Nearly Lost Mavic Pro - Aircraft Disconnected. No RTH

[Chase R]

It's tough not to panic when you have $1000 somewhere in the sky and you can't control it but these things are pretty smart. Basically you had a connectivity issue between the phone and the controller. If you would have pressed RTH then it would have come back or if you let it sit up there until the battery died it would have come back as well. Scary... yes but no real danger of losing the thing.

 

[Teesquar]

I've read in several threads that switching your phone over to "airplane mode" before flight has been a suggested fix.

 

[KiterTodd]

Does the Controller (unlinked to phone) contain any coordinate information so you can figure out where the Mavic is relative to you? Or even, "last known point" should you have phone and lose it due to connection issues or your phone battery going dead.

I know it should always be in sight, but if you are filming and watching the screen, it is understandable to lose sight of the drone. Was wondering what to do in order to fly it back to you (other than RTH, which I know is best.)

 

[AlanTheBeast]

My issue happens on 4.0.3

Thx! As that's what I now have I'll be vigilant and quickly disconnect and re-connect the iPhone. I assume I can do that at the controller connection rather than the phone lightning plug.

Did you also restart the app? (kick it out and launch it?).

 

[PropPilot]

I have had some similar incidences and took the time to become VERY (and I mean VERY) familiar with determining if my issue is an app disconnect or a controller disconnect to minimize my angst and the knowing how/when to use the RTH button and more importantly, cancelling RTH when my Mavvie comes close to home.

PRACTICE IT !!!! I had a scary situation when my Mavvie was new where I was not familiar with how RTH worked and no idea how to cancel. I was hovering the Mav close to me to land and it hit critical battery and started to climb like a raped ape to 30 metres to fly back to the home point about 100 feet from where I started as I was walking. I reached up and grabbed the Mav from under the belly and it throttled way up because the sensors on the bottom detected my hand (I had no idea WHY until I read and tested later) and fortunately I was able to hang on and command a CSC which stopped the props (but not my racing heart).

Some lessons I learned

- if the app disconnects and the controller connection looks good, just RTH from the controller, cancel the RTH when the Mav is close and land
- if the app disconnects and the controller connection looks good, unplug the USB cable from the bottom (only use the bottom for Android tablets) and reinsert and it seems to stabilize
- if the app disconnects and the controller connection is lost (which I think by reading much is quite rare unless someone flew behind a building or mountain) and you are SOL
- VLOS always. It is not only because you can see the Mavic, it is because the radio signals can reach/return from the Mavic as well. An obstruction between you and the Mavic can create rapid heart rate increase

FLY SAFE...FLY OFTEN....

 

[Cyberpower678]

I forgot to mention, this was second flight. The first flight was all smooth and flying for 15 minutes.

Flight 1 - Launched at 7:32am
Flight 2 - Launched at 7:50am. Aircraft Disconnected happened during this flight

Definitely nothing in the flight log to indicate a disconnect of the controller to the Mavic. Looks like the app's connection to the RC just died.

 

[Cyberpower678]

Thx! As that's what I now have I'll be vigilant and quickly disconnect and re-connect the iPhone. I assume I can do that at the controller connection rather than the phone lightning plug.

Did you also restart the app? (kick it out and launch it?).

No I did not. Just reconnecting fixes the issue.

 

[Cyberpower678]

Haven't seen this reported, which isn't to say it doesn't happen but can you provide more info on this?

The app will arbitrarily disconnect the RC, as if a USB stick were being ejected from a Mac. Just unplug and replug the RC into the phone to reconnect them. It's annoying though, but it doesn't happen very often, but it has been happening since the update.

 

[AlanTheBeast]

The app will arbitrarily disconnect the RC, as if a USB stick were being ejected from a Mac. Just unplug and replug the RC into the phone to reconnect them. It's annoying though, but it doesn't happen very often, but it has been happening since the update.

Thx - hasn't happened to me in flight (yet) but I did have trouble getting first connection to the RC the other day. Maybe related.

