Thanks for watching! I hope this video helped a few people out so they don't lose or wreck their drones. If you found it useful, please share the link on Twitter, Reddit, Instagram, Discord, and the like so others can see it. This video, like most of my vidoes, is not sponsored. So if you'd like to see more content like this, please feel free to help me and the channel out a bit by buying me a coffee!! buymeacoffee.com/BlueMarbleVideos If you're looking to pick up one of these drones, here's a link for it: Amazon affiliate link: geni.us/dHin9xG Please let me know in the comments here what future videos on this or other topics you'd like to see!
this is in fact the limitation of Wifi signal, not directly related to DJI Neo. The recommended maximum distance is 50 m, which is pretty high vertically but very short horizontally. Using a controller is a must if you want to fly the drone a little bit farther away.
Thank you so much for this video, brand new when it comes to drones. Lost signal yesterday, drone fell of the sky, hit the trees and landed in the mud. We found it thanks to the app and fact we just gave it a new battery so it kept going on and on and on! Somehow NEO survived the drop from 50 metres without any major damage! Slightly bent guar a few mm, thats about it! Definitely a lot to learn!
While the shortcomings are obvious, a reminder is good. I had mine get out of range in my yard, however being handicapped, it wasn't comfortable to have to go get it.
Lost my Neo on the second day I had it. :( I was having it follow me on my bike in hand-launch mode and I was getting a feel for follow speed and where it would lose me around corners. At one point the motor sound got quiet so I knew it had stopped, but before I could turn and see where it was, the motors cut and it (apparently) went down in the heavy bush on either side of the trail. I walked the trail back and forth a dozen times but couldn't find it. :( Luckily I had the fly-away insurance and got a replacement a few days later for $90. I'm going to get the RC-N3 and fly over that area to see if I can find it from above.
Last week flying above foggy landscape with controller, Neo got blown away from its gps fix, the FlyApp provided me with the dialog, to let it land or RTH. Selected quickly RTH and although I thought it was flown away after some half a minute it returned safely in my hands, actually exactly landed on the spot it came from. So I was pretty amazed how it flew back, also in appearantly strong wind up to 40 meters RTH. So feel like flying with the controller is pretty failsafe and my recommended way of flying anyways. The only annoying thing is returning to home location and starting to hover a meter or 2 above you.
Yes, of course, but you have to have it with you first. I bought this drone in addition to using the advertised autonomy for certain applications. DJI needs to bring out an upgrade here so that the drone returns to the home point in every situation. Forgive my English, it's not my native language.
The Flymore combo here in Canada and in the UK and EU has the controller with it for quite a bit less than the price of the drone itself. This is what I purchased.
RTH where? If you have it follow, then where is home? A Return-to-Controller(phone) is what it should do. To where your last location was before it lost connection. Rise up, fly to that location, and hang there. But I'm not sure that is safer. What if it is under a tree?
I hope it gets added to DJI Fly and the drone in a future firmware update, so when using this with your phone, or without a phone at all, it will come back to where it started when it loses connections or for a low battery.
I had a spark too. Even made a video of it going a mile. Buried deep in my older vids. Sadly, the spark was left on top of the car one day and ended up getting drove over. Some Good Samaritan traveler returned it to us (phone# on drone), and we bought him McDonald’s lunch.
Wish I would have watched this vid before I lost my drone, I did recover it with find my drone, it just lost signal on the RC, I went looking for it and had dropped from the sky damaging the gimbal, sent for repair today.. thanks for the tracking app in dji fly I found it 1/2 mile away from where I took off.
Same thing happened to us yesterday, we lost signal and the drone went off, flew 600 metres away, hit the trees and fell, luckily we found it and somehow nothing got damaged. Quite scary so watching all the videos with tips on what to do and how to avoid it omg 🙈
I was using mine out at the cottage recently and it simply disconnected from the RC, repeatedly, like no communication at all, red warning text all over the place! I had to physically unplug and reconnect the RC-phone cable to reestablish communication and even then it still disconnected repeatedly with drone & RC on fresh batts. All this at about 30m height directly above me in the middle of nowhere with no interference. Returned to Amazon.
