I've noticed some changes to the flying characteristics of my Mavic over the last couple of software/firmware updates. Wanted to see if anyone else has had these and might know a way to resolve it.

Return To Home
RTH has been almost completely unusable in the last 2 versions of firmware I've had. When I activate RTH it will ascend to the initial altitude, move about 10-15 feet towards home and abrubtly stop as if it detected an obstacle. It will then either repeat this moving towards home in 10-foot increments or ascend a bit more and then do the same thing. I finally cancel RTH and fly it home. Getting a little nervous about a loss of signal and what might happen in that case.

I realize that sometimes when flying towards the sun the sensors will detect lens flare as an obstacle and suddenly stop, but that's not been the case when this has happened. It's been repeatable every time in the last 2 versions of the software/firmware I've flown with. RTH does not work.

Speed Limits
Also in the last couple of versions I've noticed that my speed is much slower than it used to be. In non-sport, non-beginner mode I would routinely see speeds around 20 mph depending on direction of travel and winds. Now I only see 8-12 mph flying in the same locations under the same conditions. Switching to Sport Mode I can get speeds up to about 40 mph. Is this an intended change that I missed or is there a reason that my Mavic is now restricted to about half the speed that it used to be in normal mode?

Versions:
App iOS 4.1.9
Aircraft 01.03.1000
Radio 01.03.1000

Please upload a flight log (TXT file from your mobile device) from a flight where this occurred to PhantomHelp using these instructions and then post a link to it in this thread.

The RTH behavior you described sounds like it might be the obstacle avoidance (OA) incorrectly detecting an obstacle. It's know to be triggered by bright lights such as the sun, so if this occurs when it's flying towards the sun that's the most likely explanation. But again, providing a reference to a flight log from a flight where this occurred will show what happened.

Thanks. I did the upload. Not sure if this is the link you're looking for, but here it is: (and it won't let me past a link - "bad fill", any suggestions?)

As I said, I've seen the obstacle avoidance issue while flying towards the sun. This reacts the same way but it doesn't matter which direction it's facing or whether the sun is out. It just is constantly "avoiding obstacles" when in RTH that aren't there when I cancel RTH and fly normally.

"Sorry, You fill contains bad information, Can not submit"

Sweet website.

Try this? http://tinyurl.com/yb8utxfz

Please try to calibrate the Vision Positioning System on DJI Assistant 2 and calibrate the IMU of the drone. Besides, check your gain settings on the MC settings. If the problem still persists, please report your case to our support team support.us@dji.com. Thank you.

Fleagle Posted at 2017-9-6 20:04
"Sorry, You fill contains bad information, Can not submit"

Sweet website.

It's definitely a case of OA being triggered, though I can't say for sure why that occurs and it is possible that something in the firmware affected it. In any case, those "Ascending to avoid obstacle" (at 12:52.2) and "Backing up to avoid obstacle" (13:01.9) messages indicate that your Mavic believed it was in danger of colliding with something and stopped and went around whatever it believed was there.

I'll give a try to recalibrating the Vision Positioning System and IMU.

I'm not sure what "check your gain settings on the MC settings" means or in what way I should adjust them, but I'll work on that.

2 questions remain while I get going on these suggestions.

Why would obstacle avoidance be triggered only while Return To Home is activated and not while normally flying?

Why is my speed seemingly more limited in normal mode than it used to be?

Thanks for the replies!

So TLDR: it appears to have worked.

First of all, I had a number of problems getting the DJI Assistant 2 to work with my iMac running 10.12.6. I downloaded the most recent version of DJI Assistant (v 1.1.6) and made sure it was updated on my machine. I then restarted the iMac just to be sure. Upon connection of the Mavic to the computer it told me that there were multiple versions of incompatible firmware - strange since I'd just updated the day before. Upon disconnection and reconnection it told me I had the latest firmware.

So I went to calibration. Nothing showed on the screen - just a blank white screen. A reboot again. Same. I disconnect the external monitor, reconnect everything after a reboot, and voila, the calibration screen is finally there.

Now I run through the calibration and it does everything except the calculating part at the end. Tells me it'll take less than a minute. After 15 minutes stalled at 85% I disconnect everything, reboot, try again.

Second time is a charm. Vision Positioning System calibration success.

But now on connection after this reboot the DJI Assistant again tells me firmware mismatch. I allow it to upgrade. Takes a minute and then reboots the Mavic. Sadly, I also experience my first MacOS Kernel Panic in about 3 years. iMac reboots and tells me that it rebooted due to a Kernel Panic - starting to be a little nervous about running DJI software on my computer...

Connect Mavic to controller and do the IMU calibration. Take it out to fly and still seem to be limited in groundspeed, but the RTH function once again actually Returns To Home (or nearby at least).

Perhaps next time I'll use DJI Assistant on a computer that I don't use for everyday business, just in case. But in the mean time I wanted to report back that this worked for me and thank you for your help.

Fleagle Posted at 2017-9-7 15:07
So TLDR: it appears to have worked.

First of all, I had a number of problems getting the DJI Assistant 2 to work with my iMac running 10.12.6. I downloaded the most recent version of DJI Assistant (v 1.1.6) and made sure it was updated on my machine. I then restarted the iMac just to be sure. Upon connection of the Mavic to the computer it told me that there were multiple versions of incompatible firmware - strange since I'd just updated the day before. Upon disconnection and reconnection it told me I had the latest firmware.

Thanks for your feedback, so now the RTH works but speed still limited, right? If so, please send your flight records to our support team for a further analysis. Gain settings are at the Advance of Main Controller Settings, the default value is 100%. Besides, if DJI Assistant 2 prompts that the firmware is inconsistent, you need to refresh the firmware again, it might be the battery's firmware doesn't match. And obstacle should be activated when you enable it, not only when RTH.

Besides, please kindly click the "Reply" button if you need to reply me so that I can get the reminder and can deal with it asap.