Mavic Mini #1 story: I got a Mavic Mini at the beginning of the month. Every flight had shaky footage, but I blamed it on the wind. However I was only flying it in 10 mph winds tops. I kind of just hoped it would get better with a firmware update. So I did the newest firmware update on December 6th. Then the next day I flew it again. I went about 70 ft up. The footage was no longer shaky, but a minute in, I lost GPS. The aircraft slowly drifted backwards into a tree. It fell to the ground and an arm snapped. I was able to send it back in and return it for a new one. Cut to today:

Mavic Mini #2 story: I got my new drone and had a great first few flights with it. I was much happier with this one. Then I had a firmare update yesterday. Today, I was clear for takeoff, so I took my drone straight up 100 ft. Without being in the air for more than 30 seconds, the drone drifted very quickly to the left without my fingers even touching the control sticks of the remote controller. The aircraft immediately lost connection with the RC and the camera view cut out. I had no idea if the aircraft was still in the air or on the ground somewhere. After 20 minutes of frantically searching and trespassing into neighbors’ yards, I found the drone by following the “Find My Drone” location icon. The flashing and beeping function couldn’t be used because of the lost connection. There is now a crack near the battery pack latch which doesn’t allow it to close properly. When I plug it in to be charged, LED 3 and 4 blink two times per second. The battery does not charge at all.

How can I fix this? Do I need a new drone, and is there any way I can get one without having to go through the warranty? This flyaway caused the crash and it was 100% not a pilot error. Not very happy with this product at all.

I just had basically the exact same problem but mine just dropped straight out of the sky and now the gimbal is acting funny. The first couple flights I took it on it seemed like it was trying to fly away as well. Hopefully DJI can do the right thing about all this as I'm very disappointed in my first experience with DJI drones and they're supposed to be the best as far as consumer drones go.

nichxestes Posted at 12-22 17:00
I just had basically the exact same problem but mine just dropped straight out of the sky and now the gimbal is acting funny. The first couple flights I took it on it seemed like it was trying to fly away as well. Hopefully DJI can do the right thing about all this as I'm very disappointed in my first experience with DJI drones and they're supposed to be the best as far as consumer drones go.

I'm sorry it happened to you too! I'm happy that I'm not alone though. I feel like I just keep getting sent the faulty ones!

MARISSA P Posted at 12-22 17:10
I'm sorry it happened to you too! I'm happy that I'm not alone though. I feel like I just keep getting sent the faulty ones!

Please upload your flight log and share the link.

That way we will be able to find out what the problem might be.

sorry to hear about your crashed drones.  i think the light and the audio should activate automatically during a crash but since it doesn't, i can't depend on that function.  therefore i've installed an audible beacon locator and a flashing strobe on my drone that was very helpful in my last crash and surely would have helped in my first crash because just like you, i couldn't connect.

I've had multiple disconnects. I'm, sadly, scared to fly this drone.

grahamjohnson10 Posted at 12-22 17:28
Please upload your flight log and share the link.

That way we will be able to find out what the problem might be.

How am I able to upload my flight log?

MARISSA P Posted at 12-22 18:19
How am I able to upload my flight log?

I wish it was simple but if you follow the instructions from this link by the letter it will work.

https://app.airdata.com/sync-app

grahamjohnson10 Posted at 12-22 18:34
I wish it was simple but if you follow the instructions from this link by the letter it will work.

https://app.airdata.com/sync-app

Here's the flight log info from today's flyaway: https://app.airdata.com/share/sBumGq

MARISSA P Posted at 12-22 18:59
Here's the flight log info from today's flyaway: https://app.airdata.com/share/sBumGq

Thanks just going to have a look.

MARISSA P Posted at 12-22 18:59
Here's the flight log info from today's flyaway: https://app.airdata.com/share/sBumGq

There are things wrong here.

1) The max speed was 42.05 mph the max even is S mode is about 30 mph.

2) There is a battery problem the voltage seems to drop very quickly https://app.airdata.com/share/sBumGq/POWERCells_Graph

3) It's a problem with the battery or the battery connections.  
This is only a hunch but make sure the battery is firmly seated !!!!!

question.. was this battery you were flying in the drone during the firmware update or did you swap the battery out between update and the flight?  dji is known to sneak in battery updates in some firmware updates without saying anything about it.  