RTH is a critical safety feature and I can't believe they left it off of the mobile software. One day soon, the software may offer it with the next update.
I don't see that as a problem I know that the operating radius using the phone is 50 meters + an max altitude of 30 meters. So I stick to those measurements.
This is very important for people to catch the first tutorial on this drone when nobody has it and it is being tested. DJI has already explained all of this.
Great video, I have had the issue with my neo in autonomous mode. It got 20m away and a gust of wind took it down. The big problem I found was that it went down into tall vegetation meaning it was not visible. Given that the drone has a follow mode that is behind you I can see this happening a lot. The drone has no sound to help you locate it and wifi only connects a few metres away. The lost my drone feature only works if connected so it can be almost impossible to find. The other thing worth mentioning is that you can only buy DJI care for 48 hours after activating the drone. DJI also told me that the MAXIMUM care package for the neo is 2 years and you cannot renew it. So if you buy one year and want more, it's not an option. My solution so far has been to tape an airtag to the battery, which at 11grams has had very little effect on the drone, but I mostly fly close by for vlogging.
Put on some reflective tape. That may help a bit finding it back. And yes I expect soon there will be a couple feet layer of lost drones on our flat Earth. But in 30 million years it will be fossil fuel saving your MAGA pickup truck.
@@samradion Couple small strips of tape weigh nothing. But yes at night with a flashlight it could work better than in daylight. Question is if like me you're on a bike trip and want to wait till dark? Or after an hour searching just move on and say 'bad luck'. Reason why I use a (pretty nice) $100 drone and not a $1000 DJI Mini 4 Pro I could in theory afford. Something people crying about the video not being IMAX quality don't understand. The fact the Neo only costs $199 is exactly what makes it a great hiker/biker drone.
@@Blue-Marble-Videos Just a suggestion - I contacted DJI with the suggestion that the drone has an option in the settings if it lands itself or detects a fall that it should be able to emit a beep every 10 seconds or so so you can find it - a 'recovery mode option' It would have made my search in tall vegetation a bit less frustrating!
@@Blue-Marble-Videos yes I understand that, but it looks like they are expecting quite a few fly aways £76.00 is quite a chunk of money when the drone is only £180.00 to buy.
Unfortunately, no. Camera settings when using the phone are independent of the settings you chose when using the controller. Hopefully this gets added soon.
All software settings should be accessible independently of using a phone or remote. Why can’t I change the image sharpness if I use my phone as a remote? 😂 or no RTH to the initial GPS point? nonsense…
@@driewiel Yes, if moving then that is an issue for any drone being used that has return to home functionality. But, if it *does* have the functionality then, like with other drones, you can simply go into the settings and update the home point so it comes back to where you are, or turn it off. It'd rather have it in there so I can use it if desired, or turn it off when not desired, than not have the functionality at all except when using the controller. Just my opinion.
@@Blue-Marble-Videos The Tello had an app with RTH even though the Tello doesn't have GPS. Don't ask me how? But I can see a feature that if the drone does lose connection it will auto-fly back the same route for 10 or 20 meters. What you can't do is update homepoint after you lost connection. I do know that the Neo uses GPS position hold. First I thought it was optical flow only without controller. What I always wondered is if the controller has build-in GPS? The Smart controller does of course. I presume a DJI Mini with standard controller uses the GPS of the phone like any WiFi drone. I could be wrong. Anyhow, DJI needs to fix this. I myself would order the Fly More combo with rc. Maybe DJI can sell a small cheap Return-to-Home device?
