DJI GO 4.0.5 NOTORIOUSLY UNSTABLE

[Michael Thompson]

NVIDIA Shield tablet and DJI Go 4, today, it crashed 4 times on one battery. Also having difficulty connecting aircraft. Have to restart everything a couple times. This sucks.

 

[GMack]

NVIDIA Shield tablet and DJI Go 4, today, it crashed 4 times on one battery. Also having difficulty connecting aircraft. Have to restart everything a couple times. This sucks.

Just a matter of time before the Shield crashes with GO 4. I dumped Android for an iPad Air 2 and now it too is breaking up at times with GO 4. Never did before.

I don't know what DJI is doing (Too many ports open calling home? Wi-Fi hunting? Bluetooth scouting? FAA tattleware?), but they seem to be making the app more processor intensive with each version update. In time, I'll have to invest in a Cray Super Computer Micro to run the silly thing.

 

[dwallersv]

Oh and on another note, I personally detest the use of the term 'drone', its a quadcopter, multirotor or an UAV. P4, bird and craft are also acceptable, but that's just me lol

"Detest" may be a tad strong for me, but I'm basically with ya on this one

 

[DanMan32]

FYI there are 3 signals going on. One is from RC to AC giving AC commands. Another is video from AC to RC which is usually the first to get weak or lost. Third is telemetry from AC to RC. It's when you lose this signal that you might think you completely lost signal but in reality the AC may still be receiving so RTH doesn't automatically execute. That happened to me over a week ago where I waited, and waited, and waited some more. Finally came back 4 minutes later due to low battery.
Checked RC and AC logs where AC DAT file showed no signal loss the whole time. I could have gone up, manual RTH, whatever to get telemetry and video back.
I think the latest Go 3 update sends RTH when telemetry is lost for 3 or so seconds just in case there is still command signal.

 

[Michael Thompson]

Just a matter of time before the Shield crashes with GO 4. I dumped Android for an iPad Air 2 and now it too is breaking up at times with GO 4. Never did before.

I don't know what DJI is doing (Too many ports open calling home? Wi-Fi hunting? Bluetooth scouting? FAA tattleware?), but they seem to be making the app more processor intensive with each version update. In time, I'll have to invest in a Cray Super Computer Micro to run the silly thing.

Considering selling everything and building a roller coaster instead. DJI gives me zero confidence as a major corporation I'm spending thousands of dollars on. The typos give me pause on the app and their lack of reliable customers error service leads me to believe this company could implode at any time and suck us all down with it. Plus we're fighting the Feds and local law every step of the way, plus all the drone haters, and even the drone enthusiasts who hate us for saying 'drone'. I'll have a BBQ when my rollercoaster is up and running. You're all invited, except 'it's a quadcopter' guy.

 

[rene van der meer]

NVIDIA Shield tablet and DJI Go 4, today, it crashed 4 times on one battery. Also having difficulty connecting aircraft. Have to restart everything a couple times. This sucks.

Try Litchi. I also have a shield and it works fine with Litchi.

 

[Michael Thompson]

I will give it a shot. Thanks!

 

[GMack]

Well, my iPad Air 2 had an entirely green screen this AM when I hit the camera button. Lasted for a second or two. GO 4.0.5. This was a new one for me as I've never had an entirely green screen before on the iPad Air 2, but have seen it on my Android tablet up to 15 seconds and going black too and needing to be re-started.

DJI needs to cleanup their firmware and software matters. Seems they are sloppily patching them or something. Why they incorporated the Editor as part of the flying GO may be part of it too. Should be separate program as well as any unploading to some social media server.

