Hi all,

I hope you can help me. During a small flight today which was no longer than 7 minutes my AC seemed to be disconnected a good few times. Looking at the flight log there is no "error message" to be seen. However, you can see the message downlink restored appearing for 15 times.

If I remember correctly, there was an onscreen message (on the phone (Samsung Note 8), upper left corner) mentioning "disconnected" or something similar, but I was still able to control the AC (AC screen all normal) with my RC and brought it into my direction to land it. During this process, the message (on my phone) kept on disappearing and appearing over and over again but yet, I was able to control the AC. I just didn't have any video link. (just a grey screen). I always fly LOS so I was able to bring it back.

However, at minute 5:10 (on the log) it happened again, only that this time the RC screen (not the phone) stated: "reconnecting". At this stage, I was not able to control the AC any longer and it went into RTH mode as you can see from the log. This maneuver lasted for around 11 seconds until the RC was connected to the AC again and I was able to gain control.
I only had one previous quick flight before so the RC's battery was at 80% during this exact flight. The AC had a full and new battery.

Before take off I have updated my home point, I've checked the compass to see if there was any interference (normal pre-flight check) but everything was just fine. From the logs, I am unable to see any strange behavior so I am wondering what could have caused this issue? I personally was also free from any kind of metal, bracelet, wallet, watch etc.

Other than that, I have not gotten any other onscreen messages mentioning any interference or whatsoever. I am also on the latest FW on every device.

Feel free to have a look at the flight log here --> click me

I would be very thankful for any kind of help or thoughts on this.

Thanks.

Does anyone have any thoughts on the above? I am planning a trip in a few days to the mountains and wouldn't feel comfortable if this would happen again. I am not concerned about a fly away as I set my home point accordingly but having the AC disconnect a few times is not as enjoyable as a flight should be.

Thank you all.

I am a bit disappointed but will give it one more try.

Looking at my post here with nearly 100 views and not a single answers leaves me a bit baffled. Either my detailed text is too long, people don’t know the answer or just can’t be bothered to help. This is the part where I see more answers to questions which can be easily found on Google (like “where are these settings?” or “how to turn off this function?”) instead of some answers to some proper issue questions. Don’t get me wrong, each question is valid but I hope you get the point. I did my research and was not able to find any good answer/solution to my issue and was hoping for help from you, the community. Even if someone just could push me in a certain direction, this would already help a lot.

Besides that, the Mods aren’t that helpful either. In another far less important thread, another user and I got recommended to contact the Mods, but they can’t be bothered to answer at all.

Thank you all.

Hi Marian, sorry for the late response as I just read your post. Generally, the grey Disconnected means that the controller and mobile device do not connect well, but the drone should be still under your control. Re-plug or change the USB cable will figure it out. According to your description, the second "reconnecting" should be the connection between aircraft and controller. You can try to adjust the antennas or change to another location without interference to verify.

DJI Susan Posted at 2018-3-11 01:19
Hi Marian, sorry for the late response as I just read your post. Generally, the grey Disconnected means that the controller and mobile device do not connect well, but the drone should be still under your control. Re-plug or change the USB cable will figure it out. According to your description, the second "reconnecting" should be the connection between aircraft and controller. You can try to adjust the antennas or change to another location without interference to verify.

Hi Susan,

Thank you for your reply. The issue still persists. I have now moved locations for a couple of hundred kilometers. It sporadically comes and goes during the same flight. So far since the issue started I did not have any flight without the issue.
I have tried another cable, I have tried the USB connection on the bottom of the remote but no changes.
Sometimes the downlink just disconnects (grey disconnect) sometimes (on the same flight) the RC disconnects completely from the AC. I went flying today in two different location with the same issue and adjusting antennas did not help either. Of course as soon as the RC disconnects I don't have control over the AC any longer.
I have checked each flight log and there is no error message at all. The only message shown is still "downlink restored".

