I am working in the drone industry and have been receiving complaints about drones automatically disarming on its own, in midair situation and crashing onto the ground. These drone users came to my office for repair work and after repairing is done, we conducted a test and found out that the latest firmware actually terminated motor function when tilted or flipped! This can be a safety measure but it can also be a hazard to general public. DJI please make proper announcement so that all drone users are aware of such firmware upgrade and feature.... Drone dropping out from the sky just doesn’t sound good! Please do something about it!

Well yea if the drone is tilted beyond a certain angle (60°) it will shut off. This is for safety.  They probably crashed/bumped something..  do u have flight logs proving otherwise? Also all fw revisions have done this.    Are u sure u repair drones?

Yes I am sure I work in a drone service center though I am not hand on. The tech team update everyone so we are constantly equipped with the latest info.

We tested on the Phantoms and Mavic. The firmware does the same — shutting down due to a tilt. We tried various angles of tilting the drone.... like I say people maybe use the drone in various way... I do agree that it’s a good safety feature but it can be a hazard at the same time. Imagine in sports or super sport mode, the angle of tilting can be abrupt (same apply for extremely windy condition) and can DJI guarantee that the AI will not automatically shut down in mid air because it can sense the reason of the tilt?

This doesn't sound good.

I may not be 100% right. We have just tested with 5 different drones only... You can try it on your own with the lastest firmware and judge the different angle of tilt before the motor turns off. Simple power up the bird and slowly title it to see if it auto shut down at an acceptable angle. I just cannot imagine the bird will drop from the sky if I do a sports mode on my Mavic. I have seen the way Mavic charge forward. Can the tilt be good enough to shut the bird down? And how about I do an “e-break” situation in the air to avoid a sudden obstacle. Can that trigger the shut down too?

I've got an Mavic Air, so it might be a bit different with a Mavic Pro or Phantom, but anyway

I was reading  few forum posts about 'hand catching' the Mavic Air, which I wanted to learn because of using the Mavic Air from pleasure boats, and there were many suggestions how to power down after catching it. 'Tilt it 90 degrees on its side and it will shut off.'  
So I've tried it, and it fought the tilt so much that after 2 seconds I put it back horizontal. After reading some more I just wasn't tilting it long enough for the Mavic Air to go into emergency shutdown.
I also found this video, where a Mavic Air is even upside down and it still recuperates.


I think that if in normal flight a Mavic Air is tilting that far and long for the motors to shut off, you are probably flying in conditions you shouldn't be flying in.

I agree with the above.  If the weather is so bad that it'll tilt your quad, you shouldn't be flying.

The emergency shutdown has been always (or at least for long) a feature on the DJI consumer drones and not at all a "hazard to humankind" as the ludicrous title of this thread suggests. Sorry to say it that frankly.

LoSBoL Posted at 2018-2-23 08:33
I've got an Mavic Air, so it might be a bit different with a Mavic Pro or Phantom, but anyway

I was reading  few forum posts about 'hand catching' the Mavic Air, which I wanted to learn because of using the Mavic Air from pleasure boats, and there were many suggestions how to power down after catching it. 'Tilt it 90 degrees on its side and it will shut off.'  

This video is just amazing! I realized at the end that I'd been holding my breath through the whole thing!

Jeff

I just did the test. I have to turn that drone completely on its side before the motor shut off. I did the test Idoing a nosedive again that drone has to be almost facing downward for the motor to shut off. So if you’re flying in that kind of weather to flip that drone over that far on its side you deserve to lose your drone.

yes i agree.

I read so many false statements on these forms. All you hear about our people having problems with the FW updates. With the app crashing so on and so on. I have to tell you I have never experienced one problem at all from day one. It’s a good thing I don’t go by what people post on these forms because if I did I never would have bough one. I think a lot of what I read is nothing but pilot error’s.

$gambino$ Posted at 2018-2-23 06:23
Well yea if the drone is tilted beyond a certain angle (60°) it will shut off. This is for safety.  They probably crashed/bumped something..  do u have flight logs proving otherwise? Also all fw revisions have done this.    Are u sure u repair drones?

Do not be such a chop. if you have an answer then do it politely or shut up.
Many of us have serious problems we are trying to work out - good for you if you are not affected.
are you sure you are not an idiot - if so - please find another forum
if you are not an idiot then stop responding to posts as if you are one.

This is a standard feature of the Spark.

Look at the many videos of people hand-catching the Spark, then tilting to shutdown.

Sid

Well.... all I can say is good luck to all who thinks it’s a “standard safety feature”. This feature was never there before. I dunno what algorithm was built in to detect when to shut and when not to... looking at the Air video, techniquely it should shut down but it didn’t. Perhaps the altitude reading signal led the bird to continue fighting (just my guess). No one knows until DJI make a proper statement to assure everyone. Guessing is of no use.

