Hi everyone,

today my mavic flew away(or drifted away). It was about -10°C, bit windy, great visibility.

I was about 400m high, then compass error showed up so i started descending. First an iPhone died because of the cold i think, then compass error and yaw error appeared and mavic went from SPORT to ATTI mode. I started descending, but could not see the dron anymore. Controller said its descending, when the drone was in 65m altitude, controller froze and said disconected after few seconds. However the log says it was ascending and then nothing. RTH was not working as ATTI was on. Controller went crazy, sticks didnt work properly, display was slowe and showed wierd values. I think the cold was a player here.  Battery was about 70% so it could drifted really far away.

Log: http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/FDU1C62NBPORBWMDWLB5/#

What have i done wrong? Why the drone exited GPS-mode?
Its Mavic pro platinum and iPhone 6S, all updated to the latest firmwares (as far as i know).

As i never thought this could happend, i had no contact written on the dron or some GPS locator attached. Is there a database for lost drones? Does DJI provide some security for lost drones such as disabeling other controllers to connect to the drone?

Thank you for any kind of help. Martin



Tags: Lost drone, Jablonec, Jablonec nad Nisou, ztracený dron, nalezený dron,

-10 in the ground, -14 or -15 in the 400 m. why you go so high with so cold?

Wanted picture of the whole dam. Damn.

first compass error is at 85 m, at this point you should land the aircraft, and not fly higher. the gps is useless if compass dont work

Sounds similar to this issue people have had with the Spark which might be related to compass issues:
https://forum.dji.com/thread-103989-1-1.html

You had a compass error at about 6 min. At the time you should really brought your craft down.
Instead you increased your altitude 4 times higher. The temperature was probably to cold at that altitude, where motor start to freeze.
Remember, that the props are blowing air against the motor when running. At that the motors are getting to cold.
With compass error, speed error, yaw error and dead iPhone screen, it's hard to control the craft with solely with the RC.
What was wind speed?
Maybe you still can find the craft if it doesn't land in the water.
Good luck.

I am no expert in this but the first warning was the battery was too cold before take off, thats the first problem and then at -10c it would have been colder likely at the altitude you were flying at.
Believe this would have been flying out or line of site. Unfortunate loss...

Wind speed were at around 28 km/h (17 mph) gusting up to 46 km/h (25 mph) out of SE.

sorry for your loss but it is not recommended to fly at so low temp.

hi Martin - thats heartbreaking , sorry for your loss. i think what you did wrong was to fly in conditions that were too cold. Dji spec is 0c for the aircraft and you mention it was -10c when you were flying. when flyig in conditions outside of the parameters set by dji then responsibility falls to the pilot - sorry about that. Why drone exited gps is a seperate issue but unfortunately since you lost your drone during a time flying outside dji parameters it is now  impossible to say why that happened about the gps.

What a shame.  Sorry you lost your drone.  Hopefully you will recover it soon.   Because I live in a cold climate, I tend to fly more in the cold.   You can fly in the cold, but you and you drone need to be prepared.
Check this guys web page.  -------> https://www.heliguy.com/blog/201 ... ur-drone-in-winter/

That sucks sorry for your loss man.

Sorry you lost your drone.  I will cross my fingers that maybe you will get lucky and find it waiting for you on the beach.

Speaking of the beach, a contributing issue MIGHT have been other RC aircraft operating from the beach area (note the white tent pitched at time Google Earth satellite photo was taken, sometime during Spring or Summer, just to the left of where the 6m 16.9s compass error was recorded).  The likelihood of another RC aircraft operating when the weather was so cold is probably remote, but still, is a possibility.  I'm guessing the RC club that pitched that tent probably frequents that spot for their float planes.

Cold is not the main factor in this. Compass is not much affected by cold weather. Compass error, Yaw error and speed error all point to bad compass or bad compass calibration.
Were  you using the latest app and fw.
Also if you want to fly in cold weather don't use iPhone it will turn off when the battery get cold.
I have flown both my MP and P3S in -20C up to 500m with no problem at all. You just have to heat your battery before flight.

Martin, I am terribly sorry to hear about your case. Have you reported your case to our support and open a case? If not, please sync your flight record, we will help to make data analysis if the drone is under warranty period (within 12 months old).
Here’s the link to contact us: http://www.dji.com/support

Hi,

thank you for your thoughts.

Yesterday i was flying(with my older brother mavic) in -20°C without a problem, i dont thing low temperature is something mavic cant handle. I am familiar with cold weather, so heating batteries before using them is normal procedure.

I havent noticed first compass error, that was basic mistake. Can water be a problem? The whole dam is frozen to death. The only thing that cross my mind is interferenc from the water, which led to compass error, remote miss-behavier and at the end to loosing GPS signal. There are hundreds of flats around the dam, maybe wifi signal problem as remote operates at 2.4GHz? Another RC can affect my craft? Even second mavic near by i believe, right? Wind wasnt so hard, however it was main reason why I switched to Sport mode, I wanted to fly shorter time and to be sure I can handle the wind with higher power up there.

