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Mavic Mini shaking on descent
6204 15 2020-2-8
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Corger
Second Officer
United States
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Hello everyone,

I got my Mavic Mini recently and have noticed something odd today.  The Mini will shake when I have it descend straight down.   It sounds like the motors are changing speeds erracticly.   Has anyone had this problem?  Could it be one of the RC's sticks is  bad?  Or maybe the AC iis a dud.  Any insights would be appreciated.

Here is what I know:


  • I flew it in P mode

  • The Mini does this when it is perfectly calm; wind is not the cause
  • Only shakes when descending; it climbs smoothly
  • Speed of descent doesn't matter; it shakes at various speeds
  • The shake doesn't affect video too much; the gimbal is working
  • The propellers look fine
  • It was 41-44 degrees Fahrenheit during flight today
  • I noticed this problem when I flew the drone without the propeller guards for the first time.
  • It seemed fine when in payload mode (prop guards on), but I'm not 100% sure
  • No compass or GPS problems

Right now I'm looking at YouTube videos and they all seem to show silky smooth descent.   I will fly it again tomorrow to take a video of the problem and do some more testing.


2020-2-8
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Dmitry Vishnevskiy
First Officer
Flight distance : 588635 ft
Russia
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The drone can shake during the descent (especially during the fast descent), this is normal. On old drones, it was not recommended to knock vertically at all, the drone could tip over. They descended in a spiral or with sliding forward. Modern drones do not tip over, they have good electronics, but anyway I usually go down at the same time as I fly forward.
2020-2-8
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Guorium
Captain
Flight distance : 513061 ft
Australia
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IMU calibration. Try it. Something is wrong when it does it even in really slow descend. I know in the breeze it does that that you say the wind was not present so ok to that.
2020-2-8
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Mizzu
First Officer
Flight distance : 431873 ft
Germany
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Mine does this as well, but I'm usually flying in Sports or Cinematic Mode. No idea if it does it in Position Mode as well, but in Sports Mode definitely.
I don't think this is a problem or an error or something. I think it's maybe about the winds that are created straight under the Motors/Propellers, some kind of mini-turbulences, since, even if the Mini is small and light, it creates some ammount of wind-force.
2020-2-8
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Lucas775
Captain
Flight distance : 50642090 ft
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United States
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Keeping an eye on this thread since I am thinking about getting an MM.
2020-2-8
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Spark_Pilot_XxXx
Second Officer
Flight distance : 67841 ft
Germany
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Completly normal behavior
2020-2-9
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InspektorGadjet
Captain
Flight distance : 439915 ft
Spain
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This is normal as the drones find turbulence or differences in pressure of the air below, it is always recommended to descend in an angle and not 100% left stick full down.
Probably beefier drones with more power will suffer less from this and the mini being so small, light and less powered motor makes the effect more noticeable.
2020-2-9
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Mizzu
First Officer
Flight distance : 431873 ft
Germany
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InspektorGadjet Posted at 2-9 01:57
This is normal as the drones find turbulence or differences in pressure of the air below, it is always recommended to descend in an angle and not 100% left stick full down.
Probably beefier drones with more power will suffer less from this and the mini being so small, light and less powered motor makes the effect more noticeable.

Do you think, straight downwards with full throttle Stick could harm the Motors in long term?
If so, I will strictly land and so on by flying in an angle like you said.
2020-2-9
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Ice_2k
Captain
Flight distance : 1132575 ft
Romania
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If this is normal behavior as stated here, shouldn’t *all* Minis do it? Mine doesn’t do that and I also didn’t notice this in any of the many youtube reviews I watched
2020-2-9
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Nidge
Captain

United Kingdom
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It’s normal and just physics. You’re descending into what is usually termed “Prop Wash”. The air the Mini, or any rotored model, is falling into is greatly disturbed by the air already pushed by the propellers. To mitigate the effect you can either descend slower or descend on a slope, or as previously suggested a spiral.  However descending straight down with the Mini shouldn’t cause any real threat as the IMU more than capable of handling the resultant turbulence.

Nidge.
2020-2-9
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hallmark007
Captain
Flight distance : 9812789 ft
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Ireland
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If your quad descends to quickly it can descend into turbulent air the prop down wash is creating , but these quads have speed limiters on them to prevent this from happening, really to prevent this don’t descend vertically and if you have to then do so at a rate 3/4 metre per second, try to descend with some sideways movement.
If you happen to enter such thing as vortex ring and you have enough height try flying forward to exit turbulent air.
It’s very rare that anything as serious as this happens with these small quads with speed limiters but I suppose be careful, descend in p mode etc.

Incidentally you will often see in videos those wanting to record descent to the ground will record craft going up and reverse footage as it’s a lot smoother .
2020-2-9
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InspektorGadjet
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Mizzu Posted at 2-9 03:03
Do you think, straight downwards with full throttle Stick could harm the Motors in long term?
If so, I will strictly land and so on by flying in an angle like you said.

I don´t think it will harm the motors, is just the AC fighting turbulences.
I personally allways descend on an angle, only when trying to avoid birds in Sports mode and coming very quick to my Home Point I noticed the "shaking".
2020-2-9
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Corger
Second Officer
United States
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Thanks for info everyone.  I really hope it is the "prop wash" effect and there is nothing wrong with the AC, but I am still skeptical.  It should be able to handle turbulence better than this.  Videos like this: https://youtu.be/cuWobb5HzNE?t=630 show the Mini coming down smoothly in RTH mode.   I asked my neighbor who owns a DJI Spark and a Parrot Anafi, and both his drones do not have this problem.  My $100 Mavic Air clone does not shake on descent.

I will do some more testing (later today when it's warmer) at various speeds, altitudes, and wind conditions.  I will also take video.
2020-2-9
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Corger
Second Officer
United States
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Small update.

Since it is still too cold outside, I flew the Mini inside the house in two different rooms, one spacious and one more confined.  Descending from eight feet down was silky smooth in both rooms at both slow and moderate speeds.

I was hand launching and landing yesterday when I noticed this.  I will launch from a level area when I do my outdoor tests later.

2020-2-9
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DJI Gamora
Administrator

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Hi, thank you for reaching out and we do apologize for the inconvenience. Can you please try to perform the IMU calibration to see if the problem persists? Also, can you please provide us a video showing the problem for us to further isolate the issue. Please keep us posted on your next test. Thank you for your understanding and support!
2020-2-9
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Corger
Second Officer
United States
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Hello Guorium and DJI Gamora, I did a IMU calibration today as per your suggestions.  Funny that the DJI Fly app suggested as I was about to do it (I've never crashed the AC.)   Anyway, the harsh shake during slow descent seems to be fixed!  The AC will still shake when descending quickly., but not as harshly and sometimes it doesn't shake at all.

I'll keep testing slow descents whenever I fly to see if the problem comes back.  Thanks to all for your suggestions and information.  I appreciate it.
2020-2-9
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