Hi, I fly with a mavic mini for about one month, all firmwares updated. I use a iphoneX with ios 13.3, djifly app 1.0.3, but I can't get a gps signal. My mini connects to 10-15 satellites, but I always have the red glowing semi circle at the bottom of my screen.
I'v tired to reinstall the firmware on the mini, desactivate and reactivate the localisation on my phone, hard rebooted it, reinstalled the app, but it always fails.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!
colin

Does your phone alone work with GPS?  

Do you want the Mavic Mini to catch more satellites?

Because of the attempt to reduce the cost of apparently Mavic Mini put a GPS receiver that supports only the grouping of satellites in the United States, Russian, Chinese, European and Japanese are not supported, so the drone catches so few satellites!

My Huawei P20 Pro in the same place with MM catches 26-32 satellites, MM catches 9-15.

Alevpi Posted at 12-25 08:37
Do you want the Mavic Mini to catch more satellites?

Because of the attempt to reduce the cost of apparently Mavic Mini put a GPS receiver that supports only the grouping of satellites in the United States, Russian, Chinese, European and Japanese are not supported, so the drone catches so few satellites!

No I don't want to connect to more satellites, 10-15 are enough. My DJI app won't connect to gps, I mean my iPhone's gps. The half circle at the bottom showing the drone orientation regarding the RTH point is glowing red with no gps signal.

Minnesota Posted at 12-25 07:23
Does your phone alone work with GPS?

Regarding to google maps and plans, yes.

I noticed this when I put my phone in airplane mode that I had the same red indicator. When I turned on airplane mode, it shut off the GPS on my phone. I manually turned on GPS and the problem resolved. I'm not sure if this is happening to you, just a thought.

CarRamRod Posted at 12-25 10:21
I noticed this when I put my phone in airplane mode that I had the same red indicator. When I turned on airplane mode, it shut off the GPS on my phone. I manually turned on GPS and the problem resolved. I'm not sure if this is happening to you, just a thought.

Thanks! I was not in airplane mode! It seems something is wrong with the app settings in iOS.

djiuser_BwyeUWdmBUXb Posted at 12-25 10:51
Thanks! I was not in airplane mode! It seems something is wrong with the app settings in iOS.

In iOS settings is location share turned on for the DJI Fly App?

BobWinNV Posted at 12-25 11:33
In iOS settings is location share turned on for the DJI Fly App?

It is setup like this:
Anything wrong?

djiuser_BwyeUWdmBUXb Posted at 12-25 11:41
It is setup like this:
Anything wrong?

I can't see your iOS Settings screenshot

BobWinNV Posted at 12-25 11:44
I can't see your iOS Settings screenshot

sorry, here it is:

Does the phone's compass work?  That is also required for the Aircraft Orientation Indicator to function.

I flew with my phone in airplane mode yesterday. First time doing so and it’s the only time I’ve had this happen. (IPhone)

GPS reception has nothing to do with whether your iPhoneX can receive GPS or not. The satellites are received by the aircraft, not the phone or RC control. The GPS supports the US and Russian satellite constellations, the others are not worth receiving at present, and given the OP is in Switzerland, even less interesting.

The DJI App does not need to connect to the GPS receiver in your phone, it only uses that data for Follow Me mode, which I don't think you have in a Mini.

The most likely problem is the cable connecting the phone to the RC unit.

Geebax Posted at 12-25 12:06
GPS reception has nothing to do with whether your iPhoneX can receive GPS or not. The satellites are received by the aircraft, not the phone or RC control. The GPS supports the US and Russian satellite constellations, the others are not worth receiving at present, and given the OP is in Switzerland, even less interesting.

The DJI App does not need to connect to the GPS receiver in your phone, it only uses that data for Follow Me mode, which I don't think you have in a Mini.

The question is about the aircraft orientation display at the bottom center of the Fly app.  I am not sure what is required from the phone to make this turn green and work correctly.  Is just the phone's compass needed or is the phone's GPS also used in the calculation to make the phone side of this work?  

I did find that with iOS GPS data is used to help with compass calibration and motion calibration and distance so these settings most likely will need to be on for the phone side of the aircraft orientation display to work properly.

Minnesota Posted at 12-25 11:52
Does the phone's compass work?  That is also required for the Aircraft Orientation Indicator to function.

Nope, the compass is stuck, won’t rotate at all even after a hard reset.  

BobWinNV Posted at 12-25 13:41
The question is about the aircraft orientation display at the bottom center of the Fly app.  I am not sure what is required from the phone to make this turn green and work correctly.  Is just the phone's compass needed or is the phone's GPS also used in the calculation to make the phone side of this work?  

I did find that with iOS GPS data is used to help with compass calibration and motion calibration and distance so these settings most likely will need to be on for the phone side of the aircraft orientation display to work properly.

The aircraft orientation display also has nothing to do with the GPS. It has two inputs from compass devices, one in the aircraft and one in the phone. I see below that the OP says the compass is stuck on the phone. I have no idea what there is in the iOS settings, but that would be the first place to look. Another, and more crude trick to 'loosen' a stuck compass is to give the phone a sharp jolt.

