I Keep on losing connection

[danimaldrones]

I never had this problem before but have been in palm springs, California and Peoria, Arizona and as soon as I hit about 200 metres high or 500 metres distance I loose complete connection of my drone. Thankfully it returns to me, but I am getting really nervous to fly it.

I have flown it recently near some wind turbines in palm springs and everything went kind of wonky. I'm wondering if I could have fried something in the controller or in the drone.

Anyone know what may be wrong? Or how I can fix the problem?

 

[Jussaguy]

I never had this problem before but have been in palm springs, California and Peoria, Arizona and as soon as I hit about 200 metres high or 500 metres distance I loose complete connection of my drone. Thankfully it returns to me, but I am getting really nervous to fly it.

I have flown it recently near some wind turbines in palm springs and everything went kind of wonky. I'm wondering if I could have fried something in the controller or in the drone.

Anyone know what may be wrong? Or how I can fix the problem?

Did you do the minimum things like recalibrate IMU and compass. I don't think that should affect the video feed actually. I am sure someone can come up with something but troubleshooting is not my strong point. Good luck.

 

[shockwave199]

I never had this problem before but have been in palm springs, California and Peoria, Arizona and as soon as I hit about 200 metres high or 500 metres distance I loose complete connection of my drone. Thankfully it returns to me, but I am getting really nervous to fly it.

I have flown it recently near some wind turbines in palm springs and everything went kind of wonky. I'm wondering if I could have fried something in the controller or in the drone.

Anyone know what may be wrong? Or how I can fix the problem?

You lose rc control completely or just video feed?

 

[danimaldrones]

You lose rc control completely or just video feed?

I lost everything. Screen goes blank. Thankfully drone comes back on its own tho.

 

[danimaldrones]

Did you do the minimum things like recalibrate IMU and compass. I don't think that should affect the video feed actually. I am sure someone can come up with something but troubleshooting is not my strong point. Good luck.

Yeah I recalibrate at every new location. I actually recalibrate the same locations as well if they were not my previous flight.

 

[RedHotPoker]

Calibrating too much, can sometimes be worse than not calibrating it at all. & If you do a bad calibration, you might be in for a real rodeo...
It's better to check the numbers in the app, before jumping into more calibrations. I only do a cold IMU calibration, then gimbal, and last my compass calibration, after a firmware update, or of the Go app.
You should already know, that unless you are moving over a couple of hundred miles away, between flying locations, it should really be unnecessary. Since I bought my Phantom 3 Pro' these calibrations have been done less than both hands, of five fingers each.
Please read the tutorial threads or watch the helpful instructional videos which explain these facts much better than I can relay them to you.

RedHotPoker

 

[flyinggoods]

I live here in Palm Springs and on my p3a I get about 1400 ft in distance then I get the red flashing then I turn around .but never a black screen I can never go as far as some of the videos I've been seeing on here either there's a lot of interference here or because of the airport idk .havnt took it out the city yet to test a different location I'm only 2 weeks in with this thing.im using an iPad Air


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[tcope]

I never had this problem before but have been in palm springs, California and Peoria, Arizona and as soon as I hit about 200 metres high or 500 metres distance I loose complete connection of my drone. Thankfully it returns to me, but I am getting really nervous to fly it.

In areas with homes and other buildings I usually need to fly to 300-400' in order to get beyond 2500'.

 

[Phantom751874]

Ya don't do a compass calibration every time. You risk getting a bad one inadvertently. Just do one away from strong magnetic fields, large metallic objects etc. and don't do it again unless you travel say more than 100 miles from your location.

 

[JickMagger]

I lost everything. Screen goes blank. Thankfully drone comes back on its own tho.

App goes completely black or you just lose video? Next time it happens look at the controller, if it still has a green light then it is still connected to the Phantom. You might still have altitude/speed and map in the app. If you still have the map then you might be able to gain altitude and regain video.

If the controller light is green but the app is unresponsive force quit the app, unplug the USB cable, and plug it back in. The Phantom should just be hovering waiting for your commands while you do all that.

Also a good idea to reboot your phone/tablet and enable Airplane mode before flying.

 

[Meta4]

Yeah I recalibrate at every new location. I actually recalibrate the same locations as well if they were not my previous flight.

No amount of recalibrating will have any effect on the disconnection problem you describe.
And if you are recalibrating every time, you'd do well to read this and learn what calibrating the compass is about and when it's needed: Compass Calibration, A Complete Primer

The obvious thing to check is your antenna orientation as it has the most impact on connection issues.
DJI Forum|Remote Controller Antenna Best Practices

 

[Jussaguy]

Calibrating too much, can sometimes be worse than not calibrating it at all. & If you do a bad calibration, you might be in for a real rodeo...
It's better to check the numbers in the app, before jumping into more calibrations. I only do a cold IMU calibration, then gimbal, and last my compass calibration, after a firmware update, or of the Go app.
You should already know, that unless you are moving over a couple of hundred miles away, between flying locations, it should really be unnecessary. Since I bought my Phantom 3 Pro' these calibrations have been done less than both hands, of five fingers each.
Please read the tutorial threads or watch the helpful instructional videos which explain these facts much better than I can relay them to you.

