Feedback for Beta (Mini 3 Pro) - Performance & Stability Non-flight regime - UPDATED!!!! NOW FLOWN
Hello All:
I wanted to give some feedback as to non-flight regime software stability and performance status during my navigating of the Dronelink software while connected to my DJI Mini 3 Pro. Hardware/software listed below (as of 4-25-2023):
- DJI Mini 3 Pro with v01.00.0600
- RC-N1 Controller with v1.10.1
- Moto G Power 128GB running Android 12
- 128GB SD Card in both the Smartphone and Drone
- Dronelink DJI App (for modern DJI drones) v4.6.0 (254) Kernal 4.6.0
PLEASE NOTE: I HAVE NOT TEST FLOWN THE DRONE - THIS IS A STATIC TEST AND I'VE NOT PAID FOR HOBBYIST OR PROFESSIONAL ACCESS. I was simply trying to connect my drone to the Dronelink app to get telemetry, camera image, and play with settings.
Issues Detected:
- Once connected to the drone and loading up the telemetry/map interface, going from menu to menu (camera, gimbal, etc.) causes a crash. This seemed to happen ONLY WHEN I was connected to a wifi source other than the drone's. In other words, if I disconnect from wifi sources (say my home's wifi) and the phone is only connected to the drone's wifi, this crash does not occur. So make sure you are not connected to any other wifi source when connected to the drone via Dronelink's app. This also must be done in order to use DJI's own Quick Transfer of files from the drone to your phone.
- DJI's Fly app definitely needs to be killed before using the Dronelink app. This has been already indicated but I can confirm it as well.
- Dronelink's app needs to be killed before using the DJI Fly app. If I do not kill the Dronelink app, DJI's Fly app will load but will not connect to the drone. The introduction screen showing the Connection Guide, Album, SkyPixel, etc. will only load and the drone will not connect to the DJI Fly app.
Interestingly, Map Pilot Pro also makes an app similar to Dronelink but I cannot use it as their website indicates the following:
- DJI has limited the Enterprise version to only support Android versions 7 through 11.
I can verify this to be the case with their app because as soon as the MPP app detects my drone, a message stating that my phone isn't compatible pops up (and indeed I am running Android 12).
I find it odd that DJI would not support the latest Android versions. Had I know, I'd not have updated my phone.
This is for now. I am hoping to purchase the Hobbyist Premium plan or become a Beta tester.
Anyway, hope this helps.
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Is there a changelog on the different beta builds?
Good morning, yesterday I did some testing with the latest version released. I resumed a flight plan that I had already mapped out. I use an Honor 90 , with Android 13, and a Mini 3 with RCN1 , On the first flight it gave me a camera error , the mission was finished, I restarted the mission same error and then I changed the mission speed from 17 Kmh to 10Kmh, unfortunately since then the app has stopped every time shortly after takeoff, the last few times it could not load because it said Dji Sdk initializing , when the mission started when it did the count in reverse it didn't arm the engines then suddenly after 15 seconds it armed the engines and took off, I had to finish and reload the mission, after so many attempts in the end it couldn't even load the mission anymore. In short, a real disaster.
Thanks for all the details. We have reported it to DJI and they are investigating.
DJI RC-N1: 04.14.0600
Mini 3 Pro: 01.00.0600
DroneLink: 4.7.0 (267)
Motorola Edge Fusion 20: Android 12 ( kernal 4.14.186+)
Mapping mission with some Orbits around POI, regarding stability: Poor.
Lots of crashes of the app at which point the drone would hover. Sometimes recoverable by restarting the app, other times this would result in "DJI SDK Initialization" and require me to force quit Dronelink and recover control by starting DJI Fly.
I was also seeing a lot of the "DJI SDK Initialization" error when first trying to connect dronelink app to the drone. Very sure DJI Fly was not running in the background. Force quiting dronelink, reconnecting the USB to controller / restarting the controller would eventually get it to work.
Unsure if the above issues are related, would love if someone could let me know what is the optimal order to force quit DJI Fly, turn on drone, turn on controller, link with USB to controller, start dronelink app is in case I'm just getting the order wrong?
Keep up the great work, let me know of any more specifics are of use. :)
Today I was editing my mission from within the app (drone and remote both turned off) and the app crashed. Obviously I have no insight into how the DL app is built, but the "DJI SDK Initializing" message offers me a clue that maybe the SDK is not always running when the app is? In this case, could the fact the app crashed when editing the mission and not flying it indicate that the SDK is not responsible for the crashes but rather the DL app?
I ask this of course with good intentions. I'd like to be useful in testing the beta and this crash was a bit unusual.
I also get crashes when viewing the 3D preview of my mapping missions.
Today it crashed with the os prompt (translated from german):
"Deinstall WebView-Updates?
[...] installed version of WebView lead to the crash of Dronelink DJI [...]"
It looks like the remaining crashes may be due to an incompatibility between Mapbox and the DJI SDK. Could you all please try running the beta with the map minimized (hidden) and see if it prevents the crashes? Our initial testing in this scenario looks promising but we need more results to be sure.
I tried a mapping mission with build 269 / Pixel 5 and map minimized (I pressed the "-" button at the top right of the map to hide it) and unfortunately had the app crash. A second attempt resulted in the same thing. The good news is that I can reconnect to the drone with the latest build, no more "Initializing DJI SDK" message. I was unable to try with a different device as it had started to rain, but I will try again later.
Bummer, back to the drawing board.
I have what I think is a bit better news:
I tried the same mapping run with build 269 / Pixel 7 Pro.
Attempt 1) I pressed start on the mission and minimized the map. The drone flew to altitude, started flying to the start of the mission and the app crashed.
