Paid but almost impossible to use!

I paid by Litchi but I can’t use it. I live in a blue zone ( almost touching the red area ) due to proximity to an airport. I was able to unlock the aircraft to fly it using a tip from a user - turn on the aircraft with DJI Fly, import the license, keep the aircraft on and report it to it, check GPS signal and others informations, turn off DJI Fly and immediately turn Litchi on and after that check all the stufs again on it. I was successful once and the other time my drone went flying aimlessly but I was lucky enough to capture it. Does anyone have a better suggestion? Because I do not like to fly using lucky. The better way to do this is using reason.

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I’ve been asking a similar question (almost identical). Advice was to do as you suggested but after Litchi update it makes no difference!

Hello Malcom, good morning. Very nice to get in touch with you. Let’s wait then, okay? I just didn’t have trouble loading the photos (like you) on Litchi because my Mini 2 is having trouble shooting and shooting on Litchi and DJI Fly. Everything leads to believe that the problem is in the Mini 2. I’m trying to solve this problem too. I’ll let you know if I can use Litchi in the no-fly zone. Feel free to contact me.

I don’t have any imaging problems at all, as I either copy across, using the high speed setting or remove the card. Actually I find using the high speed link more than adequate.
I’m frustrated that the update seems to have made my standard repeating mission (house build progress record) unusable. I’m not smooth enough or skilled enough to copy same route every time manually either.
I find Dronelink frustrating and uneccessary for my simple requirements. I haven’t actually flown a Dronelink in mission!
DJI Fly is excellent but I like waypoint plans with the camera videos doing what I want at the right time and not if I’m quick or smooth enough. Obviously still pics are no problem.
I’m in the UK by the way! :m:

Hey Malcom, thanks for your replay. So, I believe that we should live waiting for new firmwares day after day in the hope that they solve our problems (caused by them). Still looking for a solution to my problem. Greetings from Brazil.

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I have got fed up of Litchi and unloaded the App. Decided it’s better to learn Dronelink in detail and use that.

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Hello Malcon, good night. So maybe your solution is Dronelink. I believe you can operate this program with ease. Everything in this life requires commitment, so just use a little of your effort, study and you will succeed. Around here I will use one program or another as a hobby and waiting for the release by Litchi / DJI for the missions. Then tell me how you’ve been doing with Dronelink. Hugs.

Are you using a DJI custom unlock, or, a short term unlock code? I have used custom unlock codes which are good for many months and once I set them via fly (for mini’s or FPVs), or via go4 (regular mavics & phantoms), they are persistent across controller and aircraft shutdown, startup, battery swaps etc.

Hi Greg, good night. First of all, thank you very much for your report and help. Well, honestly I didn’t even know there were two ways to unlock it. So that I can use Litchi, I do the following procedure: I turn on all the DJI equipment (transmitter, drone and DJI Fly) and wait for everything to connect. After that, I turn off DJI Fly and turn on Litch and also wait for the connection between it and the Mini 2. This works, but it takes a lot of work and I’ve already lost connection between them. I just can’t say it was a connection failure, but with DJI Fly I never had this loss of signal. Can you give me a tip on how best to make this connection, Mini 2 and Litchi ???

I don’t do anything, just turn on the drone and litchi

Try not to fly in restricted areas :slight_smile:

Ok, so to clarify, lets step back a bit, are you:
a: using ios or droid based device?
b: if droid, with controller connected to phone/device, power on controller, do you get a prompt to use litchi or fly or other app?
c: if you get a prompt in (b) above, first time select Fly, and select one time, fly app should launch. Power on the aircraft (drone). You can then unlock using an adhoc short term dji unlock, or, you can go to dji flysafe site (DJI FlySafe) and request a custom longer term unlock for the area around where you want to fly, including the warning zone and outside of it. Once you get the unlock code, can take from 10 to 30 minutes, it will appear in your fly app (if connected to internet), and you can then load it into the aircraft via the app/controller. From then on you can leave it enabled/unlock or disable it if going somewhere else. Once you enable the custom unlock code, it should be persistent when ever you turn controller/app off/on, worse case, you go into fly and make sure its enabled, then go into litchi.
d: if the above worked, then close the fly app, note the above (c) you only do the first time you need to enable the unlock, or, if you have flown somewhere else and disabled the unlock. After you close the fly app, unplug the cable from controller to to the phone, wait 1-2 seconds, then plug in again, if droid, you should see the popup menu asking to choose fly litchi or some other apps if they exist. If you get the popup, select litchi and select just once, litchi should start, and you should see camera view of aircraft, wait a few seconds and pay attention to any warning messages. Once you get green bar on top of litchi app, and you have GPS lock, you are good to fly.
e: now if droid and you dont see the popup menu (b), then go to settings → developer options → if USB debugging disabled, enable it. Also click on Revoke USB debugging authorizations. Scroll down, enable Verify apps over USB. If you dont see Developer Options on droid, while in settings, go to About Phone (or device), Click on Software Information, click multiple times on “Build number” and you will get a notice that Developer options are being enabled.
f: what the above is doing is making sure that one app for example fly is not automatically taking over the USB connection make it difficult for litchi to connect. Also note that once you do the above, if litchi is not showing connected to aircraft, simply unplug cable from phone to controller, plug it back in and you will either be connected to aircraft, or, you select litchi from popup menu with just once and you are connected.
g: the above might seem complicated however its all very quick and easy, on my devices I have fly, go4, litchi, dronedeploy, autel and some others so I can choose what app using for a given aircraft/controller pair. Likewise I have custom unlocks for different locations for my different DJI including FPV, mini, mavic 2 pro, phantoms, etc. If Im using an aircraft in same unlock zone, I can just leave it unlocked and go into litchi (using above sequence) and fly, worse case, I need to refresh the unlock code via fly or go4 (depending on aircraft), exit, go into litchi per above and fly. Have even flown with authorizations in NFZ or “0” altitude areas with a mini and litchi.
Good luck.

