Is there a widespread problem with RC signal loss?

[Medic31525]

Hello, this will be my first post. I purchased a Mavic (not so) Pro on Saturday February 25th directly from DJI store, and received it just 4 days later. Heavy rain that day so had plenty of time to charge controller and batteries correctly as well as perform a flawless firmware update. I then took the mavic out on the covered front porch and performed an imu and gps calibration as directed. The rain finally stopped so i decided to fly it. placed it on the sidewalk that goes from my house to the road and auto launched with the app saying ready to go and the green light flashing on the rear of the mavic. I let it hover for a solid two minutes 4 ft off the ground just to make sure everything was good to go. I moved the mavic 10 feet forward and performed 2 circles 4-5 ft off the ground. i looked down and the controller and app showed connection lost and the light on the back of the mavic began to flash yellow. The mavic yawed to the right and then gained altitude hitting a small branch approx 20 ft in the air causing it to flip over and land on concrete. major damage to 2 motors and all propellers shattered. I have filed a warranty claim and shipped it to them, waiting on a decision from DJI.

I never reached a distance from the rc of more than 18 ft and was never higher than 6 ft off the ground. $1000 for a 4 min flight. Heart wrenching!
Hopefully DJI can restore my confidence in they're products.

 

[dlopezjurado]

Hello, this will be my first post. I purchased a Mavic (not so) Pro on Saturday February 25th directly from DJI store, and received it just 4 days later. Heavy rain that day so had plenty of time to charge controller and batteries correctly as well as perform a flawless firmware update. I then took the mavic out on the covered front porch and performed an imu and gps calibration as directed. The rain finally stopped so i decided to fly it. placed it on the sidewalk that goes from my house to the road and auto launched with the app saying ready to go and the green light flashing on the rear of the mavic. I let it hover for a solid two minutes 4 ft off the ground just to make sure everything was good to go. I moved the mavic 10 feet forward and performed 2 circles 4-5 ft off the ground. i looked down and the controller and app showed connection lost and the light on the back of the mavic began to flash yellow. The mavic yawed to the right and then gained altitude hitting a small branch approx 20 ft in the air causing it to flip over and land on concrete. major damage to 2 motors and all propellers shattered. I have filed a warranty claim and shipped it to them, waiting on a decision from DJI.

I never reached a distance from the rc of more than 18 ft and was never higher than 6 ft off the ground. $1000 for a 4 min flight. Heart wrenching!
Hopefully DJI can restore my confidence in they're products.

That´s terrible...so sorry to read that.
It is what cannot be true...
I remember when happened to me on the soccer field....enough space to retake control, but...less than 10 m distance and 2 m height...
So, at the end, you live with your heart at high bpm every time you fly it, because you don´t know why these things happen!! You can fly like me 2.7km away with total control, no single bar dropped and HD video fluent....or 10m and lose RC and crash...e

DJI need to get this better controled...

I´m sur they will respond positively to your situation and you will have soon a new Mavic...

 

[brew69]

Possibly "Follow Me" mode requires a close distance to be maintained between Mavic and Subject...

I had this, have seen somewhere else, its to do with google maps not working on the app properly as positioning home as quite a bit off

 

[Aerial Gopher]

The latest update of DJI Go app has fixed the signal issues for me. I no longer need to put the phone into airplane mode for it to work. Although I do experience gimbal jitter.. but that's for another topic post..

 

[Oingo Boingo]

When you first get a mavic it's best to calibrate imu as quickly as possible after switching on so the model doesn't get too warm.
Then calibrate the gps in an open area, more open the better.
Then re-bind the model.

I have used this method for 4 models over 3 years with no glitches.

I'm typing this simply because i have seen quite a few people say they just flew their models without doing ANYTHING!

That's bad imho.