 

[integlikewhoa]

I think like others have said you probley lost connection from the remote to the tablet or phone but not from the controller to the mavic. So an App or usb connection issue. If this is the case the remote and the screen on the remote would still work and it would not return to home.

You would need to turn off the remote or press the return to home button and hold on the remote for this to work.

In a panic people press the RTH button on the remote and release and it doesn't work.

Try not to panic as people fly right past easy fixes due to panic setting in.

 

[Logger]

Does the Controller (unlinked to phone) contain any coordinate information so you can figure out where the Mavic is relative to you? Or even, "last known point" should you have phone and lose it due to connection issues or your phone battery going dead....

Not that I am aware of. However it does display various system statuses including flight telemetry in real time.
Distance from home point is displayed at bottom right of RC screen. So at very least you have a range ring or circle based on the homepoint. Take note of that for your subsequent search. However simply use right stick in each quadrant observing distance. If it increases you are going the wrong way, reverse the stick and it should decrease. Refine stick angle to maximise closure rate. Do not use yaw or you will change orientation and need to re establish right stick direction to fly home. No need for phone to get it back using this technique.

 

[PropPilot]

Just test the fault and recovery techniques ahead of time and confidence will go WAY up !

 

[KiterTodd]

...
Distance from home point is displayed at bottom right of RC screen. So at very least you have a range ring or circle based on the homepoint. Take note of that for your subsequent search. However simply use right stick in each quadrant observing distance. If it increases you are going the wrong way, reverse the stick and it should decrease. Refine stick angle to maximise closure rate. Do not use yaw or you will change orientation and need to re establish right stick direction to fly home. No need for phone to get it back using this technique.

That's a great idea!! Thanks for pointing out the obvious.
Good to have this plan ahead of time as, in the heat of the moment...we don't always think straight.

 

[stratos]

I had a scary flight this morning. I was shooting an Indian Temple Statue in Malaysia. Half way through the flight, DJI GO 4 Apps said "Aircraft Disconnected", I couldn't see anything from my DJI GO 4 Apps.

I tried closed DJI GO 4 apps and reopened again, it couldn't connect to my Mavic Pro. I tried to look for the Mavic location but can't really judge where was it located since my concentration was on the screen taking the footage. Here is the map and the flight logs

View attachment 5981

"H" was the took off point, I tried to look at Yellow area to locate my Mavic, because I wasn't sure where was it located. I was in panic mode, still can't see it anywhere at the Yellow area. After a minute or so, I tried looked at other area where "T" was, then I saw a Mavic hover in the sky.

There were couple of Mavic and Phantom crafts around, not too sure was that mine. I tried move left and right on my RC stick, the movement seems like what I controlled, then i tried move toward me... and YES, that was my mavic. At that time DJI GO 4 apps still not working, status were still "Aircraft Disconnected". Besides, there were no RTH trigger on the Mavic too ;(

As you can see, the flight record ended at "T", in theory the Mavic was stuck there. Lucky I was able to identify my Mavic Pro and slowly brought it back to me.

When the Mavic was above me, I tried to power off the RC and power on again, I was able to connected to Mavic Pro on DJI GO 4 Apps again. I was thinking to power off/on the RC when I saw the Mavic from far, but worried it couldn't connect it back, since RC still have control. It was best to bring it back.

It was a scary experience. It's the same bad experience the guys had while shooting The Bund at ShangHai.

Refer to the picture below, I was controlling 2 meters away from the tent in red square. The LOS was clear between my RC to the aircraft, there were no tall building around.

View attachment 5982

Below is the footage.

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The flight record data can be downloaded here.

I will log the problem with DJI Forum. See what do they say on this.

Lesson learnt. Always fly at your line of sight. Phew..

It was because of the power of the Batuh caves

 

[RallySoob]

The latest iOS version of the DJI app seems to have a bug where it disconnects from the controller quite arbitrarily. To fix it unplug the phone from the controller and plug it back in.