For those who thinks you “deserve to lose the drone” if flying in bad weather... maybe you have underestimated the power of Mother Nature. What you feel on land is definitely not th same as the situation up above. Good luck to all.

It is a standard feature. If you tilt it 90 degrees it will shut off. Casey does it in several of his videos.  I find it hard to believe the OP has any experience with drones at all much less works for a repair shop.

The motors will stop when the drone tilts to a certain angle for the concern of the flight safety. Please avoid this operation and avoid flying when there is a heavy wind which might cause the abnormal tilt of the drone. Thank you.

fans94f93e52 Posted at 2018-2-23 19:22
Well.... all I can say is good luck to all who thinks it’s a “standard safety feature”. This feature was never there before. I dunno what algorithm was built in to detect when to shut and when not to... looking at the Air video, techniquely it should shut down but it didn’t. Perhaps the altitude reading signal led the bird to continue fighting (just my guess). No one knows until DJI make a proper statement to assure everyone. Guessing is of no use.

For those who thinks you “deserve to lose the drone” if flying in bad weather... maybe you have underestimated the power of Mother Nature. What you feel on land is definitely not th same as the situation up above. Good luck to all.

So does that mean you are done with your rant.

@Locoman — with people like you around... this world will be a lousier place because everything to you is a rant as long as it doesn’t make sense. You are not receptive to any opinion at all. From the start it wasn’t a “rant”. Why would I care when the damage drones are not my personal belonging. It’s real life complaints and it’s happening and I am simply sharing my experience.

Question : Why is such technology required when we are equipped with the ability to fly the drone back? Why do we need the drone to automatically shut down on its own — risking damages to our own property. At the end the one who is paying the repair bill is you and I, not DJI. They will profit out of this (and my company too).

Why can’t we just let the the gyro and ESC do the job and break the fall whenever possible? That’s at least a chance of a better recovery... way better than dropping from the sky with gravity pull. I cannot imagine the force of the drone landing on hard ground or perhaps human.

It makes me laugh just to read all the replies.

fans94f93e52 Posted at 2018-2-23 19:22
Well.... all I can say is good luck to all who thinks it’s a “standard safety feature”. This feature was never there before. I dunno what algorithm was built in to detect when to shut and when not to... looking at the Air video, techniquely it should shut down but it didn’t. Perhaps the altitude reading signal led the bird to continue fighting (just my guess). No one knows until DJI make a proper statement to assure everyone. Guessing is of no use.

For those who thinks you “deserve to lose the drone” if flying in bad weather... maybe you have underestimated the power of Mother Nature. What you feel on land is definitely not th same as the situation up above. Good luck to all.

You are absolutely right about one thing,  Guessing is of no use...

Warning people for a dangerous situation is to be applauded, but there is one vital thing you can't dismiss if you want to issue out an warning. And that is providing evidance of your assesment. There is no substance in your warning, and like you said, guessing is of no use.

If the drone repair shop you are working at sees a huge and sudden growth in Mavics and Phantoms falling out of the sky suddenly, they should easily be able to provide evidance of the claim that (a change in) the standard safety feature is to blame.

And if the drone repair shop is a reputable one, they probably have better channels to address the issue with DJI,  a forum is not the propper channel to address serious safety issues to a company.

And when warning people threw a forum, we need to know what you are warning us from, don't let us guess.

Point noted. I thought the forum might be a good place to warn, discuss or alert DJI personnel in an informal way. Basically DJI support is already darn busy... even normal case of warranty claim is taking them so long to reply... needless to say... a complaint which they might note address until something bad really happen.

You are right, I should e showing some form of evidence, unfortauntely the PDPA law in Singapore does not allow me to publish such info without consent from the drone owner. Flight logs are also inside the operator’s phone which we do not collect when we repair the damages.

If admin feels that this thread is of no relevance and ground. Then delete it. I am fine with it. Like I say... this is easily tested by anyone that is reading the thread. I am sure you can try it at different angles and diff speed of tilting it.

@loSbol - man I would have been cursing the whole time, it's amazing how the Air pulled it's way out of the tree's

If it is in a recent update, within the last year,  could of been an attempt to discourage hackers. What do you have to do to go faster if you would want to by hacking? Tilt the drone farther forward. Now if it’s tilted past the sports mode by some , as in super sports mode by hacker terms,  it shuts off keeping people from Making it faster all in interest of “safety”

This has been a feature since the Mavic Pro came out. We run one of the largest repair centers in the US and have never had one come in for falling out of the sky because of tilting too much.

