Fly away problem with cell data enabled

[Bohica]

I have had several problems with flying my mavic pro 2 with my S8, near fly aways, and unable to connect.

I think that the dji go4 app utilizes cell towers and gps for positioning. If you are in the edge of cell coverage, it has a problem triangulating your position and gives you wide probability of correct position. This can cause a fly away, because your triangulated position can move.

During a flight in the country, I had 3 near fly aways(run and grab), and it took me 30 minutes to connect to the dji go4 app. I decided to try switching to airplane mode, boom! Everything connected and I burned 2 batteries getting some great footage.

I now only fly in airplane mode. Not a single problem since I started this preflight procedure.

Hope this helps someone.

 

[Kazzaaz]

Interesting. Cell towers / GPS is used for the mobile device location info, but should have no affect on the RC connection.

I'm sure it is only a matter of time before one of the experts here ask for the log of one of these flights if you happen to have those.

I will say that I had one isolated incident where the controller was showing full connectivity, yet DJI Go was disconnected and my M2Z was not responding to its input.
It began to return home (I was on a boat, bad!) when I disconnected the cable, turned the controller off and on in desperation. Connection was restored and I was able to land safely. Phew.
Ironically I could not find any trace of this flight in the logs.

 

[Bohica]

I agree with the RC thing, made no sense to me, unless, the app is trying to connect to a server somewhere. There may be something else going on behind the scenes..... The government has disapproved dji drones for official use, for this reason.

 

[Kazzaaz]

I agree with the RC thing, made no sense to me, unless, the app is trying to connect to a server somewhere. There may be something else going on behind the scenes..... The government has disapproved dji drones for official use, for this reason.

No cellular network radios exist in any DJI controllers as far as I'm aware so it certainly isn't transmitting any data on another network without the help of a connected phone, so I can see how you may suspect there could be some interference there.
But I would still not consider that to be the cause of your issues here - why would their logging system have any reason to change the information that is being logged?

Are you strictly using the DJI Go app, allowing the AC to lock a strong GPS signal before takeoff, and never changing the home point settings?
Some apps like Litchi also have a "dynamic homepoint" function that, if your cellular GPS is weak, may be off by quite a bit.

Sounds like the issue is that the home point is not accurate at takeoff, in which case RTH may be off by say, 100m at an absurd maximum. I'm curious to what you're considering a fly-away and where the home point is showing on your map / distance gauge.

Note that if you take off without strong GPS, the home point may be set somewhere else along your route once enough sattilites lock.

 

[Bohica]

My RC was connecting. My dji go4 app was not connecting. I needed the app to connect so I could see my video. The app would connect then disconnect after about 15 sec. (App). It did this for at least 30 min, until I went to airplane mode. I went to airplane mode the app connected immediately and stayed connected.

The fly away was once I took off, I was hoovering at about 6ft. Then it would just start moving in a general direction with no commands. I could Chase it down because it was moving not to fast and at 6ft. I could command it, but it would start moving again when I stopped giving it commands. Once I went to airplane mode again, it was stable.

Both times I was way out of town. This happened at 2 different locations.

I always make sure I have blinking greens, a good rth, and heading on Google maps.

I may not have explained everything very well in my previous post

Not a software guy, just my observations.

 

[Meta4]

The fly away was once I took off, I was hoovering at about 6ft. Then it would just start moving in a general direction with no commands. I could Chase it down because it was moving not to fast and at 6ft. I could command it, but it would start moving again when I stopped giving it commands. Once I went to airplane mode again, it was stable.

It still doesn't make much sense.
Cell phone data or absence of cell phone data makes no difference to the drone's flight.
It gets positioning data from its own GPS receiver.
Airplane mode or not should also make no difference.
From your brief description, it's not clear that your drone was attempting to fly away at all.

I agree with the RC thing, made no sense to me, unless, the app is trying to connect to a server somewhere. There may be something else going on behind the scenes..... The government has disapproved dji drones for official use, for this reason.

You are joining dots that don't exist.

 

[Bohica]

Your opinion. You needed to be there...It appeared to solve a problem that I was having, that I have not experienced before, immediately.

