Controller lost connection with drone, 5m away.

[Simk1n]

A little update, have been sitting with my G7/drone/RC on my table now for around 30min, no disconnecting error. Been turning drone and RC off/on a couple of times and also been around my cabin with the remote, walked into the bedrooms and closed the doors and no disconnects. So hopefully, a GO4 cache/data wipe helped.

Gonna cross my fingers and fly tomorrow again.

 

[paulatkin73]

At my cabin now. Not reflashed or done anything, wanted to try the drone a little more.

First flight went sort of OK, set home point, satellites around 17-19, made it hover for 15-20 seconds. Took it 80-110m up, and maybe 400m distance away, took some pics and RTH. First it was off by some meters at the home point, little strange because it has always been spot on, so i manually had to land it on my helipad due to alot of tall grass here at my cabin. Then when the drone was hovering right above the helipad i got disconnects again, but it connected again fairly quicky.

I took it for a second flight, it went fine, this time RTH was closer but still little off, but no disconnects this time.

Took it inside, had it turned on sitting on the table, both drone and controller ON and it went haywire. Disconnect - connect - disconnect - connect, then i got a new error: remote controller connection error, this went on and off for quite some time, i just sat there watching it connect and disconnect. I have always been using my LG G7, so i decided to try my Galaxy S10+, and the disconnecting error went away. I format my SD card, and decided to wipe all the DJI GO4 data off the LG G7. i connected my G7 again and it seems like the disconnect errors is gone.

Last time i used the G7 flying it was on Android 8, now it is on Android 9.

Could the culprint here actually be my phone? Could all of this remote disconnecting be caused by my phone?

Gonna try flying more tomorrow again, but starting to get worried now with all of this happening.

all i can say - i flew it with nld 1.8w patch, but used smart controller, with its wifi and bluetooth off. no disconnects after coming back from 1.5km distance, i hand catch, so, closest distance to controller was probably 2ft or so.
i would say it is better - safer - not to have anything turned up on the device connected to the remote - no internet, no wifi, no cell, no nothing. download maps prior to flight, then turn all off - if you reuse your phone - set it in the airplane mode.

 

[Gryphon962]

If you are having any disconnect issues, always remember to fly in airplane mode. The only two disconnects I've had ('Signal Lost') were among the few times I forgot to turn Airplane mode on.

 

[kem]

Do not use boots mode. FCC is OK.

Had some flying with my M2 Zoom today. Burned through one battery first down to 55% without any issues. Flew away maybe 500m and back, and some close-by flying with video.

Then on my second battery, i flew away 1km, and back, no problems until the drone was back home. The drone was hovering maybe 4-5m in the air when it stopped responding to my stick input, and i saw "controller connection lost" or something, and the videofeed on my phone was black.

The drone then started to slowly descending, and it was just inches away from the side of the house, i decided to just grab the drone before it did something out of my control, resulting in some cuts from the propellers.

The difference between now and last time i flew is a new FW (.400) NLD FCC with Boost mode.

What could be the cause? I have also lost connection with my Spark when it was right next to me with similar behaviour, but not yet with my Air.

 

[surfingjoe]

I've seen reports of disconnecting in this forum to many times. One recommendation that seems common is to put your phone or tablet into airplane mode. Many threads have stated issue with disconnects when receiving messages or phone calls interrupting the communication between controller and drone. I'm not saying this was your issue with disconnects.

I now religiously put my phone or tablet into airplane mode before connecting to the controller. Sounds like a valid theory and therefore I take no chances and follow that advice.

 

[Simk1n]

Thanks for the latest reply's here, appriciate it!

Im back home, and here it's how it went last two days.

Saturday i was flying at my cabin and on the lake with no problems, no warnings at all. (not that much flytime, but burned through maybe one and a half battery.) We got back home, eat dinner and i decided to go out and take some photos of the sunset. Drone launched, got it maybe 100m away and "Remote Controller connection error" This is a warning that's in yellow on the top left corner, failsafe RTH kicked in and worked like it should, landed spot on my helipad thankfully. I restarted my phone (LG G7) and no more warnings. Flew maybe 10-15min.

