Mavic air causing interference with my pro

[Skiergd011013]

I have flown my pro for several hours, 100% problem free. Its been great. Today for the first time, my friend joined me with his air. While we were both flying and standing pretty close to eachother, out of nowhere, i lost signal(i was close, in vlos). I just shrugged it off, thinking the app crashed, and flew it back with the remote only. I landed, and tried to reconnect. The remote and drone would connect, but not the app. It would just open the app, but say "enter aircraft", not "go fly" like it usually does. The strange thing is, after resetting the app, it would very quickly say "go fly" for about 1 sec, and then revert back to enter aircraft. Again, i gave the benefit of the doubt, and thought that maybe the big solar panel array next to us was interfering, so we drove to another location. After successfully connecting and sending my pro up, still within vlos, it lost signal. This time, the controller lost signal as well. Rth initiated, and it came back and landed. At this point, i strongly suspected my friends controller was causing me an issue. It has never had even a hiccup with reception before. To confirm this, i went out this evening alone, and flew for two batteries worth. It worked perfect, just as it normally does. I know these are all suppose to be paired controller to individual drone etc, but i am almost certain my friend was causing me interference today. Next time, we will keep more distance from each other and see if that helps. Any thoughts?

 

[RayOZ]

Next time, repeat process where your connection is lost, preferably while not flying, then ask your friend to turn his MA off. See if you can reconnect your MP. If it works, then tell your friend to turn his MA on. That would be a definitive prove there's interference between the 2.
Since MP is connected to RC via the USB cable, turn off wifi on your device.
Other option is to check the frequency selection of both RC.

 

[caspian]

I would have thought the smart device would only try to connect with the Air RC if it had previously had the wifi credentials entered, in which case forgetting the connection details should prevent it connection attempts to the wrong RC?

 

[Skiergd011013]

Thanks. We may get together again next weekend. Ill use it again alone tomorrow. If it goes smoothly again, i think i have my answer.

 

[macoman]

It's well documented in YouTube that flying two drones a little closer may get interferences issue. The best thing that you can do next time with your friend. One flying on the opposite direction. Like you for example flying northern, your friend flying southern. I doubt you will get any interference in this mode.

 

[RayOZ]

Something I learnt a couple of weekends ago. Communicate with your friend at all times and try to keep a 10m vertical separation between your drones so you dont accidentally crash into each other. If you do, make sure video recording is on.

 

[Taylor1430]

I had a similar issue when flying with a friend (both MP’s). He went one way and I went the other. It’s the only time while flying I’ve had the issue. At the time, we were standing near each other. Problem cleared up by us walking away from each other.

 

[Don H.]

Interesting, no interference here. We were standing side by side. To be fair, only one Phantom, one Autel, one airplane and the rest are 3dr Solos.

 

[Gray_seagull]

I flew my pro next to my wife flying her Mavic Air several times. Never noticed anything

 

[AnzacJack]

We regularly fly with multiple drones and aircraft in the air (phantoms and mavic and sometimes an inspire) with no troubles. I did add an Air into the mix recently. And now I have read your post I’ll do some testing. Last time I flew, I did have some trouble with my mav pro disconnecting at very close range. I put it down to atmospheric conditions or some radio clutter. I just landed and put it away for the day. Have flown since with no problem so put it out of my mind.

Maybe it was the air causing problems? Can’t remember if it was flying at the time, but I will run some checks later in the week.

 

[DaveId]

All you experienced was the device disconnecting from the rc. Which has nothing to do with interference, as the connection is usb. I would think interference would cause the rc to disconnect from the aircraft, which did not occur. Perhaps the usb cable wasn't fully connected?

 

[Skiergd011013]

All you experienced was the device disconnecting from the rc. Which has nothing to do with interference, as the connection is usb. I would think interference would cause the rc to disconnect from the aircraft, which did not occur. Perhaps the usb cable wasn't fully connected?

it says in my op that my controller lost connection as well. That is when my pro auto RTH.

 

[Skiergd011013]

Something I learnt a couple of weekends ago. Communicate with your friend at all times and try to keep a 10m vertical separation between your drones so you dont accidentally crash into each other. If you do, make sure video recording is on.

we do. We stay at different altitudes.

 

[Skiergd011013]

The pro is working great. I have flown it several times since the issue. I guess its confirmed that my friends air impacted my drone. I took it out to 10,600 feet today(stayed over fields and meadows) and it still had 4 bars of signal. Its amazing

 

[Youser]

I beat my personal best doing a range test flying next to a friend who was flying his MP standing next to me, flying in the same direction. He was getting less distance though

 

[William Ball]

separate a bit further from each other and be sure your wifi is off on your device, I don't think having the WiFi on is a bad thing here, but it just might help eliminate a potential problem. Should be fine then. The biggest issue is probably to closeness of the two controllers, even though they use different systems, they might be stepping on one another.

 

[GerdS]

I would propose setting the Mavic Air to 5.8GHz before trying again, that should avoid any trouble.
I have similar experience when flying at a model airfield with several 2.4GHz r/c transmitters active. Always leads to pixelation and delay on my Mavic video stream. Ocusync needs a high bandwidth which is often not available if Wifi or r/c transmitters are active.