Mid flight my phone completely shut off.  I have an iphone 6S and the battery is known to drain extrememly fast in colder temps, so I already knew not to fly in temps below 40°F, todays flight was 45°F.


I restarted the phone and found the battery at 15% and got a Processor Overload warning on my phone.  With the video feed back, I saw the drone hovering a distance away without RTH initiated!  I quickly pressed RTH and within seconds my phone died again.  Thankfully, the drone returned. I had to flip it to shut off the motors.


Assesment of what went wrong:


1) Even though my phone battery wasn't at 0%, my phone wasn't getting sufficient power due to the cold temps and therefore triggered the processor overload warning and shut off.  The 6S is an older iphone, I don't know if newer models have this cold weather battery issue.


2)  If your phone dies, RTH will not intiate if the controller is on, since it still has a connection with the controller.  In situations where your phone dies, immidiately turn off the controller to intitate RTH.  Let me know is this correct.

Hi,

If a phone 'dies' no RTH is initiated, this happens only when the connection RC<>Drone is gone...

So get used to ONLY activate RTH by pressing the button in the RC and not use the softbutton in the app.


So no need to switch off the RC, you can still fly your drone using the sticks (flying LOS, no problem)  or press RTH !

cheers
JJB

JJB* Posted at 11-22 12:27
Hi,

If a phone 'dies' no RTH is initiated, this happens only when the connection RCDrone is gone...

Good point, thanks!

Thanks for sharing your experience.  

I had something similar happen due to debris in the Lighting port where my phone lost connection to the controller.  My video was frozen and the delayed by at least minute from real time and it would not respond to commands.  This caused me to try to navigate the drone manually but inaccurately due to delayed video feed.  

I finally in desperation I powered off the controller then back on.  When the video reconnected I could not figure out where the Mavic Air 2 was and the commands were not responding.  After 5 minutes, I gave up and consider the drone lost.  Depressed I began to pack my stuff up and put it in the car.  When low and behold I heard it.  The RTH initiated when I turn off the controller and it lost signal.

Your analysis of turning off the controller does work and initiates an RTH.  

If the Mini 2 is like the Air 2 there is options to charge Apple devices directly from the controllers battery in the DJI Fly app settings.  This is a feature exclusive to the Apple Lightning port devices and does not work with Android or USB/USB-C devices according to complaint on another forum.

When I was using a non-approved phone on the Mini controller, it would shut down and reboot often. Just wait for the reboot and the drone should be right where you left it. If it doesn't reboot, just press the RTH button if you can't see it, or fly it back with as usual if you can see it.

JohnLietzke Posted at 11-22 12:33
Thanks for sharing your experience.  

I had something similar happen due to debris in the Lighting port where my phone lost connection to the controller.  My video was frozen and the delayed by at least minute from real time and it would not respond to commands.  This caused me to try to navigate the drone manually but inaccurately due to delayed video feed.  

"If the Mini 2 is like the Air 2 there is options to charge Apple devices directly from the controllers battery in the DJI Fly app settings.  This is a feature exclusive to the Apple Lightning port devices and does not work with Android or USB/USB-C devices according to complaint on another forum."


That may be confusing. It is just an option to turn ON or OFF the charging with the Apple devices. It is ALWAYS ON in the Android devices and there is no option to turn it OFF.

GaryDoug Posted at 11-22 15:33
"If the Mini 2 is like the Air 2 there is options to charge Apple devices directly from the controllers battery in the DJI Fly app settings.  This is a feature exclusive to the Apple Lightning port devices and does not work with Android or USB/USB-C devices according to complaint on another forum."

Thanks, MavPilot users were saying it did not work with previous RC firmware and Fly app for USB  devices.  Maybe they were referring to turning it off and I lost continuity with the thread as it did not pertain to me.   Thanks for the clarification on the always charging state.  I assumed that USB/USB-C had the capability to charge as it a part of the protocol.  But there is not way to stop the hardware functionality.

By default the charging for Apple Lightning devices is off.  It has to be enable every time the controller is turned on or the phone connected.

Hi Trader6777,

the batteries of older phones are easier drained out and get some "cold" problems. My old Samsung S7e doesn't old the battery charge as it did when it was new. New phones, new technology, better and stronger batteries.

