Litchi: Never again, Fah-ghet-about-it

[Skyler King III]

Months ago I have a complete fly-away on my P4P with Litchi. When it was 200 feet away, it "disconnected" and disappeared into the wild blue. Thank goodness I had insurance (State Farm paid me ACH next day in full) that immediately replaced it with a new one. Never found the bird.

Today I updated to latest Litchi (1.18.0) on my iPhone 7 Plus. I did a mission on the web. Mission was at 300 feet above t/o point.

Mission started to load and then failed. Said "aircraft too high". Bird was at 100 feet. Could not get past that no matter what I did.

Thought...Maybe a Phantom 4 P /Litchi issue. Took out my Mavic. Took off with Litchi under FPV mode and first it headed out, climbed and went in circles !. I pressed RTH and controller said "no RTH". My pulse quickened. I tried to take manual control but it would accelerate to 7 mph and then back to zero. I had plenty of battery left. Each time I moved the stick forward, same thing, up to 7 mph and then zero. I quit Litchi, rebooted the controller and opened DJI GO4.

Then did a RTH, which worked. Then I cancelled RTH and did the rest manually to land.

I'm too old for this **** (69) I don't need Litchi. Mission Hub is a very nice feature but the risk/reward ratio is unattractive.

 

[Fly Dawg]

Understand your concern, but there are far many others who have had absolutely no issues at all with Litchi, myself included and I fly with it exclusively. It would be interesting to see the flight logs from those flights that you so adamantly blame on the app. Sorry, but I am very much a Litchi supporter, and I'm sure there are many more than not, will agree with that. And also, I very rarely use mission hub. I plan my missions on the tablet itself. Just another one of those "variables" taken out should something go amiss. Just IMO.

 

[tevek]

I tend to agree with @Fly Dawg in that there are many others running Litchi across various platforms with little or no issues. Sure there were a few issues a couple of updates ago, which Litchi were aware of and have since been addressed, but in fairness are no more than those who have recently updated to the latest P4 FW. I too only plan my missions on my iPhone 6+ as I'm usually out and about when I come across something of interest.
As for the height issue, are your altitude settings in the Litchi app sufficient to run your WP settings? As for the other glitches, I've never read of those before.
Uninstall/reinstall Litchi? I updated to 1.18.0 and it works fine on a P4.

 

[Skyler King III]

Yes, setting in Litchi were sufficient to run my mission. I appreciate your suggestion to reinstall but I see no further need to risk that I have experienced. I am experienced pilot with several in my hangar. I just won't go to 3rd party apps again. Thanks for taking the time to provide your input.

 

[Skyler King III]

Understand your concern, but there are far many others who have had absolutely no issues at all with Litchi, myself included and I fly with it exclusively. It would be interesting to see the flight logs from those flights that you so adamantly blame on the app. Sorry, but I am very much a Litchi supporter, and I'm sure there are many more than not, will agree with that. And also, I very rarely use mission hub. I plan my missions on the tablet itself. Just another one of those "variables" taken out should something go amiss. Just IMO.

Thanks for taking your time to provide your input, Much appreciated. As to "Adamantly"....the birds flew find on GO4. No issues, as it was GO4 that gave me back control of my Mavic. As to flight logs...Which do you want to see, the Phantom 4 Pro log or Mavic (or both)...

I am not try to subvert your support for Litchi. Each to his/her own. I am simply reporting my experience, including the fly-away 6 months ago.

 

[tevek]

Yes, setting in Litchi were sufficient to run my mission. I appreciate your suggestion to reinstall but I see no further need to risk that I have experienced. I am experienced pilot with several in my hangar. I just won't go to 3rd party apps again. Thanks for taking the time to provide your input.

Well that's a shame as personally I would feel aggrieved if I'd paid for something that didn't work. Maybe try reinstalling and firing off an email to Litchi. They replied to me within 24 hours and seemed keen to help me out. I don't have their contact details but that info is certainly on this forum or can be found in the interweb of things.

 

[stones]

OP,
Try this link and see what they say. Can't hurt.
[email protected]

 

[Fly Dawg]

They replied to me within 24 hours and seemed keen to help me out.

