Hello,

I tried the Neo in manual mode several times. Quite stressing but funny.

A few times, while flying I switched from manual mode to sport mode. The Neo becomes totally out of control during the switch, and the last time it crashed seriously. Still able to fly though.

But, how is that it behaves out of control while switching ?
Actually it seems to go full speed and doesn't respond to the RC controller.

Thanks.

Have you learn the basics to use the manual mode on the simulator before doing the flights with your Neo?

I'm no sure the simulator would tell why the Neo doesn't respond to the controller while switching from manual to sport mode.

Hit the "pause/brake" button first. Then switch to sport or normal.

Hi there! Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Regarding the Manual mode for the DJI Neo, please note that it is a fully manual control mode, which offers greater control complexity compared to Normal and Sport modes. In Manual mode, the drone does not hover automatically, so we recommend practicing thoroughly on the simulator before operating your drone in this mode. While flying, it's advisable to avoid sideways maneuvers or U-turns at high speeds, especially sharp lateral drifts or rapid turns on windy days. If the flight altitude exceeds 5 meters and you experience any drone attitude anomalies, for safety reasons, we recommend switching the remote controller to Normal mode before landing. Thank you!

Like 99 % of people you are not up to the task of flying in dangerous, deffo going to crash and break somthing manual mode. It is not big and it is not clever and as you say massive stress. Stick to enjoying FPV and use sport and normal mode and even better the motion controller 3

Morningstar3d Posted at 3-5 13:16
Hit the "pause/brake" button first. Then switch to sport or normal.

Thank you

Steel  Stone Posted at 3-6 02:25
Thank you

"Actually it seems to go full speed and doesn't respond to the RC controller. "If you haven't modified your controller throttle stick, it will snap back to the middle, possibly accelerating the drone very quickly.  Until/unless you have the necessary muscle memory, the drone will seem not to respond. You just don't have the reflexes to put in the correct input.

  Modify the controller,  find a decent simulator and practice!   Manual mode can be great, it just has a long hard learning curve!

  Fly safe, have fun!

Steel  Stone Posted at 3-5 08:33
I'm no sure the simulator would tell why the Neo doesn't respond to the controller while switching from manual to sport mode.

I was talking about the fact that you say that the manual mode is stresing

Bigplumbs Posted at 3-5 21:44
Like 99 % of people you are not up to the task of flying in dangerous, deffo going to crash and break somthing manual mode. It is not big and it is not clever and as you say massive stress. Stick to enjoying FPV and use sport and normal mode and even better the motion controller 3

Keep spreading lies and lies

Morningstar3d Posted at 3-6 04:40
"Actually it seems to go full speed and doesn't respond to the RC controller. "If you haven't modified your controller throttle stick, it will snap back to the middle, possibly accelerating the drone very quickly.  Until/unless you have the necessary muscle memory, the drone will seem not to respond. You just don't have the reflexes to put in the correct input.

  Modify the controller,  find a decent simulator and practice!   Manual mode can be great, it just has a long hard learning curve!

Interesting comment !
Maybe I should have given more context: the spring on the throttle stick is removed (right stick, RC mode 1) and the manual flies were done indoor (thus no satellites).
My reflexes come from flying RC planes, throttle down is the emergency reflex.

What I'm not used to is having a mediatek-like chip in between me and the model connected to too much sensors...

Thanks again for your answer

Fozando Posted at 3-6 06:33
Keep spreading lies and lies

I'm quite new in this forum.
I understand Bigplumbs is the "guru" of the place.
Glad to know that

Steel  Stone Posted at 3-6 08:28
I'm quite new in this forum.
I understand Bigplumbs is the "guru" of the place.
Glad to know that

Yes, it is the best sage of the forum as you can see

Steel  Stone Posted at 3-6 08:13
Interesting comment !
Maybe I should have given more context: the spring on the throttle stick is removed (right stick, RC mode 1) and the manual flies were done indoor (thus no satellites).
My reflexes come from flying RC planes, throttle down is the emergency reflex.

When your in manual mode ALL the sensors are out of the control loop.  You are completely in control. 0% assist from the computer.

  The other thing to remember is that your flying by adjusting thrust vectors not flow over a static wing.  So much faster reactions to smaller inputs.  

   Helicopters just fly different from fixed wing. Whole different set of reflexes!   But fun and challenging!  

Morningstar3d Posted at 3-6 09:59
When your in manual mode ALL the sensors are out of the control loop.  You are completely in control. 0% assist from the computer.

