Hi,
I would like to know if anybody else experienced such a problem? When mavic lost gps and change mode to Atti it starts drifting (generally to right) even wind speed is 0.


I can't control it via right joystick it doesn't response? Is it normal?

I lost gps and my Mavic quickly drifted to the right. I tried to go up but it keep going right into a circle.

Drifting as in yawing/turning to the right whilst hovering?  

If the aircraft goes into ATTI mode it will drift with the wind. There may not have been any wind where you were standing but there had to be some kind of breeze at the aircraft's altitude to make the aircraft drift in one direction.
And saying you have no right joystick control, that is strange. What mode do you fly in (1 or 2) ?
Either way you should still have full control of the aircraft.

Same thing happened to me yesterday.  Lost GPS, went from 15 sats to low digits, atti mode, 6ft from ground, no wind, drifted back, hit a wall and dropped into the river.  5ft under water for 30 minutes or so, before being recovered.  Power was still on and lights were visible under water.  Now going through the Refresh repair process.  I even have photos of it being recovered.  ( I sent my brother in)

DJI-Ken Posted at 2017-1-25 08:59
If the aircraft goes into ATTI mode it will drift with the wind. There may not have been any wind where you were standing but there had to be some kind of breeze at the aircraft's altitude to make the aircraft drift in one direction.
And saying you have no right joystick control, that is strange. What mode do you fly in (1 or 2) ?
Either way you should still have full control of the aircraft.

Hi Ken, what you mean by 1 or 2?

I was flying on GPS mode, then changed to ATTI mode and drifted to the right. I am %100 sure there were no wind or breeze. I already opened a case, you can take a look. 404646

Ejder Bingül Posted at 2017-1-25 10:13
Hi Ken, what you mean by 1 or 2?

I was flying on GPS mode, then changed to ATTI mode and drifted to the right. I am %100 sure there were no wind or breeze. I already opened a case, you can take a look. 404646

Mode 1 or 2 I was referring to was which flight mode do you fly with. You said you had no right stick control. In Mode 2 the right stick controls pitch and roll.
I looked at your ticket and they have sent you the RMA forms. When you send the aircraft in they will analyze the flight data recorder to see what caused the crash.
And for the question in your ticket, no you cannot exchange for a different aircraft,sorry about that.

DJI-Ken Posted at 2017-1-25 10:21
Mode 1 or 2 I was referring to was which flight mode do you fly with. You said you had no right stick control. In Mode 2 the right stick controls pitch and roll.
I looked at your ticket and they have sent you the RMA forms. When you send the aircraft in they will analyze the flight data recorder to see what caused the crash.
And for the question in your ticket, no you cannot exchange for a different aircraft,sorry about that.

İ didn't change joystick configurations. Left joystick was working when aircraft was drifting, but right one didn't. I tried to go left and backwards with right stick but it didn't response.

Ejder Bingül Posted at 2017-1-25 13:28
İ didn't change joystick configurations. Left joystick was working when aircraft was drifting, but right one didn't. I tried to go left and backwards with right stick but it didn't response.

I'm sorry, you can upload your flight log through the Assistant2 and have them analyze it.

This happened to me once... and it's eroded my confidence to fly the mavic.   This never happened on my P3 and P4.

Man these mavic stories are not helping my trust in me flying the mavic further away. I have flown my p3p for two years and I have full confidence in that. It never suffered from these issues. I just got my mavic yesterday,  to start with Dji go 4 app crashes 8 out of 10 times at launch. Sometimes it doesn't connect to the mavic.
I haven't even flown the mavic out doors yet and I already have these issues.
I have a trip coming to the Caribbean and I got the mavic for that, just for the portability factor. I used to fly my p3p all over the waters there with no fear at all. However after rading these stories about the mavic, I trust is shaken in its abilities and stability......
Would had to have it go into some messed up state when it's out over the waters etc...

fans464c96e6 Posted at 2017-1-25 19:35
Man these mavic stories are not helping my trust in me flying the mavic further away. I have flown my p3p for two years and I have full confidence in that. It never suffered from these issues. I just got my mavic yesterday,  to start with Dji go 4 app crashes 8 out of 10 times at launch. Sometimes it doesn't connect to the mavic.
I haven't even flown the mavic out doors yet and I already have these issues.
I have a trip coming to the Caribbean and I got the mavic for that, just for the portability factor. I used to fly my p3p all over the waters there with no fear at all. However after rading these stories about the mavic, I trust is shaken in its abilities and stability......

