Hello,
I just had a very unpleasant experience wih my drone.
I was happily flying around, 50% battery, perfect signal, excellent GPS coverage, taking pictures of a friend's house. I lowered the drone a bit, like from 60 to 55 meters, and up to this point it behaved perfectly. But suddenly, when I tried to climb back a bit, it just refused to climb. It would still go down, but not up.
It still did everything else correctly: it moved around, yawed, descended, took photos and so on. Still perfectly stable. I got scared and ran back home, lowered it over my lawn and let it hover.
It would hover perfectly, no vibrations, no abnormal noise or anthing. No error messages of any kind, but still it wouldn't climb.
For some reason, if I lowered it down to the ground, it reported a negative heright (like -2m or so); if I then tried to climb again, it would climb until the reported height was 0. This proves that there's nothing wrong with the stick or the remote.

I was able to land safely, but what if this happened when the drone was lower than my home point, or if there was some high obstacle in the path? I would have been unable to bring it back.
This seriously shook my trust in the drone... Until now I was pretty relaxed when I flew, because the drone was so stable and predictable in its responses.


App and firmware are updated. I had just updated the fly zones a few minutes earlier (with the drone not in flight, of course).
I've checked the log with AirData, but there's nothing suspicious there. No warnings or anything, that I can see. But I don't know how to access the 'raw data', so who knows.

So: Has this ever happened to anyone else? Is this a known issue, and is there a solution should this happen again in flight?

Cristian


Cristian

But I don't know how to access the 'raw data', so who knows.
Post a link to the airdata report

Here's PhantomHelp's link: https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/52G81VOU0DAY0K8LLAXD
This is Airdata: https://app.airdata.com/share/FHWwnz

OOOOPs  you posted the logs whilst I was typing
Can you post the .txt flight log,  see either of the following webpages for instructions on how to obtain the log
https://www.phantomhelp.com/logviewer/upload/
https://mavicpilots.com/threads/ ... alysis-guide.78627/
though bear in mind that the log is likely to be in the folder Phone/Android/data/dji.go.v5/files/FlightRecord
Then upload the log to the first webpage and post the link here.
In the mean time,
1) check the maximum height setting in the app. (with the damn slider buttons it is all to easy to accidentally change limits)
2) check that you are still logged into the app
3) try a test hover to see if the problem still exists.
4) if so, land and switch the stick mode of the controller and try another test flight......... to see if the problem stays with the joystick or stays with "climb"
5) try calibrating the controller.

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 11-12 03:08
OOOOPs  you posted the logs whilst I was typing
Can you post the .txt flight log,  see either of the following webpages for instructions on how to obtain the log
https://www.phantomhelp.com/logviewer/upload/

1) The max height was set to a much higher value, and anyway, it didn't descend automatically: it simply refused to climb back any higher than 0.
2) Yes, I was logged in and flying normally, this happened mid-flight.
3) It was hovering perfectly, as described above. It responded to every command, except climb; unless it was at a negative height, in which case it would also climb, but not higher than 0.
4) As said above, the stick is fine, since the problem didn't appear when flying at altitudes lower than zero.

I've posted the log to the above links, see my previous post. Shouild I just attach the txt here? I tried but the txt file types are not allowed.
Thanks
Cristian

EDIT: we're cross-posting Anyway, yes, everything is uploaded. I don't like this feeling, now I'm nervous taking the drone back in the air...

If you are reticent to launch the drone outside, literally HOLD IT from beneath in your hand, start the motors and throttle up. If you have a good grip the mini 2 is quite easy to hold even when at full throttle but do not keep it throttled up for long, it can detect that it is not flying properly and may issue a warning to check the props etc. etc. and shut the motors down.I know of no reason why the indicated height would influence whether or not it will climb, other than setting and enforcing with the maximum height.

Hi,

Did you uploaded the correct log for your issue?

In this log your craft climbed to 95 meter, no problems.
In Airdata i read a max height of 83.9 meters.

The only 'valid' reason for not able to climb is when the max height is reduced automatically due to low GPS reception, if that is the case thanin the flightlog are some messages about this.

EDIT ; stupid me, looked at the wrong flightlog.
cheers
JJB

JJB what are you using to produce those graphs please?

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 11-12 03:46
JJB what are you using to produce those graphs please?

