I took my I2 out on a mission today. It was far away from the city so no local WiFi or other interference (so I thought)

  

  

I took the I2 about 5m away from the Mercedes put down my landing pad and then did a quick compass calibration and proceeded with the start of the mission. Had “Ready to fly GPS” and 12 SAT’s shown.

  

  

Did take-off to about 2m and flicked the landing gear switch and up they came. Then I got a "disconnected " message, and no GPS signals on the GO 4 but the I2 was still responding to stick controls so I switched to ATTI mode. A flew the I2 about 10m away then the "connected ready to fly GPS" returned. Being very unsure but need to complete the task I turned on video recording and completed everything 100%

  

  

BUT when I brought the I2 back to landing pad as soon as it got about 10m away I had same “disconnected” message I still landed successfully on my landing pad and looked at the image transmission channel there was only basic static but for one major source which for some reason the R/C had chosen to use this same channel 13. I found out that the source was coming from the Mercedes, as the interference got worst the nearer to car that I got.

  

  

My only conclusion is that the Mercedes which is fitted with “Mercedes Me” has a 4G link to Mercedes servers and provides “services” to the navigation etc.

  

  

Whilst I now know I need to keep a long way away in future I could not make the R/C use another channel than that used by the Mercedes the “custom” button in DJI GO 4 was greyed out and therefore it was in “Auto” channel selection. (I don’t know why this should be so)

  

  

In fact this answered my concerns on a few previous occasions when I got the “disconnected” messages.

  

  

I know that Mercedes are not the only manufacturer that offers these functions and maybe those who have had similar symptoms should could consider this for your take off point.

  

Have you tried to shut down the 4G of your car and see if it still interferes?   It would be helpful if we can know which 4G band it is working on (though it's hard to do since it's location and carrier specific )

DJI-Thor Posted at 2017-2-20 03:23
Have you tried to shut down the 4G of your car and see if it still interferes?   It would be helpful if we can know which 4G band it is working on (though it's hard to do since it's location and carrier specific )

Thanks for the contact but I can't shut it down its built in to the Mercedes there is no on/off switch and its used for emergency contact and location monitoring of the Mercedes and many other things when things go wrong. There are buttons in the Mercedes that can be pressed when things go really wrong, some are automated (impact sensors) and give you direct access to support where ever you are. I assume the SIM is able to roam and exploit what ever the country your in and operator it has agreement with.

To be honest i can cope now i know it does it does this... I simply need to be 100m away and things are okay. But what bugs me the most is the fact it only allows "auto" channel selection and the "custom" is not available. Also why does it choose the same and only frequency that is active in that area. There was nothing else around so there was many others it could have chosen. I followed the rules and turned on the R/C first whilst i did my checks on the I2.

Happy to try again if it provides any help to fix this situation. I know there are many cars with similar services and owners of I2 may not know where the source of the problems are.

Regards

  Jon

Dr Jon Posted at 2017-2-20 05:21
Thanks for the contact but I can't shut it down its built in to the Mercedes there is no on/off switch and its used for emergency contact and location monitoring of the Mercedes and many other things when things go wrong. There are buttons in the Mercedes that can be pressed when things go really wrong, some are automated (impact sensors) and give you direct access to support where ever you are. I assume the SIM is able to roam and exploit what ever the country your in and operator it has agreement with.

To be honest i can cope now i know it does it does this... I simply need to be 100m away and things are okay. But what bugs me the most is the fact it only allows "auto" channel selection and the "custom" is not available. Also why does it choose the same and only frequency that is active in that area. There was nothing else around so there was many others it could have chosen. I followed the rules and turned on the R/C first whilst i did my checks on the I2.

DJ, just wondering , did it say "Aircraft Disconnected " or just "Disconnected " . The only reason I ask Is I saw this one time before on a Inspire 1, but it was just  the  " disconnected" warning and this was from a bad USB port  on the RC transmitter.

Just for clarity , You meant "Aircraft Disconnected " with the red background and white lettering correct ?
It  must have been momentary , you would think the RTH would have engaged.




Interesting challenge .



donnie

Not to be negative,  but doing a compass calibration just meters away from your car is not a good idea. Be better if you do it farther away.

I wouldn't be without this:- https://www.oscium.com/spectrum-analyzers/wipry-pro
you can see excatly what's going on in the 2.4Ghz band and if it's safe to fly or not. You're just guessing without it.
Nick

I would make absolutely certain this can be repeated and replicated every time. Otherwise it's just conjecture and you're keeping serious distance from your car for no reason.

Donnie Stugots Posted at 2017-2-20 05:53
DJ, just wondering , did it say "Aircraft Disconnected " or just "Disconnected " . The only reason I ask Is I saw this one time before on a Inspire 1, but it was just  the  " disconnected" warning and this was from a bad USB port  on the RC transmitter.

Just for clarity , You meant "Aircraft Disconnected " with the red background and white lettering correct ?

