Just got my new CrystalSky, have plugged it into my Mavic Pro controller, successfully flew with it... except for one little thing:

No maps.

That is, there's a map display, but it doesn't show any roads or anything, it's just blank.  And there's a Chinese-character logo at bottom left.

I don't actually *know* what's going on, but I rather suspect that what it's doing is grabbing map data from a Chinese map provider, which happens not to have any data for where I am (US), and that's why it's blank.

When I ran DJI GO 4 on my Android phone, it had a map just fine, I assume from Google Maps.

I noticed when I got the CrystalSky, its default setup seemed to be set for China (e.g. its time zone was set to Hong Kong, various other things).  I've set it for my current location and everything, but I'm darned if I can find a setting anywhere for telling it "use map provider from <company>" or whatever.

Anyone have any advice?  The map is completely useless as it is.  Is anyone successfully seeing street maps on a CrystalSky in the USA?

Update:  Okay, now my CrystalSky's unusable.

...sorry, still getting used to this forum software.  Accidentally posted before I was ready, then was editing the response, then discovered that I can't edit if more than 2 minutes have passed.   Huh.  Anyway, here's what I meant to type:

Update:  Okay, now my CrystalSky's unusable.  I did some rummaging in the forum, and saw this advice here. which seemed relevant.  The advice boils down to:  Reset the device, choose time zone, then run DJI GO 4.

Well, I reset my device, I set the time zone (from Hong Kong to my US time zone), then I connect to my Wi-Fi network.  Everything running great.  Except that when I try to run DJI GO 4, it prompts me to sign on with my user name and password, and when I tap the "Sign in" button... it insists that there's no network connection and I can't run the app.

I know perfectly well that there is a network connection:  I just set it up, the settings screen shows that it's present and connected, and I can in fact start a web browser and go to a web page.  But the DJI GO 4 app keeps insisting that there isn't one.

If I can't start DJI GO 4, then my fancy new CrystalSky might as well be a doorstop.  Help!  What do I need to do?

Hi Mate,I responded to your other post.I have  the same problems as you.
No maps and then my backlight stopped working
Any help from anyone would be must appreciated
Cheers
Marty

Forestjim Posted at 2017-7-16 04:28
Hi Mate,I responded to your other post.I have  the same problems as you.
No maps and then my backlight stopped working
Any help from anyone would be must appreciated

I eventually got my CrystalSky working again.  No idea what did it, I basically went through random thrashing around of trying to run the DJI GO 4 app various times, killing the app, restarting, doing another reset of the device, connecting Wi-Fi, disconnecting, blah blah blah umpteen times in various orders, and eventually it seemed to tip over and work.

Sorry, I have no idea what precise steps got it to work, nor do I even know how reproducible this is or whether it might just be some random race condition that eventually the dice fell in a lucky way and I could get in.  The good news is that once I finally did get DJI GO 4 to connect, everything's been working perfectly after that.

So, basically, "bang on it until it works" is about all I can say at this point.

Twirlip Posted at 2017-7-16 07:49
I eventually got my CrystalSky working again.  No idea what did it, I basically went through random thrashing around of trying to run the DJI GO 4 app various times, killing the app, restarting, doing another reset of the device, connecting Wi-Fi, disconnecting, blah blah blah umpteen times in various orders, and eventually it seemed to tip over and work.

Sorry, I have no idea what precise steps got it to work, nor do I even know how reproducible this is or whether it might just be some random race condition that eventually the dice fell in a lucky way and I could get in.  The good news is that once I finally did get DJI GO 4 to connect, everything's been working perfectly after that.

Thanks.
I'll give it another today before I send it back
Did you end up getting the maps to load ??
Without  Chinese symbols etc. ?

Forestjim Posted at 2017-7-16 13:46
Thanks.
I'll give it another today before I send it back
Did you end up getting the maps to load ??

Yes.  After resetting the device, but before running DJI GO 4, I changed the time zone from the default (Hong Kong) to the US time zone where I live.  When I got the app running, it was showing street maps in the in-flight view, and when I went to download offline maps, it had the expected selection for North America, country-by-country, state-by-state, etc.  Worked exactly as I'd expect.

Twirlip Posted at 2017-7-16 17:48
Yes.  After resetting the device, but before running DJI GO 4, I changed the time zone from the default (Hong Kong) to the US time zone where I live.  When I got the app running, it was showing street maps in the in-flight view, and when I went to download offline maps, it had the expected selection for North America, country-by-country, state-by-state, etc.  Worked exactly as I'd expect.

how do you access the downloaded maps?  I downloaded Indiana and still haven't found where to view them.  

Visualkaos Posted at 2017-7-16 18:10
how do you access the downloaded maps?  I downloaded Indiana and still haven't found where to view them.

I don't actually *know* the answer, but I can guess.  I assume that you view them in the same place you view maps normally:  i.e. in the little "map view" when you're flying the drone, and also in the replay when you're reviewing your flight log.

Bear in mind that normally when you view maps on a device like, say, a phone, the maps aren't really stored permanently or reliably on the device itself.  Mostly they live in the cloud, and the device is continuously connected to the internet (either via Wi-Fi or, if it's a phone, via the cell network), and whenever you zoom or pan around, the device just goes to the network on the fly and pulls down whatever map grids it needs whenever it needs them.

