Mavic Air Range Issue.

[vedkontho]

Hi there everyone. Been flying the MA for a week now. First drone ever. Gotta say it flies really smooth. However the only issue I have been having is the transmission range when flying with the controller. It stutters and RTH at a vertical height of 102m max... Sometimes even 80 m. Thats inside a playground with no nearby buildings or obstructions. This happened even when I just took off and kept the left toggle pressed all the way up.

I made sure I had batteries 100 percent on both the MA and the controller. I have been adjusting the antennae at 45 degrees with not much difference. I have extended the front legs of the drone which I know doubles up as the wifi tx/rx. I know its not occusync on the MA still I know MA can do better than 100m vertical.

I have got updated firmware on both the controller and the drone. Currently flying in Singapore but intend to bring the drone back to India where sadly there is no dji service available. So a bit worried if the hardware on the drone is ok.

Any advise wud be much appreciated.

 

[Mavic23]

Hi there everyone. Been flying the MA for a week now. First drone ever. Gotta say it flies really smooth. However the only issue I have been having is the transmission range when flying with the controller. It stutters and RTH at a vertical height of 102m max... Sometimes even 80 m. Thats inside a playground with no nearby buildings or obstructions. This happened even when I just took off and kept the left toggle pressed all the way up.

I made sure I had batteries 100 percent on both the MA and the controller. I have been adjusting the antennae at 45 degrees with not much difference. I have extended the front legs of the drone which I know doubles up as the wifi tx/rx. I know its not occusync on the MA still I know MA can do better than 100m vertical.

I have got updated firmware on both the controller and the drone. Currently flying in Singapore but intend to bring the drone back to India where sadly there is no dji service available. So a bit worried if the hardware on the drone is ok.

Any advise wud be much appreciated.

FYI!!!!!! Be aware

Drone unable to return home, I was capturing footage of a castle that was about 100 yards away from me as I was panning around the building I intermittently received a warning-Loss connection I glanced at battery life about 60% , I had just purchased the drone less than a month ago so like most newbies I didn't feel comfortable flying my drone after a warning of that importance (ohh sht $800). So as I'm turning the aircraft around to fly back, another out of range failure fault only this time for brief few seconds the screen freeze, as the feedback returned and the low battery warning comes on, I'm thinking this is strange I just had more than half battery life (the warning is set to the factory default ), at this point my heart starts to pound and I just want the aircraft back in my hands so I select the return home button, I can see the aircraft going up and ready to return home, the screen freezes then goes black again I'm looking up hoping to see the drone, about a minute or two later feedback returns I can see the aircraft is descending but is nowhere near where it's original launched location another warning aircraft unable to land (it's trying to land on water) I quickly exit the land command and I take over switched the drone to sport mode as its low in battery I start to climb again the screen goes black and the drone is never to be seen again. I tried to contact DJI not to get a free replacement but to see if they would work with me on the purchase of new drone, after all I have battery's controller props charger that are less than a month old."we can't help you our product is too new for discounts " Not bashing DJI products the few images I was able to capture are really good, I just think that as a leading company they could do a better job at taking care of their customers. Be ware they don't work well with their customers

 

[vedkontho]

I wudnt know what to do in ur position either. The reaction time in any flight emergency is so very low. Maybe repositioning urself, the antennae or moving to a higher ground could have helped. Still dont understand why the RTH on ur aircraft failed. Maybe the gps home position didnt update itself during take off or their was some heavy interference on that day in that area.

I mean we all have seen the instances when the uber u asked for is parked at the middle of a lake. It happens.

The real question is how does a pilot know that before take off.

 

[Noflo]

Sorry to hear about u losing your drone but for your next drone here is something I do on every flight. I always have a battery that not 100 charged I use this to check out RHT going straight up then when it's landing cancel and fly it close to u until low battery RTH comes on and see how that works for u ... Since I relie on RTH I want to make sure it works before going a mile out....Good luck

 

[tomnjfl]

I hate to be "that guy", but can you upload your flight logs and let @msinger or one of the other contributors take a look at them? 9 times out of 10 there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for this type of behavior from the drone, and as much as I hate to say it, most of the time it's some sort of user error.