All updates were installed.

My Mavic Pro flew away a few days ago on its own.  No error at take off, current update installed, tested sticks hovering like always.  I've never crashed any drone including this one.  It has been sent back to DJI 5 times since I bought it for the exact same reason.  Gimbal overload error.  It ruined countless jobs and made me look like an idiot multiple times.  DJI never replaced it, they just kept sending me back the same lemon over and over.  I had to nag them the entire time just to get an email response.  They don't answer any of your questions even if you're on the phone with them.  I tried to escalate the case multiple times to try to get a new replacement since the same drone kept having the same error rendering it useless.  I never received any contact from escalation even though that is what was supposed to happen.  They just drop the ball over and over until your warranty expires then your drone flys away on its own.  I will never buy a DJI product again.  I don't just own their drones either and I use some of their professional grade products.  They offered me absolutely nothing for my troubles ever, they just apologized for the "inconvenience"  Is it just me or is it more than an "inconvenience" when your $1000 drone flys away into the mountains and you lose thousands in revenue because you couldn't complete jobs and your drone makes you look like an unprofessional idiot?    They wouldn't even analyze the data since I'm just out of warranty.  I told them they obviously don't care about their product or customers if they don't want to at least try to figure out what happened so they can prevent it in the future.  Its a garbage company, buyer beware.      I guess all we can do is spread the word that DJI doesn't stand behind their product so more folks don't get screwed.  

ahattar Posted at 3-13 10:30
My Mavic Pro flew away a few days ago on its own.  No error at take off, current update installed, tested sticks hovering like always.  I've never crashed any drone including this one.  It has been sent back to DJI 5 times since I bought it for the exact same reason.  Gimbal overload error.  It ruined countless jobs and made me look like an idiot multiple times.  DJI never replaced it, they just kept sending me back the same lemon over and over.  I had to nag them the entire time just to get an email response.  They don't answer any of your questions even if you're on the phone with them.  I tried to escalate the case multiple times to try to get a new replacement since the same drone kept having the same error rendering it useless.  I never received any contact from escalation even though that is what was supposed to happen.  They just drop the ball over and over until your warranty expires then your drone flys away on its own.  I will never buy a DJI product again.  I don't just own their drones either and I use some of their professional grade products.  They offered me absolutely nothing for my troubles ever, they just apologized for the "inconvenience"  Is it just me or is it more than an "inconvenience" when your $1000 drone flys away into the mountains and you lose thousands in revenue because you couldn't complete jobs and your drone makes you look like an unprofessional idiot?    They wouldn't even analyze the data since I'm just out of warranty.  I told them they obviously don't care about their product or customers if they don't want to at least try to figure out what happened so they can prevent it in the future.  Its a garbage company, buyer beware.      I guess all we can do is spread the word that DJI doesn't stand behind their product so more folks don't get screwed.

sour grapes! DJI stand by their warranty!

It's a strange thing because the MP has double compass and IMU's .

Looks like you ignored some warning signs and you paid the price.  Sorry

I had this issue over the weekend but was fortunate to retrieve my drone without damage, i was on active track at the beach then cancelled to return to normal mode and the drone went mad and would not respond to any inputs..and started slowly flying away, i frantically pressed the return to home button to no avail, then suddenly it responded and began to ascend.... because the battery life was limited i knew it wouldn't make it back without crashing...so i chased it.
I cancelled RTH but the sticks refused to respond to fwd/ bwd just up and down... luckily i landed it on wet sand without harm but its put the fear of God in me when flying this thing... especially if it can just fly away on a whim.

Sorry for your loss

MavSpa_user Posted at 3-15 01:41
It's a strange thing because the MP has double compass and IMU's .
https://youtu.be/x63D5UE98LU

Informative video

That would make the temperature at 400m  -16c' drone was probably icing up and confusing the sensors.

djiuser_INAjuLG6RiJ0 Posted at 11-4 19:43
I had this issue over the weekend but was fortunate to retrieve my drone without damage, i was on active track at the beach then cancelled to return to normal mode and the drone went mad and would not respond to any inputs..and started slowly flying away, i frantically pressed the return to home button to no avail, then suddenly it responded and began to ascend.... because the battery life was limited i knew it wouldn't make it back without crashing...so i chased it.
I cancelled RTH but the sticks refused to respond to fwd/ bwd just up and down... luckily i landed it on wet sand without harm but its put the fear of God in me when flying this thing... especially if it can just fly away on a whim.

Hiya,

If you like upload your flightrecord, mayby this log expains what really happend

https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/

cheers
JJB