[iOS] Phantom 4 Pro Stops during Mission and going to land, safe mode

PIX4Dcapture PIX4Dcapture Questions/Troubleshooting
1

I am constantly having the issue during missions where the drone will stall or stop during a mission.

All Firmware up to date, always latest pix4d app, phone IOS always current update as well. no other apps running during mission.

 

scenario:

setup mission to fly (15 minutes or less)

upload mission to drone (everything checks out fine)

start mission

at somepoint not always same point during mission the drone stops. In order to get it to continue with the mission I have to pause the mission then resume the mission which means allowing it to re upload mission, home point, camera setup etc etc to the drone. it will then start to continue the mission. However sometimes I have to do this as many as 5-6 times to complete a mission.

yesterday I tried this and seemed to be a bit better but still had stalls. I would have the mission and everything ready to go with the start button up and ready to push. I would then try to wait 2-3 minutes thinking it’s actually taking more time to upload the mission and everything else even thought it says it’s ready to go. I still got stalls but got me thinking if this could be part of the issue? The drone is ready to go but in reality even if it has started a mission data is still not completely uploaded to it yet for the full mission.

would love any help or insight as this is EXTREMLEY frustrating to deal with.

thanks in advance

 

2

Hi Justin,

I can understand your frustration here. My understanding is that you probably bumped in the 99th waypoints restriction.
To help me diagnosis if it is the root cause of your issue, can you tell me if you used the “safe” mode to trigger your pictures and if your project will acquire more than 99 images?

DJI’s SDK does not allow third-party applications, including Pix4Dcapture, to upload more than 99 waypoints at the same time. Unfortunately, this means that we expect your drone to go back to land without warning and with its battery still above the low battery threshold when it reaches the 99th waypoint.
When flying in Safe Mode, every image requires a waypoint so you will reach this 99th waypoints restriction as soon as your project will include more than 99 pictures to acquire. Also, you will reach this limit faster than if flying in Fast mode. Indeed in Fast mode, only 2 waypoints are uploaded per flight lines.

Even if it is currently a DJI SDK limitation, being able to upload more than 99 waypoints for a mission and display warnings for users will be considered as part of the ongoing development of Pix4Dcapture.

In the meantime, possible workarounds you can consider include :

  • Planning a smaller mission and/or decreasing the amount of image overlap so that the mission does not include more than 99 waypoints limitation.
  • Tapping Pause and then _Resume _in Pix4Dcapture when your drone stops during the mission so that Pix4Dcapture can upload the next set of waypoints.
  • Switching from Safe Mode to Fast Mode. Fast Mode does not rely on waypoints to trigger the camera so you can fly more flight lines before exceeding the 99 waypoint limit.

Best,