DJI Phantom 4 Pro/ App Malfuction

[Ronny]

If it crashed due to pilot error, then that's a very generous offer on DJI's part.

Msinger lets get to the real issue. The app crashed. I am having the same issue. I have the shield and dji go app crashes.
And i have not seen a fix yet

 

[ReySy]

Same thing happened to my P4 & P4 Pro, I took off on a clear and good weather up north here in Philippines, 1st my P4, when I was at 400ft 1.5kms away the app suddenly goes to registration and I can't back at the app, my P4 is already registered. When I can't get on the main menu of the DJI I pressed the RTH button of the remote, then I heard the beeping sound of returning home, suddenly the beeps change to something that the remote is disconnected. First I panicked, but after a few minutes I hear a buzzing sound and to my surprised the P4 is over my head, luckily I recovered my drone. The next day I flew the P4Pro, I reached 250ft at 1km away and the same thing happened.... any thoughts?

 

[DanMan32]

Normally the home position is set at AC's position at takeoff. Optionally during flight you can change the home point to the new current AC position or the RC's position if the tablet has GPS. P3 does not have the capability to change home position periodically automatically, which is what I would define dynamically. The P4 I think can. However changing home position requires deliberate actions. Therefore in this situation triggering RTH would have been the best action to take. If the AC was in danger before it could execute ascent for RTH, such as being too low is another matter.

 

[Vampire]

Galaxy 7

I was told by tech support at Drone World not to use Samsung tablets but the phones were okay to use; however, I'm not so sure it wasn't the Galaxy that caused the failure.

 

[ReySy]

BTW am using Huawei P8 Lite phone, been using it to my P3Pro, Inspire 1 & Mavic Pro with no problem, just this P4 & P4Pro

 

[Olroy]

Well whatever the outcome is..it sucks and feel for ya these are not cheap and even with 15% off it's still a chunk of cash....hope it works out for ya

 

[MedicFL1]

My drone crashed in the water after my App crashed. DJI just wants to give me 15% off a new one instead of replacing it. Has anyone else ran into this kind of issue?

~ The Go 4 App crashes several times per flight. In P- mode your Phantom should stay right where it is if you center the sticks and leave them alone while rebooting the app.
When the App reboots it starts a new flight. Your flight records will be truncated into two parts.

If it was compass calibrated for your location and your IMU was working properly, then the A/C, like I stated should have simply remained in place. VPS does not work until you're 20 feet or so from the ground and even then it does not accurately work over water / glass surfaces etc. per the downloadable manual.

The App Crash was not the cause of the A/C hitting the water.

 

[msinger]

Msinger lets get to the real issue. The app crashed. I am having the same issue. I have the shield and dji go app crashes.
And i have not seen a fix yet

I'm not sure where you're heading with this one. Why would the app crashing cause a Phantom to crash? It's flown with the remote controller (not the app).

 

[MaxHam]

I think I know now what happened to the OP - it happened to me today!

Since having video lag etc often on the K1 tablet, I thought I give it a try with my Google Pixel XL phone (Android 7)
Bad idea!

I managed to go quite some distance over a river, I was standing next to it on a dike.
No signal problems. Just as I turned around the app crashed.
I restarted the app and continued to fly home.

When I checked the flight at Air Data I realized that upon restarting, the Go4 app automatically set a new homepoint - at the AC, over Water!
I'm lucky I didn't rigger RTH. The drone would have gone for a swim.

Since multiple app crashes are being reported, there should be an option in the app:
"Do not record homepoint automatically"

My suggestion:
IF THE APP CRASHES, DON'T RESTART IT! Trigger RTH on the remote!

See top left in the image:
It says "H" for homepoint at the moment where the app was back up working.
My actual homepoint was to the right at the bottom.

 

[K9VXV]

I think I know now what happened to the OP - it happened to me today!

Since having video lag etc often on the K1 tablet, I thought I give it a try withe my Google Pixel XL phone (Android 7)
Bad idea!

I managed to go quite some distance over a river, I was standing next to it on a dike.
No signal problems. Just as I turned around the app crashed.
I restarted the app and continued to fly home.

When I checked the flight at Air Data I realized that upon restarting, the Go4 app automatically set a new homepoint - at the AC, over Water!
I'm lucky I didn't rigger RTH. The drone would have gone for a swim.

Since multiple app crashes are being reported, there should be an option in the app:
"Do not record homepoint automatically"

My suggestion:
IF THE APP CRASHES, DON'T RESTART IT! Trigger RTH on the remote!

