Hello again guys,

I'm tired of losing signal while 20-100 meters away... It's been 5 days since my Mavic Mini has arrived. While the bad weather is already frustrating me, I barely had opportunity to fly 3-4 (short) times, however I couldnt finish even an errorless one. I even faced with the flyaway risk on my 1st flight  because of 50% my overconfidence 50% overtrust to Mavic Mini. (It was 50-10 M away in apen area anyway)

The point is, as a relatively newbie user, I saw that this forum is hosting many professionals and DJI team members. My question is simple I believe (I understand that solutions may not be as simple) : Why the hell I am getting bunch of random looking errors and why I cannot establish a solid GPS coverage in an open area? If the errors would be salt grains, Mavic Mini would definitely be the SaltBae...

Anyway, I learned how to get the logs thanks to you, and uploaded them to the Phantomhelp Log Viewer. Also I added my phone screen recording for you to see the errors realtime maybe for diagnosing better. I can also add anything needed if you ask, I just wanna solve my problem and fly more than 100meters smoothly. Sorry about my typos and non-native English.




Here's my screen recording, the logs below are belong to this flight.


This log is showing 00:00-01:42 of the video above. I just landed back for checking whats wrong with the gimbal.
https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/I7EDE0MZDI83DP6QYFVH/

This log is for 01:42 in video
https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/VXN9SRVVQ9GZQGFLC64D/

And this log is showing after 11:00 on the video. I was just trying 5.8G to check if 2.4Ghz is the problem.
https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/YNPIUGX4TYI8T6HVEV6M/

As you can see in the video, I didn't even go there

Wrong route is drawed

That's it guys, what are your thoughts? What am I doing wrong while people are going 3 k,lometers away? edit: links are made clickable

ANOTHER AWKARD THING IS  (you probably won't beleve it)

That guy comes nearby me was a total random guy, saw me flying a drone and asks what am I doing. It turns out he also just bought the Mavic Mini and wanted to make his first outdoors flight in that field LOL   

More funnier is, we tried his drone afterwards, and the situation was the same with second drone. I can also share his footage as well, if needed.

1) You need to remove the gimbal protector before powering on your MM.

2) You need to orientate your antenas correctly.

3) Fly higher away from wifi interference.  

When you see sensor error or any errors with a red background, you should land it, restart, and re-calibrate. It seems that when you have sensor error, you lose GPS connection and that makes the drone unable to hold its position. It can easily drift with the wind. Luckily, you were able to bring it back with intermittent GPS connection.

I saw other people posted that Mavic Mini's gimbal can get stuck during the initial calibration when you turn on. The solution seems to be to pull it out and make sure it can move freely.

Even though you are flying in an open field, there can still be a lot of WiFi interference from surrounding buildings. Fly it close to you in this situation and avoid flying over roads or people, or close to buildings.

Have you tried refreshing/updating the AC and RC firmware with DJI Assistant 2  on you pc ?

https://www.dji.com/au/downloads ... toxUmcaAjI7EALw_wcB

Looks like most of the place is concrete which is notorious for interference. Another mini confirms it’s the place not the drone.

Hiya

Had a look at your flights;

#2 and 3 ; loosing GPS satellites and reception ; craft into ATTI mode. see charts.
Try to fly in an other area and see if the GPS numbers and reception stays steady.

cheers
JJB

You are literally in a concrete stadium.  The amount of metal in that concrete seating area probably affects any calibration you have done.  I agree with others, fly somewhere else and you will probably have more success.

I took my MIni to a place to fly, it got up about 20 - 30 feet and about 20 feet away from me, I lost video transmission and signal. I still had control so I landed it immediately. I restarted everything and tried again, same thing poor video and signal.

Packed everything up and went to a new location, everything worked fine.

I assume something in the area caused interference. I'll go back there when the weather warms up and try again.

Point is... don't assume it's the Mini especially if two units experienced the same issue.

It's really basic troubleshooting 101.

Around minute 4:20 you can see two tall antennas, also did you try putting the phone in airplane mode? it seems you were getting notifications in your phone that could be making signal deception weaker.

lannes Posted at 12-26 18:06
Have you tried refreshing/updating the AC and RC firmware with DJI Assistant 2  on you pc ?

https://www.dji.com/au/downloads/products/mavic-mini?gclid=Cj0KCQiA0ZHwBRCRARIsAK0Tr-o1Jbv6wvgJZQ4l2B_BlkTHvs37Vhs9p_Clp6T7xuaO55DhatoxUmcaAjI7EALw_wcB

I see this recommendation too many times.
Please explain what exactly this action is supposed to do.
It's a firmware. Either it works or not and if it wasn't installed properly the drone  wouldn't turn on.
If the firmware has a bug, it should be resolved by the developers. installing the same firmware or refreshes it won't make the bug go away.

