Hi All,

I Just updated to the latest Software, released a couple of days ago (105 I think) and on a flight today I had 2 strange occurences.

1) For no reason at all the gimbal decided to point straight up.

    I was just about to take a sperical panorama, so I continued and took that OK.   

    The gimbal returned to pointing straight up, but could be moved up and down after OK.
2) A few minutes later the drone reported no RC signal and commenced a return home.
    Throughout this the drone continued to relay pictures from the camera OK.
    The drone landed OK but a few metres awar from it's home takeoff point. (I don't usuall use RTH as I prefer to land manually)


I've not been out with it since, but might have another play later.

I've had the drone since mid May, and there were a few oddities on the first flight, I can't remember the detail but I put that down to updating the app and firmware.

It has'nt done anything strange since, until today.

Anyone else had something like this and have a solution?

Cheers,
Keith.

No explanation for camera up in the air, maybe just do a gimbal calibration. RC signal being lost is usually interference or signal blocked etc.

Mini 3 doesn’t have precision landing, so you should always allow a tolerance of 3 metre or so for GPS , so thats pretty normal.
You didn’t say if signal came back it usually does on RTH.

It is generally wise not to update stuff if it is working ok. Remember the old adage if it aint broke don't fix it

Or go with the other saying "If it ain't broke, fix it till it is"

Bigplumbs Posted at 6-21 08:18
It is generally wise not to update stuff if it is working ok. Remember the old adage if it aint broke don't fix it

105 was the initial update I was obliged to accept in order to register the drone this afternoon.
I've only manoeuvred about 30m around the garden so far ( with no issues).
Should I be worried

Blériot53 Posted at 6-21 09:43
105 was the initial update I was obliged to accept in order to register the drone this afternoon.
I've only manoeuvred about 30m around the garden so far ( with no issues).
Should I be worried

no its good i did fly again this evening mor dan 2km away only with the rc-n1 controller the rc is in repair for the sdcard lock

Andre vd Weide Posted at 6-21 11:06
no its good i did fly again this evening mor dan 2km away only with the rc-n1 controller the rc is in repair for the sdcard lock

I tried a flight this evening. Apart from a single jerk down and up of the gimbal on take-off everything went perfectly. Flew out to limits of VLOS  (abt 500m) and the drone could have kept on going. No loss of transmission, just one warning to re-0rient the antennas toward the aircraft.
So far, so good. Image quality far superior to the Mini one, and the drone is whisper-quiet compared to the Mini One..

hallmark007 Posted at 6-21 08:15
No explanation for camera up in the air, maybe just do a gimbal calibration. RC signal being lost is usually interference or signal blocked etc.

Mini 3 doesn’t have precision landing, so you should always allow a tolerance of 3 metre or so for GPS , so thats pretty normal.

Thanks for the response.  I'll do a recalibration, just in case.  It did seem very strange for the drone to be doing it's own thing in-flight.  

Ref the lost signal, as  far as I know it didn't come back, but I just left it to come home and land, worried that If I started to provide some inputs it might get confused!

I appreciate the video and control are separate channels but the video was perfect throughout and just control was lost.

I'd forgotten that the Mini 3 doesn't have precision landing, I'm so used to it on the Air 2S :-)

Bigplumbs Posted at 6-21 08:18
It is generally wise not to update stuff if it is working ok. Remember the old adage if it aint broke don't fix it

I remember it well but I'm always tempted by the thought of new features and bugs that I didn't know I had being fixed. :-)

Blériot53 Posted at 6-21 11:28
I tried a flight this evening. Apart from a single jerk down and up of the gimbal on take-off everything went perfectly. Flew out to limits of VLOS  (abt 500m) and the drone could have kept on going. No loss of transmission, just one warning to re-0rient the antennas toward the aircraft.
So far, so good. Image quality far superior to the Mini one, and the drone is whisper-quiet compared to the Mini One..

Do you wish you would have jumped off the fence sooner now?  Just asking - no judgement here.  

DowntownRDB Posted at 6-21 12:05
Do you wish you would have jumped off the fence sooner now?  Just asking - no judgement here.

I think my timing was spot-on. I wasn't prepared to shell out the best part of a Grand and then wait six weeks to get it.. As it was, I held my patience for 3 weeks and got it on the next-day service by mid-day.
Just 22 hours aftder placing the order.  First impressions are all good. VERY quiet in flight, super video quality, and good signal retained between RC and drone out to limits of VLOS over fields and forest between built-up areas.

Blériot53 Posted at 6-21 12:20
I think my timing was spot-on. I wasn't prepared to shell out the best part of a Grand and then wait six weeks to get it.. As it was, I held my patience for 3 weeks and got it on the next-day service by mid-day.
Just 22 hours aftder placing the order.  First impressions are all good. VERY quiet in flight, super video quality, and good signal retained between RC and drone out to limits of VLOS over fields and forest between built-up areas.

