So sad... 3 days after getting my Mini 2, I was flying over a lake getting in position to take some pictures of my dog who was along the shore. I was 250+ above the lake over the middle of the water when I had a "motor is blocked" error, followed by an "IMU calibration" error. The drone spiraled downward without any ability to be controlled and crashed into the water. The crash spot was too far from the shore to reach so I was not able to retrieve my drone.


My flight was at least 100 feet above the tallest trees in the area, there were no poles, power lines or other obstructions anywhere and it was a mostly clear day. I can't see any reason why the drone would have had a motor error. I have contacted DJI support twice with no response. I am hoping they can tell me if there was a malfunction, if I did something wrong, etc. I posted the information from my flight below on AirData. Perhaps some other pilots out there can give me some advice.


https://app.airdata.com/share/GZhwaF/GENERALNotifications

Thanks! I look forward to some analysis!

Sorry for your loss ...

CemAygun Posted at 3-22 20:22
Sorry for your loss ...

I bought a new one a couple days later. Thankfully its only money!

Hello there. I am sorry for the trouble this has caused and thank you for reaching out. Since this unfortunate event and there was a crash that happened to your DJI Mini 2 before. It would be best to contact our DJI Support Team at https://www.dji.com/support for us to be able to assist you further with regards to this matter. Again, I am sorry for the trouble and thank you.

DJI Stephen Posted at 3-22 21:13
Hello there. I am sorry for the trouble this has caused and thank you for reaching out. Since this unfortunate event and there was a crash that happened to your DJI Mini 2 before. It would be best to contact our DJI Support Team at https://www.dji.com/support for us to be able to assist you further with regards to this matter. Again, I am sorry for the trouble and thank you.

Thanks for the reply. I have actually submitted a request twice on the DJI support site, but I have not had a response yet. Hopefully I will hear back soon?

Your data shows a normal flight until 146.2 seconds when things go bad.
At a height of 259 ft above the launch point, you were slowly flying forward and rotating the drone clockwise.
Then the drone pitches upward at first and starts to spin faster and anti-clockwise as it rolls over hard to the left, past 90 degrees.
This suggests the loss of the rear left motor or its propeller.
The drone continued to spin and tumble all the way down without losing power until signal was lost at 153.6 seconds.

Labroides Posted at 3-22 22:29
Your data shows a normal flight until 146.2 seconds when things go bad.
At a height of 259 ft above the launch point, you were slowly flying forward and rotating the drone clockwise.
Then the drone pitches upward at first and starts to spin faster and anti-clockwise as it rolls over hard to the left, past 90 degrees.

Thanks Labroides. Things did go very bad! Any guesses why the motor would suddenly quit like that?

You made the mistake of not returning home after the first engine lock warning. Continuing the flight with so many warnings is nonchalance.

djiuser_nO2RdSW5BSUg Posted at 3-22 23:31
You made the mistake of not returning home after the first engine lock warning. Continuing the flight with so many warnings is nonchalance.

I think it is hard to make decission so fast.
Look you see error on 02m 26s of flight.
It takes 1-2 sec to read message, and 1 sec to make decission what to do next. So it is apr 3 sec lost.
On 02m 31s pilot lost control on drone. I think pilot had no so many time to react.
It is easy to read and judje while looking Airdata.

Yes it's true. We are only humans.Motor is Blocked. IMU calibration required. Calibrate IMU (Code: 30050). Gyroscope initialization failed. Restart aircraft (Code: 30045). GPS signal weak. Positioning accuracy affected. Fly with caution (Code: 30049). Motor unable to rotate.  This is very puzzling. Any general system failure? See what the compass was doing. https://app.airdata.com/share/GZhwaF/SENSORSCompass

djiuser_nO2RdSW5BSUg Posted at 3-22 23:31
You made the mistake of not returning home after the first engine lock warning. Continuing the flight with so many warnings is nonchalance.

You made the mistake of not returning home after the first engine lock warning. Continuing the flight with so many warnings is nonchalance.

Nonchalance ??
You made the mistake of coming up with an answer without consideration for the facts.
Read my post above with attention to the timing.

There was no chance of going anywhere but down from the time that first warning showed.
The drone was already spiralling and tumbling and the show was over.

djiuser_ab7iZwb Posted at 3-22 22:50
Thanks Labroides. Things did go very bad! Any guesses why the motor would suddenly quit like that?

Either a prop broke/came off or an ESC fault stopped driving the motor.

djiuser_nO2RdSW5BSUg Posted at 3-22 23:31
You made the mistake of not returning home after the first engine lock warning. Continuing the flight with so many warnings is nonchalance.

