Had my Mavic for two days.  Did a few flights.... was very happy with it!

Took it to our firing range to get some video of students in a training class.  The range is relatively remote and has no WiFi or other RF sources.

Flew around 1130 AM in the open area of the range and had no issues.  There is also a large, wooden, "pole barn" that covers the range out to about 25 meters.  The sides are open, and the back has wooden barn doors that slide and stack in the middle.  These were also open.  During my early flight, I poked under the covered area to get some footage of the students.  Landed it ok and all was well.

At lunch, I was going to test how it flew under the covered area (the roof is probably 25 or 30 feet high) to see if I could get footage of the students from behind.

I took off in the open and as soon as the drone got to about 20 feet, it lost connection with the RC (the RC said "connecting").  I shut down the RC, regained connection and landed.  Turned everything off and tried again. I posted a screenshot from healthy drones of that one.

Anyway, took off again and everything was going great.  I had a brief loss of connections (between controller and RC, again) but it resolved itself.  I kept the drone over the range for the next couple minutes and everything seemed fine.  I flew it out over the adjoining ranges, and everything was working.  

I felt satisfied that it was flying OK, so I very slowly flew down the side of the "pole barn" to the targets on the range, and then started making my way back to me.  At this point I was standing to the right of the homepoint as pictured below.  I could see the drone clearly under the covered area.  I was at the 35 yard line, and the drone was making its way back to me.  The last datapoint from healthydrones shows that it was about 100 feet away at a height of 11 feet. At about the 10-15 yard line, it lost connection with the remote again.   It started to initiate its RTH sequence.  I ran up to it to try and reconnect....but not before it climed into the ceiling and destroyed itself bouncing between the trusses.  Down it finally fell in a heap.  It is very messed up.

So.  First lesson learned is that I should have adjusted the RTH protocol to hover before I went into the covered area.  I will own that one.

That said, I am a little put off that it lost connection with the remote at 100 feet, with clear line of sight, in an area with no RF sources to speak of, and under a wooden structure.

I have DJI Refresh, and the drone has been sent back for repairs.  Sadly, I did not download the info from the drone before I sent it.  I know DJI will, and I hope that it is illuminating as to why I kept losing connection.  

I am hoping that the connection issue will be resolved as a warranty problem as opposed to using one of my "refreshes."  Again, however, I own the failure to compensate for the RTH setting.  I see there is a little bit of precednece for this.... https://forum.dji.com/thread-71105-1-1.html

Moving forward - what are some steps to troubleshoot the loss of connection issues?  I didn't get any warnings that there was RF interference, or any other indicator of calamity until it happened.  

I appreciate any constructive input.

Can you provide a link to the AirData page? Or better yet, upload it to PhantomHelp.

I appreciate any constructive input.

Good luck with that, and I will do my best to provide some. But also be prepared for a lot of hostile, sanctimonious comments from people who pretend they never do anything wrong and have nothing helpful to add, so instead will berate you for real or imagined offenses. It may not be constructive but hey, it makes them feel superior and gives them a reason to post even though they have nothing positive to offer.

DroneFlying Posted at 2017-4-23 09:22
Can you provide a link to the AirData page? Or better yet, upload it to PhantomHelp.

I appreciate any constructive input.

https://app.airdata.com/main?fli ... amp;page_id=GENERAL

Yeah, I am leery of posting on the interweb for that very reason.... mistakes happen.  I know I made a couple here - and probably some that I don't even know I made.  

Thanks for trying to help out.  Link is above.

Tac52 Posted at 2017-4-23 09:24
https://app.airdata.com/main?flight=14901e4e36a39e0eefcbd71c4328c551&page_id=GENERAL

Yeah, I am leery of posting on the interweb for that very reason.... mistakes happen.  I know I made a couple here - and probably some that I don't even know I made.  

Yeah, I am leery of posting on the interweb for that very reason.... mistakes happen.

I understand and agree. We either have a number of saints on this forum or a number of hypocrites -- but personally I don't believe there are any saints posting here.

