Hi everyone,

  

  

Two weeks ago I was flying my Mavic Air above the city it was a cool clear day with nil wind (perfect conditions). Around 2 minutes into the flight and 300 meters distance the Air started flying in a direction without my input. I was unable to control the aircraft and it flew close behind a building, out of my line of sight and my controller lost connection. Despite having 85% battery the Air did not return back to my location and I was not able to reconnect or recover the drone after searching the last known location.

  

  

I have created a clip of my video feed (linked below) with the control inputs and flight telemetry overlayed in the hope that someone can help provide an explanation of what went wrong. I was really enjoying my Mavic Air while I owned one, but are reluctant to replace it if there is a chance of this happening again.

  

  

The first line of DJI support has been great, promptly acknowledging my case and requesting logs and passing them on for further investigation. After almost two weeks though I have not received any response from the next level of support, so I’m opening it up to the forum in the search for answers.

  

  

Was it likely to be the GPS or compass messing up? Was it interference resulting in the drone receiving corrupted control inputs? Did it spot another Mavic Air off in the distance and decided to run away in the name of love? I would appreciate any input.

  

Video:

  

  

  

Many thanks!

  

Cameron

It was dji’s newest firmware update. Many people have been experiencing this issue including myself.

Follow the instructions on the link below and upload your flight log once done post link back here
http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/

Very sorry to hear about your loss! I recommend following the advice given by Suren here above. The flightrecord might tell us more about what has happened. You should also send a PM with your support case number to one of the Administrators here in the forum. They can be very helpful in following up your case.

I agree with Suren and Wachtberger.  The guys here are good at determining what went wrong.  

@wachtberger, I just realized that in EVERY previous post that I've mentioned you, I've spelled your name wrong. - Apologies!!

From the last part of the video it looks like it may if drifted into that building.  If that is the case did you search around the building where it looks like it may of went down?  

Wow - that looks like quite a scary scene - I never knew drone regs in Sweden were so relaxed enabling pilots to fly around residential buildings and over congested areas. I hope you get a replacement soon and that your drone didn't crash into anyone and injure them...

3-D Posted at 2018-6-8 07:16
I agree with Suren and Wachtberger.  The guys here are good at determining what went wrong.  

@wachtberger, I just realized that in EVERY previous post that I've mentioned you, I've spelled your name wrong. - Apologies!!

No problem at all, but thank you!

SparksBird Posted at 2018-6-8 07:21
From the last part of the video it looks like it may if drifted into that building.  If that is the case did you search around the building where it looks like it may of went down?

Yeah I think its 50/50 if it hit the building or not. It's obscured by the overlay but there is a shadow of the drone on my raw stream that suggests it may have shot past. You bet I searched! Directly below that area is a large glass roof viewable from a public area, so there is a decent chance that if it crashed I could have spotted parts. I walked the area several times immediately after.

A CW Posted at 2018-6-8 07:25
Wow - that looks like quite a scary scene - I never knew drone regs in Sweden were so relaxed enabling pilots to fly around residential buildings and over congested areas. I hope you get a replacement soon and that your drone didn't crash into anyone and injure them...

Yeah for now the laws in Sweden are quite forgiving and rely on people doing the right thing. We are allowed to fly over the city as long as we stay below 50m and avoid a 1km radius from the various helipads and 5km radius from the central airport. Outside of the city similar rules apply but we are good to go up to 120m. Hopefully my out of control Mavic did not give someone a new haircut and will lead to changing those rules.

camxwestdji Posted at 2018-6-8 14:44
Yeah for now the laws in Sweden are quite forgiving and rely on people doing the right thing. We are allowed to fly over the city as long as we stay below 50m and avoid a 1km radius from the various helipads and 5km radius from the central airport. Outside of the city similar rules apply but we are good to go up to 120m. Hopefully my out of control Mavic did not give someone a new haircut and will lead to changing those rules.

It would help if you put up your flight log.

Sorry for your loss mate, however the evidence was great, I enjoyed the fact that you took the time add the wtf in there. Hope the flight log will show what happened.

camxwestdji Posted at 2018-6-8 14:44
Yeah for now the laws in Sweden are quite forgiving and rely on people doing the right thing. We are allowed to fly over the city as long as we stay below 50m and avoid a 1km radius from the various helipads and 5km radius from the central airport. Outside of the city similar rules apply but we are good to go up to 120m. Hopefully my out of control Mavic did not give someone a new haircut and will lead to changing those rules.