Once you know what caused it, you can make sure to take extra steps to prevent it from happening next time.

 

[Flyin@Higher]

FYI!!!!!! Be aware

Drone unable to return home, I was capturing footage of a castle that was about 100 yards away from me as I was panning around the building I intermittently received a warning-Loss connection I glanced at battery life about 60% , I had just purchased the drone less than a month ago so like most newbies I didn't feel comfortable flying my drone after a warning of that importance (ohh sht $800). So as I'm turning the aircraft around to fly back, another out of range failure fault only this time for brief few seconds the screen freeze, as the feedback returned and the low battery warning comes on, I'm thinking this is strange I just had more than half battery life (the warning is set to the factory default ), at this point my heart starts to pound and I just want the aircraft back in my hands so I select the return home button, I can see the aircraft going up and ready to return home, the screen freezes then goes black again I'm looking up hoping to see the drone, about a minute or two later feedback returns I can see the aircraft is descending but is nowhere near where it's original launched location another warning aircraft unable to land (it's trying to land on water) I quickly exit the land command and I take over switched the drone to sport mode as its low in battery I start to climb again the screen goes black and the drone is never to be seen again. I tried to contact DJI not to get a free replacement but to see if they would work with me on the purchase of new drone, after all I have battery's controller props charger that are less than a month old."we can't help you our product is too new for discounts " Not bashing DJI products the few images I was able to capture are really good, I just think that as a leading company they could do a better job at taking care of their customers. Be ware they don't work well with their customers

These issues are what happens when people have no flying skills prior to buying an expensive drone. If the drone is close like that you just fly it back and land. No reason to use rth. You run the risk of crashing or a fly away.

 

[Flyin@Higher]

FYI!!!!!! Be aware

Drone unable to return home, I was capturing footage of a castle that was about 100 yards away from me as I was panning around the building I intermittently received a warning-Loss connection I glanced at battery life about 60% , I had just purchased the drone less than a month ago so like most newbies I didn't feel comfortable flying my drone after a warning of that importance (ohh sht $800). So as I'm turning the aircraft around to fly back, another out of range failure fault only this time for brief few seconds the screen freeze, as the feedback returned and the low battery warning comes on, I'm thinking this is strange I just had more than half battery life (the warning is set to the factory default ), at this point my heart starts to pound and I just want the aircraft back in my hands so I select the return home button, I can see the aircraft going up and ready to return home, the screen freezes then goes black again I'm looking up hoping to see the drone, about a minute or two later feedback returns I can see the aircraft is descending but is nowhere near where it's original launched location another warning aircraft unable to land (it's trying to land on water) I quickly exit the land command and I take over switched the drone to sport mode as its low in battery I start to climb again the screen goes black and the drone is never to be seen again. I tried to contact DJI not to get a free replacement but to see if they would work with me on the purchase of new drone, after all I have battery's controller props charger that are less than a month old."we can't help you our product is too new for discounts " Not bashing DJI products the few images I was able to capture are really good, I just think that as a leading company they could do a better job at taking care of their customers. Be ware they don't work well with their customers

With all the YouTube videos they put out as well as Twitter I personally see no reason to ever contact them. Never have and never once had an issue.

 

[Mavic23]

Sorry to hear about u losing your drone but for your next drone here is something I do on every flight. I always have a battery that not 100 charged I use this to check out RHT going straight up then when it's landing cancel and fly it close to u until low battery RTH comes on and see how that works for u ... Since I relie on RTH I want to make sure it works before going a mile out....Good luck

That’s good one. Thnx

 

[Mavic23]

I hate to be "that guy", but can you upload your flight logs and let @msinger or one of the other contributors take a look at them? 9 times out of 10 there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for this type of behavior from the drone, and as much as I hate to say it, most of the time it's some sort of user error.