Hi,

If you are a Windows user > https://forum.dji.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=203659

cheers
JJB

JJB* Posted at 11-12 03:36
Hi,

Did you uploaded the correct log for your issue?

In this log your craft climbed to 95 meter, no problems.
Perhaps you didn't understand his description of the issue or look at data for the whole flight.
Look at what happens from 732.6 seconds on, particularly when he gives it full throttle.

Labroides Posted at 11-12 05:19
In this log your craft climbed to 95 meter, no problems.
Perhaps you didn't understand his description of the issue or look at data for the whole flight.
Look at what happens from 732.6 seconds on, particularly when he gives it full throttle.

haha  thanks Labroides, i simply clicked the wrong log....have a better look at the correct log now  

and, uh....i normally understand a lot.

732.6 hard to find, this flight duration 621 seconds. Time start earlier in th flight before, kind of an intermediate stop.

cheers
JJB

Quaxo76 Posted at 11-12 03:18
1) The max height was set to a much higher value, and anyway, it didn't descend automatically: it simply refused to climb back any higher than 0.
2) Yes, I was logged in and flying normally, this happened mid-flight.
3) It was hovering perfectly, as described above. It responded to every command, except climb; unless it was at a negative height, in which case it would also climb, but not higher than 0.

Hi,

Had a look at the correct flightlog.

See my chart of your data.
Upper blue line the baro height line, where it is not blue : RC up command and no climbing.
Some of the Yaw inputs were bit slow to react too.

Have no idea what is the cause of this issue.Mayby check and calibrate RC stick, see if the up steering shows on the display?

cheers
JJB

JJB* Posted at 11-12 05:42
Hi,

Had a look at the correct flightlog.

Very cool graph. Too bad I'm not on Windows and can't use FRAP. Anyway, yes, from the graph you can easily see that from the moment the issue appeared, I could only go down, and never up. But everything else worked fine. And I'm pretty sure that it can't be the stick, since in the last part of the flight, whenever the drone went below zero altitude, then the stick worked perfectly and the drone climbed as expected, until it reached zero altitude, when it stopped again. I suppose it can be seen in the graph, check the last minute or so of flight...

The yaw was slow to start because I manually set it so in the setting, to make a smoother video.

EDIT: Anyway, I had another flight, very carefully, in an open and very flat area. I went up and down  lots of times, and nothing out of the ordinary happened...

Quaxo76 Posted at 11-12 08:37
Very cool graph. Too bad I'm not on Windows and can't use FRAP. Anyway, yes, from the graph you can easily see that from the moment the issue appeared, I could only go down, and never up. But everything else worked fine. And I'm pretty sure that it can't be the stick, since in the last part of the flight, whenever the drone went below zero altitude, then the stick worked perfectly and the drone climbed as expected, until it reached zero altitude, when it stopped again. I suppose it can be seen in the graph, check the last minute or so of flight...

The yaw was slow to start because I manually set it so in the setting, to make a smoother video.

Good to hear!

Montfrooij Posted at 11-12 08:58
Good to hear!

Yes but still, I'd really like to know what happened, because I really didn't like that, and what happened once can happen again... if you don't understand why it happened. It's a bad feeling, giving full throttle and having nothing happen at all...

JJB* Posted at 11-12 04:04
Hi,

If you are a Windows user > https://forum.dji.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=203659

Thanks JJB

Quaxo76 Posted at 11-12 10:04
Yes  but still, I'd really like to know what happened, because I really didn't like that, and what happened once can happen again... if you don't understand why it happened. It's a bad feeling, giving full throttle and having nothing happen at all...

True.
But as an IT guy I have to accept I can't understand everything.
I'm not saying I would not invest it, but sometimes it is what it is. A one time event.
Try some safe locations for a couple of flights and test it to whatever you normally do.
If it does not re occur, it was a one time event.

Quaxo76 Posted at 11-12 08:37
Very cool graph. Too bad I'm not on Windows and can't use FRAP. Anyway, yes, from the graph you can easily see that from the moment the issue appeared, I could only go down, and never up. But everything else worked fine. And I'm pretty sure that it can't be the stick, since in the last part of the flight, whenever the drone went below zero altitude, then the stick worked perfectly and the drone climbed as expected, until it reached zero altitude, when it stopped again. I suppose it can be seen in the graph, check the last minute or so of flight...