I am not familiar with DJI's position control algarythm, so you may be right.

I only fly in airplane mode now.

Just trying to possibly help someone.

 

[Meta4]

Your opinion. You needed to be there...It appeared to solve a problem that I was having, that I have not experienced before, immediately.
I am not familiar with DJI's position control algarythm, so you may be right.

It's quite likely that whatever it was that you observed was not the drone flying away and it's most unlikely that airplane mode really made any difference.
You'd have to look at the recorded flight data to see what actually happened and a better explanation of what you observed might be helpful too.

 

[InvisibleName]

Your opinion. You needed to be there...It appeared to solve a problem that I was having, that I have not experienced before, immediately.

I am not familiar with DJI's position control algarythm, so you may be right.

I only fly in airplane mode now.

Just trying to possibly help someone.

We all appreciate people posting their experiences, yours included, but be careful you don’t make assumptions / conclusions of the cause of this when you don’t fully understand what happened. If you post your flight data files, someone on here with a better understanding of the way the drone operates may be Able to help.

 

[Deleted member 94047]

Only thing that needs to be enabled on the phone side is location services.

 

[brett8883]

I have had several problems with flying my mavic pro 2 with my S8, near fly aways, and unable to connect.

I think that the dji go4 app utilizes cell towers and gps for positioning. If you are in the edge of cell coverage, it has a problem triangulating your position and gives you wide probability of correct position. This can cause a fly away, because your triangulated position can move.

During a flight in the country, I had 3 near fly aways(run and grab), and it took me 30 minutes to connect to the dji go4 app. I decided to try switching to airplane mode, boom! Everything connected and I burned 2 batteries getting some great footage.

I now only fly in airplane mode. Not a single problem since I started this preflight procedure.

Hope this helps someone.

I think you’ve come to the right conclusion for the wrong reason.

Turning on airplane mode helps because it shuts off a lot of background tasks your phone does that eats up system resources especially with Samsung devices that are bloatware to the max.

It also helps because DJI isn’t sending data back to their servers when airplane mode is on. I got a huge cell bill one month that I was doing a lot of flying and check my data logs and sure enough DJI Go was sending tons of data to a Chinese IP address.

Your phone has a built in GPS unit it uses for location services and it does not require cell service. Fun fact it even works on a plane so you can track for flight progress google maps even when in airplane mode.

 

[Bill combs]

My RC was connecting. My dji go4 app was not connecting. I needed the app to connect so I could see my video. The app would connect then disconnect after about 15 sec. (App). It did this for at least 30 min, until I went to airplane mode. I went to airplane mode the app connected immediately and stayed connected.

The fly away was once I took off, I was hoovering at about 6ft. Then it would just start moving in a general direction with no commands. I could Chase it down because it was moving not to fast and at 6ft. I could command it, but it would start moving again when I stopped giving it commands. Once I went to airplane mode again, it was stable.

Both times I was way out of town. This happened at 2 different locations.

I always make sure I have blinking greens, a good rth, and heading on Google maps.

I may not have explained everything very well in my previous post

Not a software guy, just my observations.

have you tried deleting the go4app and reinstalling it? i had a similar issue once and it worked for me,i’ve always used samsungs notes and ipad 6 gen and have recently moved to the epson bt300 glasses when using the samsungs devices i always went into airplane mode

 

[Gizmo6257]

I think you’ve come to the right conclusion for the wrong reason.

Turning on airplane mode helps because it shuts off a lot of background tasks your phone does that eats up system resources especially with Samsung devices that are bloatware to the max.

It also helps because DJI isn’t sending data back to their servers when airplane mode is on. I got a huge cell bill one month that I was doing a lot of flying and check my data logs and sure enough DJI Go was sending tons of data to a Chinese IP address.

Your phone has a built in GPS unit it uses for location services and it does not require cell service. Fun fact it even works on a plane so you can track for flight progress google maps even when in airplane mode.

