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Mobile device location cannot be determined
5201 18 2017-6-14
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f00f
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United States
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Greetings.  Clearly I'm a greenhorn here.  Enjoying the heck out of the MP despite some idiot moments (thinking I could hover indoors without finding the ceiling but finding the ceiling; having to make an emergency landing on the roof of my employers building, in beginner mode, long story...) but doing better since then :-)

Lately though this app has been unable to determine pilot location.  Claims device GPS signal weak.  I'm on an iPhone 7 using the stock clamp setup on the RC unit (have since ordered one of those mount riser do-dads from Amazon).  When the MP is in-flight I'll try to reset the homel ocation to pilot location but will get a popup saying the device location cannot be determined.  This has happened at a few locations now so I don't think it's environmental radio interference or anything like this.

To explain a little clearer:
  • Start with everyone off of course.  Mount iPhone 7 in RC unit.  Fire up DJI GO 4 app, turn on RC unit.
  • Turn on MP, let RC connect and "Enter Device" in the app.
  • At this point, the app has my pilot location (blue dot).  Once I fire up the props (CSC command) and take flight manually, new home point is established (drone's own start location) and the pilot location is no longer on the map.
  • I try to reset the home location to the pilot location but now get the popup that the device location cannot be determined, w/ a little yellow warning claiming weak device GPS. Sorry I don't have screenshots of the app as it's basically impossible to do with the phone mounted in the RC's clamps


I'm not sure what's going on here, if I'm missing a setting or what or if the GPS is really that weak on the device.  I don't have issues with other GPS apps (Waze, google maps, etc).

Thanks for any tips on subject!

Keith
LI, NY
2017-6-14
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f00f
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United States
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Quick update here that the motors don't need to be running, just need the RC and MP turned on and connected and have the MP update the home location to its own position.  At that point the pilot location disappears from the map and I cannot set it.  I managed to get a screenshot. IMG_0653.PNG


2017-6-14
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hungdang
Second Officer
Flight distance : 4931706 ft
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Australia
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f00f Posted at 2017-6-14 18:51
Quick update here that the motors don't need to be running, just need the RC and MP turned on and connected and have the MP update the home location to its own position.  At that point the pilot location disappears from the map and I cannot set it.  I managed to get a screenshot.[view_image]

I have the same problem with my iphone 7 plus.
my ipad air 2 is good and my friend iphone 6 plus is good too so I think the GPS chip in iphone 7 and 7 plus might not sensitive enough
2017-6-14
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f00f
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hungdang Posted at 2017-6-14 19:04
I have the same problem with my iphone 7 plus.
my ipad air 2 is good and my friend iphone 6 plus is good too so I think the GPS chip in iphone 7 and 7 plus might not sensitive enough

Thanks for the reply.  This one is definitely weird.  I have to assume the DJI GO app uses GPS data only without any assisted GPS data (wifi, cell towers, etc) whatsoever, and it's logical to assume it wants pin-point accuracy.  It's weird because as I say the pilot location is there when the controller is on but not connected to drone, and disappears once the drone is on/initialized and has set the home spot.  I have a couple of other devices I can try (Air 2, 6Plus and new iPad Pro 10.5") and see if we get the same behavior.  I also download some GPS status app and according to it I get good signal from the satellites.
¯\(ツ)/¯
2017-6-15
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Ex Machina
Captain
Flight distance : 1806362 ft
United States
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f00f Posted at 2017-6-15 13:27
Thanks for the reply.  This one is definitely weird.  I have to assume the DJI GO app uses GPS data only without any assisted GPS data (wifi, cell towers, etc) whatsoever, and it's logical to assume it wants pin-point accuracy.  It's weird because as I say the pilot location is there when the controller is on but not connected to drone, and disappears once the drone is on/initialized and has set the home spot.  I have a couple of other devices I can try (Air 2, 6Plus and new iPad Pro 10.5") and see if we get the same behavior.  I also download some GPS status app and according to it I get good signal from the satellites.
¯\(ツ)/¯

There are a couple threads where people are complaining about this kind of thing, mostly with the Follow Me feature. There have been claims that iPhone 7-type devices on the AT&T network are problematic, and even that DJI will publicly announce a compatibility problem with those devices and Mavic features that rely on device GPS, but I've yet to see such.
2017-6-15
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fans0bae1803
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United States
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Ex Machina Posted at 2017-6-15 16:02
There are a couple threads where people are complaining about this kind of thing, mostly with the Follow Me feature. There have been claims that iPhone 7-type devices on the AT&T network are problematic, and even that DJI will publicly announce a compatibility problem with those devices and Mavic features that rely on device GPS, but I've yet to see such.

I have the exact same problem you have outlined with my iPhone 6 Plus. It seems to work sometimes when I am a more open area but less reliable and not predictable.  I get the same error message when I try to reset my home point .   I am a little worried because I'm going to be using it to fly from my boat and I want to be able to reliably reset my home point. So that I can come back close to where I am and then I can manually catch the drone.  Any more ideas?
2017-6-17
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f00f
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Ex Machina Posted at 2017-6-15 16:02
There are a couple threads where people are complaining about this kind of thing, mostly with the Follow Me feature. There have been claims that iPhone 7-type devices on the AT&T network are problematic, and even that DJI will publicly announce a compatibility problem with those devices and Mavic features that rely on device GPS, but I've yet to see such.