The yaw was slow to start because I manually set it so in the setting, to make a smoother video.

Thanks,

Last part zoomed out in the chartIt looks that the up command below zero baro gives up flying, but stops reacting after reaching zero baro height.
Hmm, really strange and inexplicable behaviour, i think that the last 100% up did not gave a normal response.

cheers
JJB

Perhaps contact DJI and ask if they'd have a look, for free, at the DAT flight log?

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 11-12 13:31
Perhaps contact DJI and ask if they'd have a look, for free, at the DAT flight log?

That's a good idea, since apparently it's not something common. Should I just contact their customer care?

Quaxo76 Posted at 11-12 13:43
That's a good idea, since apparently it's not something common. Should I just contact their customer care?

I don't know but if it's the wrong place one would hope that they can direct you to the correct place.

As a side note, I'm trying to learn how to use FRAP, but I have a problem. I have downloaded from AirData both the original txt and csv files. If I try to open the log, FRAP opens the window to check the input file, so it can create the FRAP CSV file. I click on CHECK... The message "Original CSV file ready for check" disappears, but the "CONVERT File" button is grayed out, and I can't click it. I see no error message, and below the buttons I see the number of lines of the log file... but I don't know how to go ahead. Any ideas?

EDIT: OK, I did it. Apparently the AirData CSV isn't compatible.
Anyway: I contacted the support explaining the problem. They said I'll be contacted by the tech team, we'll see. I suppose in the meantime I shouldn't use the drone?
During the issue, it behaved as if the max height had been set to zero (only it hadn't, and I got no warning messages). The log in FRAP shows the issue very clearly, so I suppose it will eventually be possible to find out what happened...

Quaxo76 Posted at 11-12 14:02
As a side note, I'm trying to learn how to use FRAP, but I have a problem. I have downloaded from AirData both the original txt and csv files. If I try to open the log, FRAP opens the window to check the input file, so it can create the FRAP CSV file. I click on CHECK... The message "Original CSV file ready for check" disappears, but the "CONVERT File" button is grayed out, and I can't click it. I see no error message, and below the buttons I see the number of lines of the log file... but I don't know how to go ahead. Any ideas?

EDIT: OK, I did it. Apparently the AirData CSV isn't compatible.

Hi Quaxo76,

Thanks, added a 'incorrect csv file' message to FRAP.

cheers
JJB

Not possible to test unless it happens again in a safe environment, but I do wonder if the drone would have managed to climb if RTH had been initiated...

-N.O.T.

I did wonder about that too....but hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Hello Quaxo76,
I did a flight this evening - everything went out absolutely perfect, but after flying 15 mins or so I had exactly the same prob as you had. There was absolutely no climbing possible.
When I lowered the drone for almost landing hight, I saw that the height indicator was below zero and I was only able to climb until zero-then the drone stopped.
I never had this before. I was also updating the flysafe database a few minutes before flight, but I think this should should not cause the problem.
I think it might be a prob with dji fly app 1.5.0 which I used the first time for flight.
All other things like gimbal, yaw .... worked perfect.
Could you please keep in touch if you get more info on that problem?
Rob

Looks like you've got company!

https://forum.dji.com/thread-253288-1-1.html

(Edit: Sorry @Lassie, I didn't see you'd replied in this thread before I posted the link to your other post.)

Lassie Posted at 11-14 07:02
Hello Quaxo76,
I did a flight this evening - everything went out absolutely perfect, but after flying 15 mins or so I had exactly the same prob as you had. There was absolutely no climbing possible.
When I lowered the drone for almost landing hight, I saw that the height indicator was below zero and I was only able to climb until zero-then the drone stopped.

Hi,
This is very interesting. This meaens a few things, I can see a pattern here:
1) This was not an isolated occurrance, or a random hardware fault or interference, since your symptoms were so much alike.
2) We both had just updated the database, and after a few minutes the problem happened. This can't be a coincidence, I assume it must be related.
3) I hadn't updated the app itself, only the database.

