Mavic Pro often "disconnected"

[English Nobleman]

I have been advised to seek advice here by dirkclod.

I have had a Mavic Pro for 12 months and used it all over the world BUT it is at the same time superb and infuriating.

Yesterday I was supposed to take a picture in front of our church in Norfolk, UK with the whole congregation.

I had used the Mavic without problems in Australia 2 weeks ago and conscious that it often gets confused when flying from one continent to another I turned in it on Sunday morning in the garden, gave it time to up date its GPS and after 3 or 4 switching on and off events I finally got a picture on my i-phone 8 an the gimbal was connected (it never does this straight away).

After church turned everything on and the drone remained stubbornly disconnected - the controller said "Atti Mode", then GPS OK, then ready to go BUT the top left corner of the screen stubbornly said "disconnected" and there was no picture. After 4 or 5 on/off cycles I moved 40 yards away from the church, still no joy.

I then moved virtually out into the street and suddenly it decided to show a picture and so I took off and within about 3 meters of climbing it "disconnected" and the picture disappeared.

It does this a lot and I have had to sit and fiddle with it for up to 45 minutes on many occasions to get the thing to "connect" and show a picture - it's like having a grumpy pet that doesn't want to play. That said as you can see from my flickr stream I have got one or two nice drone snaps over the last year:-

Peak Forest - 1

Drone where is it - 2

Help much appreciated because it's driving me bonkers!

 

[Taylor1430]

That seems like a cable related issue. Have you tried a different cable?

 

[lisadoc]

That seems like a cable related issue. Have you tried a different cable?

That's sort of the question that is not clear from the original post - Do you mean the RC disconnected from the Mavic (which would not be related to the cable), or do you mean the phone isn't connecting and showing your video feed and yet your RC is connected without issue (which could be a cable issue or a number of other things)?

 

[English Nobleman]

Taylor 1430
I plug the i-phone direct into the handset, so there is no extra cable, just the one attached to the handset that came with the drone - it plugs into the phone fine and the phone immediately comes up with the flying screen when I press the DJI app so the phone is talking to the hand controller but the controller says the drone is disconnected, so I'm not sure which cable there is to change?

lisadoc
I'll take some pictures to show what I mean and attach:-

In addition I did nothing to touch the i-phone plug into the controller at all during the ten or so cycles of turning on and then off until it finally showed a picture. This then disappeared as soon as I got 2 or 3 metres off the ground.

Could it be wifi interference, could be other folks i-phones??

 

[lisadoc]

Sorry, we need some more information. It's still not clear.

From the photo above, the drone and the controller do not seem to be turned on, so there won't be anything to display on the iPhone.

Skip the iPhone part for now. If you turn on the controller and the Mavic (without the phone), does the controller connect and show a good signal? Are you using the Mavic in WiFi or radio mode?

 

[English Nobleman]

OK - lisadoc - I can do that but typically now in my garden its connecting fine so I can't show you the problem!

It is the sheer unpredictability of the problem which is frustrating - I can show you it connected fine now but often if just doesn't connect and seems to take 4 or 5 cycles of turning on ad off before a connection is established.

 

[msinger]

The next time it doesn't connect, try connecting your mobile device to the bottom of the remote controller via a Lightning cable.

 

[ac0j]

The arm of the controller that holds the iphone connector needs to be square with the Iphone to properly seat the plug. I have had issues with lint packed in the bottom of the iphone connector that collects there while in your pocket. Every time you plug the phone in it packs it into the bottom of the connector. first thing that seems to affect is the data, then the charge. Take a NON METALLIC item like a wood toothpick and scrap out the connector on your phone. Then, make sure the connector to the RC is FULLY seating into the phone. From your picture, it appears the plug would only be 1/2 way in the phone connector.

 

[lisadoc]

It's still unclear as to whether or not the remote controller is connecting to the aircraft without issue. If it is, and then it's unable to be seen through the phone, we can start talking about cables and connections between the controller and the device. If the controller (on its own) is not connecting to the aircraft itself, issues surrounding cables and other such connections are moot.

I keep going back to the same question - will the Mavic connect to the remote consistently on its own?

 

[msinger]

It's still unclear as to whether or not the remote controller is connecting to the aircraft without issue.

