Hi!
I lost my Mavic Mini during a flight in a canyon, almost 150 meters below me, against a tree.
The problem is that if i check the last flight on my DJI Flight app, i can only see the moving icon of the Mavic Mini on the map, but not the GPS coordinates; i don't really understand why DJI didn't put this simple and fundamental info in the "My Flight" section of the app.

I have seen that if i check on "Found my drone" menù, i can see the last GPS coordinates of the drone, but it's not accurate, because for me, it sign like 8 km from the point where i lost my Mavic.

So now i don't know what to do, because the place where i lost my drone is really dangerous and my advices maybe can improve the next firmware of the Mavic.

Download the logs from your phone.  It should have the GPS location updated every second - unless it was such a deep canyon that GPS lock was lost..

K6CCC Posted at 9-18 13:54
Download the logs from your phone.  It should have the GPS location updated every second - unless it was such a deep canyon that GPS lock was lost..

I've already tried that and as you said, the GPS location in the last minute of flight was lost.
But when i saw my Mavic falling on the ground on my smartphone screen, the drone has been powered on for like 5 minutes and how can he not have gps hooked?

And like i said in my first post, why the drone last position is 8 km from the last flight?

Wonder if the canyon wall were blocking the gps signal .. when I lost mine and in the find mode map the closer you get to it the more you zoom in and at a point you would be close.  But every situation is different. No it dose not give the coordinates.

If you were flying down in a canyon, then it is very likely the GPS receiver was not working properly. Why not post your flight log so we can see what happened. Go to this site and folow the instructions, then come back and post a link to the result: http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/

Hi Azgana, I'm sorry for your loss, if the drone is still under warranty, please contact our support team www.dji.com/support to start a ticket for the data analysis, we will help to check what happened and provide the proper resolution.

DJI Natalia Posted at 9-18 19:51
Hi Azgana, I'm sorry for your loss, if the drone is still under warranty, please contact our support team www.dji.com/support to start a ticket for the data analysis, we will help to check what happened and provide the proper resolution.

Hi, yes the drone is still under warranty, i bought it on 11 november 2019.
What can i do?

Geebax Posted at 9-18 17:58
If you were flying down in a canyon, then it is very likely the GPS receiver was not working properly. Why not post your flight log so we can see what happened. Go to this site and folow the instructions, then come back and post a link to the result: http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/

Here's the flight log:
https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/3I3E0BB0ZTX4Z0WQKQKI/

Azgana Posted at 9-18 23:41
Here's the flight log:
https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/3I3E0BB0ZTX4Z0WQKQKI/

As you flew lower, you lost more of the sky blocked by the canyon walls.
And what sats were visible to the drone's GPS were bunched in a small area rather than spread out.
Losing sky = losing satellites.
Sats bunched = poor quality location data.
From 13:0.9 (alt = -20 metres) your flight controller did not trust the GPS data at all and rated GPS Health at 1/5, later it was 0/5.
You kept descending with no GPS to -174 metres at 13:59.8.

The GPS location shown in the app was calculated from only 4 sats and cannot be relied on for accuracy.
If you were to go down into the canyon with a GPS unit it would also be unreliable for the same reason.

The (probably inaccurate) last location in the data is 46.06071 10.93067.
The data ends 168 metres lower than the launch point.
Your crash impact is shown at 13:45.

Hi, yes the drone is still under warranty, i bought it on 11 november 2019.
What can i do?
Not much.
Warranty replacement is for manufacturing faults.
It doesn't cover drones lost because you use it improperly.

So now i don't know what to do, because the place where i lost my drone  is really dangerous and my advices maybe can improve the next firmware  of the Mavic.
There's only so much that DJI can do.
Because of the physical limitations of GPS, the only thing DJI could have done to  prevent you losing your drone would be to have used magic.

Azgana Posted at 9-18 23:41
Here's the flight log:
https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/3I3E0BB0ZTX4Z0WQKQKI/

Hi Azgana,

Had a look at your flight, sorry for your MM loss.

Flying into that canyon wasn`t a good idea, your MM lost the GPS connection.
See my chart.

Without a good GPS reception your drone position stability is gone, and at the end in ATTI mode it is hard to control. (even more difficult if drone is not visual).

Think you was not aware that the number of receiving GPS satellites and reception signal was getting bad, and the consequences that the flight mode would change to ATTI.

cheers
JJB

Yeah, i understand that i flew on a dangerous spot, but i crashed the drone only because when i was moving my Mavic on the canyon, suddenly the drone keeped to move in a direction even if i didn't moved the control sticks (probably for the low GPS signal) and crashed into a tree.

