Hello fellow Mavic owners,

I haven't flown my Mavic for about a couple of months and then the weather has been so lovely over Easter that I took out for a fly. I updated the firmware before flying using DJI Go App. Within 5 minutes of being airborne I got "Downward Infrared Sensor Failure. Land as soon as possible". I checked with my flying club and they said to give it a gentle bit of compressed air and also recalibrate the VPS. Did that. Did a test fly in the back yard and got exactly the same error within a minute of being airborne. It also lands very hard (I land manually).

Any suggestions? I am about to rollback the firmware using DJI Assistant instead of the app to see if this helps.

Hoping someone has experienced this same error after firmward upgrade or has some suggestions on how to resolve it.

Cheers,
Anna

Hi Anna
Sorry to hear about that.  Have you tried going into the settings and disabling the landing protection, then switching off, back on, and re-enabling it?
You might also try just leaving the landing protection off. It is just that, protection against landing on an unsuitable surface, but I imagine you can control and decide where to land!

Cheers,

Ian in London

Hi Anna, I'm sorry to hear about the issue that you are experiencing. May I confirm that did your drone crash before or not? At the same time, could you please show us a screenshot of the error message, we'll look into it. Thanks!

Wellsi Posted at 2018-4-6 23:47
Hi Anna
Sorry to hear about that.  Have you tried going into the settings and disabling the landing protection, then switching off, back on, and re-enabling it?
You might also try just leaving the landing protection off. It is just that, protection against landing on an unsuitable surface, but I imagine you can control and decide where to land!

Hi Ian,
Thanks! That got rid of the pesky erro but now it doesn't want to hover for me. It just keeps on flying up and up and then when I press on the left stick to bring it down a little bit it activates landing instead of stabilising and hovering. Aggh!
Any ideas on what causes that?
Cheers,
Anna

DJI Diana Posted at 2018-4-7 00:02
Hi Anna, I'm sorry to hear about the issue that you are experiencing. May I confirm that did your drone crash before or not? At the same time, could you please show us a screenshot of the error message, we'll look into it. Thanks!

DJI Diana Posted at 2018-4-7 00:02
Hi Anna, I'm sorry to hear about the issue that you are experiencing. May I confirm that did your drone crash before or not? At the same time, could you please show us a screenshot of the error message, we'll look into it. Thanks!

Hi Diana, no I have not crashed this Mavic. It is a fairly new one too after the first one I bought had a gimbal issue and was replaced on refresh care.

fergatron Posted at 2018-4-7 00:18
Hi Diana, no I have not crashed this Mavic. It is a fairly new one too after the first one I bought had a gimbal issue and was replaced on refresh care.

Have you calibrated since receiving the new/refurbished Mavic? I would try calibrating the IMU's on a known flat/level surface, VPS while on the computer using Assistant 2 and wait until you get to your fly spot then calibrate the Compass away from any magnetic/ferrous metals.

QuadKid Posted at 2018-4-7 00:40
Have you calibrated since receiving the new/refurbished Mavic? I would try calibrating the IMU's, VPS and Compass once again and see if the problem persists. I would do the IMU's and VPS while on the computer using Assistant 2 and wait until you get to your fly spot then calibrate the Compass away from any magnetic/ferrous metals.

Thanks QuadKid. I did all the relevant callibrations on receipt of new drone and after the latest firmware update I did a VPS callibration and a compass callibration but not an IMU.

The sensor error went away after Wellsi's advice but I would love to know what causes the Mavic to just keep flying up without hovering as that has happened to me on a couple of other occasions too. I am not even touching the sticks and it just keeps going up and up and then with just the lightest amount of pressure on the left stick it will just go automatically into landing mode. I saw a thread on this by someone else a couple of months ago and I can't find it again. Do you think that's just novice piloting, an IMU or RC callibration thing or maybe I need to downgrade to factory default and just start back up again?
Cheers,
Anna

fergatron Posted at 2018-4-7 00:46
Thanks QuadKid. I did all the relevant callibrations on receipt of new drone and after the latest firmware update I did a VPS callibration and a compass callibration but not an IMU.

The sensor error went away after Wellsi's advice but I would love to know what causes the Mavic to just keep flying up without hovering as that has happened to me on a couple of other occasions too. I am not even touching the sticks and it just keeps going up and up and then with just the lightest amount of pressure on the left stick it will just go automatically into landing mode. I saw a thread on this by someone else a couple of months ago and I can't find it again. Do you think that's just novice piloting, an IMU or RC callibration thing or maybe I need to downgrade to factory default and just start back up again?

I don't believe at this point you would need to change the FW, I would definitely do an IMU calibration, RC calibration and possibly a new compass calibration if the app prompts you.

