LAANC and Litchi

[BobB]

I'm new here so go easy on me! Using the Mini 2 and having obtained LAANC approval, using Litchi my drone will not power up. Litchi says I'm in a no fly zone and won't take off. I'm in an area that is cleared to 400ft.
How do I get Litchi to recognise the LAANC approval???
Any help is really appreciated!

 

[DJ Wes]

There are two steps with which you must be familiar:

• LAANC (to gain authorization)
• Unlocking an authorization (geofenced) zone

You have already used LAANC to gain authorization. Now you must unlock your drone to fly in this geofenced zone. This can be done either with the DJI Fly application or by going to the DJI FlySafe web site.

Litchi does not have an interface to unlock authorization zones. This must be done using one of the above two methods.

 

[Paint Rock Drones]

LAANC approval means you have legal clearance to fly.
But you also need to have DJI "unlock" the area for you; this is DJI making sure you don't fly into a restricted area by accident. See Fly Safe - DJI

 

[Paint Rock Drones]

This thread might be helpful: Authorization Zone Procedures

 

[bburnett15]

Not to beat a dead horse but…
Litchi doesnt care where you fly, DJI does.
And DJI needs you to provide proof to them that you have FAA/LAANC approval to fly and what limitations there are.

When you submit your geofencing “Unlock request”, be sure to make the area larger than you think you’ll need. Early on in my “career”, i got FAA approval to fly 250’ AGL in an area that would provide automatic approval only up to 100’. after i got the FAA Approval, i sent in my unlock request to DJI but showed a slightly smaller area. When i got there to fly, dji had altered the geofence but not as much as i needed, then the boundaries changed while i was flying, not allowing me to return to home. When i couldnt manually return to home i hit RTH and the drone proceeded to attempt to land IN AN INTERSECTION OF TWO FAIRLY MAJOR CITY STREETS!! Fortunately it was early on a Sunday morning so the streets werent busy and i was able to land the drone in a snowbank on the side of the road. Not good!

If you are using Litchi and having Geofencing issues, you can only address those by opening up the DJI App but after its done, you’ll need to close out of that before opening Litchi.
Its really not difficult and it doesnt usually take long for them to respond, so its probably an automated failsafe.

 

[BobB]

Thanks to you all! I did get it figured out. Not sure it's the best way but what I do is get LAANC approval, then fire up the DJI app and get the unlock, shut it down and start the Litchi app. Seems to work well. Thanks again to everyone.