Anyway, I'll take a look and let you know what, if anything, I can figure out.

Why not put up the logs?

I suppose when you think about it are dji responsible for getting you signal , yes in suitable environment, but other than that I don't think so.

CelticWarrior Posted at 2017-4-23 09:28
Why not put up the logs?

I suppose when you think about it are dji responsible for getting you signal , yes in suitable environment, but other than that I don't think so.

The link to the log is there. I didn't download the aircraft before I sent it back, otherwise I'd post them.

Tac52 Posted at 2017-4-23 09:24
https://app.airdata.com/main?flight=14901e4e36a39e0eefcbd71c4328c551&page_id=GENERAL

Yeah, I am leery of posting on the interweb for that very reason.... mistakes happen.  I know I made a couple here - and probably some that I don't even know I made.  

TL;DR: I think you have a very good chance of getting a free warranty replacement instead of paying for a Care Refresh replacement.

That's a very interesting log. The first thing that jumped out at me were the GEO NFZ warnings even though you were miles from even the outermost (warning) circle of anything on the GEO map. But as you may already know, there have been a lot of people getting false positive NFZ hits lately and most, if not all, are using the latest firmware. Which version of the firmware did you have installed?

You mentioned changing RTH to hover and yes, that might very well have prevented this particular crash, but the disconnect and subsequent RTH shouldn't have occurred in the first place. Admittedly I probably would have been somewhat hesitant to fly after the first disconnect and very hesitant after the second, but when you're a new owner of a complex piece of equipment like this it's hard to know what's normal and what's not and when to contact DJI about behavior like that.

Given that you were never more than about 500 feet from the aircraft and had line of sight to it, there's nothing here that would explain the loss of connection between the aircraft and controller. And no, there was nothing inappropriate about the environment you were flying in, much less anything that would explain the disconnects. But again, we've had a lot of reports of lost connections lately. I suspect that this post is relevant to your experience and would be curious to know what the build date is on your Mavic. Unless, of course, you've already posted elsewhere and yours is one of the cases Jason was referring to. If not, though, you can identify the build date by entering your Mavic's serial number here.

The DAT files off the Mavic would have been helpful in making a more definitive diagnosis, but from what I can tell DJI is very fair about accepting responsibility when it's their fault, so I think there's a good chance they'll do the right thing in this case. If they do try to blame you I'd encourage you to pressure them to explain why the disconnection occurred that triggered the RTH or, for that matter, the earlier ones. If RTH had been initiated because you flew somewhere that caused you to lose your connection to the controller then I'd say that was your fault, but that's apparently not what happened here.

Tac52 Posted at 2017-4-23 09:33
The link to the log is there. I didn't download the aircraft before I sent it back, otherwise I'd post them.

Don't see them.

CelticWarrior Posted at 2017-4-23 10:08
Don't see them.

CelticWarrior:  I posted a link to the AirNav logs a couple above this.  That is all that I have information wise.

DroneFlying:  Thank you for looking over the flight log.  I appreciate the input,  we will see what DJI says.  Any tips on how to get this post noticed by one of the moderators or DJI employees that check in on this forum?  I'd like to hear their take on the thing.  

Oh, and I had the latest firmware.  When I unboxed it on Thursday night, it made me update everything to the lastest version.

Tac52 Posted at 2017-4-23 10:16
CelticWarrior:  I posted a link to the AirNav logs a couple above this.  That is all that I have information wise.

DroneFlying:  Thank you for looking over the flight log.  I appreciate the input,  we will see what DJI says.  Any tips on how to get this post noticed by one of the moderators or DJI employees that check in on this forum?  I'd like to hear their take on the thing.  

Any tips on how to get this post noticed by one of the moderators or DJI employees that check in on this forum?  I'd like to hear their take on the thing.

They often notice these threads on their own, but you can always send a Personal Message to DJI-Ken to get his attention more directly. Getting one of the DJI employees who frequents these forums involved really does seem to help.

Oh, and I had the latest firmware.

