What just hit my drone?
1507 31 2023-5-4
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LeoTheeVinci
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Hi, just bought my mini 3 pro so I was practicing flying around. When I was recording, something unknown hit my drone and sensors didn't detect anything, thankfully it didn't crash.

Could it be a wind gust or a small bird? Dunno, I have a short video footage of it here.



2023-5-4
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djiuser_E61FCQDaYZBl
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Wow lol, might it have just been a gimbal error? or you could have been flying through wind and the gimbal got pushed over it’s limit, weird it didn't pick up on the sensors though
2023-5-4
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Labroides
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That looks like gimbal movement rather than something hitting the drone.
Your recorded flight data would confirm whether that's what happened.
2023-5-4
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LeoTheeVinci
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Not sure if there's a wind gust though, I checked the trees and they're not moving. I was also flying high enough to avoid the wires... I just hoped it was just a gimbal glitch error or something lol. I got scared and flew straight up and away. This drone is just a day old, and I bought it for our family trip to little boracay.

Another possible explanation could be that a bird flew close to it. There's a local bird here called Yellow-vented bulbul (super playful fast flying birds), that likes annoying cats in our backyard.
2023-5-4
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LeoTheeVinci
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Labroides Posted at 5-4 17:32
That looks like gimbal movement rather than something hitting the drone.
Your recorded flight data would confirm whether that's what happened.

No idea how am I going to do that lol.. I turned off the subtitles as well in the settings.
2023-5-4
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Labroides
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LeoTheeVinci Posted at 5-4 17:44
No idea how am I going to do that lol.. I turned off the subtitles as well in the settings.

To post your flight data, go to http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/
It has instructions to find the .txt file from your phone or tablet which you can upload to that site
Upload it and it gives you a summary of the flight data.
Post a link to that summary.

Or just post the .txt file
2023-5-4
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DJI Paladin
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Hi there. Thank you for reaching out and we do apologize for the trouble. Can you please confirm if you did experience an error message on the DJI Fly app upon experiencing this issue? Are you flying in sports mode or normal mode? Please keep us posted. Thank you.
2023-5-4
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DAFlys
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Looks like it was windy and the gimbal couldnt keep up,   not uncommon in strong winds.  
2023-5-5
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No Original Thought
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Sorry, you're all barking up the wrong tree here.

That was clearly aliens with a failed attempt at grabbing the drone with a tractor beam.

I'm 100% certain that if the flight logs are uploaded then they will confirm this. (And if they don't, then clearly the aliens have technology capable of manipulating flight logs to cover their tracks).
2023-5-5
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LeoTheeVinci
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Labroides Posted at 5-4 18:21
To post your flight data, go to http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/
It has instructions to find the .txt file from your phone or tablet which you can upload to that site
Upload it and it gives you a summary of the flight data.

Finally got where the flight logs are... I just plugged in the RC to my pc and found em all in the internal storage.

Here's the link: https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/13ZR24X81MIC1THZMJ5R
Don't see any anomalies or red texts aside from having low signal.
2023-5-5
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LeoTheeVinci
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DJI Paladin Posted at 5-4 18:31
Hi there. Thank you for reaching out and we do apologize for the trouble. Can you please confirm if you did experience an error message on the DJI Fly app upon experiencing this issue? Are you flying in sports mode or normal mode? Please keep us posted. Thank you.

Didn't prompt any errors. As a 1st time drone owner/user, how can I dare switch into sports mode? lol (just in normal mode)
You can check the flight log I posted.
2023-5-5
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Sean-bumble-bee
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Was this around 11:33?
2023-5-5
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Labroides
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LeoTheeVinci Posted at 5-5 01:22
Finally got where the flight logs are... I just plugged in the RC to my pc and found em all in the internal storage.

Here's the link: https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/13ZR24X81MIC1THZMJ5R

It's a 14 minute flight ... do you know when the issue showed up?
2023-5-5
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LeoTheeVinci
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You can start from 11m 22s > 12m 40s. For some reason the vid was cut every 5:24 length (3.50gb) size.
Tnx for the help guys
2023-5-5
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Drone.Hunter
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It was a strong gust of wind and still during the turn. I had exactly the same.
2023-5-5
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Jake. A
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I don't think anything hit the drone. Its just something the gimbal does in strong winds.
2023-5-5
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Labroides
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LeoTheeVinci Posted at 5-5 04:18
You can start from 11m 22s > 12m 40s. For some reason the vid was cut every 5:24 length (3.50gb) size.
Tnx for the help guys

For some reason the vid was cut every 5:24 length (3.50gb) size
There is a filesize limit and if you record continuously, it will be cut into 3.7 GB segments
2023-5-5
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Bashy
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I am with everyone else but, the 1st thing I checked was the trees,  but they're not even flinching, and even the palms are quiet, so unless the ground is very sheltered, I would go with, the gimbal movement was due to the relatively sharp in sports mode, don't fret, it's normal.
2023-5-5
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Labroides
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LeoTheeVinci Posted at 5-5 04:18
You can start from 11m 22s > 12m 40s. For some reason the vid was cut every 5:24 length (3.50gb) size.
Tnx for the help guys

I've gone over the 400 lines of pitch, roll and yaw data for that time period and can't see anything to indicate that the drone where that the drone was knocked around in there.
You were throwing the drone around quite a bit (nothing wrong with that), so there were a lot of changes in pitch, roll and yaw.
But for all the changes, there were matching changes in joystick input.
It looks like you ran into a little gimbal glitching that can happen when a moderately strong air flow hits the camera broadside.
2023-5-5
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Drone.Hunter
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Bashy Posted at 5-5 06:32
I am with everyone else but, the 1st thing I checked was the trees,  but they're not even flinching, and even the palms are quiet, so unless the ground is very sheltered, I would go with, the gimbal movement was due to the relatively sharp in sports mode, don't fret, it's normal.