Strobing_NYC Posted at 2018-2-24 10:30
@loSbol - man I would have been cursing the whole time, it's amazing how the Air pulled it's way out of the tree's

I would have been doing the same

Last weekend I was flying in sports mode and very low to the ground. Pulled a hard brake on purpose as it's fast approaching head onto me (usually I'll just bank it away sideways). The rear props caught the ground and the MP flipped backwards then turtled flat on the open grass field. Immediately I saw a motor obstructed warning popup, the motors are still spinning that I had to perform the manual CSC cut. This was my 1st crash since I got it 7 months ago fortunately a soft one not a single scratch.

I'm on the latest firmware and wondering why it didn't auto shutoff the motors while the MP is lying flat upside down on the ground? I recalled testing the tilt shutoff quite sometime ago but it was by handheld.

Bekaru Tree Posted at 2018-2-23 10:55
Do not be such a chop. if you have an answer then do it politely or shut up.
Many of us have serious problems we are trying to work out - good for you if you are not affected.
are you sure you are not an idiot - if so - please find another forum

...and you go and do the same thing; please follow your own advice.

The auto shutoff is normal however IF the IMU and maybe the compass is out of calibration the drone may think it is tilted and shut down. Always check the IMU and Compass prior to flight and always verify the home point... "check it on the map." My rule is that if any error no matter how small it may seem... I pause and fix the error or I choose not to fly.

Bob Brown Posted at 2018-2-25 09:41
...and you go and do the same thing; please follow your own advice.

The auto shutoff is normal however IF the IMU and maybe the compass is out of calibration the drone may think it is tilted and shut down. Always check the IMU and Compass prior to flight and always verify the home point... "check it on the map." My rule is that if any error no matter how small it may seem... I pause and fix the error or I choose not to fly.

The guy deserved to be insulted. We are not aggressive towards newcomers on this forum.

fans94f93e52 Posted at 2018-2-23 06:46
Yes I am sure I work in a drone service center though I am not hand on. The tech team update everyone so we are constantly equipped with the latest info.

We tested on the Phantoms and Mavic. The firmware does the same — shutting down due to a tilt. We tried various angles of tilting the drone.... like I say people maybe use the drone in various way... I do agree that it’s a good safety feature but it can be a hazard at the same time. Imagine in sports or super sport mode, the angle of tilting can be abrupt (same apply for extremely windy condition) and can DJI guarantee that the AI will not automatically shut down in mid air because it can sense the reason of the tilt?

I am asking because i really do not know: in what situation would it be a good safety mechanism?
I can understand how it  can be hazordous in many situations - almost always for the drone and even for people if the pilot does not adhere rules and stay away from people - but in what situation can it be a good safety measure?

fans94f93e52 Posted at 2018-2-24 06:07
Point noted. I thought the forum might be a good place to warn, discuss or alert DJI personnel in an informal way. Basically DJI support is already darn busy... even normal case of warranty claim is taking them so long to reply... needless to say... a complaint which they might note address until something bad really happen.

You are right, I should e showing some form of evidence, unfortauntely the PDPA law in Singapore does not allow me to publish such info without consent from the drone owner. Flight logs are also inside the operator’s phone which we do not collect when we repair the damages.

This forum is a good place to note your observation - personally i appreciate it.
There have been some recent situations where apparent tilting of the drone was observed before a crash happened.
Sometimes it is clearly a bird strike - sometimes the pilot has mentioned that birds might have been the cause but there have also been cases where a big question marks hangs and we never know for sure.
I have replied just recently a tilt and crash situation. The pilot was in high wind - for this reason he has unfortunately no leg to stand on and therefore the matter disappears into the history of this forum - however to me the issue of what happened is important/interesting.
It is to me another example of how "not shutting the motors" when the drone is tilted could have saved the drone before it hit the ground - and could have saved hurting people below if the drone had drifted over a school or playground for example.
I realise the odds are low but if the pilot starts out flying in a safe place and losses control due to wind then the pilot will have no control where the drone blows and that may end up over a group of people.
i still sincerely wonder what the benefits of auto shut off could be - sure it is helpful for hand landing turnoff - but to my mind if they can set that at 60 degrees then they could just as easy set it a 90 degrees or more. Twisting my arm a few extra degrees to switch off the motors is a simple matter and that extra 30 degrees could go a long way to saving drones from tilt crashing.
In closing i will say: if you were a pilot who had lost his drone and were stating that tilting caused your loss and you were looking for us to support you - then yes some proof would be helpful - without which we can only offer opinions.
But that is not your point of departure or the nature of your thread- i disagree that you need to produce proof especially since the facts you provided are in sync with what we know to be true.

You raise a valid point and yes this is the correct place to bring it - thank you.

KerryG Posted at 2018-2-25 00:00
This has been a feature since the Mavic Pro came out. We run one of the largest repair centers in the US and have never had one come in for falling out of the sky because of tilting too much.

can I send my drone to you if it needs any warranty repair? and/or dji refresh?  I am hoping it would be faster sending it to you then to dji