2 side by side LEDS usually indicates that battery is in a data mode, that drone has initiated an I2C communication with the battery to update it or change something about it.  my thinking is that maybe swapped battery out after the update to charge it and put in a different battery and for whatever reason it didn't prevent a take off before finished updating the battery. usually after battery update it automatically reboots and this could be why it disconnected  and your couldn't correct its drift and was found crashed out not terribly far away since it was found in neighborhood.  being as 100 feet up as well not sure what your neighborhood looks like but i assume probably high enough to not hit anything in its flight path.
edit looking at the logs:  you said trespassed looking on properties but logs show it crashing out not that fa away possibly into those trees at the end?  was it located where the logs show or did it go further away and somewhere else and never reconnected before being found crashed?   littl confused  this this entire case, looking at the map on logs it could naurally disconnected cuz of trees and being on other side of the house, wifi is pretty cruddy with penentrating stuff, but what really gets me is the battery LEDs flashing..  


the more and more i read of mavic mini the less and less i think its good idea that this drone even exists...i mean is dji intentionally doing this o the drone community looks bad?  thesr things are almost dangerious given how many problems they have and how out of control they seem to get, spark was almost demonized in the news and media cuz of its problems like batteries falling out and flyaways mixed with its accessibility how easy and cheap it was... now got round two with the mavic mini

grahamjohnson10 Posted at 12-22 19:22
There are things wrong here.

1) The max speed was 42.05 mph the max even is S mode is about 30 mph.

I have no clue why that happened! It was firmly in place at takeoff. When I found it, the battery hatch was open but still intact. But now the battery won't even be charged.

HereForTheBeer Posted at 12-22 19:49
question.. was this battery you were flying in the drone during the firmware update or did you swap the battery out between update and the flight?  dji is known to sneak in battery updates in some firmware updates without saying anything about it.  

2 side by side LEDS usually indicates that battery is in a data mode, that drone has initiated an I2C communication with the battery to update it or change something about it.  my thinking is that maybe swapped battery out after the update to charge it and put in a different battery and for whatever reason it didn't prevent a take off before finished updating the battery. usually after battery update it automatically reboots and this could be why it disconnected  and your couldn't correct its drift and was found crashed out not terribly far away since it was found in neighborhood.  being as 100 feet up as well not sure what your neighborhood looks like but i assume probably high enough to not hit anything in its flight path.

I only have one battery for this drone, so it's the same one used during the update! And yes there were definitely not any obstacles in my flight path at that height. It was above all trees. I wish there was a way to check this battery, but it just seems broken.

MARISSA P Posted at 12-22 19:56
I only have one battery for this drone, so it's the same one used during the update! And yes there were definitely not any obstacles in my flight path at that height. It was above all trees. I wish there was a way to check this battery, but it just seems broken.

does the battery turn on in the drone?  you can maybe try to refresh the firmware...
if you can boot it on the bttery and have atleast 50% remaining:   https://www.dji.com/mavic-mini/downloads  download the DJI Assistant 2 for mavic for your computer, plug the drone in after installing and boot the drone up and try to refresh the firmware, maybe this bring back the battery.  

MARISSA P Posted at 12-22 19:53
I have no clue why that happened! It was firmly in place at takeoff. When I found it, the battery hatch was open but still intact. But now the battery won't even be charged.

Unfortunately, AirData is not much good for analysing a flight, the better version is this one: https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/

But if you want to find out what happened, then the first step is to discard the idea that it was a 'flyaway', because in reality, they do not happen. In 99% of cases there is always a logical reason why the aircraft flew away and in 99% of cases it was due to the actions of the pilot. Without even seeing the flight report, it would appear from what you said that the aircraft was blown away by high winds.

Geebax Posted at 12-22 20:05
Unfortunately, AirData is not much good for analysing a flight, the better version is this one: https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/

But if you want to find out what happened, then the first step is to discard the idea that it was a 'flyaway', because in reality, they do not happen. In 99% of cases there is always a logical reason why the aircraft flew away and in 99% of cases it was due to the actions of the pilot. Without even seeing the flight report, it would appear from what you said that the aircraft was blown away by high winds.

def think more then 1% opportunity for non pilot error crash/flyaway.   i been around enough to see when things go wrong, batteries disconnect, GPS suddenly drops lock, software crashes on the drone, overheating, hel even solor weather can impact it, such as a solar storm knocking out satalights and and stuff known as Kp index.  etc etc.  lot of opportunities.  infact i think DJI should update their splash screen to include both ground weather and Kp index before clicking the button to go fly.

looking at her data in airmaps which references historical weather data based on gps info ad time of flight.   the wind was only 7-10 mph. one would hope even mavic mini could happily handle a 10mph wind, if not then mavic mini is a genuinely useless and dangerous drone for mass majority which see 10mph winds and pretty normal occurance.

