Mavic Fly Away this evening. Shes Gone!

[AlanTheBeast]

Just edited my suggestion to include Ping rather than the Bluetooth trackr. Thanks

Which is fine but the Ping tracker won't be available until July.

For similar, there's Trackimo. But I'm leaning Marco Polo.

 

[AlanTheBeast]

Tnx.. very detailed

You're welcome. It's also dynamic. As time goes by I'll be refining it.

 

[Capt Drone]

Hi Everyone. I'm Back. Had to fly a quick international trip and didn't have time to check the thread.

Wow! I'm impressed. You guys are really on it.

I have read through your thoughts. Let me add some comments. We NEED to figure this out.

The battery was charged to 100%. This was about the 7th flight on the Mavic that evening. I had flown about 30% from the pack and landed, shut down and took a brief break before taking off again on the final flight.

This craft had over 300 previous flights on it with no issues.

Weather conditions were nearly ideal. Not too windy and perfect temprature. 50f or so.

I was really pushing the Mavic. Both sticks were full forward when I got the discharge warning. I immediately throttled back when the warning came on. (but not all the way back) enough to make the warning go away. I have seen this warning before on this unit as well as on the two other units that I have flown. Seems pretty typical if you are really hauling around in sport mode.

I absolutely had the RTH point set. Very careful to make sure that always happens. While I didn't have good visual reference to the Mavic when I lost it, I did have an excellent picture on my I-pad mini. I could also hear the aircraft as it was cranked up in sport mode.

A short time before everything went blank, I had and alert to adjust my antennas for better reception. I believe at almost the same time my screen went blank and I got the message on the RC that said something like signal lost. I waited for awhile thinking it would come back as I started walking to the last known position of the Mavic. I should have been able to see it or at least hear it. At that point I firmly pressed the RTH button. It was like it did nothing at all. The message about lost signal just remained. When I was close enough I should have seen the craft in hover or flying past me on the way home I saw and heard nothing. As a last resort I turned off the RC in hopes it might go home. I searched the area where signal was lost for quite a while that evening and again the next morning. You can see it is on the edge of some woods that are pretty thick. I figure it fell from 347 feet so doubt there is much to find but would like to send it to DJI so we all know what happened. My contact information is on and in the aircraft so maybe it will find me someday.

The elevation where it lost signal was 26 feet higher that where it departed. Trees in the area but nothing more than 50 feet tall. So at 347 above takeoff point I was certainly well above everything. I did have a very good view from the camera and I was way high. I have flown over this area many times before without any signal issues at all.

At this point I am thinking that shortly after the discharge alert I had a battery problem. Perhaps a cell started to puff and took the others out a few seconds later. Like I said. EVERYTHING just quit at one time. Sure makes me think it was a total power failure for one reason or another and probably related to the battery? Does this make sense?

Anyway, I have uploaded the files to DJI. Hopefully will have some idea from them soon and of course I will let you know what they say.

I really liked my Mavic for so many reasons but won't be comfortable flying one again until we find out what the problem was. I do appreciate your continued thoughts and suggestions.

Mike

 

[Andrew F]

Hi Everyone. I'm Back. Had to fly a quick international trip and didn't have time to check the thread.

Wow! I'm impressed. You guys are really on it.

I have read through your thoughts. Let me add some comments. We NEED to figure this out.

The battery was charged to 100%. This was about the 7th flight on the Mavic that evening. I had flown about 30% from the pack and landed, shut down and took a brief break before taking off again on the final flight.

This craft had over 300 previous flights on it with no issues.

Weather conditions were nearly ideal. Not too windy and perfect temprature. 50f or so.

I was really pushing the Mavic. Both sticks were full forward when I got the discharge warning. I immediately throttled back when the warning came on. (but not all the way back) enough to make the warning go away. I have seen this warning before on this unit as well as on the two other units that I have flown. Seems pretty typical if you are really hauling around in sport mode.

I absolutely had the RTH point set. Very careful to make sure that always happens. While I didn't have good visual reference to the Mavic when I lost it, I did have an excellent picture on my I-pad mini. I could also hear the aircraft as it was cranked up in sport mode.

A short time before everything went blank, I had and alert to adjust my antennas for better reception. I believe at almost the same time my screen went blank and I got the message on the RC that said something like signal lost. I waited for awhile thinking it would come back as I started walking to the last known position of the Mavic. I should have been able to see it or at least hear it. At that point I firmly pressed the RTH button. It was like it did nothing at all. The message about lost signal just remained. When I was close enough I should have seen the craft in hover or flying past me on the way home I saw and heard nothing. As a last resort I turned off the RC in hopes it might go home. I searched the area where signal was lost for quite a while that evening and again the next morning. You can see it is on the edge of some woods that are pretty thick. I figure it fell from 347 feet so doubt there is much to find but would like to send it to DJI so we all know what happened. My contact information is on and in the aircraft so maybe it will find me someday.

