Hello folks

I have a question related to the DJI FPV Drone.
During flight in manual mode, sometimes, the drone automatically drops out of manual mode and gives the error message: uav too high / far

I can't figure out what the problem is. I was flying in an empty field, about 12 meter over ground, 60 meter away from me with direct line of sight.
What does that error mean and how can I avoid it?

Thanks for your help. :-)

Do you have a screen shot of the exact message?   There is a message like that if you are low on battery and your a distance away.

DAFlys Posted at 12-14 02:00
Do you have a screen shot of the exact message?   There is a message like that if you are low on battery and your a distance away.

I sadly do not because the osd is not recorded from the goggles or the drone. I would need to put a camera into the goggles and take a picture when it happens.
The message does not say much more, only "manual mode disabled: UAV too high / far"

The battery must have been at least at 60% and at that distance I cannot imagine this to be the issue.

More information which might be relevant:
The drone was in attitude mode - so manual mode but I could not do any flips or rolls.

I was flying in a zone where the altitude was restricted due to the Geo-Zone from DJI.
I was nearly not at that altitude yet, but maybe there might have been an interference with that?

Level: Altitude Zones
Type: Airport
Max. Altitude (m): 60

I just realized something. As said I was flying in the Altitude Zone.

By the Swiss law, where I was flying I would be allowed to fly up to an altitude of 150 Meters.
In most countries in Europe for drones you have a max altitude for drones of 120 Meters
The Geo Zone Map gives a max Altitude of 60 Meter (sometimes it shows the correct 150 Meters, other times only 60... I don't understand why...)

The airport is at 510 Meters and the spot where I was flying is at around 570 Meters - so 60 Meters difference.

I always assumed, that the max altitude guidelines are above ground at the spot where the drone is at the very moment.
The altitude for the DJI Drone is set to 0 Meter where it starts - so the altitude of the drone is not actually over ground but over starting position. If the terrain changes, then the shown altitude is not correct anymore - but basically nobody cares about that.

So here are two possible things that might have happened:

Hypothesis 1: Mid flight Update of Geo Zone Map:
When starting the drone, it checked the Geo Zone Map and read 150 Meters max Altitude.
Midflight the drone got an updated max Altitude of 60 Meters and this change triggered the warning and the Drone disabled manual mode.

For this to be possible, the drone would have to check and update the Max. Altitude it is allowed to fly on a regular basis. Just as it does with the GPS-Location and checking the allowed boundaries of the Geo Zone Map. I do not know if this really happens in real time but it might.
If this turns out to be true, propably every change in the max Altitude data results in that behaviour (60 Meters => 150 Meters and 150 Meters => 60 Meters).

Hypothesis 2: Max. Altitude over Airport and not over Ground
The Max Altitude for DJI Drones is calculated over the Airport and not over the Ground. Since I was flying in a place located higher than the Airport, the max Altitude of 60 Meters from the Geo Zone Map might in reality have been way less Meters over ground for me, resulting me to reach the max Altitude limit at around 12 - 15 Meters over ground.

I do not believe this to be the case because it would require the max Altitude parameter to be calculated over the Airport - which as far as I can remember from my original DJI Mavic is not the case...

Hey there!

Are you carrying camera like gopro on the DJI FPV ?

i had the same problem once due to interference while at high speed .

MAF178 Posted at 12-14 06:00
Hey there!

Are you carrying camera like gopro on the DJI FPV ?

Hi

No, the drone just as it came out of the box... I only did all updates and tweaked the drone settings to enable manual mode. It was it's first flight. The error also happened on the second flight.

Hello there Silverhammer92. I am sorry for the trouble this has caused and thank you for reaching out. May we please know what is the model of the mobile device you are using please and kindly please fly your DJI FPV drone to a different location to see if the issue will still persist? The said DJI drone might have picked up magnetic interference from the area. That might be the reason why you are experiencing these issues. In addition, I will post a diagram on how to get optimal transmission for your DJI FPV. Thank you.

Hi Stephen

Thanks a lot for your reply.
I use a Oneplus 8 Pro as my mobile device, but it was not connected to the goggles while this error happened.
Also the remote antenna was in the right position and obviously I was flying in front of me... 60 Meters should not be an issue in any way ;-)

@DAFlys
@DJI Stephen

As you can see in the screenshot, the distance was very close to the home point (where I am standing) and the altitude was also way below the allowed 60 Meters. Also interferences or any problems in the connection or in the hardware can be ruled out with a very very high propability.
You can also see with the warning message, that there might have been airplanes flying and the drone did warn me of those. So it might be possible, that those warnings trigger the drone to exit manual mode.


