'Not connected' problem

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1

I’d be very grateful if people here can help me with this problem.

I have a Mini 2, and I run it with a Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite. A while ago, my old Mini 2 did a flyaway and wound up at the bottom of a river, so I bought a refurbished one from DJI. I used to run the drone with the Fly app and Litchi. I’d fine tune the controls such as expo and gimbal speed with the Fly app, but I’d fly it with Litchi because I felt more comfortable with that app. When I switched everything on, a choice between the two would appear on screen and I’d choose ‘Litchi’ and ‘once’, and everything worked perfectly. But with this new drone, the Fly app seems to be OK, but when I choose Litchi, the control panel does come up, but it has ‘disconnected’ in red at the top, and there’s no camera view. Strangle enough, though, I can still start the drone.

A panel would come up saying that if there was another app such as DJI running in the background, I should close it, but this made no difference. Then it said I should ‘clear all defaults’ on the DJI app using the phone’s (or in my case tablet’s) settings, but if I go to settings/apps/DJI Fly, all I see is ‘set as default’, then underneath, in blue letters, ‘in other app’. The only control here is ‘open supported links’ which means nothing to me, but I deselected it, and that didn’t work. Then, using another identical tablet, I tried installing the latest update of the Fly app (the other one was quite old), went through all the registration process, paired the drone and controller, and tried again. Same result.

Now when I start everything up, and select Litchi, all I see in the control panel is ‘aircraft not connected to controller’, but that isn’t true, because I can still start the drone.

I’ve no idea why everything worked perfectly with my old drone but I can’t get Litchi to work with this one. Any suggestions please?

2

Can you confirm, using the DJI Fly app, your new drone is actually a Mini 2 (not a Mini 2 SE).

The Mini 2 SE is NOT compatible with Litchi (and will never be).

2 Likes
3

This is exactly what I was wondering as well

4

Oddly the first of two Mini 2s is described in the opening post of this discussion topic as having been flown with Litchi despite the Mini 2 not being present on the Litchi compatibility list. Also, I’ve never seen a menu option that enables me to select either DJI Fy or Litch since I usually select Litchi from my iPad’s desktop and launch the drone, unless calibrations are needed in DJI Fly before any particular flight.

Perhaps an unusual quirk in the smart device selection by the OP enabled the first Mini 2 he owned to be flown using Litchi against all expectations.

5

It’s the very FIRST drone listed in the compatibility list.

Litchi Compatibility List
Litchi Compatibility List1009×619 83.8 KB

That’s a typical Android feature when there’s no default app set.

6

I couldn’t see the forest for the trees. Missed that completely. Apologies for the mixup.

7

Original poster here. Looks like this mystery has been solved (though my problem hasn’t been fixed, and alas, it appears it can’t be).

Yes, I looked at my ‘Mini 2’ and it is indeed a Mini 2SE, even though that wasn’t what I’d thought I’d ordered from Amazon. I’d buy another Mini 2 tomorrow if I could, but DJI is out of stock, I can’t see anything on Amazon, and I’m wary of buying secondhand drones as you never know what’s been happening to them. I might look up a seller that does refurbished drones, if I can find one with good reviews.

I can of course fly it with the DJI Fly app, but I much prefer Litchi. One feature I especially like (and often rely on) is the one that shows your drone and your position connected by a blue line, so all you need it to orientate the drone to point along that line in order to bring it home.

Just as a matter of interest, are there any further control apps you can use with the Mini 2SE? I’m a bit out of touch with new developments.

8

Out of the ten older DJI drones that I have acquired and flown over the past couple of years, all but the Mini 3 were bought used, and sight unseen from eBay. The only dud was an ancient Phantom 3 Standard that never linked to its controller or any other and now serves as a conversation piece.

The only thing worse than buying a used DJI drone is NOT buying a used DJI drone muahaha