That's what I thought. What about the build date of your aircraft?

Anyway, good luck and let us know how it turns out.

Thanks very much.  I sent him a PM.  I really appreciate your time.

Tac52 Posted at 2017-4-23 10:35
Thanks very much.  I sent him a PM.  I really appreciate your time.

And, using the link from above, the alleged build date would have been 3/27/17.

Tac52 Posted at 2017-4-23 10:36
And, using the link from above, the alleged build date would have been 3/27/17.

You're very welcome. So yes, this sounds like another one of those cases that Jason mentioned in the post I linked to and my money's on a warranty replacement.

Tac52 Posted at 2017-4-23 10:36
And, using the link from above, the alleged build date would have been 3/27/17.

First you can't change RTH to hover you must switch off RTH , geo was not the cause of you loosing signal and it's not to clear what kind of area you were flying in there are clearly some buildings and lots of concrete around , you lost signal twice previous to your crash , so I'm thinking that there was some interference wether it was power lines or something else I don't know, although droneflying said the furthest you were from AC was less than 500 ft at one stage you were 651 ft alt ,
It looks to me like when you went inside the building you lost signal because it was blocked off by the wall, this initiated RTH which is what is supposed to happen, you could have pressed pause and your AC would have just hovered, this is also a method you can use when flying into closed spaces.
Airdata is not great for analysis on these aircraft and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, you may get more analysis on phantomhelp, but it will be up to dji as to the outcome.
I wish you luck.

Thanks for looking.  I couldn't have pressed any buttons, because the remote was saying "connecting".  Also, there are no power lines out there - they are all buried. The building in question has no walls to speak of - it is just a structure to hold up the roof and keep us out of the rain.  I could see the drone the whole time from where I was standing.  Something was clearly messing with the signal - I'm just not sure what it was...

Thanks again.  We shall see what happens.  

Tac52 Posted at 2017-4-23 11:04
Thanks for looking.  I couldn't have pressed any buttons, because the remote was saying "connecting".  Also, there are no power lines out there - they are all buried. The building in question has no walls to speak of - it is just a structure to hold up the roof and keep us out of the rain.  I could see the drone the whole time from where I was standing.  Something was clearly messing with the signal - I'm just not sure what it was...

Thanks again.  We shall see what happens.

Power lines in the ground, I realised you had lost connection, was just letting you you know if your in the same situation again pause will set RTH to hover.

Here's what I was looking at - the barricades were out of the way and there were no people.  This is a screengrab from an earlier video I shot that day.

I was standing where the X is, the drone lost connection where the circle is.  It was below the baffling of the roof - as I said, I could see it.  Probably about 8-10 feet off the ground when it lost connection.

CelticWarrior Posted at 2017-4-23 11:23
Power lines in the ground, I realised you had lost connection, was just letting you you know if your in the same situation again pause will set RTH to hover.

The pause button won't work if there is no connection between the aircraft and controller, which is apparently what happened here that triggered the RTH.

DroneFlying Posted at 2017-4-23 11:35
The pause button won't work if there is no connection between the aircraft and controller, which is what happened here.

I already said that.

CelticWarrior Posted at 2017-4-23 11:39
I already said that.

Actually what you wrote was, "you could have pressed pause and your AC would have just hovered".

Tac52 Posted at 2017-4-23 11:28
Here's what I was looking at - the barricades were out of the way and there were no people.  This is a screengrab from an earlier video I shot that day.

I was standing where the X is, the drone lost connection where the circle is.  It was below the baffling of the roof - as I said, I could see it.  Probably about 8-10 feet off the ground when it lost connection.

Are you sure VPS didn't cause AC to rise once you fly into that dark space it's going to have a real effect on your VPS.

DroneFlying Posted at 2017-4-23 11:38
Actually what you wrote was, "you could have pressed pause and your AC would have just hovered".

Look I don't know what your getting at, I also went on to say that can be used as a method of flying outside to inside. And explained to op what I meant.
You also said op didn't fly further than 500 when it's clear he flew up to highest altitude 651 ft. Now I think that's enough of the he said she said.

