I was flying my Mini 3 Pro on July 4th when I completely lost connection to it. There were no warnings, just lost conneciton in an instant. Instead of returning home, I could see the drone  descend after a few seconds. The logs do not appear to contain clues  and the video I was taking at the time has no clues that I can see.  There were some fireworks that started to go off semi-close (I was not trying to get near any fireworks). Could that have caused this to happen? Otherwise, I have no idea. Could someone  have taken control from me? I would think if that was the case, they wouldn't land in a tree?  

Other important items to note:  

• I was using a DJI RC-N1 with iPad that was not bound to the drone. I  usually use a DJI RC to fly.
• I was still on the Mini 3 Pro Dec 2022 firmware version
• Upon recovery, the DJI RC-N1 and iPad could not connect to the drone  and I had to re-pair. It also lost track of how many times I had used  unbound (2x) and it restarted the count, warning I had 5x flights left  before I'd be req'd to bind (it was 3x left at beginning of flight before  crash).
• Drone was found with back arms folded in, strobe light flashing green  instead of white (takes 4-5 button pushes to change from white to green), and 100 yards or  so from the last known GPS location.
  

If you have any ideas, I'd love to hear. I realize now how risky it was to fly with the controller not bound to the drone, so no need to remind me . I'd still like to know if I'm missing something or if I did something that may have caused this so I can avoid in the future.


Flight Log: https://app.airdata.com/share/kqkJBH/GENERAL

YouTube Video w/ details and recording of incident (I just happened to be recording video at the time):

If you intended for people to be able to access your flight log then the page is not properly made public or something. There are no buttons visible to download the "original" etc..

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 7-8 10:46
If you intended for people to be able to access your flight log then the page is not properly made public or something. There are no buttons visible to download the "original" etc..

Well, this is my first time using AirData and I wasn't sure on settings to use. I turned off the downloads option as it showed '(location)' after each of the formats. I'm assuming that means my specific GPS coordinates/location are provided if I allow logs to be downloaded. I tested and that seems to be the case. If I'm missing how to share log download option less GPS coordinates, please let me know. If not possible, I downloaded myself and removed GPS coordinates only. CSV file here: https://www.transfernow.net/en/d ... ce=20230708p60WcJpJ

The only way to remove location data that I know of is, as you have done.
That said whilst I understand the desire for privacy others do not so, you may catch some flak.

However I would suggest you upload the .txt to https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/ and download the csv it creates. The PH csv contails a lot more data than the Airdata csv. Once you have the csv downloaded go through it and EMPTY THE CELLs that contain location data (3 sets ?) but leave the columns themselves and their headers/titles intact. Also, check for any other personal stuff and try to ensure that the field seperators are commas and not tabs or semi colons.

I was flying my Mini 3 Pro on July 4th when I completely lost connection  to it. There were no warnings, just lost conneciton in an instant.  Instead of returning home, I could see the drone  descend after a few  seconds
The reason you lost connection was that your drone had a total power loss.The data ends with the drone in a stable hover with plenty of battery.
There is no indication of any collision impact

Could someone  have taken control from me?
No .. definitely not.

I realize now how risky it was  to fly with the controller not bound to the drone, so no need to remind  me
That wasn't risky at all.

Hi there. Thank you for reaching out and we're sorry for the incident that happened to your drone. You may consider sending the unit in for a proper diagnosis. You may submit a ticket case at https://repair.dji.com/repair/index  . Also, the warranty can be applied depending on the outcome of the damage assessment including the warranty period of your unit. Thank you for your understanding and support.

Labroides Posted at 7-8 17:38
I was flying my Mini 3 Pro on July 4th when I completely lost connection  to it. There were no warnings, just lost conneciton in an instant.  Instead of returning home, I could see the drone  descend after a few  seconds
The reason you lost connection was that your drone had a total power loss.The data ends with the drone in a stable hover with plenty of battery.
There is no indication of any collision impact

Not another one....

Bashy Posted at 7-8 18:26
Not another one....

It's no big deal.
They are DJI's biggest selling drone
The number having problems is insignificant.
There are hundreds of thousands of Mini 3s out there, maybe millions?
So it's to be expected that you'll hear of more problems with this model than others that have sold in much lower numbers.

