Connecting to Litchi in midair

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This is my first post on here and I am not sure if this has been discussed before or not. I was wondering if any one knows if it is possible to connect to Litchi in midair and if so, how it is done, What I am trying to do is be able to fly a DJI Ground Station mission and once done with the GS mission switch over to Litchi, but it is in status disconnected and I have to land turn off the controller and IPad, then restart the controller and IPad to connect to Litchi then fly in Litchi. Thanks for any information on this.
 
I routinely start in DJI Go app and then mid-air change over to Litchi. I use iPad 4 Mini.

I have never used Ground Station however, sorry.

I do believe with latest firmware DJI is forcing users to connect with Go app first before connection is allowed with 3rd party apps. Does Ground Station qualify as 3rd party, not sure.

Hope others jump in with more answers for you.
 
I've never had a problem either starting with Litchi first and switching over to the GO app (and visa versa) on the fly. Just need to make sure that you are only running with the one app and that the other is shut down completely.
 
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Tom, Thanks for the reply.
I am not sure if DJI Ground Station, is considered to be third party or not. I haven't tried starting DJI Go 4 and then switching. I will have to try that. Do you have both DJI Go and Litchi started before takeoff, or just DJI Go and then start up the Litchi app in the air?
 
Tevek, thanks for the reply.
So, you would start DJI Go 4, take off and then in midair, shut down DJI Go 4 completely and start up Litchi and it connects automatically, or do you have to shut down the controller and restart it. It seems like when I land to switch, I have to shut down the controller as well as the app then restart them both to connect. I would not be comfortable shutting down the controller in midair.

Mike
 
Last edited:
Tom, Thanks for the reply.
I am not sure if DJI Ground Station, is considered to be third party or not. I haven't tried starting DJI Go 4 and then switching. I will have to try that. Do you have both DJI Go and Litchi started before takeoff, or just DJI Go and then start up the Litchi app in the air?
Had to check your post twice as my name is Tom also..... I load one app at a time (as having both open and running can cause conflict issues) and would fly a mission in Litchi for example and when that is finished, shut it down and open the Go app whilst hovering nearby. The AC and RC don't need the app to remain connected so no issues with a quick swaperooo.
 
Tom,
Does it take a while to become connected once the first app is shutdown and the second opened up? Maybe I'm not waiting long enough, but it seems like a long time when I am waiting for it to connect in the air. So, I just land it and shut down the RC and the app then restart. I will try waiting longer next time. Thanks.

Mike
 
Tevek, thanks for the reply.
So, you would start DJI Go 4, take off and then in midair, shut down DJI Go 4 completely and start up Litchi and it connects automatically, or do you have to shut down the controller and restart it. It seems like when I land to switch, I have to shut down the controller as well as the app then restart them both to connect. I would not be comfortable shutting down the controller in midair.
No need to switch off the controller as you will probably trigger a RTH event, switching just the app is seamless.
 
Tom,
Does it take a while to become connected once the first app is shutdown and the second opened up? Maybe I'm not waiting long enough, but it seems like a long time when I am waiting for it to connect in the air. So, I just land it and shut down the RC and the app then restart. I will try waiting longer next time. Thanks.

Mike
I use an iOS device and simply close the app,swipe it away, load the next app. Takes about 8-10 secs.
 
Tom, Thanks for the reply.
I am not sure if DJI Ground Station, is considered to be third party or not. I haven't tried starting DJI Go 4 and then switching. I will have to try that. Do you have both DJI Go and Litchi started before takeoff, or just DJI Go and then start up the Litchi app in the air?

I have read that DJI treats their own Ground Station as Third Party. Seems ridiculous.
 
Tom,
Does it take a while to become connected once the first app is shutdown and the second opened up? Maybe I'm not waiting long enough, but it seems like a long time when I am waiting for it to connect in the air. So, I just land it and shut down the RC and the app then restart. I will try waiting longer next time. Thanks.

Mike

I think you could simply "park" the drone and let it hover while you shut down DJI. I have read that you must then go into settings and then FORCE STOP DJI completely before launching Litchi.
 
I basically switch while the drone is hovering. I had app crashes in the past, so I closed it and opened another app. Like tavek said...as long as controller is not turned off the drone will be fine. It will just hover
 
I also do the swipe away to close DJI Go app and then open Litchi while hovering. Only very short delay for P4 to connect to Litchi on screen. Sorry for the late reply...looks like a lot of good information however from other members.
 
This is interesting to me. I very rarely use the DJI App and typically only use Litchi to fly. Last week I was on a trip to Tuscany and it was working fine but on the 4th day I was trying to fly a mission with Litchi and it would load then do nothing. I tried to hand fly the aircraft and it would take off and start to move then suddenly, as if it hit a brick wall, would refuse to fly forwards. I did a RTH, turned everything off and tried it again with the same result. I tried using a Litchi program I had used successfully the day before and it also failed to start. Very strange. I was; however, able to fly in the DJI App which as I said I rarely use and in fact haven't used it in perhaps 2 years. I was shocked to see the new (at least to me) radio buttons you now have to press to start flying. This is a real pain in the petard as I am flying using an iPhone 6 inside a 3D printed shade box making reaching in there to press buttons very difficult. The iPhone screen is arguably too small to see much anyway and I mostly use it for guidance. Typically I fly all my photo shoots using a Litchi Waypoint mission. It is far more stable than hand flying and gives much better videos. So, this problem really affects me.

So, I am wondering if there is some new issue I hadn't heard about forcing one to fly using the DJI App and then to switch over to Litchi as described in the original post? Generally, I don't fly all that often and only use my Phantom 4 for taking videos on trips. I used to use my iPad mini but I was forced to switch to my iPhone when the DJI app refused to run on the iPad as it was too antiquated and no longer supported by DJI. SWMBO will not let me get a newer iPad mini until a newer one is released as the mini 4 is now several years old and likely will suffer the same fate eventually as my iPad mini.

I fly maybe every 3 or 4 months and I am getting used to having to go through the goat rope of installing new firmware every time I fly now. I am finding that extremely frustrating to the point I may sell my Phantom and go with a home built drone. I do not live in the US and don't see why we must deal with all these newer firmware updates which really only apply to the insane US requirements, although some countries in Europe arguably are worse, UK and Sweden come to mind as well as Austria and the Canary Islands. Using a home built you then become completely independent of the forced requirements being implemented onto commercial drone vendors. DJI, being a Chinese company really doesn't have to follow them so I wonder what the impetus is for that? It seems to me the are more than eager to try and please the nanny state in the US which must be a political issue. Maybe I am missing something here but to me it is a matter of personal responsibility and not for the company to mandate people to follow the rules. I enjoy my Phantom and am (or was) pleased with Litchi Waypoints but now I am having issues even getting a flight done so I am wondering about the long term viability to this drone. Maybe it is time for someone to hack together a newer operating system which avoids all these problems?
 

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