First of all:  Merry Christmas everyone.

Secondly:  

This afternoon I went on a long flight.   I've had her for several weeks now and had no incidents or strange behavior.    Two days ago I was flying in the neighborhood at 300 ft of altitude and suddenly got an obstacle avoidance notification out of the blue.    I resumed normal flight and had no other issue.

This afternoon I went on a long flight and when I was almost back to the house I got another obstacle avoidance error (again at a high altitude) and the craft stopped.    I then resumed flying back towards my house and it did it again.   It wasn't pointed into the sun.   I then went to manually reduce altitude and the craft went into land mode.   Luckily I'm pretty experienced and didn't panic -- I simply pushed up on the stick and overrode it.   I flew a little closer towards my house and tried to lower altitude again and it once again went into landing mode (this is at about 300 ft altitude both times).     So I overrode again, flew a circle and came back to my landing area and was able to land it without further issue.

Anyone else experiencing 1) errant and random obstacle avoidance at a high altitude without anything nearby and 2) the craft wanting to go into landing mode at a higher altitude over 200 ft?  

If I was some distance away or experiencing a weak or interrupted RC signal and the craft decides to go into landing mode and I can't get an override signal to it -- it could lead to a catastophe.   

Merry Christmas, NomadRT.
Did you capture a screenshot of the error message?
Besides, what's the distance when the aircraft wants to land?

DJI Mindy Posted at 2016-12-24 20:33
Merry Christmas, NomadRT.
Did you capture a screenshot of the error message?
Besides, what's the distance when the aircraft wants to land?

The aircraft wanted to auto-land at a altitude of about 220 feet at the time.    It was after I pulled down on the stick to manually reduce altitude and it went into auto-land at 220 feet.    So I aborted auto land and flew on and eventually brought her in myself.   

I know there is a language barrier between us, so let me see if I can take you through step by step:

1.  I was flying home manually
2.  I got an obstacle avoidance alert at an altitude of 230+ feet.  There was no obstacle but it stopped my craft.
3.  I pulled down on the stick to reduce altitude
4.  The aircraft initiated auto-land at an altitude of 220 feet (I got the 'Landing' audio queue from my phone).
5.  I pushed up on the stick to climb and it cancelled the auto-land

So somehow pulling down on the stick to reduce altitude initiated an auto-landing.     I'm concerned because I definitely do not want this to happen unexpectedly at a distance or in an area of low signal strength.

NomadRT Posted at 2016-12-26 03:54
The aircraft wanted to auto-land at a altitude of about 220 feet at the time.    It was after I pulled down on the stick to manually reduce altitude and it went into auto-land at 220 feet.    So I aborted auto land and flew on and eventually brought her in myself.   

I know there is a language barrier between us, so let me see if I can take you through step by step:

Lol why would you think there is a language barrier ?

Do you struggle writing/reading english ?

Let me try to take you through step by step

1.Mindy was asking if you took a screenshot of the error message " i got another obstacle avoidance error"

2. Mindy also asked what the distance of the aircraft was when it attempted to land (please note distance not altitude)

Hopefully having numbers in front of each question will help in comprehension.... i know i cant read Mandarin at all ... never learnt the language ... but if somone numbers each sentence ... i can read it fluently .  

z4k4tt4ck Posted at 2016-12-26 04:46
Lol why would you think there is a language barrier ?

Do you struggle writing/reading english ?

First of all,  I was trying to be helpful to Mindy.   She's from China so I'm about 90% sure her first language isn't English.  I rambled a bit in my first post so I thought the step by step account might be easier.

Secondly, I was 200 feet distance from me.   220 altitude.

Thirdly, while I was trying to be helpful to Mindy... you most certainly were NOT trying to be helpful here.   You came in condescending and being an ---.   So shove off into someone else's thread.

OK so the glitches just got more serious.    I just completed a short flight to see if I could reproduce the symptoms in the flight from yesterday.     Yeah... it got worse.   

This time the descend commend (pulling down on the left stick) was not responsive at all.    The aircraft acted as if I wasn't even pulling down on the left stick to lower it.   Instead it started RISING in altitude.   The ONLY way I could keep it from continuing to rise is to pull down on the stick 3 times and it would initiate auto land.    When I took it back out of landing mode the craft would start rising again with NO response to a downward left stick press.  

I did this multiple times trying to troubleshoot and it was the same every time.    I finally decided to initiate Return To Home even though I was about 25 yards from the home point.   I've done this before with no problem.   This time it tried to land immediately.   It was 50 ft in altitude but gave me the message about being 1.5 feet from landing and asking me to slide right to complete the landing.   

I have flown the Mavic for several weeks now.   Many flights.   No issues until the strange stuff that started happening yesterday.    It was FAR FAR worse today.    I now have suddenly gone from ecstatic about the aircraft to complete loss of confidence in it.   

Btw -- I have synced my flight records.  The issues are from the last two flights (yesterday and today).

Been seeing quite a few reports of this kind of thing in the past week or so... Kinda worrying. The fact that you've had no issues until now is especially worrying. Your incidents don't seem to correspond with a new firmware or app update (unless you updated belatedly), which makes it seem like your Mavic suddenly developed a hardware problem.

I have a theory given my latest troubles that the gimbal system is seriously flawed. I've flown rc jets and helis for 20 year for JR and Futaba systems and I've never had any issues like I do with the
Mavic. I'm not sure what gimbal system it employs but it seems magnetic and very prone to interferance

Jonty2 Posted at 2016-12-26 00:51
I have a theory given my latest troubles that the gimbal system is seriously flawed. I've flown rc jets and helis for 20 year for JR and Futaba systems and I've never had any issues like I do with the
Mavic. I'm not sure what gimbal system it employs but it seems magnetic and very prone to interferance

Just to clarify, when you are talking about the gimbal system, you are talking about the stick, correct?  I just ask because some, like me, may initially read your comments and think that you are talking about the camera gimbal which would seem quite odd.