Today, gonna try one last time before we left, this time with my S10+, and even before i lanched "Remote Controller connection error" AND the Disconnected message, so the screen went gray, this is the same behaviour as if you pull out the USB wire from the phone. I could not get the phone and controller to connect again so i just put my drone and controller in the bag and left.

Coming back home, its connecting right away, with both phones.

So there is TWO warnings here, "Remote Controller connection error" in yellow, the screen dont go gray, but i CANNOT controll the drone, and the disconnect when the screen goes gray.

I'm thinking this has something to do with the controller, or connection between controller and phone. I can of course try to fly in airplane mode, but so much disconnects all of a sudden? I have had the drone since december and no prblems until now. Never had this problems with my Air of Spark either. On my Cabin there is poor mobile reception, dont know it this can have anything to do with this. And, when i lost connection at my parents place (first post), it was hovering right next to the wall, where they have a router (Asus RT-AC87) im thinking maybe it could be some interference there.

I have also tried with another USB cable.

 

[Texas Mavic]

Sounds like the remote over heated. Went through 3 batteries and wentn5 milesmout on the last... could have taxed the RC and caused this to happen. Maybe.

 

[Texas Mavic]

Thanks for the latest reply's here, appriciate it!

Im back home, and here it's how it went last two days.

Saturday i was flying at my cabin and on the lake with no problems, no warnings at all. (not that much flytime, but burned through maybe one and a half battery.) We got back home, eat dinner and i decided to go out and take some photos of the sunset. Drone launched, got it maybe 100m away and "Remote Controller connection error" This is a warning that's in yellow on the top left corner, failsafe RTH kicked in and worked like it should, landed spot on my helipad thankfully. I restarted my phone (LG G7) and no more warnings. Flew maybe 10-15min.

Today, gonna try one last time before we left, this time with my S10+, and even before i lanched "Remote Controller connection error" AND the Disconnected message, so the screen went gray, this is the same behaviour as if you pull out the USB wire from the phone. I could not get the phone and controller to connect again so i just put my drone and controller in the bag and left.

Coming back home, its connecting right away, with both phones.

So there is TWO warnings here, "Remote Controller connection error" in yellow, the screen dont go gray, but i CANNOT controll the drone, and the disconnect when the screen goes gray.

I'm thinking this has something to do with the controller, or connection between controller and phone. I can of course try to fly in airplane mode, but so much disconnects all of a sudden? I have had the drone since december and no prblems until now. Never had this problems with my Air of Spark either. On my Cabin there is poor mobile reception, dont know it this can have anything to do with this. And, when i lost connection at my parents place (first post), it was hovering right next to the wall, where they have a router (Asus RT-AC87) im thinking maybe it could be some interference there.

I have also tried with another USB cable.

Have you done your rc calibration? Also listen for if the internal fan is kicking on inside the rc. It could be overheating. Calibrate the rc, re pair it to the drone. Check the fan. If none of that helps... punt

 

[Kilrah]

Your issue is likely boost mode.
Too much signal can completely swamp a receiver so that it can't decode anything anymore and cause loss of comms.
So you probably don't want to come closer than 20-30m between aircraft and RC when boost is active.

 

[Simk1n]

Remote overheating i highly doubt, cause it can happen right after i turn on the drone and RC. And yes, the fan is spinning, i can hear it through the ventilation on top. If this would have happened after a long period of time of flying, it would be more likely.

Boost mode was also my thought, but then i watched this video

Boost mode does not make the drone hotter, and according to the people at NLD, the further away the drone are, the more power it draw. So my take on this, is that signal boost does not make anything run hotter or "tax the system" any harder

However, i came across this thread with the excact same issue, it looks like airplane mode on the cellphone was the solution to this guy, so i guess i need to test it further.

Remote controller connection error

Hi. The last days I am having a lot of disconnections between the controller and the mavic 2 zoom. The application shows the message of 'Remote controller connection error' and then the control of the drone is lost. Within seconds the drone begins the RTH. I tried using another cable, using...

mavicpilots.com

 

[Gryphon962]

You might also want to eliminate the possibility of the cellphone/device being the problem by starting up and flying the drone with no device connected to the RC. Obviously you will lose all the functions the device provides, but the drone will fly just fine without it.

