WT actual ****!!

[Justrbloke]

Today I went for a fly when a couple of minutes in, without any warning my iPhone suddenly lost all connectivity to my Mavic. Fortunately I'd seen which direction I was pointing in and flew it home via the still active controller. I was terrified I was about to experience a fly-away, or have my Mavic land in the lake I was over at the time, as I've read has happened.

I got it home, landed, and spent the next 10-15 minutes trying to work out what had just happened - cable fully plugged in between phone and controller, restarted the GO4 App, power cycled my phone - nothing worked. I couldn't get any signal between my phone and my drone.

I was just about to reinstall the GO4 App when I closed all other applications, turned off Bluetooth and WiFi, put the phone into Aeroplane Mode, and hey presto!, I had video and full GO4 app functionality back on my phone!

I recently did the app upgrade and resigned in, etc. but saw no warning of anything like this!

This was BS DJI!! BS of the highest order!! Not happy at all, to pretty much lose all control and certainly all vision, when my drone was a significant distance away, mid-flight!

Anyone else experienced this?

BEWARE!

 

[Plawa]

No, you're the only only in the world who ever had that happen. That's why the app has a 2.4/5 rating in the app store.

 

[Justrbloke]

No, you're the only only in the world who ever had that happen. That's why the app has a 2.4/5 rating in the app store.

...Useful...
Well I hadn't read of this particular behaviour before. Seriously unimpressed. Does it again and it'll be going in for a full refund.

 

[Plawa]

Well then you might as well send it in now... read the threads around here before you go all nuclear...

 

[Boog0822]

I've only had one app crash and I use Android. But it was enough to nearly make me need new underwear! Lol... I'm sure it'll happen again. Just be prepared and plan what to do WHEN not if it happens again. Also know the difference between an app crash and a complete signal loss/return to home.

 

[scooot]

I have only ever flown in earoplane mode on my iPhone.You have just reinforced my desicion never to change.[emoji106]

 

[rydfree]

"when I closed all other applications, turned off Bluetooth and WiFi, put the phone into Aeroplane Mode, and hey presto!,"

That's the way you should fly . I would never put an aircraft up depending on a phone to help control it when anything else unnecessary is running or taking up resources . Phones crash or freeze up too often enough without having several things running in the background while trying to run a sophisticated flight app .

 

[dmitriy]

Let me guess iPhone 7 or 7 plus?

Yea it's a known issue, you can warranty for it I believe (I haven't yet) have a spare lighting cable ready to plug into the bottom port of the controller (unplug the side port) and into the phone and it will take care of the issue.

I am debating when a good time to send my mavic in would be for that & the dreaded GPS follow me/home point reset issue

 

[Justrbloke]

Yes, iPhone 7 Plus.

In the end I believe this was related to the latest firmware upgrade. When restarting the app with the phone in Aeroplane Mode, I received error messages telling me to immediately update my no-fly zone database. I was not in a no-fly zone by the way. When initially launching the app I did not get an update alert either, it had been running for probably 15 minutes when this issue occurred and I was beyond the 30 and 50 metre no-fly zone geofencing limits they mention.

This appears to have been a deliberate crash of the app by DJI while the phone was able to get a network connection and confirm it needed a new update. I must have been unlucky and flying at the moment the update was released. But to crash the app by default is pretty bad!

As soon as I turned the phone's networking functionality off, all was good. I tested by turning off Aeroplane Mode and again I had no video, no connection, all settings gone. Back in Aeroplane Mode, all back to normal.

Poor form DJI, very poor form! Very ****** programming.

 

[odonnks]

Been flying the a P4 using the old DJI Go app with a iPad for maybe a year now and never had a 'app disconnect'.

Picked up a Mavic a few weeks ago and was forced to load the DJI Go4 app. Using it with the Mavic and same iPad I've had a few app crashes. Hopefully this gets resolved soon.

Keep in mind, if the phone or iPad does crash you can still use the controller RTH button.

FWIW, when my app did crash unplugging/replugging the cable and closing/restarting the app while still in flight did bring it back up.

 

[F6Rider]

Why were you worried? If not in LOS all you needed to do was hit the RTH button and back it comes.

 

[NaiveFlight]

And the RTH button on the controller has to be held down for a few seconds to activate right?

 

[F6Rider]

And the RTH button on the controller has to be held down for a few seconds to activate right?

Yes, you will get audio & visual confirmation that RTH is engaged.

 

[NaiveFlight]

Yes, you will get audio & visual confirmation that RTH is engaged.

Exept no audio or visual if app/phone crashed

 

[Kmccb]

Wow.. This is scary as hell.. I was flying today and had no clue where I was.. I was far away but not in any residential (just around some quarries)..

If this happened I would simply hit RTH and pray it'd come back, right?

Has anyone had OPs issue and RTH NOT work?

 

[F6Rider]

Exept no audio or visual if app/phone crashed

Really? you think?

 

[NaiveFlight]

Really? you think?

Just clarifying, Mr officer

 

[F6Rider]

Wow.. This is scary as ****.. I was flying today and had no clue where I was.. I was far away but not in any residential (just around some quarries)..

If this happened I would simply hit RTH and pray it'd come back, right?

Has anyone had OPs issue and RTH NOT work?

I have used RTH on many occasions, but I have never had my iPhone 6+ or the app crash on me in 300+ flights (knock, knock). I test RTH when in close (LOS) to make sure its working, and sometimes when I am far out I will switch to sport mode and hit it for a fast return (lazy )

 

[F6Rider]

Just clarifying, Mr officer

I am thinking not too many out there would expect a audio or visual response from a crashed phone or app. Most on here are old enough that you don't need to explain the obvious to them. And I retired from the force years ago

 

[Justrbloke]

Why was I worried?
Because it shouldn't have happened and in the moment that it did I didn't know what the hell was going on and I was **** scared, "is this what happens when one of those crazy flyaways occurs?"
Once I realised I still had control of the craft via the handset, I felt a little better.
I got it home, but flying blind, still very concerned at what was happening, was no fun.
It shouldn't have happened and was a deliberate result of DJI changes.
I'm still worried about that and what they might do next, that effects a couple of thousand of my dollars!