Another Drone (Mavic 2) Turning Itself On

[Gordie_Z]

My 2.5-week old Mavic 2 Pro has turned itself on twice. And I'm a new flyer ("pilot" would be a stretch at this point), having only flown a drone twice. I have flown RC airplanes. The last time it turned itself on was two nights ago (Saturday, 23Jan) after its last flight. I've powered it on at times on my desk since, but no flying.

Before trying to figure this out and before flying (low and safe) to try to replicate the problem, would it would make sense to save drone-generated data NOW so last Saturday's events don't get lost in a mountain of data or erased (not sure when new data starts to overwrite old)?

I've read here TXT files only record if the phone, controller, and drone are connected and, furthermore, TXT files only run from motor start to motor stop. So as the drone was off when it randomly started up and I'm pretty sure the controller was off, then the TXT logs might not be helpful (Go 4 was on as I was in its Editor). Though, TXT might have detected something odd at the end of the flight preceding the random power-up? But, DAT apparently logs from power on to power off and might have caught something odd either at the shutdown prior to the random start-up OR right at the random startup.

So, under Assistant 2 for Mavic/Log Export (normal mode) I exported all instead of just Saturday hoping going back to the beginning might help. It is apparently a 3 GB? DAT file. BUT, "Advanced Mode" has "Flight Record & Sensing," "Navigation," "Gimbal," "Camera," "FAM," "System 1," and "System 2" categories. Would any of these more likely be more helpful DATs than the "normal" mode export in figuring out a random turn-on problem??? If so, please let me know. And, am I thinking straight that DAT is the way to go seeing neither the drone nor controller were on so TXT wouldn't have caught the random power ups?

Thanks.

 

[dirkclod]

Let me get this right. Your saying the battery powered up by itself.
Was it in a case or what.

 

[Drone Master]

Let me get this right. Your saying the battery powered up by itself.
Was it in a case or what.

There have been reports in the FB group forums about this issue more than once.
It appears that some batteries have been doing this just after the last FW update on the MA2.
I still have not heard of a fix for it just yet from DJI, so just be sure not to store the battery in the drone when not in use.

 

[dirkclod]

There have been reports in the FB group forums about this issue more than once.
It appears that some batteries have been doing this just after the last FW update on the MA2.
I still have not heard a fix for it just yest from DJI, so just be sure not to store the battery in the drone when not flying.

Ok I hadn’t seen that and maybe the title through me. My M2 has never done that. Very odd.

No he says Pro , I’ve never seen anything posted here like that
course I miss a lot ?

 

[Deleted member 103366]

If the controller was not connected then the only logs available, of any sort, are likely to be the DATs on the drone itself and they are encrypted so as much use as .......... to anyone other than DJI.
I don't know about the SC but with the standard controllers the RC1B's do not generate DATs, the RC1As will generate DATs but the phone needs to be connected to the controller and the controller needs to be connected to the drone for that to happen.
There is a possible chance there may be a DAT on the memory card in the drone but it is a slim to non existant chance. see post #13 LOGs inside the SD card - I WANT TO KNOW
Downloading the DATs from the drone needs the Assistant 2 on your computer and is slow unless you can work out which log you want.
If you try downloading them have a fan blow air over the drone whilst the drone is on.

 

[Drone Master]

Ok I hadn’t seen that and maybe the title through me. My M2 has never done that. Very odd.

No he says Pro , I’ve never seen anything posted here like that
course I miss a lot ?

There have been a few reports on the M2 as well. Supposedly, DJI knows about the problem and will replace the battery in question under warranty.

 

[dirkclod]

There have been a few reports on the M2 as well. Supposedly, DJI knows about the problem and will replace the battery in question under warranty.

Well that’s good and is good to know they will power up on thier
own. Had one of mine cut on by itself I would have took the hide
off my grands butt. ?

 

[Gordie_Z]

Both times the drone was just to the left of me as I sat at the PC...



Lights were off, no fan running on low or high and then... the same sounds and sights I hear/see when I start it myself.

I did export the "normal" DAT file to my PC to have it ready (see above), not realizing it's fairly useless except to DJI. Any clue if saving any categories in Assistant 2/Export/Advanced Mode would help DJI with a self-start problem? They are "Flight Record & Sensing," "Navigation," "Gimbal," "Camera," "FAM," "System 1," and "System 2."