Even at a distance of 5 m, the wind can be different. Especially the pores of the wind in 2 seconds.
2023-5-5
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LeoTheeVinci
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Labroides Posted at 5-5 06:44
I've gone over the 400 lines of pitch, roll and yaw data for that time period and can't see anything to indicate that the drone where that the drone was knocked around in there.
You were throwing the drone around quite a bit (nothing wrong with that), so there were a lot of changes in pitch, roll and yaw.
But for all the changes, there were matching changes in joystick input.

Glad to know it was just a gimbal glitch. I've flown it for an hour more in the afternoon yesterday and it never reoccurred. Didn't know I was throwing my drone quite a bit lol.
2023-5-5
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LeoTheeVinci
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Bashy Posted at 5-5 06:32
I am with everyone else but, the 1st thing I checked was the trees,  but they're not even flinching, and even the palms are quiet, so unless the ground is very sheltered, I would go with, the gimbal movement was due to the relatively sharp in sports mode, don't fret, it's normal.

Yeah, same thoughts exactly. But I didn't switch to sports mode as I was too afraid I'd hit something.
2023-5-5
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LeoTheeVinci
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Labroides Posted at 5-5 06:10
For some reason the vid was cut every 5:24 length (3.50gb) size
There is a filesize limit and if you record continuously, it will be cut into 3.7 GB segments

I thought it was a FAT32 file system limit thing. I was thinking if I format my SD card to NTFS or exFAT my vids won't be cut in to 3.7GB segments.
2023-5-5
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Sean-bumble-bee
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I am not so sure it's a pure gimbal twitch, if you look at the attached the drone's roll is the most extreme recorded in the flight. I am not sure if that's deceleration or something else.
Can you adjust the severity of the braking on the mini 3? If so how severe do you have it set?

Screen Shot 2023-05-05 at 23.29.38.png
2023-5-5
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Bashy
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LeoTheeVinci Posted at 5-5 13:50
Yeah, same thoughts exactly. But I didn't switch to sports mode as I was too afraid I'd hit something.

If you wasnt in Sports mode, then it was unlikely to be a gimbal glitch. It was the harsh turn the threw me. perhaps you was nudged by a budgie as Sean has highlighted
2023-5-5
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Bashy
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Drone.Hunter Posted at 5-5 06:45
Even at a distance of 5 m, the wind can be different. Especially the pores of the wind in 2 seconds.

Those trees tell a different story, I have a Pro weather station, the anny is set at 10m, i also have a cheaper ultrasonic anny thats at about 4m till i can be asked to lower the mast and reposition it, Its semi-protected by nearby roofs. The pro station reads only about 10mph (max) faster,

What im getting at is, those trees are in a dead calm, if there was any decent winds at the pilots height, i mean enough to push the gimbal past its max resistance, those palms would at least be showing a little movement but theres not even twitch from them.

Also, the Flight Attitude Radar says that there was no wind at that height, check it out, and watch each time the drone stops, the attitude of the drone is level, indicative of calm winds.

Airdata would put this to bed as it would estimate the winds at height, but the Radar says it all.
2023-5-5
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LeoTheeVinci
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Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 5-5 14:48
I am not so sure it's a pure gimbal twitch, if you look at the attached the drone's roll is the most extreme recorded in the flight. I am not sure if that's deceleration or something else.
Can you adjust the severity of the braking on the mini 3? If so how severe do you have it set?

Everything's at default. Break sensitivity was set to 100 at normal preset.
2023-5-5
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Labroides
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Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 5-5 14:48
I am not so sure it's a pure gimbal twitch, if you look at the attached the drone's roll is the most extreme recorded in the flight. I am not sure if that's deceleration or something else.
Can you adjust the severity of the braking on the mini 3? If so how severe do you have it set?

I am not so sure it's a pure gimbal twitch, if you look at the attached the drone's roll is the most extreme recorded in the flight. I am not sure if that's deceleration or something else.
You have to look at more data to see what was happening because there's a lot happening all at once with movement in all four axes.
The joystick data shows the right stick was near fully right and a little forward, making the drone fly sideways at near full speed.
At the same time the left stick is quickly pulled fully down to make the drone descend and the left stick is pushed left to make the drone rotate anti-clockwise.

Then the sticks are all centred making the drone brake hard to stop all 3D motion.
It pitches forwards, then back to stop forward motion.
The roll swings from right to left, then centres and the motors speed up at different rates to arrest the descent and the rotation.

The gimbal movement is all appropriate to stabilise the camera while the drone is being tossed around in all directions at once.
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2023-5-5
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Sean-bumble-bee
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Ta, I had seen that the drone was decelerating quite sharply but forgot to 'move' the OSD.hSpeed column for my screen capture.
2023-5-5
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No Original Thought Posted at 5-5 00:21
Sorry, you're all barking up the wrong tree here.

That was clearly aliens with a failed attempt at grabbing the drone with a tractor beam.

    Nice theory.
2023-5-6
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JJB*
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Did the OP adjust the cam pitch or? see the Cam Pitch Line in bottom chart.

Even with many RC inputs the gimbal was in sync all the time with the drone heading.
Only few up/down moves, as seen in the chart.

Charts starts at 11m15s until last record.

cheers
JJB
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2023-5-6
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DJI Paladin
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LeoTheeVinci Posted at 5-5 01:27
Didn't prompt any errors. As a 1st time drone owner/user, how can I dare switch into sports mode? lol (just in normal mode)
You can check the flight log I posted.

Thank you for your response. We will coordinate this with our designated team for clarification. We appreciate your understanding.
2023-5-7
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