  The other thing to remember is that your flying by adjusting thrust vectors not flow over a static wing.  So much faster reactions to smaller inputs.  

And lots of crashing and breaking things……….. well worth the effort not

Outdoors I fly the Neo in Manual mode.  Too lazy to switch(centering the sticks on the green marks) from N to M mode for taking off. But landing I prefer to land on the pad vs. stubble, dirt, snow, grass..... So I switch to N mode.  I switch when hovering a few meters off the ground using the Brake/Pause switch.  Bit of a stutter.  Beats the shake, rock when I need to bailout of M mode by tapping the Brake/Pause switch.  The sudden braking is probably why the shake and rocking. Don't recall ever switching from M to S mode using the rocker mode switch.  

Have on couple occasions had Neo self switch from M mode to N mode when the combination of altitude and distance exceeded some parameter.  Red warning box OSD pops up and N mode auto engages.  Don't remember any shake or rocking.  Real smooth transition.  Maybe what the OP experienced is just a M to S mode switch.  The shake and rocking experienced was never a real loss of control.  Similar to hard yaw washout when flying M mode.  Can be an issue if flying too low to recover.

OP.  Try switching from M mode to N mode in a safe area from a hover at ~2-3 meters altitude to avoid prop backwash.  If all is good.  Try the same process but M to S mode.  If Neo goes wonky it might be another Neo limitation.   Do you have manual motor cut function engaged.  If not. You might need. If Neo goes off on its own.  Better to cut motors and crash than accelerate off and crash.  Assuming the cut motor function is functional when Neo goes autonomous crash mode. Life with Neo.  Not perfect, but fun.

It seems many owners of the neo experiences a similar issue, the Neo goes crazy and runs full speed without responding to any control from the remote.
Here in the forum
Neo Lost all input and control
DJI NEO Uncontrollable
Also in other places.

So it's not me, it's not flying indoors, it's not the low light, it's not the average quality sensors, it's not flying over water or whatever dji-not-liking-material.
It is the neo firmware that a some point takes bad decisions: spinning motors fast instead of shutting them down in an unexpected situation.

Steel  Stone Posted at 3-12 03:00
It seems many owners of the neo experiences a similar issue, the Neo goes crazy and runs full speed without responding to any control from the remote.
Here in the forum
Neo Lost all input and control

Guessing that a combination of  software and hardware issue.  When flying in N and S modes the downward sensors and the camera sensor requires useable info.  If either or both cannot acquire useable info instead of just going to a stationary hover the Neo goes wonky.  

Place a length of black tape to cover up the downward sensors and power on the Neo.  You probably will get a warning on your OSD and if you try to launch you will end up with an out of control or barely controllable Neo.  Remove tape. Face the camera to a black flat colored object that fill the fov.  You probably will get a warning on your OSD.  

Neo has no issue in flying in almost dark environments or over water if in manual (rate) mode.  Even with less than 6 satellites locked.  All these issues seem to be related to the stabilization system.

Well, I had the same thing happen to me.

  I'm still pretty raw with manual mode, however I can keep the bird flying and (mostly) go where I want.

Did a "touch and go" (belly bounce) that was pretty hard. The bird was still flying, but I was losing it and about to really crash.  I hit the "pause/brake" and it went full throttle, rolled knife edge and took off! It hit the ground pretty hard.

   I'm thinking that the IMU got knocked out of kilter on the touch and go, so when it shifted to normal mode the birds orintation did not match the IMU and it was trying to correct.  Much like a human trying to walk straight while dizzy.  Part of the reasoning here is needing to restart the drone after an impact.

  I have noticed that after a hard bump the bird seems to be "stunned" and not flying the same. A restart seems to clear this up.

Every hard hit I've experienced the red "impact detected" OSD pops up.  Restart usually required.  Slightly impacted the surface looping the Neo a couple days ago.   Red impact detected OSD appeared, but motors did not cut off and control was maintained.  Not sure if when flying manual mode if the motors cut off on impact. Normal process is if impacting the ground to hit the motor on/off switch as fast as I can double tap it to avoid propeller and/or motor damage.  

Neo is a tough little quad.  The ability to bail out of manual mode with a tap of the brake/pause switch or hit the mode rocker switch.  Relatively low powered, slower, and minimal mass.  All nice features for transitioning from stabilized or non -stabilized angle mode to manual mode flying.