CelticWarrior Posted at 2017-4-23 11:50
Look I don't know what your getting at, I also went on to say that can be used as a method of flying outside to inside. And explained to op what I meant.
You also said op didn't fly further than 500 when it's clear he flew up to highest altitude 651 ft. Now I think that's enough of the he said she said.

I don't know what your getting at

What I was getting at was that it was incorrect to say that pressing the Pause button could have prevented his crash into the roof.

You also said op didn't fly further than 500 when it's clear he flew up highest altitude 651 ft.

Actually, what I said was "about 500" feet, but I guess my use of rounding confused you. In any case, my statement that the distance at his furthest point wouldn't explain the connection loss was correct.

I dont think the VPS did it.  That picture makes it look pretty dark since the camera is exposing for bright sunlight outside.  It's well lit under there, even on a cloudy day.  Even if it were dim, the problem stemmed from a loss of connection - the remote was saying "connecting" on it as I ran up to the drone trying to get a connection - just in time to see it climb straight up in to the ceiling.  I know that it was a loss of connection - I just didn't think that would happen in the environment that i was in - since I had line of sight to the drone and (when this happened) it was very close to me.  And, with the several mile advertised range, whether I was 500 or 650 feet away - that is well within the realm of a safe, reasonable flight with this drone.  
It was under there flying for a while (at least a minute or two, maybe three) , I was going REALLY slow once I was under there in an effort to make sure that I didn't run into anything.

DroneFlying Posted at 2017-4-23 12:02
I don't know what your getting at

What I was getting at was that it was incorrect to say that pressing the Pause button could have prevented his crash into the roof.

Look in your opening post you insulted most of the members on this forum, it must feel great to be so self righteous, now enough of this we are hear to help the OP, not for self gratification. If you want to continue you can always PM me.

Tac52 Posted at 2017-4-23 12:00
I dont think the VPS did it.  That picture makes it look pretty dark since the camera is exposing for bright sunlight outside.  It's well lit under there, even on a cloudy day.  Even if it were dim, the problem stemmed from a loss of connection - the remote was saying "connecting" on it as I ran up to the drone trying to get a connection - just in time to see it climb straight up in to the ceiling.  I know that it was a loss of connection - I just didn't think that would happen in the environment that i was in - since I had line of sight to the drone and (when this happened) it was very close to me.  And, with the several mile advertised range, whether I was 500 or 650 feet away - that is well within the realm of a safe, reasonable flight with this drone.  
It was under there flying for a while (at least a minute or two, maybe three) , I was going REALLY slow once I was under there in an effort to make sure that I didn't run into anything.

VPS needs really good lighting to work it also needs good texture floors , in a situation like yours as I see it if it was VPS it would have reacted exactly as you have said, your dat file will show if RTH was engaged and if it was then this will obviously be discounted.

Indeed it will.  Either way, I appreciate your time.

Sorry to hear about your crash.
After sending it in, our engineers can help to analysis the flight data and let you know what could have caused the issue.
If you have any further query about your case, please feel free to let me know.

DJI Mindy Posted at 2017-4-24 01:52
Sorry to hear about your crash.
After sending it in, our engineers can help to analysis the flight data and let you know what could have caused the issue.
If you have any further query about your case, please feel free to let me know.

It is on the way to you guys. Thank you!

Tac52 Posted at 2017-4-24 04:15
It is on the way to you guys. Thank you!

Good luck and please let us know how it turns out.

Well....sent it in on Saturday day after crash.  Shipping was very slow, arrived on Thursday.  I see it was signed for already, but as of today on the repair tracking part of the website, it doesn't show as "received".  From what I've seen, this is not unusual, unfortunately.  

DroneFlying Posted at 2017-4-23 09:22
Can you provide a link to the AirData page? Or better yet, upload it to PhantomHelp.

I appreciate any constructive input.

With posts and an attitude like that please never, ever feel obligated to help me.