One advise, don't lose your GPS

fans464c96e6 Posted at 2017-1-25 19:35
Man these mavic stories are not helping my trust in me flying the mavic further away. I have flown my p3p for two years and I have full confidence in that. It never suffered from these issues. I just got my mavic yesterday,  to start with Dji go 4 app crashes 8 out of 10 times at launch. Sometimes it doesn't connect to the mavic.
I haven't even flown the mavic out doors yet and I already have these issues.
I have a trip coming to the Caribbean and I got the mavic for that, just for the portability factor. I used to fly my p3p all over the waters there with no fear at all. However after rading these stories about the mavic, I trust is shaken in its abilities and stability......

Unsuported phone ?

Ejder Bingül Posted at 2017-1-25 10:13
Hi Ken, what you mean by 1 or 2?

I was flying on GPS mode, then changed to ATTI mode and drifted to the right. I am %100 sure there were no wind or breeze. I already opened a case, you can take a look. 404646

WRONG .... There is never no wind .... Never .... Never. Think.

The Mavic is a complex system. It tries to hold its position using the data from different sensors: GPS, IMU, VPS, ... As a result of that any input to such sensors can make the Mavic drift even with GPS. Try to understand how these sensors are working to understand why the Mavic is behaving as it is.

Here is a funny example: I have been flying the Mavic at the beach some day. Ever 4-5 seconds the Mavic moved about 30 cm to the left. First I was like WTF? Then I noticed that the Mavic followed the rhythm of the waves. I guess the sensors "saw" the movement of the water at the ground and the Mavic tried to hold its position above the moving ground until the GPS kicked in and stopped this after 30 cm.

Long story short: There could be wind, ground movement, a badly calibrated sensor etc. To check if its the wind, just rotate the aircraft by 180 degrees and see if it moves into the same or opposite direction.

Ejder Bingül Posted at 2017-1-25 10:13
Hi Ken, what you mean by 1 or 2?

I was flying on GPS mode, then changed to ATTI mode and drifted to the right. I am %100 sure there were no wind or breeze. I already opened a case, you can take a look. 404646

This actually made me laugh.   How can you say there was no wind.   No wind situations exist in about 0.01% of the time (or indoors).

If you are indoors and blow at your mavic in ATTI mode.... it will drift.  Ive tried it!

Never underestimate the power of the technology drones have to stay in place with GPS, and therefore the sheer importance of not taking off until you have plenty of satellites AND strong satellite signal (which are two different things).

User error or not, I think too many people (general comment and not aimed at anyone) are treating the mavic and other drones as mainstream technology which will never become unstable.

gibbd Posted at 2017-1-26 02:05
This actually made me laugh.   How can you say there was no wind.   No wind situations exist in about 0.01% of the time (or indoors).

If you are indoors and blow at your mavic in ATTI mode.... it will drift.  Ive tried it!

Even indoors there is wind as soon as the props start to turn. There are many videos out there that show crashes indoors that have probably been caused by winds that push the drone towards the walls.

gibbd Posted at 2017-1-26 02:05
This actually made me laugh.   How can you say there was no wind.   No wind situations exist in about 0.01% of the time (or indoors).

If you are indoors and blow at your mavic in ATTI mode.... it will drift.  Ive tried it!

Are you getting paid to make this comment?

I know 0 wind speed is impossible. I tried to specify outdoor air conditions by saying almost 0. Consistently drifting came real strange to me, of course it may drift but that can be just for 30-40 cms, mine aircraft drifted 4 or 5 meters and i couldn't stopped or send any command to it via right joystick.

Make some empathy, i am not an idiot. I have P3 for 3 years and i am also engineer, i know physics, information technologies very well.

