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Drone would not come back - Max Radius Reached :(
3080 29 2017-12-26
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michael_o
lvl.1
Flight distance : 22172 ft
Ireland
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Hi All,

I have had my Mavic for a few days and had some really good flights, but that has all changed

I was down at the beach and thought it would be a great opporunity for a quick flight over the sea. I setup the drone planning to fly with just the controller as it was going to be a short trip. I also didnt connect my phone as I didnt have the USB cable for the Pixel with me.

The drone took off and I started flying over the sand, then eventually over the water. This is where it all went wrong..

It went quite far out so I decided to simply come back (in reverse). The controller started beeping, saying Max Radius Reached, but the distance was only showing 150ft from me!. I could only go further away, left & right, up & down, but no closer to me!!

I tried frantically for the next 15 mins how I can call the drone back to the controller, but it just didnt work. When I pressed return to home it just went higher then eventually tried to land in the sea! There was nothing I could do about this, other than watch it over over the sea, 150ft out, then eventually run out of batteries and dive into the water!

What I am trying to do is get the logs from the controller to see what happened as there is nothing I could have done to get this drone back, and also why/if the return to home didnt set/work. The only conclusion is that there was an issue with GPS, or it didnt have the correct location.

I've tried to use the DJI Assistant, and when I try download the black box data I get "Export Failed". When I try the DJI Download tool, I just get a 500 Error..

Any help on how I can get these logs will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

2017-12-26
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Ex Machina
Captain
Flight distance : 1806362 ft
United States
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Black box is in the drowned AC. Without your smart device attached to write to, you have no logs to look at. Are you able to retrieve the AC from the water?
2017-12-26
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Drone2621
lvl.4
Flight distance : 225292 ft
United Kingdom
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Sorry for your loss  " I setup the drone planning to fly with just the controller as it was going to be a short trip. I also didnt connect my phone "

No way back from this just have to swallow the bitter pill and if you can afford it get another drone and never fly it while not connected to the app.

I crashed my drone when i first got one i know the feeling . Pick up  phantom 3 if you can and learn the ropes with that ,its worth it
2017-12-26
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michael_o
lvl.1
Flight distance : 22172 ft
Ireland
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Thanks, Guys!

I will go down later on low tide, on the off chance she's come back in.

Is there nothing which can be retrieved from the controller at all?

Thanks!
2017-12-26
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Ex Machina
Captain
Flight distance : 1806362 ft
United States
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michael_o Posted at 2017-12-26 08:18
Thanks, Guys!

I will go down later on low tide, on the off chance she's come back in.

To my knowledge nothing is written to the controller, but it wouldn't hurt to open a support request to find out for sure. Good luck, and sorry to hear about your loss.
2017-12-26
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Woe
Captain
Flight distance : 4129268 ft
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United States
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Man that sucks. I would never fly without the ability to see phone-iPad. Hopefully you can get some answers.
2017-12-26
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michael_o
lvl.1
Flight distance : 22172 ft
United Kingdom
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Just a long shot, I had insurance - has anyone had any experience in such a situation?
2017-12-26
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AG0N-Gary
Captain
Flight distance : 700846 ft
United States
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What kind of insurance?  If it's State Farm PAP, and you put the Mavic on the policy before it crashed, they should cover it.  They'll likely cancel the policy afterward too.  If you got DJI's Care Refresh, you MUST have the drone to send them.  If you can't retrieve it, you'll need to present pretty good evidence for them to consider accepting responsibility.

There is, to the best of my knowledge, no data stored on the controller.  All the data is on the phone or pad that you fly with, not the controller.  The most detailed information, however, is in the data file that is contained on the drone (not your uSD card).
2017-12-26
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Simmo1
First Officer
Flight distance : 1624 ft
Australia
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Without a device connected and in the app, you are distance restricted. There was also no way for you to know where your home point was set to.
Certainly you can fly without a device, but it is intended for a secure, open area. (probably not over water.)
Without getting the Mavic back, you have no logs.
2017-12-26
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Norcal RZR
New
United States
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So sorry to here...lesson learned for me...another new pilot
2017-12-26
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DJI Thor
Administrator
Flight distance : 13602 ft
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I am terribly sorry for your loss, Michael, the experience that you had must be really frustrated. Data analysis is depended on the flight record and flight data on the drone, the data on the RC is only for helping to analyze, so if you only have the data from the drone, it is not sufficient for the data investigation.
As far as I can tell, if you had not connected the app when flying, the drone will be limited to 30 meters for altitude and 50 meters for distance. For other behaviours of the drone, since you haven't connected the app, we are not able to verify what had happened.
Sincerely feel sorry for your loss again, hope you can learn from it and move on.
2017-12-26
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Lucas775
Captain
Flight distance : 50642090 ft
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United States
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Wow sorry to hear that, but at the same time I would never personally fly the mavic without my iphone or ipad connected to it.
2017-12-26
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Locoman
Second Officer
Flight distance : 748675 ft
United States
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Don't know why, anyone would fly over water, knowing that they are risking losing their Mavic. It is a machine after all and it is not perefect. I guess I shouldn't be so surprised with some peoples thought process, or lack there of. And of course, it always is the Mavic's fault, never the operator's. Enough of my rant.