NomadRT Posted at 2016-12-26 06:30
OK so the glitches just got more serious.    I just completed a short flight to see if I could reproduce the symptoms in the flight from yesterday.     Yeah... it got worse.   

This time the descend commend (pulling down on the left stick) was not responsive at all.    The aircraft acted as if I wasn't even pulling down on the left stick to lower it.   Instead it started RISING in altitude.   The ONLY way I could keep it from continuing to rise is to pull down on the stick 3 times and it would initiate auto land.    When I took it back out of landing mode the craft would start rising again with NO response to a downward left stick press.  

Firstly, thank you. You are very helpful. :-)
Could you please upload the flight data to dropbox and send me the link?
Our engineers will help to review it.
Besides, is your DJI account email the same as your forum email?
You can use the same method as for the Phantom 4.
Here is a video tutorial for reference:

DJI Mindy Posted at 2016-12-26 04:17
Firstly, thank you. You are very helpful. :-)
Could you please upload the flight data to dropbox and send me the link?
Our engineers will help to review it.

Thanks Mindy,

I have a terrible internet connection here so it's taking me a LONG time to upload the exported flight data so please bear with me.

To answer your other question:  yes my forum email and my  DJI account email are the same.

DJI Mindy Posted at 2016-12-26 04:17
Firstly, thank you. You are very helpful. :-)
Could you please upload the flight data to dropbox and send me the link?
Our engineers will help to review it.

Do you need the vision module files?   The export of the two flights plus the vision module files are nearly a gig, and my upload speeds are EXTREMELY low.   It's going to take me nearly 24 hours to upload them to dropbox.  

I'm letting it upload.   It's showing around 11 hours left....   

Yes I mean stick gimbals - something is not
right with the design.

Hello Nomad!
Had the exact same problem here last couple of flights. As weve seemed to conclude in other treads with the same problem of forced autolandings and problems with descent/climb, it seems there is a problem with the VPS sensors. Some people have had the problem resolved by doing a VPS calibration via DJI assistant. Unfortunately, this is not something i have the equipment for right now as I am abroad, but maybe you can give it a go?

Hopefully this will help out. Would love to hear how it goes for you.

Best regards.

My obstacle clearance issue is related to pointing toward the sun...they need to fix this asap.

NomadRT Posted at 2016-12-26 05:42
First of all,  I was trying to be helpful to Mindy.   She's from China so I'm about 90% sure her first language isn't English.  I rambled a bit in my first post so I thought the step by step account might be easier.

Secondly, I was 200 feet distance from me.   220 altitude.

       Hmmmm clearly Mindy has no trouble comprehending english... you however did not answer the questions she asked. You are from the united states and considering about 15% of the Adult population can't read i assumed you had trouble, so i tried to be helpful and point out the questions that were asked you did not answer.   
       You assumed there was a language barrier because mindy was from china ... i assumed there was a language barrier because you were from the United States. Where you were "helpful" i was "condescending" ok.
      

Join the club, I as well as 100' s of others have been experiencing the same issues as you for weeks now. There are several threads about these issues.

Also I think these issues might have something to do with the reflection of the snow on the ground over half the U.S.

R&L Aerial  Posted at 2016-12-26 15:26
Also I think these issues might have something to do with the reflection of the snow on the ground over half the U.S.

I have no snow.   It's 75 degrees here in Alabama.
Not a fun club to be in!      Since it doesn't happen consistently and multiple people are experiencing it - I'm hoping it's a software glitch.

DJI Mindy Posted at 2016-12-26 04:17
Firstly, thank you. You are very helpful. :-)
Could you please upload the flight data to dropbox and send me the link?
Our engineers will help to review it.

Hey Mindy,

I've completed the upload.   Here is a link to the file in Dropbox.

flight records

NomadRT Posted at 2016-12-27 06:45
Hey Mindy,

I've completed the upload.   Here is a link to the file in Dropbox.

Many thanks for your cooperation.
I'll help to pass your data files to our engineers for review.

I've had the same issue except I wasn't even very high just about 80',,, and it always happened when facing the sun!!! I've wrote a post about this as well! It was always OV  front cameras ,I seem to think it was always happening when ev r I was facing the sun!!!

Based on past experience, a new calibration of the vision system with the DJI assistant would help.

DJI Mindy Posted at 2016-12-26 19:19
Many thanks for your cooperation.
I'll help to pass your data files to our engineers for review.

Hey Mindy,

Any recommendations?   Should I re-calibrate the VPS to see if that resolves my issue?
I didn't test any yesterday as it was raining.

I re-calibrated.   Once this wind dies down I'll test it out.

I did one flight today for roughly 10 minutes.   No problems so far.   I'll do more flights tomorrow or Saturday.

I saw this a few times while rotating (yaw only) on a sunny day. There was nothing around it (as far as I could tell) and was only a warning. Obstacle avoidance never turned red although not sure what would had happened if I had tried to move forward. I will continue to monitor on my end. If I see anything that keeps me from flying I'll post back here.

NomadRT Posted at 2016-12-29 18:42
I did one flight today for roughly 10 minutes.   No problems so far.   I'll do more flights tomorrow or Saturday.

Thank you for your update. Please keep us posted.

Happy new year everyone!

I did a recalibrate of the VPS sensors (fore and below) and did a test flight today. Normal mode.

The "upwards autodrift/forced autolanding glitch" happened - the drone drifted upwards right into some pine-trees and naturally crashed spectacularly.
So what now DJI? I´ve tried troubleshooting but the drone (if still flyable) is a hazard.


Thanks for any help!