 

[tribar]

I'm quit sure all these problems are related to Android 7
I have and use for flying my P3P, P4P & Mavic a Samsung S7edge (Android 6), a Samsung Tab S2 (Android 5) and a Nvidea Shield K1 (Android 6).
Never had any problems with DJI Go, DJI GO 4 & Litchi

If you want to roll back to Android 6 (or version 1.5.0) on Shield K1:
Forum thread:
Nvida K1 Tablet
NVIDIA SHIELD Tablet K1 Recovery OS Image 1.5.0 2016-12-14
Download Center
This is the stock recovery OS for Software Upgrade 1.5.0 of the NVIDIA SHIELD TABLET K1 (WiFi only). Flash this image to your device to return the device to its stock state. This OS image runs Android Marshmallow.
Windows users: Download the ZIP file, unzip and follow the instructions noted in the right column just below the download links. The Windows USB drivers for "fastboot" and "adb" are available separately to download.
SHIELD Family Windows USB Driver 1 2015/06/10
Download Center

 

[Michael Thompson]

I had been flying using DJI Go 4 with Drone Deploy loaded my NVIDEA Shield tablet and ut was crashing every 3-4 minutes. I'm not sure if Drone Deploy was running in the background but I uninstalled it and DJI Go 4 stopped crashing.

 

[Jester1964]

I'm quit sure all these problems are related to Android 7
I have and use for flying my P3P, P4P & Mavic a Samsung S7edge (Android 6), a Samsung Tab S2 (Android 5) and a Nvidea Shield K1 (Android 6).
Never had any problems with DJI Go, DJI GO 4 & Litchi

If you want to roll back to Android 6 (or version 1.5.0) on Shield K1:
Forum thread:
Nvida K1 Tablet
NVIDIA SHIELD Tablet K1 Recovery OS Image 1.5.0 2016-12-14
Download Center
This is the stock recovery OS for Software Upgrade 1.5.0 of the NVIDIA SHIELD TABLET K1 (WiFi only). Flash this image to your device to return the device to its stock state. This OS image runs Android Marshmallow.
Windows users: Download the ZIP file, unzip and follow the instructions noted in the right column just below the download links. The Windows USB drivers for "fastboot" and "adb" are available separately to download.
SHIELD Family Windows USB Driver 1 2015/06/10
Download Center

Tab is on Android 6 and is worse than the phone on 7. Its more than just an Android problem.

 

[DanMan32]

Go 3.1.5 crashed once on me this past Friday evening. RTH kicked in somehow. I was able to cancel with the remote while I restarted the app.
Anyone notice that camera settings such as grid lines temporarily show as defaults and C buttons sometimes don't work after partial signal loss?

 

[Bigbells]

Yes, I've experienced camera settings going awry after temporary signal loss. I use a Google Nexus 7 II as my viewing device.

During the majority of my flight time on Saturday, I had no screen view most of the time thanks to multiple DJI Go 4 crashes during both of my flights. In addition to just being a PITA, DJI Go 4 was for some reason limiting me to 4.3 mph after control signal was lost, even when signal was regained, and even when I switched to Sport mode. I wasn't able to increase speed until the bird was within 500 meters. This nearly caused a low-battery catastrophe on Thursday or Friday, coming back from 5400 ft away against the wind. Bird kept threatening to auto land in never-never land and batt was under 10% when I set it down safely at home. As of Sunday, I uninstalled Go 4 and reinstalled Litchi. For a couple of weeks Go 4 had worked beautifully, until just a few days ago. I'm so glad I have Litchi and so glad I don't have the P4PP.

 

[GMack]

Samsung may be behind a lot of why Android is so bad with DJI GO. Mine installed some new and not asked for screen saver that I cannot get rid of, and the factory installed S Health was updated and now calls their server 24/7 per the "Must read and check the two boxes" for S health to work. Samsung makes it so bloated no wonder GO cannot work, aside from other app makers who want access to anything on it. May as well call it DJI WENT. The USB problmeatic link-up is another matter making if iffy at times.

No wonder Apple seems to run better being more secure with fewer background nonsense running. I hated going to Apple having owned a lot of Android devices and Windows, but I understand now. Samsung may be cheaper, but the bloatware, spyware, adware, Google and Samsung data logging, must be profiting to do so.

