I was flying manual mode with the DJI FPV, I have had a couple instances of loss of connection and had the drone successfully switch out of manual mode, hover and begin to return home. However yesterday, it lost connection (at a range of only about 200m so I was surprised it lost connection so easily) and instead of switching to manual mode it disappeared. I waited a minute or so to see if it wud return and a friend went over to where it was prior to conneciton loss. After searching for sometime it was found crashed, gimball + camera missing, front right arm broken, rear one damaged and the battery completely missing.

Why does the connection seem to be so poor on this drone, I was in an area with very low, if any, interferance, using the auto settings for transmission. Using CE settings if that makes much difference.

Also, was wondering if I can get a replacement based on the fact that a safety feature that should have kicked in simply didn't. I don't have DJI care refresh but in cases like this is it possible to get repair/replacement as it seems like a product fault.

Hi there, we are deeply sorry to hear about the accident with your drone. If it is within the warranty period, please contact our support team via http://www.dji.com/support to open a case and apply for data analysis. A proper solution will be provided according to the data analysis result. Thanks.

Sounds like you lost video feed which i believe does not trigger return to home. If this happened to me, I would have manually initiated return to home rather than relying on the drone to auto RTH. Maybe next time pay attention to the signal bars to prevent this from happening again.

Sounds like you lost connection, and possibly hit something at that exact moment or albeit that was the reason why It disconnected.

What around the area of the drone was hit?

I can not agree with bad signal range, in the USA i get miles of distance if I have LOS

fansf0572733 Posted at 9-17 19:48
Sounds like you lost video feed which i believe does not trigger return to home. If this happened to me, I would have manually initiated return to home rather than relying on the drone to auto RTH. Maybe next time pay attention to the signal bars to prevent this from happening again.

That's the thing, signal bars were fine, then suddenly video just cut out. In the past loss of video alone (not loss of remote) as triggered return to home so I see no reason for it to fail this time. It went from 4 bars to no video.

The last frame of video showed nothing immediately in front of it but the general direction of the drone would have hit the ground not too long after.

Whoreable Posted at 9-17 21:31
Sounds like you lost connection, and possibly hit something at that exact moment or albeit that was the reason why It disconnected.

What around the area of the drone was hit?

Since the battery was missing I have to assume it hit the bottom, rear side of the drone and then span to it's right side down to take out the front right arm, damage the back right arm and remove the camera.

djiuser_y5UIBiahEBUa Posted at 9-18 03:15
That's the thing, signal bars were fine, then suddenly video just cut out. In the past loss of video alone (not loss of remote) as triggered return to home so I see no reason for it to fail this time. It went from 4 bars to no video.

The last frame of video showed nothing immediately in front of it but the general direction of the drone would have hit the ground not too long after.

I see. A massive signal interference was probably the culprit. Reviewing the flight log should reveal what went wrong.
As for the range, i typicall fly at least a mile out, controlling the drone from inside of my car. No issues and the signal bars stay full.

fansf0572733 Posted at 9-18 08:51
I see. A massive signal interference was probably the culprit. Reviewing the flight log should reveal what went wrong.
As for the range, i typicall fly at least a mile out, controlling the drone from inside of my car. No issues and the signal bars stay full.

If you don't mind me asking, are you in the EU or US as they have different rules on transmission frequencys and channels etc. Wondering how you can fly further.

djiuser_y5UIBiahEBUa Posted at 9-18 09:49
If you don't mind me asking, are you in the EU or US as they have different rules on transmission frequencys and channels etc. Wondering how you can fly further.

I am in the US specifically in the beautiful sunny California.

Whoreable Posted at 9-17 21:31
Sounds like you lost connection, and possibly hit something at that exact moment or albeit that was the reason why It disconnected.

What around the area of the drone was hit?