@@Blue-Marble-Videos Well you could update homepoint as long you have connection. Or have a RTH setting if you fly it from one spot. But..... if you have the drone follow you it is probably best it just hovers and waits till you get back. You see, the Neo only follows from behind basically. And since you were there before it won't be a canyon or behind a fence or minefield. Water is possible if you have it follow you in your canoe or super yacht. Now I like the Neo a lot. I may buy one. With controller. But to be honest what it should have had is a nice small WiFi controller instead of silly long range. A couple hundred meters is all you need in real life. Even better would be a split controller left/right so you have full control riding a bike or something. Nobody has come up with that idea yet. My specialty is follow-me. GPS follow-me. Not optical tracking like DJI or Fimi or Atom. Optical tracking is great. But a drone without GPS follow-me is crippled product. And it's not only to get shots. But also to keep the drone near you in between manual shots. Because manual shots look much more professional. It's about the landscape with you in in somewhere. I don't have to be exactly in the middle of the frame. I always hear DJI noobs say that. 'It keeps me nice in the middle of the frame'. Well it has to in order to track you. But with GPS follow-me (or manually) you can do fly-by's etc with more of the landscape in view. .
I have the solution! When flying the Neo without a controller... DON'T FLY WHERE YOU CAN'T RETRIEVE IT. No over a cliff, not over water. I WOULD NOT, COULD NOT IN A TREE. NOT IN A CAR! YOU LET ME BE. I DO NOT LIKE NEO IN A BOX. I DO NOT LIKE IT WITH A FOX. I DO NOT LIKE IT IN A HOUSE. I DO NOT LIKE IT WITH A MOUSE. I DO NOT LIKE NEO HERE OR THERE. I DO NOT LIKE IT ANYWHERE. I DO NOT LIKE NEO DRONE IN HAND I DO NOT LIKE IT, SAM-I-AM.
@@RasiAdventures WHAT A JOKE i can do the some with my go pro 12 filming you beheind you or any position withe top quality and no time limit ...selfie drone camera is a joke
@@rk71happyworld48 Well, everyone is free to buy this drone or not. Personally, I see some advantages over an action cam. I can film myself doing sports from many different positions without needing a cameraman.
Thanks for watching! I hope this video helped a few people out so they don't lose or wreck their drones. If you found it useful, please share the link on Twitter, Reddit, Instagram, Discord, and the like so others can see it. This video, like most of my vidoes, is not sponsored. So if you'd like to see more content like this, please feel free to help me and the channel out a bit by buying me a coffee!!
buymeacoffee.com/BlueMarbleVideos
If you're looking to pick up one of these drones, here's a link for it:
Amazon affiliate link:
geni.us/dHin9xG
Please let me know in the comments here what future videos on this or other topics you'd like to see!
this is in fact the limitation of Wifi signal, not directly related to DJI Neo. The recommended maximum distance is 50 m, which is pretty high vertically but very short horizontally. Using a controller is a must if you want to fly the drone a little bit farther away.
Thank you so much for this video, brand new when it comes to drones. Lost signal yesterday, drone fell of the sky, hit the trees and landed in the mud. We found it thanks to the app and fact we just gave it a new battery so it kept going on and on and on! Somehow NEO survived the drop from 50 metres without any major damage! Slightly bent guar a few mm, thats about it! Definitely a lot to learn!
You're very welcome! Glad I could help out a bit!
While the shortcomings are obvious, a reminder is good. I had mine get out of range in my yard, however being handicapped, it wasn't comfortable to have to go get it.
Yup, it really needs to come back where it was launched if there's any issues, or at least we should be able to select that as an option.
Cheers - very pragmatic advice. Here's hoping DJI will add Return-To-Home functionality to the Neo. It's the main thing it's missing atm.
Thanks! And yes, I certainly hope it gets added soon as well.
Lost my Neo on the second day I had it. :( I was having it follow me on my bike in hand-launch mode and I was getting a feel for follow speed and where it would lose me around corners. At one point the motor sound got quiet so I knew it had stopped, but before I could turn and see where it was, the motors cut and it (apparently) went down in the heavy bush on either side of the trail. I walked the trail back and forth a dozen times but couldn't find it. :( Luckily I had the fly-away insurance and got a replacement a few days later for $90. I'm going to get the RC-N3 and fly over that area to see if I can find it from above.
I hope you're able to find it!!