As one of the drone beginner pilots, I've learned a couple of things which I put them below:
- (If possible) Always calibrate your drone compass before your fly the drone.
- Don't take off from the grass, you might get the error message for your gymbal. Always take off from a flat surface, to avoid error message of the gymbal.
- Don't take off / landing on the sandy surface as the sand particles will get inside of your DJI Mavic Mini.
- Download and always check the app called 'UAV Forecast' before you fly the drone. DJI Mavic Mini is very limited of 2 things, the WiFi connectivity and the wind gust. Even when the app says 'Good To Fly', if the wind gust is equal or more than DJI Mavic Mini max speed (Sport mode - around 40 km/h), don't fly the drone. You also need to have at least 10-12 satellites to have a good flight.

I also almost lost my DJI Mavic Mini during my 1st 'out of line of sight' flight, in a windy condition (wind speed around 30 km/h, however the wind gust was more than 50 km/h). The higher the altitude, the stronger the wind would be. The video link is https://youtu.be/oLdNpUAU0WU

FYI - even though in some regions, DJI Mavic Mini has a maximum distance of 4kms, I only manage to flown up to 1km (used an antenna booster and an altitude of 60m) in a dense population where WiFi interference does exist. You could find the footage in  https://youtu.be/xtycinBvle4

Also note that this drone is for beginner users only, like me. If you could lower your expectation of having a longer distance to fly (due to its WiFi connectivity) and able to fly in any situation (limitation of max speed when fly during windy situation), you will be able to enjoy the other benefits this drone offers (longer battery life, portability - small size, and others).

Hope it helps.

Hi. I am sorry for the trouble this has caused. With regards to the connectivity issue. I would recommend to please try a different location to isolate the issue. There could be a lot of interference in your location like the power lines, radio towers and metals. For reference, I will be posting an official DJI video tutorial for the best practices when flying the drone. Please keep us posted for further assistance. Thank you.

I've had the same issue regardless of where I have flown. Never had this problem with the P3, the Spark, or the Air. Hoping for firmware fix.

grahamjohnson10 Posted at 12-26 17:53
1) You need to remove the gimbal protector before powering on your MM.

2) You need to orientate your antenas correctly.

I think I should have write what I was doing and what I've tried at first.
Dude I'm not an idiot, or that noob.
* I remove gimbal protector
* I know  how to orient the antennas (lets say "I already do whatever dji video says"), and hold the RC relative to the drone.
* I cannot fly higher away since my connection is already bad and GPS is keep losing, so no guarantee of RTH works.

and @karlj

Yeah I would love to did that. But It was always gives me red background errors,  that's why I didn't land because if I land it, check everything, take off again, it@s giving errors again anyway.

seriously, I think there is something wrong with the new firmware update...
I have had my mini for a month now, no problem until two days ago when I updated the firmware and...…………………………….

it dropped from the sky suddenly breaking two propellers

don't understand what they were trying to fix.

InspektorGadjet Posted at 12-27 04:41
Around minute 4:20 you can see two tall antennas, also did you try putting the phone in airplane mode? it seems you were getting notifications in your phone that could be making signal deception weaker.

I really wish these would be the problem. However, I already tried disabling all WiFi/BT/Data on this and other locations, unfortunately didn't help.

And we were also suspecting about the antenna towers but that stadium is like unofficial take-off place of almost all drone pilots in the school. I even asked a few guys and they said the towers doesn't make any problems at all (also interesting for me)

@HomePoint  @JJB
Guys thanks for your precious comments, I really wouldn't think that construction metals in the concrete. But do you really think that metals that far away still affects GPS system? Or a flag pole while passing near let's say?

I tried my Mini on different locations as well, It always did that losing the gps thing. I really don't understand how it can lose the GPS satellites when there is literally nothing above it   I totally understand that my (RC) signal may be lost because of anything, but how on the earth a drone can lose gps signal that often? I also cannot test the RC signal lost issue because of that, because I lose the RTH guarantee if I lose GPS also while losing RC signal on purpose for testing.

I am in the same boat, my mini cant fly more than 200m in distance no matter where I fly.
I lose signal and the drone returns to the home point. Tried so many places around the city, didn't help. Antennas positioned well, phone in airplane mode, all calibrated etc...
Honestly I dodnt even need to fly more than 300m, but its frustrating  because I often start to lose signal at like 50m, and the video is laggy and choppy, cant do anything.