It was Aircraft Disconnected on red background. But the 'sticks' where still working when in ATTI mode because i could fly further away then its reverted to fly in GPS mode.

I have since then been trying to get the AUTO to change to CUSTOM but with no success.  

nickedw Posted at 2017-2-20 09:41
I wouldn't be without this:- https://www.oscium.com/spectrum-analyzers/wipry-pro
you can see excatly what's going on in the 2.4Ghz band and if it's safe to fly or not. You're just guessing without it.
Nick

Thanks for your advice i liked the idea but the WiPry 5x looks better as its covers the 5 spectrum as well I think its a great investment as you mentioned a little expensive but if it saves me loosing my I2 it will be worth every penny. Also be able to debug the Mercedes Me issue as i cant understand the reason the R/C was always selecting the same channel.

Cougar1 Posted at 2017-2-20 09:23
Not to be negative,  but doing a compass calibration just meters away from your car is not a good idea. Be better if you do it farther away.

Cougar
Can you check on your Inspire 2 and see if manual HD video is available. I think that Jon was on the right track by adjusting it to a better channel. This is what we were doing with the Inspire 1 when it was choosing a weak channel.

Thanks
Rich

Jon
I don't know why the HD video would not let you go into manual mode. I have found with my Inspire 1, when something weird pops up, I shut it down and restart the Go App and reconnect the Inspire to the remote. Its possible this was a glitch in the Go App??  

Rich

Today i'm sitting at home. have my I2 and R/C connected but I cant change channel its in AUTO and CUSTOM is still grey. I know it wont like my home one bit at all as there are lots of WiFi sources around me here, but all i can do is switch from 2.8 to 5 and still no "CUSTOM" .  I also noticed how frantic the R/C is, its jumping from channel to channel much faster than I would have expected.   

Dr Jon Posted at 2017-2-20 18:14
It was Aircraft Disconnected on red background. But the 'sticks' where still working when in ATTI mode because i could fly further away then its reverted to fly in GPS mode.

I have since then been trying to get the AUTO to change to CUSTOM but with no success.

DJ, not 100% sure on the I2 but the custom mode for images transmission is ONLY available in the USA or areas with FCC regulation  (* with I1)  , the CE from what I understand does not allow this .  I don't think  this setting would have changed on the I2.
Did it work in the past for you  ?


donnie

nickedw Posted at 2017-2-20 09:41
I wouldn't be without this:- https://www.oscium.com/spectrum-analyzers/wipry-pro
you can see excatly what's going on in the 2.4Ghz band and if it's safe to fly or not. You're just guessing without it.
Nick

That is very cool , have to add it to my never ending List !

thanks for sharing

donnie

Donnie Stugots Posted at 2017-2-21 05:12
That is very cool , have to add it to my never ending List !

thanks for sharing

No problem.

I use it as part of my pre-flight check/site assesment. As it's running on my iPad, I just routinely take a screen capture , it's time-stamped, so I can at least demonstrate the landing/take-off site had enough space on the band to operate before flight.

Nick

RichJ53 Posted at 2017-2-20 20:56
Cougar
Can you check on your Inspire 2 and see if manual HD video is available. I think that Jon was on the right track by adjusting it to a better channel. This is what we were doing with the Inspire 1 when it was choosing a weak channel.

Rich, Yes I can select manual channels as well as between 2.4 & 5.8. No issues there.

As a reference I also normally carry my spare MacBook in the field where I have an app "WIFI Explorer" that gives me information of interference and how congested (if any) the spectrum is.
Best,
Cougar

Cougar1 Posted at 2017-2-21 06:31
Rich, Yes I can select manual channels as well as between 2.4 & 5.8. No issues there.

As a reference I also normally carry my spare MacBook in the field where I have an app "WIFI Explorer" that gives me information of interference and how congested (if any) the spectrum is.

Hi Cougar

Thanks for checking, this must be unavailable for Jon in China ?   I actually never thought about his location that could be the reason he cant use the custom (manual mode).  

Anyway, that's a great suggestion using the  WIFI App!  it is only $20 and will show you both 2.4 - 5.8 bands   
Here's the link for others reading this    WIFI Link

Rich

Donnie Stugots Posted at 2017-2-21 05:12
That is very cool , have to add it to my never ending List !

thanks for sharing

Donnie
Add this to your list, suggestion from Cougar .....  This is only $20 on the Apple store

Link  WIFI Link

Rich

sounds strange. the inspires uses ISM frequency band, which is not going to be used by 4G in any area, so i don't think the interference come from your Mercedes is 4G signal, maybe something else.  and the interference is supposed to be get worse when your aircraft fly away, cause the signal from aircraft will get weak as the aircraft get further.when you got the aircraft disconnection message, did you still have other information such as telemetry of aircraft, video? do you have the snapshot of app when you got the aircraft disconnetion message?