QuadKid Posted at 2018-4-7 00:58
I don't believe at this point you would need to change the FW, I would definitely do an IMU calibration, RC calibration and possibly a new compass calibration if the app prompts you.

Thanks heaps quadKid. I've run out of daylight now darn it but will definitely try all those steps tomorrow. I'm also wondering if magnetic interference might cause the uninitiated ascending as the times I've seen it happen it's been in environments where there could be interference.

fergatron Posted at 2018-4-7 01:02
Thanks heaps quadKid. I've run out of daylight now darn it but will definitely try all those steps tomorrow. I'm also wondering if magnetic interference might cause the uninitiated ascending as the times I've seen it happen it's been in environments where there could be interference.

Just make sure you are on a flat Level (check it with a leveling device, I use a bubble app on my phone ) to check level and away from any magnetic interference. You can do the RC calibration pretty much anywhere as long as you are connected to the Go4 App. Good Luck, hope you don't have to send it in again.

fergatron Posted at 2018-4-7 01:02
Thanks heaps quadKid. I've run out of daylight now darn it but will definitely try all those steps tomorrow. I'm also wondering if magnetic interference might cause the uninitiated ascending as the times I've seen it happen it's been in environments where there could be interference.

Rising up and up isn't great!
I would definitely take QualKid's advice and do an IMU calibration.
If it continues to rise upwards with no input from you after this, you should definitely contact DJI Support.

Good luck and all the best

Ian

Hi there peeps!! So mine has just started having the same issue - infrared sensor failure. I've followed the same procedure as Wellsi suggested and the error stopped but now it has stopped hovering on initial start up, it just ascends straight up and when i bring it down it down to land it doesnt sense the ground and come down softly like it used it to, it just lands really hard. This seems to have started happening since 2 firmware updates ago, I am thinking of reseting the firmware. Suggestions?

Scottee Posted at 2018-6-19 00:22
Hi there peeps!! So mine has just started having the same issue - infrared sensor failure. I've followed the same procedure as Wellsi suggested and the error stopped but now it has stopped hovering on initial start up, it just ascends straight up and when i bring it down it down to land it doesnt sense the ground and come down softly like it used it to, it just lands really hard. This seems to have started happening since 2 firmware updates ago, I am thinking of reseting the firmware. Suggestions?

Calibrate the VPS using Assistant 2

A CW Posted at 2018-6-19 00:29
Calibrate the VPS using Assistant 2

Thank you A CW! Will give it a try

Scottee Posted at 2018-6-19 02:22
Thank you A CW! Will give it a try

Should sort it - fingers crossed for you

Unfortunately recalibrating the VPS didnt fix the issue. Even when using Take off and Landing assist it just ascends straight up then on landing comes down hard. I'm running the spring loaded landing feet. Surely that should be interefering with down facing infrared sensor?

A CW Posted at 2018-6-19 02:27
Should sort it - fingers crossed for you

Unfortunately recalibrating the VPS didnt fix the issue. Even when using Take off and Landing assist it just ascends straight up then on landing comes down hard. I'm running the spring loaded landing feet. Surely that should be interefering with down facing infrared sensor?

Hi Anna, how did you go resolving this issue? I'm having the same problems at the moment

Scottee Posted at 2018-6-19 21:16
Hi Anna, how did you go resolving this issue? I'm having the same problems at the moment

Hey Scottee,
I got on the chat to DJI and followed every single step methodically and they all failed. I have DJI Refresh so I sent it back and decided this time to get a repair under warranty. I'm saving my DJI Refresh for the moment when I accidentally slam it into a bridge or it goes under water and I need a whole new one.

So sorry to tell you...it had to go back to the shop but it flies fine now


Anna

Scottee Posted at 2018-6-19 19:16
Unfortunately recalibrating the VPS didnt fix the issue. Even when using Take off and Landing assist it just ascends straight up then on landing comes down hard. I'm running the spring loaded landing feet. Surely that should be interefering with down facing infrared sensor?

Yeah, I never use hanging gear on my drones as they have be known to interfere with the VPS. Take them off and see if the problem persists.

fergatron Posted at 2018-6-19 21:24
Hey Scottee,
I got on the chat to DJI and followed every single step methodically and they all failed. I have DJI Refresh so I sent it back and decided this time to get a repair under warranty. I'm saving my DJI Refresh for the moment when I accidentally slam it into a bridge or it goes under water and I need a whole new one.

Hey Anna, thanks for the feedback. Mine is only 2 months old. Looks like it will be getting sent back under warranty too. Saves all the messing around.

Which Mavic is it?