RedHotPoker

Or please read the manual where it tells you in bold letters on page 44 to "IMPORTANT: CALIBRATE THE COMPASS WHENEVER YOU CHANGE LOCATION".

I'm not here to tell people what to do. It's your bird, do with it what you want and listen to whomever you want but you are not disagreeing with me, you are disagreeing with the engineers at DJI.

Somehow, someone here (a moderator so he must be right) said that you shouldn't calibrate contrary to the engineers at DJI saying you should whenever you change location.

Fact is, you don't need to calibrate every time but the people that say you can over-calibrate are inbreeding bad info.

As long as you do your normal quick pre-flight checklist, you will never send your bird up with a bad calibration removing the "over-calibrating" because you did a bad calibration.

You can do a bad calibration and send your bird up yes, but you can also have a bad calibration and send your bird up.

Answer me this, does anything you own that needs calibration, need calibration one single time and then if it's moved all over the place and flying at 50mph and landing over and over again, would never need a re-calibration? Of course one day it would and these people that have had their birds for a year or more and one day have it start doing the compass spin of death, well I'm sure on this forum will know to turn it immediately into ATTI mode and fly it home on their own but you can't OVER-CALIBRATE. That is a goofy myth but it is true that you can get away without doing a proper calibration every day, or every flight, or even every month but that's not how you fly an aircraft.

Ask a real pilot, (you know the kind that DIE if they don't do their pre-fight checks and calibrations) what they think of not doing a calibration and/or a pre-flight check before every flight. The ones that say they never have and "so far so good", I won't fly with.

 

[RedHotPoker]

Over thinking, a non issue is bad too. Hahaha ah, these are models and no ones life is in danger, unless you get hit in the head with one. And that could happen, if you keep calibrating, and by accident, do a bad calibration. Other than that, no lives were lost, nor injuries.
Perhaps if you understood why we calibrate the compass ever, would be beneficial to you and others. Do you understand what this actual calibration represents?
As stated before, ad nauseum, if you do a good compass calibration, there won't be any reason to do it over and over, there's no benefit.
Unless you move to a new location, that is two hundred miles or farther away, than your last good calibration.
Please remember, as well that these user manuals have been translated from a Chinese dialect, to English. That alone can create errors or mistaken meanings.

Have some faith in humanity, we aren't trying to steer you wrong.
Hey, if you want to keep going the drone dance, I could only wish you Saturday Night Fever. ;-)

RedHotPoker

 

[dtokez]

I have done one compass calibration lol. the earths magnetic flux lines don't vary that much, you have to travel a long way!

 

[alokbhargava]

I would not consider calibration as the cause of losing the connection. Most suspected reasons are high wifi interference or antenna lose connection.

 

[byrne68]

FWIW (and I've only about 25 flights in my P3A)... but I've taken the good advice here on the forum and put my iPhone into airplane mode after pre-loading the maps on every flight ... except once. The other day I forgot to do so and I immediately had signal errors... and the phantom wasn't even 20 meters away. Otherwise the video/RC connection has been rock-solid (actually broke the 1km barrier today).


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[Jussaguy]

Over thinking, a non issue is bad too. Hahaha ah, these are models and no ones life is in danger, unless you get hit in the head with one. And that could happen, if you keep calibrating, and by accident, do a bad calibration. Other than that, no lives were lost, nor injuries.
Perhaps if you understood why we calibrate the compass ever, would be beneficial to you and others. Do you understand what this actual calibration represents?
As stated before, ad nauseum, if you do a good compass calibration, there won't be any reason to do it over and over, there's no benefit.
Unless you move to a new location, that is two hundred miles or farther away, than your last good calibration.
Please remember, as well that these user manuals have been translated from a Chinese dialect, to English. That alone can create errors or mistaken meanings.

Have some faith in humanity, we aren't trying to steer you wrong.
Hey, if you want to keep going the drone dance, I could only wish you Saturday Night Fever. ;-)

RedHotPoker

You just talk down to people like you know everything and anyone that disagrees with you is an idiot right?

I actually do know why an "electronic compass" needs to be calibrated and the reason is its not actually a compass.

A compass uses the earth's magnetic pull to always point north with zero calibration ever.

What's inside of your phone, inside of the DJI and other "electronic compasses" is a Hall effect magnemeter which is calibrated in reality by doing a minimum of 8 revolutions but with the technology that exists today, you can get a pretty perfect calibration with two single horizontal and vertical rotations to let the magnetometer know what north is and in effect give you a compass.

That is how we get from electronic waves to a compass which is an analogue device. As with all things that are electric, they can be interfered with via electromagnetic waves caused by things around you, and many other things which is WHY DJI says you should calibrate your compass.

