knew I was headed in the general direction, but it was a bit of a nail biter getting back. I got back just in time. The app never did reconnect.

So, mid-flight... what would you do to attempt to reconnect? And... what would diagnostics would you do to figure out what the problem was? Clearly there was an issue between the controller (which was connected) and the iPad/app (which disconnected). Restart the app? Replug the iPad? Replace the cable (already ordered)? I'll have to DL the flight logs, perhaps you smarter/more experienced pilots can give me a clue.

I didn't have time last night to do diagnostics. I spent an hour trying to read the files offloaded with a card reader. That required updating to Mohave OS on my Macbook. H.265 is apparently a new 'thing'. I attached some pics from last weekend's flight with my P3 4k.

 

[Vicrimo]

Nice pictures [emoji1417]

 

[Slim.slamma]

So, mid-flight... what would you do to attempt to reconnect? And... what would diagnostics would you do to figure out what the problem was? Clearly there was an issue between the controller (which was connected) and the iPad/app (which disconnected). Restart the app? Replug the iPad? Replace the cable (already ordered

Just part of operating a DJI brand drone. It could be a number of reasons why you kept disconnecting. Happens to everyone. Your mobile device may become disconnected but you still can maneuver the drone without telemetry.
Don’t forget to the set RTH height before flying and if you do any long range flying.
Don’t panic it’s coming home soon

Beautiful stills you have

 

[Thomas USA]

...deja vu! Was the firmware in your battery (in the aircraft) updated to the same version of the other components? Glad your bird got home safely!

 

[zocalo]

I've had one disconnect on my M2P so far, and like your incident, the controller info seemed fine, but DJI Go became non-responsive. Definitely a few seconds of before it sunk in that it was only a short distance away with a clear flight path over dry land to RTH.

I resolved it by closing then restarting DJI Go, which reconnected just fine as soon as it had started up. The next steps are apparently to power cycle the controller, and if that doesn't work hope that the drone will successfully RTH when it detects the loss of signal or the battery runs low. As slim.slamma says above - always set a safe RTH altitude and remember that you can usually still control the drone without DJI Go working as long as the controller is still connected.

I've not looked into post-flight diagnostics yet, although I do know you can download the flight logs using DJI Assistant for analysis.

 

[Paul2660]

Restart DJIGO4 and if that doesn’t work reboot the mini. As you pointed out you never lost connection and still had the distance and height data on controller display.

Paul C

 

[DanMan32]

You had a P3 so you know you can fly without the app. Except with the M series, there's basic telemetry data on the RC display.
Besides restarting the app and working from there (no app crashes with the P3?)
You could:
Send RTH and let it land by you or take manual control just before landing
Send RTH to at least get it orientation towards you then fly VLOS
Fly VLOS using RC display info as you described.

Trick to getting your VLOS bearings even without display:
Fly straight using right stick up.
Note which way the M2 appears to be flying. Yaw (left stick) in that direction until it appears to not be moving. It is now pointed towards you.
If when you initially fly straight and it doesn't appear to be moving right or left, yaw until it does move right or left, then follow above instructions.

 

[DanMan32]

Yes you can download the flight logs from the AC using assistant but they are encrypted and can't be read except by DJI.

 

[Mossiback]

... If I recall correctly, the RTH on the controller did not initiate RTH, but I could be mistaken...

Remember that you need to press and hold the RTH button on the RC to initiate RTH.

 

[noosaguy]

I haven't lost connection in that respect, however I've had the Go 4 app drop out completely from my iPhone X on 2 occasions. I hovered and rebooted the Go 4 app and all was well again? heavens knows why it drops off?

 

[brettbrandon]

I lost connection a few days ago while it was over the pond out back. I was not sure what was going on and freaked out a little, so I zipped it back to me and the video connection came back. That night I left it idling in the room here and the camera disconnected three times. I would leave it sit and eventually the video would return. There have been no recent changes and all things show current update status. There are times when I first power up it takes a minute or two all the way to over ten minutes for the video to start working. During this time I have an error message stating that the gimbal is disconnected. Just before the video connects, I get two popup messages. First, "Switching to Tripod Mode". Second, "Switching to P Mode" one right after the other. Now this is without touching the switch on the controller and it is set in the "P" position. There are times it takes powering up the drone 2 to 4 times before it initializes to where I get the beeps. One time it took me almost half an hour to get everything working and ready to fly. My controller was down to about 80% and I didn't even take off yet. I was not having these problems at first. They have developed.
I also have a "Internal file system error" that showed up about a week ago. I cannot format or use the internal memory.
It may be time to see what their customer service is like...