Ha! The first error displayed 7 seconds before the drone splashed down and lost connectivity. Not to mention the motor stopped and gave the error at the very same moment. There was no indication anything was wrong until the aircraft was already uncontrollable.

djiuser_nO2RdSW5BSUg Posted at 3-22 23:53
Yes it's true. We are only humans.Motor is Blocked. IMU calibration required. Calibrate IMU (Code: 30050). Gyroscope initialization failed. Restart aircraft (Code: 30045). GPS signal weak. Positioning accuracy affected. Fly with caution (Code: 30049). Motor unable to rotate.  This is very puzzling. Any general system failure? See what the compass was doing. https://app.airdata.com/share/GZhwaF/SENSORSCompass

The compass shows an error because the aircraft is turning faster than the compass expects. This is because one of the motors failed which caused the aircraft to enter a spin on the way down. I don't think the compass had any issues, I think the compass was correctly registering that the the aircraft was spinning due to a stopped motor.

Labroides Posted at 3-23 00:13
You made the mistake of not returning home after the first engine lock warning. Continuing the flight with so many warnings is nonchalance.

Nonchalance ??

Its true. I had no ability to control anything by the time any warnings showed up.

Sorry for my premature diagnosis.

Dji are very prompt on here when handing out compliments and also responding quickly whe.n they receive complimens on their products. But I get the impression that they are very lax in replying to consumers who contact them with problems. One or two members on here sing their praises but others have found Dji response sadly lacking. The very knowledgeable people on here have, in my opinion, shown that this indeed is a warranty case and I hope that the OP is recompensed quickly and efficiently. It is nice though just to go out and buy another so quick. I would have been a bit more reticent, especially after owning drone only 3 days.

djiuser_ab7iZwb Posted at 3-23 00:22
The compass shows an error because the aircraft is turning faster than the compass expects. This is because one of the motors failed which caused the aircraft to enter a spin on the way down. I don't think the compass had any issues, I think the compass was correctly registering that the the aircraft was spinning due to a stopped motor.

Then why has the mode changed to ATTI?

yogi053 Posted at 3-23 00:46
Dji are very prompt on here when handing out compliments and also responding quickly whe.n they receive complimens on their products. But I get the impression that they are very lax in replying to consumers who contact them with problems. One or two members on here sing their praises but others have found Dji response sadly lacking. The very knowledgeable people on here have, in my opinion, shown that this indeed is a warranty case and I hope that the OP is recompensed quickly and efficiently. It is nice though just to go out and buy another so quick. I would have been a bit more reticent, especially after owning drone only 3 days.

I had originally assumed that I must have had some beginners error which caused the drone to crash so I reluctantly bought another one. After getting some more flight time and taking a closer look at the flight records, I can't see what I could have done wrong. I hope DJI does make it right.

djiuser_nO2RdSW5BSUg Posted at 3-23 00:47
Then why has the mode changed to ATTI?

More than likely, when the motor stopped, the aircraft rolled over while spiraling downward. When the aircraft is bottom up, or in this case when it was rolling, it loses GPS. Losing GPS forces the drone in to atti mode.

https://3dinsider.com/dji-atti-mode/

The serious voltage drop appeared only after the flight point L. Previously, despite the engine's pale, there was no drastic power consumption. It seems to me that there is a short circuit in the internal circuits, maybe on the power supply?

djiuser_nO2RdSW5BSUg Posted at 3-22 23:53
Yes it's true. We are only humans.Motor is Blocked. IMU calibration required. Calibrate IMU (Code: 30050). Gyroscope initialization failed. Restart aircraft (Code: 30045). GPS signal weak. Positioning accuracy affected. Fly with caution (Code: 30049). Motor unable to rotate.  This is very puzzling. Any general system failure? See what the compass was doing. https://app.airdata.com/share/GZhwaF/SENSORSCompass

Don't be distracted by messages after the incident, that are because of the incident rather than causes of it.

djiuser_ab7iZwb Posted at 3-23 00:50
I had originally assumed that I must have had some beginners error which caused the drone to crash so I reluctantly bought another one. After getting some more flight time and taking a closer look at the flight records, I can't see what I could have done wrong. I hope DJI does make it right.

I'm sure when Dji see the flight log you will have another drone on it's way soonest. Until then enjoy your no. 2 drone and Stay safe!

yogi053 Posted at 3-23 02:18
I'm sure when Dji see the flight log you will have another drone on it's way soonest. Until then enjoy your no. 2 drone and Stay safe!

Thanks! I hope that’s true.

Didn’t see any birds near the drone? One of my biggest fears, had some close calls when birds circling the drone (though I quickly lower the drone and return to home).

Sorry that you lost it and had to by a new one.

Sorry to hear about your loss, did you have DJI care refresh? Also it seems as if this was a hardware failure so it should be covered.

Wonder if the battery wasn’t clicked in ll the way.

videoeditman Posted at 3-23 06:27
Sorry to hear about your loss, did you have DJI care refresh? Also it seems as if this was a hardware failure so it should be covered.

I did have DJI care. However, I have not been able to get a response from DJI yet. Hopefully soon though.

Donut Michigan Posted at 3-23 08:27
Wonder if the battery wasn’t clicked in ll the way.