Everyone seems to be experts in wind now. I'm surmising that he meant there was no adverse, strong, breeze, gusts, etc. Obviously there would be some kind of wind whether it's from the updraft of the rotors off the surface below or from the sides. In my post when I stated there was no wind this is exactly what I meant. We aren't NASA engineers people, we are drone flyers. Sometimes people use descriptions that don't accurately represent what happened.

RM316 Posted at 2017-1-26 03:35
Everyone seems to be experts in wind now. I'm surmising that he meant there was no adverse, strong, breeze, gusts, etc. Obviously there would be some kind of wind whether it's from the updraft of the rotors off the surface below or from the sides. In my post when I stated there was no wind this is exactly what I meant. We aren't NASA engineers people, we are drone flyers. Sometimes people use descriptions that don't accurately represent what happened.

completely agree with you. People miss the point by focusing on wind issue.

To summarise the subject i have 2 main questions to be answered. Am i the only one experienced that?

1. Why aircraft anormally drift despite wind speed is almost 0.

2. Why right joystick didn't work after losing GPS, meanwhile left was working.

Ejder Bingül Posted at 2017-1-26 03:28
Are you getting paid to make this comment?

I know 0 wind speed is impossible. I tried to specify outdoor air conditions by saying almost 0. Consistently drifting came real strange to me, of course it may drift but that can be just for 30-40 cms, mine aircraft drifted 4 or 5 meters and i couldn't stopped or send any command to it via right joystick.

I think it's fair to say you were 250 ft in the air , while it might not be windy on the ground , it's different up there, in Atti mode it's no problem for it to move 4/5 meters.

100% normal. Welcome to flying quad copters. It is a quad with more tech, but in ATTI mode, it is just a basic RC quad that YOU control!

Nees Posted at 2017-1-26 03:53
100% normal. Welcome to flying quad copters. It is a quad with more tech, but in ATTI mode, it is just a basic RC quad that YOU control!

it is just a basic RC quad that YOU control!

Problem is that i couldn't control. See my second question.

Keep asking DJI for the ability to manually switch into and out of ATTI mode via the app or the side switch... at least then you would be able to practice ATTI mode in a controlled manner... I've been asking for this since day 1. Another option would be to be able to practice ATTI mode in the simulator to avoid this very situation.

It's a big error by DJI and it's causing lots of issues, especially as they are targetting new drone owners with this product...

Ejder Bingül Posted at 2017-1-26 03:46
completely agree with you. People miss the point by focusing on wind issue.

To summarise the subject i have 2 main questions to be answered. Am i the only one experienced that?

Why didn't the joystick work? Have you been in a special flight mode? The special flight modes can de-activate the controls or change the behavior.

Ejder Bingül Posted at 2017-1-26 03:28
Are you getting paid to make this comment?

I know 0 wind speed is impossible. I tried to specify outdoor air conditions by saying almost 0. Consistently drifting came real strange to me, of course it may drift but that can be just for 30-40 cms, mine aircraft drifted 4 or 5 meters and i couldn't stopped or send any command to it via right joystick.

Funnily enough, Im not getting paid to say anything.

I am also an engineer so understand extremely well that even a tiny amount of wind can have an effect of moving the drone 5-10 metres quite easily.  As im sure you know, height can affect windspeed dramatically. So, in ATTI mode, it may not be abnormal movement at all.
   
At no point in my post did I say that this was your total issue you had. As you state, you couldn't seem to counteract this movement with stick input.  Most of my comment was generalised, and irrespective of flying experience is important.  Number and strength of GPS..... technology... etc.   Maybe my response of 'This actually made me laugh' was a little harsh, so I apologise, however I think the rest of my post stands perfectly well.

Dronoob Posted at 2017-1-26 05:35
Why didn't the joystick work? Have you been in a special flight mode? The special flight modes can de-activate the controls or change the behavior.

No, i wasn't in special flight mode.

Anybody that can answe my questions above?

Hi Ejder,

One question which hasn't been answered here till now - I think - did you do auto take-off? I'm just wondering whether this can have any influence since I keep seeing this issue come up around the forums and some people did use it and then couldn't control the input. This should not happen since you should always be able to control the craft manually with the sticks and the app or anything else should never overwrite it but.... Good question - isn't it?