As long as your controller has a connection, an automatic RTH won't be triggered. Your phone is merely a display unit with some advanced controls to operate the drone, but not the escential communications. You could even fly the drone with just the remote. You don't have  visual, but you can fly it.

Hello there trader6777. I am sorry for the trouble this has caused and thank you for reaching out. In addition to this post The DJI Mini 2 has a Failsafe RTH function: If the Home Point was successfully recorded and the compass is functioning normally, Failsafe RTH automatically activates after the remote controller signal is lost for 11 seconds. When the firmware is updated to v.1.1.0.0 and above, the drone will fly backwards for 50m on its original flight route and ascend to the present RTH altitude to enter Straight Line RTH. The drone enters Straight Line RTH if the remote controller signal is restored during Failsafe RTH. When the drone flies backward along the original flight path and the distance from the Home Point is less than 20m, the drone stops flying backwards on the original flight route and enters Straight Line RTH at the current altitude. In DJI Fly, users can change the setting of the drone responds when the remote controller signal is lost. The drone will not execute Failsafe RTH if land or hover has been selected in the settings. Thank you.

Hi DJI Stephen. I took my Mini 2 out for it's first flight ever today. Amazing machine!

However, it lost signal due to some unusual circumstances, and than instead of RTH, it hovered until it died. It was probably 40m in the air at the time. It was no more than 150m from me. It was on a freshly charged battery. I am in a rural location with an open field.

The wind was nominal, 15 km/h, and when it lost signal I had already stopped with the control sticks as I was playing with the gimbal and hovering. It looks like I COULD have taken control of the unit, if I had been able to see it or hear it. (It is incredibly quiet in a hover at 40m). I had a few eyeballs looking for it, and had a good reference for about where it was. Slightly overcast grey day, and this thing is an invisible predator drone. Even as we were scrambling around looking for it, it was probably idling in the air above us. In over 20 minutes nobody saw it or heard it. It finally must have crashed when we were a ways away from it.

Some learnings:

Kids and dogs make iffy spotters.
They also make for great drone finders, and work for cheap. (20 bucks to the one that found it, not to each "contract employee").
DJI's drone neither reconnected to my phone after app restarts, or returned to home when it lost contact with the app.
DJI's drone assumed I was still in flight control and hovered there stupidly until it ran out of batteries. It crashed instead of RTH.

Once the drone had been found, and I had looked over a few more of my mistakes i found that:

There was a wifi router directly in my flightpath. The building it was close to when it lost signal has a tin roof and is a decent size. A lot of metal especially for a radio angle was blocking the flightpath. My bad, can't think of a worse scenario.

I made the assumption (never good to do?) that my fancy new drone would get close to low battery and return to home. It did not.

Once I checked my log, it flashed a couple of GPS warnings, altitude ceiling warnings, and than continued on with it's flight.  As a new user, I didn't take the GPS warning seriously enough, and it failed to mark the Home Position when it took off. Will never make that mistake again.

The Video Streaming is a tiny bit unreliable around buildings with tin roofs, as I am guessing that in a freakish situation, it can become confused by the reflection of a WIFI signal off of a roof?!? I'm not a radio engineer...

Suggestions for me:
Paint the drone with model paint in fluorescent Orange and Yellow.

Suggestions for DJI:
Ability to map chirp and flash feature to the remote, without it relying on the app?

Actually having it RTH when I hit the RTH button on the controller?

Automatically start chirping and flashing when it loses connection to the app or remote?

Thanks! DJI owes me 20 bucks. ;)

djiuser_caU3SQqLFLG6 Posted at 12-2 16:42
Hi DJI Stephen. I took my Mini 2 out for it's first flight ever today. Amazing machine!

However, it lost signal due to some unusual circumstances, and than instead of RTH, it hovered until it died. It was probably 40m in the air at the time. It was no more than 150m from me. It was on a freshly charged battery. I am in a rural location with an open field.

Once I checked my log, it flashed a couple of GPS warnings, altitude ceiling warnings, and than continued on with it's flight.  As a new user, I didn't take the GPS warning seriously enough, and it failed to mark the Home Position when it took off. Will never make that mistake again.
I'm trying to work out what you think happened from your description but it doesn't add up.
If you post your flight data, I'll see if I can work out what actually happened.

