How I found my Mavic

[mryeje]

As some of you know, I lost my Mavic in the summer. Five months ago I was flying a waypoint mission as the feed cut off and the drone never returned. After countless hours searching, i gave up until the fall when the leaves were gone.

I wanted to make a video on how I found it to hopefully help someone else find their lost drone, at the very least inspire them to try one last time.

 

[in_novikov]

Nice story.
How badly it was damaged?
I want to add small led strips with external power to my mavic. I think it can help in such situations

 

[princeofthehouse]

congratulations

 

[RayOZ]

Wow. Very pleased to know it survived 5 months out in the elements. Congrats on recovering it.
A few months ago, I crashed my Spark up a tree and it fell into some dry reed bed. It was close by but was hard to find. The DJI Go app has the find my drone function, which you can either make it flash the led or beep. I was glad there was power left, cos if it didn’t beep it would’ve taken me a lot longer to find.
DJI should put a battery saving mode, so it somehow sleeps. And let the RC wake it up and make it beep. Otherwise, you need to get as close to where you think it crashed with enough battery left to initiate the beep.

 

[mryeje]

Nice story.
How badly it was damaged?
I want to add small led strips with external power to my mavic. I think it can help in such situations

The only damage was the front left foot and the battery.

I want to get a bright yellow skin, a tile tracker, and drone keeper mini to be able to locate it.

 

[mryeje]

Wow. Very pleased to know it survived 5 months out in the elements. Congrats on recovering it.
A few months ago, I crashed my Spark up a tree and it fell into some dry reed bed. It was close by but was hard to find. The DJI Go app has the find my drone function, which you can either make it flash the led or beep. I was glad there was power left, cos if it didn’t beep it would’ve taken me a lot longer to find.
DJI should put a battery saving mode, so it somehow sleeps. And let the RC wake it up and make it beep. Otherwise, you need to get as close to where you think it crashed with enough battery left to initiate the beep.

Unfortunately for me I was flying with a 3rd party app so I couldn't locate it as easy, but i did have the GPS coordinates which without would have been impossible.

 

[RayOZ]

Unfortunately for me I was flying with a 3rd party app so I couldn't locate it as easy, but i did have the GPS coordinates which without would have been impossible.

But if you were close by, if the RC manages to connect to the Mavic, opening DJI Go would've picked up the location then.
Thinking further abt how I would fly my drone, if I aim to have my Mavic landed by 25% (or start flying back to me by 30%), if I ever do crash hopefully I'd still have at least 30% battery left. If the motors have stopped spinning, it might give me 20-30mins to quickly get close to possible crash location and activate find my drone.

 

[Crocket1158]

Glad for your happy ending! Also knowing Mavic survived all that time in woods....

 

[GerdS]

Did you check Mavic logs for the reason? After loss of connection it looked as if it would have accelerated until the crash into the trees. So my best guess would be a compass error, leading to falling into Atti mode. Forrest within the line of sight to a drone is also not good for the ghz rf connection and as the altitude was quite low above the trees, I think the signal was blocked by the trees.

 

[mryeje]

Did you check Mavic logs for the reason? After loss of connection it looked as if it would have accelerated until the crash into the trees. So my best guess would be a compass error, leading to falling into Atti mode. Forrest within the line of sight to a drone is also not good for the ghz rf connection and as the altitude was quite low above the trees, I think the signal was blocked by the trees.

I'm thinking the same, that the signal was blocked by the trees. I don't know how to read the log files from assistant 2 but since it still f flew the Waypoint mission after I lost contact, I think it was just my fault for not considering the topology of the land carefully.

 

[BerndM]

That should NOT have mattered in the least. The MP SHOULD have RTH when it lost the RC's signal. The fact that it didn't is a major concern. What did your flight logs show for errors or warnings?
Also. where was it found? Up in the trees or or the ground?
Very happy you got it back and it was in good shape.
BTW... the last portion of your video shows you doing a "dronie". How did you do the audio recording during that part???
Thanks

 

[mryeje]

That should NOT have mattered in the least. The MP SHOULD have RTH when it lost the RC's signal. The fact that it didn't is a major concern. What did your flight logs show for errors or warnings?
Also. where was it found? Up in the trees or or the ground?
Very happy you got it back and it was in good shape.
BTW... the last portion of your video shows you doing a "dronie". How did you do the audio recording during that part???
Thanks

I wish I could see all the data too, it flew for 3 mins after the feed cut off. DJI just told me it was my fault and they wouldnt show me much of data.
As for the audio I recorded it on my phone on a different app and let it run in the background, I clapped my hands in front of the mavic and synced the two in post.

In regards to where I found it, it was sitting on the ground just under some small fir trees.

 

[BerndM]

Thanks for that info.
The flight data, should have recorded on your phone/tablet as a text file at least up to the point where it lost connection.
I think IMHO that DJI's claim that it was YOUR fault is total BS.
The MP FAILED to automatically RTH upon loss of signal. Assuming you had it set up to do so. Your options would have been to auto land, hover in place or RTH.

 

[RayOZ]

If you had DJI Care Refresh, doesn't it cover for pilot error? If you don't have it, then I don't think DJI is obligated to replace/repair. Of course, they ask that you return the whole drone first, so after 5 months, the care refresh might have expired?

 

[mryeje]

If you had DJI Care Refresh, doesn't it cover for pilot error? If you don't have it, then I don't think DJI is obligated to replace/repair. Of course, they ask that you return the whole drone first, so after 5 months, the care refresh might have expired?

Not sure, I don't have care refresh but I think in the USA, statefarm will replace it if its lost or destroyed.

 

[GerdS]

To my knowledge a waypoint flight is not cancelled by RTH on a lost radio connection.

 

[Joely-Bird]

I want to get a bright yellow skin, a tile tracker, and drone keeper mini to be able to locate it.

Has anyone tried these Tile trackers? I'm not convinced it would be the best option as it relies on crowd location to pinpoint it I think? Not much chance of a bunch of other people having the Tile app out in the woods.

Unless of course, I misunderstand how it works?

 

[mryeje]

Has anyone tried these Tile trackers? I'm not convinced it would be the best option as it relies on crowd location to pinpoint it I think? Not much chance of a bunch of other people having the Tile app out in the woods.

Unless of course, I misunderstand how it works?

I haven't tried them; however, I have watched some reviews. I think unless you want to pay for cell service or dish out for a Marco Polo these might be the only option. They are useless unless you can get within 200 ft of where the drone was lost.