HomePoint Posted at 12-27 02:59
You are literally in a concrete stadium.  The amount of metal in that concrete seating area probably affects any calibration you have done.  I agree with others, fly somewhere else and you will probably have more success.

From video, drone and pilot were to far away from stadium seating to cause interference.
Unless there is ferrous metal or power lines running under grassy field that might cause calibration problems.

the1shark Posted at 12-27 04:41
I see this recommendation too many times.
Please explain what exactly this action is supposed to do.
It's a firmware. Either it works or not and if it wasn't installed properly the drone  wouldn't turn on.

For some inexplicable reason, this is not the case with DJI products.  They are prone to "partially broken" firmware flashes. Some functions might end up not working properly (or even not show up at all) while everything else works as they should. This is why there is a way to "force" (re)flash the drones. And absence of a similar option for the Osmo Action is causing all sorts of issues...

I still don't know how a firmware flash can act so "analogue", so to speak, but reflashing helped me a couple times with my Mavic Air before...

the1shark Posted at 12-27 04:41
I see this recommendation too many times.
Please explain what exactly this action is supposed to do.
It's a firmware. Either it works or not and if it wasn't installed properly the drone  wouldn't turn on.

That is way it should be.  Either firmware was successfully installed or it wasn't.  

DJI's firmware installer absolutely should verify proper install, nullifying the advice to try re-installing firmware.

Speculation as to why - all of drone's firmware may not be updated every time.
Firmware is installed in pieces as required for update.
Firmware may require previous firmware be installed prior too.
Different parts of firmware may get installed based on revisions of drone's hardware sub-components.


Then there is - It gives the pilot something to do.  

CemAygun Posted at 12-28 00:41
For some inexplicable reason, this is not the case with DJI products.  They are prone to "partially broken" firmware flashes. Some functions might end up not working properly (or even not show up at all) while everything else works as they should. This is why there is a way to "force" (re)flash the drones. And absence of a similar option for the Osmo Action is causing all sorts of issues...

I still don't know how a firmware flash can act so "analogue", so to speak, but reflashing helped me a couple times with my Mavic Air before...

I understand the explanation but everyone here should be asking themselves,
how do we know the firmware was installed properly even after reinstalling it from Dji assistant..

the1shark Posted at 12-28 01:11
I understand the explanation but everyone here should be asking themselves,
how do we know the firmware was installed properly even after reinstalling it from Dji assistant..

That is the problem, we can not. As HedgeTrimmer said above, normally the software should verify the firmware after a flash, and I am not sure it does. And even then, there have been insidences of firmware getting corrupted later on (I have seen quite a few cases reported involving Osmo Action).  That's why forcing a reflash is one of the methods people resort to when something is not working properly, just in case..

lannes Posted at 12-26 18:06
Have you tried refreshing/updating the AC and RC firmware with DJI Assistant 2  on you pc ?

https://www.dji.com/au/downloads/products/mavic-mini?gclid=Cj0KCQiA0ZHwBRCRARIsAK0Tr-o1Jbv6wvgJZQ4l2B_BlkTHvs37Vhs9p_Clp6T7xuaO55DhatoxUmcaAjI7EALw_wcB

I did this with mine with great success

the1shark Posted at 12-28 01:11
I understand the explanation but everyone here should be asking themselves,
how do we know the firmware was installed properly even after reinstalling it from Dji assistant..

how do we know the firmware was installed properly even after reinstalling it from Dji assistant..

Honestly we don't know.  We can only test.


Several of us have been down road of re-flash or re-update of firmware.  

Along with reverting to previous firmware version, then trying a firmware upgrade, followed by testing.  Real fun is when you jump back two revisions, then go forth.


Two things that might help when doing updates.  

Make sure you have a decent internet connection.  Connection needs to be stable and resonablily fast.  

If download of firmware occassionaly slows way down or stops; you may want to wait a while and start over.  Been indications that DJI's firmware server(s) were having problems or their end of internet (coming into country?) were having issues.

problems with weak gps signal or not enough available satellites <8
they started with my mavic mini after the update  
01.00.0400 - both Aircraft & RC Firmware.
All this limits the distance, attractiveness and quality of the shot. Turns the money we gave into an unnecessary item. For $ 500 at all, how dare we dream of a 2km (4km) safe flight?
Is not it like that?

Refresh everything using the Assistant 2.