2nd time Aircraft Disconnected...

[Bigloser2448]

This happened on one of my 1st flights as well. Shortly after trying to use Active Track to follow dome boats offshore, I lost connection. My (Samsung Galaxy J7 Prime) phone display goes grey and the controller says Aircraft disconnected. Both times I restarted my controller and when it found the Aircraft it was already on it's way with auto RTH. It was quite unnerving as you know these things are supposed to come back home, but until you see it coming back, I'm freaking out.
I uploaded the flight log (attached) but it doesn't really show anything useful that I can see.
HELP?

 

[Derlisz]

If the drone was returning home it looks like a genuine disconnect. Did you watch the two signal strength meter icons at the top of the screen? How far away was he drone and was here anything in between you and the Mavic potentially blocking the signal?

 

[Bigloser2448]

If the drone was returning home it looks like a genuine disconnect. Did you watch the two signal strength meter icons at the top of the screen? How far away was he drone and was here anything in between you and the Mavic potentially blocking the signal?

I didn't notice what was in the display before it happened and the display was more or less blank after it disconnected, so I can't answer that. According to the flight log though,
DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com
It lost connection at only 5 minutes - 40 seconds into the flight at less than 900 feet away. It was more or less VLOS. I could still make it out if I tried really hard with nothing in between us at all.

 

[Bigloser2448]

Now that I look at the log again, it doesn't look like it started to RTH until after connection was re-established.
Last log before disconnect:

5m 40.2s ActiveTrack 15satellites 47.6ft N/A 0mph 893.6ft 79% 11.989V 4.002V 3.995V 3.992V 0.01V

Next log: (after I powered down and powered up controller):

6m 53.3s    Go Home    15satellites    64.0ft    N/A    0mph    893.6ft    79%    11.977V    3.998V    3.99V    3.989V    0.009V    Downlink Restored (after 1m 10.3s); RTH: Heading alignment

So it lost connection for something like 1 minute-10 seconds and then when I regained connectivity, it started coming home (by itself).

 

[Bigloser2448]

Does anybody else have anything they can add that might help me with this?

 

[Mossiback]

Which Mavic type are you flying?

 

[Bigloser2448]

Sorry,I thought I mentioned that in the OP. It's a fairly new Mavic Pro Alpine White edition.

 

[ac0j]

Was it just the phone app disconnected? That’s what it sounds like to me. When you shut down the RC that is what prompted the RTH.
Make sure all apps but dji are shut down before flight and it helps to have the phone in airplane mode. Also make sure there is plenty of free memory available on the phone.

 

[Bigloser2448]

I don't remember exactly what the remote look like but it was dark like disconnected none of the distance speed and altitude numbers were displayed. The app went gray as well. I always shut down all my other apps. But I have never tried airplane mode. I will try that. It is a fairly crappy phone so if it is resource dependent then I might need to find a better phone to use. That's sad, I haven't had any app crashes. The app itself does not crash it just says disconnected. I wish there was more information in the logs that would explain what happened.

 

[Mossiback]

I don't remember exactly what the remote look like but it was dark like disconnected none of the distance speed and altitude numbers were displayed...

If the RC display was dark, without it even showing "Connecting", then it is as if it was turned off. Was the RC battery fully charged before using?

...The app went gray as well...The app itself does not crash it just says disconnected...

If Go 4 is all grey and it shows "Disconnected" in grey in the upper left corner, then it has no communication with the RC; as if the cable to the RC were unplugged or the RC was turned off. If Go 4 shows "Aircraft Disconnected" in red in the upper left corner, it means there is no communication between the RC and AC but the RC is still working.

 

[Thwyllo]

The microUSB socket on a lot of phones is ridiculously flimsy and easily becomes widened and loose after a lot of charging, could easily be a cable issue.

 

[Bigloser2448]

If the RC display was dark, without it even showing "Connecting", then it is as if it was turned off. Was the RC battery fully charged before using?

The RC wasn't dark like it was off. The categories were there, they were jump empty. Like the Words Distance, Speed, and altitude were there, but no values next to them.