Geebax Posted at 12-22 20:05
Unfortunately, AirData is not much good for analysing a flight, the better version is this one: https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/

But if you want to find out what happened, then the first step is to discard the idea that it was a 'flyaway', because in reality, they do not happen. In 99% of cases there is always a logical reason why the aircraft flew away and in 99% of cases it was due to the actions of the pilot. Without even seeing the flight report, it would appear from what you said that the aircraft was blown away by high winds.

Once the drone reached the altitude I wants, I wasn't even touching the control sticks once I saw it going the wrong direction!

HereForTheBeer Posted at 12-22 19:49
question.. was this battery you were flying in the drone during the firmware update or did you swap the battery out between update and the flight?  dji is known to sneak in battery updates in some firmware updates without saying anything about it.  

2 side by side LEDS usually indicates that battery is in a data mode, that drone has initiated an I2C communication with the battery to update it or change something about it.  my thinking is that maybe swapped battery out after the update to charge it and put in a different battery and for whatever reason it didn't prevent a take off before finished updating the battery. usually after battery update it automatically reboots and this could be why it disconnected  and your couldn't correct its drift and was found crashed out not terribly far away since it was found in neighborhood.  being as 100 feet up as well not sure what your neighborhood looks like but i assume probably high enough to not hit anything in its flight path.

Replying to your edit: It did land where the maps show it! It looks very closeby but the houses are close together and it flew into someone else's yard. Its like my drone doesn't register that there's a battery in it. It snaps in and everything!

MARISSA P Posted at 12-22 20:29
Once the drone reached the altitude I wants, I wasn't even touching the control sticks once I saw it going the wrong direction!

Which is a classic symptom of high winds. Remember, the wind strength down where you were at ground level frequently has no bearing on the wind strength 100 feet up.

Another item gleaned from your description: "Today, I was clear for takeoff, so I took my drone straight up 100 ft." Having the aircraft directly above your head is almost the worst place for radio reception, so it is quite normal to lose radio connection directly above you.

Geebax Posted at 12-22 21:26
Which is a classic symptom of high winds. Remember, the wind strength down where you were at ground level frequently has no bearing on the wind strength 100 feet up.

Another item gleaned from your description: "Today, I was clear for takeoff, so I took my drone straight up 100 ft." Having the aircraft directly above your head is almost the worst place for radio reception, so it is quite normal to lose radio connection directly above you.

uhm?  i had a mavic air that has issues where it kept moving after disconnection or poor connection on some occasions where just kept bugging out and what saved it was its built in avoidance sensors seeing something and braking.. wind as i recalled on most of those days was very calm.  i blame poor Wifi handling like got stuck replying last command while disconnecting and when it reconnected it usually instantly stopped itself.   add to this that my mavic 2 pro controller on occasion also has wicked stick drift.. 10-14% phantom input.. which as caused a few crashes before i realized what's going on.  dji' quality control needs some work sometimes.

as a side note, 100 feet up directly straight above you wasn't going to cause a disconnections unless you got some other problems going on.

Here's another strange behavior I do not give control commands for takeoff, the drone soared 50% above the existing height! (0m 21s to 0m 26,6 s) Then I give him a command to reduce it actually does not decrease (0m 25s to 0m 47,5 s)...

Agree that to fly up to 4 meters on their own is not normal.

https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/15O2YZWOWHHSXOGEIE56/

HereForTheBeer Posted at 12-22 22:15
uhm?  i had a mavic air that has issues where it kept moving after disconnection or poor connection on some occasions where just kept bugging out and what saved it was its built in avoidance sensors seeing something and braking.. wind as i recalled on most of those days was very calm.  i blame poor Wifi handling like got stuck replying last command while disconnecting and when it reconnected it usually instantly stopped itself.   add to this that my mavic 2 pro controller on occasion also has wicked stick drift.. 10-14% phantom input.. which as caused a few crashes before i realized what's going on.  dji' quality control needs some work sometimes.

as a side note, 100 feet up directly straight above you wasn't going to cause a disconnections unless you got some other problems going on.

"as a side note, 100 feet up directly straight above you wasn't going to cause a disconnections unless you got some other problems going on."

