DJI Drones Not Loading entire Litchi Waypoint Mission Data Prior to Mission Start (Huge step backwards) - Why?

I am and have been a Mavic Pro + Litchi user for the last 4 years. I have created many/many waypoint missions (love litichi) and saved all in mission hub. When I fly and open Litchi (to use with my mavic pro) I first select and then load the entire mission into my Mavic Pro. This is a comfort knowing the entire waypoint mission is loaded in the drone and once I start the waypoint mission, the mission will be run from the data stored in the Mavic Pro (huge benefit for using litchi). Any problems with lost connection or whatever could go wrong will then cause my drone to complete the mission regardless and RTH as I slected in setup or I can force a RTH.
Is my understanding of how missions are loaded and run for quote "older Mavics - like mine that use DJI Go 4 app + Litchi - correct?

This “older waypoint mission loading process with DJI Go 4” is a must have Litchi feature that I expected to see when I bought one of the “newer Mavics” that now must use DJI Fly App + Litchi.

Where, in Litchi literature, is their a caution/warning statement that alerts folks like me that when uprgading to newer drones (using DJI Fly App + Litchi) that we no longer have ability to load the “entire mission + data” at one time into the new drones, then start the mission. Having to depend on the controller + App to now send the invidual waypoint data is a pain and introduces a lot of drone pilot frustration - if anything goes wrong, in the flight, in the app or with the controller, the drone can no longer complete the mission because it does not know the mission and worse yet it can sometimes just stop mid air and wait for you to initiate a command to take control. Yes, I have RTH in setup along with all the settings that I used with my Mavic Pro.
Now, with the “newer DJI drones”, you start the mission (using DJI Fly App + Litchi) and you “hope” that nothing interrupts the controller sending mission data to your drone. You best hope that your Ipad, Iphone or Android Tablet does not have any of the slightest interruptions with the app. What happens If you are screen mirroring (for whatever reason) and lost connection, what haappens if you decide to minimize your screen (for whatever reason), what if you just lose connecttion - a number of what ifs now come in to play that stop the mission because the drone is dumb and is waiting to be told what to do - the drone just sits and waits (in th sky) for you to do a RTH.
I am frustrated - please let me know if I have this wrong - Having the entire waypoint mission loaded, into the drone, prior to take off has worked for years. This was and is a very important feature, and one of the big reasons I started to use Litchi and waypoints. Design it, load it and run it - seamless to a fault. Why did this have to change with the new DJI drones?

For those who are experts are on this, please feel free to explain to me - I have a hard time believing the newer drones do not have enough memory to load the entire mission. That is a red herring. Is DJI forcing this on Litchi? Worse yet, are their some newer more expensive DJI drones that can still load the entire waypoint mission and some that cannot? If so, where is that communicated in the spec literature?
So for now, my choice is to sell my Mavic Air 2 and keep my Mavic Pro so that I can continue to use DJI Go 4 App + Litchi and waypoint missions of old. I am sure a change is coming to force me to use DJI Fly App with Mavic Pro. Sending point by point data to your drone for each waypoint is asking for problems. My opinion.
Thoughts - I am sure others feel the same - I think?

Hi DRH,

I agree with you. I am also frustrated by the lack of true waypoint support in the newer “DJI Fly” drones. I have P3S and a M2Z. They fly waypoint missions beautifully. I also have a A2S. It uses the “virtual sticks” mode to accomplish waypoint missions. Upon signal loss, it behaves according to the configured “loss of signal mode”.

This topic has been discussed over and over on this and other forums. It is DJI who decided to no longer support autonomous waypoint missions. Companies like Litchi have no choice but to use the “virtual sticks” mode to mimic an autonomous waypoint missions. Here is one of many discussions on this topic:

The “newer Mavics” that now must use DJI Fly App,
do not have the processor or memory installed to hold
the complete mission and so now are not capable of flying
completely autonomous missions.

I suspect the government(s) have told DJI to stop including this function.

It is a pity that DJI just happened to forget to tell buyers that they will not have
access to this feature in their new drones.

The problem is that the slightest signal interruption by a building, even for a few
seconds, will shut down the function from continuing and resuming,
even if the signal connection goes back to 100%,
and will then put the drone into a pause and a " wait for you to do something " state.

If you do not do anything, the drone goes into return to home.

Watch this video > where a small building temporarily interrupted the signal.

My solution was to sell the drone and buy another Mavic 2 pro.

1 Like

I agree with your solution - I too will sell my Air 2 and look for a Mavic 2 Pro to replace my Mavic Pro. No hurry though, I still believe the Mavic Pro is still quite functional.
By the way, DJI just a bit misleading, not false but misleading, when they identify all Mavic drones to be compatable with DJI Go 4 app. They also have a series of drones they do not call “Mavic Series” but “Air Series” - the Air Series will have to use the DJI Fly App. I think most “hobbyist” would refer to all their drones as Mavic Pro or Mavic Air etc.
Thanks for the comments.

Yes, the DJI naming convention has evolved. The Air and Mini lines were introduced as the Mavic Air and the Mavic Mini. However, they are now called the “DJI Air 2S” and the “DJI Mini 2”. The “Mavic 2 Pro”, “Mavic 2 Zoom”, and “Mavic 3” have remained Mavics.

1 Like

For myself, I see the following names mp, m2p, mm, ma, ma2, a2s, m2. I don’t see any problems with this, it seems that all the names are quite logical.
Why do you need m2p. After all, you have a pro and it’s a pretty good drone

You are correct - I will keep the pro.

Thanks for posting this - I was totally unaware of the fact that Litchi missions have become “un-autonomous” with the new “DJI Fly” app. Seems to work fine with the older Go4 app. Yet another reason to keep my two Mavic Pro drones. In fact, the only drone I own that uses the newer DJI Fly app is my Mini-2. I tried running a Litchi waypoint app with the Mini-2, and it seemed to work, but all the waypoints were “close in”. Never realized it was depending on the RC to be sending all the commands.

Doing missions in Joystick mode is great when the mission is right next to you. But if you’re using one of the newer drones and you’re at the edge of their range, or there’s radio interference, it gets really janky and jerky quick! So the resulting flights are like zig-zags over over- and under-correction to flight paths.

It really sucks.

Running the same mission on a Mavic 2 versus a Mini2 is like night and day. The older drones are smooth and do exactly what you want them to do. The newer ones seem like they’re drunk and trying to follow orders and not being successful at it :slight_smile:

2 Likes

While we can blame Govt., for many things, I believe this is the sole responsibility of DJI. Put in place as a cost saving measure. That maybe one of two reasons. Weight saving with all processing being done on controller and hence “virtual sticks”, or saving of replication in drone and on controller.

Reducing weight has a significant cost.

Hence used on “lesser” models. Of course, such changes will play into the hands of other drone manufacturers at DJI cost. No free meals out there

Dji spark has a weight of 299g. But on board all the functions of dji pro

1 Like

I don’t think the maker of dji cares about government and laws at all. It’s just all about the money.

At the same time air 2 and air2s weigh 600g and fly just like mini 2

1 Like

But it is the task of diminishing returns…

And perhaps as also suggest, diminishing costs.

With many items made in China, the first batch meets all requirements. After that, there is a deterioration one way or another for the dame price. Unless the buyer has extremely close supervision.