DJI Mavic Air - Mid flight disconnection - RTH landed - What hap...

[Formula E]

I was capturing a property for my client in an urban part of a Seattle neighborhood today with my newer Mavic Air. I'm well versed in the operations and have owned other DJI drones etc. This particular air is only one week old. I did initially have firmware issues with the RC. It did update to latest version eventually and performed fine in all test flights prior to today.

About one hour into the shoot, literally after snapping my last frame.. I lose connection with the craft. The RC control signal is blinking red and no input is possible. The app is showing full disconnection and nothing can be done there. The drone goes into RTH. It starts the descent straight towards power lines about 15ft off from the take-off/recorded point. Within 10ft of lines, it maneuvers right and then directly into the original launch zone and lands safely by itself where I did the manual take off and recorded RTH from.

There was still no connection at this point. I reset the controller/app and that did nothing. Reset the battery on drone and boom ready to fly 13 satellites. In these Urban areas, I'm flying in 5.8ghz. At the time of the disconnection, there were 17 satellite connections and MA was in clear view of the RC. In 30 minutes of flight time prior, I only experienced high wind warnings. No image transmission or connection problems. Smooth sailing I thought.. Approx 223ft in the air when this event occurred- about 100ft above the building. I have had very brief disconnections before but only briefly and the signal was immediately regained. This was not the case.

I was 100% at the mercy of the RTH.

All firmware is up to date. The flight logs don't provide any insight on this terminal mid-air disconnection...Was there anything I could have done to regain the signal with craft mid-air? Thanks!


DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

 

[Tom_Keen]

Try switching from camera to video mode or vice versa.
I found this out accidentally when I lost connection once and it has since worked whenever I do have a 'grey' screen and no flight connection

 

[Formula E]

Try switching from camera to video mode or vice versa.
I found this out accidentally when I lost connection once and it has since worked whenever I do have a 'grey' screen and no flight connection

Just assumed all those functions disconnected as well.. Are you saying that's like a backdoor function that somehow reboots the connection? If so have you done that on multiple occasions? lol seems odd but worth a try if it happens.

Also, my screen was not grey. All black and It was in camera mode with a red disconnection warning in the upper left.

 

[Tom_Keen]

Well, in my case the remote control and cellphone and app worked. But transmission to MA was broken and an option to RTH was shown. Drone started raising in altitude as it does when it RTH.
The image went grey/mono chrome.
I switched from video to camera mode and it reconnected and I could regain control.

Happened twice only.

 

[Formula E]

Well, in my case the remote control and cellphone and app worked. But transmission to MA was broken and an option to RTH was shown. Drone started raising in altitude as it does when it RTH.
The image went grey/mono chrome.
I switched from video to camera mode and it reconnected and I could regain control.

Happened twice only.

That sounds exactly like an image transmission loss. Very different from a disconnected craft and this situation.. Image transmissions issues are very common on the MA depending on the remote frequencies and other factors.

 

[BuffaloAir]

I was capturing a property for my client in an urban part of a Seattle neighborhood today with my newer Mavic Air. I'm well versed in the operations and have owned other DJI drones etc. This particular air is only one week old. I did initially have firmware issues with the RC. It did update to latest version eventually and performed fine in all test flights prior to today.

About one hour into the shoot, literally after snapping my last frame.. I lose connection with the craft. The RC control signal is blinking red and no input is possible. The app is showing full disconnection and nothing can be done there. The drone goes into RTH. It starts the descent straight towards power lines about 15ft off from the take-off/recorded point. Within 10ft of lines, it maneuvers right and then directly into the original launch zone and lands safely by itself where I did the manual take off and recorded RTH from.

There was still no connection at this point. I reset the controller/app and that did nothing. Reset the battery on drone and boom ready to fly 13 satellites. In these Urban areas, I'm flying in 5.8ghz. At the time of the disconnection, there were 17 satellite connections and MA was in clear view of the RC. In 30 minutes of flight time prior, I only experienced high wind warnings. No image transmission or connection problems. Smooth sailing I thought.. Approx 223ft in the air when this event occurred- about 100ft above the building. I have had very brief disconnections before but only briefly and the signal was immediately regained. This was not the case.

I was 100% at the mercy of the RTH.

All firmware is up to date. The flight logs don't provide any insight on this terminal mid-air disconnection...Was there anything I could have done to regain the signal with craft mid-air? Thanks!


DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

Formula E, is your experience with other DJI Drones similar? When reviewing all these disconnect issues in the Mavic Air forum I'm wondering if this is a MA issue or do all these disconnect issues exist in other DJI drones.

Thanks,

 

[Formula E]

Formula E, is your experience with other DJI Drones similar? When reviewing all these disconnect issues in the Mavic Air forum I'm wondering if this is a MA issue or do all these disconnect issues exist in other DJI drones.

Thanks,

I've never experienced a terminal disconnection like this with other DJI drones. They've all regained connection. This required a battery restart after the MA craft landed. Some require just remote/app restart which happened on Phantom of mine and that worked to solve issue mid-flight. There seems to be no failsafe for this disconnection and DJI continues to ignore the issue.

 

[syzygos7]

I`m no expert here but what I notice of my Drones MAir vs spark, P3pro.. I test it everytime when there is a new firmware I go around the house without flying with my RC. what I do I place my drone in tight corner of my master room then I went up and down the house room to room as well as some remote corners in my house and lastly outside... the connection was all fine with the two P3pro and the spark. except the MavicA everytime im under a metal arch of the house or near a refrigerator, or in the bathroom even if its only few meters away it disconnects(screen gray) then if I move away it connects again. this has only happen after the firmware v01.00.0400. all the other drones doesnt? and When I test it outside only 30-40m distance tried being near a metal, a roof or a solar panels it suddenly disconnects and trigger RTH. I know wifi is isnt good with metals but why not happen with the spark and why only v01.00.0400 it occured? excuse the P3pro bec its doesnt use wifi.