That being said, Michael_0, I do feel bad for you, you wasted a lot of money and will lose out of a lot of fun. Hope you can find it.
2017-12-27
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M.C. Pilot
Captain
Flight distance : 10278435 ft
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OP - "When I pressed return to home it just went higher "


In RTH, the drone will rise to set RTH altitude then work it's way back to home base. I think a major problem as others have pointed out was not having your device attached to the RC. I'm sure this is a learned expensive lesson but yeah always make sure a device is connected to the RC; better chance of RTH recovery especially flying over water. Hopefully other viewers learn to not ever try this.
2017-12-27
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w74
lvl.1
Flight distance : 30141 ft
Switzerland
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Something simular happend to me yesterday. Short fly over steep cliff an about 120 feet above a lake. Iphone attaches but maybe not connected proberly. After a short over water, I tryed to fly back to me but the drohne stopped 20 feet away from me and told "max radius" in the remote. I had no chance to come closer to me. My try to recover was unscessfull. What happend then - I coulded watch the mavic run out off Batterie, and then it fall down into the lake lake and sunk. What a bad and sad feeling...... It seems I'm not the only one with a lost pro. I have not the answer so far. May this could specialy when you fly over water.

The good thing: Here in Switzerland I have the right insurance and the will pay my lost.

My learned lesson an my recommondation:

Never take your drohne without correctly conneted app und GPS Mode fully established.

For DJI:
My suggestion is, that the the programmer from DJI should ensure, that the pilot have, in case of app or connection los, emergency or just for backup, a fully stearable object to manually fly without any limitation.

Thanks and hope this helps someone before making the same experience like me
M. Waser
2018-2-19
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Tex21
lvl.4
Flight distance : 230052 ft
Malaysia
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Here's what I surmise happened, either of two things.

The drone didn't have a GPS when you took off but got one when it was out over the water - that position became the new Home Point.  And it would go further than 50m from this point.

Or, you somehow hit "dynamic" home point and that changed in flight.

BTW, I have flown with just the RC a few times and it was not always restricted to 50m from the take-off point.  That has happened in the past when I have flown with a device, but not been logged in.
2018-2-19
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Jos A
Captain
Flight distance : 73209 ft
Netherlands
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I have test this today, fly with only rc. Battery 30 procent in case of...
I have set rth to 30 mtr and take an open field.
Start up RC, start UP Mavic pro. Connected and wait untill Mavic flasing green lights.
took off ,go to  60 mtr out and 35 mtr high, I could even fly further I think, I hit rth , mavic came back
2018-2-19
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NEC Avenue
lvl.1
Flight distance : 77277 ft
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United States
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This happened to me today but I was lucky because I was within walking distance of my Mavic. In my case I flew with only the controller and I didn't lift off until the transmitter displayed GPS mode. When I got the Max Radius message the Mavic would not allow me to fly back to my location regardless what orientation it was facing. I even tried to go to a lower height to decrease the radius but it still would not allow any lateral movement, only vertical.

I eventually manually decreased the altitude until it was on the ground. When it was on the ground I couldn't get the props to stop spinning so I turned off the transmitter which cause the Mavic to fly straight up and attempted to RTH. When I saw this I turned the transmitter back on. At that point I was able to manually override the RTH and it allowed me to fly the Mavic back in my direction. I then was able to land like normal.
2018-7-7
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Picanoc Jack
Captain
Flight distance : 10149541 ft
Canada
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I feel terrible for you, that being said maybe if you get another drone stick to dry land for a while, get the experience, after a while when your confidence is increased then go over water,  I am very careful when I fly at the beach, heard too many horror stories about drone going down in the water, sadly most of the time it's pilot error.
2018-7-7
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HedgeTrimmer
Captain
United States
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NEC Avenue Posted at 2018-7-7 04:03
This happened to me today but I was lucky because I was within walking distance of my Mavic. In my case I flew with only the controller and I didn't lift off until the transmitter displayed GPS mode. When I got the Max Radius message the Mavic would not allow me to fly back to my location regardless what orientation it was facing. I even tried to go to a lower height to decrease the radius but it still would not allow any lateral movement, only vertical.

I eventually manually decreased the altitude until it was on the ground. When it was on the ground I couldn't get the props to stop spinning so I turned off the transmitter which cause the Mavic to fly straight up and attempted to RTH. When I saw this I turned the transmitter back on. At that point I was able to manually override the RTH and it allowed me to fly the Mavic back in my direction. I then was able to land like normal.

When you first ran into problems, and you could not get drone to manually fly back to you - Did you try RTH?
2018-7-7
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hallmark007
Captain
Flight distance : 9812789 ft
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Ireland
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Jos A Posted at 2018-2-19 04:13
I have test this today, fly with only rc. Battery 30 procent in case of...
I have set rth to 30 mtr and take an open field.
Start up RC, start UP Mavic pro. Connected and wait untill Mavic flasing green lights.

