Autopilot vs. Litchi

[ChadAustin]

I've been using AutoPilot for Way Point missions for about 2 years. I have the Inspire 1 and I'm using a iPad Air 2.

Recently, it has been disengaging mid-flight during Way Point missions.

Moreover, everything stops: RC does not work... nothing.

I have to turn off / on the RC, which engages the RTH.

Today's mission I was approximately 2100 ft away when the **** thing failed.

Luckily, my RTH is at 160 ft so I missed any would-be disaster obstacles.

There were no wireless interference warnings prior to flight.

Not cool.

 

[Donnie Frank]

I've had similar issues, albeit, I've never lost connection between RC and AC.

I started with Air 1 running a fairly complex mission, which included camera movements. I sas flying 2 missions/month on a construction site. Started in February. Everything worked great.

Then, come May, it warms up. Autopilot would die right in the middle of the mission, leaving my bird hovering. I would have to bring the bird back, change the battery and start over. Turns out, Autopilot is heavy on the CPU. And since the iPads have no active cooling, the only way to keep the CPU from heat damage is to throttle back the CPU. Apparently Autopilot doesn't like this. Autopilot is resource heavy. So when it can't get enough CPU, it just shuts down. No warnings. No glitch. It literally just leaves the screen - it goes away.

My solution was to get a more powerful iPad with more CPU to spare. So I pick up an Air Pro WiFi. This doesn't cure the problem completely, but is more more tolerable of the heat. Next step was to cool the iPad in the fridge 2 or 3 hours before the gig, then keep the thing in a cooler with ice. I was able to complete all my missions this way.

I started using Map Pilot for some mapping missions. While it's been reliable so far during flight, it tends to "go on vacation" while I'm building missions. So now I save every few edits...which is a bit of a pain, because MP saves a new file every time one saves their changes. So you have to go back and delete all the superfluous files. What a PITA, but I digresss...

That's weird that your AC/RC disconnect from each other. I've never had that happen.

Here are my software/firmware versions:
App: v3.1.1
App database: v00.00.01.04
Aircraft: v1.8.1.00
Remote: v1.6
Camera: v1.8.1

Curious to know if your RC is running the latest 1.7. I found v1.6 to be rock solid.

D

 

[ChadAustin]

Donnie I soo appreciate your feedback. Thank you.

I'm not sure about the Remote version, embarrassed to say (where do I find that and I will share). But I do not have any indicators that anything is out-of-date.

I think mine is a separate issue as Autopilot doesn't die or leave the screen... instead, a new, small white window pops up and informs me that Autopilot has disengaged. At that point everything becomes unresponsive (RC). I have to turn off the RC and turn it back on for the Return-To-Home to engage... but at least it does engage.

I'm sending them a Help Ticket about it this morning. They've always been super helpful.

 

[Donnie Frank]

Donnie I soo appreciate your feedback. Thank you.

I'm not sure about the Remote version, embarrassed to say (where do I find that and I will share). But I do not have any indicators that anything is out-of-date.

I think mine is a separate issue as Autopilot doesn't die or leave the screen... instead, a new, small white window pops up and informs me that Autopilot has disengaged. At that point everything becomes unresponsive (RC). I have to turn off the RC and turn it back on for the Return-To-Home to engage... but at least it does engage.

I'm sending them a Help Ticket about it this morning. They've always been super helpful.

You should be able to simply toggle to ATTI mode to "release" the bird from the app. And then toggle back to "P" or "F" to get home.

Just curious... Which FW versions are you running?