Wow...

Today I wanted to shoot some video for my steph mother (sort of).
Drove 35 km to do that, found a fairly nice spot to takeoff & land the champ and went for it.


Getting more confident, I had little issues making her fly a bit higher and the first runs were promising.
She was, again, greeted by swallows, so I made her dive away a couple of times.
After a couple of minutes their curiosity was over and they went on doing their thing.


Me too.
Alarm! Battery level too low.
First time return to home.
No problem at all, but first time, so to say "no sweat".... no....
But all went well. Worked like a charm.


Packed with another battery, what could stop me from sending her into the sky again?
Nothing, so that was exactly what I did. By the way.... I landed her on a nice piece of clean concrete to spare my hands ;)


Crash!
No not the drone, the fly app (IOS), gone...
I could barely see the little fellow she had climbed fairly high by now and she was also at a good distance.
She did have a fresh battery and did respond to the controller...
restarting the app did not help, well, the app started, but no video, no position, no orientation no maps.... shoot!

One issue I have with the app is that the red messages are only partly readable (field too small). It never bothered me, for normally I could guess what was meant, but now.... well I think the controller was not connected.... (it said "controller not"... something).
The drone still seemed to listen to the controller, so the obvious thing was my phone. That also made sense given the fact that I did not see anything.


Could not really see what orientation the drone was by watching it, so I walked a while to get near. She had a fresh battery so she would probably last a while for now. Eventually by trial & error I found out what direction she was facing and could bring her in.


Pffffffffffttttttt.


Experimenting a little when she was on the ground again it seems that my cable between the controller & phone is faulty...
I see no replacements in the dji store? Not in the accessories for my device at least?
That is a bad surprise after a not so good afternoon (but not so bad either, could have been worse).


Gee... unreadable error messages and no replacement cables in the accessory list is not something I would expect from DJI...Perhaps I look in the wrong place.

For my ronin gimbal virtually everything can be replaced, I thought.

See if I can find some cable that should work, despite being too long probably

In retrospect, I should of course have brought her back with the RTH function on the controller…..
Should be there, isn’t it?

Yup, if you still had controller function, then the RTH can be activated with the button, and the controller should be giving an audible tone to indicate that it is in this RTH mode.   I haven't had to replace my iphone to RC cable, but there are many available on the typical "auction" sites that will work.  I'm surprised that DJI doesn't list this accessory.

Well…..

A lot of fuzz about nothing?

This was the screen when the phone did not work:


But testing at home with a different cable it worked again.
Good! The diagnosis was correct.... I think.

Reattached the original cable...:


Works too now?
Huh?

I'm puzzled

djiuser_STWpPmJ8Qb8r Posted at 9-14 08:58
Yup, if you still had controller function, then the RTH can be activated with the button, and the controller should be giving an audible tone to indicate that it is in this RTH mode.   I haven't had to replace my iphone to RC cable, but there are many available on the typical "auction" sites that will work.  I'm surprised that DJI doesn't list this accessory.

Thanks!
Did see some TPS too…

Come to think of it…. I did restart my iPhone when I got home (Apple Maps was weird)
Would that have resolved the issue?

I had a similar problem when flying off a canoe.  I got water in my charging port which was preventing the phone from connecting to the controller.  After a few minutes of futzing with the port I decided to bring her in manually.  What a major pain in the behind....  In my situation RTH was not a good course of action as it would have brought the drone back upriver.

Next summer I will be investing in a waterproof case, as I have had water in my charging port a few times this season.

Hannibal_ Posted at 9-14 11:13
Come to think of it…. I did restart my iPhone when I got home (Apple Maps was weird)
Would that have resolved the issue?

Next time if it happens, try disconnecting the cable then reconnect and see if that works, doesn't mean you have a dodgy cable, that probably works just fine.

Always good practice to reboot the phone prior to a session

Hello there Hannibal_. I am sorry for the trouble this has caused and thank you for reaching out. Kindly please try checking our DJI Where To Buy platform on this link ( https://www.dji.com/where-to-buy ) to see if those cables that you need are available. In addition, I hope that you can get some recommendations from our DJI Co pilots with regards to this inquiry. Thank you and please be safe always.

I had something happen similar when using my old Samsung tablet for the first time with my new Mini 2. Everything was ok until the drone got to full speed in sport mode and 4k video and then the screen went blank. Fortunately I was used to these drones by then and just pressed the RTH button. The tablet was just too slow to keep up with the faster cache video rate and crashed the app. I gave the tablet away with my 2nd Mini since it worked fine for that slower video done.

