Hi all!  First time posting and looking for some help.  I absolutely love flying my Mavic Air 2 and haven't had any issues with up until until yesterday.  Last week I had my Smart Controller delivered and I flew for the first time using it yesterday as well as this morning.  At first, I got that red picture of a phone with a bar through it, which usually indicates that you're phone isn't connected to GPS or doesn't have a strong enough signal, of course though, that wasn't the case as it's a Smart Controller not attached to a phone.  I shut it off and turned it back on and it was back to the regular white cone showing orientation, however, it was completely wrong.  It was showing the drone was behind me when it was in front of me, it was show that the drone would be going away from me when it was coming towards me.  I've done some reasearch and I saw people with the Mini have a similar issue where myabe it's just a few degrees off etc... however, this just seems to be completely wrong.  I calibrated the compass multiple times on both the drone and the Smart Controller, no luck.  I also went back to the original controller that I previously had no issues with, and that started doing it too.  At this point I'm just feeling like I can't trust this drone which is sad, it flew perfectly before.  I don't like having to resort to using return to home, especially if I'm still with in visual range of the drone but not sure exactly what direction it's facing.  Has anybody had a similar experience or have a fix?  Right now I'm regreting buying this controller....  On a different note, i was maybe only 300 meters away, RC strength showed all bars, and then suddenly I got the red RC not connected and it auto returned to home.  Again, that's NEVER happened with the stock controller, I'm flying in an area I flew all the time close to my home, so nothing really should have changed

Hello PAPezoneJr, I'm sorry for the trouble this has caused you. It is unfortunate to know that your Mavic Air 2 is on a wrong orientation. Have you updated the firmware version for both Mavic Air 2 and the Smart Controller. Ensure as well that you are using the DJI Fly app in the Smart controller.

Here's the link on how to update or refresh the firmware from the Aircraft :

You can also refer to this one for the Smart controller firmware update or refresh:

I suggest you to do the same process with the Original Remote controller of the Mavic Air 2.

Please let me know the result. Thank you.

DJI Paladin Posted at 10-20 13:57
Hello PAPezoneJr, I'm sorry for the trouble this has caused you. It is unfortunate to know that your Mavic Air 2 is on a wrong orientation. Have you updated the firmware version for both Mavic Air 2 and the Smart Controller. Ensure as well that you are using the DJI Fly app in the Smart controller.

Here's the link on how to update or refresh the firmware from the Aircraft : https://youtu.be/Nx-r6vEXPgo?t=68

Thanks Paladin!  Yes, they are both up-to-date.  In fact, because its so new, if they weren’t up to date, the Smart Controller wouldn’t even be compatible with the Mavic Air 2.  That’s what one of the recent updates was.  Anyhow, I ended up downgrading my Mavic Air 2 and it no works fine again with the regular controller so it seems I’ll have to return my Smart Controller.

PAPezoneJr Posted at 10-20 14:30
Thanks Paladin!  Yes, they are both up-to-date.  In fact, because its so new, if they weren’t up to date, the Smart Controller wouldn’t even be compatible with the Mavic Air 2.  That’s what one of the recent updates was.  Anyhow, I ended up downgrading my Mavic Air 2 and it no works fine again with the regular controller so it seems I’ll have to return my Smart Controller.

Hello there PAPezoneJr. I am sorry to know that updating the firmware didn't resolve the orientation problem. After doing several troubleshooting steps to fix it and still the issue persists. I would recommend you contact our support team at https://www.dji.com/support?site=brandsite&from=nav for further assistance. We have a team who would do their best to find out the reason of the said issue and then the corresponding resolution would be provided. Again I am sorry for the trouble and thank you for your understanding.

PAPezonejr,  Hey can you let us know by responding to this thread what the outcome is if you contact support please?  I have read this issue not only on the this forum, but I see a lot of other people are saying the same thing on other forums about the MA2 and the Smart Controller.  I would like to purchase one, but I can't see dropping $750 usd on something that doesn't fully work, and on the other forums I see the same responses..."have you updated the firmware?"   seems like this is a documented issue and it would be nice to know if it is just a patch fix with a new update or is that is just how this controller is going to be with the MA2.

Did you try showing it different types of pornography in an effort to establish its orientation?
I am, of course, joking...and I apologize in advance for anyone offended by my jest.

maihem.rc Posted at 10-23 07:00
Did you try showing it different types of pornography in an effort to establish its orientation?
I am, of course, joking...and I apologize in advance for anyone offended by my jest.

Well, I refer to my drone as a female, and I of course am a male.  So I have to guess that considering when I try and have her face towards me, it still says she's facing away, that she must not be interested in males.  LOL. Orientation solved!  

Jaldri01 Posted at 10-23 05:49
PAPezonejr,  Hey can you let us know by responding to this thread what the outcome is if you contact support please?  I have read this issue not only on the this forum, but I see a lot of other people are saying the same thing on other forums about the MA2 and the Smart Controller.  I would like to purchase one, but I can't see dropping $750 usd on something that doesn't fully work, and on the other forums I see the same responses..."have you updated the firmware?"   seems like this is a documented issue and it would be nice to know if it is just a patch fix with a new update or is that is just how this controller is going to be with the MA2.