Seems very reasonable - let's hope it doesn't change

camxwestdji Posted at 2018-6-8 14:28
Yeah I think its 50/50 if it hit the building or not. It's obscured by the overlay but there is a shadow of the drone on my raw stream that suggests it may have shot past. You bet I searched! Directly below that area is a large glass roof viewable from a public area, so there is a decent chance that if it crashed I could have spotted parts. I walked the area several times immediately after.

I have had the same issue with the Air, losing signal, then suddenly taking off in a different direction by itself, stating it was returning to home when it was, in fact, heading directly away from me. .  In my case I was lucky enough to regain signal contact and managed to bring it back.
I think your Air had a compass error and went into a confused RTH that was nowhere near your actual location. And if that's the case, (assuming it didn't hit the building), I think it would have flown in a straight line after you lost contact until the battery ran out.  It's a shame you don't know the speed it was flying at when it was drifting away as you could do the maths and work out an approximate area where it would have hit the 10% critical battery and gone into a forced auto land. That could easily be over 8 Kms away given you had 85% battery.
One time a small gps-based tracker would have been great to have....
Very sorry for your loss.  Hopefully DJI will be able to establish what went wrong at pojint of disconnect and replace your AIr.
All the best
Ian

Wellsi Posted at 2018-6-9 00:06
I have had the same issue with the Air, losing signal, then suddenly taking off in a different direction by itself, stating it was returning to home when it was, in fact, heading directly away from me. .  In my case I was lucky enough to regain signal contact and managed to bring it back.
I think your Air had a compass error and went into a confused RTH that was nowhere near your actual location. And if that's the case, (assuming it didn't hit the building), I think it would have flown in a straight line after you lost contact until the battery ran out.  It's a shame you don't know the speed it was flying at when it was drifting away as you could do the maths and work out an approximate area where it would have hit the 10% critical battery and gone into a forced auto land. That could easily be over 8 Kms away given you had 85% battery.
One time a small gps-based tracker would have been great to have....

I thought that mate but it isn't flying away - it's flying back the same route in an attempt to regain signal - if no signal is regained after 60 seconds it will fly back after hovering for 10 seconds - it's part of flight autonomy 2.0. Did you notice a yellow line on the map? The drone 3D maps the route and retraces the route so if you regain signal you can resume flight from where you lost it and not have to fly back to get the shot again.

  

Wellsi Posted at 2018-6-9 00:06
I have had the same issue with the Air, losing signal, then suddenly taking off in a different direction by itself, stating it was returning to home when it was, in fact, heading directly away from me. .  In my case I was lucky enough to regain signal contact and managed to bring it back.
I think your Air had a compass error and went into a confused RTH that was nowhere near your actual location. And if that's the case, (assuming it didn't hit the building), I think it would have flown in a straight line after you lost contact until the battery ran out.  It's a shame you don't know the speed it was flying at when it was drifting away as you could do the maths and work out an approximate area where it would have hit the 10% critical battery and gone into a forced auto land. That could easily be over 8 Kms away given you had 85% battery.
One time a small gps-based tracker would have been great to have....

Here it is:

There are more cases like the one in the original post on this thread: https://forum.dji.com/thread-147533-1-1.html

> Was it likely to be the GPS or compass messing up? Was it interference resulting in the drone receiving corrupted control inputs?
I don't think it is related to interference or sensor readings at all. I have a suspicion that the reason is spaghetti code in the firmware, something similar to this infamous story with a top-ranking Japanese car manufacturer.

A CW Posted at 2018-6-9 00:16
Here it is:

[view_image]

This is the theory.... but unfortunately when this has happened to me, it's shot off in a straight line in a direction and area I've not flown.
I believe it gets confused and is either trying to return to a previous home point many miles away, or just has a completely confused compass.... Either way, it's unsettling and made me lose faith in the Air as a truly reliable drone, as much as I loved it...
Ian

You can see quite a bit of flashing on your gps clock on your device, just when your aircraft went off on its own , we are all aware that flying around and close to buildings can effect gps, but you would need to post logs to check this, I would be surprised if this was a compass problem flying so high, unless you flew over a metal roof, which I don’t see in your video.