I would agree with compass calibration and controller calibration. But sadly when it comes to IMU its not quite how an IMU functions. You need to understand what an IMU does and how it affects the craft. Ive been flying drones and helis for 7 years and never had issues. The Inertia Measurement Unit is kinda like the sensors on your phone that measures calibrated movement. It has up to 6 different velocity and movement meters. These meters work on a principle similar to a small bowl with mercury in. The bowl has a fixed electric charge and the charge is affected by the mercury moving around in the bowl... Hence it detects movement by as the voltage changes in the switch. Your phone has the same system. These switches only work when the drone is switched on and powered up. When it reveives a heavy impact during a crash the switches at times get stuck to an ALL ON position in an overloaded state. The drone will then tell you Recalibrate the IMU. The recalibration just discharges the sensors and then recharges them. Thats why itbis recommended to do the IMU calibration while the drone is in cooled core state. Ive never in all my drone flying had to recalibrate an IMU out of the box EVER. To be honest only EVER had to recalibrate a Phantom 2 after it crashed.

 

[Kate]

Hello, this will be my first post. I purchased a Mavic (not so) Pro on Saturday February 25th directly from DJI store, and received it just 4 days later. Heavy rain that day so had plenty of time to charge controller and batteries correctly as well as perform a flawless firmware update. I then took the mavic out on the covered front porch and performed an imu and gps calibration as directed. The rain finally stopped so i decided to fly it. placed it on the sidewalk that goes from my house to the road and auto launched with the app saying ready to go and the green light flashing on the rear of the mavic. I let it hover for a solid two minutes 4 ft off the ground just to make sure everything was good to go. I moved the mavic 10 feet forward and performed 2 circles 4-5 ft off the ground. i looked down and the controller and app showed connection lost and the light on the back of the mavic began to flash yellow. The mavic yawed to the right and then gained altitude hitting a small branch approx 20 ft in the air causing it to flip over and land on concrete. major damage to 2 motors and all propellers shattered. I have filed a warranty claim and shipped it to them, waiting on a decision from DJI.

I never reached a distance from the rc of more than 18 ft and was never higher than 6 ft off the ground. $1000 for a 4 min flight. Heart wrenching!
Hopefully DJI can restore my confidence in they're products.

Not to sound like harsh but it
sounds like a typical unboxing and crashing.
your waiting for the rain to stop gives it away.
sorry for your loss though

 

[flyNfrank]

Hello, this will be my first post. I purchased a Mavic (not so) Pro on Saturday February 25th directly from DJI store, and received it just 4 days later. Heavy rain that day so had plenty of time to charge controller and batteries correctly as well as perform a flawless firmware update. I then took the mavic out on the covered front porch and performed an imu and gps calibration as directed. The rain finally stopped so i decided to fly it. placed it on the sidewalk that goes from my house to the road and auto launched with the app saying ready to go and the green light flashing on the rear of the mavic. I let it hover for a solid two minutes 4 ft off the ground just to make sure everything was good to go. I moved the mavic 10 feet forward and performed 2 circles 4-5 ft off the ground. i looked down and the controller and app showed connection lost and the light on the back of the mavic began to flash yellow. The mavic yawed to the right and then gained altitude hitting a small branch approx 20 ft in the air causing it to flip over and land on concrete. major damage to 2 motors and all propellers shattered. I have filed a warranty claim and shipped it to them, waiting on a decision from DJI.

I never reached a distance from the rc of more than 18 ft and was never higher than 6 ft off the ground. $1000 for a 4 min flight. Heart wrenching!
Hopefully DJI can restore my confidence in they're products.

I'm not sure what a gps calibration is, but what is unfortunate is you did not calibrate the Remote Controller or calibrate the compass. Then extreme issue # 2 is to always avoid launching from any concrete. And the sad part to that is, you calibrated the most important part of the aircraft on concrete full of Rebar. You wont have to be concerned with sharing such details with dji. All of those details will appear in the aircraft's internal flight log records.

 

[Medic31525]

Not to sound like harsh but it
sounds like a typical unboxing and crashing.
your waiting for the rain to stop gives it away.
sorry for your loss though

Hey Sherlock. So what you are saying is I shouldn't have waited for the rain to stop?

 

[msinger]

Medic31525, flyNfrank hit the nail on the head in his post above. I doubt DJI is going to cover this one under warranty when they see you took off from a sidewalk.