One thing I am unsure of what happens if you hit the brake/pause switch when inverted?  Normally Neo motors in N mode and guessing S mode shut off if you grab and invert the quad.   Times I have hit the switch are when I'm clueless to which direction I'm flying or know I've messed up a maneuver or flew into too tight an area for my basic manual skills.

Morningstar3d Posted at 3-23 05:38
Well, I had the same thing happen to me.

  I'm still pretty raw with manual mode, however I can keep the bird flying and (mostly) go where I want.

Same thing has happened to me once switching from M to N to land.  Tapped ground, saw sensor reading “impact detected”.  Flew back to me to stop/restart IMU and wacko flight directly into ground but no damage.  Others on forum have mentioned the same behavior switching to N or Pause after impact detected.  Wish I could come even close to landing in M mode!  Would need a long / wide runway…

OldGuy2024 Posted at 3-23 07:03
Every hard hit I've experienced the red "impact detected" OSD pops up.  Restart usually required.  Slightly impacted the surface looping the Neo a couple days ago.   Red impact detected OSD appeared, but motors did not cut off and control was maintained.  Not sure if when flying manual mode if the motors cut off on impact. Normal process is if impacting the ground to hit the motor on/off switch as fast as I can double tap it to avoid propeller and/or motor damage.  

Neo is a tough little quad.  The ability to bail out of manual mode with a tap of the brake/pause switch or hit the mode rocker switch.  Relatively low powered, slower, and minimal mass.  All nice features for transitioning from stabilized or non -stabilized angle mode to manual mode flying.

“One thing I am unsure of what happens if you hit the brake/pause switch when inverted?”   A possible Drone Wilder video???

Is there a forum thread grouping Neo's flyaway issues ?
Is DJI aware of them, or are they just repeating their "recomendation and safety wording" ?

DannoCoy Posted at 3-23 17:31
“One thing I am unsure of what happens if you hit the brake/pause switch when inverted?”   A possible Drone Wilder video???

Hopefully if he monitors this site.  No YTube account.  Just a viewer so I cannot ask him what happens.  His drop from 100 meter was interesting.  If not viewed.  He cut the motors and let Neo drop.  It self leveled and props probably started autorotating reducing the descent velocity.   CG of Neo must be spot on for self leveling.  Guessing with enough altitude if while inverted you hit the brake/pause switch Neo might self level if the motors stop.  We can hope.  

Steel  Stone Posted at 3-24 04:41
Is there a forum thread grouping Neo's flyaway issues ?
Is DJI aware of them, or are they just repeating their "recomendation and safety wording" ?

DJI is probably aware due to the significant number of posts.  

Neo downward sensors feedback and guessing feedback from the camera sensor into the stabilization system is limited by how well the surface is lighted and relative  texture.  Add a few hard impacts that may require recalibration.  Just limits of the Neo.  Never have had a fly away issue in manual mode.  No stabilization system to get messed up.  Couple indoors fly aways due to flying into a too dark shadow or once when yawing directly into a dark obstacle that filled the goggles fov.  Neo did the same as if flying into a dark area. Uncontrolled acceleration into the dark object.

Simple solution if possible would be to make S mode a pure angle mode.  No stabilization.  Would allow flying in marginal conditions if you don't want to fly in M mode.  We would then have 3 distinct modes.  Also, boost the max speed in S mode to at least 11m/sec.  

Personally would like to see a sub 250gm, Neo dimension replacement for the DJI FPV model with the above noted "solution".  Added mass from larger motors and higher capacity battery.  Hopefully with the power on/off switch built into the battery v. quad.  Added power and mass would allow easier control in wind.  

DannoCoy Posted at 3-23 17:24
Same thing has happened to me once switching from M to N to land.  Tapped ground, saw sensor reading “impact detected”.  Flew back to me to stop/restart IMU and wacko flight directly into ground but no damage.  Others on forum have mentioned the same behavior switching to N or Pause after impact detected.  Wish I could come even close to landing in M mode!  Would need a long / wide runway…

Here is a video showing what happens after a good thump. All was OK while I was in manual.  As soon as I switched to normal, it all went sideways!

You can see from the telemetry at the bottom, the bird was all out of wack. If I had just landed, all would have been good.

Morningstar3d Posted at 3-24 17:31
Here is a video showing what happens after a good thump. All was OK while I was in manual.  As soon as I switched to normal, it all went sideways!

You can see from the telemetry at the bottom, the bird was all out of wack. If I had just landed, all would have been good.

Your height valve after the crash changed to -138ft.

This shouldn't of happened and that's probably why it went crazy after you switched back to normal mode.