Labroides Posted at 7-8 17:38
I was flying my Mini 3 Pro on July 4th when I completely lost connection  to it. There were no warnings, just lost conneciton in an instant.  Instead of returning home, I could see the drone  descend after a few  seconds
The reason you lost connection was that your drone had a total power loss.The data ends with the drone in a stable hover with plenty of battery.
There is no indication of any collision impact

Well I’ll be damned, does a parachute deploy when that happens? I’ve never seen a drone descend so slowly with NO power. AND it somehow kept recording video AND saved to the memory card in the drone.Kept recording 4 mins after landing in a tree. Didn’t know I got a magical Drone but now I do, LOL. Watch the vid I posted bud, then explain how that’s ”total power loss.”

DJI Paladin Posted at 7-8 18:21
Hi there. Thank you for reaching out and we're sorry for the incident that happened to your drone. You may consider sending the unit in for a proper diagnosis. You may submit a ticket case at https://repair.dji.com/repair/index  . Also, the warranty can be applied depending on the outcome of the damage assessment including the warranty period of your unit. Thank you for your understanding and support.

Well, I’ve flown it multiple times since without issue. Also taking a trip soon and want to have it. Really just curious what happened and if anything I did. If nothing obviouse, I’m good with rare instance and glad I got it out of the way before my trip. Thanks for your response though!

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 7-8 13:53
The only way to remove location data that I know of is, as you have done.
That said whilst I understand the desire for privacy others do not so, you may catch some flak.

Hey, thanks for your reply. I’ll take a look at that site in the morning (next time in front of computer) and post that format. Appreciate you looking into it!

DroneDude8146 Posted at 7-8 19:21
Well I’ll be damned, does a parachute deploy when that happens? I’ve never seen a drone descend so slowly with NO power. AND it somehow kept recording video AND saved to the memory card in the drone.Kept recording 4 mins after landing in a tree. Didn’t know I got a magical Drone but now I do, LOL. Watch the vid I posted bud, then explain how that’s ”total power loss.”

Well I’ll be damned, does a parachute deploy when that happens? I’ve never seen a drone descend so slowly with NO power. AND it somehow kept recording video AND saved to the memory card in the drone.Kept recording 4 mins after landing in a tree. Didn’t know I got a magical Drone but now I do, LOL.
So you have more relevant information that you gave in your first post.
There was nothing to say that the drone descended slowly.
You said that it crashed.

Just data that stops with the drone 270 feet up in the air.
Now you say that the drone didn't lose power at all, and kept videoing for minutes!
But somehow it happened to lose signal and descend?

Watch the vid I posted bud, then explain how that’s ”total power loss.”
Post your .txt file and I'll be able to check a few more things that might shed light on the incident, but so far there's nothing to go by.

Did you set signal loss action to descend?

We can only speculate what happened here. Here are some theories.

1. You annoyed someone or you were flying in a government secured area and they used signal jamming gun on your drone. These guns are able to jam link and GPS frequencies and if the drone looses both link and GPS it will land on the spot.
2. Your drone overheated midair. This model is known to overheat, especially if you hover for extended period in hot environment. If drone overheats older firmware versions are reported to sever all links to the controller and land on the spot. Newer firmware versions are also reported to sever links to the controller, but instead of landing on the spot they perform signal loss action (RTH, descend or hover).

Not sure if relevant, but in the video you can also see an aeroplane approaching from the right and the drone went down to the left...

Top left corner...

Burt37 Posted at 7-9 03:02
Not sure if relevant, but in the video you can also see an aeroplane approaching from the right and the drone went down to the left...

Top left corner...

It's not relevant .. planes in the area don't have any effect on your drone

Labroides Posted at 7-8 21:37
Well I’ll be damned, does a parachute deploy when that happens? I’ve never seen a drone descend so slowly with NO power. AND it somehow kept recording video AND saved to the memory card in the drone.Kept recording 4 mins after landing in a tree. Didn’t know I got a magical Drone but now I do, LOL.
So you have more relevant information that you gave in your first post.
There was nothing to say that the drone descended slowly.

So I just virtually met you yesterday by posting what I thought was a good bit of information about my incident. If you still have questions or need me to clarify something, then ask. But you don't have to be so condescending about it. I'm sure you have to deal with all kinds of rude folks on here, and I imagine that takes a toll (big reason I rarely post anything in a forum). But do realize that when YOU begin interactions with condescending responses, you're typically going to bring out the worst in folks. Try being nice for a week, or don't, but if you do, I bet it'll be a better week than most.  

Apologies if my title is misleading. When my drone loses connection and descends uncontrolled into the top of a tree, I call that a crash. I said in my post I watched it descend. Maybe I'll update the title to say 'flew itself into a tree'. I took a couple hours to put together the video of the incident so that anyone curious enough could view and have as much information as possible without publicly revealing my place of residence.