 

[Simk1n]

You might also want to eliminate the possibility of the cellphone/device being the problem by starting up and flying the drone with no device connected to the RC. Obviously you will lose all the functions the device provides, but the drone will fly just fine without it.

Yes i can try that out also, thanks for the tip

I have vacation now, so i have time to test this out further. Gonna try Airplane mode first, and if that does not help. reflash FW and go back to CE mode and test again.

The thing is, that i have the phone i use for flying, usually my LG G7, and i also bring with me my Galaxy S10+, so there is two phones close by to cause possible interruption.

I guess having a second phone in my pocket is not a good idea?

 

[manowar_gub]

1 month ago I got same m2p behavior. My firmware was 01.00.03.00 and DJI GO 4.3.16, also I has installed NLD FCC (only FCC, no boost) - in a 1.5 km range drone suddenly lost signal with "Remote controller error" and then was circle "Connected - Disconnected" but thanx God it flyed to RTH area. One guy told me m2 works good in 4.3.14 + 01.00.03.00 and 4.3.16 + 01.00.04.00 because he losted signal like me.

Firstly I updated m2p firm back to 01.00.04.00, keeping 4.3.16 app and do not applyed NLD. Secondly, I changed original cable between RC and phone to my ordinary phone cable (my phone is Xiaomi Mi Max 3 with QC3). And make an test flight for 3 km - no problems. After that I ordered another cable from Aliexpress and drone fly wihout problems with new cable but after ~7 flights I got similar "Diconnected" after take off and 5 sec hovering. I was out of home and try to fly another place with ordinary phone cable - all was good.

So, from my opinion, m2 can loose signal in there reasons:
1. Thin original data cable between RC and phone;
2. Conflict in versions of drone firmware and phone app;
3. Restart your phone as much times as possible (maybe it clear some extra leaked app cache);
4. NLD's FCC & boost can also be reason. For example, Jkson gived to NLD team activation commands of FCC & boost only for 01.00.01.00 firm version and no one know is they works and how for newer versions. Jkson told only NLD's FCC should work in 01.00.04.00.

 

[dekip]

yes I agree with Gryphone962 flip to sport mode should give you control back but be very cautious when using the RC sticks because they will be a lot more sensitive

Best tip I ever got was GO TO SPORT MODE anytime things go wrong - from this forum I have to add!!! It has never failed to bring my Mavic Pro under control. After my first few hundred flights I started experimenting with no collision detection when in safe isolated places and learned things are also more responsive without all the processing overhead of detecting everything which I only mention because it explains why Sport mode has a better chance of working.... as minimal data needs to be transfered to get a proper response from the birdie.

 

[dekip]

Yes i can try that out also, thanks for the tip

I have vacation now, so i have time to test this out further. Gonna try Airplane mode first, and if that does not help. reflash FW and go back to CE mode and test again.

The thing is, that i have the phone i use for flying, usually my LG G7, and i also bring with me my Galaxy S10+, so there is two phones close by to cause possible interruption.

I guess having a second phone in my pocket is not a good idea?

I doubt it is the second phone as I routinely have two iphones, an ipad mini (my fav to use for flying) and also a Samsung S7 all with DJI4 app and never seen issues relates to all being close by and on?? Aviation is all about redundancy - I would not feel comfortable without a back up

 

[Simk1n]

1 month ago I got same m2p behavior. My firmware was 01.00.03.00 and DJI GO 4.3.16, also I has installed NLD FCC (only FCC, no boost) - in a 1.5 km range drone suddenly lost signal with "Remote controller error" and then was circle "Connected - Disconnected" but thanx God it flyed to RTH area. One guy told me m2 works good in 4.3.14 + 01.00.03.00 and 4.3.16 + 01.00.04.00 because he losted signal like me.

Firstly I updated m2p firm back to 01.00.04.00, keeping 4.3.16 app and do not applyed NLD. Secondly, I changed original cable between RC and phone to my ordinary phone cable (my phone is Xiaomi Mi Max 3 with QC3). And make an test flight for 3 km - no problems. After that I ordered another cable from Aliexpress and drone fly wihout problems with new cable but after ~7 flights I got similar "Diconnected" after take off and 5 sec hovering. I was out of home and try to fly another place with ordinary phone cable - all was good.