Geebax Posted at 12-25 14:21
The aircraft orientation display also has nothing to do with the GPS. It has two inputs from compass devices, one in the aircraft and one in the phone. I see below that the OP says the compass is stuck on the phone. I have no idea what there is in the iOS settings, but that would be the first place to look. Another, and more crude trick to 'loosen' a stuck compass is to give the phone a sharp jolt.

“...give it a sharp jolt”

You are kidding, right?

BobWinNV Posted at 12-25 15:32
“...give it a sharp jolt”

You are kidding, right?

It’s an iPhone, not the Jack Sparrow’s compass! A jolt won’t unstuck it, unfortunately.

Geebax Posted at 12-25 14:21
The aircraft orientation display also has nothing to do with the GPS. It has two inputs from compass devices, one in the aircraft and one in the phone. I see below that the OP says the compass is stuck on the phone. I have no idea what there is in the iOS settings, but that would be the first place to look. Another, and more crude trick to 'loosen' a stuck compass is to give the phone a sharp jolt.

If you have 2 compasses, they will both point N no matter how they are positioned relative to each other (next-to, in front of, behind, above, below) ...), so GPS has to be used to establish a vector between the RC and the MM.  The phone's compass then is used to display the compass heading the RC needs to be pointed to in order to aim the RC towards the MM.

Phone compasses have no moving parts.

The orientation "half circle" at the bottom is feed by compass data, not GPS data. The OP has indicated that the compass on his phone is stuck. This maybe a problem with his phone. iPhone compass are electronic and not "mechanical" if you will. A jolt won't fix that issue. In order to reset the compass and get it back to working if it's going to, go into settings->Privacy->location services and turn location services totally off. Reboot the phone and then go back and turn location services back on. This will cause it to recalibrate the compass and all location based services. If it isn't a hardware issue, this should fix the compass on the phone.

@JB That’s not entirely correct. That feature uses compass data AND GPS data from both drone and remote. Using all of these you can (in theory, seems to be not so easy for DJI in practice LOL) establish if the pilot is facing the drone or not.

Ice_2k Posted at 12-26 05:07
@JB That’s not entirely correct. That feature uses compass data AND GPS data from both drone and remote. Using all of these you can (in theory, seems to be not so easy for DJI in practice LOL) establish if the pilot is facing the drone or not.

+1 ^  .............. Yup

Minnesota Posted at 12-26 04:46
If you have 2 compasses, they will both point N no matter how they are positioned relative to each other (next-to, in front of, behind, above, below) ...), so GPS has to be used to establish a vector between the RC and the MM.  The phone's compass then is used to display the compass heading the RC needs to be pointed to in order to aim the RC towards the MM.

Phone compasses have no moving parts.

Not really... You can trace a vector connecting the aircraft position (GPS) and the home point (where you are supposed to be). If you have a working compass on your phone (and the app can access its data), the angle calculation (direction where the drone is) straightforward

Is the app allowed to access the phone's compass?

Ice_2k Posted at 12-26 05:07
@JB That’s not entirely correct. That feature uses compass data AND GPS data from both drone and remote. Using all of these you can (in theory, seems to be not so easy for DJI in practice LOL) establish if the pilot is facing the drone or not.

While I did say not GPS data, it relies mainly on compass data and the poster did say that his compass was locked on his device and I gave appropriate information on how to fix it if it wasn't a hardware related issue. Now that I have my alotted one mistake out of the way, hopefully I will be more reliable as the day proceeds, LOL. I make mistakes from time to time, my apologies. Thank you for pointing that out to me btw, helps keep me on my toes. Now to find more caffeine

emaneg Posted at 12-26 07:57
Is the app allowed to access the phone's compass?

Yes, I’ve given all the access rights. But the compass doesn’t work!

djiuser_BwyeUWdmBUXb Posted at 12-26 08:50
Yes, I’ve given all the access rights. But the compass doesn’t work!

have you calibrated the compass?

djiuser_BwyeUWdmBUXb Posted at 12-26 08:50
Yes, I’ve given all the access rights. But the compass doesn’t work!

but, the phone compass on its own, without any connection to the RC, works?

Aaaaaaaaaah! I've just found that my iPhone case had magnets in it (wtf is it for), and when I removed the case, the compass returned back to life! Good to know: Elements Idun cases have magnets in it. Pff.
Tomorrow I test with DJI fly. Thanks to all for your support!

Hi, thank you for reaching out. I'm sorry that I was unable to help you with your concern. However, we're glad that you already manage to rectify the problem that you are having right now. Please let us know the update after your test flight tomorrow. Thank you!

BobWinNV Posted at 2019-12-25 11:33
In iOS settings is location share turned on for the DJI Fly App?

You’re a genius. That is exactly what Worked for me. After having reset the network settings on my iPhone, all other apps would ask permission to use location. The DJI Fly app does not.

djiuser_8tD99amwlfYd Posted at 7-25 12:53
You’re a genius. That is exactly what Worked for me. After having reset the network settings on my iPhone, all other apps would ask permission to use location. The DJI Fly app does not.

I am glad that I could help.