Hey all, I apologize if this has already been discussed. . . But I have a quick question/concern for you all, and I'm hoping someone can shed some light for me.

I recently got my Mavic Pro that I have been working towards for quiet a while. . . I'm finally getting more and more comfortable flying it. Then yesterday happens. I went to fly my drone, which turns out I couldn't until I did a firmware update. (No biggie) So I did the update, recharged the batteries, and set out to fly!

I did what I have been usually doing, taking off from my driveway, going straight up to about 375ft, and then flying around the neighborhood, just trying to get a feel for controls, and how to make smooth videos.. ect. So expecting a normal flight, I set off. Straight up I went. I got to about 375ft, and I get a "disconnected" notification, and lost complete control of my drone.  



That being said after a few minutes the drone did come straight back down and land where it took off from. But the entire time I was having a miniature panic attack staring up at my drone that I now had no control over. It wasn't till the drone completed it's landing that it actually reconnected with the controller. . . So with all that being said, my question is: If I hadn't been straight above where I took off, what would have happened to the drone? Would it have found it's way back home, or would it have just landed straight down from where it was?? Sadly now I'm a bit nervous to send it back up. I don't want to get it out somewhere, and suddenly get disconnected out of no where, and then lose my drone!

Any advice you all can provide me with would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.

If connection is lost, the RTH should kick it and return back.

Make sure that you have set RTH for all sorts of obnoxious eventualities. Keep a watchful eye on the signal strength of your RC.

Only if connection is lost between the drone and the controller? I think more commonly the connection is lost between the phone and the controller, no transmission signal... pilot thinks the drone is disconnect but it's actually not? I have had the phone ask me if I wanted to do an RTH when the phone loses connection a few times, but other times not and despite the blank screen I can still see all the flight data on the controller!

TroutboyNZ Posted at 2017-9-4 13:22
Only if connection is lost between the drone and the controller? I think more commonly the connection is lost between the phone and the controller, no transmission signal... pilot thinks the drone is disconnect but it's actually not? I have had the phone ask me if I wanted to do an RTH when the phone loses connection a few times, but other times not and despite the blank screen I can still see all the flight data on the controller!

This instance both the controller, and the phone said "disconnected" and I could see the light on the back of the drone flashing white (or yellow) it was kind of hard to make out the color from that distance. . . And any type of controlling I attempted did no good!

But it was enough to stress me out!

Yeah, I had a similar thing happen to me on day 2 of me owning my first drone which is this Mavic.  That was back in June.  I still don't have a lot of confidence flying but it's slowly coming back.  I was so scared to fly for a few weeks.  The controller said "connecting" and the RTH button didn't work.  My friend ended up going down the road and running into a corn field to retrieve it.  It was still hovering above the corn because it didn't detect it was safe to land.  It had about 5% battery life left.

First of all, the drone will initiate Failsafe RTH if GPS signal is available and the Remote Controller Signal Lost is Return to Home. You can refer to the manual. For your case, firstly, please kindly note that if the antennas are positioning correctly, adjust them when the aircraft is disconnected, make sure the remote controller’s antennas are positioned parallel to and are pointed towards the aircraft. The other thing is waiting for it to come back if it is the RC signal loss, you need to make it clear that the RC signal loss is different from transmission signal loss.

"The other thing is waiting for it to come back if it is the RC signal loss, you need to make it clear that the RC signal loss is different from transmission signal loss."

Bang on! I don't think many people are aware of this though, transmission loss you still have control, but many see it as an RC disconnect... and sit there waiting for a RTH. The first thing I do when I get a transmission signal lost is hit RTH, typically in a few seconds on it's way back the transmission will return and then I can resume manually. Then again sometimes, but not always I get a prompt if i would like to RTH as "transmission signal is lost" seems to be quite inconsistent...

It is possible that because you went straight up, the angle between the aerials on the RC and drone was such that it lost signal. You do need to be very careful when flying with the drone directly over your head.

Refer to this video:

Thanks for the feedback so far everyone. I decided I'd send the drone up again last night, and about 97ft up it disconnected... Again. So I thought back to things I had read here on how to handle the situation...

"For your case, firstly, please kindly note that if the antennas are positioning correctly, adjust them when the aircraft is disconnected, make sure the remote controller’s antennas are positioned parallel to and are pointed towards the aircraft."

I made sure the antennas on the controller were positioned parallel to and are pointed towards the aircraft when trying to fly it, and I tried to adjust them when it lost connection, and nothing worked.

"The other thing is waiting for it to come back if it is the RC signal loss, you need to make it clear that the RC signal loss is different from transmission signal loss."

I don't think it was a transmission loss, because I had no control. I tried to still fly it, even though the screen and controller said disconnected, and the camera feed was frozen. I tried to press the RTH button, and nothing. Eventually a few minutes later it did come home on it's own, but I was left without any control of it. Once it landed it briefly reconnected, and then remained disconnected. I tried powering everything off, and back on... and no luck.

I'm not sure what is causing this but it's getting rather frustrating. . .