I appreciate your offer to look into further, but honestly, you seem more intent on figuring out why I'm an idiot vs. just determining what happened (idiot induced or not). If so, you can move onto the next person in need of assistance. I seem to have found some good, curious, non-judgemental folks willing to look into and kindly point out the error in my ways if that ends up being the case.

I tell my kids all the time, "Get out there and make mistakes. I'll be disappointed if you don't, but just make sure it's not the same ones over and over."

I'm just trying to figure out if there's something I did to be avoided in the future, that's all.

Tuxtard Posted at 7-9 02:28
Did you set signal loss action to descend?

We can only speculate what happened here. Here are some theories.

Yes, I had set it to RTH if signal was lost.

Your theories are both good ones, IMO. Thank you for providing. My thoughts on each:

1. I was flying within commuting distance to the Washington D.C. area, though not in any restricted airspace and not around any government facilities (that I know of). There are all kinds of government folks that reside in my area (secret service, 3 letter agencies, Homeland Security, etc.). It was the 4th of July (US Holiday) with many parties occurring. I was hoovering in one spot for a few minutes before loosing connection and the Drone descending. Could someone with access to a jamming device, annoyed or just wanting to show off for some family/friends decided to jam my drone? I think certainly possible. I googled this, but not a ton of info. on capabilities or anecdotes based on my quick search so I wasn't sure.

2. Also a very valid theory. I wasn't aware of the overheating details and specifically drone actions it takes when it does overheat. I appreciate you providing those details. It was a hot night, but the sun was down and not nearly as hot as I've flown during the day. But, this was my second flight of the evening, so the drone could very well have gotten too hot just from operation. Weather was 75 degrees (F), 23.9 (C), at 75% humidity when I took off. I wasn't flying the drone especially hard, but had started 1 22 minute flight prior to the incident flight, landed, changed batteries, then immediately flew for 17 additional minutes when I lost all contact with the drone. You mentioned based on my older firmware version at the time that links would likely be severed and no specific record of the overheating condition would be logged, but would there be indication of the drone approaching the upper limit of its capability? Would it be battery temp?  

You have provided some good insight, so I do have one follow-on question that I'm curious as to your opinion. In either of the above scenarios, would it cause the controller to forget the drone and have to re-pair after recovery? Specifically, when I took off, I was warned I had 3x flights left before being required to bind the controller to the aircraft (I was using RC-N1 w/ iPad instead of usual controller). After I recovered the drone, I had to re-pair the ipad and RC-N1 to the drone. After I did, the controller/iPad had forgotten how many unbound flights I had taken as it warned me I had 5x flights remaining before being required to bind the controller to the aircraft. I was surprised by that, but maybe it's typical.  

Burt37 Posted at 7-9 03:02
Not sure if relevant, but in the video you can also see an aeroplane approaching from the right and the drone went down to the left...

Top left corner...

I saw that as well but wasn't sure if it played a role. In the video, I had it set to 4x zoom, so not sure how close the aircraft actually was. Those big fireworks in the distance were 5 miles away. I also could see my drone visually, but did not see the aircraft from the video (from my spot on the ground) so I assume it was not THAT close. I also wasn't sure if it was a drone or something like a Cessna. I had seen another drone flying around (from my position on the ground) during the evening and figured that may have been it? I've flown drones with others right next to me and haven't experienced interference issues, but maybe on this evening I did?

DroneDude8146 Posted at 7-9 06:33
So I just virtually met you yesterday by posting what I thought was a good bit of information about my incident. If you still have questions or need me to clarify something, then ask. But you don't have to be so condescending about it. I'm sure you have to deal with all kinds of rude folks on here, and I imagine that takes a toll (big reason I rarely post anything in a forum). But do realize that when YOU begin interactions with condescending responses, you're typically going to bring out the worst in folks. Try being nice for a week, or don't, but if you do, I bet it'll be a better week than most.  

Apologies if my title is misleading. When my drone loses connection and descends uncontrolled into the top of a tree, I call that a crash. I said in my post I watched it descend. Maybe I'll update the title to say 'flew itself into a tree'. I took a couple hours to put together the video of the incident so that anyone curious enough could view and have as much information as possible without publicly revealing my place of residence.

So I just virtually met you yesterday by posting what I thought was a good bit of information about my incident. If you still have questions or need me to clarify something, then ask. But you don't have to be so condescending about it.
I don't know what you getting hot and bothered about and I assure you that I'm not being condescending.
I was reacting to your sarcastic post and explaining the facts ... that you'd left out important information and my analysis was done with what you'd supplied.

