Aircraft disconnected help

[Mathie818]

Hey crew,

Recently got a new Mavic Pro and love it, except for this one frustrating problem

I know there’s heaps of threads on this but couldn’t find what I was looking for.

There’s a particular spot that I want to fly at with NO PHONE SERVICE.
When I take off at this location everything is working perfect, but when I fly approx 100mtrs away it comes up on my iPhone 8 saying aircraft disconnect and I lose the image. I can still fully control the drone with the remote controller.
To fix this I can usually unplug the iPhone cable and reconnect but it only works until I fly it again then repeats itself straight away.
I read on other threads no service shouldn’t be an issue but is this information correct?

I should also mention that I have absolutely no problems when I fly at other locations.

Thanks in advanced.

 

[joejaxvic123]

What is different about this location? Metal structures, cell towers, high voltage lines? Getting any interference warnings? Are you in 'do not disturb or airplane mode' on your device? Welcome to the forum.

 

[ac0j]

I would put your phone in airplane mode when flying. ALWAYS! No wifi, no bluetooth, no cell service. Shut off all apps.
When a phone gets low or no service it starts trying to restore it by increasing power and who knows what else. Also apps like twitter, snapchat, facebook, instagram and who knows what else might spark up activity trying to reconnect and using processor power. I think in this case, your phone is so busy trying to connect to a cell, it is losing interest in your flight.

GO AIRPLANE MODE!

 

[Mathie818]

What is different about this location? Metal structures, cell towers, high voltage lines? Getting any interference warnings? Are you in 'do not disturb or airplane mode' on your device? Welcome to the forum.

It’s in a national park so mainly just Bush! I was getting interference warnings but I seem to get them all the time and never have any trouble. And no I didn’t have it in airplane mode.
Cheers!

I would put your phone in airplane mode when flying. ALWAYS! No wifi, no bluetooth, no cell service. Shut off all apps.
When a phone gets low or no service it starts trying to restore it by increasing power and who knows what else. Also apps like twitter, snapchat, facebook, instagram and who knows what else might spark up activity trying to reconnect and using processor power. I think in this case, your phone is so busy trying to connect to a cell, it is losing interest in your flight.

GO AIRPLANE MODE!

Ok I’ll be sure to try that! I thought airplane mode turned GPS off too? I need gps to fly correct?
Thanks.

 

[ac0j]

It’s in a national park so mainly just Bush! I was getting interference warnings but I seem to get them all the time and never have any trouble. And no I didn’t have it in airplane mode.
Cheers!



Ok I’ll be sure to try that! I thought airplane mode turned GPS off too? I need gps to fly correct?
Thanks.

You do not need the phone GPS to fly, only for certain special flight modes.

 

[Mathie818]

You do not need the phone GPS to fly, only for certain special flight modes.

I film a bit of wakeboarding so it usually takes off from a boat that moves around a lot ... I often use the gps to reset the RTH location to get it back closer to the boat if I can’t see the Mavic.

 

[ac0j]

I film a bit of wakeboarding so it usually takes off from a boat that moves around a lot ... I often use the gps to reset the RTH location to get it back closer to the boat if I can’t see the Mavic.

i am not sure that it shuts the gps off in airplane mode, as it is just a receiver. shouldn't be to hard to test, set to airplane mode and take a short drive and see if it knows where you are at?

 

[Mathie818]

i am not sure that it shuts the gps off in airplane mode, as it is just a receiver. shouldn't be to hard to test, set to airplane mode and take a short drive and see if it knows where you are at?

Ok I’ll definitely give it a shot, even if I can get away with just disabling everything but location services, cheers

 

[shamus]

Airplane mode, on Samsung at least, doesn't turn the GPS off. If you have a MAP app of some sort, other than GOOGLE'S map, you can test it for yourself. Just bare in mind that it may take several second in a open sky environment to get a proper lock.
I use this feature on flights to see current altitude, speed and so on.

 

[Tinmania]

It’s in a national park so mainly just Bush!

How are you able to fly in a national park? Assuming US of course.



Mike

 

[Mathie818]

How are you able to fly in a national park? Assuming US of course.



Mike

Australia

 

[bushie]

How are you able to fly in a national park? Assuming US of course.



Mike

In Australia it depends what state. No problem in Queensland. Banned in WA.

I reality it is a grey area with CASA having sole right to controll airspace. We need a court case to clarify

 

[curso88]

Same problem with iPhone 7 Plus in two different Mavic Pro units. Is a firmware bug. Put your iPhone in airplane mode to solve this problem.

It seems that DJI is not able to solve this problem. There are original DJI cables for iphone that are apparently the same, but some cause this fault and others do not. I have been able to verify this in my tests with several original DJI cables for iphone. The problem does not appear with a bad cable if you put the iPhone in airplane mode, but with a good cable the problem does not appear even if you are in normal mode with mobile data, eifi, bluetoot, etc. If you use the USB connector on the bottom of the RC the problem never appears. The problem is that you can not differentiate a good cable from a problematic one, because they are all the same externally, I think DJI knows this problem but maybe you can not solve it because you have not had control in the manufacture of these cables for iPhone from the beginning and it may have been manufactured by another manufacturer hired by DJI and there are cables with different lighting connector chips with poor MFI certification. I have contacted the DJI development team several times and they have never answered me. Other times I have contacted the same department for different questions and if they have answered me. In the end, I bought a USB lighting cable on Amazon, but I have an original DJI cable that does not give these problems. It's a mystery, and a danger to flight

 

[dvarapala]

There’s a particular spot that I want to fly at with NO PHONE SERVICE.
When I take off at this location everything is working perfect, but when I fly approx 100mtrs away it comes up on my iPhone 8 saying aircraft disconnect and I lose the image. I can still fully control the drone with the remote controller.
To fix this I can usually unplug the iPhone cable and reconnect but it only works until I fly it again then repeats itself straight away.
I read on other threads no service shouldn’t be an issue but is this information correct?

Lack of phone service should not be an issue. However, there may be other factors at play in the vicinity of your particular spot. I have such a spot where I tried to fly a few times and got bizarre disconnects every time; if I move a half mile down the road everything works fine. Bottom line is sometimes you just can't fly from a particular location due to interference, and you have no choice but to find a new spot.