Don't be like me - indoor crash after firmware update.

[dangerm0us]

Flying inside can have unintended consequences and cause bodily harm. No offence, but you're kinda asking for trouble. When I work on my other quads inside, it's props off!! Always. And with the Mavic Pro having autonomous features, in my mind, it's even more essential to be careful. My friend almost took his two year olds head off when he had an ESC calibration issue and the quad flew across the room. We almost witnessed carnage that day. Never again....

 

[Mako79]

Firstly, Heat is mostly from the occustink/lightbridge transmission module. If you are doing updates, remove dome and gimbal.

Secondly, regards to indoors gps acquisition. Phantom 3 had the 'raise to XX height' when RTH was triggered within 30m radius disabled. Theu did this to prevent this issue. The Mavic is now 5 meter radius. They should have left it as 30m radius as this is visual range and hence the OP would have not been in this situation.

Thirdly regarding battery warning... i am confused... on 10% critical, shouldnt this force land and not shoot into the roof?

 

[alexanderguelph]

The next version of Mavic really needs sensors on top and sides and back. This indoor hitting the roof is not even your problem it is design flaw in the DJI mavic.
there should be a toggle to tell the drone you are in "indoor mode", like a tripod mode, but one that is mapped directly to the controller and doesn't need app to use.
Then in "indoor mode" it can't climb to RTH, it disables RTH altogether, and automatically switches ON tripod mode while switching OFF obstacle detection.

DJI are you listening?

This. Yes to this. And it's coming. The new phantom has more sensors, but still not omnidirectional. Hopefully they will change the app/firmware to have some semblance of what you are suggesting. You theoretically could use an elastic band to attach a "tinfoil hat" for the Mavic... wrap the back end of the battery and body. I find when I am carrying my Mavic, just placing my hand there will kill the GPS signal.


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[Filmscum]

Flying inside can have unintended consequences and cause bodily harm. No offence, but you're kinda asking for trouble. When I work on my other quads inside, it's props off!! Always. And with the Mavic Pro having autonomous features, in my mind, it's even more essential to be careful. My friend almost took his two year olds head off when he had an ESC calibration issue and the quad flew across the room. We almost witnessed carnage that day. Never again....

I can't agree more. Flying indoors in confined spaces like dens and living rooms is not what the Mavic was designed for. Yes it's small and has OA sensors but it's a flying blender. Why take the chance? If it's dark outside or raining just wait, or go to an empty garage, warehouse or gymnasium if you really want to fly inside. Or better yet get a Nano QX. There was a thread yesterday where someone was complaining about DJI repair (and yes the complaints were extremely valid to say the least) but they started the thread with-

"Got a mavic pro probably like many of you tried flying it inside and crashed it"

Ummm, nope.

 

[CaminDFW]

Wow.. many of you make me realize why I never post anything but positives to the forums. So many negative and criticizing remarks.

 

[ablack]

I was thinking that having the option to choose multiple pre-programmed flying profiles would also be good to control settings, but as long the device can automatically switch between OPTI, GPS and ATTI without being able to lock the flying parameters we are going to all be screwed.

Sometimes making things more intelligent/easier just adds problems.

 

[dangerm0us]

Wow.. many of you make me realize why I never post anything but positives to the forums. So many negative and criticizing remarks.

FTR, I wasn't criticising, I was sharing my own personal experience, and providing an objective point of view of the dangers of flying inside your house.

Most of us who have done some flying inside have learnt the hard way. I'm guilty as charged! If you just broke your drone then you got lucky.

 

[Filmscum]

Wow.. many of you make me realize why I never post anything but positives to the forums. So many negative and criticizing remarks.

Sorry if that came across as negative and criticizing, it was not my intention. It's just that after reading so many posts here and on the other forums of 'indoor flight gone bad' I'm surprised people are still doing it. I'm glad you have a drone repair service where you live hope you got it all sorted.

 

[dewana421]

You could have just canceled RTH by taking control of the drone when you noticed it was going up.