I have been using this mini 2 for several weeks and it seems I can’t go more than 400 feet distance before losing signal.  I’m not just losing video feed I actually get a warning saying lost signal to the drone.  It loses signal for 3 to 5 seconds and then comes back. I can’t be the only one.  Everything has its latest update including the app which is 1.4.8 (477)
I’m not in an open field and there are lots of trees since I live out in the country but you think I get more than 400 feet distance.

On Sat, New Years day I experienced the same problem with my FPV. It was the second time I flew it. On the first flight at my house I did some test runs around the neighborhood as I've done with my Mavic Plat Pro. I noticed that my range was very limited. I couldn't fly nearly as far as I could with my Mavic. I tried several directions and the results were the same. At one point in time the drone went into RTH mode as flight time was nearing the end. It should have made it back, but instead tried force landing several houses away. I did everything I could to keep the drone from landing in someone's back yard and was just able to land it safely in their front yard. I didn't understand why the force landing when it should have made it back w/o problems. Btw....there was no wind slowing it down. After this strange event I thought perhaps maybe the power lines around the area might have caused signal issues. Don't have them with the Mavic, but ok....different frequencies perhaps???  On the second flight, New Years day, I had my wife with me to spot, found a spot with open field and some other goodies to practice around. Although I've been flying my Mavic Pro for some time, I still don't take risks with new toys. While in "N" mode I flew around an old hotel w/o a roof, followed a stream, and practiced with the controls. In the open area I put it in "Sport" mode to practice maneuvering at the higher speeds. I kept my altitude high enough to avoid all potential obstacles and have my spotter maintain visual.  Less than .5 miles away from my location there is a small ridge. I flew up to the top and the drone lost signal. Within approximately 10s I had visual again. This concerned me so once I had control again I pointed the drone to the "H" on the screen and started back. It said I had enough battery to get back. Shortly after proceeding back home the signal dropped out again...picture scrambled then went black. This time, it never came back online. I waited and waited. My wife lost visual because the sun was behind the drone. I know I didn't hit anything because I was much higher than any trees. I figured eventually the drone wound come home once the battery got low enough....so I waited some more. I checked "find my drone" through the goggles and it displayed 30s of footage when I was flying through the hotel....why not the last 30s before it disappeared is beyond me. Needless to say, the land I flew over was private property. I spent 2 hrs on the first looking for the drone and 4 hrs today with 3 more people and the drone wasn't found. I don't know if the problem is related to the drone, goggles, battery or a combination of things. One of the batteries I received new does not charge or work and is being replaced once I get it boxed up. What do I do now. At no fault to my own, my new drone is gone. I made no adjustments to settings so everything should have worked fine. In both flights I had issues,  I feel DJI should replace my drone since it malfunctioned. I'm contacting them tomorrow...wish me luck everyone.