Besides that, I am also getting a compass error a few times while flying (which is weirdly enough not shown in the flight log). I bring the AC back, calibrate the compass even though it did not ask me to do so and fly again. The same error happens, actually both errors (disconnect and compass but both individual). This only lasts as well a couple of seconds. This has happened on two different locations. Both of those locations were free from any surroundings as it was over the ocean and in the mountains.

Any other thoughts on how to fix that?

Thank you.

Marian Posted at 2018-3-13 14:20
Hi Susan,

Thank you for your reply. The issue still persists. I have now moved locations for a couple of hundred kilometers. It sporadically comes and goes during the same flight. So far since the issue started I did not have any flight without the issue.

Thanks for the clarification. What's the distance when you got the disconnected reminder? If it appears in a close distance, I'm afraid that this can not be addressed out remotely, please kindly start a case and send it in for diagnosis: https://www.dji.com/support

DJI Susan Posted at 2018-3-15 03:17
Thanks for the clarification. What's the distance when you got the disconnected reminder? If it appears in a close distance, I'm afraid that this can not be addressed out remotely, please kindly start a case and send it in for diagnosis: https://www.dji.com/support

Thanks for the reply Susan.

As you can see from my flight log in the first post it happened at 4m 37.4s and the distance was 93.0ft at 61.0ft altitude. So pretty close as I am mostly not fly further than 600 feet anyways. The last flight described was at a distance around 490 feet and less than 190 feet altitude.
Today I calibrated my IMU, Gimbal and wanted to calibrate the compass when I am out in the field as well to have everything checked, but didn't have the chance to fly yet.If the issue still persists even after all this, would that be considered a close distance as you mentioned and should I open the support ticket?

Marian Posted at 2018-3-15 11:48
Thanks for the reply Susan.

As you can see from my flight log in the first post it happened at 4m 37.4s and the distance was 93.0ft at 61.0ft altitude. So pretty close as I am mostly not fly further than 600 feet anyways. The last flight described was at a distance around 490 feet and less than 190 feet altitude.

Well noted, thank you! Please refer the link in my last reply for starting a case. The local team will take care when they received the unit.

Marian Posted at 2018-3-15 11:48
Thanks for the reply Susan.

As you can see from my flight log in the first post it happened at 4m 37.4s and the distance was 93.0ft at 61.0ft altitude. So pretty close as I am mostly not fly further than 600 feet anyways. The last flight described was at a distance around 490 feet and less than 190 feet altitude.

Yo man, did you ever get this issue figured out? I have the Note 8 and never had this problem until a month or 2 ago with my Mavic Pro. I haven't tried switching the cable to the bottom USB RC port yet but don't imagine the wire being the problem...

FADEDXX Posted at 2018-5-16 14:29
Yo man, did you ever get this issue figured out? I have the Note 8 and never had this problem until a month or 2 ago with my Mavic Pro. I haven't tried switching the cable to the bottom USB RC port yet but don't imagine the wire being the problem...

Hi Fadedxx,

It weirdly enough has stopped. I did every possible calibration, from IMU, over compass, to controller etc and now using the USB port on the bottom of the remote. Since then it never came up again.

Strangely, I did all these calibrations before and changed the cable but back then the error still appeared. Not sure what has changed since I personally didn't do anything else other than doing a compass calibration somewhere completely new.

Give the cable and the bottom USB port a try and see how that goes.

Hello,

I also had problems where the app would be "disconnected" while the controller is still connected. Sometimes happend during flight, sometimes did not even want to connect at first go. Tried different cables, side port, bottom USB, all with random results.

I switch my Samsung galaxy S8+ to "developer mode". Go to Settings --> About Phone --> Software Information. Then tap "Build Number" 7 times.
Now, in developer options I untick "Verify apps via USB". Since then, not a single issue.

There is some other USB options in developer mode that can be played around with... i think the phone stops "file sharing" for some reason and then the app will get disconnected from the controller.

Hopes this helps

Regards
DJ