Orange Slice of Pizza and an 'X' displayed
I ran a mission yesterday at a marine fisheries coop along the Maine coast and had some issues getting my drone to execute the mission. I am flying a DJI Air 2S using an RC Pro with Dronelink. While messages flew by unrecorded, I did also see an orange pie slice, usually referring to signal, with an 'x' bellow and just to the right of the point of the slice of pie. This was in the upper right hand part of the screen between the HD signal meter and the ellipses menu icon. I have not found this indicator in the tutorials. When this happened the drone hovered and the mission start button would return to the state in which I could restart the mission. It flew without issue after a number of tries. This happened on two missions, on either side of the bay separated by a very narrow cut.
I tried replicating the issue here at home today so that I could record the error messages and, of course, off the job it is fine.
I am sure there were a lot of marine radios and in the area including at least one high powered base station. Might this have just been an issue of radio interference? What does the orange slice of pizza indicate? Any idea on actions I can take to correct or work around the issue? What tutorial page covers these three indicators ("RC", "HC", orange slice of pizza)?
Thanks!
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Here are some images of my orange slice of pizza. Obviously, this is once I had the drone in the air and working - my VO snapped the images with his phone.
I don’t have that controller but it looks like it’s a network icon which if it is then orange means no network. It’s different than when using a seperate device with a controller so not sure if there is a help article on that RC Pro. As far as other issues you had you can check your flown missions whether achieved or failed in the web app and it will indicate what the message was. Once you check someone may be able to assist you further as to why it didn’t execute some of the missions. Enjoy.
Yes it means disconnected from the internet.
Much thanks Mike and Jim. That makes sense as I was in a poor reception area. I didn't know I could see the "Engagements". "Automatic control interrupted" is the message I saw multiple times (screenshot included). It doesn't suggest to me that it was a problem with the poor cellular connection in the area I was flying in. Is there a definitive cause for this message or could it have been a number of issues?
I checked Aloft again and there is no airspace limitation there or nearby. As you can see above, the controller was set to "N" (Normal) mode and I was only at 100'. I had excellent GPS coverage. I reviewed https://support.dronelink.com/hc/en-us/articles/360056104694-Why-do-I-see-Unable-to-Take-Control-or-Automatic-Control-Interrupted-during-missions. I am not sure what number 5 means (Multiple flight mode has not been enabled in the firmware) in that post but I think I am OK with respect to the other points.
Does the same mission work in another location?
Jim, it worked there as you can see in Engagement 3 above. It just took a few tries.
I flew a mission at the top of that bay, maybe a quarter mile away or a smidge more, about a month ago without any issue.
You question is very interesting. I am a newby to Dronelink so pardon if it is a silly question. In what way is a mission movable? It would seem very location specific.
Some background: we are studying the effects of sealevel rise on our town infrastructure. I have been using Dronelink in a number of locations around our towns shoreline to map/model the shore, wharves, ramps, lobster pounds, etc. I only have a few flights with Dronelink under my belt, all successful, and many more to go.
You can move the reference icon (purple pin) anywhere, and assuming the altitudes are ok, fly the same mission for testing purposes. Obviously the data may not make sense but what we are trying to test in this case is if there are environmental factors (RF interference, NFZs that aren’t listed on Aloft, etc) that might be causing the issue. Since it is intermittant at that one location, and all the other locations are fine, it sounds like there is something environmental and not a bug in Dronelink.
Jim. My understanding has grown. I will be flying again on that bay soon when time, tide and weather allow.
I guess we don’t believe that the intermittent cellular service noted could have caused these errors?
Much thanks!
Dronelink does not need a network connection to operate, so my best guess is there is some RF interference that is causing both issues (loss of network, and loss of virtual stick control) since both rely on RF.
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