Wellsi Posted at 2018-6-9 01:43
This is the theory.... but unfortunately when this has happened to me, it's shot off in a straight line in a direction and area I've not flown.
I believe it gets confused and is either trying to return to a previous home point many miles away, or just has a completely confused compass.... Either way, it's unsettling and made me lose faith in the Air as a truly reliable drone, as much as I loved it...
Ian

I've just returned from flying the Air and reached 6,499' / 1,981m before losing signal - it flew back perfectly. I think the compass is quite sensitive though.

A CW Posted at 2018-6-9 04:54
I've just returned from flying the Air and reached 6,499' / 1,981m before losing signal - it flew back perfectly. I think the compass is quite sensitive though.

That's exactly the issue.... Last week I was trying to reach a hill top monument and flew in a dead straight line for 2,050 metres with the Air. No drop out or signal loss.  But 3 weeks previous, I couldn't get further than 300 metres away without losing signal entirely...  

Ian

A CW Posted at 2018-6-9 00:16
Here it is:

[view_image]

Thanks for pointing this out.  I flew my MA behind an obstruction and it lost signal.  It didn't fly straight back but danced around a bit and then came straight back.

Hummingbird.UAV Posted at 2018-6-9 07:53
Thanks for pointing this out.  I flew my MA behind an obstruction and it lost signal.  It didn't fly straight back but danced around a bit and then came straight back.

I did a range test today to see exactly what it does and looking at the footage and flight record it just stopped, turned to the flight route and flew back along the same path (signal regained) then stopped again (no input from me), turned to the home point and flew back at 18MPH in a straight line at the same altitude (375' AGL).
I cancelled before it landed and resumed manual flight. Steady as a rock returning from 1.981KM/1.231 miles in a CE area (19m short of the max 2KM range). RTH worked perfectly. That's the last time I'll fly it that far but glad I tested it and am very impressed by the performance of the MA.  

Wellsi Posted at 2018-6-9 06:08
That's exactly the issue.... Last week I was trying to reach a hill top monument and flew in a dead straight line for 2,050 metres with the Air. No drop out or signal loss.  But 3 weeks previous, I couldn't get further than 300 metres away without losing signal entirely...  

Ian

I find that if you choose the custom WIFI setting and select channel 13 the transmission is greatly improved mate.

A CW Posted at 2018-6-9 08:48
I find that if you choose the custom WIFI setting and select channel 13 the transmission is greatly improved mate.

Good to know!  Does that reset each time you turn it on?  

Wellsi Posted at 2018-6-9 08:54
Good to know!  Does that reset each time you turn it on?

Each time you turn on the RC only - so I leave mine on between flights at the same location and it stays on ch. 13. Turning off the drone doesn't reset it. The RC still has around 70% of juice left after 4 flights without turning it off too and is a lot cooler than the MP RC as WIFI is not as powerful and draining as OcuSync.
On a seperate note mate - not sure if you use IOS devices with the MA but do not use point of interest if you do - it will totally disable the function and C button on the RC and the only way to get those funtions back is to completely delete and reinstall the app. Big glitch in GO4 - DJI know about it.

Please consider adding your polite and readable  views on this post.
https://forum.dji.com/thread-151889-1-1.html

A CW Posted at 2018-6-9 08:57
Each time you turn on the RC only - so I leave mine on between flights at the same location and it stays on ch. 13. Turning off the drone doesn't reset it. The RC still has around 70% of juice left after 4 flights without turning it off too and is a lot cooler than the MP RC as WIFI is not as powerful and draining as OcuSync.
On a seperate note mate - not sure if you use IOS devices with the MA but do not use point of interest if you do - it will totally disable the function and C button on the RC and the only way to get those funtions back is to completely delete and reinstall the app. Big glitch in GO4 - DJI know about it.

Hopefully they fixed the button glitch in the Go4 version that came out this week.  4.20 I believe.

Hummingbird.UAV Posted at 2018-6-9 10:07
Hopefully they fixed the button glitch in the Go4 version that came out this week.  4.20 I believe.