To get to your flight data, go to: https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/
... where you'll find instructions to upload the data to that site and it will give a report
For help interpreting the data you can post a link for the report here.
Or just post the .txt file.

https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/L8AUI1IFHJ3KHQ262GRY

Thanks! The drone at least hovered in place.  It marked home incorrectlly by about 75m. I am closer to the house when I took off.

FearlessFlightpaths Posted at 12-2 17:42
https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/L8AUI1IFHJ3KHQ262GRY

Thanks! The drone at least hovered in place.  It marked home incorrectlly by about 75m. I am closer to the house when I took off.

Hi,

Had a look at your flight.

At take-off the GPS reception was zero. (just 5 satellites and zero for reception)
First part of your flight in OPTI mode, after 17.6 seconds in flight GPS reception to 4, thus HomePoint set. See the picture for the HP location. (YourPoint in my chart)

This can become really bad, if you fly away from your takeoff spot, and seconds later HP is set in flight (above water....) a possible disaster is born....If drone is disconected it will fly back home but not to you but to that spot above water!

At the end you lost connection, if your MM2 is in good order it will perform a RTH.
Your RTH height setting is high for this flight  ; 328 feet.
MM2 will climb first to that height before flying towards HP.
I have no clue about the wind that height, in general at height more wind.
If your MM2 could not fight the wind....it will drift backwards away from home.

But the last record is 694 seconds after the disconnect and your MM2 is still at the same distance and height, that is weird as it should enter a RTH after 11s of disconnect.
Your first error in the log a compass error :  "Compass error. Ensure there are no metal or magnetic objects near the aircraft and calibrate it before use".
Without a good compass it cannot perform a RTH, so mayby that is the reason why it just hovered and hovered.

Second thought in the last record the batt value is still 94%, same as the value before the disconnect, so this line if data is not correct.
My conclusion: it drifted away or it could not find home due compass error.

Sorry for your loss.

PS data in chart in meters.
cheers
JJB

If the phone has a problem you still have RC control, so you have to press the return home button in the controller for it to return an then land normally when it's at your line of sight.

RH can autoland, but better do it manually when possible.

Did you have the drone set to ‘RTH’ or ‘Hover’ in the safety page?

In my case, I got lucky, and it was found by my nephew in the snowbank above where it was last seen flying. Covered in snow, but no damage at all. I gave him 20 bucks for plowing through snow up to your thighs.

Ergo, DJI owes me 20 Canadian Pesos, a small, reasonable loss. I appreciate the condolences ;)

So just to confirm I read that right. @JJB I did see that, and may be why it fooked right off initially, and we couldn't see it after it lost connection. It went vertical unexpectedly to a height on a grey day I wasn't expecting it to. We started scrambling around looking for it, it was WAY up there, it would seem...

If this is the case, I have to admit pilot error, and will take a lot more care with the pre-flight checklist from now on, including a good RTH and RTH height. This is the root of the problem, and I fixed it in the settings.  I still take issue with the hardware!

Of course, after this incident, I also read about calibrating the unit. I have not done this yet. Also pilot/rookie mistake. Totally my fault. I still take issue with the hardware! ;)

@TDZHDTV It was set to RTH, not hover. JJB I think nailed all the reasons it went awry.

As for the fault I place on the hardware? It does not have a "chirp" button mapped to the Flight Control Stick by default. This is KEY for an idiot like me. I may mod the unit to do just this with a LORAWAN equipped Pi-0. I can put up to a 2 ounce speaker easily on this unit if I were to register it as a modified unit. FOGHORN!

Also, as JJB mentioned, the drone should NOT ever be in a position to assign a "random" RTH point. You should be forced to calibrate your compass before leaving a range of 50 feet. You should be forced to manually reposition the drone for better GPS coverage before it spins up. Both of these cases would likely have provided me with a drone replacement under the Care Package.

Finally, just in general about flying near bodies of water. The app should be able to be told to avoid bodies of water by 10m so that you have to confirm BEFORE you fly that the drone is allowed to go over water.