What i wanna say is that in the DJI Fly app, there isn't any GPS coordinates when you playback the route of your flights; this is an ESSENTIAL function, that must be improved in the next app updates, because is there was this function, I would have been able to recover my drone.

For the warranty thing, DJI Natalia told me that maybe i can contact the support team, that's why i asked.

"Hi Azgana, I'm sorry for your loss, if the drone is still under warranty, please contact our support team www.dji.com/support to start a ticket for the data analysis, we will help to check what happened and provide the proper resolution."

Thanks all for the replies.

Azgana Posted at 9-19 01:45
Yeah, i understand that i flew on a dangerous spot, but i crashed the drone only because when i was moving my Mavic on the canyon, suddenly the drone keeped to move in a direction even if i didn't moved the control sticks (probably for the low GPS signal) and crashed into a tree.

What i wanna say is that in the DJI Fly app, there isn't any GPS coordinates when you playback the route of your flights; this is an ESSENTIAL function, that must be improved in the next app updates, because is there was this function, I would have been able to recover my drone.

Hi Azgana,

Normally you can use Find My Drone in the FlyApp, but this will only show the last known position of your drone ; meaning it is only usefull if the drone had to the last record (crash/land postion) good GPS reception.

In your flight the MM moved on with some speed, without (good) GPS, so never possible to give an accurate postion where it has crashed.

cheers
JJB

Azgana Posted at 9-19 01:45
Yeah, i understand that i flew on a dangerous spot, but i crashed the drone only because when i was moving my Mavic on the canyon, suddenly the drone keeped to move in a direction even if i didn't moved the control sticks (probably for the low GPS signal) and crashed into a tree.

What i wanna say is that in the DJI Fly app, there isn't any GPS coordinates when you playback the route of your flights; this is an ESSENTIAL function, that must be improved in the next app updates, because is there was this function, I would have been able to recover my drone.

i crashed the drone only because when i was moving my Mavic on the canyon, suddenly the drone keeped to move in a direction even if i didn't moved the control sticks (probably for the low GPS signal) and crashed into a tree.
When your drone lost GPS, it also lost its position holding ability so it would have had no brakes.
What i wanna say is that in the DJI Fly app, there isn't any GPS coordinates when you playback the route of your flights; this is an ESSENTIAL function, that must be improved in the next app updates, because is there was this function, I would have been able to recover my drone.
The position data wouldn't have helped you recover the drone.

The GPS co-ordinates were there in your data.
I gave them to you but they still won't help recover the drone.

For the warranty thing, DJI Natalia told me that maybe i can contact the support team, that's why i asked.
She said that be cause she always says that.
Don't get false hope.
DJI's analysis will see the same data and tell you the same.
The loss was a result of user error.
There was no problem with the drone.

Labroides Posted at 9-19 02:01
i crashed the drone only because when i was moving my Mavic on the canyon, suddenly the drone keeped to move in a direction even if i didn't moved the control sticks (probably for the low GPS signal) and crashed into a tree.
When your drone lost GPS, it also lost its position holding ability so it would have had no brakes.
What i wanna say is that in the DJI Fly app, there isn't any GPS coordinates when you playback the route of your flights; this is an ESSENTIAL function, that must be improved in the next app updates, because is there was this function, I would have been able to recover my drone.

Yeah, you're right, my fault.

But the thing of the playback on DJI fly app it would help me a lot, because the drone fell where the icon of the Mavic on the map has stopped at 13.53 min.
So if the drone coordinates were displayed all the time of the flight, i could have found it, because i went down on the canyon by feet.

Azgana Posted at 9-19 04:13
Yeah, you're right, my fault.

But the thing of the playback on DJI fly app it would help me a lot, because the drone fell where the icon of the Mavic on the map has stopped at 13.53 min.

So if the drone coordinates were displayed all the time of the flight
There were no reliable co-ordinates because after 13:09 there was no reliable GPS.

Labroides Posted at 9-19 04:42
So if the drone coordinates were displayed all the time of the flight
There were no reliable co-ordinates because after 13:09 there was no reliable GPS.

Until almost 13.40 i had eye contact with the drone.

Azgana Posted at 9-19 04:55
Until almost 13.40 i had eye contact with the drone.

