Worrying RC disconnects

rabidhyena · Jun 8, 2018

As you may know from my other thread, I lost my Mavic after an odd disconnect problem, into a river.
This week there has been an excellent deal on amazon for £680. I have already had one from them that had to go back as it was behaving strangely during firmware upgrade and had an error message in one of the ESCs.
I asked for a replacement and flew it for the first time today. All was working well to about 1km and then I lost signal and return to home and initiated.
About 300m away it reconnected and I cancelled this and flew it for another 15 seconds or so. Then it disconnected completely and fortunately the return to home function brought it home and landed it correctly in front of me. All the way back, to landing, there was no reconnection to the remote control and no video feed. I find this quite worrying.
I wonder if there is any way to understand what is happening?
Is it a faulty unit that needs to go back (I worry Amazon will get tired of this)?
Is there something else going on?
Having lost my first drone in about 5 years of flying I am naturally a bit anxious about all of this.
Would be grateful for any pointers or advice.
Thanks

Flycaster · Jun 8, 2018

Well, seems all worked as designed (GPS/RTH), except for the disconnect.
Could be RF interference?, antenna orientation? Did you see the degredation of the Video signal transmission indicator dropping down to nothing? Or did just "go black?
Make sure all rf generating equipment around you is off. No wifi Hotspots, etc. Also, try a different location for the rf interverance. Verify the the rc antennas are facing the ac, as in the flat side toward the AC, and always pointing in that general direction.

rabidhyena · Jun 8, 2018

Thanks.
Completely black.
This is a place I flew my old one at least 30 times before without a problem.
The mavic was 10 feet in front of me as it landed and still didn't connect.

Flycaster · Jun 8, 2018

You by any chance, haven't done an "update" to anything lately? AC? RC? Go4App?

rabidhyena · Jun 8, 2018

This is a new mavic out of the box with the updates to firmware that occur when you first switch it on.

Flycaster · Jun 8, 2018

I would try to re-flash the update. Also, check to see if you still have the option to go back a revision, if possible. I believe you have have the option to do and update, or you could refuse it.
I have never updated anything, by bird is still flying what came in the fly more box over 16/17 months ago. I never have any internet running/ no hotspot, no cell signal either when I power up my Mavic. My tabby is set with "auto-sync" off, which kills the auto updates to the Go 4 app. I decide when Mavic "phones home". I just download the maps to offline when I go to my fly site.

Try to go back a rev if you can, or re-flash what is available and try again.

rabidhyena · Jun 8, 2018

ok,first thing ill do is try another flying session and see if it happens again
thanks v much

Flycaster · Jun 8, 2018

Also, check to make sure your bird is set to RC, not wifi!

jason38 · Jun 8, 2018

Android device?
I had lots of disconnection problems with my Android phone, which was completely dedicated to DJIGO4...
Phone freezes, black screens, image return lags, but hopefully never a RC disconnect...
Scaryed about that, I bought a IPad... No more disconnections since that day...
But yep, if your RC is disconnected from the drone, it seems to be another issue...

rabidhyena · Jun 11, 2018

hmmmm.
i tried again and again it lost connection. Right at the end of the flight as I was landing it. So about 10m above the ground just in front of me RTH kicks in and it goes back up and then comes down. Not feeling confident with this one.
I did notice that the controller antennae on this one feel a lot looser than the other 2 I have had. Wonder if that is something to do with it?
I don't know whether to do another amazon return but don't want to get blacklisted!