Back Story: I’ve flown numerous missions with Mavic 2 Pro & Inspire 2. Never had a problem with any since I started using DD w/ my previous company. I am extremely attentive to making sure I have the latest firmware versions (etc) before leaving for any mission, but I also carry a tested laptop and multiple compatible devices as backups.
Thursday: Left from Seattle-area for a multi-day video shoot with mapping in the remote mountains of central Idaho, 580 mi away, for the new company I’m working for. Tested and verified everything was working prior to leaving. Drove 11 hours to the location, and prepped everything for a shoot the following day. Ended up delaying the mapping until Sat due to other priority footage capture, but had 0 problems operating either at multiple locations while traveling, nor during shooting on-site.
Friday: Set up 2 missions once I had property lines and verified they were downloaded on my phone and primary control tablet while in the nearest location with LTE (90 min away), and synced with my laptop. Verified settings, hardware status, and LAANC clearance. Re-verified I had the latest versions of Drone Deploy App and DJI Go 4 on all devices.
Saturday: Brought out the Inspire 2, prepped for mission, completed test flight. Power cycled both drone/rc, relaunched DJI Go 4, hard-closed at “Ready to Go” message, launched Drone Deploy App (Samsung Tab S4, previously used for missions), confirmed pre-check, and clicked “Start Mission”, and then… nothing. No error messages from app, no response from Inspire 2. Restarted all devices, repeated steps from above. Now I receive an “Unable to Start Mission” error.
Cleared cache, power cycled ALL devices. Repeated steps from above. Same error.
Shut down drone/rc, and stored. Spent several hours researching this issue on DD Forums and Google, with no clear solution, and several steps to try. Pulled Inspire 2 back out and re-initiated startup and test flight without issue.
Hard-closed all apps, relaunched DJI Go 4. Initiated takeoff sequence successfully, performed full system test, verified calibration, etc. Landed drone, and then initiated another takeoff sequence, holding at 3’. Closed DJI Go 4 and launched Drone Deploy. Successfully completed pre-flight check, and started mission while hovering. Unfortunately, by this point it was dark enough that I could not continue the mission and was forced to Return to Home before starting. Closed all apps, cleaned and stored drone, set batteries to charge, continuing my research.
Sunday: Re-attempted mission launch following all steps above (incl launching/hovering from DJI app and then closing/opening DD). After multiple failed attempts, I switched out my Samsung Tab S4 for my Samsung Note 10+ (also up-to-date apps, previously used successfully). Repeated standard steps and troubleshooting steps from DD website, forums, etc. Continued to receive “Unable to start mission” message.
After another 2 hrs of time spent troubleshooting, I packed up the Inspire 2 and grabbed my Mavic 2 Pro. Ran setup, test flight, etc. Prepped for DD, completed pre-check, and started mission. After successful initial launch (using my Note 10+), I initiated a RTH and re-attempted using my Tab S4, successfully. I was able to complete the mission without issue, although at nowhere near the resolution or detail level my boss wanted.
Basically, I just traveled 26 hours, spent 14 hours attempting to troubleshoot, and spent 6 days sleeping in a 14’ toy trailer in the middle of the Idaho mountains where it’s 90+ degrees during the day and 30 degrees at night, and drove 1200+ miles to unsuccessfully execute a project and fail to deliver a product I’ve never had any issues with previously… I need to figure out what the issue is and quickly, as this is going to be a massive determining factor on whether or not I can sell Drone Deploy to my boss as our go-to tool.
What information can I provide to help troubleshoot?