I just ran a few large missions and every time I had to change a battery the drone set it’s new start point at least one row ahead of where it left off. When I caught this I had to change the start point to areas that the app says have already been flown. And the areas are so large that I had to guess and hope that it only skipped a single row. But apparently I didn’t catch this each time. Now that I’ve uploaded the images on the latest oneI can see it skipped several rows on it’s own.
This is an especially serious issue at the moment because my company has less than three days to close on this land and I may be missing 100+ acres on a single site. I am up against both the sunset and the fact that I need to map a few more 400 and 500 acres sites by COB tomorrow.
I have the latest drone firmware, the latest app version, and the iPad is up to date as well. I’m using the P4 (not Pro).
Why doesn’t it automatically pick up where it left off? Is there a way to fix this? I couldn’t find anyone in the forum with the exact same issue since 2015 so I’m wondering if others are having this issue as well.
Thank you for providing your drone specs. Could you verify your firmware?
For the interim, so you can move forward with your project, I recommend to restart the app during the battery swap. In our experience, this will clear up any issues and resume flight at the correct waypoint.
Nipul, are you saying the drone firmware should be v1.1.410? Can you show me where on DJI.com it shows the current firmware on the Phantom 4? This info doesn’t appear on the ‘Specs’ page on dji.com. It is clearly displayed for the Phantom 4 Pro on its spec page.
The DJI Go app says that my firmware on the Aircraft is 01.02.0602. Every time the Go App suggests an update I do it. I just asked it to check for updates and it came back with nothing. In fact I just updated via the Go App this morning.
I flew another site since the one I mentioned in my previous comment. I paid very close attention to the row the drone left off on when the battery swap was needed. I made sure it flew every inch of the map. Nevertheless I have three massive gaps where apparently no pictures or few pictures were taken. During each flight I had altitude, speed, battery life, and distance, all coming in clearly. I also had a regular live view of what the camera was seeing and it was pointed down and flashing at regular intervals as you would expect it to do when it is taking photos. But if you look at the included screenshot you can see that upon upload it showed me that much of the last couple hours were for not.
I circled in pink the areas that I flew without a hitch but inexplicably have no photos for. Any idea why this is happening? I have there more sites to map tomorrow and then have to find time to travel to the two mess ups from today to fill in the gaps.
You are using the correct firmware of 01.02.0602 for the Phantom 4.
Your map was very helpful. We have identified an issue which has been reported by other users where you can have a successful flight and partial images from a mission are not captured. We are working hard to find a solution.
In the meanwhile, below is an alternate solution which could potentially help remedy the issue. We have found that sometimes the start image capture command can fail due to poor RC connection, so moving closer to the first waypoint of a mission can help.
Start mission.
When the drone returns for a battery swap, get (may need to drive) closer to the waypoint that the drone will start next.
Restart the app.
Resume flying.
Though we understand this is not an ideal solution, we are working hard to find a solution.
I noticed this issue twice today, and in retrospect I’m fairly certain it was in areas where the drone started further away from me, which would support that you’ve identified the issue correctly.
When possible I will certainly do as you say and drive closer to the start point. When your team remedies the issue it will certainly help. Some places are just difficult to get to safely in rental cars.