Sent from my iPhone using MavicPilots

I don't believe this statement is true. I believe ios is the ONLY reliable option. I say this because I do a lot of forum research and come across countless android issues to the point i think its blatantly obvious Dji designed the Mavic to be used with IOS primarily & android only secondary so to speak.

Many android users have connection issues. Personally I will not fly using Androids and I wont use Litchi software either; That is a separate issue but in a sense all the same as far as reliability goes anyway.

I use an iphone 6s + and never once had an issue myself. The battery can falsely read low and shutdown if the phone gets too cold but thats a known issue the is unrelated to the oS.

i have latest ios update done, i always do the moment its released. Ive flown like 10'ish flights and 15-20miles since then too

 

[Blucenturion]

I'm impressed at the level of knowledge of many of the users here. Good to know.

 

[Cyberpower678]

I don't believe this statement is true. I believe ios is the ONLY reliable option. I say this because I do a lot of forum research and come across countless android issues to the point i think its blatantly obvious Dji designed the Mavic to be used with IOS primarily & android only secondary so to speak.

Many android users have connection issues. Personally I will not fly using Androids and I wont use Litchi software either; That is a separate issue but in a sense all the same as far as reliability goes anyway.

I use an iphone 6s + and never once had an issue myself. The battery can falsely read low and shutdown if the phone gets too cold but thats a known issue the is unrelated to the oS.

i have latest ios update done, i always do the moment its released. Ive flown like 10'ish flights and 15-20miles since then too

I too own a 6S+ and like I mentioned earlier, the disconnect is rare, but happens quite arbitrarily.

 

[gingercookie]

I have had some similar incidences and took the time to become VERY (and I mean VERY) familiar with determining if my issue is an app disconnect or a controller disconnect to minimize my angst and the knowing how/when to use the RTH button and more importantly, cancelling RTH when my Mavvie comes close to home.

PRACTICE IT !!!! I had a scary situation when my Mavvie was new where I was not familiar with how RTH worked and no idea how to cancel. I was hovering the Mav close to me to land and it hit critical battery and started to climb like a raped ape to 30 metres to fly back to the home point about 100 feet from where I started as I was walking. I reached up and grabbed the Mav from under the belly and it throttled way up because the sensors on the bottom detected my hand (I had no idea WHY until I read and tested later) and fortunately I was able to hang on and command a CSC which stopped the props (but not my racing heart).

Some lessons I learned

- if the app disconnects and the controller connection looks good, just RTH from the controller, cancel the RTH when the Mav is close and land
- if the app disconnects and the controller connection looks good, unplug the USB cable from the bottom (only use the bottom for Android tablets) and reinsert and it seems to stabilize
- if the app disconnects and the controller connection is lost (which I think by reading much is quite rare unless someone flew behind a building or mountain) and you are SOL
- VLOS always. It is not only because you can see the Mavic, it is because the radio signals can reach/return from the Mavic as well. An obstruction between you and the Mavic can create rapid heart rate increase

FLY SAFE...FLY OFTEN....

Thanks for sharing on the above. It's great info to share with others. If it happens again in near future, first I will try to unplug the cable from RC to Phone and plug it in. If it's not appear in DJI GO Apps, most probably I will hit on RTH button, if I locate where is Maviee is.

Thanks guys. Your feedbacks not only benefit me, the other members in this group too.

 

[gingercookie]

I've read in several threads that switching your phone over to "airplane mode" before flight has been a suggested fix.

Did that before, but without mobile data I cannot have a good view on Here Map. Didn't put on Airplane mode after that.

It was because of the power of the Batuh caves

Could be. The god chasing the drones away from disturbing the prayers.

 

[deltalimatango]

The app will arbitrarily disconnect the RC, as if a USB stick were being ejected from a Mac. Just unplug and replug the RC into the phone to reconnect them. It's annoying though, but it doesn't happen very often, but it has been happening since the update.

I understand how it works on a Mac but is there any documented evidence or links pointing to these disconnections? If they are not evident, chances are DJI is unaware and a fix will not be forthcoming.