First off, I want to say I love DJI as a company - but this situation has really let me down. I've seen a lot of similar videos where people fly their Mavic and lost RC control and GPS signal lock with a STRONG signal, for no reason. Then they can't do anything or send commands to their Mavic to get it back. It is pretty scary, to be honest. I have never experienced this with a DJI product before. My confidence in the air is not the same now. Usually, I can maneuver situations but this completely lost all control. Nothing worked. I am a very experienced pilot who flys for a lot of productions and clients. So I have had my fair share of experience.
But this was not user error what so ever. The day this crashed, my friends Mavic ALSO crashed for the same REASON! We were not in the same area. So I was just about to fly, had GPS lock and I take the quadcopter into the air, everything seems normal. Then all of a sudden, my phone disconnects and I have no signal. The RC is still working though so I work on bringing it back to figure out what's going on. THEN the Mavic starts flashing yellow, and I lost control with MY RC! No matter what commands I gave my RC, the Mavic started drifting on its own. I have NO idea what happened. Faulty RC? The Mavic proceeds to drift, crashes into a tree, regains control, then crashes into a car. There are a lot of visual scuffs and damage done to the Mavic. I do have DJI care refresh but I do not think its fair to use that for this Mavic. This was not user error. This was software or hardware error, and I have the video, flight data, and records to prove it. Is it possible DJI can reimburse me with a new Mavic without tapping into my Care refresh? Since the care refresh covers accidental damage, and this was not accidental. I am afraid of this happening again, that's why I would like a new Mavic. I am upset because I wanted to take this drone with me onto a trip but I will probably have to wait weeks until they figure everything out. I would like to know what my options are, but I have heard that DJI doesn't have the best customer service, so I don't know what to expect..
{flight data has been uploaded below}
I don't know how to upload flight data, records, and logs so if someone knows how to do that please let me know. I really want to investigate this. This happened to my friend on the same day as well so this is really really worrisome. I want to understand why this happened. Anyone have any similar situations? Video will be uploaded.
http://www.phantomhelp.com just go on this site and follow instructions. Sorry to hear about your crash, but it will still be good to know what happened.
hallmark007 Posted at 2017-1-2 12:30
http://www.phantomhelp.com just go on this site and follow instructions. Sorry to hear about your crash, but it will still be good to know what happened.
You'll need to connect the mavic to your PC and use the DJI Assistant 2 software ( https://www.dji.com/mavic/info#downloads )
Extract your Logs and upload them to Dropbox or similar ... post the link here for the download and log a support case with this forum link etc
Its hard to see but it looks like your mavic was starting to do a toilet bowl effect, which usually means that the compass calibration is off ... why it lost connection, who knows ...
What phone are you using?
What DJI go Version?
What Firmware version on the mavic?
Danny-B- Posted at 2017-1-2 12:45
You'll need to connect the mavic to your PC and use the DJI Assistant 2 software ( https://www.dji.com/mavic/info#downloads )
Extract your Logs and upload them to Dropbox or similar ... post the link here for the download and log a support case with this forum link etc
I will do that now.
I was using a Samsung Galaxy s7 Edge
Latest Firmware that DJI just released around 12-27 I think.
I was using the DJI go 4 app.
Could it have been the updates that messed up this flight? I lost complete control. No commands were being sent to the Mavic. Really scary.
I use the Galaxy s7 Edge too, run the latest firmware and run the latest DJI Go4 app, so i'd say no it doesn't seem to be related to that. infact i'd say the latest firmware is the most stable so far ...
In anycase, get a case logged, they will ask you to send it in for evaluation i'd say ... then take it from there.
start with extracting the logs though as this is the first step.
According to a quick look at those logs which are very short , you had zero signal you had no gps you got 2 warnings you were in Atti mode at this point. I think you should try uploading to phantomhelp you will get more information as this was a very short flight. Also night time flying in built up areas when you don't have great or no signal, it's a risk.
Danny-B- Posted at 2017-1-2 12:58
I use the Galaxy s7 Edge too, run the latest firmware and run the latest DJI Go4 app, so i'd say no it doesn't seem to be related to that. infact i'd say the latest firmware is the most stable so far ...
In anycase, get a case logged, they will ask you to send it in for evaluation i'd say ... then take it from there.
Yeah I have flown there before with my Phantom 3. When I upload the flight data, how can I view this data? Is there a program for that?
hallmark007 Posted at 2017-1-2 13:03
According to a quick look at those logs which are very short , you had zero signal you had no gps you got 2 warnings you were in Atti mode at this point. I think you should try uploading to phantomhelp you will get more information as this was a very short flight. Also night time flying in built up areas when you don't have great or no signal, it's a risk.
I actually had a very strong signal. 14-17 Satellites. It even says it in the flight data. I will try uploading to phantom help.
Ahh looking at those logs from Healthy drones it did indeed flick to Atti mode which would explain the drifting, which is normal ... GPS was lost.