That's excellent!!!!  

Get some sleep so you can get up early tomorrow and get some more flying time in on the new drone.  Guess the OG Mini is in the hangar permanently now until you sell it.  

DowntownRDB Posted at 6-21 12:52
That's excellent!!!!  

Get some sleep so you can get up early tomorrow and get some more flying time in on the new drone.  Guess the OG Mini is in the hangar permanently now until you sell it.

I'll be like a juggler trying to keep all three drones airborne - but not all at the smae time
The Mini One may have to find a new home eventually.

With regards to the 3 meter distance from where you took off that’s actually normal as even my Mavic 3 has that  but maybe I would suggest resetting the IMU but I’m no expert.

Hello there Keith. I am sorry for the trouble this has caused and thank you for reaching out. Kindly please try to calibrate the gimbal of your DJI Mini 3 Pro for us to be able to isolate the issue and kindly please fly your DJI Mini 3 Pro to a different location with less interference to see if the issue will still persist? The DJI drone might have picked up magnetic interference on the ground, and you took off from close to a buildings with rebar concrete metal objects on it. Thank you.

Fred Fred Fred Posted at 6-21 18:21
With regards to the 3 meter distance from where you took off that’s actually normal as even my Mavic 3 has that  but maybe I would suggest resetting the IMU but I’m no expert.

With regards to the 3 meter distance from where you took off that’s actually normal as even my Mavic 3 has that  but maybe I would suggest resetting the IMU but I’m no expert.
You are correct to say that you're no expert.
Recalibrating the IMU won't do a thing to make his drone land exactly where it took off.
If there was anything wrong with the IMU, he's have noticed a lot more than where he landed.

If you wanted to give good advice, you'd have suggested that he post his flight data which would help determine if there was any problem at all, and if there was, what it might have been.

Thanks for all the great advice.  

I had a look at the flight log and whilst it doesn't seem to give any detail about the gimbal movements the signal issue seems to have been a couple of very short events of only a few seconds close together and not far from home.  So it looks like I could have taken back control and continued the flight.

The flight log is available here if anyone wants a look.

I've flown this site many many times over the last 12 months with both the Mini 3 and Air 2S and never had this issue before, which is what worries me the most.  

I didn't manage another flight yesterday but I'll have a go later today.  

One thing to note it was quite warm here yesterday, in the 20's, but my "quite warm" is probably considered "chilly" by others living in warmer climes.

Flight Log Data

I seem to be having problems posting a link to the flight log data. Problems of a newbie I expect, or it's disallowed.  Must read the rules!

Labroides Posted at 6-21 21:44
With regards to the 3 meter distance from where you took off that’s actually normal as even my Mavic 3 has that  but maybe I would suggest resetting the IMU but I’m no expert.
You are correct to say that you're no expert.
Recalibrating the IMU won't do a thing to make his drone land exactly where it took off.

Well hello there, haven’t heard your sweet and encouraging words in a long time, so yes I know that calibrating the IMU will not fix the 3 meter give on the homepoint landing spot, but as I said that was normal but what I meant on calibrating the IMU was for the other issues he was experiencing so enjoy the rest of your day stealing candy from babies and pushing old people into streets and until next time goodbye.

Fred Fred Fred Posted at 6-21 23:05
Well hello there, haven’t heard your sweet and encouraging words in a long time, so yes I know that calibrating the IMU will not fix the 3 meter give on the homepoint landing spot, but as I said that was normal but what I meant on calibrating the IMU was for the other issues he was experiencing so enjoy the rest of your day stealing candy from babies and pushing old people into streets and until next time goodbye.

That's even more ignorant than what I thought you were saying.
How about only giving "advice" when you actually know what you are talking about?

And a tip to help you ... when people suggest recalibrating the IMU or compass to fix issues, they are almost always wrong.

But it wouldn't hurt none if imu errors were shown, unlike the compass calibration where a poor calibration could occur due to external sources.

Bigplumbs Posted at 6-21 08:18
It is generally wise not to update stuff if it is working ok. Remember the old adage if it aint broke don't fix it

you started a poll about the signal issue - if you look into your own poll about 42% are unhappy with the signal/range. Only 37% are o.k. with it.
that is almost half of the users (that are not o.k.) and I can understand that people upgrade software with the hope it solves the problem

Blériot53 Posted at 6-21 12:58
I'll be like a juggler trying to keep all three drones airborne - but not all at the smae time
The Mini One may have to find a new home eventually.