The elevation where it lost signal was 26 feet higher that where it departed. Trees in the area but nothing more than 50 feet tall. So at 347 above takeoff point I was certainly well above everything. I did have a very good view from the camera and I was way high. I have flown over this area many times before without any signal issues at all.

At this point I am thinking that shortly after the discharge alert I had a battery problem. Perhaps a cell started to puff and took the others out a few seconds later. Like I said. EVERYTHING just quit at one time. Sure makes me think it was a total power failure for one reason or another and probably related to the battery? Does this make sense?

Anyway, I have uploaded the files to DJI. Hopefully will have some idea from them soon and of course I will let you know what they say.

I really liked my Mavic for so many reasons but won't be comfortable flying one again until we find out what the problem was. I do appreciate your continued thoughts and suggestions.

Mike

Have you uploaded to Msinger yet? That should be #1 on your priority list. Seriously.

 

[temptation]

Find some another drone and flyover that area above trees and scan footage on big screen..

 

[ablack]

It is so amusing to read people's comments that believe these UAV's are going to do everything perfect, because that is how their own personal drone performs. It seems to me that DJI has began to rush these mavics out of the factory and quality is suffering. If these products did exactly what they were supposed to then this forum would be a lot less busy. Yes I know there are lots of pilot error cases but these drones do have a mind of there own at times and have major malfunctions that are uncontrollable by the pilot. Trust me I know.

I completely agree with you. Considering the sophistication of this product and the way it is presented as being intelligent and advanced, I too am amazed at all of the issues that are presented and in many cases this isn't from new owners, most have owned previous products and a lot where DJI, so after a while you have to wonder about the product. I know I do.

 

[FLwaverunner]

I had that warning about discharge about a minute before it was lost. I'm feeling like I had TOTAL power failure.

Wow, first off so sorry for your loss. I know your pain, losing a drone myself in the Gulf of Mexico.
Do you have the stats on the battery? # of uses, charges, etc. would be interesting to know.
Thanks for posting. Hopefully we can all learn something. Hope it turns up for you.

 

[FLwaverunner]

If he had return to home obsticle avoidance turned on, it will avoid objects even if it's in sport mode. I think by default that is off though.

Yah, I'm pretty sure obstacle avoidance is not effective in S mode

 

[Cerberus]

Yah, I'm pretty sure obstacle avoidance is not effective in S mode

It's turn off in S-Mode.. so "not effective" is not exactly the word I would use..

 

[CaptTPT]

No need to do the compass dance unless it asks you to.

As long as one is calling it a home point, best (IMO) to let the aircraft GPS receiver determine it once it has locked on.[1]. If you want to change it, use the first option (the drone symbol), then choose carefully (where you are or where the drone is at present. If the drone is a km away it might ruin your whole day)

I have pretty good check lists and at the core of them is the launch sequence which is a hard set of rules for me:

• Never take off under obstacles (tree limbs, lights, wires, etc.)
• Use a landing pad with a distinct pattern on it (see my avatar)
• Wait for GPS to lock before starting the motors
  • Preferably with 12+ sats.
• Verify the home point against the map presented[2]
• Start the motors
• Rise vertically 10 m and wait 5 seconds.
  • Lets the photo of the landing zone to be made
  • A good time to do focus and exposure adjustments
  • Start video if not already running

That sequence is to make sure that in the worst case RTH should bring the drone back close and in most conditions can even automatically land. No guarantee - just stacks the odds in my favour.

Also, I generally disable OA for RTH and set the RTH to the maximum legal altitude. This works where I am (pretty flat spaces).

[1] While the MP is known to occasionally lose GPS in flight, where it has GPS at the home point I've never heard of it being way off at that time.

[2] Note that if you don't have LTE where you are this may need you to cache the maps ahead of the flight. Good thing to do the night before.

Would you please outline how you "cache maps" so that they are available to use later.

 

[BudWalker]

Hi Everyone. I'm Back. Had to fly a quick international trip and didn't have time to check the thread.

Wow! I'm impressed. You guys are really on it.

I have read through your thoughts. Let me add some comments. We NEED to figure this out.

The battery was charged to 100%. This was about the 7th flight on the Mavic that evening. I had flown about 30% from the pack and landed, shut down and took a brief break before taking off again on the final flight.

This craft had over 300 previous flights on it with no issues.

Weather conditions were nearly ideal. Not too windy and perfect temprature. 50f or so.

