Had An Interesting Flight Today

[dvarapala]

Flew my MPP this afternoon and had an unusual experience. Go4 app kept reporting "Aircraft Disconnected" even though the MPP was 3 feet away from me and hadn't even taken off yet. No interference warnings just aircraft disconnected. I cycled power on the MPP and the controller a couple of times and was able to take off. Got up to around 200' altitude and 250" distance and lost connection again. The MPP went into failsafe RTH and returned to the launch point, but would not land; it just hovered at ~2 meters.The RC was still disconnected and I had no control of the MPP. I had to reach up, grab it, and turn it on its side to kill the motors.

Later, after moving to a different location, I flew it again with no issues.

There was no obvious source of interference at the original location, but something clearly interfered with the RC's ability to connect with the aircraft, even from 3' away.

Anyone else have an experience like this?

 

[ac0j]

at first you say the go 4 app disconnected, then you said the rc disconnected. Was it both? If it was just the app, I suspect a cord issue to the device, or the device was busy with something else. If the RC disconnected, that is a question for DJI

 

[AeroMirage]

Something at the site........Kryptonite.

 

[jp86gt]

Ive had the app disconnect twice since yesterday, I can close the app and restart and it reconnects and works fine. The app also froze yesterday but still had control of mp so I landed and restarted everything.

 

[Simmo]

What device and what firmware and what app version..without this info, you are pissing in the wind.

 

[Anthony]

If this was the app I suspect this was a cable issue ... Maybe just not seated correctly as I have had this once or twice.

 

[dvarapala]

at first you say the go 4 app disconnected, then you said the rc disconnected. Was it both? If it was just the app, I suspect a cord issue to the device, or the device was busy with something else. If the RC disconnected, that is a question for DJI

To be clear, the app never disconnected - only the aircraft. The app reported "Aircraft disconnected" in the upper left corner of the screen. The display on the remote control seemed to be frozen - it was still saying things like "GPS MODE" like everything was still normal, however nothing was updating and my control inputs had no effect.

It appeared to me as if the firmware inside the controller locked up/crashed, but if that were true then I would expect that behavior to be independent of location; the fact that this has only happened in this one location (so far) still points to something in the environment as the cause.

 

[dvarapala]

Here's the flight log from Go 4

Airdata UAV - Flight Data Analysis for Drones

ETA: I may have found the culprit. At the bottom of the hill are some irrigation control boxes, and a yagi antenna on a pole. I didn't notice them until I zoomed in one the Google Earth map. I guess I flew right over Downtown Interference City.

 

[necroscope]

Here's the flight log from Go 4

Airdata UAV - Flight Data Analysis for Drones

ETA: I may have found the culprit. At the bottom of the hill are some irrigation control boxes, and a yagi antenna on a pole. I didn't notice them until I zoomed in one the Google Earth map. I guess I flew right over Downtown Interference City.

Yes, but why wouldn't it reconnect when it came back to you?

I ask this as i have had something similar on the first MPP i brought, which is now returned for this very issue.

My new MPP only yesterday has a disconnect issue that i am still trying to work out what happened on.

The returned MPP is now working well, as i know the company i returned it too............ How very strange and frustrating.

 

[Simmo]

this happens on IOS.......................

 

[dvarapala]

Yes, but why wouldn't it reconnect when it came back to you?

That's a very good question. Not only would I have expected the controller to be able to reconnect when the Mavic was hovering 3' away from it, I would also have expected the controller to show "CONNECTING" on its display while it searched for the aircraft's signal; instead the display seemed to be frozen, with "GPS MODE" still displayed.
I may have to return to that location and do some more experiments...

 

[necroscope]

That's a very good question. Not only would I have expected the controller to be able to reconnect when the Mavic was hovering 3' away from it, I would also have expected the controller to show "CONNECTING" on its display while it searched for the aircraft's signal; instead the display seemed to be frozen, with "GPS MODE" still displayed.
I may have to return to that location and do some more experiments...

This was my post and its frighteningly similar.

First flight issues

As i said though, that MPP whilst returned is flying very well now.

I would have loved to have been brave enough to have restarted the controller, but i was in a blind panic (as you will read above).

Good luck and keep is posted.

JOI, have you had any situations where the app says disconnected, but you remain in control? I had this yesterday.

 

[Oconnb910]

Flew my MPP this afternoon and had an unusual experience. Go4 app kept reporting "Aircraft Disconnected" even though the MPP was 3 feet away from me and hadn't even taken off yet. No interference warnings just aircraft disconnected. I cycled power on the MPP and the controller a couple of times and was able to take off. Got up to around 200' altitude and 250" distance and lost connection again. The MPP went into failsafe RTH and returned to the launch point, but would not land; it just hovered at ~2 meters.The RC was still disconnected and I had no control of the MPP. I had to reach up, grab it, and turn it on its side to kill the motors.

Later, after moving to a different location, I flew it again with no issues.

There was no obvious source of interference at the original location, but something clearly interfered with the RC's ability to connect with the aircraft, even from 3' away.

Anyone else have an experience like this?

My initial feeling on this is bad cable or bad connection with the cable as I went through this little nightmare in the beginning with my mavic and it turns out I actually had two bad cables. It's been flying perfect ever since straighten that out.

 

[Rolls912]

+1. I used the apple cable and no problem.
Tried to get a replacement cable - 9 emails to support and I gave up.