If needed, you can download the Mavic manual from the Mavic downloads page. It covers topics like not taking off near magnetic metal objects and many other items you should know if you decide to buy another Mavic in the future.

 

[Medic31525]

I'm not sure what a gps calibration is, but what is unfortunate is you did not calibrate the Remote Controller or calibrate the compass. Then extreme issue # 2 is to always avoid launching from any concrete. And the sad part to that is, you calibrated the most important part of the aircraft on concrete full of Rebar. You wont have to be concerned with sharing such details with dji. All of those details will appear in the aircraft's internal flight log records.

I misspoke about the GPS calibration. I meant to say a compass calibration. My porch is constructed of wood and brick. I may be wrong but I do not believe brick has reinforced rebar in it. All that being said what does that have to do with the controller losing connection 15 ft in front of me 4 ft off the ground? Another question is aren't these highly engineered machines (that some of you believe perform flawlessly) suppose to auto-land if within a 15ft radius of the home point?

 

[Strafe1]

Hey Sherlock. So what you are saying is I shouldn't have waited for the rain to stop?

Did you find out what the issue was? Sounds like you calibrated in the wrong location. You'll get a calibration with the inherent interference accounted for, but then when you take off and clear the interference, the calibration is off. You've probably figured that out by now since its been almost two weeks. Just wondering if it was an onboard sensor malfunction or not.

 

[msinger]

It would be helpful if we could take a look at your flight log. If you'd like us to review and comment on it, please upload it here and post a link back here.

 

[Medic31525]

Medic31525, flyNfrank hit the nail on the head in his post above. I doubt DJI is going to cover this one under warranty when they see you took off from a sidewalk.

If needed, you can download the Mavic manual from the Mavic downloads page. It covers topics like not taking off near magnetic metal objects and many other items you should know if you decide to buy another Mavic in the future.

My walkway from the road to my house is not reinforced I myself poured it with my father in law on a Sunday afternoon. I know that some concrete has some trace metals in it but if that is a concern then parking lots, beaches, and several other surfaces would be out of the question for take off. And once again I will ask what that has to do with the RC disconnecting from the mavic 15 ft in front of me at 4 ft feet off of the ground?

 

[Medic31525]

Did you find out what the issue was? Sounds like you calibrated in the wrong location. You'll get a calibration with the inherent interference accounted for, but then when you take off and clear the interference, the calibration is off. You've probably figured that out by now since its been almost two weeks. Just wondering if it was an onboard sensor malfunction or not.

Dji sent me an email 6 days ago stating my case was assessed and quoted. I replied asking what the decision/issue was and they responded on Tuesday stating that someone would contact me regarding my case. I have been waiting for that response.....

 

[msinger]

I really won't be able to answer any of your questions without seeing your flight log.

 

[Medic31525]

I really won't be able to answer any of your questions without seeing your flight log.

Can you explain further how to accomplish this please.

 

[msinger]

You can find instructions here.

 

[Medic31525]

You can find instructions here.

Thanks. I will do this tomorrow evening if not sooner. 0400 comes very quickly.

 

[Kate]

Hey Sherlock. So what you are saying is I shouldn't have waited for the rain to stop?

Your mavic was stuck in "screw the manual mode."
Mavics come preset from the factory in STMM.

Despite the risks to their $1500 investment, People still fly in STMM.
They promptly crash, saying mavic went 'crazy' and in typical entitled fashion, blame
it on DJI, and see that they pick up the chq.

The best advice from me to you when you get your next MP, is:
Pretend that if you crash (reason and blame aside), you wont have a drone anymore, and act accoridingly.

For the record you did take most of the steps to disable STMM, unfortunately just not all.
peace

 

[tooFLYforayoungGUY]

Been having RC connection issues with my drone. All types of environments, from signal heavy urban environments to wide open spaces without any noise. Sometimes I have no problems, other times I can be 10m from my MP and it's showing no RC signal.

I usually reset the whole setup and see if that helps.