 

[mavicn00b]

I've had the MA RC reset twice so far in the 6months I've owned it. Same symptoms of the red blinking LED instead of green. Its not an image transmission loss, its a full control/video disconnection.

The first time it returned to home and landed but as it did I power cycled the RC and was able to regain control. On the 2nd incident, I had restarted the controller almost immediately after and resumed control of the drone and just carried on until the battery was depleted. Its not a very common occurrence, but my theory is the RC is crashing so a reboot is necessary.

 

[mavic911]

I've had this happen on numerous occasions and it was a scare every time. Added to the scare, I have my RTH altitude set at 120m so it takes an extra long time.

Each time it's happened, was when it was relatively high ~100m or so, and the RC goes red, then the screen shows red disconnection and no video output.

RC begins beeping and RTH kicks in but you have no clue where the drone is or where its coming from. And a few times it does connect back, but theres no way to cancel the RTH.

The poster above might have discovered a trick, by restarting the RC when it goes into this behaviour. I may give this a shot when it happens again but it is quite the scare to restart it during the process.

Distance wise, I wasn't very far nor was I very close. It seems something crashing makes sense.

 

[Weaponized]

Could the takeoff point being only 15ft from power lines have anything to do with it?

 

[InvisibleName]

Have you guys tried the recommended route of trying an alternative cable connected to the USB port at the bottom of the RC?

 

[mavicn00b]

USB cable won't make a difference as the issue is link between RC and AC is broken and won't reestablish until you reboot it. Power lines will send it into attitude mode with enough magnetic fields and broken USB cable will still enable you to control drone via sticks.

Unsure what the issue is as it doesn't happen often enough but reboot RC inflight worked for me.

 

[Mossiback]

I think @mavicn00b has the right answer. Since the RC was disconnected from the AC, you have nothing to lose by restarting the RC.

 

[Inspirephil]

I was capturing a property for my client in an urban part of a Seattle neighborhood today with my newer Mavic Air. I'm well versed in the operations and have owned other DJI drones etc. This particular air is only one week old. I did initially have firmware issues with the RC. It did update to latest version eventually and performed fine in all test flights prior to today.

About one hour into the shoot, literally after snapping my last frame.. I lose connection with the craft. The RC control signal is blinking red and no input is possible. The app is showing full disconnection and nothing can be done there. The drone goes into RTH. It starts the descent straight towards power lines about 15ft off from the take-off/recorded point. Within 10ft of lines, it maneuvers right and then directly into the original launch zone and lands safely by itself where I did the manual take off and recorded RTH from.

There was still no connection at this point. I reset the controller/app and that did nothing. Reset the battery on drone and boom ready to fly 13 satellites. In these Urban areas, I'm flying in 5.8ghz. At the time of the disconnection, there were 17 satellite connections and MA was in clear view of the RC. In 30 minutes of flight time prior, I only experienced high wind warnings. No image transmission or connection problems. Smooth sailing I thought.. Approx 223ft in the air when this event occurred- about 100ft above the building. I have had very brief disconnections before but only briefly and the signal was immediately regained. This was not the case.

I was 100% at the mercy of the RTH.

All firmware is up to date. The flight logs don't provide any insight on this terminal mid-air disconnection...Was there anything I could have done to regain the signal with craft mid-air? Thanks!


DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

Having the same problem with my Inspire 2 and I think it has something to do with the DJI GO 4 app and not the aircraft itself. I could be wrong but that’s my opinion. After trying lots of different antenna settings and antenna systems that didn’t make any difference I am left to believe that it’s the app.

 

[Aerial West]

You might try using a different device. Your phone has lots of apps and processes running. I use an ipad that is clean and updated, no other apps, and I never have these issues.

 

[djkor]

I've only had this experience once and **** it was a heart pumping one. Was hovering in one spot taking photos, wasn't getting interference issues at this particular location then all of a sudden got the "Aircraft Disconnected" message. I panicked for a minute before deciding to do the controller reboot because I figured if the Aircraft was fully disconnected, rebooting the controller can't disconnect it any more, haha.

The controller remained disconnected for a further 1.5 minutes with no luck reconnecting until my MA was about 70 metres directly above me performing its landing stage of its RTH. If you get a full Aircraft Disconnection, I would say rebooting the remote controller would be a good first step but apart from that, all you can hope if that it will work its way back home safely because it may not necessarily reconnect in a hurry.

I've seen a lot of video transmission errors and RC disconnected issues show up on the app. The Aircraft Disconnected issue is definitely not app related.

 

[Inspirephil]

You might try using a different device. Your phone has lots of apps and processes running. I use an ipad that is clean and updated, no other apps, and I never have these issues.

I have tried many different devices and it didn’t make any difference. And I purchased an iPad specifically for flying my drone that doesn’t have any other apps on it that could possibly be interfering with the flights. And it does it when I use my crystal sky monitor too.

 

[charlas]

I have tried many different devices and it didn’t make any difference. And I purchased an iPad specifically for flying my drone that doesn’t have any other apps on it that could possibly be interfering with the flights. And it does it when I use my crystal sky monitor too.

I find flicking from normal to sport seems to solve a bunch of issues, never experienced a solid disconnect, but worth a try. However if the rc is disconnected then it shouldn't work I suppose.

Still worth a try.

 

[Inspirephil]

I find flicking from normal to sport seems to solve a bunch of issues, never experienced a solid disconnect, but worth a try. However if the rc is disconnected then it shouldn't work I suppose.

Still worth a try.

Thanks I’all give it a try next time I have that problem.