New Aussie Mavic Owner - Weak signal issues

[Chris.K]

Hi guys, am a long time RC enthusiast and made my first foray into the flying kind of RC with the Mavic. Looking to be able to learn from the experience in the forum and hopefully meet some guys for a fly around in Sydney.

So, started it all up and everything seemed pretty routine to start off with until i kept getting signal issues. weak gps, weak controller signals etc.

ive read through alot of topics here and cant figure out what the issue is. the drone seems to be switching from wifi to gps atti mode constantly without any input from me that is. so im guesssing i have a settings error in my phone.

have loaded up the flight log here:
Airdata UAV - Flight Data Analysis for Drones

i have an iphone 6 which i did NOT have in airplane mode.
my max distance is set at around 1.5kms i think. i can barely get to 700m odd before i lose signal.
have the latest firmware.
full battery in mavic and remote and phone.
antenna pointed forward correctly.

i dont know if im having 2 separate issues here ? one issue with the GPS and one issue with the remote signal loss. or are they someone related ?

Any help would be very much appreciated. Pretty unnerving to get loss of signal messages !

thanks !

 

[Mavić_Legenda]

Few suggestions: antennas should be up and parallel, not forward; IMU calibrated on ideal flat surface; several locations around Sydney probably need to be tested due to possible interference issues with GPS and signal from controller; change cable from controller to phone or use the USB port on the bottom of controller; see if you can find someone else with a Mavic to compare signal. Good luck!

 

[pilotattitude]

All worthy suggestions if I can add one more, always a possibility is your location. There maybe frequencies that are crossing your RF transmissions too your aircraft.

 

[Cut.Aussie]

Hi guys, am a long time RC enthusiast and made my first foray into the flying kind of RC with the Mavic. Looking to be able to learn from the experience in the forum and hopefully meet some guys for a fly around in Sydney.

So, started it all up and everything seemed pretty routine to start off with until i kept getting signal issues. weak gps, weak controller signals etc.

ive read through alot of topics here and cant figure out what the issue is. the drone seems to be switching from wifi to gps atti mode constantly without any input from me that is. so im guesssing i have a settings error in my phone.

have loaded up the flight log here:
Airdata UAV - Flight Data Analysis for Drones

i have an iphone 6 which i did NOT have in airplane mode.
my max distance is set at around 1.5kms i think. i can barely get to 700m odd before i lose signal.
have the latest firmware.
full battery in mavic and remote and phone.
antenna pointed forward correctly.

i dont know if im having 2 separate issues here ? one issue with the GPS and one issue with the remote signal loss. or are they someone related ?

Any help would be very much appreciated. Pretty unnerving to get loss of signal messages !

thanks !

Chris, Sydney is a big place but I live in the outer northwest but fly various locations so if your really stuck I'm happy to meet up somewhere mutual. Nigel

 

[Mavić_Legenda]

If it helps, Centenial/Queens park near Bondi had great GPS signal and connection with controller a few days ago

 

[Chris.K]

Thanks guys. Ariels are definitely aimed right. Should I have my phone in airplane mode ? If so don't I lose my map and stuff ?

Would love to meet up and fly sometime. I'm down south mate, near cronulla. No idea where is good to fly this thing yet.

 

[4wd]

Thanks guys. Ariels are definitely aimed right. Should I have my phone in airplane mode ? If so don't I lose my map and stuff ?

Would love to meet up and fly sometime. I'm down south mate, near cronulla. No idea where is good to fly this thing yet.

You can go to airplane mode after maps have loaded or cache in advance on IOS
It won't hurt to try, but most aren't needing to do this.
Not a bad idea to avoid distracting calls or something anyway.

 

[Chris.K]

You can go to airplane mode after maps have loaded or cache in advance on IOS
It won't hurt to try, but most aren't needing to do this.
Not a bad idea to avoid distracting calls or something anyway.

Sorry mate, if you have the time can you explain what you mean by this. What does cache in advance mean ? I remember seeing this in the settings but don't know what it is.

 

[Rnl]

I've read in other threads that firmware .400 gets better signal wouldn't hurt to check you can always go back to .600

 

[Rnl]

I went back to .400 and went 3 miles the other day.

 

[Chris.K]

took it out this morning and got the same problem. max flight distance was 516m. why is it constantly changing the mode without my input ? from wifi reconnect ti gps atti etc
log is here:
Airdata UAV - Flight Data Analysis for Drones

and why is it givin me this warning in the log ? im not trying to change aircraft mode ?!? enable what in main controller settings ??

h 04m 03s 65.2 m 516 m Warning Warning:Not Allowed to change Aircraft Mode. If needed, enable it in Main Controller Settings.

very very frustrating. i wonder if i got a dud.

 

[Logger]

You have probably not got a Dud, those messages are normal given the circumstances.

Hard to tell from you airdata log as you have suppressed the maps..