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[alexanderguelph]

You could have just canceled RTH by taking control of the drone when you noticed it was going up.


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OP already addressed this. His settings reset after the firmware update (so did mine - I knew to check because of his post) so what he expected to be a low battery warning was actually the RTH 10 second warning and he didn't see the box because he was focused on the menues. It's a shame, easy mistake to make, reasonable (although problematic) assumptions and a good lesson to learn. OP's not an idiot and he generously shared this experience for us to learn from. I really appreciate the humility.

I've read a lot of these kinds of stories, including seeing my dad lose signal six feet away from his Mavic which subsequently RTH'd straight up into an overhanging branch of a tree badly damaging the gimbal. He made a reasonable assumption that the Mavic wouldn't lose signal and it came back to bite him.

It's all about the assumptions we make. I've made a concerted effort now to run through a checklist of setting and checking the home point, confirming and adjusting RTH settings, battery settings, controller settings and running through the status report every time before I take off. As a fixed wing single engine pilot I have checklists engrained in me. We check that turning the yoke moves the ailerons in the correct direction before every single flight. It's ludicrous to think an aircraft mechanic reversed the cables by accident and didn't check or that the person who flew the rental plane before you didn't notice, but we check every time anyways. This kind of patient diligence is what will save us all from the very easy to make disastrous mistakes.

Thanks again OP. You taught me something important.

 

[Andart]

[quote uid=740 name="CaminDFW" post=100557]Ok.. don't be like me.. I know this has been said before but - I was hovering inside after the firmware update just to make sure that everything was working well and to reset all of my preferences. I get a few beeps at 30% and I was like ok.. it won't RTH until hits 10% - WRONG.<br /><br />Due to the reset in preferences; the Mavic shot up, hit my ceiling, then the wall, then the floor.<br /><br />Damage was all 4 props, cosmetic damage to one motor and the gimbal dampener popped out.<br /><br />I did have GPS lock inside but what I find odd is - I was directly over my RTH point.. I don't know why it didn't just land.<br /><br />My first ever crash and it was the lamest way possible.<br /><br />I was able to take it in to Drones Plus Dallas to be fixed and should be back to flying this afternoon.[/QUOTE]<br /><br /><br />You know what also sucks about the Mavic?<br /><br />Being forced these app updates and firmware updates that take forever, and :<br /><br />I have to always choose between leaving the Gimbal cover on and afraid it will overheat (the fan goes crazy and bottom heatsink gets hot even when Mavic is just sitting there doing nothing, which is absolutely crazy)<br />OR<br />taking the gimbal cover off to get better ventilation but then risking stupid crap like auto RTH into the roof.<br /><br />Or to those that say, just turn RTH off when flying indoors,<br /><br />well what happens if you forget to turn it back on, go on a real outdoor mission, Mavic glitches, and there goes another flyaway....<br /><br />then (in such a case) DJI blames you, and no Care for you<br /><br />either way you are screwed.


Don't turn anything off just remove props doing an update .
I'm sure you will remember to put them back on to fly

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[Andart]

People are talking about disabling RTH while doing updates and maybe forgetting to put back on .
Simple solution don't change or disable anything just remove props while updating

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[FLwaverunner]

Every time I fly indoors, first thing I do is turn off RTH and then change reaction to signal loss to Hoover, instead of RTH. I never had an issue inside yet using these settings. Just be sure to change them to appropriate values before going on an outdoor flight ; )


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[CaminDFW]

OP already addressed this. His settings reset after the firmware update (so did mine - I knew to check because of his post) so what he expected to be a low battery warning was actually the RTH 10 second warning and he didn't see the box because he was focused on the menues. It's a shame, easy mistake to make, reasonable (although problematic) assumptions and a good lesson to learn. OP's not an idiot and he generously shared this experience for us to learn from. I really appreciate the humility.

I've read a lot of these kinds of stories, including seeing my dad lose signal six feet away from his Mavic which subsequently RTH'd straight up into an overhanging branch of a tree badly damaging the gimbal. He made a reasonable assumption that the Mavic wouldn't lose signal and it came back to bite him.

