I’m looking for some direction from those more knowledgeable than I.
My friends and I travel a few times a year to a property in Northern Ontario where we have a hunting camp. One of those trips each year is dedicated to hunting, while the other 2-3 are project trips where we enjoy the Canadian Outdoors and work on various tasks around the camp. During our downtime, we like to explore the surrounding area and want to supplement that with a drone (emphasis: we are not using it for hunting purposes and it likely will never leave the camp during the hunting season).
Our area is very remote—the last few hours of the drive have no cell reception. We communicate via radios and a satellite phone for emergencies.
Someone brought up a DJI drone years ago (some version of a Phantom?) and wasn’t able to get it to fly. I understand the issue was due to the drone (or maybe the phone being used as a controller?) trying to grab a cell signal to verify location.
Is there a specific model that can be unpacked, turned on, and flown without ever getting a cell signal and still work 100%? Is this dependent on having the correct settings enabled/disabled?
We do receive a GPS signal on our phones, but no cellular data.
We’ll definitely get a Fly More bundle, but other than the standard packages, are there any other factors we should consider to extend our drone usage? We have a generator and solar power at the camp and can recharge overnight, so we don’t need enough batteries to last the entire trip.
Final question: Phone remote vs. remote with built-in screen—does this affect functionality in a zero-cell-access scenario?
I’ve had no problems flying away from cell service; in fact, I’ve never used a device with cell service to fly any of my DJI drones. The issue may have been either a missing update or not being logged into the DJI account.
I once got stuck unable to fly because my iPad updated the DJI Fly app overnight (I’ve since turned off auto-updates!), and the drone needed an update. I didn’t check that before leaving at 4 AM, having verified everything worked at 10 PM the previous night.
Before entering a cell range, make sure all necessary updates are installed and that you’re logged in to your DJI account (you have to log in every few months). Basically, take off and fly past the limit of a non-logged-in controller to ensure it works, and remember to turn off auto-updates.
I frequently fly in the mountains of Colorado where there’s zero signal in most areas. Verifying your location is a GPS function, not cellular. I’ve never encountered any problems in these situations.
Thanks, everyone! It might have been a fluke or update issue. I appreciate your help, and we’ll cross our fingers that we don’t encounter any issues when we head up north with a drone (I’ll ensure firmware updates on the drone, controller, and phone before we leave).