Wrong again. Read the DJI manuals, you will find they refer directly to poor signal reception when the aircraft is directly overhead.

MARISSA P Posted at 12-22 18:59
Here's the flight log info from today's flyaway: https://app.airdata.com/share/sBumGq

Sorry for your crash.
A lot of trees around and only 10 GPS sats when take off, it went down to 9 after 26 seconds, indicates bad signal in red probably went in to ATTI mode and moved due to the wind. It went in the same direction than the wind was blowing.

Geebax Posted at 12-22 23:32
"as a side note, 100 feet up directly straight above you wasn't going to cause a disconnections unless you got some other problems going on."

Wrong again. Read the DJI manuals, you will find they refer directly to poor signal reception when the aircraft is directly overhead.

Yup there's a DJI guide video on this site somewhere that points this out.  The antennas on the drone itself aim sidesway so directly above is a weak spot for signal.

MARISSA P Posted at 12-22 20:33
Replying to your edit: It did land where the maps show it! It looks very closeby but the houses are close together and it flew into someone else's yard. Its like my drone doesn't register that there's a battery in it. It snaps in and everything!

Hi Marissa I have asked a user called JJB to have a look at your logs, he is very good at decoding the log files.

Hello and good day MARISSA P. I am sorry to read and to read and to know what happened to your DJI Mavic Mini. Since this unfortunate incident happened and there was a crash that happened. I would highly recommend to contact our DJI support team at https://www.dji.com/support?site=brandsite&from=nav for us to be able to assist you further with regards to this issue.  We have the team who would do their best to find out the reason of the said incident and then the corresponding resolution would be provided. Again I am sorry for the trouble and thank for your support.

Geebax Posted at 12-22 23:32
"as a side note, 100 feet up directly straight above you wasn't going to cause a disconnections unless you got some other problems going on."

Wrong again. Read the DJI manuals, you will find they refer directly to poor signal reception when the aircraft is directly overhead.

i flown straight up on most of my drones, spak, mavic air, mavic pro, mavic 2 pro and 100 feet never been a problem even if i have my antennas folded closed...usually when i start having connection issues on wifi and flying straight up with antennas pointed at 45 degrees as recommended by DJi is around the 800 foot mark on wifi with interference and touching the 500 meter  (about 1650 feet) software ceiling with occusync.   

and yes come fight me for flying well above 400 foot AGL... nothing around me when i do it, open land and nothing in airspace that will hit my drone..maybe  dumb bird, but no aircraft.  i do this out in areas where risk is minimal... i dont venture out into cities doing it or areas where air traffic even at 2000 feet up..

Geebax Posted at 12-22 20:05
Unfortunately, AirData is not much good for analysing a flight, the better version is this one: https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/

But if you want to find out what happened, then the first step is to discard the idea that it was a 'flyaway', because in reality, they do not happen. In 99% of cases there is always a logical reason why the aircraft flew away and in 99% of cases it was due to the actions of the pilot. Without even seeing the flight report, it would appear from what you said that the aircraft was blown away by high winds.

Quite honestly I would recommend following this advice to see what actually happened. I follow those sites such as the phantom, mavic, and spark sites and now the mini site. They have excellent resources and many are extremely knowledgeable is analyzing the flight logs and will be able to tell you EXACTLY what happened. I have seen tit too many time to count where they were exact in telling the person where they could locate their drone that flew away.

https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/

based on the airdata info i cant say for sure what happened but the way it looks to me is that;

  Launch was too fast, which coupled with low satellite connection count means home point was apparently not recorded before launch.
    *. Pilot must always wait for Home point to be updated before launching - the top left bar in the app will go from red (cant take off) to orange (atti mode) to green (home point is updated - safe to take off)

launching whilst in atti mode means that the drone does not benefit from gp stabilisation (as it has not made sufficient of those connections yet).
When in atti mode the drone has no fixated ground point referance so it drifts around in the air - in high wind with out any rc commands being inputted it will simply drift away on the wind at about the same speed offering no resistance.

Regarding tree height: (bear with me) the ground level raises by about 12m from your launch site to the crash site.  
With yr max altitude set at 30 m (100ft) means the trees in the crash site need only be about 18m (about 60ft) height to catch the drone.

I am sorry to say, and i would be very happy to be wrong, but it appears to me this is what happened.

Dean01 Posted at 12-23 15:00
based on the airdata info i cant say for sure what happened but the way it looks to me is that;

  Launch was too fast, which coupled with low satellite connection count means home point was apparently not recorded before launch.