Once you know what caused it, you can make sure to take extra steps to prevent it from happening next time.

I’ll try that ( it breaks my heart to hear the sound of the controller turning on)

 

[Mavic23]

These issues are what happens when people have no flying skills prior to buying an expensive drone. If the drone is close like that you just fly it back and land. No reason to use rth. You run the risk of crashing or a fly away.

I would thing that RTH would be the safest most reliable way to return a distressed drone home specially for newbie besides isn’t that one of DJI selling points? (Haha)

 

[tomnjfl]

I would thing that RTH would be the safest most reliable way to return a distressed drone home specially for newbie besides isn’t that one of DJI selling points? (Haha)

It is....but you have to really understand how RTH works and set it up properly before flying, to make sure that when you need it, it's settings are correct. You've also got to make sure there are no obstacles in front of, or above, the drone during RTH. If you don't have your RTH altitude set high enough, or if it you initiate RTH when there's a tree or something above the drone....well, RTH will be useless. Understanding how it works and when to use it is the key.

 

[Mavic23]

as far as obstacles I know that there were none above it as it was wide open range, in front this I'm unsure about as I had no visibility/ feedback on my remote/phone (though I dont imagine that it did)

 

[tomnjfl]

as far as obstacles I know that there were none above it as it was wide open range, in front this I'm unsure about as I had no visibility/ feedback on my remote/phone (though I dont imagine that it did)

That information would be in the flight data. I would download it, post it on here and see if one of the experts can take a look and see what went wrong.

 

[Kyle Dias]

Hi there everyone. Been flying the MA for a week now. First drone ever. Gotta say it flies really smooth. However the only issue I have been having is the transmission range when flying with the controller. It stutters and RTH at a vertical height of 102m max... Sometimes even 80 m. Thats inside a playground with no nearby buildings or obstructions. This happened even when I just took off and kept the left toggle pressed all the way up.

I made sure I had batteries 100 percent on both the MA and the controller. I have been adjusting the antennae at 45 degrees with not much difference. I have extended the front legs of the drone which I know doubles up as the wifi tx/rx. I know its not occusync on the MA still I know MA can do better than 100m vertical.

I have got updated firmware on both the controller and the drone. Currently flying in Singapore but intend to bring the drone back to India where sadly there is no dji service available. So a bit worried if the hardware on the drone is ok.

Any advise wud be much appreciated.

I have the same issue, Did you find any solution ?

 

[VooDooZG]

turn it into FCC, CE mode is absolutely retarded and make Air unreliable and useless - it is not because of 500m rule but because we all have problem on 3-4x less range, in is not normal that you lose your signal on normal open field 60m above you ..

 

[Mavic23]

I have the same issue, Did you find any solution ?

Unfortunately I didn’t, I don’t have my flight logs so I can’t send them to DJI for them to analyze. Hopefully I’ll heave them by the end of the month. I’ll keep you posted, did you lose your drone also?

 

[stberlin]

had another little RTH issue. I pressed the button but nothing happened. the drone was about 390ft up and 100ft away. So I kept trying, even holding down the button. Then it finally RTH. I'm not sure what it was but the first time it happened, it was over a km away, but since the vid feed was still great, I decided to return manually.

 

[Jameslavis]

Well over a thousand flights in both city and rural. Never one fly away, app crash, signal loss/RTH. Beast drone.

 

[InvisibleName]

had another little RTH issue. I pressed the button but nothing happened. the drone was about 390ft up and 100ft away. So I kept trying, even holding down the button. Then it finally RTH. I'm not sure what it was but the first time it happened, it was over a km away, but since the vid feed was still great, I decided to return manually.

When you say say “even holding the button” - that is what you are supposed to do to initiate RTH, just a single press won’t do anything. I guess it’s to stop an inadvertent initiation of RTH

 

[stberlin]

When you say say “even holding the button” - that is what you are supposed to do to initiate RTH, just a single press won’t do anything. I guess it’s to stop an inadvertent initiation of RTH

thanks for educating this noob.