Mavic crashed into office building...what did I do wrong?

[esm123]

I have you beat. I'm actually embarrassed to say... I have never calibrated the compass on my Mavic. Not a single time. I don't recommend doing what I have done. But my bird came fine right out of the box. I checked sensors and continually monitor the flight characteristics and have not seen even the slightest indicator that calibration is required so I have left it alone. Additionally I have not received any application prompts requesting a calibration so I won't do it. As a matter of fact, I have never calibrated anything aside from the visions sensors. It flies straight as an arrow and the only time I had a compass error was the time I intentionally flew near a 150 metal structure at a sawmill. I literally flew about 20 feet from the metal dome before I saw the compass error warning. I've been flying the mess out of my Mavic from day one back in November and I have not had a single issue with it.. none, nada, zilch. I absolutely love the thing it is in another category from the other birds I own and operated before. So, I'm going to say this crash is likely the result of a bad calibration.

Why exactly did you calibrate it anyway?

That's how mine was before. Not sure if you've ever flown your mavic in other countries. But every time I take it out of the country, it won't take off unless I calibrate the compass. This time, I flew it in Peru and went back to the US. A week or so later, I updated the software and it required me to calibrate it before I could take off again in the US. When I take it far away, it usually requires a calibration..otherwise I never ever calibrate it for no reason.

 

[BossBob]

Another person who has never calibrated their drones compass. The only time I've ever seen the app ask for calibration I ignored it, why? Because I realised the the drone was next to the sub of my surround sound system. Moved the drone away and the calibration request went away. The only non optimal event the drone has suffered was due to fine leafless branches that object avoidance couldn't see.

 

[Hexagon]

I only calibrated once before maiden flight. Never again since then. However, in my pre-flight routine check, I always check IMU and Compass readings via the App (Sensors State) in order to scan for possible interference before launching to the air. Never took off with an orange reading, only when all seems OK and "green". Never had an issue.

 

[Marcos Pellegrini]

Sorry guys
but everytime I start a new flight the MP ask me to recalibrate, even in cities no far from my original first fly and calibration
Should I calibrate or not?
And how can I start a flight plan like you said?

 

[m0j0]

That's how mine was before. Not sure if you've ever flown your mavic in other countries. But every time I take it out of the country, it won't take off unless I calibrate the compass. This time, I flew it in Peru and went back to the US. A week or so later, I updated the software and it required me to calibrate it before I could take off again in the US. When I take it far away, it usually requires a calibration..otherwise I never ever calibrate it for no reason.

Understood... I haven't taken mine more than 100 miles from home so I haven't even considered calibrating. When I go to Belize that will probably be a different story.

 

[Garbrodona]

Hi Guys I don't know a lot from data reading or so.. but I think that one should calibrate a drone only if you are in an open area but if you are flying your device in an area with lot's of obstacles like a city with lots of buildings, a forest with lots of trees and you find a little clear area to take off, you should not calibrate it. Once we were flying our phantom 3 pro and my collaborator was stubborn in take off the drone on a medium size concrete bridge that was on a river in a semi rural area, it was an open area but the device did not want to allow us to calibrate so we decided to take off without calibration, the result was that like 15 seconds later, the drone was not responding the movements of the RC or obeyed untimely, we saw the craft erratic and violent from side to side above the rain forest (the good thing was that it was very high) so the only thing that came to my mind was to shout to my collaborator to run off the bridge and already on shore the drone began to obey and we immediately brought it back. Something that I learn is to never take off if the device shows some error on the screen. So is not advisable to take off on roofs, concrete bridges, or anything that has lots of metal inside. Remember that modern buildings are full of metal. As well as birds can crash into mirrors or crystals the drones can crash too.
Safe flights!

 

[cmuchmore]

Dear Listmates,

This topic sounds like it has the best of the best in terms of the secrets behind the Mavic and the software.

I just updated to .700 with now problems. I used my MacBook Air and the DJI Assistant. Everything went well.

My question is: When using the DJI Assistant, there was an option on the left hand column for Black Box. I had no idea what that was so I downloaded it. When I clicked on it I got a very weird file structure and when I clicked on the files I got corrupted data.

So, what is the Black Box.

Thanks for your time in answering this.

Chuck

 

[pong ignacio]

i have an experience flying my p2 near a transformer, it flew wild and crashed, please do not fly near transformers to avoid this mishaps

 

[timesnaps]

bird strike, small sparrow or some bird passing by the sensors and sending it into a spin!?

 

[AyeYo]

I have you beat. I'm actually embarrassed to say... I have never calibrated the compass on my Mavic. Not a single time. I don't recommend doing what I have done.

Quite the contrary, everyone should be doing exactly what you've done. There is absolutely no reason to calibrate the compass unless prompted to do so and even then, a different power up/take off spot should be tried first.

 

[Zelnando]

Hi all,
I had a perfect mavic, never had a single issue for months...Did the latest software upgrade.. calibrated compass, re-did all the settings... took off vertically about 150 feet, drone went completely haywire and crashed into an office building. (Drone is totally destroyed) - I tried to control it while it was going crazy, it would react to my input but I couldn't keep up with it's movements and it was going way too fast.

I sent the mavic to DJI for repair.. but I'd like to check the flight recorder data to see what happened...
I have the SD card, and the app on my phone with all the data. What can I upload for you experts to help me analyze what happened?
thank you

On

Hi all,
I had a perfect mavic, never had a single issue for months...Did the latest software upgrade.. calibrated compass, re-did all the settings... took off vertically about 150 feet, drone went completely haywire and crashed into an office building. (Drone is totally destroyed) - I tried to control it while it was going crazy, it would react to my input but I couldn't keep up with it's movements and it was going way too fast.

I sent the mavic to DJI for repair.. but I'd like to check the flight recorder data to see what happened...
I have the SD card, and the app on my phone with all the data. What can I upload for you experts to help me analyze what happened?
thank you

From what I read from the tutorial- only the dji expected can unzip those special encoded flight data specially from the Remote.