First of all, for future reference you can defer a firmware update when prompted by DJI Go 4. In general it's a good idea to wait for others to try the update in case there are problems that were not uncovered in DJI's QA process. I confess I don't always wait (danger is my middle name), but I would deny an upgrade prompt if I was ready to fly.

As for your disconnect issues, have you tried refreshing your firmware using DJI's Assistant 2 desktop software?

^ I didn't know I could delay the upgrade. I couldn't get the drone to do anything, and it kept telling me there was a firmware update needed. So I installed it, and the drone started working again... But this time with this disconnect glitch. I haven't tried the firmware refreshment... Mainly because I didn't know that was  thing, and not sure how to do it. But I shall look into it! Thanks!

(Sorry for the double post, but still needing help)

Soooo, I have been fighting with this drone the entire day. (Trying to use it for work, and it's just not having it.) So, time for the most recent update. It's gotten to the point that the RC will still connect with the drone, and I can still fly it... But I can NOT get the controller to connect to my phone to save my life. Regardless of what I do. I've tried un-installing, and re-installing the app... That did no good.

At this point it just says "Disconnected" in the top right corner of the app screen when the phone is plugged into the remote. Every now and then it will turn red and and say "No Signal."

I'm kind of at a loss, and not sure what to do... But it's getting rather frustrating because it's been useless this entire day when I've actually made appointments where it would be used, just to show up and look like an idiot because nothing is working.

Help please!!!

MavicMatt Posted at 2017-9-6 12:39
(Sorry for the double post, but still needing help)

Soooo, I have been fighting with this drone the entire day. (Trying to use it for work, and it's just not having it.) So, time for the most recent update. It's gotten to the point that the RC will still connect with the drone, and I can still fly it... But I can NOT get the controller to connect to my phone to save my life. Regardless of what I do. I've tried un-installing, and re-installing the app... That did no good.

Have you tried refreshing the firmware yet?

Connection problems can sometimes be due to a bad cable or a poor connection in the phone's connector -- often we hear of people who solve the issue by replacing the cable or clearing all the pocket lint from their phone's jack.

If neither of the above help, you might try a different phone to narrow down the source of the problem.

"Have you tried refreshing the firmware yet?"

I just refreshed the firmware on both the controller and the Mavic.

"Connection problems can sometimes be due to a bad cable or a poor connection in the phone's connector -- often we hear of people who solve the issue by replacing the cable or clearing all the pocket lint from their phone's jack."

Cleaned out the phone's jack, as well as cleaned out both ends of the cable connection. When I plug in the phone it makes the "connection" sound on the phone, but it won't connect with the drone.

"If neither of the above help, you might try a different phone to narrow down the source of the problem."

Since I tried both of the first things, and it did no good... I had a co-worker download the app, and I switched out my phone and their phone... and it is working just fine... Soooo... I guess it is my phone.. But I don't know what to do now! Hopefully I don't have to go buy a new phone!

Have you tried flying in Flight (airplane mode) mode and also ditch the factory Dji side cable it's usless and the root cause of many disconnect issues, pull it out and try your phones factory charging cable in the BOTTOM USB port, Keen to hear if this makes a difference and I think it will...

MavicMatt Posted at 2017-9-6 13:12
"Have you tried refreshing the firmware yet?"

I just refreshed the firmware on both the controller and the Mavic.

What phone are you using? Have you tried rebooting the phone? You could try restoring the phone to factory conditions and reloading all your apps.

TroutboyNZ Posted at 2017-9-6 13:34
Have you tried flying in Flight (airplane mode) mode and also ditch the factory Dji side cable it's usless and the root cause of many disconnect issues, pull it out and try your phones factory charging cable in the BOTTOM USB port, Keen to hear if this makes a difference and I think it will...

I was about to suggest the same as TroutboyNZ

Well, time for an update.

As of today my Mavic, and phone are working fine together. I refreshed the software on the drone and controller... I also un-installed and re-installed the app on my phone, and I restarted my phone. If for some reason it reverts back to the disconnection issue I will try some of the suggestions mentioned above (since my last post) and I will keep you all updated!

Thanks for everyone's help so far.

The DJI service is hopeless, DJI don't care. when i lost my drone because it became disconnected it did not return to me. The return to home button did not work. The find my drone feature was only showing me where I took off. I am so angry with the mavic 2 pro dji product. What is the point of selling drones when you can't track them by gps coordinates? Do I then have to spend another few grand to buy a new product for this to easily happen again?

All they say it is a user error and will take no responsibility for their products. They should be taken off the market until they can install an external gps tracker. How can it be a user error when the drone becomes disconnected over a few trees? The drone is set to return to home automatically when becomes disconnected, although again this feature did not work.

Don’t waste your money, wait until they make the technology better and actually works.

I was trying to do a follow me with my mavic pro, but that wasn’t working so I just flew the drone behind me, while driving. At one point it got a bit forested and the drone was at 10%, and I lost connection to the remote, I had earlier cancel the return to home, as I was 1600ft from home point and was almost at my destination to land the drone.  I couldn’t find the drone once I passed the forested area. Will it return to home or fall out the sky? I have already convinced myself I lost it but is still hopeful it returned to the home point. Any comments?