So, from my opinion, m2 can loose signal in there reasons:
1. Thin original data cable between RC and phone;
2. Conflict in versions of drone firmware and phone app;
3. Restart your phone as much times as possible (maybe it clear some extra leaked app cache);
4. NLD's FCC & boost can also be reason. For example, Jkson gived to NLD team activation commands of FCC & boost only for 01.00.01.00 firm version and no one know is they works and how for newer versions. Jkson told only NLD's FCC should work in 01.00.04.00.

There seems to be alot of people who have this problem, by doing a google search. Remote Controller Connection Error and the Disconnected - Connected loop.

Connection error

When I initially power up, my RC sees my tablet and the MP2. I press the Go Fly button, and everything looks good for a couple seconds, but then the screen goes black and white, and it says I have a connection error. Then it tells me I have to update the Remote firmware to 1.0, but it's...

forum.dji.com

Here is one thread at the official DJI forum, and this is before the NLD FCC patch was even out. Cables, Phones (Android in particular) and Airplane mode seems to be what people suggest, but it seems like this problem is more frequent to some people than others, while some have it once in a while, others have it more often. One guy shipped he's drone and RC back, and DJI told him they did not find anything wrong, yet the problem seemed to have been fixed.

When it comes to cables. when i was at my cabin, and i was having the remote disconnect error i changed the cable, but that did not help.

I have not been flying today, my first step now is Airplane mode, hopefully i can try tomorrow.

This is not only a Mavic 2 issue, The old Mavic, Phantom 4 Pro and Spark is amongs the drone's affected. Well, maybe all dji drones for what i know.

 

[manowar_gub]

Keep us updating, very interesting!

 

[Mike4884]

I use the NLD as nothing to do with disconnection if he thinks its NLD than op just needs to refresh firmware

Right.....been running boost with og mav pro for a year and now the zoom. No probs....honestly it could be his device

 

[Thoraldus]

At my cabin now. Not reflashed or done anything, wanted to try the drone a little more.

First flight went sort of OK, set home point, satellites around 17-19, made it hover for 15-20 seconds. Took it 80-110m up, and maybe 400m distance away, took some pics and RTH. First it was off by some meters at the home point, little strange because it has always been spot on, so i manually had to land it on my helipad due to alot of tall grass here at my cabin. Then when the drone was hovering right above the helipad i got disconnects again, but it connected again fairly quicky.

I took it for a second flight, it went fine, this time RTH was closer but still little off, but no disconnects this time.

Took it inside, had it turned on sitting on the table, both drone and controller ON and it went haywire. Disconnect - connect - disconnect - connect, then i got a new error: remote controller connection error, this went on and off for quite some time, i just sat there watching it connect and disconnect. I have always been using my LG G7, so i decided to try my Galaxy S10+, and the disconnecting error went away. I format my SD card, and decided to wipe all the DJI GO4 data off the LG G7. i connected my G7 again and it seems like the disconnect errors is gone.

Last time i used the G7 flying it was on Android 8, now it is on Android 9.

Could the culprint here actually be my phone? Could all of this remote disconnecting be caused by my phone?

Gonna try flying more tomorrow again, but starting to get worried now with all of this happening.

Yes, if the phone gets busy doing other tasks unrelated to the GO4 app. I found it best to put my Google 2 XL in airplane mode when using it with GO4. I have since switched to Crystal Sky. Never had a disconnect with CS.

 

[BaRoN30s]

Sounds just like the problems i was having..

flown my mavic pro for over 12 months with a S7 edge & not once had this "Remote Controller connection error" or any problems at all.

Then in December i decided to treat myself to the s9+ and every flight since then i have had the same issue "Remote Controller connection error" and lose all control of the drone, lucky each and every time its returned to home. ive tried everything possible even as some suggest to buy a short usb to c cable as that was suppose to stop this happening but it was still the same for me..

anyhow ive since swapped back over to my old s7 edge just to try that & in over 10 plus flights since its never disconnected yet,.

So i now just use the old phone for the drone only & use my s9+ as a hot spot internet connection to the s7 edge.. no problems as yet..