If Go 4 is all grey and it shows "Disconnected" in grey in the upper left corner, then it has no communication with the RC; as if the cable to the RC were unplugged or the RC was turned off. If Go 4 shows "Aircraft Disconnected" in red in the upper left corner, it means there is no communication between the RC and AC but the RC is still working.

To be honest, I'm not sure if it was grey or red.

I am going to try to recreate the problem, because I think it happened both times when trying to follow a subject with active track and having it run away out without it locking onto it. I will do it over dry land and see if I can get it to do it again. This time I'll have another camera phone handy to take a picture of both RC and Phone.
This is really bothering me now.

 

[Bigloser2448]

The microUSB socket on a lot of phones is ridiculously flimsy and easily becomes widened and loose after a lot of charging, could easily be a cable issue.

I will check for that. I don't think that's the problem because I have so few flights on it, but anything is possible.

I think I may actually disconnect to cable between the phone and RC intentionally to see if it looks like what happened. That's an easy one to try.,

Thanks everyone for the tips.

Please come back and share more advice, especially after I come back with my results from my testing.
Stay tuned...

 

[tribar]

Was it just the phone app disconnected? That’s what it sounds like to me. When you shut down the RC that is what prompted the RTH.
Make sure all apps but dji are shut down before flight and it helps to have the phone in airplane mode. Also make sure there is plenty of free memory available on the phone.

You can fly a mavic pro with just the RC, so NO smart device connected.

 

[tribar]

Read the user manual page 38 "Optimal Transmission Range".

 

[2X25MPG]

This happened on one of my 1st flights as well. Shortly after trying to use Active Track to follow dome boats offshore, I lost connection. My (Samsung Galaxy J7 Prime) phone display goes grey and the controller says Aircraft disconnected. Both times I restarted my controller and when it found the Aircraft it was already on it's way with auto RTH. It was quite unnerving as you know these things are supposed to come back home, but until you see it coming back, I'm freaking out.
I uploaded the flight log (attached) but it doesn't really show anything useful that I can see.
HELP?

Hope it doesn't stay an issue for you as it does for me...... I lose connection on almost every flight - screen just goes black.... no warnings, just blackness. I have to manually fly it back to me and land it ...... shut everything down and re start. It's very annoying but I have no idea how to fix this.... I have zero computer skills and a 4year old probably has better tech skills than I do.

 

[crazziecanuck]

Never had any disconnects on last firmware but now mine disconnects in about 1 min after start of flight so all manual flight. Almost lost it on first flight caught me off guard. Thankful for the RTH

 

[dabellis]

I too am having this issue recently. The mavic pro is flying and my galaxy note 8 is connected and the view is great. Then the phone goes hey on the last visual and the disconnect warning appears. Always a panic when I'm flying with trees nearby. Is there no way to regain the connection? I always end up hitting the return home button and waiting and hoping it will come into view to manually land it. I'm afraid to go out of visual line of sight now. I could have a$100 drone for that.

 

[Rivendell]

Had this issue yesterday and had not read this thread before it happened. Came up in red "Aircraft Disconnected". This is where I was glad that I wasn't flying with my old iPad obscuring the transmitter because the initial panic of me thinking I had lost TRANSMITTER connection was reduced when I saw on the transmitter the rotor RPM and other data was still functioning. I tried closing and re-opening the app etc with no joy, so I hit RTH on the transmitter and all was well. However, after landing as I disconnected my Nokia 8 and returned to the home screen I saw that an Android update had been occurring in the background, which I think may have been the culprit (although I had deselected WiFi I hadn't put the phone to airplane mode). Lots of lessons here I reckon:

1. Fly with phone solely focussed on the drone. Close all other Apps, use offline maps and turn off both WiFi and cellular.

2. For those who say that "all the data is on the connected device so you don't need to see the transmitter" it's worth remembering that it can certainly help to see it in situations like this (and you'll need it to RTH).

3. It was a good reminder for me to check that the drone would RTH if the transmitter signal had indeed been lost.

4. The "Aircraft Disconnected" message is a tad worrying and could be changed by DJI to say something like "Device Disconnected use transmitter".

This may not help those who suffer this repeatedly regardless of what settings they have on their conbected phone/device, but my hunch is that in my case the Android update spooked the Go app, which disconnected itself.