Close call…What happened? (Choppy phone-controller screen at beach)

[dronerat]

I have been flying my Air 2S for about a year with no issues, until today when I had a close call. I was flying at the beach about 200 feet over water, 1500 feet or so away, and out of nowhere the frame rate on my iPhone’s screen in the DJI fly app dropped to unusable levels. It was still for seconds at a time, making it very hard to navigate confidently back. I successfully landed on my pad under these circumstances and occasionally smooth animation returned irregularly.

While animation improved close to my pad, I still occasionally had the issue.

Theories: I posit this might be due to 1) range and signal interference? 2) my phone or drone getting too hot at the beach? or 3) issues with the connection cable or electronics in the drone?

What do you think caused this dangerous occurance?

How can I avoid it in the future?

 

[mavic3usa]

Glad you were able to retrieve your drone successfully. The equipment is not perfect and lots of things can happen from the phone battery dying to dropping the phone in the ocean to the drone operator being incapacitated. None of these should create a "dangerous" occurrence since our drones do not pose a serious threat to personnel safety or damage to property. It is entire safe to operate your drone at the beach (when you follow the rules and regulations) and in the event there is a mishap, the drone will probably simply return to home or land or hover. If there is a malfunction and the drone crashes into the sea, no harm done.

I understand the stress and the excitement the pilot may experience during this type of event, in the future I suggest you practice for the scenario in an open and safe or isolated area and while you drone is at distance, power off the phone/controller and see what happens in the controlled environment. I mostly use smart controllers so someone else can chime in on what may have happened with your particular incident.

 

[Dangerly]

I have been flying my Air 2S for about a year with no issues, until today when I had a close call. I was flying at the beach about 200 feet over water, 1500 feet or so away, and out of nowhere the frame rate on my iPhone’s screen in the DJI fly app dropped to unusable levels. It was still for seconds at a time, making it very hard to navigate confidently back. I successfully landed on my pad under these circumstances and occasionally smooth animation returned irregularly.

While animation improved close to my pad, I still occasionally had the issue.

Theories: I posit this might be due to 1) range and signal interference? 2) my phone or drone getting too hot at the beach? or 3) issues with the connection cable or electronics in the drone?

What do you think caused this dangerous occurance?

How can I avoid it in the future?

When I fly with my phone in the remote controller, I do the following first with my phone in this order:

1. Turn airplane mode on
2. Clear all notifications (probably not necessary but I do it anyway)
3. Kill / stop all running apps
4. Then I power on the remote controller

If you didn't do these things, it's possible your phone got busy doing something else in the background. Is that a possible theory to explain your observations?

 

[dronerat]

When I fly with my phone in the remote controller, I do the following first with my phone in this order:

1. Turn airplane mode on
2. Clear all notifications (probably not necessary but I do it anyway)
3. Kill / stop all running apps
4. Then I power on the remote controller

If you didn't do these things, it's possible your phone got busy doing something else in the background. Is that a possible theory to explain your observations?

This is good advice…even if it is heat related it wont hurt to kill background processes

 

[BobaFut]

I have been flying my Air 2S for about a year with no issues, until today when I had a close call. I was flying at the beach about 200 feet over water, 1500 feet or so away, and out of nowhere the frame rate on my iPhone’s screen in the DJI fly app dropped to unusable levels. It was still for seconds at a time, making it very hard to navigate confidently back. I successfully landed on my pad under these circumstances and occasionally smooth animation returned irregularly.

While animation improved close to my pad, I still occasionally had the issue.

Theories: I posit this might be due to 1) range and signal interference? 2) my phone or drone getting too hot at the beach? or 3) issues with the connection cable or electronics in the drone?

What do you think caused this dangerous occurance?

How can I avoid it in the future?

I’ve flown my drone on 110 degree heat with no issues, so I think heat seems unlikely? But even if the app crashes, it should restart without issue. I almost wonder if restarting the app would’ve improved things.

 

[mobilehomer]

Don't forget, the controller connects to the drone, NOT the phone. If your phone overheats or crashes, use the RTH button on the controller. Then close and restart Fly. It should be back up while the drone is returning.

 

[MA2 317]

Don't forget, the controller connects to the drone, NOT the phone. If your phone overheats or crashes, use the RTH button on the controller. Then close and restart Fly. It should be back up while the drone is returning.

So true.

Another good reason for keeping the drone within VLOS.

If the device shuts down and you lose the telemetry, just fly it back or hit RTH.

.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Might this be one reason for the VLOS rule?
I would have also mentioned RTH but @mobilehomer has already done so

Ohh and @MA2 317 beat me to a comment about VLOS lol

 

[mobilehomer]

Might this be one reason for the VLOS rule?
I would have also mentioned RTH but @mobilehomer has already done so

Ohh and @MA2 317 beat me to a comment about VLOS lol

Yorky. you're 6 hours ahead of me, but you're SLOW!!

 

[Starz]

Try a new/different cable.

 

[Capt KO]

CPU overload. As said, too much running In background. Surprised you didn’t get an on-screen warning.

or cable

 

[badshah]

And what if one was using the RC (with Mini 3 Pro) instead of (RC-N1+phone) and something similar happened? What would be the theories? I had a very similar incident last week. Was flying high up from the mountains, out onto the plains with very clear line of sight on a bright sunny day. I remember I had the spotlight mode on (so that the camera could keep the subject in view) but then flew out to a distance and that's when the screen and all controls just froze (or at least I thought so). Panic set in for a little while. Eventually, did the RTH and when it was overhead, the screen and control returned and I could land it. This hasn't happened to me before and I couldn't figure out why this occurred. Did the spotlight mode have anything to do with the glitch? I thought it comes out of Spotlight automatically once the subject is out of the frame. All parameters - battery, signal, weather, interference, etc. were normal. Any thoughts experts? Will the flight log show anything?

And yes, after that, I had several flights both at the same location and other and never saw the issue. Of course, none were while using spotlight mode.

 

[MA2 317]

Will the flight log show anything?

Post it and let the gurus look at it.

They may be able to see something in the data.

DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help

Upload and view flight logs from your DJI drones

www.phantomhelp.com

.

 

[dstuart]

You do know you can fly the drone without the phone or iPad hooked up, I have flown mine several times without a phone or iPad.

 

[lookout]

You do know you can fly the drone without the phone or iPad hooked up, I have flown mine several times without a phone or iPad.

But you are limited in range.

 

[dstuart]

But you are limited in range.

why is that? your phone is just a monitor, not the controller

 

[lookout]

why is that? your phone is just a monitor, not the controller

It limits range when not using the mobile app.

 

[dstuart]

It limits range when not using the mobile app.

The app has nothing to do with range, the controller does, I have flown my MP1 just as far without my phone, as with my phone. Again the phone is just a visual aid nothing to do with the drone.

 

[lookout]

The app has nothing to do with range, the controller does, I have flown my MP1 just as far without my phone, as with my phone. Again the phone is just a visual aid nothing to do with the drone.

M1P? Curious what firmware you have? I think earlier version didn't have the limitation. It was corrected by a later firmware.