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LOS at a 100ish feet, why? What am I doing wrong?
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2943 42 2017-6-19
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fans3c8754d6
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Hi all, I'm new around here but I did do some reading before posting.  I'm not finding much and thought I'd ask directly.   We have a park near the James River that is some what wooded and I'd like to fly here, but every time I get LOS and then it returns home.  I've got a quick video here to illustrate.


I'm the guy in the middle near the orange cone.  You can see the point that is stops responding and starts to RTH.  I was able to re-establish connection on its way down by turning off my controller, and then turning it back on.  


2017-6-19
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bomberuk
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are you flying with the gimbal cover on,thats a bad idea because it restricts the air flow to the fan thus causing over heating ;)
2017-6-19
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RCNJ
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Unsure pal but is that the gimble cover flickering on screen ? The sun can stop it if facing towards sun but don't know why it would rth...
2017-6-19
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ProQuad
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Fans3c8754d6,
LOS is Line Of Site and was a little confusing the way you have it.  No biggie, I figured it out, but for future use.
If your gimbal cover was on, please remove it before each flight.  There is a fan that needs to run to help cool the internal components.  
As far as the RTH are you running the latest firmware?  Have EVERYTHING calibrated?  The IMU (cold IMU calibration), compass, vision systems, camera, remote, etc?  Have the latest DJIGO4 app?

If all of this is up to date and you still have issues, contact DJI support, they may want to have you send it in to have a look at it.
2017-6-19
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Thecavemankevin
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Yes, I forgot to take the gimbal cover off.  Normally don't do that.

I thought LOS was loss of signal...sorry about the confusion.

Yes, it is running the latest firmware and Go4 app.  I'll re-calibrate it and try again tomorrow if the weather is good and report back (come to think of it, it has been a while since it has been calibrated).
2017-6-19
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levani27
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Thecavemankevin Posted at 2017-6-19 09:38
Yes, I forgot to take the gimbal cover off.  Normally don't do that.

I thought LOS was loss of signal...sorry about the confusion.

I had same issue yesterday in Darlington park in Canada, Ontario.  Couple days ago I did fly near lake Ontario with no problem at all.  I'm loose connection near in 10-20 meters!!  Could be very strong  radio interference, amount of GPS satellite dropping from 17 to 3 simultaneously.  Have nothing else to say, there is a nuclear station nearby.
2017-6-19
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Ex Machina
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Thecavemankevin Posted at 2017-6-19 09:38
Yes, I forgot to take the gimbal cover off.  Normally don't do that.

I thought LOS was loss of signal...sorry about the confusion.

Don't calibrate anything unless prompted to do so.

Are you getting warnings about signal interference? Does this happen at other locations? Does the remote view screen show low signal?
2017-6-19
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AG0N-Gary
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If I'm not mistaken, you lost signal right overhead.  I doubt it would cause the problem when you were only a few dozen feet above you, but did you re-orient the antennas when you were overhead?  I'm assuming that's you with the controller at the middle of the path opening.  The overall behavior doesn't look like loss of signal.  RTH would have landed it right where it was, since you were so close to HOME, assuming you took off near where you were standing.  You obviously didn't lose signal, because you turned it 90 degrees (toward the trees) before landing.  With RTH activated, it would turn toward home, climb to RTH set height, move to overhead home, and drop down for landing slowly.  Something just doesn't add up.

By the way, LOS to many of us raised with NASA lingo, interpret LOS as loss of signal.  AOS is acquisition of signal.  Pretty natural confusion on today's world.
2017-6-19
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Thecavemankevin
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Ex Machina Posted at 2017-6-19 09:55
Don't calibrate anything unless prompted to do so.

Are you getting warnings about signal interference? Does this happen at other locations? Does the remote view screen show low signal?

No, i've not been prompted to re-calibrate.  But I think i'll do a compass re-calibration anyways.