Cheers,

Jakub

rnrnrn Posted at 2017-1-29 08:50
Hi Ejder,

One question which hasn't been answered here till now - I think - did you do auto take-off? I'm just wondering whether this can have any influence since I keep seeing this issue come up around the forums and some people did use it and then couldn't control the input. This should not happen since you should always be able to control the craft manually with the sticks and the app or anything else should never overwrite it but.... Good question - isn't it?

Hi Jakub,

To be honest, i don't remember but it should be auto take-of.

Ejder Bingül Posted at 2017-1-29 09:47
Hi Jakub,

To be honest, i don't remember but it should be auto take-of.

Ah... Now we're getting somewhere. Honestly - I've seen so many posts about control problems and I can't confirm this (I'm still waiting for some replies) but mostly it seems the pilots operated with auto take-off which I have never used and have no intention of using ;-) I've been flying drones since 2013 so I do take most of the stuff on manual - like you actually had to do before all the auto stuff appeared.

Could you test this? I mean - try to lift off with the left stick (I'm assuming you're using Mode 2 - so left stick for up and down movement)? You can see this on the logs immediately because the first mode the craft goes into is "assisted take-off" and then 1 second after this (when I push the stick) it switches over to GPS_Atti. This is the manual take-off and maybe - just maybe - this could tell us something.

Try older firmware 1.2.9 and go 3.0.1 (android). There is no problem in atti control wise. I'm willing to bet anything it's the newer stuff. You can downgrade by holding down the icon in the upper right on the go app.

lol I love the avatar rnrn

I experienced this same issue last night. Ended up hitting the props on some furniture in the house as well as my finger which was not fun. I did realize that #1 the lighting was very bad. #2 the floor was a shiny wood surface which I think through it off. What concerned me was the fact that it felt uncontrollable I just had to hold the stick down and pray till it shut off.

Ejder Bingül Posted at 2017-1-29 07:15
Anybody that can answe my questions above?

Ejder,

I just noticed this thread which seems a similar problem to you issue (flying to the right and no response to stick input)

I haven't had chance to look through everything, so I may or may not be useful for you.

http://forum.dji.com/thread-67799-1-1.html

gibbd Posted at 2017-1-30 01:35
Ejder,

I just noticed this thread which seems a similar problem to you issue (flying to the right and no response to stick input)

I already read linked thread and yes, almost same issues. I am definitely sure that there is problem with ATTI mode and nobody from DJI accepts this so far. I suppose they will fix it with software update and we (who had already crashed) has to pay for repair/renewal. We are simply laboratory animals for DJI so far.

I have also posted my experience in the other thread. Do you have to have your flight data?

I had exactly the same thing happen to me. I had 15 satellites locked in , all good to go but as soon as I took off it started drifting! I tried to land but instead of coming back down ( only at a height of 1.5m!) it went higher and started moving away ! I was in mode two but I didn't respond to any stick input ! Luckily it hit a tree branch otherwise it was gone ! I'm so so scared to fly it again !!

I do not think that sudden switch to ATTI it has something to do with auto start.
I had same issue in almost every flight and I never used automated takeoff.
Reading the forums it seems that there are 2 defective series of Mavics.
1. Which has some problem with stability of GPS signal (symptoms: pilot can still see many satellites but gps signal drops and aircraft is switching to ATTI).
2. There is another source of ATTI switch related conflicting compass readouts due to high current going trough the wires (poor EM shielding).
It seem that my one has issue 1, and it has been sent to DJI service, hopefully they can fix it.

Hi everyone,

I am admittedly a novice pilot but my Mavic did the same thing too this weekend. I'm not ruling out some kind of pilot error, but in my case i had good GPS strength, auto took off (habit) and flew for about 2 minutes when it suddenly switched to atti mode and drifted off to the right at full speed. There was some wind for sure but not excessive. Mavic did not respond to any commands and ended up hitting a tree.

I had just completed a firmware update. I didn't re-calibrate at that point, though. Maybe I should have done. Does everyone calibrate (inc IMU) before each and every flight?

Thanks for your support in advance.

No you should not have to calibrate IMU.  This is a bug , in my opinion.  I hope DJI is looking into it, but they are silent about it for now.  If you could , I would appreciate you uploading this DJI and show them what happened.