It's like a game of chicken. I have MANY drones, and besides my toy drones, again, I have never had a real crash to speak of. Let's see who crashes first.

The closest thing I ever had to weird in the sky was when I was flying off of Big Bear mountain when there was some low hanging clouds and they were thick and I wanted to take the opportunity to fly into some clouds (which is always a bad idea actually) but the bird started drifting and I am sure it was because the ocular part of the sensors for the VPS wasn't liking the clouds and were confused by this thick white thing. So several professional birds that I've never crashed. If you want to wait to have to save yourself, you will probably be able to but to tell people that you shouldn't is wrong and bad info. I don't care if you do or don't. I just don't want an innocent person getting bad info.


So anyway, yeah, I understand EXACTLY what is in the compass, why it needs to be calibrated and exactly what's going on. Sorry to ruin your theory.

I have done one compass calibration lol. the earths magnetic flux lines don't vary that much, you have to travel a long way!

Right, but your electronic calibration can and WILL change. It might not matter and you might notice it before you send it up but you are not re-calibrating because of where the Earth's magnets are, but because of your compass.

I would not consider calibration as the cause of losing the connection. Most suspected reasons are high wifi interference or antenna lose connection.

True.

 

[Meta4]

Fact is, you don't need to calibrate every time but the people that say you can over-calibrate are inbreeding bad info.

This is simply not true.
I've seen dozens of crashes reported that begin with .. I calibrated the compass before the flight as I always do.
But the flyer's eagerness to calibrate every time, was stronger than their understanding of where they shouldn't calibrate.
They unnecessarily gave their Phantom a bad calibration and crashed as a result.

As long as you do your normal quick pre-flight checklist, you will never send your bird up with a bad calibration removing the "over-calibrating" because you did a bad calibration.

And if you give your Phantom a bad calibration because you were right on top of a reinforced concrete structure or on the steel deck of a ship etc, no preflight check will pick it up.
Your compass will appear perfect (while it is within the magnetic field of the nearby steel) but when you fly up away from it, Bingo ..>> Compass Error<< and trouble flying straight.
How much difficulty this causes is a lucky dip .. it might be minor or it could be disastrous.

There are many very experienced flyers who have experimented enough to know what they are saying when they advocate not calibrating every time.
Dismissing them because you prefer the simplicity of a few lines in the (sometimes poorly written or translated) manual isn't doesn't make much sense.
Calibrating every time is, at best unnecessary and at worst can cause the loss of your Phantom.

 

[Jussaguy]

This is simply not true.
I've seen dozens of crashes reported that begin with .. I calibrated the compass before the flight as I always do.
But the flyer's eagerness to calibrate every time, was stronger than their understanding of where they shouldn't calibrate.
They unnecessarily gave their Phantom a bad calibration and crashed as a result.

And if you give your Phantom a bad calibration because you were right on top of a reinforced concrete structure or on the steel deck of a ship etc, no preflight check will pick it up.
Your compass will appear perfect (while it is within the magnetic field of the nearby steel) but when you fly up away from it, Bingo ..>> Compass Error<< and trouble flying straight.
How much difficulty this causes is a lucky dip .. it might be minor or it could be disastrous.

There are many very experienced flyers who have experimented enough to know what they are saying when they advocate not calibrating every time.
Dismissing them because you prefer the simplicity of a few lines in the (sometimes poorly written or translated) manual isn't doesn't make much sense.
Calibrating every time is, at best unnecessary and at worst can cause the loss of your Phantom.

You are cherry picking scenarios to prove your point but A) If you don't do the things that are necessary pre-flight then you are a not a worthy "pilot" and I wouldn't want to fly on your plane anyway. So if you "eagerness to calibrate every time is stronger than your understanding of where they should calibrate" then that person has just as much of chance of running a red light while he's driving to his location. Because people are stupid is not an answer.

Once AGAIN, and FINALLY because I am done talking about this, I never said everyone should calibrate EVERY SINGLE TIME. In fact, if you will go back and read pretty much every single post I've written on here is that I DO THAT and I have OCD but it's also not right to say I AM WRONG and YOU ARE RIGHT simply because it's what you think vs. what I think. This is AT BEST subjective, and therefore there are no facts here. We can only go on what we know and what we know is that most crashes are caused by "pilot error" almost always tied to something that had to do with bad GPS (other than flying into trees and the like) but since neither of us has presumably crashed a bird then we are at an impasse on this subjective thing.

I respect your opinion that you think that calibrating can happen "too often" but I respectfully disagree with the notion and we can sit here and talk about it until the cows come home but I would rather punch myself in the balls as an option.

I am out of the compass conversation.

 

[Arcticm39]

I must admit that I calibrated the compass just once - it was in a wide open field before my first flight. Subsequently, I have flown in various locations, all of which were within 30 miles of my first flight. Never any issue with compass (knock on wood). My experience - YMMV.