Dr Jon Posted at 2017-2-21 02:05
Today i'm sitting at home. have my I2 and R/C connected but I cant change channel its in AUTO and CUSTOM is still grey. I know it wont like my home one bit at all as there are lots of WiFi sources around me here, but all i can do is switch from 2.8 to 5 and still no "CUSTOM" .  I also noticed how frantic the R/C is, its jumping from channel to channel much faster than I would have expected.

Could you happen to remind me what mobile device you're using?

DJI-Jamie Posted at 2017-2-21 21:59
Could you happen to remind me what mobile device you're using?

Im using an Ipad PRO 9.7" its the same on the Samsung S6 edge. Must be as suggested the "CUSTOM" is not available here in China.

what's the language and region setting in your device. I am sure 'custom' is available in China. From your description the message is 'disconnect' , it meas R/C is not connected, this doesn't relevant to RF interference. I thinks screenshots will help a lot to identify what happens.

what's the language and region setting in your device. I am sure 'custom' is available in China. From your description the message is 'disconnect' , it meas R/C is not connected, this doesn't relevant to RF interference. I thinks screenshots will help a lot to identify what happens.

language is english and region is UK.

suggest you to set region to US or HK, that may help you solve the problem of 'custom'  button grayed out

Thank You that fixed the problem by using US as country. Will see if it helps when i retry with my car at the weekend.

DJI-Jamie Posted at 2017-2-21 21:59
Could you happen to remind me what mobile device you're using?

I resolved the AUTO / CUSTOM issue by changing my iPad setting from UK to USA.  

Dr Jon Posted at 2017-2-22 17:36
I resolved the AUTO / CUSTOM issue by changing my iPad setting from UK to USA.

The only problem I have heard regarding that is that once the GPS figures out you are not in the USA it wont work .   Let me know if it keeps working for  you.  That is the only reason I did not mention it to you is I thought it would auto revert but I may have gotten wrong Information .

Let me know

donnie

RichJ53 Posted at 2017-2-21 10:38
Donnie
Add this to your list, suggestion from Cougar .....  This is only $20 on the Apple store

Thanks for the tip !!

donnie

You may wish to change the region to HK instead, so it doesn't switch back on you Jon.....   Rich

RichJ53 Posted at 2017-2-23 20:32
You may wish to change the region to HK instead, so it doesn't switch back on you Jon.....   Rich

That is what I thought ...... it would switch back to China once the GPS figured out it was not in the USA.  Where are you suggesting he change it to ?  HK ? Is that Hong Kong ?  Wont that give hime the same issue ?

donnie

Donnie Stugots Posted at 2017-2-24 06:00
That is what I thought ...... it would switch back to China once the GPS figured out it was not in the USA.  Where are you suggesting he change it to ?  HK ? Is that Hong Kong ?  Wont that give hime the same issue ?

donnie

Hi Donnie

Opps, I should have said CN for China (not HK) you are right.    I was thinking the same thing, once it determines the drone is not in the USA on the map, it will disable the feature. I am pretty sure that China can use all of the frequencies and this feature would be active again.

Rich

Not able to fly today as lots of thunderstorms around but was able to run the WiFi scanner when far away from the city.

The scanner found 3 SSID being broadcast from the Mercedes.

One was associated with "park assist" so i can get the car to self park in the garage. (was able to turn this off after probing around and switching it over to bluetooth),

one was creating a "hot Spot" for access to the internet,

third was associated with the Mercedes me so it could tell me when the Hybrid battery was fully charged, turn on the A/C and open windows etc.

The 4G was the bandwidth for these services upstream and also for emergency services.

Now i know i will ensure i'm far away when i next power on the I2, and now i can change channels feel so much happier.

Thanks for all your help..

Just yank the battery on the car... it'd be easier and quieter

RichJ53 Posted at 2017-2-21 10:34
Hi Cougar

Thanks for checking, this must be unavailable for Jon in China ?   I actually never thought about his location that could be the reason he cant use the custom (manual mode).  

I downloaded the APP was very useful but is only as good as the WiFi channels the Mac Pro can receive. But it did help finding the problem and now know i need to take a serious walk away from the MB before i fly. I know some readers think this is stupid to mention here (YES YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE) but we are told to keep away from strong WiFi interference and didn't realize the car could be the biggest source.

Dr Jon Posted at 2017-3-1 06:30
I downloaded the APP was very useful but is only as good as the WiFi channels the Mac Pro can receive. But it did help finding the problem and now know i need to take a serious walk away from the MB before i fly. I know some readers think this is stupid to mention here (YES YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE) but we are told to keep away from strong WiFi interference and didn't realize the car could be the biggest source.

I found it very interesting and beneficial to find out the car can give off wi fi interference .  I just add it to my knowledge base and throw it out there when a member has problems .   I don't think It is stupid at all, maybe it was just a mis- communication , lord Knows I have had members mad at me and I meant no Ill will In what I was saying .  For the most part I think we have a pretty respectful bunch here  compared to other sites, so just roll with it , nothing else you can do .

cheers DJ

donnie