 

[noosaguy]

It may be time to see what their customer service is like...

Sounds like it, hope it goes well and quickly for you.

 

[macfawlty]

Remember that you need to press and hold the RTH button on the RC to initiate RTH.

Ahh, that would explain why it didn’t RTH from the controller. I can’t remember everything I read in the manual.

Fact is, I just got the M2 on Wednesday cause my P3 was on the fritz since last week’s flight. I watched as many YouTubes as I could in 3 days, speed read through the manual, firmware, software and a dozen other pre first flight activities, but fall colors are in the way out and I needed to get some filming in before winter. This was an awful year for flying with so much rain in the mid Atlantic flooding out my Potomac River launch sites. Also, going to Exuma, Bahamas for a wedding and a 4 day weekend on Thursday and I’m anxious to film while there.

Grateful for all the advice here. I only learn by making the mistakes, comforted that others have made them before me.

When the M2 Pro was announced, I knew I had to have it. The size of the kit is a big selling point.

 

[macfawlty]

I lost connection a few days ago while it was over the pond out back. I was not sure what was going on and freaked out a little, so I zipped it back to me and the video connection came back. That night I left it idling in the room here and the camera disconnected three times. I would leave it sit and eventually the video would return. There have been no recent changes and all things show current update status. There are times when I first power up it takes a minute or two all the way to over ten minutes for the video to start working. During this time I have an error message stating that the gimbal is disconnected. Just before the video connects, I get two popup messages. First, "Switching to Tripod Mode". Second, "Switching to P Mode" one right after the other. Now this is without touching the switch on the controller and it is set in the "P" position. There are times it takes powering up the drone 2 to 4 times before it initializes to where I get the beeps. One time it took me almost half an hour to get everything working and ready to fly. My controller was down to about 80% and I didn't even take off yet. I was not having these problems at first. They have developed.
I also have a "Internal file system error" that showed up about a week ago. I cannot format or use the internal memory.
It may be time to see what their customer service is like...

It’s frustrating for sure. That’s just not right. Don’t suffer with it, give them a ring and get back to flying.

 

[noosaguy]

Ahh, that would explain why it didn’t RTH from the controller. I can’t remember everything I read in the manual.

Fact is, I just got the M2 on Wednesday cause my P3 was on the fritz since last week’s flight. I watched as many YouTubes as I could in 3 days, speed read through the manual, firmware, software and a dozen other pre first flight activities, but fall colors are in the way out and I needed to get some filming in before winter. This was an awful year for flying with so much rain in the mid Atlantic flooding out my Potomac River launch sites. Also, going to Exuma, Bahamas for a wedding and a 4 day weekend on Thursday and I’m anxious to film while there.

Grateful for all the advice here. I only learn by making the mistakes, comforted that others have made them before me.

When the M2 Pro was announced, I knew I had to have it. The size of the kit is a big selling point.

Yes this happened to me early on. Frightening.
I lost sight of the M2P and I had no idea of its orientation or anything so I pressed RTH button... Nothing! CRAP! I started to suffer and anxiety attack. I tried again and again and finally it started to come back. I must have pressed and held by chance.
Goes to show, we shouldn't fly until we have FULL control of the thing. I learnt a valuable lesson.

 

[brettbrandon]

It’s frustrating for sure. That’s just not right. Don’t suffer with it, give them a ring and get back to flying.

Thanks.
UPDATE:
I just spent a couple of hours sitting here verifying all components are updated and current versions before giving them a call. After testing back and forth between the iPad and iPhone, I tried using the bottom usb jack on the controller with a different cable and poof....... It is now starting up right away like it used to. Aparrently the usb cable or micro usb jack on the controller is going bad. I have already heard rumors that the small usb jack breaks easily.
The internal memory is still out, but for now, I use the chip anyway.

 

[PortCanaveralFlorida]

I'm new to MavicPilots. Been flying/posting to PhantomPilots for the last couple years.

