1. Test flight a disaster

Martin Kraushaar

Just flew my first mission that nearly ended in disaster. The mission can be viewed here: https://app.dronelink.com/martin-kraushaar/test-1/plan/FyLAtHnDDej0Klf9frSR/Cb0lCuGItUpTQJVvDKPd

I started the mission normally, the drone then stopped at the individual waypoints and an error message was displayed. I forgot the error message because of excitement ...

After the fourth waypoint, the app closed by itself. After restarting the app, it was no longer possible to re-establish the connection to the drone. Even pressing the RTH controller button did not help. A connection could also not be established when starting the DJI FLY APP.

Then, as a last resort, turned off the DJI controller and the drone made its way back. DJI controller switched on again, DJI FLY APP started, and then I was able to control the drone normally again ...

So that's not possible!

If this happens for the first time, that doesn't exactly speak for Dronelink. If it cannot be clarified why this error occurred, I am no longer sure whether I would like to work with Dronelink in the future ...

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Comments

5 comments

Date Votes
  • Comment author
    Jim McAndrew Dronelink Staff

    A few comments:

    1. What mobile device are you using?
    2. If you want to do a waypoint mission with fluid motion between the waypoints, you should use a path component, not destinations. 
    3. Normally the mission progress (including any error messages) is saved to your account, and you can see the history here.
    4. Your mission shows as aborted with no progress, which either means the device has no network connection, or the app crashed before it could save data to the network
    5. When you pressed the RTH button on the RC, was the RC still connected to the drone?
    6. Your plan sets the Drone Connection Fail-Safe to Hover, so if the drone did become disconnected it isn't surprising if it didn't RTH
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  • Comment author
    Nathan Dyer

    It sounds like your 4th way point flew the drone beyond the range of the transmitter.

     

    The drone needs to keep a connection with the transmitter to maintain control with or without the drone link app.  

    I would be very surprised if these disaster had anything to do with drone link and was more likely caused by limitations of the drone itself and it's range.

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  • Comment author
    Martin Kraushaar

    @Jim McAndrew
    1.Huawei P20 Pro, Android 10 (EMUI 10)
    4. The Dronelink Android app closed itself, i.e. it crashed, and even after restarting the Dronelink app no ​​new connection could be established!

    Connection to the DJI MM was available. However, I did not have a data connection to the internet as there is no cellular network available!

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  • Comment author
    Jim McAndrew Dronelink Staff

    Normally you use the hardware flight mode switch to regain control, but the Mavic Mini does not have this button unfortunately. In that case you either need to use the RTH button or open DJI Fly and switch the flight mode.

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  • Comment author
    Eric Goldstein

    Did some testing on this with an iPhone 11.

    Ran a mission that was never out of range with the drone.

    Mid mission, I force closed Dronelink (e.g. simulating an app crashing).

    The drone stopped mid air and I was unable to fly it.

    - I then tried to fire up the FLY app

    - With the Fly app open, I was able to see the screen/camera, but I was still initially not able to fly the drone

    - Within Fly, I switched from P to C mode

    - Once I did that, I was able to fly the drone again

     

    I then swapped back to Dronelink and tried to restart the mission

    - Dronelink first corrected me that I can't run the mission in C mode.  So, I had to go back to FLY and switch the flight mode to P

    - I then restarted the mission and it took off properly

    - I once again, force shut down the Dronelink app and the drone froze in place - once again, I couldn't fly.

    - I pushed the RTH button on the controller and the drone started doing RTH.

    - I then pushed the RTH button again and was able to fly manually --even though I didn't have Dronelink or Fly up and running.

     

    So, not sure what type of experience an Android device would have, but that's how things work on the IOS device.

    I'm assuming that if I flew out of range, that RTH would kick in as normal.

     

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