Go in there and enable one of the three Map types so we can get an appreciation of where you are flying and what is likely to be interrupting our signal.

The mode change warnings are normal because the Mavic is triggering them when you are continuously losing signal. You can avoid the warnings in you logs but not fix the underlying issue simply by enabling "Multiple Flight Modes" which is the first slider you see in DJIGO4 in Main controller, basic settings.

 

[Chris.K]

Aha..thanks mate for that info on the log.

The flights are flown from my house and then my brothers house. One is in Oyster Bay and one is in Oatley. I didn't enable the maps cos it shows our house locations. lol

I did consider enabling multiple flight modes, but I sssumed that enabled sport mode is that right ? I'm probably not totally comfortable with using sport mode just yet.

My phone signal is strong and my gps was showing between 12 and 18 satellites I think on both occasions before it disappeared. I'd find it really hard to believe, (and a deal breaker), that I can't fly it more than 500m away in our local areas cos there's loads of bush land and rivers around us we want to check out by air.

That would be pretty lame don't you think ? I don't think I'm asking too much. Not like I'm trying to fly 5kms away right ?

 

[bakerboy]

when you start getting to the 4-500m mark check out the radio noise by going in to the settings and checking the strength there, I've only had one lot of bad signal strength but I was right next to a wifi repeater. You should certainly be able to hit 1000-1200m without signal loss or very little (yes, you can still make out the mavic dot at that range)

 

[Logger]

Aha..thanks mate for that info on the log.

The flights are flown from my house and then my brothers house. One is in Oyster Bay and one is in Oatley. I didn't enable the maps cos it shows our house locations. lol

Fair point. You could do a flight from a park down the road or some such and post. That way no need to divulge stuff and we can see what might be blocking signal.

I did consider enabling multiple flight modes, but I assumed that enabled sport mode is that right ? I'm probably not totally comfortable with using sport mode just yet.

It only goes into Sports Mode if you activate the switch on the side of the remote. So no risk unless you select it and might save your Rrrs to boot should you need some extra speed on an RTH into wind. . It also enables all the other modes like Active track, Course Lock and so on. But again you have to actively select them by pressing the 5 way button or mode selector icon. Again not much of an issue.

My phone signal is strong and my gps was showing between 12 and 18 satellites I think on both occasions before it disappeared. I'd find it really hard to believe, (and a deal breaker), that I can't fly it more than 500m away in our local areas cos there's loads of bush land and rivers around us we want to check out by air.

That would be pretty lame don't you think ? I don't think I'm asking too much. Not like I'm trying to fly 5kms away right ?

Not necessarily Lame. Depends on the topography and if something is shielding the signal. If you can see the drone and your losing signal you may have an issue. But I doubt this is the case. To establish if you genuinely have an issue you need to get out of SYD and try flying in a totally different location away from build up areas. Set yourself a benchmark and if it does not do as well at home, then it due to the environment.

 

[Chris.K]

Thanks for the replies, will definitely enable multiple flight modes. That's a great point you raised about RTH.

Took it out to Engadine earlier. Similar issues although this time I got to 900m. Pretty flat area there but still nowhere near as far as I should be able to take it.

Just to clarify, I can't see the drone at this point but I done want to have to see it. Thats why I picked and paid for a drone that claims to have such great range.

Just took it back to retailer and got a replacement. Hopefully I'm one of the minority that got a bad sample. I guess I'll find out next flight. will report back.

 

[bakerboy]

I'm not sure you totally understand how it works, even if you have flown rc for some time. If you're near any wifi network you're going to have issues

 

[Chris.K]

I don't know how it works at all. lol

Never flown an rc before. Only cars/ boats. I've been building/ racing rc cars for years but never flown an rc before in my life.

 

[Jenee]

Hi guys, am a long time RC enthusiast and made my first foray into the flying kind of RC with the Mavic. Looking to be able to learn from the experience in the forum and hopefully meet some guys for a fly around in Sydney.

So, started it all up and everything seemed pretty routine to start off with until i kept getting signal issues. weak gps, weak controller signals etc.

ive read through alot of topics here and cant figure out what the issue is. the drone seems to be switching from wifi to gps atti mode constantly without any input from me that is. so im guesssing i have a settings error in my phone.

have loaded up the flight log here:
Airdata UAV - Flight Data Analysis for Drones

i have an iphone 6 which i did NOT have in airplane mode.
my max distance is set at around 1.5kms i think. i can barely get to 700m odd before i lose signal.
have the latest firmware.
full battery in mavic and remote and phone.
antenna pointed forward correctly.

i dont know if im having 2 separate issues here ? one issue with the GPS and one issue with the remote signal loss. or are they someone related ?

Any help would be very much appreciated. Pretty unnerving to get loss of signal messages !

thanks !

Are you flying in RC mode or Wifi? If in Wifi then the range will be greatly reduced.

 

[Michael Ainsworth]

On side of Mavic is a slider, check that it's in RC and not WiFi.