Attempt 2) I restarted the app, minimized the map again, and also pressed the arrow next to the mission pause/play button to roll-up the additional mission informational display (I don't know what you call this). With both the map and informational display turned off, the ~26 minute mission flew over 90% before crashing. This crash was different than the others I had and maybe was just a one off. The drone stopped, gimballed to 0 degrees (video was still live) and while I was contemplating what had happened, the app crashed. I restarted the app and successfully completed the mission (the drone had to fly back to a saved pause point that was not quite where it had stopped).
Anyway, I don't know how much of that is useful, but certainly the stability seemed improved.
Kopi:
Having issues with MAPPING. The DJIMini3Pro is flying «stacato». The DL-App crashes during all my flights >10. When resuming the flight continue until another App-crash, but the MAPPING finishes with neccessary fotos taken.
We use RC-N1 and the Samsung Galaxy Tab (S7 FE) Android ver.13.
DJI reached out and said they will be starting a beta of 5.5.0 soon - which adds proper support for Android 13. Hopefully it will resolve the crashes.
Jim, in using an onn. 10.4 tablet pro (2023 version..android 13) it runs dji fly perfectly but obviously some crashes on dronelink beta and also signal loss when only less than 200 feet away. I love the large screen for flying, should I continue to try using dronelink so you guys get the crash logs or is the device not going to be compatible.
By July 18th the announcement of MSDK v5.5.0
https://developer.dji.com/doc/mobile-sdk-tutorial/en/
Looks like we have Android 13 support ++++…!!??
Waiting for the next BUILD to report progress.
Keep up the good work!
Stig. Pls read this whole thread carefully. U've obviously been told on Facebook about the July 18th announcement I believe ❤️🙏😂
It appears that the only path forward with DJI on this issue is to create a working, flutter-based, example app that reproduces the crashes. This means we are in the process of performing the major code-surgery required to separate the proprietary bits of Dronelink (account management, content loading, etc) from the bits that we have always wanted to open-source anyway (the flight dashboard, settings panels, map overlay, etc). This is a painfully tedious process that requires a lot of meticulous attention to detail and regression testing and it will take quite a bit of time so please be patient.
Good luck to you, hopefully you see a good return on investment for your work. Anecdotally, you will definitely be getting continued business from me with a stable release. I'm in a position where I'd like to be monitoring construction progress on a project but am restricted to a mini 3 pro due to proximity to a major airport. Basically Dronelink + post processing is the only way to do what I want to do.
Along these lines, have you been seeing any crashes from devices running android 10 or 11? I can downgrade my Pixel 5 and will do so if it means stability with Dronelink.
So sorry, good luck with it. If you happen to need anyone to test early betas I'm ready willing and able with my Mini 3 Pro and a variety of Android devices (Samsung S9+ Plus, Pixel 7 Pro and some old Samsung cheapie running Android 11). If email is better I'm my username @gmail.com.
I see in the Release Notes / Roadmap Spreadsheet the current Beta test version contains the item, "Corrected several issues causing app crashes". Interesting. Does this mean the crash fixes for MSDK V5 are being tested now in the beta, or are these some other crash fixes in the pipeline?
These were crash fixes that ended up being unrelated to MSDKv5. We are in bug hunt mode trying to prove or disprove the real cause of the crashes. These were the ones that were for sure caused by our code, but they were mostly rare and probably not seen by most users.
Salve
mini 3 pro, missione mappatura, account Elite.
Oggi ho provato a lanciare una missione con radiocomando RC N-1 collegato ad Tablet Lenovo M10 FHD Plud, 4 GB RAM Android 10. Non appena in quota errore Intervallo foto fotocamera Non riuscito, poi Crash continui.
Provo successivamente con Xiaomi 12, versione Android 13, parte regolarmente, avvia le foto e dopo 2 minuti crash.
10/15 giorni fa sempre una missione mappatura, con Xiaomi 12, missione all'80% circa, poi crash.
Esiste un modo per poter portare una missione fino alla fine?
Tried a mapping run with a Pixel 2 downgraded to Android 10 to see if an old version of Android would be any different. Unfortunately, the app still crashed. Surprisingly, the performance of the Pixel 2 was adequate even though that's quite an elderly device now.
Quindi, cosa dovrei fare?
There's not really anything to do, the beta is known to crash from time to time. I've taken to pausing and immediately resuming the missions frequently so that the last pause point updates and if the mission crashes I can quickly resume from that point.
I would require to do a shorter mission (around 30-40 seconds). In the current state, is that doable? I don't mind restarting mission if the app crashes, I just need to deliver.
I'd hardly call that a mission, what type of flight are you talking about
I'm taking video shots of a construction progression over time, so I need the flight to use precise waypoints. I'm currently using the RC controller, thusI have to get the RC n1 and an android device (using iOS for personal use). Therefor, I want to check, if it's even going to work before I buy the equipment
Not exactly sure what you mean by precision waypoints, but we don’t recommend buying Dronelink just to use the beta.
Considerando che, a quanto pare la maggior parte delle problematiche derivano dal collegamento ad internet del radiocomando collegato a Tablet o smartphone, mi chiedevo se fosse possibile procedere nel seguente modo:
1. creare la missione mappatura con la app da web
2. sul tablet poi, aprire la missione e salvare in modalità offline
3. collegare il tablet al radiocomando (RC N-1)
4. impostare il tablet in modalità aero (no collegamento a internet)
5. avviare l'app, collegarsi al drone e lanciare la missione.
E' possibile tutto ciò?
Inoltre, c'è possibilità di utilizzare un sistema ios tipo iPad al posto del tablet android?
Rispondo a Inglese Mauro, quello che dici tu l'ho già provato senza successo, l'app va in arresto ugualmente di continuo, quindi sono arrivato alla conclusione che questi arresti non dipendono dalla connessione.
Grazie Fausto, è un bel problema allora.
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