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Hi Greg, good morning. Man, I’m open-mouthed at your instructions! Thank you very much for them and your time spent in this help. I’m going to apologize because I unintentionally omitted an important information in my post. A complicating factor in this case is that I use two cell phones because one of them doesn’t work with DJI Fly. Therefore, I have to connect one, disconnect the other, change cables, import licenses… it becomes a tremendous mess when flying. If Litchi had some functions aimed at this, the problem would be solved. That’s why I asked for help in order to find a solution to fly the Mini 2 connecting all this from the beginning only on Litchi. I will carefully read your step by step because it is certainly a way to acculturate myself a little more on the subject. Thank you one more time. Greetings.

Hi Bpa, good morning. Thank you in advance for your help with my post. Unfortunately I live near an airport and without DJI authorization I can’t fly. To complicate things a little more, I use two mobile phones because DJI Fly is not compatible with the mobile phone on which Litchi is installed. This is the life! tough! Hugs and good flights.

Robson no worries, curious why you need to use two phones, why not just use the one that supports fly app and do everything with that?

For my primary app device I use a droid phone that has no cell card in it (wifi only), it has fly, go4, litchi, dronedeploy, autel explorer, and some other fly apps installed on it. When back home or in the office I can connect to internet to update litchi missions, get fly or go4 updates as well as custom unlock codes, get my DD missions (they need to be enabled for offline), etc. When im on site flying, I dont need internet access as I have my unlock codes already in the device app, as well as my litchi missions, etc. As long as Im already logged into litchi when onsite no need for wifi or internet. In the case I need an airspace authorization, I can use my regular cell phone to do that, which is also configured as a backup device with my apps on it.

So if you can clarify why you are using two devices and have to switch cables etc, that would help.

Cheers gs

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Hey Greg, hello again. DJI Fly does not run on the phone where Litchi is installed, ie; It doesn’t support DJI software installation, it’s not compatible. The exchange of one cable for another is because their connection plugs are different from each other. One of them uses usb type C and the other the micro usb standard. Well, I was afraid of causing a conflict with two software installed on the same phone. This is the reason why I use both cell phones. From your report I concluded that I can install both programs on the same cell phone, correct? I believe that if I install Litchi on the phone where I have DJI Fly installed, I will have to pay for a new license, am I right? Was I able to give you the information in an intelligible way? Thank you one more time.

Robson… I feel your pain. I also live and fly in the DJI blue zone authorization hell you have described. I don’t know if you live in the US, but here the FAA is the only governmental organization authorized to define restricted airspace, not states, not counties, not city governments, and, frankly not DJI. But DJI has chosen to put an overlay to the FAA process, badly reconciled to what’s in place from the FAA, and that’s what you’re battling with DJI Fly Safe. It’s not a litchi problem, it’s a DJI problem.

I’m an IoS guy, and based on my personal experience, DJI locks out individual IoS devices from their authorizations. I fly successfully with my wife’s iPad (no cellular, therefore no internal true GPS) and with her iPhone, both using DJI Fly and litchi. But when I tried to fly with my iPhone using DJI Fly, no authorizations showed up to unlock, and I could not fly, until I wrote an email to Fly Safe support, and it was fixed in minutes, on a Sunday morning no less.

From my experience, once you unlock your drone from a recognized DJI authorization using whatever device that works for you (and don’t turn the drone off), you can unplug and plug in a new iPad/iPhone to the RC, start litchi (without stopping DJI Fly if on the same device), and litchi will fly the drone. This works even if you are in a FAA zero altitude zone (which speaks volumes to the so-called Fly Safe motto).

DJI and the FAA are NOT integrated, and the DJI zealots will tell you that’s the FAAs fault, because DJI is a Chinese company. Well, bull pucky, DJI should simply back off in the US at least, and yield to the authority of the FAA, and turn off DJI Fly Safe in the US.

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Hi Mr Jack, you literally gutted the facts… lol… First of all thank you very much for sharing your experience. Nice to meet you. It’s an honor to “talk” with you. Well, I’m brazilian and resident in Brazil. Here, things are practically the same in terms of regulation between ANAC (which is our FAA in the USA) and DJI. The fact is that zones exist and we have to fit into them. If I don’t import a license for my drone in these areas, it won’t even turn on. I have no knowledge to speak of, but it is public and well-known that there is a " war " in this software universe where a lot of money is involved. Therefore, we pay and still go through various types of difficulties when it comes to flying. I will follow your guidance. Thank you for making me feel safer on my flights. Have a great day and flights too.

Why don’t you buy an older model with hacked nfz.

Hi BPA, good morning. Well, I received several reports here in the forum exchanging experiences and instructing me, giving tips… just like you. I am very grateful to everyone. Until Litchi allows us more flexibility, I will follow our friend Jack’s step by step. I think this is the best solution for me for now. Today I will fly some flights and try to adapt to this condition. My thanks again. Good flights there.