I was really pushing the Mavic. Both sticks were full forward when I got the discharge warning. I immediately throttled back when the warning came on. (but not all the way back) enough to make the warning go away. I have seen this warning before on this unit as well as on the two other units that I have flown. Seems pretty typical if you are really hauling around in sport mode.

I absolutely had the RTH point set. Very careful to make sure that always happens. While I didn't have good visual reference to the Mavic when I lost it, I did have an excellent picture on my I-pad mini. I could also hear the aircraft as it was cranked up in sport mode.

A short time before everything went blank, I had and alert to adjust my antennas for better reception. I believe at almost the same time my screen went blank and I got the message on the RC that said something like signal lost. I waited for awhile thinking it would come back as I started walking to the last known position of the Mavic. I should have been able to see it or at least hear it. At that point I firmly pressed the RTH button. It was like it did nothing at all. The message about lost signal just remained. When I was close enough I should have seen the craft in hover or flying past me on the way home I saw and heard nothing. As a last resort I turned off the RC in hopes it might go home. I searched the area where signal was lost for quite a while that evening and again the next morning. You can see it is on the edge of some woods that are pretty thick. I figure it fell from 347 feet so doubt there is much to find but would like to send it to DJI so we all know what happened. My contact information is on and in the aircraft so maybe it will find me someday.

The elevation where it lost signal was 26 feet higher that where it departed. Trees in the area but nothing more than 50 feet tall. So at 347 above takeoff point I was certainly well above everything. I did have a very good view from the camera and I was way high. I have flown over this area many times before without any signal issues at all.

At this point I am thinking that shortly after the discharge alert I had a battery problem. Perhaps a cell started to puff and took the others out a few seconds later. Like I said. EVERYTHING just quit at one time. Sure makes me think it was a total power failure for one reason or another and probably related to the battery? Does this make sense?

Anyway, I have uploaded the files to DJI. Hopefully will have some idea from them soon and of course I will let you know what they say.

I really liked my Mavic for so many reasons but won't be comfortable flying one again until we find out what the problem was. I do appreciate your continued thoughts and suggestions.

Mike

It looks like you spent a lot of time composing this narrative. Unfortunately, it won't help much in determining the cause of the incident. Any conclusions based on that narrative would just be idle speculation.

The only way to make progress is for you to provide the .txt file for this flight. The easiest way is to upload the .txt here
https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/upload/
and then post the link it provides.

Alternatively, you can attach the .txt to a post here. Since it is a .txt it doesn't have to be zipped. Just hit the "Upload a file" button.

 

[Capt Drone]

I'll try that Bud. Not so good with computer files for the most part. Looks like I might need an I Tunes account to setup the upload? I don't have enough room on my I pad for that. I'll click on your link now. Appreciate your help.

 

[Capt Drone]

Hi again Bud. I clicked on the link and it gave me one choice where to browse and that was the Photo Library. Seems like I have to setup I-Tunes to do this on IOS?

 

[BudWalker]

I'll try that Bud. Not so good with computer files for the most part. Looks like I might need an I Tunes account to setup the upload? I don't have enough room on my I pad for that. I'll click on your link now. Appreciate your help.

I must be missing something here. It looks like you uploaded the .txt to HealthyDrones according to this post
Mavic Fly Away this evening. Shes Gone!
That's the .txt we need.

AFAIK HealthyDrones can't upload from the DJI Go App?

 

[Capt Drone]

Just looked at the battery info on Healthy Drones. All normal. This battery had 80 cycles on it. Amperage was well below 15 the entire route.

 

[Capt Drone]

hmmm OK Bud. I'm making this too complicated. Let me see if I can find it.

 

[Capt Drone]

HealthyDrones.com - Innovative flight data analysis that matters

Hope this is the link you guys need?

 

[AlanTheBeast]

Would you please outline how you "cache maps" so that they are available to use later.

https://support.google.com/maps/answer/6291838?co=GENIE.Platform=iOS&hl=en&oco=0
Download areas and navigate offline - iPhone & iPad - Google Maps Help

 

[Capt Drone]

Tried that Alan. Just came in from looking with my phone. Seems like the course lines on Google move a lot when I zoom in or out but I know I was in the general area. Spent about 4 hours so far in search.

 

[AlanTheBeast]

Tried that Alan. Just came in from looking with my phone. Seems like the course lines on Google move a lot when I zoom in or out but I know I was in the general area. Spent about 4 hours so far in search.

On Google Earth a kml file plots out with the altitude projected above the map. So as you zoom in/out or move around, the perspective changes. What's in the middle of the screen should be right over the point on the ground, however. (Edit: hit the compass button to reset the perspective so the centre screen becomes the "vertical" point.)