That works great if you're actually network-connected... but what if there's no connection?  For example, I've got a CrystalSky, which is an Android device that's Wi-Fi capable but has no cell phone connection.  So the moment I leave the hotspot around my house, if I'm off hiking up the side of a mountain or something, I'm not going to be able to pull in maps.

So, what I *assume* the downloaded maps are for is, they give you the entire country (or state, or whatever), in full detail, saved to a place that they're guaranteed to stay until/unless you manually delete them (i.e. not in a volatile cache that could get dumped automatically), thus guaranteeing that you have at least street maps no matter where you are.

Like I said, that's just a guess.  I'm essentially reverse-engineering how *I* would have built it if I were designing the system myself.  :-)   (Not totally blue-skying, there, I'm a software engineer with a background in mapping software.)

No idea if that's actually what it's about or not, but it seems plausible to me.  I went flying today in a place that didn't have Wi-Fi coverage, and I can attest that it had street maps available, and I did in fact download the map for my state yesterday.

Perhaps someone who, unlike me, isn't a total DJI GO 4 noob could weigh in...

Twirlip Posted at 2017-7-16 19:50
I don't actually *know* the answer, but I can guess.  I assume that you view them in the same place you view maps normally:  i.e. in the little "map view" when you're flying the drone, and also in the replay when you're reviewing your flight log.

Bear in mind that normally when you view maps on a device like, say, a phone, the maps aren't really stored permanently or reliably on the device itself.  Mostly they live in the cloud, and the device is continuously connected to the internet (either via Wi-Fi or, if it's a phone, via the cell network), and whenever you zoom or pan around, the device just goes to the network on the fly and pulls down whatever map grids it needs whenever it needs them.

Thanks for sharing that.  My CS has  very low resolution faded maps that look like your looking through clouds on the satellite view but the street maps are fine and that is with the wifi on or off.   I guess I'm just  use to the google maps with the IOS.  

Visualkaos Posted at 2017-7-17 07:48
Thanks for sharing that.  My CS has  very low resolution faded maps that look like your looking through clouds on the satellite view but the street maps are fine and that is with the wifi on or off.   I guess I'm just  use to the google maps with the IOS.

Offline maps are "plain maps" only (i.e. just streets, with areas like parks and so forth color-coded)-- no satellite imagery.

Which stands to reason.  The data size for satellite photos is *HUGE*, relative to streets.  It's quite easy for a mobile device to store all streets for the entire US, but trying to do that with satellite photos would be many, many terabytes.

So basically what you're getting when you download the offline maps is a high-quality, detailed street map for the entire state or country you're downloading, but for satellite imagery you'll be dependent on Google Maps or whatever.

Again, I don't actually know how DJI GO 4 works this, but I can take an educated guess.  Try this:  When you're at home and your CrystalSky has good Internet access to your Wi-Fi, open up a map view and browse to the place where you're *going* to be flying your drone.  Zoom in so you get high-resolution satellite images.  Pan around a little, so you've covered the area.  It may be that doing this will store that local imagery of that limited area just around where you browsed, so perhaps it'll still be available from your local cache when you go out to fly.

But again, that's just a guess, no idea if it actually works that way in this app.  (I generally only use the street maps myself, so the issue doesn't come up.)

New guy here, just doing some homework. I've heard of people using the 5.5, anyone use the larger version with the mavic? Besides the mounting issue, that's not an issue anymore. So is anyone using the larger version?

Twirlip Posted at 2017-7-16 17:48
Yes.  After resetting the device, but before running DJI GO 4, I changed the time zone from the default (Hong Kong) to the US time zone where I live.  When I got the app running, it was showing street maps in the in-flight view, and when I went to download offline maps, it had the expected selection for North America, country-by-country, state-by-state, etc.  Worked exactly as I'd expect.

Thanks for confirming how those Chinese maps can be fixed! So early after release It's difficult to find information on that mater

Twirlip Posted at 2017-7-16 07:49
I eventually got my CrystalSky working again.  No idea what did it, I basically went through random thrashing around of trying to run the DJI GO 4 app various times, killing the app, restarting, doing another reset of the device, connecting Wi-Fi, disconnecting, blah blah blah umpteen times in various orders, and eventually it seemed to tip over and work.

Sorry, I have no idea what precise steps got it to work, nor do I even know how reproducible this is or whether it might just be some random race condition that eventually the dice fell in a lucky way and I could get in.  The good news is that once I finally did get DJI GO 4 to connect, everything's been working perfectly after that.

I sent my CS back to DJI in Australia regarding LCD going blank
They say it was a loose LCD cable
Hopefully I'll get it back soon.
Thanks for your help Mate

My CS wont connect to the mavic at all.  Super frustrated

Twirlip Posted at 2017-7-17 10:42
Offline maps are "plain maps" only (i.e. just streets, with areas like parks and so forth color-coded)-- no satellite imagery.

Which stands to reason.  The data size for satellite photos is *HUGE*, relative to streets.  It's quite easy for a mobile device to store all streets for the entire US, but trying to do that with satellite photos would be many, many terabytes.

It seems that satellite maps are not cached, or at least the cache is only short living. If I cache at home, shutdown CS and poweron again before flight, the cached maps have gone. As long as CS stays powered on, the maps remain cached.
Can someone confirm this?