I suppose it’s possible. The drone didn’t lose power until it hit the water though so it seems as if it was getting adequate voltage all the way until it took a bath.

djiuser_ab7iZwb Posted at 3-23 10:31
I did have DJI care. However, I have not been able to get a response from DJI yet. Hopefully soon though.

Please keep us info'd on how things work out for you. I'll be interested in how you are treated by Dji. So far, not a very auspicious start by them.

yogi053 Posted at 3-23 00:46
Dji are very prompt on here when handing out compliments and also responding quickly whe.n they receive complimens on their products. But I get the impression that they are very lax in replying to consumers who contact them with problems. One or two members on here sing their praises but others have found Dji response sadly lacking. The very knowledgeable people on here have, in my opinion, shown that this indeed is a warranty case and I hope that the OP is recompensed quickly and efficiently. It is nice though just to go out and buy another so quick. I would have been a bit more reticent, especially after owning drone only 3 days.

Those standard, useless, and robotic responses are actually worst, when you really need help. And I can't see why DJI would want to improve if we, the consumers are still buying the products despite the poor customer service.

Monkey007 Posted at 3-23 11:26
And I can't see why DJI would want to improve if we, the consumers are still buying the products despite the poor customer service.

Absolutely true. I ordered my first drone a few days ago, but today was the first time I hit this forum.  Hopefully DJI does the right thing in the drowning case as it sounds like a mechanical issue.

DJI Stephen Posted at 3-22 21:13
Hello there. I am sorry for the trouble this has caused and thank you for reaching out. Since this unfortunate event and there was a crash that happened to your DJI Mini 2 before. It would be best to contact our DJI Support Team at https://www.dji.com/support for us to be able to assist you further with regards to this matter. Again, I am sorry for the trouble and thank you.

Case Number: CAS-6078346-L7W6J9

Thanks.

djiuser_ab7iZwb Posted at 3-22 21:15
Thanks for the reply. I have actually submitted a request twice on the DJI support site, but I have not had a response yet. Hopefully I will hear back soon?

Hi there. Thank you for the reply and it is great to know that you have already contacted our DJI Support Team. Rest assured once the assessment is done our DJI Support Team will be sending you a notification with regard to the findings and assessment as well. Thank you.

This may not be the actual problem but I have seen two other cases similar.  Make sure you have two clicks when installing the battery. One for the battery and one for the door. One pilot had his drone up about 75 feet and watching it and it was watching it hover and he full stick forward and it jumped forward Nd he watched the battery pop out the back and watched both fall to the ground with no damage. He reinstalled the battery and made sure he heard two clicks and flew the rest of the day.  After reading that I always make sure I hear TWO clicks. Again that may not be the reason for you.  Doug

Donut Michigan Posted at 3-25 19:43
This may not be the actual problem but I have seen two other cases similar.  Make sure you have two clicks when installing the battery. One for the battery and one for the door. One pilot had his drone up about 75 feet and watching it and it was watching it hover and he full stick forward and it jumped forward Nd he watched the battery pop out the back and watched both fall to the ground with no damage. He reinstalled the battery and made sure he heard two clicks and flew the rest of the day.  After reading that I always make sure I hear TWO clicks. Again that may not be the reason for you.  Doug

Anything is possible but it seems like the drone had battery power all the way until it hit the water. I was also flying backwards fairly slowly at the time the motor stopped. It doesn’t seem like that motion would cause an un-clicked battery to come loose. It seems more likely that the motor had some other kind of failure.

djiuser_ab7iZwb Posted at 3-25 20:34
Anything is possible but it seems like the drone had battery power all the way until it hit the water. I was also flying backwards fairly slowly at the time the motor stopped. It doesn’t seem like that motion would cause an un-clicked battery to come loose. It seems more likely that the motor had some other kind of failure.

Anything is possible but it seems like the drone had battery power all the way until it hit the water.
So many helpful "suggestions" from folks that don't read the thread.
Having a battery come loose means the data just stops.
When the data continues to show the drone falling, that proves 100% that the problem was not a sudden total power loss.

djiuser_ab7iZwb Posted at 3-25 20:34
Anything is possible but it seems like the drone had battery power all the way until it hit the water. I was also flying backwards fairly slowly at the time the motor stopped. It doesn’t seem like that motion would cause an un-clicked battery to come loose. It seems more likely that the motor had some other kind of failure.

Vibration could easily moved the battery back off the contacts. That’s about the only way there would be a complete loss of the motors.
Doug

Donut Michigan Posted at 3-25 22:42
Vibration could easily moved the battery back off the contacts. That’s about the only way there would be a complete loss of the motors.
Doug

I’m my case, it seems like only one of the motors stopped. And since I was unable to recover the drone, the data that was transmitted from 259 feet all the way down to splashing in the water indicates that there was battery power. A loose battery would have immediately cut power to all motors and stopped the data from transmitting.

djiuser_ab7iZwb Posted at 3-22 22:50
Thanks Labroides. Things did go very bad! Any guesses why the motor would suddenly quit like that?

Could be a bird strike, did you notice birds around? They could have attacked the drone.