Maybe Mrs. B will get into drone flying and you can pass the OG Mini to her.  

Fred Fred Fred Posted at 6-21 18:21
With regards to the 3 meter distance from where you took off that’s actually normal as even my Mavic 3 has that  but maybe I would suggest resetting the IMU but I’m no expert.

The Mavic 3 does have precision landing (if you follow the correct steps on takeoff and do not adjust the hompeoint during the flight), so should land within about 30cm of its take off.

None of the Minis have precision landing, obviously.

Fred Fred Fred Posted at 6-21 18:21
With regards to the 3 meter distance from where you took off that’s actually normal as even my Mavic 3 has that  but maybe I would suggest resetting the IMU but I’m no expert.

Even if you have precision landing you are still depending on GPS fix to land the drone, so yes always allow the tolerance of 3 metres because I don’t believe the science behind precision landing is 100% accurate.

DowntownRDB Posted at 6-22 05:28
Maybe Mrs. B will get into drone flying and you can pass the OG Mini to her.

She flew it a couple of times in France - but she's never going to be an enthusiast.

Blériot53 Posted at 6-22 06:23
She flew it a couple of times in France - but she's never going to be an enthusiast.

I know that feeling.  Mrs TheBoy is more than happy to come out for a stroll (or a drive, if my chosen place is further than we want to walk), and watch/sit in the car/read/play on her phone/whatever, but only flies one under duress.

TheBoy Posted at 6-22 06:32
I know that feeling.  Mrs TheBoy is more than happy to come out for a stroll (or a drive, if my chosen place is further than we want to walk), and watch/sit in the car/read/play on her phone/whatever, but only flies one under duress.

Your Mrs and mine might be twins
Certainly behaviourally.

Blériot53 Posted at 6-22 06:23
She flew it a couple of times in France - but she's never going to be an enthusiast.

Awww, that's a shame, but at least she gave it a try.

DowntownRDB Posted at 6-22 09:37
Awww, that's a shame, but at least she gave it a try.

She likes the results well enough though

Blériot53 Posted at 6-22 09:45
She likes the results well enough though

Well at least that is a positive.  

Blériot53 Posted at 6-22 09:45
She likes the results well enough though

Yup, they sound like twins!

TheBoy Posted at 6-23 00:23
Yup, they sound like twins!

.
48 hours with the Mini3Pro now, and liking it better every flight (4 so far).

Blériot53 Posted at 6-23 00:30
.
48 hours with the Mini3Pro now, and liking it better every flight (4 so far).

Its a good step up from the Mavic Mini 1.  Its a decent step from the Mini 2, though obviously many Mini 2 owners are disappointed by the signal strength/reliability.

TheBoy Posted at 6-23 00:45
Its a good step up from the Mavic Mini 1.  Its a decent step from the Mini 2, though obviously many Mini 2 owners are disappointed by the signal strength/reliability.

I did an urban test with mine this morning to check signal range. Flew N.S.E. and W from homepoint in turn, at 70m altitude.  I was able to get to the limit of VLOS easily to north and east ( least obstructions) and with some signal loss in the other two directions to between 3 and 4 hundred metres.
That's about the same result as I get from the Mini1 and the M2Z.
So, no better or worse is my conclusion. Certainly plenty of range for my operations.

Bashy Posted at 6-22 00:27
But it wouldn't hurt none if imu errors were shown, unlike the compass calibration where a poor calibration could occur due to external sources.

In most circumstances thats also not the case. Lift up your drone when its turned on, turn it 90 degrees and you will almost certainly get IMU error and calibrating is not the remedy.

hallmark007 Posted at 6-23 01:20
In most circumstances thats also not the case. Lift up your drone when its turned on, turn it 90 degrees and you will almost certainly get IMU error and calibrating is not the remedy.

Fair enough, thanks, I've not seen this, perhaps because I turn mine on whilst in the air, it certainly gets turned in the air prior to take off though

De Fender Posted at 6-22 03:20
you started a poll about the signal issue - if you look into your own poll about 42% are unhappy with the signal/range. Only 37% are o.k. with it.
that is almost half of the users (that are not o.k.) and I can understand that people upgrade software with the hope it solves the problem

These polls are really only about having a bit of fun, do you really think that if everything is good with your drone you will bother signing up to a poll, I don’t think so, but if you have something wrong there is an urgent need to vent about it. Its called human nature.

I am not sure if I understand what you are trying to say. Yes issues are more expressed compared to expressing in case you are happy.
However thats what I think the poll is for. In his poll more people are unhappy than happy. Those are customer complains and should be taken seriously.
But I dont think DJI is even acknowledging the issue.
I am happy for the ones of you which dont have the issue but that doesnt mean the ones complaining just imagining it.