Now, this is a brand new mavic (just bought at sams club earlier that day).  This is my second mavic as my first one (which exhibited the same problems several times prior at the same park) crashed for a similar reason a week ago.  I have it insured (not DJI care) and they paid full replacement value.  But the new one that you see in this flight did not ask for compass calibration.

The previous mavic was flying in a slightly woodier location half a state away (I should have had it in tri-pod with RTH off, i've learned my lesson now).  I was right beside it, it lost signal and started to ascend to 150 ft (my RTH height) and clipped some tree branches.  

I've now had this lost connection on two different mavics when I'm very near by.  I've had it happen with the antenna both in a direct vertical position and at a 90 degree position.
2017-6-19
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Thecavemankevin
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AG0N-Gary Posted at 2017-6-19 10:07
If I'm not mistaken, you lost signal right overhead.  I doubt it would cause the problem when you were only a few dozen feet above you, but did you re-orient the antennas when you were overhead?  I'm assuming that's you with the controller at the middle of the path opening.  The overall behavior doesn't look like loss of signal.  RTH would have landed it right where it was, since you were so close to HOME, assuming you took off near where you were standing.  You obviously didn't lose signal, because you turned it 90 degrees (toward the trees) before landing.  With RTH activated, it would turn toward home, climb to RTH set height, move to overhead home, and drop down for landing slowly.  Something just doesn't add up.

By the way, LOS to many of us raised with NASA lingo, interpret LOS as loss of signal.  AOS is acquisition of signal.  Pretty natural confusion on today's world.

I took off from right about where I was standing and where it landed.  The entire flight was about 2 minutes.  I took it out over the river and had control until you see movement stall at about 7 seconds on the video.  Then at 18 seconds (after loss for ~10 seconds) you see it automatically ascend as it is RTH.  At that point in time, I waited until about 30-33 seconds and shutdown my controller.  Then turned it back on.  
I hit the pause button on the controller at 48 seconds when I reestablished connection.  I then manually guided it down for landing.  

I didn't look at the controller at the time to see what the signal/gps connection were like.  I do know that I also was not able to have streaming video on my phone (samsung Note 7, less than a year old) for 90% of that flight.  Basically about the same time I lost connection originally.  

I hope this clears up any confusion
2017-6-19
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GTstrudl
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In the video provided, I have seen couple things at least I won't do:

1. I won't fly MP overhead. At that moment, your RC antenna tips point to MP. This might trigger RTH.
2. I always fly MP with my RC antenna extended facing the MP. I saw you facing East while MP flew South.
3. While MP in the air, I will maintain and make sure there is no obstructions, buildings, or trees between my RC and MP.

Good luck. I think both of your MP are function OK
2017-6-19
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Thecavemankevin
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GTstrudl Posted at 2017-6-19 10:56
In the video provided, I have seen couple things at least I won't do:

1. I won't fly MP overhead. At that moment, your RC antenna tips point to MP. This might trigger RTH.

I'm not quite sure I understand what you're talking about?  By MP, you mean mavic pro?  In this instance, my controller antenna are pointed toward the mavic and I was facing it the entire time.  As a reminder, I'm on the sidewalk near the orange cone, not on the dock.
2017-6-19
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GTstrudl
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OK, ignore my point #2.

My point is if you fly MP (Mavic Pro) in an open field your successful rate would be much higher. In your case, you were surrounded by trees almost 340 degrees.
2017-6-19
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Thecavemankevin
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GTstrudl Posted at 2017-6-19 13:21
OK, ignore my point #2.

My point is if you fly MP (Mavic Pro) in an open field your successful rate would be much higher. In your case, you were surrounded by trees almost 340 degrees.

Got it, and to my point, what are the settings some people use with success to fly in these kind of conditions?  

Same i guess could be said for indoors too where GPS is poor or non-existent.  
2017-6-19
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Ex Machina
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Thecavemankevin Posted at 2017-6-19 10:27
No, i've not been prompted to re-calibrate.  But I think i'll do a compass re-calibration anyways.

