Frozen App. Drone Down. What Should I Have Done?

[Baron von Richthofen]

I too have had the App crash on android but always had VLOS. The App freezes and screen goes black. Reset of the phone occasionally worked although the screen froze displaying zero height, zero speed and no location.

This occurred on both the Mini 2 and the Air 2 so something is going on and I'm sure many UAVs will disappear for good.

Glad you retrieved it though.

Yup, it's looking like it's far from rare. If you're beyond VLOS it seems you have very few options except to hit RTH on the controller and start praying. I suppose to help the time pass less agonisingly while you're waiting for your precious drone to reappear it could be a good idea to try restarting the app. Then again that could risk sabotaging the RTH procedure in some complicated way...

 

[DavidT_ NZ]

As I said in the OP, I cancelled it just before the screen froze (I have a feeling it might have been cancelling the RTH that crashed the app) because I was flying straight back to the homepoint anyway. There are lots of experienced flyers on this forum that say they only ever use RTH if there's absolutely no other option. I felt at that point I had another option.

I use RTH on almost every flight. It is nice to see how well it performs and if the drone follows its expected behaviour. As long as I launch my Air 2 in accordance with the DJI recommendations, the drone returns to its launch pad, usually within 1 - 2 feet, often better. On some occasions I cancel RTH when the drone is over the landing pad and land it manually, just to mix things up. But this way, I stay familiar with the drone’s characteristics between firmware updates. No surprises - yet! Safe flying. ????

 

[Baron von Richthofen]

Cheers DavidT. Good to know there's other ways to think about this. I think I'll try the RTH function next time I'm out. To get the hang of it.

 

[spudster]

IMHO must be a macho thing with the boasting "only fly it home and land" group. I almost always use RTH when coming back from a "mission". Yes, I have manually done it before and can do it, I don't need to prove to myself that I can. After a 20+ minute flight mission it is nice to be able to just press a button and relax for the couple minutes it takes to return and land.

 

[Baron von Richthofen]

I get the sense some folks think RTH isn’t reliable.

 

[brew99]

or are afraid to give up control

 

[RemoteFlyte]

I see that now. In my panic I was assuming nothing worked. Can anyone else confirm that the controller will still function fully if the app fails?

My iPad overheated and shut off during a programmed flight using Litchi. As ALWAYS, I could see my drone so stopped the flight. I flew overhead of my location and then attached my iPhone while my drone was hovering and re-flew the mission. It's actually good to think about what you would do in certain situations and prepare your mind for action when the time comes that you need to respond to a real situation.

 

[steve coulthard]

I started a different thread elsewhere with my complaint the app crashes regularly during flight using my Mini 2. Didn't get many replies but now see it seems to be common with the latest Fly update. Two days ago, during it's regular crashes and restarts (which I am now used to and don't panic anymore!) the app reported RC signal lost. In this case I guess even a RTH button press wont fetch it back. I was out of VLOS (yeah yeah, we all do it) had a black and white frozen screen, and spent the next 5 minutes moving my homepoint until it reconnected. If I had been low on battery I would have been panicking!

 

[trevsdad]

As an overall observtion (..without flight log analysis) 30% battery is where I used to set my low battery warning level. Taking off and flying BVLOS with a low battery is just bad decision making...just sayin.

 

[GaryFlorida]

Restarting the app might work.
But you should consider your "phone" is actually a "computer that has a phone in it."
You want that computer to be at max processing power for flight.
That means OFFLOADING all other burdens on the phone's processor.
I have learned from these forums two additional, critical pre-flight steps:
1) Switch your phone to "airplane mode"
2) close ALL apps before you even open the DJI Fly app.

Regarding #1, you do not need your phone's WiFi, Bluetooth, or Cellular function to fly.
The controller provides the WiFi, and has much more radio WiFi power than the phone. Which is why you can easily fly a mile away from launch. And you probably don't want text messages, a phone call, or any Bluetooth functions going on while flying.

Regarding #2, this is simply a way to "dedicate" all of your phone processor's power to just the DJI Fly app.

 

[Vickie]

I see that now. In my panic I was assuming nothing worked. Can anyone else confirm that the controller will still function fully if the app fails?

I've had the Smart controller freeze, the drone initiated RTH after a period of time and when it was closer to me, I took control using the joysticks. It was very scary and I thought I had lost it, but when I heard the drone sound nearby, that was when I used the joysticks and found I could bring her back in myself.

 

[Stickybit]

I see that now. In my panic I was assuming nothing worked. Can anyone else confirm that the controller will still function fully if the app fails?

Yes, it will. Always hit the RTH button at such a problem. This works, but not when you're controller battery died. But in that case... you got signal loss and it should return home

Great to read that you're drone is still intact and you and your son got a little exercise ;-)

 

[Stickybit]

Can anyone confirm whether closing a frozen app and then reopening it while the aircraft is flying is a reliable fix? Or could that cause further problems?

Yes, it will. Always hit the RTH button at such a problem. This works, but not when you're controller battery died. But in that case... you got signal loss and it should return home

Great to read that you're drone is still intact and you and your son got a little exercise ;-)