PLEASE NOTE: This post is NOT about the red "no signal" aircraft status that some have experienced.
I have many dozens of flights on my Phantom 3 Pro. Until iOS 9.x came out, I never had an instance of my iPhone 6 Plus disconnecting from the controller mid-flight. When this occurs I lose video, telemetry, and all the software-based controls, but the controller is still connected to the aircraft so line-of-sight flight is fine. This can happen seconds after I get everything running, or it can work for several minutes before disconnecting. The only way to resolve the issue is to force-quit DJI Go, turn off the controller (obviously something that should be avoided mid-flight), turn on the controller, and re-launch DJI Go.
There is much confusion on the forums about this phenomenon, so let me be clear: This involves the mobile device disconnecting from the controller. It has absolutely nothing to do with radio interference, not being in airplane mode, or losing contact with the aircraft. This is strictly about the stability of the USB/Lightning link between the controller and the mobile device (specifically, iPhones -- I have no Android devices to test with).
At first I thought this was an iOS 9 upgrade issue, as that came out on September 16th and coincided with my problems. It affected both my iPhone 6 Plus and my new 6s Plus. However, there have been two DJI Go updates and one remote controller firmware update and three iOS updates since then that still haven't fixed it, AND I JUST VERIFIED THAT IT DOES NOT OCCUR ON MY IPAD MINI 2 RUNNING IOS 9.1 (but unfortunately I see in the forums that it has affected other iPad Mini users).
To date, I have verified that:
I am running:
There are forums all over the net filled with similar comments, and the iOS app reviews are scathing for the same reason. I sure hope DJI corrects this soon. To help them, I'm trying to determine if this affects just specific devices -- such as "phones" versus "tablets" since the codebase is slightly different between the two.
If you have experienced the app disconnecting from the controller (where the aircraft status shows Disconnected (not No Signal), please answer this poll.
I have many dozens of flights on my Phantom 3 Pro. Until iOS 9.x came out, I never had an instance of my iPhone 6 Plus disconnecting from the controller mid-flight. When this occurs I lose video, telemetry, and all the software-based controls, but the controller is still connected to the aircraft so line-of-sight flight is fine. This can happen seconds after I get everything running, or it can work for several minutes before disconnecting. The only way to resolve the issue is to force-quit DJI Go, turn off the controller (obviously something that should be avoided mid-flight), turn on the controller, and re-launch DJI Go.
There is much confusion on the forums about this phenomenon, so let me be clear: This involves the mobile device disconnecting from the controller. It has absolutely nothing to do with radio interference, not being in airplane mode, or losing contact with the aircraft. This is strictly about the stability of the USB/Lightning link between the controller and the mobile device (specifically, iPhones -- I have no Android devices to test with).
At first I thought this was an iOS 9 upgrade issue, as that came out on September 16th and coincided with my problems. It affected both my iPhone 6 Plus and my new 6s Plus. However, there have been two DJI Go updates and one remote controller firmware update and three iOS updates since then that still haven't fixed it, AND I JUST VERIFIED THAT IT DOES NOT OCCUR ON MY IPAD MINI 2 RUNNING IOS 9.1 (but unfortunately I see in the forums that it has affected other iPad Mini users).
To date, I have verified that:
- it is not a cable issue (tried several, all known to be good)
- it is not an issue with battery levels on the device or controller
- it is not a software install issue (I've uninstalled and reinstalled DJI Go several times)
- it happens regardless of the battery in the aircraft
- I *think* I saw it happen even when the aircraft was off
- re-linking the controller to the aircraft has no effect (this issue doesn't affect the radio link)
- it affects at least the iPhone 6 Plus and 6s Plus, but apparently not iPad Mini 2
- the only way to correct it is to force-quit the app, then power cycle the controller
I am running:
- iOS DJI Go app (v2.4.0)
- remote controller firmware (v1.4.30)
- aircraft firmware (v1.4.10)
- iPhone 6s Plus
- Issue noted on both iOS 9.0.2 and 9.1
There are forums all over the net filled with similar comments, and the iOS app reviews are scathing for the same reason. I sure hope DJI corrects this soon. To help them, I'm trying to determine if this affects just specific devices -- such as "phones" versus "tablets" since the codebase is slightly different between the two.
If you have experienced the app disconnecting from the controller (where the aircraft status shows Disconnected (not No Signal), please answer this poll.
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