Unfortunately not - I updated GO4 on my iPhone 7+ to v.20 and tested that yesterday evening. Even just selecting POI from the intelligent flight mode icons still disables the function and C button on the RC. The only way to make the buttons responsive again is to completely reinstall the app and go through the whole process of syncing flight records and logging into your account etc etc. Real pain. As things presently stand IOS users can not use POI in the Mavic Air. I didn't touch POI today and the drone performed perfectly so a minor glitch unless you use POI regularly then it's a big one... Either way, it needs to be fixed!

A CW Posted at 2018-6-9 10:44
Unfortunately not - I updated GO4 on my iPhone 7+ to v.20 and tested that yesterday evening. Even just selecting POI from the intelligent flight mode icons still disables the function and C button on the RC. The only way to make the buttons responsive again is to completely reinstall the app and go through the whole process of syncing flight records and logging into your account etc etc. Real pain. As things presently stand IOS users can not use POI in the Mavic Air. I didn't touch POI today and the drone performed perfectly so a minor glitch unless you use POI regularly then it's a big one... Either way, it needs to be fixed!

A CW I did a short test and after activating intelligent flight mode - circle, which I think you call POI, the Fn and C buttons still work as programmed.

Hummingbird.UAV Posted at 2018-6-9 11:10
A CW I did a short test and after activating intelligent flight mode - circle, which I think you call POI, the Fn and C buttons still work as programmed.

Not quick shot circle, I'm referring to point of interest - it is a different flight mode located at the bottom right of the 8 flight mode options - it is not a quick shot.  

Hummingbird.UAV Posted at 2018-6-9 11:10
A CW I did a short test and after activating intelligent flight mode - circle, which I think you call POI, the Fn and C buttons still work as programmed.

This one - it's presently corrupted in GO4

A CW Posted at 2018-6-9 11:24
This one - it's presently corrupted in GO4

[view_image]

Thanks, I know this POI from my other drones.  I've never opened the POI as the circle is much quicker to use, but I see there is more settings in POI, like speed.

Hummingbird.UAV Posted at 2018-6-9 11:55
Thanks, I know this POI from my other drones.  I've never opened the POI as the circle is much quicker to use, but I see there is more settings in POI, like speed.

Yeah, circle is a basic version of POI. Turn on your MA and tap the POI icon from the intelligent flight mode list then use the Fn or C button on an iPhone - if it works you're in luck!

A CW Posted at 2018-6-9 11:57
Yeah, circle is a basic version of POI. Turn on your MA and tap the POI icon from the intelligent flight mode list then use the Fn or C button on an iPhone - if it works you're in luck!

Ok I gave that a test and after entering POI the Fn & C buttons no longer functioned.  However I killed the app and opened it again and the buttons worked again.  No reinstall required.  The button issue may be a hold over to how POI was used on other drones.  On my P4 one of the function buttons was used to lock in the center point of the POI.

Hummingbird.UAV Posted at 2018-6-9 11:55
Thanks, I know this POI from my other drones.  I've never opened the POI as the circle is much quicker to use, but I see there is more settings in POI, like speed.

You can quite easily use active track trace mode very similar to POI, in active track trace mode just set aircraft looking at your POI and use roll stick to circle, that is until we see a fix .

Hummingbird.UAV Posted at 2018-6-9 12:15
Ok I gave that a test and after entering POI the Fn & C buttons no longer functioned.  However I killed the app and opened it again and the buttons worked again.  No reinstall required.  The button issue may be a hold over to how POI was used on other drones.  On my P4 one of the function buttons was used to lock in the center point of the POI.

That's 50% good for you then - I have to completely reinstall the app! 0% LOL

hallmark007 Posted at 2018-6-9 12:19
You can quite easily use active track trace mode very similar to POI, in active track trace mode just set aircraft looking at your POI and use roll stick to circle, that is until we see a fix .

I'm a bit old school, I usual fly my POIs by hand looking at the screen.  The old P3P didn't have any of this fancy software.

Hummingbird.UAV Posted at 2018-6-9 12:37
I'm a bit old school, I usual fly my POIs by hand looking at the screen.  The old P3P didn't have any of this fancy software.

Nothing wrong with a good old yaw an roll (;+)