Being able to see the drone doesn't have anything to do with how many satellites it can see.
From 13:0.9 (alt = -20 metres) your flight controller did not trust the GPS data at all and rated GPS Health at 1/5, later it dropped to 0/5.

Yeah, i understand that.
My Mavic is lost, but the function that i suggest to DJI to display ALWAYS the GPS coordinates on the app during the playback of the flight, might be useful, don't you think?
Just showing a map without any coordinates is useless in my opinion.

Azgana Posted at 9-19 05:33
Yeah, i understand that.
My Mavic is lost, but the function that i suggest to DJI to display ALWAYS the GPS coordinates on the app during the playback of the flight, might be useful, don't you think?
Just showing a map without any coordinates is useless in my opinion.

My Mavic is lost, but the function that i suggest to DJI to display ALWAYS the GPS coordinates on the app during the playback of the flight, might be useful, don't you think?
The numbers are always available in your flight data.
I wouldn't want my screen space taken up by a bunch of numbers that mean nothing while I'm flying.
It wouldn't be at all useful for me and I doubt it be much use for most flyers.

Azgana Posted at 9-19 01:45
Yeah, i understand that i flew on a dangerous spot, but i crashed the drone only because when i was moving my Mavic on the canyon, suddenly the drone keeped to move in a direction even if i didn't moved the control sticks (probably for the low GPS signal) and crashed into a tree.

What i wanna say is that in the DJI Fly app, there isn't any GPS coordinates when you playback the route of your flights; this is an ESSENTIAL function, that must be improved in the next app updates, because is there was this function, I would have been able to recover my drone.

Hi,

I changed your height with plus 90 meter, so i can show your flightpath in GE.

See the map. After the impact you will see the GPS data is really unreliable.
See the ATTI red line in my chart.  According to that data your MM has fallen through the east canyon wall  ;-)
In the GE screenshot you see this red line as well.

see #3 chart, the blue line shows MM movement without Pitch and or Roll input ; so with good GPS lock it will hover in position.

I agree with Labroides not to see LAT LON data on the screen while i am flying. But your suggestion to see this data in the play back option of the fly app, yeah why not.But this DATA is available in the log, so always there to be seen ; but indeed not directly in the play back setting.

cheers
JJB

Labroides Posted at 9-19 07:11
My Mavic is lost, but the function that i suggest to DJI to display ALWAYS the GPS coordinates on the app during the playback of the flight, might be useful, don't you think?
The numbers are always available in your flight data.
I wouldn't want my screen space taken up by a bunch of numbers that mean nothing while I'm flying.

I think you didn't understand which function on the app i mean.
I refer to this "flights" function (see the attached picture).

JJB* Posted at 9-19 07:21
Hi,

I changed your height with plus 90 meter, so i can show your flightpath in GE.
[Image]

Thanks for the info!

Hi Azgana,

I know it's an old story, but here is the link to my experience of a very similar behavior of the MM in connection with the Fly app ...

"Fictitious" last known position, "invented" by the Fly app

After the crash, the "Find my drone" function displayed a position that was approx. 1,400 m away from the location of the crash.
Unfortunately, that meant that we had to drive about 40 km to reach this "last position". Of course the drone wasn't there ...
If the Fly app had simply displayed the location of the crash, we would have had enough time to search for the drone by "beeping and flashing". The battery was 80% charged at the time of the chash ...
Only at home could we evaluate the flight data and determine that the so-called "last position" (displayed in the Fly app) was complete nonsense.
Since the area of ​​the crash is also quite impassable, the search was no longer worthwhile the next day (without assistance from the drone, "beeping and blinking") ...

Our question was and is:
Why is such nonsense displayed by the Fly app? It cannot simply be communicated that no further information can be given due to missing GPS signals (... instead of showing a position that is completely wrong!).
The actual last known position would have been helpful, not a fictitious one ...

Best wishes
Frank

frankymusik Posted at 9-19 09:37
Hi Azgana,

I know it's an old story, but here is the link to my experience of a very similar behavior of the MM in connection with the Fly app ...

Hi! That's exactly what I think; the flight data are useless, because when you lose the drone, you don't have time to find the data log, put on phantomhelp, check all the position, etc, etc.
If all the GPS coordinates were displayed on the Fly app, when you lose your drone you can check instantly alle the information to find it.

When i crashed my Mavic, I had only 30% of battery, so this information on the go are indispensable.