All of this can be fixed be making the pre-flight checklist more prominent and MANDATORY before it even spins up, or before it is allowed to leave your line of sight in almost any situation. If DJI is listening, how many lost drones can be saved by fixing your software? It would do the right thing and place responsibility for your new pet drone on the pilot.

............

Ironically, some of the things I suggest  the drone does, but not til after you are already in the air.

As for the DJI fly app, the zoom I was at was not showing anything when I took off. The mapping data was incomplete. When in map mode, the drone took off today while showing my home location as over the water in the map. But in the log viewers, it will show the correct on the land position.

This was due to me being at a zoom level on the map and using a Sat overlay. So another thing to check before flying anywhere. Drone shouldn't spin up without warning you the map is not yet downloaded.

Maps should be aggressively cached on all the different zoom layers.

https://www.phantomhelp.com/logviewer/E9VUB33G9LPK9SN7VICZ

doesn't help in this situation because it doesn't tell anything about what maps were cached in the app during flight does it?

FearlessFlightpaths Posted at 12-3 16:06
Ironically, some of the things I suggest  the drone does, but not til after you are already in the air.

As for the DJI fly app, the zoom I was at was not showing anything when I took off. The mapping data was incomplete. When in map mode, the drone took off today while showing my home location as over the water in the map. But in the log viewers, it will show the correct on the land position.

All these things you say SHOULD be forced upon the pilot - you will find a hundred pilots, probably in the US, who say nothing should be forced upon the pilot. As for checks, make up your own checklist and follow it, chief among them to wait until the aircraft confirms it has set the home point. As for: Maps should be aggressively cached on all the different zoom layers. , many flyers do not have cell reception while flying and cannot therefore receive maps. I, for one, never use maps.

I would say that your hundreds of USA pilots that who talk about freedom know little about personal responsibility.  Owning a drone is right up there with owning a dog, or a gun. You should know a bit about it, and may be some rules attached (responsibilities). In Canada, I am alive, simply, at the pleasure of Her Majesty the Queen and her representatives. Having a gun or a drone or a dog here is a privilege, not a right.

As things stand, I can see a major lawsuit potentially because of even just the issues I present in this thread, in a different (urban) scenario and in a worse than this case situation. That alone should should give DJI pause to think long and hard about their departmental budget priorities (safety dept.), and fix them as best they can.  This is my first "high end drone". The learning curve was almost a 600CDN peso mistake.

And maps can be precached for hundreds of km in any direction over wifi with google maps already having offline maps functinality built into the API. So, Dji, why don't my maps download as a bundle as part of the setup process?

FearlessFlightpaths Posted at 12-3 18:45
And maps can be precached for hundreds of km in any direction over wifi with google maps already having offline maps functinality built into the API. So, Dji, why don't my maps download as a bundle as part of the setup process?

Well, for a start, you cannot choose whose maps you see, that is a choice for the software app developer, not you. And, DJI being cost concious, does not use Google Maps anyway, because if they did, every time you looked at their maps, DJI would be charged a fee, and DJI are too cheap to go for that idea. Hence they use the much cheaper Here maps.

FearlessFlightpaths Posted at 12-3 14:48
In my case, I got lucky, and it was found by my nephew in the snowbank above where it was last seen flying. Covered in snow, but no damage at all. I gave him 20 bucks for plowing through snow up to your thighs.

rgo, DJI owes me 20 Canadian Pesos, a small, reasonable loss. I appreciate the condolences ;)

I also read about calibrating the unit. I have not done this yet. Also pilot/rookie mistake.
A common rookie mistake is to imagine that recalibrating things is necessary or will actually improve anything. (It won't).

Also, as JJB mentioned, the drone should NOT ever be in a position to assign a "random" RTH point.
You should learn more about your drone before you presume to be able to tell DJI how to program it.
Here's your first free lesson ...
Your drone will record its home point as soon as it gets good GPS location data.
If you are impatient and launch before getting GPS, your drone will record a home point somewhere down the track when it does get GPS.

You should be forced to calibrate your compass before leaving a range of 50 feet.
Why??
I still haven't ever ccalibrated anything on a drone I've flown >4000 miles in 4 years and it flies perfectly.
Whatever you think you know about compass calibration is probably wrong.