It's all about the assumptions we make. I've made a concerted effort now to run through a checklist of setting and checking the home point, confirming and adjusting RTH settings, battery settings, controller settings and running through the status report every time before I take off. As a fixed wing single engine pilot I have checklists engrained in me. We check that turning the yoke moves the ailerons in the correct direction before every single flight. It's ludicrous to think an aircraft mechanic reversed the cables by accident and didn't check or that the person who flew the rental plane before you didn't notice, but we check every time anyways. This kind of patient diligence is what will save us all from the very easy to make disastrous mistakes.

Thanks again OP. You taught me something important.

This - this sums it up.. I have no problems sharing.. I basically spelled out what happened in the hope that just one person would be saved crashing their Mavic.

Alexander - next time you're in Dallas.. I'll buy you a beer!

Cameron

 

[AlanTheBeast]

Ok.. don't be like me.. I know this has been said before but - I was hovering inside after the firmware update just to make sure that everything was working well and to reset all of my preferences. I get a few beeps at 30% and I was like ok.. it won't RTH until hits 10% - WRONG.

Due to the reset in preferences; the Mavic shot up, hit my ceiling, then the wall, then the floor.

Damage was all 4 props, cosmetic damage to one motor and the gimbal dampener popped out.

I did have GPS lock inside but what I find odd is - I was directly over my RTH point.. I don't know why it didn't just land.

My first ever crash and it was the lamest way possible.

I was able to take it in to Drones Plus Dallas to be fixed and should be back to flying this afternoon.

If you're receiving GPS indoor you can be sure that it has a large error to begin with and that the position is going to change if it acquires another satellite. Since the pos is probably heavily contaminated with multipath, the acquisition of even one more sat could move the position solution many metres or 10's of metres.

I avoid flying indoor for a lot of reasons - you've just added a fresh one!

 

[AlanTheBeast]

We need to compile a long list of all the stupid ways that people have damaged or destroyed their Mavics on these forums.

My favorite so far is the one where a Mavic was lost in the San Francisco Bay by someone whose friend suddenly got chicken about the idea of hand-launching a Mavic and ended up accidentally throwing it into the Bay.

Followed by the friend being "accidentally" thrown into the Bay!

 

[AlanTheBeast]

Every time I fly indoors, first thing I do is turn off RTH and then change reaction to signal loss to Hoover, instead of RTH. I never had an issue inside yet using these settings. Just be sure to change them to appropriate values before going on an outdoor flight ; )


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I don't like making changes to settings that I'll forget to change back when I go to the field. RTH saved my little butt the other day (flew too far and descended towards a field). This was 2nd battery after the last F/W upgrade so I was mumbling to myself: "Yes, Alan, you did set the RTH properly. Relax." I didn't relax until I got the signal back ...

 

[moonlitnite]

The next version of Mavic really needs sensors on top and sides and back. This indoor hitting the roof is not even your problem it is design flaw in the DJI mavic.
there should be a toggle to tell the drone you are in "indoor mode", like a tripod mode, but one that is mapped directly to the controller and doesn't need app to use.
Then in "indoor mode" it can't climb to RTH, it disables RTH altogether, and automatically switches ON tripod mode while switching OFF obstacle detection.

DJI are you listening?

Here's an easier solution...
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/ed/64/e4/ed64e474b6f82c949a19f887b6d08c75.jpg

 

[CplMulder]

The incorrect homepoint has been the cause of a few sad drone mishaps lately.... when flynig indoors ALWAYS reset your disconnect or low battery action to "hover"

 

[tjones]

Every time I fly indoors, first thing I do is turn off RTH and then change reaction to signal loss to Hoover, instead of RTH. I never had an issue inside yet using these settings. Just be sure to change them to appropriate values before going on an outdoor flight ; )


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I have set the settings just as you have described and have 14 flights in my garage with no issues at all. I have been watching to see if someone would post this!


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