Hannibal_ Posted at 9-14 08:37
In retrospect, I should of course have brought her back with the RTH function on the controller…..
Should be there, isn’t it?

RTH is the easiest way, if no visual at all. You can always interrupt RTH when the drone is in sight.

The RTH knob on the controller works even when you app has crashed.

The cable is one of the culprits. Screen goes black&white and nothing moves. Had that with my first drone as the cable came loose of my gsm.

Do not panic. Just press RTH and the drone will come back to you.

Frank Alonso Posted at 9-14 11:29
I had a similar problem when flying off a canoe.  I got water in my charging port which was preventing the phone from connecting to the controller.  After a few minutes of futzing with the port I decided to bring her in manually.  What a major pain in the behind....  In my situation RTH was not a good course of action as it would have brought the drone back upriver.

Next summer I will be investing in a waterproof case, as I have had water in my charging port a few times this season.

Thanks!

I am not sure if this was the case but I will keep it in mind

Bashy Posted at 9-14 16:01
Next time if it happens, try disconnecting the cable then reconnect and see if that works, doesn't mean you have a dodgy cable, that probably works just fine.

Always good practice to reboot the phone prior to a session

Being an IT guy, of course I did that several times.
It did not help though.

DJI Stephen Posted at 9-14 20:01
Hello there Hannibal_. I am sorry for the trouble this has caused and thank you for reaching out. Kindly please try checking our DJI Where To Buy platform on this link ( https://www.dji.com/where-to-buy ) to see if those cables that you need are available. In addition, I hope that you can get some recommendations from our DJI Co pilots with regards to this inquiry. Thank you and please be safe always.

ok... I think

GaryDoug Posted at 9-14 20:30
I had something happen similar when using my old Samsung tablet for the first time with my new Mini 2. Everything was ok until the drone got to full speed in sport mode and 4k video and then the screen went blank. Fortunately I was used to these drones by then and just pressed the RTH button. The tablet was just too slow to keep up with the faster cache video rate and crashed the app. I gave the tablet away with my 2nd Mini since it worked fine for that slower video done.

I use an iPhone XR.... would it be to slow ?

JohnDG Posted at 9-14 21:11
RTH is the easiest way, if no visual at all. You can always interrupt RTH when the drone is in sight.

The RTH knob on the controller works even when you app has crashed.

yeah... I really should have thought about the RTH button on the controller.
especially since the battery level initiated RTH went so well, right before.

my screen did not went black and white though, but it was the first screendump I posted.

DJI Stephen Posted at 9-14 20:01
Hello there Hannibal_. I am sorry for the trouble this has caused and thank you for reaching out. Kindly please try checking our DJI Where To Buy platform on this link ( https://www.dji.com/where-to-buy ) to see if those cables that you need are available. In addition, I hope that you can get some recommendations from our DJI Co pilots with regards to this inquiry. Thank you and please be safe always.

there appears to be a shortage.... most are out of stock (except for 1 that charges 30 euro inc shipping!)

No sweat, I have a backup cable that is too long but will do the trick for now.
Ali still had them, purchased a couple there.

Hmmmm no issues at all today with the original cable.
I think the app crash caused something to go bad in my phone.
Apple Maps was weird after that too.

Before I tried the cables again I restarted the phone.

DJI Fly 1.4.8 make blank screen & restart, I have same issue drone was not far to me...
Never have that before the last DJI 1.4.8

Hannibal_ Posted at 9-14 21:18
ok... I think

Hi there Hannibal_. You are very much welcome and if you have any other inquiries or concerns with DJI. Please feel free to post it here at DJI Forum. We are all here to help and assist you. Thank you.

DJI Stephen Posted at 9-16 20:04
Hi there Hannibal_. You are very much welcome and if you have any other inquiries or concerns with DJI. Please feel free to post it here at DJI Forum. We are all here to help and assist you. Thank you.

Nothing much… just wondered why you did not have something essential like the cable in your store.

No sweat, I ordered it from Ali by now (2), probably not nessesary since the original cable still works and it seems to be another issue.

Still, no offense, I would expect you to have replacements in your store. Since it is so essential, you see…
You do offer stickers and fun stuff, why not a decent solid certified cable?

That was all….. but still very happy with your company and service in general