I contacted DJI's customer care via online chat, the guy seemed interested in the issue and had a look at the flight log, but as soon as he noticed that I'm not in the US, he said this must be handled by the EU team, and asked my details so they could contact me. I haven't heard from them yet, but it's the weekend so that's understandable.
If you're in the US, you might try contacting the US customer care, maybe you'll have better luck...
Could you post/share your flight log, to compare the data?

This behavior does look a bit like the drone believes it's over the maximum permitted flying altitude. If this happens again to somebody, it might be worth trying to change the maximum altitude in the app's settings, even though it hasn't changed, and see if this somewhow "resets" the issue...

Cristian

EDIT: I see you're in Germany, so you can't contact the US customer service. I wonder if it's an Europe-related issue...

Hi there, did you ever find more info about this?  I had the same experience tonight.  About 12 min into flight, I dropped down to fly along the river, then I couldn’t climb back up to get back to my launch point.  I tried the “Return to Home” feature, but the Mini 2 never rose up.  I ended up having to go to where it was, because it was lower than my launch site, and there were trees between my location and where it was stuck.  While I was heading toward it, it went into low battery alarm, and continued trying to return to home, but it wouldn’t rise.   When I got to where it was, I was able to maneuver it laterally to a safe launch point and land it normally.   
I swapped out the battery and it flew fine on the next flight.

Longreacher Posted at 12-26 15:48
Hi there, did you ever find more info about this?  I had the same experience tonight.  About 12 min into flight, I dropped down to fly along the river, then I couldn’t climb back up to get back to my launch point.  I tried the “Return to Home” feature, but the Mini 2 never rose up.  I ended up having to go to where it was, because it was lower than my launch site, and there were trees between my location and where it was stuck.  While I was heading toward it, it went into low battery alarm, and continued trying to return to home, but it wouldn’t rise.   When I got to where it was, I was able to maneuver it laterally to a safe launch point and land it normally.   
I swapped out the battery and it flew fine on the next flight.

Just re reading.  I had also just updated the Flysafe database.

Just as a matter of interest check the maximum height setting in the app AND in the flight log, go all the way through the relevant column of the flightless CSV to see if that setting was changed during the flight. I do not remember if Airdata show this so it is probably better to thePhantomhelp log viewer.

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 12-26 16:05
Just as a matter of interest check the maximum height setting in the app AND in the flight log, go all the way through the relevant column of the flightless CSV to see if that setting was changed during the flight. I do not remember if Airdata show this so it is probably better to thePhantomhelp log viewer.

Thanks, went back and looked at the app and the log files.  No indication that max height was ever reset during the flight.    Similar flight profile to original poster.  
Of note, the height it got 'stuck' at was 10m.  And, this weird glitch happened on my first flight after a "Fly Safe" database update.

How soon after the Fly Safe database update was the flight when the problem occurred?

It seems too much of a coincidence that the three reports of this issue were after updating the FSDb, so if it was a short time after I wonder if the FSDb data was still being processed....

(Speculation)...which makes me wonder - is FSDb data only used by the app or is it used also in the aircraft itself? It would make sense for the aircraft to be aware of FRZs autonomously, so maybe once the database is updated in the Fly app some or all of the data transfers to the aircraft. Maybe it's when that data upload completes or is processed or becomes active in the aircraft that things get confused and the aircraft believes it can't/shouldn't climb any more? (/Speculation)

-N.O.T.

No Original Thought Posted at 12-27 09:54
How soon after the Fly Safe database update was the flight when the problem occurred?

It seems too much of a coincidence that the three reports of this issue were after updating the FSDb, so if it was a short time after I wonder if the FSDb data was still being processed....

For me, it would have been just minutes after.  Also, once I retrieved the aircraft and put in a fresh battery to see if I could reproduce the glitch, it asked me to complete a firmware update.
Makes me wonder if I had something halfway done when I took off.  If I did the Fly Safe update, but didn't do the Firmware update, could those have gotten out of sync with each other somehow?

For those curious, I had an issue a few days ago where it also seemed my Mini2 refused to climb up to a higher altitude at some point.  There are some similarities (and some differences) in my case.

Similarities include:

• Drone was flying normally, except: at some point, it seems it just stopped accepting stick input commands to gain any more altitude.
• Once it stopped climbing it was at roughly "0" altitude (within a few feet below or above) but it never got much higher or lower than "0" once the problem started.
• It was able to hover, and fly horizontally, as normal, it just would not climb higher to gain altitude, no matter how I tried.  I hit RTH and it did not climb then either.
• I had just done an update to the Fly Safe database (and aso updated Firmware) immediately before this flight (within an hour of flight, maybe less).
  