Well, after getting shipped on the 22nd of May and arriving on the 27th, it showed as " received" on May 2nd.  On May 3rd, it had the "damage assessment" which came with an email, and a notation in the repair progress chart that a "quotation has been set to your mail box.  Please check it.  It will take 1 working day to confirm payment."  It is odd that it showed May 3rd on the timeline, as I received an email that they had completed the damage assessment on May 2nd.
I have been checking my email for the quote for several days....nothing.  I called customer service today and spoke to "Mark" who told me that I might not get anything until Weds or Thursday of next week.  Thus far, not totally impressed with how this process works.

Tac52 Posted at 2017-5-4 08:01
Well, after getting shipped on the 22nd of May and arriving on the 27th, it showed as " received" on May 2nd.  On May 3rd, it had the "damage assessment" which came with an email, and a notation in the repair progress chart that a "quotation has been set to your mail box.  Please check it.  It will take 1 working day to confirm payment."  It is odd that it showed May 3rd on the timeline, as I received an email that they had completed the damage assessment on May 2nd.
I have been checking my email for the quote for several days....nothing.  I called customer service today and spoke to "Mark" who told me that I might not get anything until Weds or Thursday of next week.  Thus far, not totally impressed with how this process works.

I have received your personal message and have escalated the case for you.
We will keep you updated as soon as possible.

Mindy - I appreciate the help, but the repair progress chart quoted above shows that I should have received a quote or something since the 4th of may (i.e. it says that a "quote has been sent to my mailbox  Please check it.  It will take 1 working day to confirm payment....."  I still have not received anything from your company indicating how much you think I owe, or if this will be covered under my refresh, or if it will be covered under warranty (which I think should be the case).  I appreciate that you have "escalated" this case, but I still have not heard word #1 from anyone.  

I spent $1000 bucks on this product, and an additional $100 on insurance through your company that was billed to me as an assurance of speedy repair.  I am thus far pretty disappointed.

Tac52 Posted at 2017-5-8 21:32
Mindy - I appreciate the help, but the repair progress chart quoted above shows that I should have received a quote or something since the 4th of may (i.e. it says that a "quote has been sent to my mailbox  Please check it.  It will take 1 working day to confirm payment....."  I still have not received anything from your company indicating how much you think I owe, or if this will be covered under my refresh, or if it will be covered under warranty (which I think should be the case).  I appreciate that you have "escalated" this case, but I still have not heard word #1 from anyone.  

I spent $1000 bucks on this product, and an additional $100 on insurance through your company that was billed to me as an assurance of speedy repair.  I am thus far pretty disappointed.

I can understand your feelings. Did you check the spam email?
I have brought this to our management and we will resend the quote to you.
Really sorry for that.

DJI Mindy Posted at 2017-5-8 22:26
I can understand your feelings. Did you check the spam email?
I have brought this to our management and we will resend the quote to you.
Really sorry for that.

I received the quote just now - it is for a total replacement of the aircraft.  It didn't mention anything about covering it under warranty, which I think is the right thing to do.  Is there anyone I can talk to?  I'd like to know what your company thought was the cause of the loss.

Tac52 Posted at 2017-5-9 12:40
I received the quote just now - it is for a total replacement of the aircraft.  It didn't mention anything about covering it under warranty, which I think is the right thing to do.  Is there anyone I can talk to?  I'd like to know what your company thought was the cause of the loss.

Got the quote a few hours ago, for an entire aircraft replacement....

Just got a call from DJI, which was very nice.  The gentleman on the phone told me that he would have the aircraft downloaded and check into the cause of the accident to see if it might be a warranty issue.

CelticWarrior Posted at 2017-4-23 10:08
Don't see them.

Blind maybe lol I can see them.

I understand and agree. We either have a number of saints on this forum or a number of hypocrites -- but personally I don't believe there are any saints posting here.


DroneFlying ,  I haven't walked on water lately and I swore that Flag Pole that crashed
                    my Mavic jumped out in front of me lolllooloolllllll