This is another screenshot from the same flight when the drone did automatically exit manual mode, in the detail view I can see very shortly the message "Reaching max altitude or approaching Geo Zone. Unable to enter M Mode."

I assume this error happens because the switch on my controller is still set to manual mode and therefore the drone tries to enter M Mode but is not allowed.
If this is correct, then this does reinforce my initial assumption, that the drone somehow did think the Geo Zone limit was reached / changed and therefore stopped manual mode.


The last screenshot shows the Geo Zone from the location I was flying in. You can see that it is allowed to go to 60 Meter altitude and that the line to the next zone on the top is about 300 to 350 Meters away. In that zone you could go up to 150 Meters of altitude
The yellow zone at the bottom is a warning zone in which you need to unlock with a licence to fly in the zone. That zone also has a max altitude of 60 Meters and is about 200 Meters away.

DJI Vasily_2 Posted at 12-16 13:01
Hello there Silverhammer92. I am sorry for the hassle this has prompted and thank you for accomplishing out. May we please know what is the version of the mobile device you are the use of please and kindly please fly your DJI FPV drone to a one-of-a-kind region to look if the difficulty will nonetheless persist? The stated DJI drone might have picked up magnetic interference from the place. That might be the cause why you are experiencing these troubles. In addition, I will post a diagram on how to get the optimal transmission in your DJI FPV. Thank you.

The Screenshot shows my current Android Version (no Updates made since the flights)

I will update you as soon as I will be able to fly somewhere else... Maybe Sunday...

Hi Silverhammer92, any luck?I too am having the same issue around 260 ft (80 meters).

• Fly in manual mode with atitutde limit disabled (flips, rolls, full control), at multiple locations.
• Drone "air breaks" as if I hit the panic button with the same message in goggles "UAV too high"
• Switch the drone to Normal or Sport mode and I can climb higher without any problems (this should rule out any magnetic interference or GEO zone restrictions)
• DJI support says I need to send it in using repair process so they can troubleshoot further.
• Sounds like a firmware or software defect in my opinion...
• There was a recent geo database update I just applied, I'll report back if that miraculously fixes anything.
  

Can someone who flies in Manual Mode with the DJI FPV drone confirm if they have the same problem?

djiuser_BJ9d06rOgBcv Posted at 1-3 08:30
Hi Silverhammer92, any luck?I too am having the same issue around 260 ft (80 meters).
Fly in manual mode with atitutde limit disabled (flips, rolls, full control), at multiple locations.

Updated the GEO database and still having the same problem.
This time I toggled back to Manual mode after reaching the "too high" message and I was able to climb up to about 320 ft before the drone kicked me out of manual again.

I did some more testing in different locations.
I could reproduce the same behaviour a few times but I cannot really say if it is due to the geo-zones or for other reasons.

All tests have been performed under very similar circumstances.
That is:

• I always had a clear line of sight and flying distances below 300 meters of distance and 60 meters of altitude when the problem occured.
• The weatherconditions were always pretty good. No high winds or rain or anything of that sort.
• Interference of any kind can be rouled out because I had the same error in remote places (Swiss mountains).
• All equippement was always fully charged and the drone still has less than 10 flights with no crashes.
• All Updates have been made, also the Geo-Zone Updates.
  

To summarize my tests (all relates to manual mode):

• I had good flights up to 700 meter of distance and 200 meter of altitude with no problems (in Altitude Zone with max Altitude 150 Meter)
• I had the drone breaking out of manual mode with the error message "UAV too high / far" in the following situations:
  

• When flying in Berne in a Altitude Zone (60 Meters) somewhat near the border to another Altitude Zone (150 Meters).
  This border of Geo Zones has a strange behaviour on the PC (see below)
  The distance and Altitude were very small (up to 60 Meters of Distance and 20 Meters of Altitude)
• When flying in Grindelwald on the Eiger Mountain.
  Please note that while this is just a unmarked Zone in the DJI Geo Zone Map, it is a restricted Zone by Swiss Law (and yes, I got permission). The distance was around 300 Meters and Altitude at approx. 60 Meters. As said, according to the DJI data, this is a unmarked Zone, so no restrictions should apply to the drone.
  

The strange behaviour of the Geo Zone on PC:
There might be some funny stuff going on with the Geo Zone Map (at least online on my PC). You can clearly see in the screenshots, that The Zone which should devide the max Altitude 60 Meter Zone (lower part) to the max Altitude 150 Meter Zone (upper Part) does not always show the right value when clicking on a spot of the max. I do not know what causes this.
This propably is not realted to the error but might still be worth checking out.