So, just got the Mavic 2 (an upgrade from my P3 4k). I went through all of the firmware/software (DJI Go 4) updates on the M2 and iPad. I was flying from a steep hilltop about 700' or so above the Potomac River in Harper's Ferry, WV (from the bluff at the abandoned hotel). I got a little more than 1/2 mile out, 200' or so above my launch elevation (clear LOS) and the DJI Go 4 app on my iPad mini (connected to the larger M2 controller USB port) indicated 'Disconnected'. No data or video feed. I'm not 100% fluent in the controller functions yet, but it did indicate the height and distance, so the controller was still connected. If I recall correctly, the RTH on the controller did not initiate RTH, but I could be mistaken. I had about 40% battery left at the time, but was obviously concerned about getting back (into a 10mph headwind) with no video/data feed. I wasn't sure of a safe troubleshooting protocol mid-flight and the best I could manage is checking my distance reading unsure of the exact orientation. If the distance was decreasing, I knew I was headed in the general direction, but it was a bit of a nail biter getting back. I got back just in time. The app never did reconnect.

So, mid-flight... what would you do to attempt to reconnect? And... what would diagnostics would you do to figure out what the problem was? Clearly there was an issue between the controller (which was connected) and the iPad/app (which disconnected). Restart the app? Replug the iPad? Replace the cable (already ordered)? I'll have to DL the flight logs, perhaps you smarter/more experienced pilots can give me a clue.

I didn't have time last night to do diagnostics. I spent an hour trying to read the files offloaded with a card reader. That required updating to Mohave OS on my Macbook. H.265 is apparently a new 'thing'. I attached some pics from last weekend's flight with my P3 4k.

Yep, nice photos! Almost look like a Model Train mock-up for a ad.

Take out the curvature and slight level, bam your done! Nice shots!

 

[Jackcutrone]

I read a lot of posts on this topic and see a lot of don’t worry about it the rc is still connected, use that. While that is true and can bring it back home that is really not a satisfactory answer to one of the questions which is why this happens. Many of the posts suggest ensuring that the mini usb is plugged into the phone all the way. I have had disconnects where it indeed was plugged all the way into the phone and the rc yet disconnected anyway and would not reconnect. I see posts also that the mini usb is not good and to use the reg usb in the bottom of the rc. That is well and good but if inherent weakness of the mini usb cable is the issue a.) why does it not always become disconnected and b.) dji should redesign it and send us all free replacements. Another suggestion here is to shut down and restart the app. I don’t recall seeing complaints about litchi. Or DroneDeploy disconnecting which would indicate that if stopping and restarting Go4 is the solution there is some programming issue - again something dji is responsible for and should fix.

I always hate it when I get the aircraft disconnected message. This really should happen rarely if ever. Instead it is a common occurrence. Don’t get me wrong. I think dji’s engineering and programming is absolute amazing and I am a big proponent of their equipment but where there is a repeated issue they should solve it.

 

[JoelP]

Glad that it ended well for you and provided such nice images.

I had this happen to me with my MA in a Litchi flight about 1000 ft away. Later analysis showed that it was hovering for longer that it was supposed to without initiating a RTH.

My approach was to put on a passive antenna amp over my antennas to try to strengthen my signal. This seemed to work as it initiated the RTH soon after adding this and pressing the RTH button.

When this happens it is easy to lose sight of the drone. For this reason I have added a Firehouse strobe, which enhances your ability to spot it. Just seeing it does wonders to calm your nerves.

 

[kloogee]

Here are the steps I take if I run into a connectivity issue.

• PRE-FLIGHT PRECAUTIONS
  • In pre-flight, I make sure the home point is set so that as a last resort, hopefully RTH will occur if I lose all connection
  • Make sure my take off location is suitable for an emergency RTH return and doesn't have obstacles directly above the launch point
• DURING FLIGHT WHEN DISCONNECT HAPPENS
  • Remain calm!
  • Look at LCD display on RC, to determine if RC is still connected or not
    • If not sure, do some small movements with sticks to see if telemetry reflect changes or I can see resulting movement in aircraft visually
      • If telemetry updates, then RC is still connected
      • If telemetry does not update, then RC is likely not connected
  • If RC is still connected, but app shows disconnection
    • Kill DJI GO 4 app and re-open it
    • If closing/opening Go 4 doesn't fix, then unplug USB cable from RC and re-connect it and do same on phone
    • If neither of the above work, use sticks to try to navigate home using telemetry data, visual, and audio cues
    • If unable to navigate manually, then press and hold RTH button on RC until RTH protocol is initiated on aircraft
  • If RC is NOT still connected
    • Change my physical location to try to get better signal to the aircraft
    • If still not working, turn RC off and back on
    • If still not working, try steps above (i.e. kill DJI Go 4, unplug/replug all cables)
  • If still can't get connected, bow head and say prayer asking for Failsafe RTH to work safely and to avoid obstacles on return path

Anybody have any suggested changes or updates to the above?