This is another big plus for Litchi. Their support is excellent and respond to questions in a very timely manor. On the other hand, contacting DJI is different animal.

 

[tevek]

This is another big plus for Litchi. Their support is excellent and respond to questions in a very timely manor. On the other hand, contacting DJI is different animal.

Agreed on both counts!

 

[Skyler King III]

Well that's a shame as personally I would feel aggrieved if I'd paid for something that didn't work. Maybe try reinstalling and firing off an email to Litchi. They replied to me within 24 hours and seemed keen to help me out. I don't have their contact details but that info is certainly on this forum or can be found in the interweb of things.

I am glad that Litchi has good support and I agreed that DJI's sup[port stinks.

I have no need to press my luck or taste my time on this any further.

Funny thing is that I use the latest version of Litchi yesterday on my SPARK to use the Panorama feature. Uneventfully.

This Moth won't fly too near the flame again.

My thanks to you folks that have provided input there.

I have no axe to grind with Litchi and I was just sharing my experience.

 

[smiller]

When you had the fly-away, are you saying that you used the normal method of regaining manual control (move the mode select switch on the controller from P to S or A) and you still couldn't regain control?

 

[Skyler King III]

I did not move that switch as you suggest. The iPhone/Litchi App said "disconnected", I expected a RTH and nothing happened.

 

[smiller]

I did not move that switch as you suggest. The iPhone/Litchi App said "disconnected", I expected a RTH and nothing happened.

Then the loss of control was operator error. The proper way to regain manual control is with the controller mode switch.

 

[Fly Dawg]

The proper way to regain manual control is with the controller mode switch.

That is correct, UNLESS, as the OP stated "Disconnected". In that event the switch does nothing. Just clarifying that a bit.

 

[Neon Euc]

Also with litchi you have to make sure that the loss of signal is switched to "return home" and not hover or land.
I love litchi. For me its better then dji go as the video feed is smoother and so is Facebook live feed. But everyone has their favorite [emoji4]

 

[smiller]

That is correct, UNLESS, as the OP stated "Disconnected". In that event the switch does nothing. Just clarifying that a bit.

You should always use the mode switch to regain emergency control regardless of what is displayed on the screen. The whole point is that application software can potentially be in any unknown state and thus display anything or nothing, the only correct method of regaining positive control is via the mode switch and that is independent of any indication that software may provide.

 

[Fly Dawg]

You should always use the mode switch to regain emergency control regardless of what is displayed on the screen.

I agree with the switch for "emergency control" however, humor me and answer this question. I would agree that if your screen says" disconnected" you should move the switch immediately, but that may or may not do anything at all, and you have no other reference other than the display itself to notify you of disconnect. So, the question is, how else would you know that you were disconnected other than the screen notifying you?

 

[Fly Dawg]

Other than the indicator on the controller?

 

[smiller]

I agree with the switch for "emergency control" however, humor me and answer this question. I would agree that if your screen says" disconnected" you should move the switch immediately, but that may or may not do anything at all, and you have no other reference other than the display itself to notify you of disconnect. So, the question is, how else would you know that you were disconnected other than the screen notifying you?

Well, the aircraft flying off into the blue (as in the OP) would be one big clue that something is wrong.

Or the app could freeze in which case you'd receive no notification, or it can be in some unknown state and provide an erroneous indication. Long story short, if there appears to be any unexplained deviation from the flight plan the correct action is to establish manual control with the mode switch. Under those types of situations no input from the app (RTH command, etc.) can be considered reliable.

If the OP had operated the mode switch at the first sign of trouble it is probable that he wouldn't have lost the aircraft. It is critically important to understand basic operation before flying with Litchi or any automated control applications.

 

[Fly Dawg]

Well, the aircraft flying off into the blue (as in the OP) would be one big clue that something is wrong.

Of coarse, fairly obvious. My point was ( And you can only assume there was no app error in the notification in this instance) was that upon "disconnect", if the app is providing correct information, at that point the RC indicator should also tell you. If that is the case, moving the switch will do nothing. That applies to missions or FPV in the event of signal loss. That's all I was saying.