Last week flying above foggy landscape with controller, Neo got blown away from its gps fix, the FlyApp provided me with the dialog, to let it land or RTH. Selected quickly RTH and although I thought it was flown away after some half a minute it returned safely in my hands, actually exactly landed on the spot it came from. So I was pretty amazed how it flew back, also in appearantly strong wind up to 40 meters RTH. So feel like flying with the controller is pretty failsafe and my recommended way of flying anyways. The only annoying thing is returning to home location and starting to hover a meter or 2 above you.
Yes, when using it with a controller you're pretty safe as return to home will work. It's when not using the controller that you'll have these issues.
Thanks for highlighting these important issues. I'm subbing. Greetings form Montreal.
Thanks for the sub!
Thanks for this! Really good for noobs like me!
Thanks for watching!!
Good advice
Thanks!!
Many thanks for sharing and great Tip for the newbies however their probably not unfortunately going to see your video !
Glad it was helpful!
We can use Remote Control like RC-N3 to reconnect and pull it back.
Yes, of course, but you have to have it with you first. I bought this drone in addition to using the advertised autonomy for certain applications. DJI needs to bring out an upgrade here so that the drone returns to the home point in every situation. Forgive my English, it's not my native language.
Yup, if you have it with you that should do the trick nicely. But, if you left it at home....
noone in their right mind will buy a controller more expensive than the drone
The Flymore combo here in Canada and in the UK and EU has the controller with it for quite a bit less than the price of the drone itself. This is what I purchased.
@@lifeneedsmorechill The RC N3 costs 119€ in EU.
My Spark has the same phone only based connectivity, but it will still RTH, surely the Neo can been software upgraded to do this.
RTH where? If you have it follow, then where is home? A Return-to-Controller(phone) is what it should do. To where your last location was before it lost connection. Rise up, fly to that location, and hang there. But I'm not sure that is safer. What if it is under a tree?
I hope it gets added to DJI Fly and the drone in a future firmware update, so when using this with your phone, or without a phone at all, it will come back to where it started when it loses connections or for a low battery.
Home point is start point
@@RasiAdventures Your adventures won't be very far if you have to go back to start point every time.
I had a spark too. Even made a video of it going a mile. Buried deep in my older vids. Sadly, the spark was left on top of the car one day and ended up getting drove over. Some Good Samaritan traveler returned it to us (phone# on drone), and we bought him McDonald’s lunch.
Wish I would have watched this vid before I lost my drone, I did recover it with find my drone, it just lost signal on the RC, I went looking for it and had dropped from the sky damaging the gimbal, sent for repair today.. thanks for the tracking app in dji fly I found it 1/2 mile away from where I took off.
Glad to hear you found it, but too bad it was damaged.
Same thing happened to us yesterday, we lost signal and the drone went off, flew 600 metres away, hit the trees and fell, luckily we found it and somehow nothing got damaged. Quite scary so watching all the videos with tips on what to do and how to avoid it omg 🙈
I was using mine out at the cottage recently and it simply disconnected from the RC, repeatedly, like no communication at all, red warning text all over the place! I had to physically unplug and reconnect the RC-phone cable to reestablish communication and even then it still disconnected repeatedly with drone & RC on fresh batts. All this at about 30m height directly above me in the middle of nowhere with no interference. Returned to Amazon.
No flaw. Just don't fly the thing with a bloody phone. Your asking for trouble.
Okay British guy
they don't offer the insurance in the UK for this :(
I only got it for the hands-free features ❤ I’ve got the mini 2 for other stuff
Yup, that's fair. Keep it close to you and it's unlikely you'll lose it!
Thank you for your sharing
You're very welcome!
RTH is a critical safety feature and I can't believe they left it off of the mobile software. One day soon, the software may offer it with the next update.
Agreed. I hope so too, with all the flak they've been hearing about it, I suspect it will be added.
At the end it’s DJI, they aren’t famous for being nice with software updates. They rather just release a new model.
My old Parrot Anafi I would fly with just the phone; and I never lost it and I believe the RTH worked.
I don't see that as a problem I know that the operating radius using the phone is 50 meters + an max altitude of 30 meters. So I stick to those measurements.