Samsung is good or better than Apple to being able to get rid of anything or Bloatware you want. I have no Bloatware or anything I dont want on my Samsung. I get tried of hearing how much better Apple is than Android. Not true at all. I have never had a crash or problem flying with my Android devices. Its how you set them up. Of course Apple wont let you Tweak anything, or even add memory. I had more issues with iPad than Android. So if people tell you Apple is better and DJI says you have to use Apple, dont believe it. DJI suggests oyu use Apple, because everyone at DJI uses Apple probably. There is no reason to use Apple over Android. The DJI Smart controller is even Android. Im done with my Rant. I just hear this nonsense all the time how much better Apple is. Only things it is better at,is over pricing and not letting you have control.

 

[Bohica]

After looking at everything...What I'm calling a fly away, was only a drift in position do to only having 10 satellites. Other posts have talked about needing more than10. I did have to run after it...probably more fear than actual danger to the drone.

The connection problem with the DJI GO4 app, was a cell problem though. I think I was on the edge of coverage, and the signal was coming and going. It was my buddies idea to go to airplane mode, and this fixed the problem immediatly(after 30 min. or so of trying to connect). I said that it shouldn't matter, but I'll try it, and I was wrong. He doesn't have a drone or flown a drone, he was just tagging along to check it out. Post #11 kinda summed it up to me, if it can see a signal it wants to connect, even if that signal is intermittent.

 

[Kilrah]

It's possible your particular phone puts out so much power when it has low cell signal that it disturbs the link, but that's not a common case at all.

 

[brett8883]

Samsung is good or better than Apple to being able to get rid of anything or Bloatware you want. I have no Bloatware or anything I dont want on my Samsung. I get tried of hearing how much better Apple is than Android. Not true at all. I have never had a crash or problem flying with my Android devices. Its how you set them up. Of course Apple wont let you Tweak anything, or even add memory. I had more issues with iPad than Android. So if people tell you Apple is better and DJI says you have to use Apple, dont believe it. DJI suggests oyu use Apple, because everyone at DJI uses Apple probably. There is no reason to use Apple over Android. The DJI Smart controller is even Android. Im done with my Rant. I just hear this nonsense all the time how much better Apple is. Only things it is better at,is over pricing and not letting you have control.

Sorry you quoted the wrong post. I never said the word Apple or Android so your reply must have been meant for a different post. What I said applies to all phones

 

[Meta4]

After looking at everything...What I'm calling a fly away, was only a drift in position do to only having 10 satellites. Other posts have talked about needing more than10. I did have to run after it...probably more fear than actual danger to the drone.

Ten sats is possibly plenty to ensure good GPS positioning, I wouldn't assume that was the cause.
I wouldn't assume anything without looking at recorded flight data which will probably point to the explanation.
How much did the drone drift?

The connection problem with the DJI GO4 app, was a cell problem though. I think I was on the edge of coverage, and the signal was coming and going. It was my buddies idea to go to airplane mode, and this fixed the problem immediatly(after 30 min. or so of trying to connect). I said that it shouldn't matter, but I'll try it, and I was wrong. He doesn't have a drone or flown a drone, he was just tagging along to check it out. Post #11 kinda summed it up to me, if it can see a signal it wants to connect, even if that signal is intermittent.

Again .. that sounds unlikely and I'd be reluctant to assume anything.
First thing I'd recommend (after checking recorded flight data) would be to make sure you have your phone properly configured to run the DJI Go4 app.
Here's how you can do that: Install DJI GO on an Android Tablet or Phone (Step-by-Step Guide) | Phantom Help

 

[Bohica]

I had made about 45 flights without an incident before hand, and have not had one again since, but I do only fly in airplane mode now. I completed 4 pre programed waypoints flights last week with no problems.

I will go through though, and make sure I have my phone correctly configured.

Thanks for the link!

My mind is set on the airplane mode. When I'm flying drone, I only want my phone to focus on that, and nothing else.

 

[Kilrah]

I had made about 45 flights without an incident before hand, and have not had one again since

Then you just had a glitch somehow and the airplane mode is nothing but a coincidence. Always be ready for that kind of thing to happen even in airplane mode.

 

[Mossiback]

The OP has solved his problem by putting his phone in airplane mode. I use an underpowered tablet and also need to fly in airplane mode to free up its limited resources.