See top left in the image:
It says "H" for homepoint at the moment where the app was back up working.
My actual homepoint was to the right at the bottom.

View attachment 79603

Very good to know! I have not had a full application crash on my IPhone 7 yet to experience this. When I was using my Android devices I was inside of the shop without GPS. Did you application crash by itself or did you try using an intelligent flight mode when it crashed?

Thanks for the information, this helps everyone understand these things better.

Take care,

Jesse

 

[MaxHam]

I was flying in "P", no other flight mode besides this.

 

[MaxHam]

P3 does not have the capability to change home position periodically automatically, which is what I would define dynamically. The P4 I think can.

In the Go 4 app I can't see an option for dynamic home point for the P4P.
I can set homepoint as often as I want during flight - to AC or RC - but that's a manual procedure.

On p. 37 in the manual for the P3 advanced I found this (below).
Wondering why it's not available for P4P.

I guess it only makes sense if you are wandering some distance with the remote while flying
(or while being on a boat!) - having set home point to RC:

 

[HWCM]

In the Go 4 app I can't see an option for dynamic home point for the P4P.
I can set homepoint as often as I want during flight - to AC or RC - but that's a manual procedure.

On p. 37 in the manual for the P3 advanced I found this (below).
Wondering why it's not available for P4P.

I guess it only makes sense if you are wandering some distance with the remote while flying
(or while being on a boat!) - having set home point to RC:
View attachment 79604

Dynamic home point is manual on the P3P and P3A. It does not auto update. You must manually reset it every time you move. It will not follow, say a boat, and reset it's homepoints as it moves along.

 

[normr]

Does it seem like a lot of these problems are with people using Android tablets?

 

[HWCM]

Does it seem like a lot of these problems are with people using Android tablets?

Yes,if they are running Android 7 Nougat.

 

[David Rodwell]

A man heard on the radio there was likely to be flooding in his location. He said to himself "God will protect me".

Later that day as the water was rising, the police came by and said let us take you to safety. The man answered "God will protect me".

As the water rose, the man went to the roof of his house and a helicopter lowered a rope ladder. The man refused it saying "God will protect me".

Finally the man drowned and was at the gates of heaven. He asked God why He did not protect him. God said to the man "I sent help three times and you refused it".

If my drone is not operating 100% perfectly, I might fly it in an open field, at low altitude and low speed but never over water and at great distances. If my drone told me three times there was trouble, the last place I'd fly it is over the ocean?

I am sorry for your loss.

 

[DanMan32]

Reset home point on app restart regardless if the AC is in flight or not? That's just bad design, almost as bad as the Android 3.1.2 bug.
Anyone know if Android 3.1.3-3.1.5 has this issue?

 

[Filthy13]

OP stated that this all happened right after an update. I've noticed that many (if not all) settings get reset or shifted from my customized settings after any update. And sometimes camera resets itself to full auto everything when just checking other flight modes during flight. This can include home point and RTH settings. Perhaps this is part of what contributed. I've update my pre-flight checklist to now include double checking all app pertinent app settings (including but not limited to) camera settings, RTH, sensors, channel settings, etc.

 

[Ronny]

Msinger I did not crash my drone, I simply just engaged the RTH button. But as I said the tablet is now crashing due to the K1 Shield up grade to Nougat. We need DJI to give us a STABLE FIX so we can continue using the K1 Shield tablet. I now am not able to fly out to far with out the Screen crashing. We just need a STABLE FIX from DJI!!!

 

[sinxa]

It has happened to some that while being nervous as the situation becomes difficult, they mess up the home point setting and accidentally hit the button for "Homepoint at AC". (You can continously set a new homepoint unless you have precision landing activated.)

For some reason I don't understand the P3A even has a "dynamic" homepoint feature which is not available for the P4P!?

View attachment 79570

I think he's saying in a situation where the home point gets set accidentally to AC location while over the water. Like maybe upon the application reconnecting or something I'm not sure. But my guess here, when we ever see the logs is that it was just too low over the water and it was doing a normal up and down and then dipped too low and kissed the water. Either that or the active track continued to follow something and then it had a collision and fell into the water. Because we would think that if it lost RC or APP connection it would then pause or cancel intelligent flight and hover and then start a go home. But what if the RTH altitude was set incorrectly and it hit a cliff or something instead on the loss of signal return to home? Just my theory's here as to what could have happened because it should hover for a few seconds before initiating RTH right?

I see... so it was an accident.