Controller disconnection

[shaunmichaelj]

Morning all and greetings from the uk

On several occasions I've had controller disconnections
I am shooting on a club terrace for a friends club, and on several occasions I've had my controller disconnect.
Literally 7 feet in the air and it's just said mavic air disconnected, without warning. I can't control the drone at all and it doesn't reconnect.

Why does this happen and what can I do to be safe so I don't loose the drone?

 

[MrKuoDude]

Morning all and greetings from the uk

On several occasions I've had controller disconnections
I am shooting on a club terrace for a friends club, and on several occasions I've had my controller disconnect.
Literally 7 feet in the air and it's just said mavic air disconnected, without warning. I can't control the drone at all and it doesn't reconnect.

Why does this happen and what can I do to be safe so I don't loose the drone?

What happen after your controller disconnect? Does your drone fall off the sky or it return home automatically?

 

[turbodronepilot]

Why does this happen and what can I do to be safe so I don't loose the drone?

Hello Shaun from the USA...
My guess is that you have a defective rc or aircraft and need to contact DJI support to resolve this issue..
I wouldn't recommend flying it at this point because if you crash it they might not cover it under warranty. .

 

[Air Beetle]

update firmware in drone AND controller

 

[LasVegasPilot]

I have the same problem! Every single flight has atleast 3 random disconnects.

I thought the drone updated itself through the app with those painstaking 20 minute update through the app. How do you get the controller updated as well???

 

[DrTedC]

I've had the same problem on several occasions with no apparent cause. Usually the drone just sits in the position it was in when I lost contact. I successfully reconnected with the drone by turning the controller off (which didn't matter b/c I had no control anyway) and turning the controller back on in mid flight. At that point I had control again.

 

[Mike4884]

Could it be a device issue? I have heard of this with iPhones and the mavic air completely disconnected... for reference I have not had a disconnect once and I'm using a Galaxy S8 Plus with the Mavic air.... I will admit I did have a disconnect a few times with the mavic pro ....not with the mav air tho

 

[bytebiz]

Could it be a device issue? I have heard of this with iPhones and the mavic air completely disconnected... for reference I have not had a disconnect once and I'm using a Galaxy S8 Plus with the Mavic air.... I will admit I did have a disconnect a few times with the mavic pro ....not with the mav air tho

The latest firmware 01.00.0200 (https://dl.djicdn.com/downloads/Mavic+Air/20180209/Mavic_Air_Release_Notes_en.pdf ) address 2 issues in the controller that may be related. They are described as follows:

• Fixed an issue that occasionally caused the remote controller restart automatically.
• Fixed an issue that occasionally caused linking to fail.

 

[Mike4884]

The latest firmware 01.00.0200 (https://dl.djicdn.com/downloads/Mavic+Air/20180209/Mavic_Air_Release_Notes_en.pdf ) address 2 issues in the controller that may be related. They are described as follows:

• Fixed an issue that occasionally caused the remote controller restart automatically.
• Fixed an issue that occasionally caused linking to fail.

Yes but isn't the Opon latest firmware ??? I'm just saying if he is using an iPhone there is documented threads about the iPhone especially the iPhone x disconnecting I think you have to update to 11.2.5 for it to stop

 

[eBird]

This doesn't have anything to do with the phone. Mine disconnects every now and then, and nothing but turning controller off and on again regains control. Testing this indoors on the bench, it disconnected with no phone attached. It disconnected twice yesterday while I was updating the firmware, causing it to fail. Getting tired of it, didn't start this behavior until about the 30th flight.

 

[Anndybo]

This doesn't have anything to do with the phone. Mine disconnects every now and then, and nothing but turning controller off and on again regains control. Testing this indoors on the bench, it disconnected with no phone attached. It disconnected twice yesterday while I was updating the firmware, causing it to fail. Getting tired of it, didn't start this behavior until about the 30th flight.

Are you using Auto or Custom WiFi channel connection?

 

[eBird]

Not flying by WiFi, but do have it on auto channel for image transmission.

 

[eBird]

To see what I and some of us are seeing, connect the phone, RC, and turn on the bird. Don't start the motors. You'll see GPS on the RC, all is good. Now turn off the bird. The phone display goes grayscale, "connecting..." displays, the remote signal strength shows zero, and the phone displays " aircraft disconnected." That's what happens in the air, and the Mavic just hovers then returns to home if you don't power cycle the RC to reconnect.

 

[eBird]

Also just noticed OP is flying the Air, my issue is happening with the Pro. Now I understand Anndybo's question. Sorry, got crossed over to the Air forum.

 

[mrbillsy]

To see what I and some of us are seeing, connect the phone, RC, and turn on the bird. Don't start the motors. You'll see GPS on the RC, all is good. Now turn off the bird. The phone display goes grayscale, "connecting..." displays, the remote signal strength shows zero, and the phone displays " aircraft disconnected." That's what happens in the air, and the Mavic just hovers then returns to home if you don't power cycle the RC to reconnect.

Wowsers......i had something very similar happen today.....I'm on iOS 11.2.5 on iPhoneX, bird has latest FW (i updated last night, then got an error about inconsistent versions this morning but i had updated both RC and Bird last night in prep for today.....before flight today the update went through before take off and all good). Got a couple of Compass calibration errors this morning before take off but re-calibrated twice and message went away both times.

