Please help: Video feed loss during flight

[Yannie]

Hi guys, please help me troubleshoot this, it's been a persistent problem for 6 months.

Every flight of my MP1 I lose the video feed after about 3-5 minutes. I maintain control of the drone. No controlled error messages. Everything else about the smart phone display is ok, eg: Compass, distance, altitude, map, everything is normal and as you would expect mid flight. No error messages. The video feed just pauses out and doesn't return at all. The screen doesn't turn greyscale or anything...I just see the last frame from of video feed displayed constantly, without updating. Just to reiterate, all the other parts of the "instrument panel" update correctly on the smart phone screen, it is just the video feed which is a problem.

Mid flight I have tried: unplugging / replugging my smart phone cable, turning my controller on and off, stopping/starting recording video, taking a picture...nothing works. The only thing that seems to help is turning the drone itself on and off...but the problem occurs after 3 minutes on the very next flight.

I can reproduce this problem using the following smart devices: Galaxy S7, Galaxy S9+, Galaxy J2 pro, Pixel 3 XL and iPad Air 2. They all experience the same problem.

I can reproduce this despite changing SD cards and formatting the SD card within the drone.

Note: Even though I lose the video feed mid-flight, the drone continues to record good video. There are no problems with the video it records on the SD card in the drone.

However, the copy of the video feed which is stored on my smart phone is interrupted, just like the feed I was noticing mid flight.

I have done all the latest firmware updates and have the latest version of the DJI app.

I have not done any custom mods to the drone.
It is out of warranty.

The problem didn't start immediately after a crash etc. It was spontaneous and not provoked by injury, etc

This is a major problem which has effectively grounded the drone for the past 6 months.

Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas?

Thanks very much,

Yannie

 

[Former Member]

So, the video feed freezes after 3-5 minutes. You have tried different devices, but it does the same thing. That localizes it to a drone problem.

Anything that happens consistently after 3-5 minutes means that something is getting warm, and then failing. The Mavic takes 3-5 minutes to get to its operating temperature. Its good that you still get telemetry and the drone still records to the SD card, which means that the problem might be in your core board or gimbal PCB. If the problem were in your camera barrel PCB or any other component in between the core board and camera barrel, you would completely lose video feed, and nothing would record to the SD card.

What I do in cases like this is swap out the gimbal PCB for a different one and see if it still happens.If that doesnt fix it, then I put the gimbal PCB back in and swap out the core board and see if that works.

 

[Yannie]

Thanks very much for your detailed reply. Very helpful.

I gather you run a drone repair business.

How much would you usually charge for this service?

 

[bentbrent]

I am not an electronic tech, but I was thinking the same thing as Thunderdrones. Another possible option, if you have DJI Refresh Care would be to return it under that. I know that you said that your drone is out of warranty, but I was just given the chance to renew my Refresh Care. However, be warned, that you only get one return under the renewal.

 

[thetford569]

Are you using the side port of the Mavic Controller? Have you tried using the bottom port instead? I had problems with video cutting out on my Mavic Pro until I started using the bottom USB port and plugging my phone in that way. After that fix it hasn't happened since. There is a known issue with the side port on the Mavic controllers and now I only use it for charging.

Brandon

 

[Former Member]

Are you using the side port of the Mavic Controller? Have you tried using the bottom port instead? I had problems with video cutting out on my Mavic Pro until I started using the bottom USB port and plugging my phone in that way. After that fix it hasn't happened since. There is a known issue with the side port on the Mavic controllers and now I only use it for charging.

Brandon

The problem with your solution is that he is still getting telemetry readings, so that might preclude it from being a cable problem, but who knows.

 

[Jwatts2344]

Hi guys, please help me troubleshoot this, it's been a persistent problem for 6 months.

Every flight of my MP1 I lose the video feed after about 3-5 minutes. I maintain control of the drone. No controlled error messages. Everything else about the smart phone display is ok, eg: Compass, distance, altitude, map, everything is normal and as you would expect mid flight. No error messages. The video feed just pauses out and doesn't return at all. The screen doesn't turn greyscale or anything...I just see the last frame from of video feed displayed constantly, without updating. Just to reiterate, all the other parts of the "instrument panel" update correctly on the smart phone screen, it is just the video feed which is a problem.

Mid flight I have tried: unplugging / replugging my smart phone cable, turning my controller on and off, stopping/starting recording video, taking a picture...nothing works. The only thing that seems to help is turning the drone itself on and off...but the problem occurs after 3 minutes on the very next flight.

I can reproduce this problem using the following smart devices: Galaxy S7, Galaxy S9+, Galaxy J2 pro, Pixel 3 XL and iPad Air 2. They all experience the same problem.

I can reproduce this despite changing SD cards and formatting the SD card within the drone.

Note: Even though I lose the video feed mid-flight, the drone continues to record good video. There are no problems with the video it records on the SD card in the drone.

However, the copy of the video feed which is stored on my smart phone is interrupted, just like the feed I was noticing mid flight.

I have done all the latest firmware updates and have the latest version of the DJI app.

I have not done any custom mods to the drone.
It is out of warranty.

The problem didn't start immediately after a crash etc. It was spontaneous and not provoked by injury, etc

This is a major problem which has effectively grounded the drone for the past 6 months.

Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas?

Thanks very much,

Yannie

Hello.

I'm new here and I want to thank any responses in advance.

I have the EXACT same symptoms as @Yannie.

It seems to happen when my signal gets out of range for more than a couple seconds.

So, because I can't see the drone, I hit the RTH and wait until I hear and see it, then I cancel RTH and manually land.

If I turn radio off, then back on, I can take off again as if nothing ever happened.

I just bought it yesterday and only have a few flights under my belt.

I have a P3P that I've had and loved for many years.

I'm wondering if Yannie or anyone figured out a solution for this problem.

Thanks.

 

[Yannie]

Try clearing the video cache in the app, reducing the video quality sent to your device, and increasing the cache limit to 7GB. Can't guarantee it will work, but this has (mostly) resolved the problem for me.

Cheers

Yannie

Hello.

I'm new here and I want to thank any responses in advance.

I have the EXACT same symptoms as @Yannie.

It seems to happen when my signal gets out of range for more than a couple seconds.

So, because I can't see the drone, I hit the RTH and wait until I hear and see it, then I cancel RTH and manually land.

If I turn radio off, then back on, I can take off again as if nothing ever happened.

I just bought it yesterday and only have a few flights under my belt.

I have a P3P that I've had and loved for many years.

I'm wondering if Yannie or anyone figured out a solution for this problem.

Thanks.

Sent from my SM-G965F using MavicPilots mobile app

 

[Jwatts2344]

Try clearing the video cache in the app, reducing the video quality sent to your device, and increasing the cache limit to 7GB. Can't guarantee it will work, but this has (mostly) resolved the problem for me.

Cheers

Yannie

Sent from my SM-G965F using MavicPilots mobile app

I'm going to try that tomorrow and I will let you guys know the results.

Thanks!