Litchi displays lat/lon during flight.

frankymusik Posted at 9-19 09:37
Hi Azgana,

I know it's an old story, but here is the link to my experience of a very similar behavior of the MM in connection with the Fly app ...

Our question was and is:
Why is such nonsense displayed by the Fly app? It cannot simply be communicated that no further information can be given due to missing GPS signals (... instead of showing a position that is completely wrong!).
My questions are:
Why is an otherwise intelligent individual unable to understand the limitations of technology after it's been explained to him multiple times?
How many more times are you going to moan about this?

Azgana Posted at 9-19 11:24
Hi! That's exactly what I think; the flight data are useless, because when you lose the drone, you don't have time to find the data log, put on phantomhelp, check all the position, etc, etc.
If all the GPS coordinates were displayed on the Fly app, when you lose your drone you can check instantly alle the information to find it.

Before you buy another Mini and try again, you should learn about a particular issue that is likely on a similar flight.
On p37 of the manual you find this:
  Height is restricted to 16 ft (5 m) when the GPS signal is weak and Downward Vision System is activated.

  Height is restricted to 98 ft (30 m) when the GPS signal is weak and Downward Vision System is inactivated.


That only partly explains what could happen if you descend into a canyon that blocks GPS reception.
It's not possible to inactivate the VPS sensors in the Mini.

On losing GPS your altitude would be limited, but not measured from the launch point.
You could find yourself in a situation where you could not be able to bring the drone back up again.

Labroides Posted at 9-19 17:17
Our question was and is:
Why is such nonsense displayed by the Fly app? It cannot simply be communicated that no further information can be given due to missing GPS signals (... instead of showing a position that is completely wrong!).
My questions are:

Hi Labroides,

it's because people like you don't want to understand that despite the limitations of technological possibilities, products should be improved if it can be easily done ...

If the hardware and software "knows" that an indication of the current GPS position does not make sense, then it should not send the pilot to a search that makes no sense! It's that simple with questions and requests ...

Please make improvements where they can be easily implemented!
Do not always put your hands on your lap and come to terms with everything, as it was developed "by chance". Name the problems and ask the developers to finally make the necessary improvements ...

Frank

frankymusik Posted at 9-19 22:55
Hi Labroides,

it's because people like you don't want to understand that despite the limitations of technological possibilities, products should be improved if it can be easily done ...

You'll just have to wait for DJI to release a new model that uses magic rather than existing technology.

Azgana Posted at 9-18 23:38
Hi, yes the drone is still under warranty, i bought it on 11 november 2019.
What can i do?

Hi Azgana, thanks for the information, as replied above, if the drone is still under warranty, please contact our support team via www.dji.com/support to start a ticket for the data analysis, our team will provide further assistance.

Labroides Posted at 9-19 23:14
You'll just have to wait for DJI to release a new model that uses magic rather than existing technology. technology.

Hi Labroides,

... nothing is "magic" about the implementation of trivial solutions.
It is known that the GPS can assess itself whether the position is "credible"!   

Porktree Posted at 9-19 15:44
Litchi displays lat/lon during flight.

What is Litchi?

Azgana Posted at 9-20 11:51
What is Litchi?

A third party app - there are several threads here on the beta that's in progress for the Mini. I've been usin it with my m2p for ages, it's adds some extras that dji doesn't include. (Like showing lat/lon on the screen).

Porktree Posted at 9-21 05:55
A third party app - there are several threads here on the beta that's in progress for the Mini. I've been usin it with my m2p for ages, it's adds some extras that dji doesn't include. (Like showing lat/lon on the screen).

Interesting... so these infos are not "magic" like Labroides said
Can you link me the app on the Play Store?
Thanks!

Azgana Posted at 9-21 06:03
Interesting... so these infos are not "magic" like Labroides said
Can you link me the app on the Play Store?
Thanks!

Interesting... so these infos are not "magic" like Labroides said
Interesting ... I never mentioned anything about needing magic to display location coordinates.
Can you link me the app on the Play Store?
Or maybe you could just use the search function in the Play Store ??

frankymusik Posted at 9-19 23:36
Hi Labroides,

... nothing is "magic" about the implementation of trivial solutions.

You mean like, if DJI noticed the GPS signal getting worse and prompted the user that the signal is degrading and would like to RTH while it's still accurate enough to do so. Also DJI could "Magically" prompt the user that GPS health is 0 and that the drone has switched into ATTI mode with a Cute little gif/animated image illustrating the drone is unable to slow down with a nice warning message below.

Nahh, that's all
To DJI.