Now, this is a brand new mavic (just bought at sams club earlier that day).  This is my second mavic as my first one (which exhibited the same problems several times prior at the same park) crashed for a similar reason a week ago.  I have it insured (not DJI care) and they paid full replacement value.  But the new one that you see in this flight did not ask for compass calibration.

So no warnings about signal interference?
If you want, you can upload your flight records to https://healthydrones.com/main?a=upload and let us take a look.
2017-6-19
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Thecavemankevin
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Ex Machina Posted at 2017-6-19 14:35
So no warnings about signal interference?
If you want, you can upload your flight records to https://healthydrones.com/main?a=upload and let us take a look.

Nothing that I noticed.  I'll try and pull the logs tomorrow.  I'll also try and go back to the same park and do another flight after compass re-calibration
2017-6-19
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Ex Machina
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Thecavemankevin Posted at 2017-6-19 15:15
Nothing that I noticed.  I'll try and pull the logs tomorrow.  I'll also try and go back to the same park and do another flight after compass re-calibration

An improperly calibrated compass will have zero effect on signal. You can also view the warnings for your flight in the DJI Go 4 app under general settings.
2017-6-19
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Thecavemankevin
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Another question is why is this happening?


It is pretty common for me to have connection via the RC, but nothing on screen (note, I've mostly had this in similar, wooded or slightly wooded conditions).   Note, this picture what taken indoors, but not flying.
2017-6-19
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Ex Machina
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Thecavemankevin Posted at 2017-6-19 15:44
Another question is why is this happening?
[view_image]

If you are inside, then it's likely that GPS signals can't reach your Mavic and it switches to ATTI mode.

Another thought about your Android device connectivity problem -- have you tried swapping out cables and/or checking for pocket lint in your phone's jack? A few people have reported problems with pocket fluff causing bad connections, and a few more have reported having flaky cabling.
2017-6-19
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Pilot747-4
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Thecavemankevin Posted at 2017-6-19 15:44
Another question is why is this happening?
[view_image]

I have this problem very often. Usually after RC connection loss or after tuning RC off and on. Solution: disconnect cable from the phone or from the RC (whatever is more convenient for you) and connect it again. You'll get your RC connection back in the app. My DJI Go (latest version) is running on Android.
2017-6-19
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DroneFlying
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Given the short distance and lack of obstructions between you and the aircraft there's nothing obvious about this flight that would explain the loss of connection. Have you tried flying in other locations and, if so, have you had similar problems when you did? If it works fine elsewhere then it's probably a problem with the environment, but if the behavior is consistent then it's most likely a hardware problem.
2017-6-19
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seeker_ktf_
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Two things.  First, was the gimbal bracket on also?  That could cause overheating too.

The other this is, when you say the antennae were pointing at the Mavic, do you mean that the antennae were "flat" against the Mavic or actually pointing at it.  I'm just checking.  In general, flaying close to overhead is potentially bad, ad the Mavic's antenna are really orientated to be able to get the signal from a more horizontal rather than vertical position.  So the combination of bad remote antennae placement and almost overhead could maybe cause a problem.
2017-6-19
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Thecavemankevin
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I found this video last night with best practices and it was quite helpful.  I think it could have been bad antenna placement in my original video, but I'm not 100%  I've been trying to be better about putting them at about 90 degrees from the controller.  But now I really get it thanks to this video:




I did take the mavic out today to the same park and had a good experience.  No major disconnects (except when I went out about 5000 ft + in distance).  But RTH brought it back and I was able to get control quickly.  However, toward the end of the battery, i had it back out over the water in the same area and I was in about the same area and while I had pretty good control 50-100 ft away, it was very laggy.  Meaning i'd rotate and a few seconds later it would rotate.  The video was about 10-15 seconds behind at that point too.   I was also use the new mavic's controller instead of my original mavic's controller like in the original video
2017-6-20
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Thecavemankevin
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Ex Machina Posted at 2017-6-19 15:56
If you are inside, then it's likely that GPS signals can't reach your Mavic and it switches to ATTI mode.

