No Fly Zone Take-Off

It's our experience that when Map Pilot refuses to upload a mission, not all other apps will fail. Pix4D Mapper, DJI GS Pro, Litchi, and Drone Deploy have all successfully flown when Map Pilot would not. Is there an estimate of when the update to the SDK version will be finished?

Keep in mind that we always recommend doing a test flight using DJI Go at any new site both to check for errors and clear out any No Fly Zone issues. We report the errors based on the feedback from the DJI SDK and if says it will cross into a No Fly Zone, Map Pilot will not allow the flight to be loaded. We can't speak for the error checking of other apps. 

We have found the issue and we are sorry to hear that this is affecting your operations. Apparently DJI's latest firmware release requires their newest version of the SDK to be functional any more. They have essentially added a geofence of 100 meters at the aircraft's startup location until it can authenticate with their system.

The updated SDK that is required is a really big update with a lot of big changes in it. We are still in the middle of updating Map Pilot. We had planned on adding some other new capabilities but we will be shelving that work to expedite the SDK update development to keep this from becoming an issue for very long.

The workaround that has been identified is to open the most recent version of DJI Go 4 and close it before using Map Pilot. It must be the most recent version of DJI Go 4 that goes with the latest firmware. This will allow the geofence to be expanded since DJI Go will be providing the authorization. This step must be done for the first time with internet connectivity to verify the country of operation.

Keep an eye out for the 2.6.0 release which will have the new SDK in it and will not require this step even though we always recommend using DJI Go to test things out before flying at any new site. Again, we apologize for the issue and we are working to resolve it quickly.

You mentioned that 2.6.0 will come out to fix this. when should we expect this? 

I have to do a survey with multiple batteries and its in a location that has no internet. is this going to be a problem?
i Have seen people say that in Dji Go 4 App i have to enable max distance before trying to fly using Maps Made easy.
Is this true?

Regards

Peter: We are still testing it. The latest version of the SDK does not work the same on the newer aircraft as it does on the old ones. This is bad and is making the testing process take a lot longer than usual. 

You should be fine operating with the current version anyways. The only drawback is that you have to close Map Pilot, open DJI Go, connect, close DJI Go, and then reopen Map Pilot after every aircraft power up. Not fun, but it works. 

Version 2.6.0 has been released and no longer requires DJI Go to be accessed between batteries. 

Attempted flight today DJI Inspire 1 Pro with Ipad Mini 4 and v 2.6.4 in DJI airport exclusion zone. Despite exclusion certificate from DJI, aircraft would not take off using mapsmadeeasy. DJI GO app flight worked no problem but not much good to survey with that app. When will this issue be addressed? It was costly and embarassing no-go, second time it happened in front of the client...

Nicolas: We are sorry to hear about your incident. It seems there is a class of No Fly Zones that DJI does not allow waypoint flight within.

The next version of Map Pilot to be released will include the display and capability to unlock No Fly Zones but that won't likely help in this case. We have not seen any pattern or notation in the DJI data that says which NFZs do not allow waypoint flight.

In cases like this, it is always best to do a quick drive by at a site if possible to make sure you can take off before showing up with any clients.

Please report the NFZ IDs for zones that you have been unable to use waypoint flight in and will we try to figure out if there are any clues there.

The location was Squamish, BC, Canada. Neither the desktop webpage nor the DJI GO App shows an NFZ ID #, only the airport name.

Any progress in figuring out issue? (encountered same problem with DroneDeploy app). Was in area again yesterday tried again, but the problem persists. (Unfortunately, can't do test flights at most sites, since we fly several hours into most sites! We only get one shot to get it right...)

We have been searching through the databases that are available to us and haven't found any notation that corresponds with the fully locked out flight zones. 

If we can get a few more reports of where this is occurring we would have more to work with.

All Apps I use (Litchi, Dronedeploy, DJI Go, Autopilot...) have no problems to fly in Dji's No-Fly-Zones, when flying with DJI Go is possible, why does Map Pilot has a builtin zone control which has this problems ? Use the aircraft's restriction, thats's it and don't invest in programm code for no fly zones, let DJI do this and programm things which make Map Pilot better ;-)

In version 2.8.2 there is apparently an issue with the offline NFZ database but the connected unlocking should still work when logged in. 

So the "Source: Offline" will not work until 2.8.3.

As noted in the Zone Control panel, "Aircraft and data connection required to unlock zones" will allow you to unlock whatever you have access to through DJI.

To unlock a zone you need to be connected to the aircraft and the internet and then open the Zone Control panel. It will ask you to log in to DJI if you haven't already.   

If I have a job to fly a local jail (restricted zone/red) and have approval from the appropriate authority,along with dji removal/access for the area.Will Map pilot work? I have a P4P and Go app 4. I am worried that even with dji authorization the waypoint system with map pilot won’t work. 

@WTM: The only way to fly a red zone is WRITTEN permission from DJI Headquarters, unlocking the zone online is not enough. You need to write them asking for special permission. If you can prove to DJI that you have permission, they will upload an unlock code to your remote controller which (may) allow you to fly normally (you'll need internet access at the site you're flying and have to upload the code while you're at the site, can't be done at home. You will STILL have to open DJI GO , takeoff (or at least spin the blades), and check the box that says you're ok with this before running any mapping apps. Having said all that, even then Map Pilot did not recognize my authority and drone stayed grounded, but I haven tried MP in almost a year, maybe MP updates have fixed that bug. I tried the above last week in my Red Zone with Drone Deploy and it was smooth sailing (I had permission from DJI headquarters)

Thank you for the reply. I have written authorization and have jumped through all the hoops as far as the DJI side. I am just worried that even with the proper authorization, map pilot won’t fly, as you stated. It seems like a year ago most mission apps were having trouble with this but most seems to have worked it out. I would use Drone Deploy but I do my own processing and I don’t think DD allows you to do your own photogrammerty work. 

It seems that Zane’s last post in this thread may suggest they fixed this issue. Would love som clarification on this from him.

Don't know about MP in the red zones, but you can use any capture app and process the photos with MME so long as the images retain the proper exif info.

I was under the impression that Drone Deploy was all cloud based. Thank you for that info. Learn new things everyday. May end up having to use Drone deploy because it seems as if they have this red zone issue worked out. I am familiar with map pilot and would love to use it but am scared due to the older post on this thread.....But drone deploy doesn’t offer terrain awareness. Nothing can be easy. 

That's true.  I use MP and DD lately.  I used to use MP exclusively but had a couple of issues where DD worked better.  DD's web interface for planning is very nice and would be a great upgrade for MP.

I always process in MME or locally depending.