You should be forced to manually reposition the drone for better GPS coverage before it spins up.
If you wait for GPS before launching, you'd realise pretty quickly if your launch spot was unsuitable.

Drone shouldn't spin up without warning you the map is not yet downloaded.
The map is 100% unnecessary and many flyers don't use it or don't have internet available where they fly.
What should they be forced to do?

I can see a major lawsuit potentially because of even just the issues I present in this thread, in a different (urban) scenario and in a worse than this case situation. That alone should should give DJI pause to think long and hard about their departmental budget priorities (safety dept.), and fix them as best they can.
You have a lot of forceful opinions for someone that's never flown before.
Maybe hold off on your opinions until you understand a bit more about what's involved.
DJI have been in the game a long time and sold many drones.
I'm pretty sure that their legal counsel has a good idea of what he's doing without needing your help.

Maybee you should be nicer to new people here? THAT is in DJI's best interest. I'm done. You have my input.

FearlessFlightpaths Posted at 12-3 20:35
Maybee you should be nicer to new people here? THAT is in DJI's best interest. I'm done. You have my input.

Well, you are new here..and welcome! But Lab.. is a bit of a "taking a while to get used to", like all geniuses. Tempermental? Sure. Brilliant? Sure also. Just roll with his punches, and you are ok ;-)

FearlessFlightpaths Posted at 12-3 20:35
Maybee you should be nicer to new people here? THAT is in DJI's best interest. I'm done. You have my input.

Sorry to have upset you with a few facts.

And he very rarely apologizes, like above ;-)

GaryDoug Posted at 12-3 21:04
And he very rarely apologizes, like above ;-)

There's rarely anything I need to apologise for.
Particularly in the case of an oversensitive beginner that doesn't like hearing that he doesn't know everything

Labroides Posted at 12-3 21:11
There's rarely anything I need to apologise for.
Particularly in the case of an oversensitive beginner that doesn't like hearing that he doesn't know everything

It was a joke. Come on, notice the wink.

FearlessFlightpaths Posted at 12-3 18:30
I would say that your hundreds of USA pilots that who talk about freedom know little about personal responsibility.  Owning a drone is right up there with owning a dog, or a gun. You should know a bit about it, and may be some rules attached (responsibilities). In Canada, I am alive, simply, at the pleasure of Her Majesty the Queen and her representatives. Having a gun or a drone or a dog here is a privilege, not a right.

As things stand, I can see a major lawsuit potentially because of even just the issues I present in this thread, in a different (urban) scenario and in a worse than this case situation. That alone should should give DJI pause to think long and hard about their departmental budget priorities (safety dept.), and fix them as best they can.  This is my first "high end drone". The learning curve was almost a 600CDN peso mistake.

The maps look like they are rendered by Here Technologies one of the largest mapping companies in the world.  They probably limit the features to reduce distractions.  And the maps can be pre-cached by zooming in on the area prior to flying and will remain in the DJI Fly app after you have done so.  DJI has elected not to enable the feature in the app to cache a map of the region.

The advantage Americans have is if our drone get stuck hovering because we make a pilot error and do let the Home Point set prior to take off is we can shoot down the drone and have our dog go recover it.

@JohnLietzke At least you are a responsible dog owner. The dog needs to be trained properly for that.

Let's forget responsible gun owner and say I have my doubts about shooting it down at 100m into the air. The thing is silentish in a hover and on an overcast grey day, grey drone is a challenging target to even see if you lose track of it at that height. Difficult skeet target. Drone Skeet Shooting, the sport of billionaires everywhere.

Is the RTH not saved automaticcally default when power on the drone?
In my opinion should save RTH default 2 positions > 1st priority to controller and 2nd to GPS if controller failed. Until you change this.

FearlessFlightpaths Posted at 12-3 14:48
In my case, I got lucky, and it was found by my nephew in the snowbank above where it was last seen flying. Covered in snow, but no damage at all. I gave him 20 bucks for plowing through snow up to your thighs.