When the mobile device is connected to the remote controller and the aircraft is disconnected from the remote controller, DJI GO displays this message:




When the mobile device is disconnected from the remote controller, DJI GO displays this message:




Per the first post above, the OP is saying he sees the "Disconnected" message in DJI GO. He is also confirming that the remote controller is connected to the Mavic (based on the messages he's seeing on the remote controller screen).

 

[genesimmons]

i get this a lot to using android though, when i go to start djigo it shows coneected and gps then imidietly goes to red disconnect and camera shuts off, usually a restart of dji go does the trick but lately its done it 2 or 3 times which causes me to use litchi which connects on the first try usually then if i close litchi and go back to start dji go it usually works, very strange and yes frustrating some times

 

[msinger]

i get this a lot to using android though, when i go to start djigo it shows coneected and gps then imidietly goes to red disconnect and camera shuts off

Some Android devices connect more consistently when this is done:

1) Power on the remote controller
2) Power on the Mavic
3) Wait until the remote controller screens shows it's connected
4) Connect the cable between the remote controller and your mobile device

 

[lisadoc]

Per the first post above, the OP is saying he sees the "Disconnected" message in DJI GO. He is also confirming that the remote controller is connected to the Mavic (based on the messages he's seeing on the remote controller screen).

I would agree with that but from the photo attached, it appears that neither the Mavic nor the controller are powered on. There are no green lights on the battery and the controller screen is completely off. It could all be related to the camera angle from the photo but it would be unusual not to have any indication on either piece of equipment if they were on and connected.

 

[msinger]

it appears that neither the Mavic nor the controller are powered on

That's correct. It was not the best attempt to show the problem since this is not how the OP had everything connected while out in the field.

 

[genesimmons]

Some Android devices connect more consistently when this is done:

1) Power on the remote controller
2) Power on the Mavic
3) Wait until the remote controller light turns green
4) Connect the cable between the remote controller and your mobile device

ahhh ill try it this way, i always start the mav first then rc then connect the cord in that order, ill test her out today

 

[msinger]

i always start the mav first then rc

That would be okay too. The secret sauce is waiting until the remote controller shows it's connected to the Mavic.

 

[Vinson7]

I’m having the exact same issue recently. Today at the beach I was 1,250 ft out over the ocean and it went to “aircraft disconnect” and the remote said “landing”. I was obviously scared beyond belief. My RTH didn’t work but controls worked to get it home anyway. I’ve tried restarting everything and now as soon as I take off it goes to disconnect. Weird.

 

[Paul2660]

I’m having the exact same issue recently. Today at the beach I was 1,250 ft out over the ocean and it went to “aircraft disconnect” and the remote said “landing”. I was obviously scared beyond belief. My RTH didn’t work but controls worked to get it home anyway. I’ve tried restarting everything and now as soon as I take off it goes to disconnect. Weird.

Mavic Pro or Platinum Pro? Recent firmware update?

You might try refreshing the current firmware and if you still get same problem, use Assistant 2 to go to the previous version of firmware on the Mavic.

There seems to be a recent rash of issues on Mavics fully disconnecting at range and up close. I base this on posts on this forum and the main Mavic DJI forum. I have not upgraded my firmware for several months on the Mavic, not sure if a new firmware was released or not.

Paul Caldwell

 

[Vinson7]

Mavic Pro or Platinum Pro? Recent firmware update?

You might try refreshing the current firmware and if you still get same problem, use Assistant 2 to go to the previous version of firmware on the Mavic.

There seems to be a recent rash of issues on Mavics fully disconnecting at range and up close. I base this on posts on this forum and the main Mavic DJI forum. I have not upgraded my firmware for several months on the Mavic, not sure if a new firmware was released or not.

Paul Caldwell

Mavic pro. Was doing it the last firm update, updated again today. Might have to just tinker with it going back to last one. Frustrating to say the least. Thanks

 

[lenabanana]

I actually had the same issue with my mavic and iphone 7plus, I am not certain that I fully resolved it just yet but so far so good.
I think my issue is the result of the phone saving data from my old mavic's as I have replaced it.

What I did (and thus far hasn't disconnected) -
-Go into iphone settings and delete all DJIgo4 data and disable it in icloud backup.
-Formatted my memory card.
-Went into the DJI go app and cleared the 2 different caches, video and one other (sorry dont have the controller infront of me at the moment to check what the second one was).
-Deleted the whole app
-Hard reset my iPhone
-Logged into my OTHER apple account (make another one if you have to) and downloaded the app fresh.