My first assuption was, that this might happen because of crossing a Geo Zone. But if thie Online Map is also the one used from the drone, then in Grindelwald this cannot have been the cause.
I assume "UAV too high / far" refers to the drone I am flying and not to another plane or helicopter (UAV = Unmanned Air Vehicle, right?)
Since both places I had problems are somehow near a restricted zone with other airplanes / helicopters, maybe another manned vehicle flying around might have caused the problem? I did not see or hear any plane or helicopter (or other drone) in every scenario, but I cannot rule this out 100%.

If another air vehicle was the problem, then the follow up questions would be:

• how close must it be to interrupt manual mode?
• why is the error message "UAV too high / far" and not something like "MAV too close"?
  

Please note that all flights in restricted zones have been made with the permissions of the authorities controlling the airspace.
I do not endorse any violation of controlled airspace.

flowfinderFPV Posted at 1-3 09:13
Updated the GEO database and still having the same problem.
This time I toggled back to Manual mode after reaching the "too high" message and I was able to climb up to about 320 ft before the drone kicked me out of manual again.

What where the circumstances you are flying in? What geo-zones are you in and is there anything in here to which you can relate to?

DJI Stephen Posted at 2021-12-14 19:02
Hello there Silverhammer92. I am sorry for the trouble this has caused and thank you for reaching out. May we please know what is the model of the mobile device you are using please and kindly please fly your DJI FPV drone to a different location to see if the issue will still persist? The said DJI drone might have picked up magnetic interference from the area. That might be the reason why you are experiencing these issues. In addition, I will post a diagram on how to get optimal transmission for your DJI FPV. Thank you.

[view_image]

Isn't there a documentation about the Error "UAV too high / far" which states what causes this error to happen?

Silverhammer92 Posted at 1-3 11:11
What where the circumstances you are flying in? What geo-zones are you in and is there anything in here to which you can relate to?

Hi Silverhammer92, according to several different "GEO zone" maps im not in any restricted zones. I live near near an old airpark (uncontrolled airspace) that doesnt even show on the maps but I do get a warning message in my headset to fly with caution once I cross that geo zone.

Im starting to see other posts online of people having similar issues and it seems theyre all near a geo zone when it happens.

I have issues like this but I use drone hacks nfz blocker and it has helped alot but still occurs in an area of my town that has a 400ft capped limit, but with the nfz and altitude hack I can fly to infinity in theory, highest ive gone is 3k ft. But in a very small sector of this large air space if i enter in manual above 300ft it kicks into that error M mode not available. Until I descend a few feet or leave that airspace which I believe is about a football field or two across.

From my drive way in can only fly to 230ft in manual mode with my hack, and only 60 without it. But I can fly infinity high in Normal mode with the hack.

It has issues but im just glad to have the hack that allows me to fly in manual mode almost anywhere and i wont be messing with it to fix these small issues.

Same problem here when flying in manual mode! I have this issue sometimes after updating the database! I was rather high but later when I got to the same height I did not get the message!

Could it has something to do with the updated database?

How is this not answered yet? I'm having the same problem where I cant fly manual over 60ft.

I wish we would get a list of what causes the error message UAV too high / far.
At least we could check those causes and figure out if we can change something or if it is just a bug...

I am having the same issue! First time it happened I was in a geo zone and thought that had something to do with it so I just went and did a couple of test flights in wide open space with zero geo zones or controlled airspace close by and had the same issue. It was weird though it did it several times throughout the flight but I was able to go back into m mode and fly after getting the error!? Not sure what is causing this but DJI needs to come up with a solution!

Have the same trouble.

have same problem on  dji fpv drone , "manual mode disabled: UAV too high / far"
when like 80M away and 80M  up,  when using  N or S mode can fly well beyond vlos and no signal issues.,
when in M mode ,length of flight time before error occurrences varies which is odd , especially flying at same location, which is at a RC Flying cub strip.
got so fed up ,  tried many  firmware .....no change,, this issue has gone on far to long, Please DJI look into you flight controller code and fix the incorrect routines.

Same Problem here. Got a GoPro mounted. After the warning message, I could only go up and down, no luck trying to fly forward, backwards, left or right. Nothing. Fortunately the Drone was not above the water (I was flying around a dam) so I could wlak underneath the drone and catch it safely.

Lost a bit of trust in the device. And not finding any documentation on this warning message in the manual or online with dji is anoying.

Hope this gets solved!

Cheers!

The problem is still here.
Will it be solved?