Thanks. I'll search out those threads and see what it's about.  While I do have an AT&T iPhone, I switched to another GSM carrier (T-Mobile) and device GPS has been fine otherwise.  Just with this DJI app it's clearly quite flaky.  This is not a huge deal, I don't tend to roam around while piloting -- at least not yet ;-)
2017-6-19
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Ex Machina
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f00f Posted at 2017-6-19 11:50
Thanks. I'll search out those threads and see what it's about.  While I do have an AT&T iPhone, I switched to another GSM carrier (T-Mobile) and device GPS has been fine otherwise.  Just with this DJI app it's clearly quite flaky.  This is not a huge deal, I don't tend to roam around while piloting -- at least not yet ;-)

The component that is supposedly causing problems is the AT&T modem in the iPhone 7 series, not the 6 series. But until DJI weighs-in this should be viewed with some skepticism. I will say that I was able to get the Follow Me feature to work once on my iPhone 7/AT&T, but not in a way that gave me much confidence; I've since been unable to get it to work at all.
2017-6-19
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JohnMcL7
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Flight distance : 15295 ft
Belgium
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Ex Machina Posted at 2017-6-19 15:31
The component that is supposedly causing problems is the AT&T modem in the iPhone 7 series, not the 6 series. But until DJI weighs-in this should be viewed with some skepticism. I will say that I was able to get the Follow Me feature to work once on my iPhone 7/AT&T, but not in a way that gave me much confidence; I've since been unable to get it to work at all.

Specifically it's the Intel modem that people are blaming rather than the Qualcomm modem used in other iPhone 7 variants but I don't think the Intel versions (which do genuinely seem to have worse data connections) are worse for GPS.  People have reported the same GPS issue with iPhone 6's and cellular iPads none of which have an Intel variant as well as on the Qualcomm variant plus looking at teardowns, both iPhone 7 variants use a separate Broadcom GPS chip rather than an integrated Qualcomm or Intel GPS solution.
2017-6-21
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Eagle_Eye
First Officer
Flight distance : 4137720 ft
United States
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I'm on android and if I don't hear that HP is recorded, I usually go to setup and set it manually.
And sometimes it took 3 attempts to get is recorded.....@ 3 try that's when I always hear that the HP has been recorded.
Or maybe I needed to wait a few secs b4 trying 2nd, 3rd.
Worth a try on your device.
2017-6-21
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Wowotoe
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I have the same issue too. I'm using Tmobile version of iPhone 7 plus. I just got the Mavic 2 weeks ago and flew over 10 times. Every time I fly I try to set homepoint to controller, but it just keeps on telling me cannot get the location for current mobile device. My cellphone signal is strong (4 bars). Apple & Google Maps pinpointed my location correctly. Wifi is not connected. Controller shows Mavic is connected to 19 satellites.
2017-6-21
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anthonyb
First Officer
Flight distance : 486381 ft
New Zealand
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Have you all tried doing this with Airplane mode enabled?  I use airplane mode all the time now when flying and never have this problem.
2017-6-21
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Ex Machina
Captain
Flight distance : 1806362 ft
United States
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anthonyb Posted at 2017-6-21 16:31
Have you all tried doing this with Airplane mode enabled?  I use airplane mode all the time now when flying and never have this problem.

I have not tried Airplane mode when testing Follow Me. I'll give that a shot, though I don't have a lot of confidence in it helping much. My last test was with a supposedly strong reported GPS signal and it didn't work at all.
2017-6-21
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TomOwen
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United States
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anthonyb Posted at 2017-6-21 16:31
Have you all tried doing this with Airplane mode enabled?  I use airplane mode all the time now when flying and never have this problem.

Hi, FWIW, "Airplane Mode" turns off *all* radios including GPS radio. Seems odd that fixes the problem but who knows... Frustrating   Thanks
2017-6-29
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anthonyb
First Officer
Flight distance : 486381 ft
New Zealand
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TomOwen Posted at 2017-6-29 14:38
Hi, FWIW, "Airplane Mode" turns off *all* radios including GPS radio. Seems odd that fixes the problem but who knows... Frustrating   Thanks

On the iPhone GPS still works with Airplane mode because GPS is a receiver, not a transmitter.  I can't vouch for Android devices though.
2017-6-29
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RCNJ
Second Officer
Flight distance : 114665 ft
France
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I have iPhone 6plus, iPad Air 2, iPhone 7 and all work fine, make sure you have location service switched on on the mobiles and put them into airplane mode, I remember getting notifications that the RC needed access to certain features of the phone I clicked allow on all, I'm not sure how you can check this, maybe go to app in settings and make sure it's allowed for anything it needs to get to ? Some may have clicked disallow by accident and thus stopping the craft from fully communicating with the mobile etc ?

Airplane mode - Also instead of the side cable connection try your iPhone cable to the USB slot under the RC screen going to your device instead and leave the small default cable on the side unplugged/detached.

See if that improves as I use mine like that and have no probs with the mobile and controller...hope it helps.
2017-6-29
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Roaldo
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Norway
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I tried all the above here, but nothing worked for me. Have had it like this for month now. Ended up in reinstalling the DJI GO  app.
After reinstallation, it didn´t work at the first, but after I clicked in to the map and toggled between "home point" and "drone position" on center map symbol it suddenly start to work.
So happy now :-)

2017-7-30
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Ex Machina
Captain
Flight distance : 1806362 ft
United States
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Was just perusing Litchi specs and noticed that they offer a similar feature, but only support it on Android devices, with "iOS support coming soon" -- kind of makes you go hmmm...
2017-7-30
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famorim
lvl.1
Flight distance : 1595574 ft
Brazil
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I have the same issue, so my mobile operation is Claro down here in Brazil and my iphone is the same model as you folks have for T-mobile there. I had tried with DJI Go to launch my P3adv and also DJI Go 4 for the Mavic.
2017-9-19
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