If you start up with device connected, fly outside restricted distance then back, remove device with Mavic still powered up. Throw away device, ;+) , you will no longer have restrictions flying with only RC.
2018-7-7
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NEC Avenue
lvl.1
Flight distance : 77277 ft
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United States
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HedgeTrimmer Posted at 2018-7-7 08:36
When you first ran into problems, and you could not get drone to manually fly back to you - Did you try RTH?

Yeah I tried RTH but it looked like it was going AWAY from me so I canceled it. In the future I'll make sure to connect to my phone first to allow unrestricted range then disconnected phone.
2018-7-7
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NEC Avenue
lvl.1
Flight distance : 77277 ft
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United States
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Today I updated the firmware on the Mavic Pro, RC and Goggles and was prompted to calibrate the Compass and IMU.
2018-7-7
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rpdubz
New
United States
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I'm sorry for bumping an old thread, but I have no ability to create new threads apparently.

I just had the same problem with my Mavic 2 Zoom. I was flying it in front of my house, which I've done on countless occasions, and got the "Max Radius Reached" message. Unfortunately the drone would NOT come back to me! It just stopped over the neighbor's property and refused to come any closer. I hit RTH and it ascended, then started flying away from me! I tried and tried and could not get it to come back, every time I got anywhere near my own property it just stopped and the controller flashed the Max Radius message. I had to force a landing in a snow bank and trudge through waist deep snow to get it back.

I'll be opening a support ticket with DJI tomorrow... but I would really like to know just what the heck this "max radius" nonsense is and why it wouldn't come back to me. The drone is NOT in beginner mode and I have flown it much, much farther than this on countless occasions.
2019-2-10
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HH1
Captain
Flight distance : 73114 ft
United States
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Have an idea of how you feel, no fun.  Bet others have learned from your experience.
2019-2-10
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michael_o
lvl.1
Flight distance : 22172 ft
United Kingdom
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Hello,

Thanks for bringing back the pain ;)

This sounds exactly the same as what happened with mine.

For me, I think it comes down to how these devices get GPS when not using a phone. They get it a little later in the flight and then thinks this location is "home".

It would be good if these would not be able to fly until a home has been set.

Going through the DJI support was a nightmare. I had some people confirm it was a fault and then others say it's my fault. Without a drone it's hard to confirm I guess, but you'd think they would have more logging on the controller.

Thanks!
2019-2-11
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rpdubz
New
United States
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For me, I think it comes down to how these devices get GPS when not using a phone. They get it a little later in the flight and then thinks this location is "home".


That's clearly a software problem. They're using GPS to determine home and refusing to fly further than x meters from there, yet they're determining home position in flight. That's an unacceptable design flaw. You reported this to them over a year ago and it still hasn't been fixed. I'm going to push DJI support on this issue.

I'm really sorry for your loss. I know how panicked I got last night when mine did this, and the worst case for me was setting it down in 4 foot deep powder snow and a long "swim" through the snow to reach it. That sucked, but I can't even imagine how I would have felt if mine was over water like yours was. I wonder how many others have lost their drones due to this problem?

Count me in the "not your fault" camp. I routinely fly my drone around my property without my phone. I had no idea about this "max radius" limitation, nor could I have ever guessed it could cause the drone to determine a home position in flight and then refuse to come back to me. I don't recall seeing anything in the docs that flying without a phone is not recommended. If it's a problem, frankly, the drone should refuse to fly without the phone, and/or there should be prominent warnings about doing so.
2019-2-11
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BumblerBee
First Officer
Flight distance : 639764 ft
Norway
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Ex Machina Posted at 2017-12-26 08:29
To my knowledge nothing is written to the controller, but it wouldn't hurt to open a support request to find out for sure. Good luck, and sorry to hear about your loss.

At 4:51 the guy gets the logs from the controller (all telemetry is saved in RC as well)

2019-2-12
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BumblerBee
First Officer
Flight distance : 639764 ft
Norway
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I flew without a phone only once. Ever. That was also the time when I crashed, touching some branches after having miscalculated the breaking distance. No damage, and the drone is still flying to this day, but lesson learned. Another drawback of RC-only flight is that you can't set a focus point (the footage from that flight came unfocused) and the limited 50m max flight distance (if I remember correctly)
2019-2-12
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Ex Machina
Captain
Flight distance : 1806362 ft
United States
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BumblerBee Posted at 2-12 06:49
At 4:51 the guy gets the logs from the controller (all telemetry is saved in RC as well)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6Eb8gsY-7Q

Wow, thanks for posting -- wish I knew about this last year when I was diagnosing a lost log problem. DJI doesn't appear to list the special software needed for this, though. Guess I could hit up support, or, perhaps the latest version of DJI Assistant now does the job?
2019-2-12
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