Mavic 2 Zoom Loses Signal immediately on take-off

[nicoatridge]

I have three DJI drones. I haven't flown my Mavic 2 Zoom for a while, so updated the firmware and took it out for a spin. Almost immediately the drone took off, I got a lost signal message. It would intermittently pick up the signal but the camera image was frozen - but weirdly would unfreeze if I took an HDR picture.

I persevered and did one short flight but not only was it be-devilled by the lost signal error, when i chose RTH it decide home was somewhere over a lake. I managed to retain some control and manually return the drone, but the camera image remained frozen.

Took everything out, rebooted my phone, checked that the software was up to date and tried again. At 3m it lost the signal, so I called it quits.

I vaguely recall seeing a checklist somewhere to go through when this happens, but can't find it. Anyone know where to find it or can propose a checklist of things to go through to get my drone working again? I'm assuming it is some sort of software error.

PS The reason I don't use this drone so often is that a couple of years ago it just went off on its own, didn't respond to anything I did and crashed itself into a hill. It worked since, but made my kinda nervous if there were any people within fling range of the drone in case it decided to take somebody out.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

You will be asked for the flight logs, instructions for getting those can be found on DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help
Then you could post the logs on here or upload the .txt log to DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help and post the link to the processed log on here

 

[nicoatridge]

You will be asked for the flight logs, instructions for getting those can be found on DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help
Then you could post the logs on here or upload the .txt log to DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help and post the link to the processed log on here

Thanks for this. i did upload the logs when the Mavic 2 went loony tunes a couple of years ago, but the current problems are not associated with the flight itself, but with the lost signal. Surely the flight logs will not explain why the drone flew without a signal a few metres from the pilot?

 

[Deleted member 103366]

Whilst it is true that nowt is recorded on the phone whilst there is no connection there may be indicators or hints recorded whilst there was a connection.

 

[Arnold LeVine]

The crash may be directly associated with the problem. You could have a very slightly loose connection that causes intermittent disconnect via vibrations.
Did you have the drone serviced after the crash? or since it flew, just assumed it was OK

 

[nicoatridge]

After the crash i flew it quite gingerly, but with some success. i got some great footage. I didn't use it for about 9 months, and I've heard said that a long lay off can screw up the drone. i also updated to all the latest firmware etc before I tried to fly it, so not sure if it would have flown OK without the updates. I can sit in my living room, take it off, 6ft from me and get the message almost immediately that "Image Transmission Lost. Return Hone Now?".

 

[tlswift58]

After the crash i flew it quite gingerly, but with some success. i got some great footage. I didn't use it for about 9 months, and I've heard said that a long lay off can screw up the drone. i also updated to all the latest firmware etc before I tried to fly it, so not sure if it would have flown OK without the updates. I can sit in my living room, take it off, 6ft from me and get the message almost immediately that "Image Transmission Lost. Return Hone Now?".

Do you have a lot of metal in the area you are flying? Magnetic interference is one reason for loss of signal.

 

[nicoatridge]

Do you have a lot of metal in the area you are flying? Magnetic interference is one reason for loss of signal.

No, I have tried to fly it in a field, in my living room, in a car park in a park... transmission is always lost almost immediately.

One other weird thing is that the camera view freezes in monochrome, but will reactivate in colour and reframe the actual image view when I take a picture, which seems to work even though image transmission is supposedly lost.

I was hoping somebody would know some sort of checklist of things to try to fix what I am pretty certain is a software problem. One solution would be to try a factory reset and see if that fixes it - a bit drastic but not sure of any other choices. Is this a good option to take, considering I'll have to presumably download a bunch of incremental updates?

 

[nicoatridge]

I can't say I have got to the bottom of the issue with my drone, but I switched phones and it now works, from a Galaxy S21 Ultra back to an S8. If I revert to the S21 Ultra the problem returns.