Another thought about your Android device connectivity problem -- have you tried swapping out cables and/or checking for pocket lint in your phone's jack? A few people have reported problems with pocket fluff causing bad connections, and a few more have reported having flaky cabling.

Thanks for the tip, I'll double check
2017-6-20
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Thecavemankevin
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Pilot747-4 Posted at 2017-6-19 16:40
I have this problem very often. Usually after RC connection loss or after tuning RC off and on. Solution: disconnect cable from the phone or from the RC (whatever is more convenient for you) and connect it again. You'll get your RC connection back in the app. My DJI Go (latest version) is running on Android.

Thanks for the tip, I'll keep this in mind and try it next time.  I've usually just turned off then on the RC.  
2017-6-20
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Griffith
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ProQuad Posted at 2017-6-19 08:40
Fans3c8754d6,
LOS is Line Of Site and was a little confusing the way you have it.  No biggie, I figured it out, but for future use.
If your gimbal cover was on, please remove it before each flight.  There is a fan that needs to run to help cool the internal components.  

LOS is Line Of Site and was a little confusing the way you have it.

To avoid confusion, most people here have started using VLOS (visual line of sight) and LOS (loss of signal).  

Someone needs to post a recommended acronym list :-)
2017-6-20
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seeker_ktf_
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Thecavemankevin Posted at 2017-6-20 08:13
I found this video last night with best practices and it was quite helpful.  I think it could have been bad antenna placement in my original video, but I'm not 100%  I've been trying to be better about putting them at about 90 degrees from the controller.  But now I really get it thanks to this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7M9JtfVwQE

Exactly.  Directly overhead with the antennae pointing "at" the Mavic is about the worst possible signal reception situation.  

I keep forgetting about all those videos.  It's great that you came back to post your solution.
2017-6-21
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hallmark007
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Thecavemankevin Posted at 2017-6-20 08:20
Thanks for the tip, I'll keep this in mind and try it next time.  I've usually just turned off then on the RC.

Are you by any chance in beginner mode.
2017-6-21
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Zamboon
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Griffith Posted at 2017-6-20 11:54
LOS is Line Of Site and was a little confusing the way you have it.

To avoid confusion, most people here have started using VLOS (visual line of sight) and LOS (loss of signal).  

From Grumps on this forum back in February:

AC = Aircraft

AGL = Above Ground Level

AMA = Academy of Model Aeronautics

AMSL = Above Mean Sea Level

ARTF = Almost ready to fly

ASL = Above Sea Level

ATTI = Attitude

AUW = All Up Weight

BNF = Bind n Fly (transmitter)

BTU= Blue Tooth Unit

BLOS = Beyond line of sight

BVLOS =Blocked Visual Line of Sight

Cal= Calibration

CA = Collision Avoidance

CAA = Civil Aviation Authority (UK Regulator)

CAAS = Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (Singapore Regulator)

CL = Course Lock

CSC combination stick command

DJI = Da-Jiang Innovation

ESC= electronic speed controller

FAA = Federal Aviation Administration (US Regulator)

FPV = first person view

FRZ - Flight Restricted Zone

FS = Failsafe

GHz = Giga-hertz

GLONASS = Global Navigation Satellite System (Russian Satellite Navigation System)

GPS = Global Positioning System

HL = Home Lock

IR = Internal Resistance

IOC = Intelligent Orientation Control

IMU = Inertial Measurement Unit

LHCP = Left Hand Circular Polorized

LiPo = Lithium-Polymer (battery)

LOS = Line of sight

MC = Main controller

NFZ = No Fly Zone

MHz = Mega-hertz

MSL = Mean Sea Level

Nicad = Nickle Cadmium

NOTAM = Notice to Airmen

OA = Obstacle Avoidance

OP = Original Poster

POI = Point of Interest

RC = Remote Control

RHCP = Right Hand Circular Polorized

RTF = Ready to fly

RTH = Return To Home

RTM = Read The Manual

Rx = Receiver

SFRA = Special Flight Rules Area

SOC = State Of Charge

SUA = Small Unmanned Aircraft (What the CAA call what we fly)