Outcome isn't great so far   I did the DJI Support Chat and I don't think they understand the issue.  I actually just came in from flying it and it's absolutely fine on the regular stock controller, the smart controller is just way off though and dangerous to fly if it can't properly tell me if it's heading towards me or away from me.  They wanted me to create a ticket and send my drone in.... that makes no sense... the issue is clearly with the smart controller.  The position of the compass to the position of my iPhone is correct, so clearly those compasses are calibrated correctly.  I'm not sure if it has to do with the Android version of the DJI Fly App or if the compass in my Smart Controller is just faulty.  It makes no sense to me to send my drone in for repair, however, when I am 100% certain the issue is not the drone but the SC.  I'm leaning towards returning it unless I can get someone from DJI Support to clearly understand the issue and request that I send in the Smart Controller instead.  

DJI Paladin Posted at 10-22 14:21
Hello there PAPezoneJr. I am sorry to know that updating the firmware didn't resolve the orientation problem. After doing several troubleshooting steps to fix it and still the issue persists. I would recommend you contact our support team at https://www.dji.com/support?site=brandsite&from=nav for further assistance. We have a team who would do their best to find out the reason of the said issue and then the corresponding resolution would be provided. Again I am sorry for the trouble and thank you for your understanding.

I did, unfortunately, it wasn't particularly helpful as they didn't seem to understand the issue.

I am having the same problem and even seen some people on Youtube showing this issue as you described. I am suspect of the DJI app being the problem as it first opens at 90 degrees at start up and thinking it is an app problem. At least thats what I'm thinking based on my experience.

Hello PAPezonejr,  Same problem here.  After speaking with DJI support I exchanged the controller.  Unfortunately the new controller has the same issue.   This is a know issue that I’m hoping DJI will correct with a firmware update.  Not does this interfere with advertised true navigation but can be a serious liability.   DJI, please address this matter and advise your customers appropriately.  

Global Drone Posted at 11-9 17:57
Hello PAPezonejr,  Same problem here.  After speaking with DJI support I exchanged the controller.  Unfortunately the new controller has the same issue.   This is a know issue that I’m hoping DJI will correct with a firmware update.  Not does this interfere with advertised true navigation but can be a serious liability.   DJI, please address this matter and advise your customers appropriately.

This is correct, I just heard back last week.  I sent my Mavic Air 2 and Smart Controller for repair and I just got the notification that they are shipping everything back today.  They confirmed it is a software issue in the DJI Smart Controller and should be fixed in a future firmware update.  Hopefully it comes REALLY soon as I do not have a Mavic 2 Pro or Zoom and this was the sole reason I bought this Smart Controller... which by the way they said would be supported "soon" back in March/April when the Air 2 was first released.  

The compass is a little flaky with the mini also. What I find works is the position of the drone when you start it up. If you start the drone up, sit it on a seat beside you then turn on remote and everything else it can something use that as the north point for some reason. So I have found always positioning the drone in front of you when you first start it up seems to work for me. It sounds stupid but it works. Also for compass dropouts when it is red, you can flip the remote and device upside down and back and it fixes it. It's like a compass reset for iPhones. I don't know about android or the SC.

Here's the final update....   I just got my Mavic Air 2 and Smart Controller back today.  I installed the most recent update for the Mavic Air 2 and regular controller and then manually installed the most recent version of the DJI Fly App on the Smart Controller.  The Air 2 with the regular controller works just as beautifully as the day I bought it, which I'm grateful for.  The Smart Controller, however, is worse than it was before.  Now I'm getting no camera image and just a red icon where the orientation is supposed to be.  I called back DJI Support which they said they shipped it back to me because they found no issues despite the fact that I have an email from them saying, "Customer complaint true.  Slow Geo Zone mapping is caused by Software Issue and is present on all Smart R/C.  Test Smart R/C has slow Geo zone update.  Replacement r/c will encounter the same malfunctions.  Upcoming Software's should resolve the issue."  So, I decided I want to return the Smart Controller.  Maybe they'll make a second version that is more stable, but I don't want to risk it right now where it works so perfectly otherwise.  $750 is a lot to spend on a device to sit as a brick until the eventually release a software update to make this fly-able for me.  I will say, getting them to agree to let me to return it was a hassle.  They kept trying to get me to send it in for repair, once again, saying I was outside the return window (which I was, however, I sent it to DJI 4 days after it was delivered to me so most of that 14 day window it was actually in their hands until I got it back today).  They tried to convince me to keep it saying a software update would fix it.... but again, I re-iterated I'd consider purchasing it again once the issue was resolved.... etc...  If anybody wants to know exactly the issue I was having in video form, I recommend checking out mrkentdotcom on YouTube.  I don't know who this guy is, but I've searched for people that had a similar issue and he appears to be the only one that has posted anything that I could find.  He has a series of videos where he shows the issue, where he thinks he fixed it, then showed the issue still persisted.  I really hope DJI fixes this.  My Mavic Air 2 is by far my favorite drone.  I just purchased the DJI Mini 2, I love that as well, but there really is something special about the way the Air 2 flies.  I was really excited to use the Smart Controller with this drone and am very saddened it didn't work out

I have been on the fence about getting the Smart Controller.  The Mavic Air 2 is my first drone and it would be really nice to consolidate down my kit with a Smart Controller.  But the orientation compass is essential to keeping the controller aligned with the drone to get optimal signal.  Without the orientation compass I feel like the range in a dense WiFi area is really limited.  10° off makes a big difference on the range and signal stability.  
Also I keep hearing that there are issues with the 32 bit DJI Fly app used on the Smart Controller.  From what others are saying 1.2.1 is a no go.  