It looks like you used auto takeoff ? Hindsight, and not your fault, but i wouldn't use this currently ... i've saw a few issues with people using auto-takeoff, usually with it dropping from a height! but i havnt seen this happen
I'd still bet you have a case of TBE when it jumped to ATTI though ... When did you last calibrate the compass? and are you sure it was done correctly?
hallmark007 Posted at 2017-1-2 13:03
According to a quick look at those logs which are very short , you had zero signal you had no gps you got 2 warnings you were in Atti mode at this point. I think you should try uploading to phantomhelp you will get more information as this was a very short flight. Also night time flying in built up areas when you don't have great or no signal, it's a risk.
While satellite positioning turned off, the logs show strong GPS signal throughout... Keep in mind healthydrones isn't the most accurate.
Danny-B- Posted at 2017-1-2 13:10
Ahh looking at those logs from Healthy drones it did indeed flick to Atti mode which would explain the drifting, which is normal ... GPS was lost.
It looks like you used auto takeoff ? Hindsight, and not your fault, but i wouldn't use this currently ... i've saw a few issues with people using auto-takeoff, usually with it dropping from a height! but i havnt seen this happen
No I didnt use auto take off. I always used manual stick take off. But it still doesn't explain why I would lose complete control. Usually when it switches into ATTI mode, I can take over and compensate the drift until the regain GPS lock. But I had no control at all. Here is the flight data I extracted: https://www.dropbox.com/s/2n4aoz ... 2_16-05-09.DAT?dl=0
Schwavic Posted at 2017-1-2 13:11
While satellite positioning turned off, the logs show strong GPS signal throughout... Keep in mind healthydrones isn't the most accurate.
If you check signal on healthy drones you will see score 0-100 his score was 0, I think for such a short flight HD is probably a waste of time it gives very conflicting info , phantomhelp gives much more accurate info which is much easier to read
Schwavic Posted at 2017-1-2 13:11
While satellite positioning turned off, the logs show strong GPS signal throughout... Keep in mind healthydrones isn't the most accurate.
Schwavic Posted at 2017-1-2 13:11
While satellite positioning turned off, the logs show strong GPS signal throughout... Keep in mind healthydrones isn't the most accurate.
I also see gps on healthy drones and from that it looks like he had signal, but if you look at other parts it looks like he had no signal assist take off which he said he didn't do. So maybe that's a waste of time.
Respecognize Posted at 2017-1-2 13:12
No I didnt use auto take off. I always used manual stick take off. But it still doesn't explain why I would lose complete control. Usually when it switches into ATTI mode, I can take over and compensate the drift until the regain GPS lock. But I had no control at all. Here is the flight data I extracted:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/2n4aozjkfmb0sa0/DJI_ASSISTANT_EXPORT_FILE_2017-01-02_16-05-09.DAT?dl=0
My advice is get one of the mods to read the dat file.
I had the same thing happening to me on my first day. App disconnected, yellow flashing light and lost of rc control.
I was 3 metres away from it. I couldn't do nothing.
But it Just started to climb to return home. No beeping, nothing.
I looked in healthy drone. It only shows "downlink lost" a couple of time Healthydrones flight log
Since, the Mavic is flying beautifully I have almost 20 short flights now and it never happened again. But I always plug the phone to RC after Aircraft and remote are connected correctly. If I don't do this way my app will crash and restart few time and won't reconnect.
Jeromeo Posted at 2017-1-2 13:32
I had the same thing happening to me on my first day. App disconnected, yellow flashing light and lost of rc control.
I was 3 metres away from it. I couldn't do nothing.
But it Just started to climb to return home. No beeping, nothing.
Hmm that is interesting. That is what happened to me. But instead, it was flashing yellow and drifiting. No connection on the phone or RC. I would have expected it to activate return to home upon remote signal lost but it did not do that.
Ok not 100% sure but if you go to dji Ken personal home page on the left hand side you can click on personal message and leave a message for him.
Sorry I couldn't help with your logs, but I think you will get the accurate info from someone like Ken it will be easier for him if you have already sync your flight. Good luck hope it works out for you..
Respecognize Posted at 2017-1-2 13:39
Hmm that is interesting. That is what happened to me. But instead, it was flashing yellow and drifiting. No connection on the phone or RC. I would have expected it to activate return to home upon remote signal lost but it did not do that.
Yes but I sort of panicked. Disconnect cable from phone and it's when I lost everything. Quad was hovering nicely on top of landing pad but didn't want to respond to command. Eventually I reconnected everything and landed it. Scary experience. But as I said before everything is working great now.
I have learned yesterday in another thread, that a high number of satellite connections does not mean, the drone has a strong GPS signal. Even with many connected satellites, the GPS can be weak.
There are two meanings for yellow flashing: Slowly flashing means no GPS and no vision. Fast flashing means connection to RC lost. Without GPS and vision and no RC connection things as you described can happen.
Dronoob Posted at 2017-1-2 14:19
There are two meanings for yellow flashing: Slowly flashing means no GPS and no vision. Fast flashing means connection to RC lost. Without GPS and vision and no RC connection things as you described can happen.
but why would it lose RC connection? I was literally 10-20 ft away from it