SUSA = Small Unmanned Surveillance Aircaft (What the CAA call what we fly)

sUAS = Small unmanned aircraft system (what the FAA calls what we fly)

Tx = Transmitter

UAV = Unmanned aerial vehicle

VLOS = Visual line of sight

VRS = Vortex Ring State

VTx = Video Transmitter

VRx = Video Receiver

VPS = Visual Positioning System

WOT = Wide Open Throttle
2017-6-21
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Griffith
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Zamboon Posted at 2017-6-21 03:42
From Grumps on this forum back in February:

AC = Aircraft

Thanks   
2017-6-21
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fans9ffe2d5d
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Zamboon Posted at 2017-6-21 03:42
From Grumps on this forum back in February:

AC = Aircraft

Thank you for the list
2017-6-21
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Lucas775
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Are you on beginner mode?
2017-6-21
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DennisMurry08
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Hey Fans...so, Ive had the blank screen on my Droid/Ios ...what I found is if you dont clear the app after using it, sometimes it hangs...meaning hit the button on the phone that shows all the apps that are still running in the background...usually the double window button on the bottom right on the droid or tap the button twice on Ios...you'll see everything thats cached...clear the Go App then go back to the main screen and enter the Go app again....I cant say thats the problem but it has worked for me several times...now once I shut Mav down I also clear the app on what ever device I'm using...hope thats all it is.
2017-6-21
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Thecavemankevin
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hallmark007 Posted at 2017-6-21 02:55
Are you by any chance in beginner mode.

noooooo  (sorry, have to hit 10 character minimum to post)
2017-6-21
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Thecavemankevin
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DennisMurry08 Posted at 2017-6-21 07:07
Hey Fans...so, Ive had the blank screen on my Droid/Ios ...what I found is if you dont clear the app after using it, sometimes it hangs...meaning hit the button on the phone that shows all the apps that are still running in the background...usually the double window button on the bottom right on the droid or tap the button twice on Ios...you'll see everything thats cached...clear the Go App then go back to the main screen and enter the Go app again....I cant say thats the problem but it has worked for me several times...now once I shut Mav down I also clear the app on what ever device I'm using...hope thats all it is.

So do you mean you clear the cache after each flight, or simply fully close the app in between flights (or when you don't get video feed back to the phone?
2017-6-21
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UCBarkeeper
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Pilot747-4 Posted at 2017-6-19 16:40
I have this problem very often. Usually after RC connection loss or after tuning RC off and on. Solution: disconnect cable from the phone or from the RC (whatever is more convenient for you) and connect it again. You'll get your RC connection back in the app. My DJI Go (latest version) is running on Android.

the solution is to take another cable and use the other usb port on the RC
to the topic:
i don't really get the signal loss. this should not happen at that distance, doesn't matter if the antennas pointing to the aircraft.
maybe re-pair the rc?
2017-6-21
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UCBarkeeper
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and jesus set your rth altitude higher or you will end up in a tree.e: in case you had enough distance for the whole "go up" part of rth.
2017-6-21
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Deepfreeze
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I've had frequent disconnects /LOS when using a samsung tab A. Switched to a samsung Tab s2 and no issuses. Recently used my Nexus 6P, and it also has no isssues. I've flown in heavy wooded areas over 1km away and had no degradation of signal. Try another device to see if it helps.
Here's my last flight:


BTW, the two folks in the canoe were with me , flight was alittle jerky due to my guests asking me a ton of questions . Apparantly I can't walk and chew gum at the same time.

2017-6-22
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fanscdfb5121
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I posted a similar thread where I get frequent disconnects. The one thing that seems to be working for me is putting my phone in Airplane mode. When I do that everything seems to work fine.
2017-6-22
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ProQuad
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Griffith Posted at 2017-6-20 11:54
LOS is Line Of Site and was a little confusing the way you have it.

To avoid confusion, most people here have started using VLOS (visual line of sight) and LOS (loss of signal).  

Griffith,
I stand corrected.
2017-6-22
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