Hi guys! I'm new to the drone world and was excited to get my mavic mini! I have been practiving it in open spaces to get a feel for how it maneuvers and what its capable of.
Today I was flying it around and it started doing some wierd things! It gave me a warning "Max Power Load Reached" and then flew itself right into a waterfall.. I tried to get it to go up and out of the way, but it did not respond. Unfortunately there was no way to recover it, it disappeared into the whitewater quickly.


After reading a bit, it sounds like this is somewhat of a common issue!


Anyone get a replacement?

Here's my flight before it went buh bye

https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/GREADKMVB280C97MXZVE

this entire debacle sounds like a dream!

In some cases, as I wrote in the post https://forum.dji.com/forum.php? ... D712%26typeid%3D712 Dji has replaced the circuit of the ESC, but the drone was not lost, in my case I have not received a response.
Since there are too many cases, I think it is time to proceed to a formal protest in DJI and if in the case to proceed to a class action to obtain compensation and replacements.
Patience is over.

I don't know how big that waterfall was, but, be careful flying near big waterfalls. There can be a big downdraft.

We are so sorry for your loss, please contact our support team DJI.com/support in working hours to start a ticket for the data analysis, we will help figure out what happened and provide the proper resolution.

Hi Peter,

Sorry for your loss!

Great area to fly, but not very good area for good gps reception.

You started your flight with jus7 7 satellites and 3 bar for reception. 4 is needed for HP set.
HP was set after 23 seconds in flight.

At 28 secs a warnings
"GPS signal weak. Positioning accuracy affected. Fly with caution", "Sensor Error"
GPS reception to 3, a GpsPositionNonMatch in the log.

At 43 secs GPS reception from 3 > 2 > 0, MM into OPTI mode ; so enough light and within OPTI height range.
MM keeps it postion now using the vision sensors. This for 3 secs , back to P-GPS as reception back to 3.
Again same messages about GPS ; GPS signal weak. Positioning accuracy affected. Fly with caution and Sensor Error.

But at 2m9s few times NotEnoughPower and warning "Aircraft max power load reached. Decrease altitude and fly with caution. If this issue persists, Land immediately"
Batt level 23% ; cell1 and cell2 at 3.3 Volts wich is a normal value. (AFAIK)

2m15 again in OPTI, back in P-GPS with same warnings about GPS.

From 2m18s MM dropping height [ uncontrolled ! ], Vertical speed of minus -2.6 m/s reduced to 0.2 m/s by pulling UP but too late to recover. (not saying too late taken action by you, MM slow in recovering descend).

What went 'wrong' ;
Always start to fly such nice tricky shot with a full battery. (but with 3.3 volts MM should react normal)
Be carefull in areas where GPS reception can go low.
With errors better stop flying than continue flying.

cheers
JJB

Flying with next to no satellite signal is bad... but it's more than bad when the signal is somehow blocked or bounced from very solid objects like rock walls.

While I see a single and sporadic ESC error in the final moments that was with the battery almost depleted and isolated. VPS sensor was used and your MM did its best to cope with a GPS (and you've been warned multiple times during the flight) that acknowledged to be unreliable and dangerous for flight, also it appeared to respond within its capabilities (which are as you have been warned affected by spurious GPS data), thus the outcome is the result of your flying choices.

I am sorry for your loss.

I think low satellites signal was your problem, probably caused by signal being blocked out by your surroundings.
Your telemetry shows numbers and a bar graph, in order to have good gps it’s important to understand numbers are not enough unless you see graph bar lit with usually best 3,4,5, , your telemetry can show 7/8 sats but only one bar lit.

So this is likely the reason for your crash, but you must present your case to dji and they may see something not seen here and have done on many occasions so warranty not lost yet.

Thanks for the responses everyone!
I did contact DJi and in the process of uploading data now.

Responding to some of the comments above.
1. Perfect GPS would likely be impossible. I was flying in a canyon with a heavy tree cover. I certainly flew with caution, and planned a short flight distance.
2. A "happy texter" in a group text message kept going off, and as I swiped to ignore, I accidentally opened the thread.. This was around the same time as the warnings. In panic I tried to get back to fly as quick as possible, but around the same time it started diving towards the falls! Obviously it all happened pretty quick. Did not get a chance to fully read the message during flight, although I did see them and decided to fly it back.. that's when the text fiasco happened. Next flight will be on "do not disturb"
3. It was a small waterfall, maybe a 2 foot drop. Waterfall was created by a road, thought it was cool and wanted a good picture..  the waterfall didn't seem to affect the flight much, I tried to stay away from the middle..  

Just an update: opened a ticket with DJi, sent data logs and they determined that it was worthy of a warranty replacement. My replacement drone arrives tomorrow! Thanks for all your help, guys!

peterr22 Posted at 4-5 12:35
Just an update: opened a ticket with DJi, sent data logs and they determined that it was worthy of a warranty replacement. My replacement drone arrives tomorrow! Thanks for all your help, guys!

Good endimg, Grats.