!WARNING! Remote Interference

Random155 · Nov 27, 2016

I can now confirm that wearing a smart watch creates interference with the mavic's remote. I just picked up my Samsung gear s3 and wore it while flying the mavic for the first time today. Since booting up the remote, I got a message saying strong remote interference. I have flown from my house about a dozen times without ever seeing this message. I took off anyway to test it out... I know... Im dumb. No toilet bowl, BUT, while pushing the stick full forward, it would go, but at a slight angle to the left. Before anything crazy happened, I hit the return to home. Mavic landed about 20 feet off from original take off spot. Booted everything down... took off the watch... booted all back up and the message was gone and the Mavic flew flawlessly. Hope this helps you!

thefrisbee995 · Nov 27, 2016

Random155 said:
I can now confirm that wearing a smart watch creates interference with the mavic's remote. I just picked up my Samsung gear s3 and wore it while flying the mavic for the first time today. Since booting up the remote, I got a message saying strong remote interference. I have flown from my house about a dozen times without ever seeing this message. I took off anyway to test it out... I know... Im dumb. No toilet bowl, BUT, while pushing the stick full forward, it would go, but at a slight angle to the left. Before anything crazy happened, I hit the return to home. Mavic landed about 20 feet off from original take off spot. Booted everything down... took off the watch... booted all back up and the message was gone and the Mavic flew flawlessly. Hope this helps you!

I don't see how it can... It is on a different frequency and even if you were using wifi, it automatically selects a channel, kind of like how your wifi wouldn't get interference from your neighbours...

Random155 · Nov 27, 2016

thefrisbee995 said:
I don't see how it can... It is on a different frequency and even if you were using wifi, it automatically selects a channel, kind of like how your wifi wouldn't get interference from your neighbours...

I'm thinking the magnets or internal gps. I'll try to get a video uploaded in the next couple of days.

thefrisbee995 · Nov 27, 2016

Random155 said:
I'm thinking the magnets or internal gps. I'll try to get a video uploaded in the next couple of days.

Don't think that any magnet in a watch would be strong enough to cause any sort of issue and using GPS wouldn't affect anything either.

Kilrah · Nov 27, 2016

thefrisbee995 said:
It is on a different frequency

Well it's in the same band, and for sure BT screws up with WiFi, so it likely also reduces performance with the Mavic's link. The key is proximity between the phone talking over BT and the remote, not so much the watch itself.
If I try to use my Osmo with my Gear S2 connected I won't get more than 2 seconds of usable video on the phone between the 10-second breakups, completely unusable. Turn BT off, magically works perfectly again. Took me a while to find out.

Random155 · Nov 27, 2016

thefrisbee995 said:
Don't think that any magnet in a watch would be strong enough to cause any sort of issue and using GPS wouldn't affect anything either.

Ok... not sure if you built the watch or the mavic but it's happening, so.... I don't know what to tell ya.

lifeismusic · Nov 27, 2016

Curious if this happens with both Android and Apple smartwatches

would like to hear more accounts of this from both kinds of users (especially as an Apple watch user myself)

TheLightSpeed! · Nov 27, 2016

I have an Apple Watch I wear religiously. Never had an issue.

Sent from my iPhone using MavicPilots

mcsenerd · Nov 27, 2016

I can sorta see this on a Samsung Gear with the cell radio in it. It's what separates the watch from the Apple Watch. The S2 and S3 both have the option to have a 4G radio inside the watch...the watch even has its own phone number! I use an S2 and my Mavic should be arriving this week, so I'll check it out and see if I note any interference from the watch when operating it.

msinger · Nov 27, 2016

I always fly my Mavic while wearing an Apple Watch 2. I've never had any trouble yet.

mcsenerd · Nov 28, 2016

Like I said, the OP said he's got a Samsung Gear S3...and unlike any of the Apple Watches, it's likely got an actual cellular radio in it. So it's basically like having another phone sitting right next to the one that's already in the controller.

Downunder · Nov 28, 2016

The controller will channel hop until it finds a suitable channel. Pretty sure the controller here is complaining about magnetic interference to the control stick sensors.

Random155 · Nov 28, 2016

Downunder said:
The controller will channel hop until it finds a suitable channel. Pretty sure the controller here is complaining about magnetic interference to the control stick sensors.

Yeah that's my thought also. I'll do more testing in the next few days and see if I can prove any consistency

Anthony · Nov 28, 2016

Random155 said:
I can now confirm that wearing a smart watch creates interference with the mavic's remote. I just picked up my Samsung gear s3 and wore it while flying the mavic for the first time today. Since booting up the remote, I got a message saying strong remote interference. I have flown from my house about a dozen times without ever seeing this message. I took off anyway to test it out... I know... Im dumb. No toilet bowl, BUT, while pushing the stick full forward, it would go, but at a slight angle to the left. Before anything crazy happened, I hit the return to home. Mavic landed about 20 feet off from original take off spot. Booted everything down... took off the watch... booted all back up and the message was gone and the Mavic flew flawlessly. Hope this helps you!

I have a Samsung gear S3 EU Version.... what version of the S3 do you have ?? I don't have my Mavic yet ( god dam it ... ) but ill test for this once I do have it.

rigor · Nov 28, 2016

I have a gear s but I always take it off just in case

Sent from my iPhone using MavicPilots

Dronebow · Nov 28, 2016

Mine was registering remote interference as well and I wear a Seiko Kinetic... ;-)
I wish I could figure out what causes the interference. I was thinking it was the high lines between me and the bird.

Telescott · Nov 29, 2016

I have no watch and wifi turned off and I get the Remote interference warning. I thought it was because I was standing next to my car, but I walked away and still had it.

Mike_in_Letcombe · Nov 29, 2016

I got the same warning today - and, yes, I have an Apple Watch. Never crossed my mind that this was the problem. I did, however, put my iPhone into 'Airplane' mode and this automatically does the same thing to the watch. The message disappeared and the flight was fine. First flight with it, in fact - took it about 650 metres across open countryside, got some nice pics of sheep then hit 'RTH' to see how it behaved. Landed about 2 feet away from my 'landing pad' (bought from Amazon), even though I have enabled 'precision landing'.