On the first battery run this morning, all OK, travelled about 5.2km total with furthest distance out 1000m as i had it limited. Brought her home and swapped batteries and updated distance to 1500m. Out we go again, this time to 1300m and I had video recording the whole way.....wanted to stop and take a pic so pressed the 'stop record' button but realised it was greyed out! tried a few more times and was getting intermittent messages about 'loss of video', poor connection etc. So i tried to turn it around but nothing.....couldnt stop the video, not sure what else was greyed out now as i was panicky, hit RTH in a panic and nothing!! i waited a few minutes......i didn't see it reconnect on the screen, couldn't hear it coming and by now I'm shitting myself that my $1600AUD 2 week old drone is gone and how was I going to explain this to the missus when i got home!

The only thing i could think to do was 'crash' out of the App on the iPhone, restart and hope it reconnected. After what seemed like an eternity, it reconnected and i hit RTH and home it came! I can see on the video that its just sitting there the whole time i was trying to work something out. In the DJI GO4 App recording of the flight and my control movements, you can see nothing happening on the controls (but i know i was frantically trying to move it). Then the flight time goes from 7min 17secs and jumps straight to 8mins+.

Scared the crap outta me.....dont think i'll be taking it out that far again for a while!

 

[mrbillsy]

Looking at my DJI Flight log it appears that from 7min 17s the link was DOWN for 44secs.......during that time, the bird seems to have travelled 500ft! not sure how or why given at that time the App & RC were essentially off. I would have thought RTH would be triggered or it was just sit there until the RC re-connected or the battery went flat....

 

[Mike4884]

Wowsers......i had something very similar happen today.....I'm on iOS 11.2.5 on iPhoneX, bird has latest FW (i updated last night, then got an error about inconsistent versions this morning but i had updated both RC and Bird last night in prep for today.....before flight today the update went through before take off and all good). Got a couple of Compass calibration errors this morning before take off but re-calibrated twice and message went away both times.

On the first battery run this morning, all OK, travelled about 5.2km total with furthest distance out 1000m as i had it limited. Brought her home and swapped batteries and updated distance to 1500m. Out we go again, this time to 1300m and I had video recording the whole way.....wanted to stop and take a pic so pressed the 'stop record' button but realised it was greyed out! tried a few more times and was getting intermittent messages about 'loss of video', poor connection etc. So i tried to turn it around but nothing.....couldnt stop the video, not sure what else was greyed out now as i was panicky, hit RTH in a panic and nothing!! i waited a few minutes......i didn't see it reconnect on the screen, couldn't hear it coming and by now I'm shitting myself that my $1600AUD 2 week old drone is gone and how was I going to explain this to the missus when i got home!

The only thing i could think to do was 'crash' out of the App on the iPhone, restart and hope it reconnected. After what seemed like an eternity, it reconnected and i hit RTH and home it came! I can see on the video that its just sitting there the whole time i was trying to work something out. In the DJI GO4 App recording of the flight and my control movements, you can see nothing happening on the controls (but i know i was frantically trying to move it). Then the flight time goes from 7min 17secs and jumps straight to 8mins+.

Scared the crap outta me.....dont think i'll be taking it out that far again for a while!

After 3 seconds the aircraft will return home if it is disconnected also make sure to hit return to home on the remote don't just press it you have to hold it down for about 2 to 3 seconds you will hear it start beeping.....like i said ac disconnects (in app) but remote light is still green, that means you're still connected to your remote... so hit return to home on your remote. If you are disconnected from the app and your remote is disconnected you will have a red light all I can say here is after 3 seconds aircraft should start to return home

 

[Mike4884]

Looking at my DJI Flight log it appears that from 7min 17s the link was DOWN for 44secs.......during that time, the bird seems to have travelled 500ft! not sure how or why given at that time the App & RC were essentially off. I would have thought RTH would be triggered or it was just sit there until the RC re-connected or the battery went flat....

Yea weird. But do u have your "rth" set for "return to home" during signal loss? In the app you have three settings you can choose from "return to home" , "land" or "hover" u would want to make sure its set to rth.. now there is different scenarios where you would use the other ones like say for instance you were in a forest with lots of trees you would want it to hover if you lost connection instead of rise up and hit the trees. Like I said make sure you check your settings and make sure to always hit return to home on the remote....i never use the app for return to home

 

[mrbillsy]

Thanks Mike4884 for the input and advice. I am pretty sure that rth is set for signal loss as it happened yesterday when flying....was in a bit more of a built up area yesterday and didn't get as far before interference......it just came back by itself. i'll double check next time i go out. I'll remember to use the rth on the RC next time too.....

 

[Drone.Head]

I've had the same problem on several occasions with no apparent cause. Usually the drone just sits in the position it was in when I lost contact. I successfully reconnected with the drone by turning the controller off (which didn't matter b/c I had no control anyway) and turning the controller back on in mid flight. At that point I had control again.

Are you guys still getting the RC disconnect issue with the Air? I've had it happen 3 times now in the last 3 flights. Each time only powering off the RC and back on again have made it reconnect, regardless of how close it is. Don't know if its a firmware or hardware issue. I'm on the latest firmware.