When my drone loses connection and descends uncontrolled into the top of a tree, I call that a crash.
We don't know it crashed .. it may have been under some control.
I have an idea about that but would need to see the .txt file to confirm whether it's correct.

I appreciate your offer to look into further, but honestly, you seem more intent on figuring out why I'm an idiot vs. just determining what happened (idiot induced or not).
I'm only interested in solving flight incident puzzles and helping folks.
I'm unimpressed by sarcastic remarks from people who withold important info and then get snarky about my analysis.
I'm also unimpressed by your further response and suggestions about etiquette from someone whose ettiquette is lacking.

If so, you can move onto the next person in need of assistance. I seem to have found some good, curious, non-judgemental folks willing to look into and kindly point out the error in my ways if that ends up being the case.
I'm just trying to figure out if there's something I did to be avoided in the future, that's all.
And I was just trying to help.
Good luck finding someone in this forum that can.

DroneDude8146 Posted at 7-9 07:22
I saw that as well but wasn't sure if it played a role. In the video, I had it set to 4x zoom, so not sure how close the aircraft actually was. Those big fireworks in the distance were 5 miles away. I also could see my drone visually, but did not see the aircraft from the video (from my spot on the ground) so I assume it was not THAT close. I also wasn't sure if it was a drone or something like a Cessna. I had seen another drone flying around (from my position on the ground) during the evening and figured that may have been it? I've flown drones with others right next to me and haven't experienced interference issues, but maybe on this evening I did?

I had seen another drone flying around (from my position on the ground) during the evening and figured that may have been it?
No ... other drones can't do that either.

but would there be indication of the drone approaching the upper limit of its capability? Would it be battery temp?  

Yes ... that's all in the .txt file

Burt37 Posted at 7-9 03:02
Not sure if relevant, but in the video you can also see an aeroplane approaching from the right and the drone went down to the left...

Top left corner...

Where please?

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 7-9 10:30
Where please?

The other left... Top RIGHT corner.... I meant Right corner...

Can you post a screen capture with an arrow pointing to the plane please?

Labroides Posted at 7-9 08:30
So I just virtually met you yesterday by posting what I thought was a good bit of information about my incident. If you still have questions or need me to clarify something, then ask. But you don't have to be so condescending about it.
I don't know what you getting hot and bothered about and I assure you that I'm not being condescending.
I was reacting to your sarcastic post and explaining the facts ... that you'd left out important information and my analysis was done with what you'd supplied.

"And I was just trying to help.
Good luck finding someone in this forum that can."

If this is not being condescendent, you tell me what it is....

You also just insulted everybody else in this forum... There is no need for this...

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 7-9 11:27
Can you post a screen capture with an arrow pointing to the plane please?

The plane is in the upper right moving to the left. It is several miles from the drone. There is no way it has anything to do with the incident.

Burt37 Posted at 7-9 11:38
"And I was just trying to help.
Good luck finding someone in this forum that can."

Of course the perpetual troll has to chime in.
Get lost weasel

Mobilehomer Posted at 7-9 13:21
The plane is in the upper right moving to the left. It is several miles from the drone. There is no way it has anything to do with the incident.

Ahhh got it, thanks.

DroneDude8146 Posted at 7-8 19:40
Well, I’ve flown it multiple times since without issue. Also taking a trip soon and want to have it. Really just curious what happened and if anything I did. If nothing obviouse, I’m good with rare instance and glad I got it out of the way before my trip. Thanks for your response though!

Thank you for your response. We totally understand your decision but since the unit already experience a crash, we highly recommend you send it so we can check the damage. Should you have other inquiries, please don't hesitate to reach us. Thank you for your understanding.

Losing connection with your DJI Mini 3 Pro during flight can have various potential causes. The fireworks in close proximity could potentially interfere with the drone's signal, causing a loss of connection. Fireworks can emit electromagnetic interference that may disrupt the communication between the remote controller and the drone. However, without further data or analysis, it is challenging to determine the exact cause. It's unlikely that someone took control of your drone mid-flight since it descended and landed in a tree. It's worth noting that using a non-bound DJI RC-N1 and iPad may have contributed to the issue, as it could introduce additional variables and potential connectivity problems. It's advisable to ensure proper binding and use the recommended equipment to minimize the risk of similar incidents in the future.

"It's worth noting that using a non-bound DJI RC-N1 and iPad may have contributed to the issue, as it could introduce additional variables and potential connectivity problems.".
That is unlikely, thousands of RC-N1/RC231 must be used unbound, anyone with an 'old', pre FLYaway insurance, Mini 2 is, most likely using an unbound RC-N1/RC231 controller.