Hey PAPezone usually, this will have nothing to do with the compass on the aircraft and almost always when it does this, it means the device that you are using needs to be calibrated and what I mean is say you are using an iPhone or a Android device you just have to calibrate the compass inside of it, basically you swing the device into a figure eight like five or six times and then it should calibrate the compass. This has always worked for me if I had that error on the Galaxy s20 I have only had it happen to me twice but it has worked....but being that you have the smart controller I'm not sure how that works I'm pretty sure that it has a compass inside of it... so if you can figure out how to calibrate that is there like a Google maps app? Or can you download that onto the smart controller? I know for sure with this because it's Android you can calibrate the compass...

Also another tip I can give you is this feature is relatively new it started with the mavic mini last year and then it came over to the mavic air 2..... I don't like it and I have never used it in fact I usually just blow up the map to the left side this is what it looks like in the actual DJI go 4 app to me this feature is kind of useless and needs more work and I definitely would not rely on it .....I actually never relied on it once. Like I said you should get into the habit of just tapping on the map
to the left and seeing where your drone is, you will also have the line colored in blue that will get you back to home point.... this is what you should be using.....   Anyway Sucks cuz The  feature if it worked I guess would be pretty cool but I see time and time again in this forum  is usually broke and kind of a gimmick

$gambino$ Posted at 11-18 04:02
Hey PAPezone usually, this will have nothing to do with the compass on the aircraft and almost always when it does this, it means the device that you are using needs to be calibrated and what I mean is say you are using an iPhone or a Android device you just have to calibrate the compass inside of it, basically you swing the device into a figure eight like five or six times and then it should calibrate the compass. This has always worked for me if I had that error on the Galaxy s20 I have only had it happen to me twice but it has worked....but being that you have the smart controller I'm not sure how that works I'm pretty sure that it has a compass inside of it... so if you can figure out how to calibrate that is there like a Google maps app? Or can you download that onto the smart controller? I know for sure with this because it's Android you can calibrate the compass...

There is a compass calibration in the settings of the Smart Controller which I had done many times and assume DJI did as well when I sent it in for repair.  

$gambino$ Posted at 11-18 04:09
Also another tip I can give you is this feature is relatively new it started with the mavic mini last year and then it came over to the mavic air 2..... I don't like it and I have never used it in fact I usually just blow up the map to the left side this is what it looks like in the actual DJI go 4 app to me this feature is kind of useless and needs more work and I definitely would not rely on it .....I actually never relied on it once. Like I said you should get into the habit of just tapping on the map
to the left and seeing where your drone is, you will also have the line colored in blue that will get you back to home point.... this is what you should be using.....   Anyway Sucks cuz The  feature if it worked I guess would be pretty cool but I see time and time again in this forum  is usually broke and kind of a gimmick

I do love using the map rather than the orientation when I use my phone attached to the stock Air 2 controller, however, the map on the Smart Controller is completely un-usable for me.  I can do a full 360 turn on the aircraft and it takes the Smart Controller probably a full 5-10 seconds to "catch up" to even show the blue triangle turning. I really just think it comes down to the DJI Fly app on the Smart Controller just being absolute trash and that they just threw out a halfway working product only because they promised it would "work" on the Mavic Air 2.  I think they learned their lesson which is why you didn't see them make that claim on the Mini 2 despite the fact it's also OcuSync 2.0.  They don't want to announce such a feature and feel rushed to push something out that's garbage.  

PAPezoneJr Posted at 11-18 05:42
I do love using the map rather than the orientation when I use my phone attached to the stock Air 2 controller, however, the map on the Smart Controller is completely un-usable for me.  I can do a full 360 turn on the aircraft and it takes the Smart Controller probably a full 5-10 seconds to "catch up" to even show the blue triangle turning. I really just think it comes down to the DJI Fly app on the Smart Controller just being absolute trash and that they just threw out a halfway working product only because they promised it would "work" on the Mavic Air 2.  I think they learned their lesson which is why you didn't see them make that claim on the Mini 2 despite the fact it's also OcuSync 2.0.  They don't want to announce such a feature and feel rushed to push something out that's garbage.

PAPezoneJr what are saying makes a lot of sense about rushing to meet the demand and quality falling.  I really want the Smart Controller but it seems that it needs a lot of work to usable in comparison to the phone.  The all in one factor to me is the selling point but if it does not work as expected I will hold off.

Your real experience is very helpful for those like myself on the fence.

Thank you