Dronelink and Crystalsky
Hi. Does anyone have experience with Dronelink on the Crystalsky? I'm not generally an Android user and as far as I can tell, Dronelink is extremely unreliable with this device. So far, I have been able to run one partial mission out of many attempts. Here's my situation:
I've been trying to use it with a Phantom 4 Pro v.2. Also have a Mavic 2 Pro but haven't tried that with Dronelink yet. All the firmware is up to date. Installed Dronelink, Google Play Store, Google Play Services, Google Text to Speech.
As the FAQ had warned, I continuously get the Google Play Services has stopped error message and am resigned to having to stop what I'm doing and do a forced stop. It sounds like that is not going to change but I'd love an update regarding that if there is one.
After lots of trial and error, I figured out that I need to go into the settings/apps page and stop the DJI Go 4 app in order to get Dronelink to connect to the drone. If anyone has experience with this and knows of another way, please let me know.
The first few test missions, I got a telemetry error 3-4 times each mission attempt. I have not had that lately but that may be because I haven't been able to get the drone off the ground. I get an "Unable to take off--Undefined error" message with every attempt. I try rebooting the CS, stopping Go4 again, stopping Google Play Services, restarting Dronelink and connecting to the Drone but get the same undefined error.
Yesterday, after struggling with it for a while, I switched to Dronelink on my iPad, ran the same mission and it went perfectly with no problems at all.
My questions:
Should I be expecting Dronelink to work with the Crystalsky or is it not really a viable supported option and I should not be wasting my time? The latter would be a huge bummer given the investment made in the CS in order to meet some of my specific needs.
If others have been able to make it work, how did you manage to do so?
Is there any intent at Drontlink to solve the stability/functionality issues or do the Google/Android/DJI/CS/Dronelink compatibility issues make that unlikely if not impossible to resolve and I should just move on?
I haven't bailed yet because I see huge potential for Dronelink as a solution for my needs, but I've got to get past seeing the potential to actually realizing the potential soon...
Thanks.
Comments
4 comments
The google play services errors are unlikely to be fixed as the root cause is out of our control, and the app will not be removing the google play services dependency any time soon (our entire backend depends on it).
Not running DJI GO simultaneously is standard on any Android device, and across all flight apps (litchi, etc).
On the unable to takeoff errors, if you takeoff first does the error go away? We did introduce a new flow to attempt a precision takeoff first (and then fall back to a normal takeoff if that fails). Wondering if the crystal sky in particular doesn't like it for some reason.
In the end, the Crystalsky is an outdated version of Android running on underpowered hardware, with necessary nerfs in place (lack proper support for google play store, etc). We try to support it as best as we can, but most/all of the issues you are talking about are out of our control. If you have an iPad, that will be a vastly better experience.
Thanks for the thorough response, Jim. I was afraid this would be the case. My only suggestion then would be to make it clear in the marketing materials, install instructions and FAQ that while Dronelink can be installed on the CS it is not recommended for all the reasons you've pointed out.
I'll have to try taking off first and see if I get a different result. Will let you know if I do.
Unfortunately, using the iPad isn't a good option for my specific use case. I do a lot of my work in the Arctic and the CS has important advantages over the iPad when flying at low temperatures. Battery charge is significantly reduced and while I can carry multiple CS batteries I can't carry multiple iPads. Nor can I easily keep the iPad inside my parka to keep it warm the way I can with CS batteries. During the spring, conditions can also be super bright and white and the CS screen is much easier to see as well. I get that the CS issues are largely out of your control and I'll keep messing with it as long as my patience permits but Dronelink might not be a reliable option for my very specific needs.
It's clear that you guys are working your asses off to build and grow a product that solves a whole range of challenges for drone users. Thanks for the work you're doing.
We could post some stuff about it, but it isn't really specific to Dronelink (most other apps like Litchi) suffer from the same thing and I think this fact has been pretty well established in the drone community (other forums, etc) for quite a while. DJI monitors are definitely not optimized for this use case.
Have a CrystalSky and have gave up on it all together, it's far too slow for Dronelink to work smoothly anyway, if your mission is long and require many inflight correction, CS is so slow that you get a timeout for every correction.
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