Ergo, DJI owes me 20 Canadian Pesos, a small, reasonable loss. I appreciate the condolences ;)

Perhaps using a bit of common sense on your behalf would prove useful, instead of trying to lay the blame at DJI, the drone/specific settings. Instead of being in such a rush to start flying, educate yourself a little and you may not encounter such mishaps in the future. It's not difficult, really.

MARTINEZX Posted at 12-4 00:22
Is the RTH not saved automaticcally default when power on the drone?
In my opinion should save RTH default 2 positions > 1st priority to controller and 2nd to GPS if controller failed. Until you change this.

Is the RTH not saved automaticcally default when power on the drone?
Your drone will automatically record its home point as soon as it gets good GPS location data.
If you are impatient and launch before getting GPS, your drone will record a home point somewhere down the track when it does get GPS.

Uuuum with my Mavic 2 and MM they will only go to a very limited height if they do not have sufficient satellite locks, I may have seen a distance limit too, is this not the situation with the Mini 2?
As I am surrounfed by trees the drones often have to get up a bit before they see enough satellites and they often bump against this 'ceiling'.

MARTINEZX Posted at 12-4 00:22
Is the RTH not saved automaticcally default when power on the drone?
In my opinion should save RTH default 2 positions > 1st priority to controller and 2nd to GPS if controller failed. Until you change this.

In order for the Home Point to be set it requires a satellite lock which takes a minute or two.  It requires a sufficient to get precise location.  In the old days only 3 satellites were used to form a triangulation, while this it worked it was only accurate to about 50m.  By gather more satellites data from 10 satellites it is accurate down to < 1m.

FearlessFlightpaths Posted at 12-3 22:24
@JohnLietzke At least you are a responsible dog owner. The dog needs to be trained properly for that.

Let's forget responsible gun owner and say I have my doubts about shooting it down at 100m into the air. The thing is silentish in a hover and on an overcast grey day, grey drone is a challenging target to even see if you lose track of it at that height. Difficult skeet target. Drone Skeet Shooting, the sport of billionaires everywhere.

It was sarcasm, shooting down a drone even if you own it is a serious violation of the law and could easily be construed as an act of terrorism.

In the future wait for the satellite icon in the upper right corner to turn from red -> orange -> white before taking off.  You should also get prompt saying the Home Point is set.

This issue was completely your fault and not a DJI problem.  You garnered negative responses as you went on tirade prior to having the facts.  Also, you defeated your own argument of responsibility by not taking the time to understand how your drone worked and doing your diligence before flying.

Labroides while not tactfully is incredibly knowledgeable and a great resource when a problem occurs.  You are lucky he is not the type to hold a grudge because at some point in the future you may need his expertise.

You can still able to RTH safely when you cell died by control using your remote controller.

@JohnLietzke

Knowledge is useless if the person that has it is an asshat. Someone may be a fooking rocket scientist and useful as hell. But if they can't communicate in a civilized manner, all that utility is garbage, because they treat everyone like ...e.

Being new to DJI, and getting responses like I have has been a negative experience here so far, because of the shockingly low level of responsibility people here associate with drone ownership, from the comments in this thread.

If I have strong feelings about ownership of such a dangerous item, it is from an abundance of caution. Seeing people here reject responsibility is both shocking and dismaying.

And to the people who are screaming "NOT DJI'S FAULT". Yeah I said that already. I said the issue was mine mainly, and having to repeat it because you don't read stuff is annoying as fook.

Also a shoutout to JJB, who was both useful, knowledgeable and nice to me.

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 12-4 08:09
Uuuum with my Mavic 2 and MM they will only go to a very limited height if they do not have sufficient satellite locks, I may have seen a distance limit too, is this not the situation with the Mini 2?
As I am surrounfed by trees the drones often have to get up a bit before they see enough satellites and they often bump against this 'ceiling'.

with my Mavic 2 and MM they will only go to a very limited height if they do not have sufficient satellite locks, I may have seen a distance limit too, is this not the situation with the Mini 2?

From page 40 of the Mini 2 manual:
Height is restricted to 16 ft (5 m) when the GPS signal is weak and Infrared Sensing System is enabled.
Height is restricted to 98 ft (30 m) when the GPS signal is weak and Infrared Sensing System is disabled.