I used the phantom link to view the txt file but don't want to share the link as I feel the OP should do that if she wants.

It never left P-GPS mode. Home point was recorded about 8 seconds after start. From 7-27 secs it was max ascend, left stick maxed forward ascending up to about 120'. Both sticks in home position after that and mini kept increasing horizontal speed. at 27 secs it was 1.3 mph and at 37.9 secs it was 36mph having reached over 41 mph a short time earlier. Again, this is with both sticks in neutral position.

One thing of interest backing several theories here is at low elevation the mini was completely parallel to the horizon and at 120' it was tilted extremely low on the left and high on the right which tells me it was fighting the wind. Again, both sticks in neutral position.

It never went into ATTI mode and never gave high wind warning but then again it was a very short flight.

If original poster wants me to post the link or if she agrees to have it posted over in the Mavicpilots forum I would gladly do that but certainly not without her permission.

fansa029aa8c Posted at 12-23 15:47
I used the phantom link to view the txt file but don't want to share the link as I feel the OP should do that if she wants.

It never left P-GPS mode. Home point was recorded about 8 seconds after start. From 7-27 secs it was max ascend, left stick maxed forward ascending up to about 120'. Both sticks in home position after that and mini kept increasing horizontal speed. at 27 secs it was 1.3 mph and at 37.9 secs it was 36mph having reached over 41 mph a short time earlier. Again, this is with both sticks in neutral position.

I totally agree with your analysis of the flight log.

I have been looking at the flight log with both RFAP and also CsvVeiw programs and the only conclusion I can come to is an IMU error.

I initially thought it was a battery problem but now I'm sure I was wrong.

My take on this is......

Not a battery or power problem
Not user error
Not a blow away
There was a GPS fix but not a very healthy one, good is 5 but it was 4

This is what got my attention



This tells me that there was an IMU problem.

Which would explain the high speed along with the MM not showing much tilt.
   

DJI Tutorials - Remote Controller Antenna Best Practices

pnwflier Posted at 12-23 18:24
DJI Tutorials - Remote Controller Antenna Best Practices

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7M9JtfVwQE

I wish I knew these videos were available..

fansa029aa8c Posted at 12-23 15:47
I used the phantom link to view the txt file but don't want to share the link as I feel the OP should do that if she wants.

It never left P-GPS mode. Home point was recorded about 8 seconds after start. From 7-27 secs it was max ascend, left stick maxed forward ascending up to about 120'. Both sticks in home position after that and mini kept increasing horizontal speed. at 27 secs it was 1.3 mph and at 37.9 secs it was 36mph having reached over 41 mph a short time earlier. Again, this is with both sticks in neutral position.

That's fine

grahamjohnson10 Posted at 12-23 17:51
I totally agree with your analysis of the flight log.

I have been looking at the flight log with both RFAP and also CsvVeiw programs and the only conclusion I can come to is an IMU error.

I'd love to know what actually happened, but I was in contact with DJI Support, and my drone is already shipped and being repaired. Still a mystery to me. A lot could have happened.

MARISSA P Posted at 12-23 18:49
I'd love to know what actually happened, but I was in contact with DJI Support, and my drone is already shipped and being repaired. Still a mystery to me. A lot could have happened.

Okay, let me know if you want me to post the flight log in the other forum and if so I would be more than happy to.

Sure, you can.

I posted the logfile with your permission in the Mavicpilots forum in the Mini section. Some people will just guess as to what happened but if you give it time there will be responses that will detail exactly what happened. I will follow the responses as well.

Here is the Mavicpilots link: https://mavicpilots.com/threads/ ... log-provided.78543/

Merry Christmas all...

ok, so while we are paused for a bit, i never could understand why pilots take off screaming either completely vertical or up and then speed away immediately.  not this particular incident but in general; is there something to that?  they start the engines on the ground and then blast off!   i ALWAYS use the takeoff button, let it hover automatically for a bit, listen for instructions, and then test the drone to make sure it "flies."  it takes about a minute but then i start flying like a bat if i feel like it.  what's the thrill from taking off from the ground like a rocket?  these drones aren't really that fast anyway.  i don't get it.  i would be happy if dji forced this (with an override of course) if it contributes to some of the many issues we read about daily.  why not stop you from flying if you don't have satellites, in the wrong mode, errors, etc unless you acknowledge?  is it because the mm would be throwing some sort of error on almost every takeoff?