Legal amigo eu também comprei um desse tô gostando bastante.
Sim, estou gostando muito do meu até agora!
@@Blue-Marble-Videos cool friend
Does this issue also lose the landing sensor like when you place guards on the mini pro 4 it loses obstacles avoiding including landing sensors.
No, the landing sensor seems to work regardless as far as I can tell, so it knows when its landed and should shut off the motors.
This is very important for people to catch the first tutorial on this drone when nobody has it and it is being tested. DJI has already explained all of this.
Yes, agreed. I've already read too many reports on various sites from people losing their Neo by not being careful enough.
Great video, I have had the issue with my neo in autonomous mode. It got 20m away and a gust of wind took it down. The big problem I found was that it went down into tall vegetation meaning it was not visible. Given that the drone has a follow mode that is behind you I can see this happening a lot. The drone has no sound to help you locate it and wifi only connects a few metres away. The lost my drone feature only works if connected so it can be almost impossible to find. The other thing worth mentioning is that you can only buy DJI care for 48 hours after activating the drone. DJI also told me that the MAXIMUM care package for the neo is 2 years and you cannot renew it. So if you buy one year and want more, it's not an option. My solution so far has been to tape an airtag to the battery, which at 11grams has had very little effect on the drone, but I mostly fly close by for vlogging.
Put on some reflective tape. That may help a bit finding it back.
And yes I expect soon there will be a couple feet layer of lost drones on our flat Earth. But in 30 million years it will be fossil fuel saving your MAGA pickup truck.
@@driewiel that might help at night - but you have given me an idea that maybe some fluorescent paint may help without adding to weight
@@samradion Couple small strips of tape weigh nothing. But yes at night with a flashlight it could work better than in daylight. Question is if like me you're on a bike trip and want to wait till dark? Or after an hour searching just move on and say 'bad luck'. Reason why I use a (pretty nice) $100 drone and not a $1000 DJI Mini 4 Pro I could in theory afford. Something people crying about the video not being IMAX quality don't understand. The fact the Neo only costs $199 is exactly what makes it a great hiker/biker drone.
Good idea on the airtag if you're using the drone a bit further from you.
@@Blue-Marble-Videos Just a suggestion - I contacted DJI with the suggestion that the drone has an option in the settings if it lands itself or detects a fall that it should be able to emit a beep every 10 seconds or so so you can find it - a 'recovery mode option' It would have made my search in tall vegetation a bit less frustrating!
Hi,DJI refresh is good but it's £76.00 on top for fly away loss !
Yeah, it's still not gonna be free, unfortunately.
@@Blue-Marble-Videos yes I understand that, but it looks like they are expecting quite a few fly aways £76.00 is quite a chunk of money when the drone is only £180.00 to buy.
Damn, it was only $22 for a year for me. $89 for fly away. (One time) and like $40-? to send in for repairs.
I see a lot of disadvantages, after see the price, I keep quiet and purchase straight away
Yup, the really good price makes up for a lot of shortcomings for sure!
can you adjust sharpness via remote control and then it stays when flying with smartphone
the 1000th asked question. answer is no. not yet
Unfortunately, no. Camera settings when using the phone are independent of the settings you chose when using the controller. Hopefully this gets added soon.
All software settings should be accessible independently of using a phone or remote. Why can’t I change the image sharpness if I use my phone as a remote? 😂 or no RTH to the initial GPS point? nonsense…
@@ricarmig Agreed! Hopefully they'll add this soon.
Can i buy dji neo first time drone use
Yes, you absolutely can!
Could you attach an AirTag to this drone?
Yes, I'm sure you could easily find a way to do this.
Airtag wouldn't work if you lost it in jungle or something, in city environment yess maybe.
I use the Marco Polo.
something seems fishy. I will fly my Neo tonight about 25 meters away with my phone joysticks, then turn my phone off. we will see what happens.
