Hi all,

Very new to all this so please bare with me!

To cut a long story short, I have family living in China so when I was living over there for a short period of time, I bought a Mavic air from a DJI supplier.. (This is relevant now due to me not realising warranty does not contiune oversea's..), anyway.. I have spoken with DJI support to try and resolve the issue i'm experiencing with no luck apart from needing to send the drone back to China to be looked at (Which will A) cost a fortune, B) Probably go "missing")

The issue I am experiencing is that whenever I fly the drone, and it doesn't matter what location, I get a lot of lag on my Iphone via the remote which sometimes even cuts off the connection on my phone, yet sometimes the Mavic air can be only 80 feet away or so.. I get the lag and cutting out from any distance from 50 feet to 5/600 or so.. More than likely it will display "Interferance detected" on the screen when dropping out but that is wherever I fly, which could be an empty field for miles around..

Has anyone else experienced this or can please advise me? I'm very limited to my options now..

Hope that all makes sense coming from a newbie..

Appreciate any help in advance..

I've had similar awful lag and bad connection whenever I've tried to put my Spark or Air into FCC mode for 'greater range'. I think China is CE Wifi like UK but not sure. Look on the wifi bars, 11 channels=FCC, 13=CE. You want CE for UK.
I'd try resetting the RC connection by resetting the wifi and then reconnecting the remote again. Use airplane mode on your phone. Don't wear a smartwatch. Try a different cable. If all that fails then sounds like a faulty transmitter / receiver!

What iPhone are you using? What iOS are you using? What firmware are you using? What version Go4 are you using? Are you flying in a suburban area, hilly area, forested area or wide open area? What county are you flying in?
Most important, have you read the MANUAL?
https://dl.djicdn.com/downloads/Mavic%20Air/20180525/Mavic%20Air%20User%20Manual%20v1.2.pdf

DrMagical Posted at 1-8 05:13
I've had similar awful lag and bad connection whenever I've tried to put my Spark or Air into FCC mode for 'greater range'. I think China is CE Wifi like UK but not sure. Look on the wifi bars, 11 channels=FCC, 13=CE. You want CE for UK.
I'd try resetting the RC connection by resetting the wifi and then reconnecting the remote again. Use airplane mode on your phone. Don't wear a smartwatch. Try a different cable. If all that fails then sounds like a faulty transmitter / receiver!

Thanks for the reply.. I'll try this when I get a second thanks! I also haven't wore a smartwatch in a while when flying due to reading that this can cause an issue, also tried on and off flight mode as well!

Will let you know the result.. Cheers

Grumpy D Posted at 1-8 05:25
What iPhone are you using? What iOS are you using? What firmware are you using? What version Go4 are you using? Are you flying in a suburban area, hilly area, forested area or wide open area? What county are you flying in?
Most important, have you read the MANUAL?
https://dl.djicdn.com/downloads/Mavic%20Air/20180525/Mavic%20Air%20User%20Manual%20v1.2.pdf

Thanks for the reply..

Phone: Iphone x
IOS: Current is 12.1 (need to update to 12.1.2 however these issues were before that release)
Firmware: Can't remember what version would need to check once home, however it was the latest as off before Christmas
Version of app: 4.3.9 (need to retest with this latest firmware, was on 4.3.8 and below when having the issues)
Flying area: each time has either been in an empty wide area field, or on flat ground near a wood and lake etc to one side but open ground to the other, however always have line of site with the drone. Like mentioned, this can cause issues even if its the distance of across the road from me
Country: UK, I did fly in China and don't recall any issues, the issues all seem to have been in the UK..
Manual: Yes.. I have read this, i'm having another read as we speak but yes I have.

Cheers

Phone and iOS should be good, just make sure to close all running apps, turn off cellular, Bluetooth and Wifi. Turn off video cache if you don’t need it and reboot before flying, your device is extra important in U.K.   
Make sure the flat side of the antennas are facing the Mavic at all times.
You can try and change frequency and/or channels but unfortunately the EU is is cutting your transmission power by 50%. I’m in the states and not up to speed on how but if you poke around you can see how to change from CE to FCC. Not very legal but you make that call.
A lot of people are having good luck with the Air in U.K. so it can be done. Sorry I don’t have a solid solution, hopefully someone will chime in with it.

So I have made some progress.. however still not perfect.. I did what was mentioned, I also factory reset the drone and refreshed the firmware on a wired connection which seemed to sort it.. I can now fly without it lagging..
The only thing now is that once i hit a few hundred feet away, it starts to go a little blurry and then comes back once i go further, once i then hit the 1000ft mark, i sometimes lose connection completely.
I then had to use RTH temporarily to get back the connection, it also constantly stays on 5.8ghz (which may be normal) but is usually on 1 bar connection and constantly flashing up saying  "alter antennas"  then something about the backwards sensor.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Any help is appreciated

I'll ask a stupid question - do you have the little "legs" on the front rotors flipped down?  The antennas are in those legs and I forgot to flip them down once.  Range and connectivity were severely impaired.

BKahuna Posted at 1-16 10:06
I'll ask a stupid question - do you have the little "legs" on the front rotors flipped down?  The antennas are in those legs and I forgot to flip them down once.  Range and connectivity were severely impaired.

Yes i've made the same mistake before once as well! However yes I did have them down.. thanks though!

BKahuna Posted at 1-16 10:06
I'll ask a stupid question - do you have the little "legs" on the front rotors flipped down?  The antennas are in those legs and I forgot to flip them down once.  Range and connectivity were severely impaired.

I've had this similar issue for over a year and never got around to fixing it. how did you factory reset the drone and refresh the firmware with a wired connection?

Matthew Chirico Posted at 1-16 10:15
I've had this similar issue for over a year and never got around to fixing it. how did you factory reset the drone and refresh the firmware with a wired connection?

I downloaded DJI assistant 2 and powered on the drone then plugged into my PC. Once connected it then shows something like "Reset to factory" so do that and then once back on, it will show the current firmware and the old one, they'll be a button for "refresh firmware"

I wanted to reset the controller the same way but the controller wouldn't connect and looked like lots of others had the same issue.. I may have been doing that wrong though

Jaket52 Posted at 1-16 10:20
I downloaded DJI assistant 2 and powered on the drone then plugged into my PC. Once connected it then shows something like "Reset to factory" so do that and then once back on, it will show the current firmware and the old one, they'll be a button for "refresh firmware"  

I wanted to reset the controller the same way but the controller wouldn't connect and looked like lots of others had the same issue.. I may have been doing that wrong though

Thanks a lot, I'm gonna give that a whirl this weekend