Mad Trucker Posted at 1-2 17:20
On Sat, New Years day I experienced the same problem with my FPV. It was the second time I flew it. On the first flight at my house I did some test runs around the neighborhood as I've done with my Mavic Plat Pro. I noticed that my range was very limited. I couldn't fly nearly as far as I could with my Mavic. I tried several directions and the results were the same. At one point in time the drone went into RTH mode as flight time was nearing the end. It should have made it back, but instead tried force landing several houses away. I did everything I could to keep the drone from landing in someone's back yard and was just able to land it safely in their front yard. I didn't understand why the force landing when it should have made it back w/o problems. Btw....there was no wind slowing it down. After this strange event I thought perhaps maybe the power lines around the area might have caused signal issues. Don't have them with the Mavic, but ok....different frequencies perhaps???  On the second flight, New Years day, I had my wife with me to spot, found a spot with open field and some other goodies to practice around. Although I've been flying my Mavic Pro for some time, I still don't take risks with new toys. While in "N" mode I flew around an old hotel w/o a roof, followed a stream, and practiced with the controls. In the open area I put it in "Sport" mode to practice maneuvering at the higher speeds. I kept my altitude high enough to avoid all potential obstacles and have my spotter maintain visual.  Less than .5 miles away from my location there is a small ridge. I flew up to the top and the drone lost signal. Within approximately 10s I had visual again. This concerned me so once I had control again I pointed the drone to the "H" on the screen and started back. It said I had enough battery to get back. Shortly after proceeding back home the signal dropped out again...picture scrambled then went black. This time, it never came back online. I waited and waited. My wife lost visual because the sun was behind the drone. I know I didn't hit anything because I was much higher than any trees. I figured eventually the drone wound come home once the battery got low enough....so I waited some more. I checked "find my drone" through the goggles and it displayed 30s of footage when I was flying through the hotel....why not the last 30s before it disappeared is beyond me. Needless to say, the land I flew over was private property. I spent 2 hrs on the first looking for the drone and 4 hrs today with 3 more people and the drone wasn't found. I don't know if the problem is related to the drone, goggles, battery or a combination of things. One of the batteries I received new does not charge or work and is being replaced once I get it boxed up. What do I do now. At no fault to my own, my new drone is gone. I made no adjustments to settings so everything should have worked fine. In both flights I had issues,  I feel DJI should replace my drone since it malfunctioned. I'm contacting them tomorrow...wish me luck everyone.

If you have DJI care they offer a replacement for "fly away" or something like that. However I think you are right about them replacing it, factory settings within safe range, still disappeared. I believe if you have an SD card in, the goggles log the information of each flight so you may want to have a look at that for an idea of what went wrong. May also help your case if you had this and were able to send it to DJI. Good luck.

Didn't purchase the care program yet.... just got the thing...didn't expect this to happen. I just learned how to download the flight log...I guess I missed a flight....so this was technically flight 3....as if that matters. I watched the flight of my last flight and it said something about  propulsion system error. Not sure what that means, but it looks like my search area was way off from what it shows in the log. I'm going to contact DJI in the morning and depending on what they say... go back out with some help again....hopefully they are willing...lol.

Download and install air data uav app and then sync your dji account. Review the last log which should reveal the last GPS coordinates. I am guessing the battery was the culprit. The drone initiated forced landing due to critical low battery. Because there were obstacles between the drone and the transmitter as the altitude dropped, the connection was lost. Just my theory. The last log should tell you what happened. Good luck finding your drone.

Great NEWS!  After reviewing the logs and taking a very long hike, I was able to find the drone. I must have walked past it several times the day it disappeared.  I'm so happy. Nothing broken...thank God... and it powers up and seems to function. I wish the lights and beeping feature were able to be activated by the headset instead of the phone....sick of using the phone.... cant barely read and see what's on it.... lol. I noticed something strange....I swear I was recording part of my flight....but there are no videos on the card. I will have to do some testing with this. I'm also going to add a card to the goggles and probably most important, reset everything and update the firmware in everything again. I hope this will fix any problems I'm having with signal loss, battery issues, etc.  Thanks all for the suggestions.

djiuser_y5UIBiahEBUa Posted at 2021-9-18 03:15
That's the thing, signal bars were fine, then suddenly video just cut out. In the past loss of video alone (not loss of remote) as triggered return to home so I see no reason for it to fail this time. It went from 4 bars to no video.

The last frame of video showed nothing immediately in front of it but the general direction of the drone would have hit the ground not too long after.

hello,

i had the same problem, i was flying around Ohau Hawaii, (im from Norway) suddenly my drone just lost connection gaggles went black. try to restart but nothing happen..
i didnt crash since i could hear the drone, not far from me, i try the home bottom, but still no reaction, restart the controll still nothing....  my signal was full. but suddely it blackedout.

i already sended an email to DJi with LOG and video i got from gaggles!

its issane sad that this can happen when ur soo close to it. i did fly my Air 2S and it didnt have any problem with the signal...
i hope DJI find the error.

we did try to find it.. but it was a lost mission.