Outraged - Critical mid-flight DJI Go4 Crash

[Bruce Lythe]

If it is the case Androids are abysmal, what do people recommend as a cheap secondhand iphone tablet with a decent amount of screen real estate (9 or 10 inches) and brightness?

i am disappointed with DJI about this.....

 

[Bruce Lythe]

Help - I am now confused - what is best to do? I don't want to risk my drone and the work i am doing for the sake of using the "wrong" or "inadequate" tablet?

 

[sar104]

That's not at all true.
A good Android tablet runs the app at least as well as any good Apple device.
A substandard tablet runs poorly regardless of the operating system.

That's true, although it is also the case, based on incidents and flight logs posted on these forums, that Android devices account for a disproportionately large fraction of app issues.

 

[Meta4]

If it is the case Androids are abysmal, what do people recommend as a cheap secondhand iphone tablet with a decent amount of screen real estate (9 or 10 inches) and brightness?

i am disappointed with DJI about this.....

Don't believe everything you see here.
Quite a bit will be myth or misinformation.

 

[Meta4]

That's true, although it is also the case, based on incidents and flight logs posted on these forums, that Android devices account for a disproportionately large fraction of app issues.

Get a good Android tablet and it runs the app perfectly.
That's all there is to it.
Perfect performance is perfect performance.
Just because someone used an old, cheap, underperforming Android tablet and complained means nothing.
Anyone using an old, underpowered Apple device will also have problems.

 

[sar104]

Get a good Android tablet and it runs the app perfectly.
That's all there is to it.
Perfect performance is perfect performance.
Just because someone used an old, cheap, underperforming Android tablet and complained means nothing.
Anyone using an old, underpowered Apple device will also have problems.

I'm sure that's true - I'm just pointing what the statistics show. It may well be due to a greater range of available Android devices that are not up to the task but, whatever the cause, it leads to far more problems reported with Android than Apple devices.

 

[Joe027]

As you've heard a few times, the app/tablet is not necessary.
If you lose the app and still have signal, you have full control.
Test it yourself in a large open area by disconnecting the cable and see how you still have full control.

The app is fine and runs perfectly on a properly configured tablet if it is fast enough and has enough RAM.
Tablets without sufficient performance will give disappointing performance and glitches.

The day you need RTH is the worst day to start learning how it works.
Go to a large, open area, well away from trees and other obstacles, fly out 100 ft and start practising RTH.
Learn how to initiate RTH, how to cancel it and resume control.
Try shutting down the controller completely to find another way to initiate RTH.
ps. you press and hold (till it starts beeping), just as it says in the manual.

You have to hold it in a stable position for three seconds while holding the left stick down.


Go into your tablet settings and turn off Auto Updates.

Also, you can switch your device, phone/tablet into airplane mode, that will prevent it from looking for updates or from receiving any sort of messages/emails while flying. You don’t need connection on your device, it only works as a screen, the connection is in between the drone and the RC.
I check for firmware updates once a week indoor, while having my device connected to the internet, so everything is updated when I am ready to fly.

 

[Bruce Lythe]

So is my Tab S2 up to the task or not? In other words was this an probably an unfortunate one off because I had not restarted the tablet before use.

 

[Dronage]

Good luck Bruce..!
Btw...my small galaxy s8 phone has performed very well.!
Quick question tho..if u lose ur display and the drone is distant, how can u tell what direction u r flying it..?
I haven't flown mine further than half mile or so, because i get very nervous when i cant visually discern the crafts movement..old eyes I'm afraid...!
(Or maybe old balls....)

 

[Deleted member 94047]

Quick question tho..if u lose ur display and the drone is distant, how can u tell what direction u r flying it..?

With the Mavic Air, you can't. I have had cable disconnections a couple of times but luckily I still had the bird in sight. I dread to think of the day when this would happen and the bird is out of my sight. I guess best bet would bet to try to get the display back up again (either by reconnecting the cable, restarting the app, or both) and initiate a RTH as a last resort.

 

[sar104]

With the Mavic Air, you can't. I have had cable disconnections a couple of times but luckily I still had the bird in sight. I dread to think of the day when this would happen and the bird is out of my sight. I guess best bet would bet to try to get the display back up again (either by reconnecting the cable, restarting the app, or both) and initiate a RTH as a last resort.

Why would RTH be a last resort? This kind of situation is exactly what it was intended for, and it seems like it should be the first resort.

 

[Deleted member 94047]

Why would RTH be a last resort? This kind of situation is exactly what it was intended for, and it seems like it should be the first resort.

I would personally prefer to have the display back up again and restore flight telemetry if I can. With flight telemetry down and if you can't see the bird, you are still blind to what is happening. RTH may save the day by itself but RTH with flight telemetry would surely be better I think.

 

[Dronage]

All wise words folks....
This relative noob, however, still hasn't even risked a Waypoint flight lol...
Put my machine in the hands of a machine...?..Nooo..!!! My shaky hands and blurred, post-Night Shift eyes will do a much better job....

 

[Bigbird48]

That's not at all true.
A good Android tablet runs the app at least as well as any good Apple device.
A substandard tablet runs poorly regardless of the operating system.

I've run my MA off a cheap moto g6 and a Asus cheap tablet and had no problems other then a little video lag at times.

 

[Thomas B]

I would personally prefer to have the display back up again and restore flight telemetry if I can. With flight telemetry down and if you can't see the bird, you are still blind to what is happening. RTH may save the day by itself but RTH with flight telemetry would surely be better I think.

Maybe add strobes to increase VLOS distance?

 

[Deleted member 94047]

Maybe add strobes to increase VLOS distance?

Yeah, I have been seriously thinking about that. The MA is practically invisible at about 400 meters, and if i look down on the phone and look up again, it is impossible to find it.

 

[RWray]

Good video on hand catching M2P:

 

[Harro]

Agree with Meta4, the claim "that Androids are abysmal" is an absurd statement. I use an Android device and have never had a problem.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Why would RTH be a last resort? This kind of situation is exactly what it was intended for, and it seems like it should be the first resort.

You can press RTH, if you've used it a bit in practice you will see it works pretty well.
When it gets close, either let it do its thing and land, or take over and fly last bit in manually to land . . . that will have some relation to your home point selection, if it's suitable for landing automatically, if precision landing was active (go straight up slowly 10m until it says enabled), or if you hand launched, etc.

The other way is to stop by pausing.
Look at your controller distance, fly forward a little, see if the distance goes up or down or neutral, adjust direction by yaw if it's going away or neutral.
Fly a little more forward, do the yaw adjustment until you can see it dropping well in metres (or feet) when going forward, fly forward and it won't be long until you hear / see it.
You also control altitude in the same way, keep it at safe elevation on the controller readout, but drop it as you fly back to suit possible obstacles and distance out.

 

[sar104]

The other way is to stop by pausing.
Look at your controller distance, fly forward a little, see if the distance goes up or down or neutral, adjust direction by yaw if it's going away or neutral.
Fly a little more forward, do the yaw adjustment until you can see it dropping well in metres (or feet) when going forward, fly forward and it won't be long until you hear / see it.
You also control altitude in the same way, keep it at safe elevation on the controller readout, but drop it as you fly back to suit possible obstacles and distance out.

Of course - but why on earth would you use a trial and error system to try to bring it back when it has a perfectly robust automated method to return to the home point?