Differences include:

• It was cold outside - below freezing.  Some nearby reporting stations indicated -4°C to -6°C.
• I launched from the edge of a high cliff, then flew out over terrain that was much lower.  Most of the flight was at negative altitudes relative to the launch point.  The drone was able to climb up to roughly the "0" altitude of the launch point, but it would not climb up further -- it wouldn't go up the additional ~20 feet necessary to clear some trees between the drone's position and the safe landing area/RTH point.
• Batteries got critically low as I kept trying to get the drone to ascend that last 20 feet (repeatedly). I ried to get the drone close to me, even tough trees were in the way.  I managed to fly between some of the trees in the last moments, and got it pretty close.  But with the battery just about exhausted, the drone crashed in some small bushes about 20 feet short of the landing point (and below the lending point), on the face of the cliff.  It is now stuck there, about 20 feet down a cliff, just beyond my ability to reach it safely, in snow and bushes.  It has now been out in sub-freezing, cold and wet conditions for 6 days. I may or may not be able to recover it safely (I will consider attempting recovery after the snow melts, in the next couple days -- in about 6 monthsk, it should be easy to climb down, but I'm not trying it in snow and ice).  I'm sure being out in those conditions are not going to be good for it, it may be (probably is) a total loss.
  

If you are interested in more details, here's the thread: Lost my Mini 2. Not sure why. Too cold?

I'm a complete newbie (4 flights) and don't want to get stuck unable to climb with my Mini 2.

Is it adviced to boot everything up at home to check for firmware/database updates, then power everything off before going out to fly?

I wonder why pilots dont use the DFWMS bottom in the app, "Dont Fuck With My Software"

BWJ Posted at 1-4 10:50
[view_image]

I wonder why pilots dont use the DFWMS bottom in the app, "Dont Fuck With My Software"

Reading the reports this may well be nothing to do with firmware, but rather with the Fly Safe database.

Using the DFWMS switch wouldn't have made much difference in that case, and I'm all for people flying with the latest FSDb to keep out of trouble as more infringements will only lead to more restrictions for the rest of us.

Why do I think FSDb rather than firmware? Because firmware has to be fully loaded when the aircraft is started. Firsware will not continue to update during flight as systems need to restart during a firmware update which would be unsafe every update, not just in one with an error.

The FSdb, however, is likely to be used in geographical blocks. If the database is held on the aircraft itself at all the these blocks are likely to be realtively small to keep the memory footprint down - that means loading and unloading as needed. If the FSDb was updating in flight (after the database has been downloaded to the app) that's at least a theoretical explanation for this

Well I just got this error this afternoon.
Guess what, I had updated the flysafe database, and had not rebooted anything.
About 10 minutes into the flight and over a river the drone refused to rise.
Luckily I was able to get her home safely.

linkan1980 Posted at 1-2 12:54
I'm a complete newbie (4 flights) and don't want to get stuck unable to climb with my Mini 2.

Is it adviced to boot everything up at home to check for firmware/database updates, then power everything off before going out to fly?

How come nobody will reply to this post, I am in the same boat I am a newbie with very little fly time and experience, your thoughts was my first thought, update everything then reboot everything before use but since their has been no conformation on this assumption I need to know how to turn off ALL FUTURE UPDATES until 100% of the Update problems and concerns are 100% resolved.

I can not afford to spend thousands of dollars on a 8 week vacation trying to get drone footage just to have a update make my drone unusable and have some techie say "my bad we fixed it in a new update, please update again"

I have zero knowledge how updates work I would think detailed group meetings with many engineers setting at a Round Table having "What If" conversations for HOURS or DAYS before a "Update" is pushed out to the public would happen as we all know for every action (code changes) there is a reaction.   

I am starting to get visions of some geek software engineer rushing then pushing updates and letting users figure out the flaws then writing patches to fix the poor initial written code, just like Microsoft does...

Please all replies should be explained for the Computer and Drone stupid, tutorials welcome, still trying to wrap my head around all of this.

Thanks in advance.