 

[Kurupt Hawaiian]

I was using an S7 edge and the app would crash a lot while I was flying. I just got an iPhone 7 plus a week ago and flew about 6 times since I got it. App never crashed once.

 

[Bigbells]

I notice people talking about different versions of DJI Go 4. I only know that I was using the latest Android version before I uninstalled it a few days ago.

If Litchi was not working so well, I'd certainly consider getting an IOS device. Currently, though, Litchi works flawlessly, making it a cheaper but equally effective solution. One of my reasons for liking Litchi is that the triangular-shaped representation of the aircraft is a MUCH better one than DJI uses. With the DJI icon, it is extraordinarily difficult to see which point of the triangle is pointed forward. With the Litchi icon, the eyes on the icon make it obvious.

 

[DanMan32]

The idea behind the green and orange triangles is because with the Inspire, you can change the camera/gimbal direction 360 degrees from AC nose. The green is the camera angle.

 

[dwallersv]

Well, my iPad Air 2 had an entirely green screen this AM when I hit the camera button. Lasted for a second or two. GO 4.0.5. This was a new one for me as I've never had an entirely green screen before on the iPad Air 2, but have seen it on my Android tablet up to 15 seconds and going black too and needing to be re-started.

DJI needs to cleanup their firmware and software matters. Seems they are sloppily patching them or something. Why they incorporated the Editor as part of the flying GO may be part of it too. Should be separate program as well as any unploading to some social media server.

I am truly sorry you are now experiencing these issues on iOS after switching because of similar (and far worse) problems on Android.

Hopefully this has tempered some of your unfounded criticism of Android as a platform, and more understanding that this is a problem with DJI software development, not Android or iOS as operating environments.

As Litchi demonstrates factually, an application to control and operate a DJI aircraft can be engineered to run quite well on either platform. What's disappointing is that DJI, with far greater resources, can't do as well a job as Litchi (which is pretty much one guy, as far as I can tell).

GO is such a mess because DJI deliberately makes the decision to invest just the resources necessary to make it the quality it is. As one with 30 years in the IT industry and software development, it's obvious to me that 100% of the blame for this lies with DJI, not Apple or Google.

 

[dwallersv]

I'm quit sure all these problems are related to Android 7

While I agree that the problems occur on Nougat, I disagree strongly that it is "because" of Nougat.

The problem is DJI.

I've written a ton of Android code. There are guidelines for writing code that will be forward compatible. If you design your code following these rules as best as possible, it will likely work fine on future releases of Android. Ignore these things, and you'll have trouble.

While I do not have any internal knowlege of the technical requjirements of DJI's apps, I know the programming APIs, operational environment, and hardware issues quite well with Android and the wide universe of hardware platforms. So, I feel quite confident in saying that I see nothing -- nothing at all -- in the functionality of the DJI app that would require deviating from sound, well-established portability practices that competent Android engineers follow.

Bottom line: I suspect the apps are first developed on iOS with no attention paid to portability to the Android environment, then ported to Android. Making this work will almost always require some hacking around that violates all sorts of compatability guidelines to avoid having to toss and rewrite from the ground up major portions of the app. What we've been getting is the usual result of such pressured development.

The right way to do this is to abstract away the underlying platform specifics. Starting over, a talented engineering team would first architect an abstraction layer to deal with OS specific functionality. Then, the bulk of the design and code has no awareness of what platform it's running on. There would be a team with an engineer responsible for maintaining the iOS abstraction layer implementation, one for the Android implementation. Changes the DJI firmware require only modification to this component to keep everything working. Added functionality to the app is all done in the code that calls the abstraction layer.

This is Software Development 101 (are you listening, DJI?).

 

[GMack]

GO 4.0.6 is for Android out as of April 11. It's getting BIG in size.