It will just hover till the battery is low.
nothing will happen it will just hover , I have tried already with mine
I want to try outrunning it in the dark 🤭
DJI should have this return to home out of the box, probably rushed and just send out a firmware update
Yup, I'm really hoping that gets added in a future firmware update.
You miss the point. If you have a drone follow you, you do NOT want RTH! Imagine having to race back up a mountain with your bike.
@@driewiel Yes, if moving then that is an issue for any drone being used that has return to home functionality. But, if it *does* have the functionality then, like with other drones, you can simply go into the settings and update the home point so it comes back to where you are, or turn it off. It'd rather have it in there so I can use it if desired, or turn it off when not desired, than not have the functionality at all except when using the controller. Just my opinion.
@@Blue-Marble-Videos The Tello had an app with RTH even though the Tello doesn't have GPS. Don't ask me how? But I can see a feature that if the drone does lose connection it will auto-fly back the same route for 10 or 20 meters.
What you can't do is update homepoint after you lost connection.
I do know that the Neo uses GPS position hold. First I thought it was optical flow only without controller. What I always wondered is if the controller has build-in GPS? The Smart controller does of course. I presume a DJI Mini with standard controller uses the GPS of the phone like any WiFi drone. I could be wrong.
Anyhow, DJI needs to fix this. I myself would order the Fly More combo with rc. Maybe DJI can sell a small cheap Return-to-Home device?
@@Blue-Marble-Videos Well you could update homepoint as long you have connection. Or have a RTH setting if you fly it from one spot.
But..... if you have the drone follow you it is probably best it just hovers and waits till you get back. You see, the Neo only follows from behind basically. And since you were there before it won't be a canyon or behind a fence or minefield. Water is possible if you have it follow you in your canoe or super yacht.
Now I like the Neo a lot. I may buy one. With controller. But to be honest what it should have had is a nice small WiFi controller instead of silly long range. A couple hundred meters is all you need in real life.
Even better would be a split controller left/right so you have full control riding a bike or something. Nobody has come up with that idea yet. My specialty is follow-me. GPS follow-me. Not optical tracking like DJI or Fimi or Atom. Optical tracking is great. But a drone without GPS follow-me is crippled product. And it's not only to get shots. But also to keep the drone near you in between manual shots. Because manual shots look much more professional. It's about the landscape with you in in somewhere. I don't have to be exactly in the middle of the frame. I always hear DJI noobs say that. 'It keeps me nice in the middle of the frame'. Well it has to in order to track you. But with GPS follow-me (or manually) you can do fly-by's etc with more of the landscape in view. .
I’m thinking this 6:55 video should have been well under 2 minutes
I have the solution! When flying the Neo without a controller... DON'T FLY WHERE YOU CAN'T RETRIEVE IT. No over a cliff, not over water.
I WOULD NOT, COULD NOT IN A TREE.
NOT IN A CAR! YOU LET ME BE.
I DO NOT LIKE NEO IN A BOX.
I DO NOT LIKE IT WITH A FOX.
I DO NOT LIKE IT IN A HOUSE.
I DO NOT LIKE IT WITH A MOUSE.
I DO NOT LIKE NEO HERE OR THERE.
I DO NOT LIKE IT ANYWHERE.
I DO NOT LIKE NEO DRONE IN HAND
I DO NOT LIKE IT, SAM-I-AM.
Thanks for the laugh😂
Awesome comment!! 🤣
Overheating camera
dji neo is a toy nothing else bad picture quality bad wind resistane and so on and on... bought it and retutned it
Good for you mr so called professional filmmaker.
Well we don't all work for National Geographic.
Here everyone is assuming absurd usage scenarios. First and foremost, the NEO is a selfie drone.
@@RasiAdventures WHAT A JOKE i can do the some with my go pro 12 filming you beheind you or any position withe top quality and no time limit ...selfie drone camera is a joke
@@rk71happyworld48 Well, everyone is free to buy this drone or not. Personally, I see some advantages over an action cam. I can film myself doing sports from many different positions without needing a cameraman.
This is one of the biggest flaws in NEO, I HOPE someone from DJI fix this somehow in Neo or maybe in next iteration.