The TXT files are now visible to me at AirData - any use making these accessible to the forum and, if so, how?

The likelihood of seeing the mobile device DAT files is lower now than even Philius Foggg suggested. The Mavic Flight Log Retrieval and Analysis guide is great. But, I only read part of it, uploaded my files to DJI then to AirData, then later read that the iOS Go 4 deletes mobile device DATs after flight info is uploaded to DJI's cloud. I'll read #13 LOGs inside the SD card - I WANT TO KNOW and look in the mobile DAT folder, but I'm thinking we only have what's at AirData.

Given the infrequent nature of these auto-turn-ons, I sort of wonder if it occuring with both my batteries points to something else (the odds of both my batteries having this uncommon problem seem small).

I could manage this by leaving batteries out. But, the problem suggests something's wrong. And, I wonder if it can turn itself on if it can turn itself off - which I couldn't manage in flight. While less frequent than these infrequent turn-ons, I did find an account of a DJI product turning itself off in flight for no apparent reason (

Mavic Air 2 - Sudden Power Loss & Fall

Hello drone mates, I've read a lot in this forum and now I guess it's my turn to write about my experience. I've recently bought the Mavic Air 2 and did fly it many times. The last time, the drone suddenly lost power and fell off. It was a mountain area, but I could find it. If I remember...

mavicpilots.com

).

 

[Deleted member 103366]

Since the controller was not connected and no relevant DAT will exist on the phone I suspect that the only thing of use to DJI would be the DATs from the drone.
Did you upload stuff via the app, on or from the phone or from the computer?
When you uploaded files to DJI and AirData how long did each upload take and do you know how big the uploads were?
I would be inclined to email DJI and ask them what they can see from the data you have already uploaded, give them the date and time of the last intended power up etc.

Just on the off chance ........can you check and see if there are any files in the MCDatFlightRecords folder. I can't remember if you can look in the individual folders whilst they are on the iphone ( and my iphone battery is as flat as a pancake so I can't check it ) but I suspect not, and you might have to make a copy of the entire MCDatFlightRecords folder on your computer and then look. (not a bad thing I think)
The MCDatFlightRecords folder is within the FlightRecords folder.

EDIT just checked and I can not look in folders on the iphone using itunes on Windows but a friend had a look using linux and it can look in an iphone with only the native software i.e. like Windows can look in an Android.
So, with windows at least, you would have to down load the entire FlightRecords folder.

I don't know what Airdata shows YOU but the txt flightlog contains a reference to the DAT file being created whilst the txt log itself was being created. So, if you 'flew' the drone during the previous power up, the DAT file for the unintended power up should contain/be the next number e.g if the 'last' txt refers to "index" 56 the next DAT would have a name along the lines of yy-mm-dd-hh-mm-ss_FLY057DAT
I may have - & _ mixed up but you should get the idea

 

[Joe4flight]

I like to simplify things. So let me get this straight. Your drone just turned on without you double pressing the battery button that is the normal way to turn your drone on. Right? A while back my drone took off by itself when it was on and just idling. I blamed that on turning off my RC. The result was a disaster. The drone shot right up into tree branches. It got damaged behind repair. Fortunately I had the DJI Care Refresh program.

 

[Gordie_Z]

Thanks for thinking about this. As a newb the learning curve for a healthy Mavic 2 was enough (it's a bit more sophisticated than my old RC airplanes!). So I wasn't yet ready to trouble-shoot - you're experience is appreciated.

Answering Joe4flight 1st as Philius Foggg's recommendations will take me some time...

Joe4flight - sorry about your drone, that's scary. Mine was sitting on my desk (see pic above) while I transferred pics from the Go 4 editor to DropBox to the PC. Then it turned on - no 2x button press, no 1x button press, no one else in the room! I checked my notes - the lights alternated between flashing yellow quickly and blinking red slowly. I think this means "no connection to the controller" and "low battery." These signals are consistent with my memory of only having Go 4 on to transfer pictures (=controller not on) and having NOT switched to a charged battery since flying about 2.5 hours earlier. AirData corroborates this - the "Landing Battery" for that flight was 14%.

The first self-turn-on instance was the same as far as position on the desk, the drone not being touched, and no one else in the room. Unfortunately I took little notice of it figuring it was a one-off that would go away after the firmware was updated. At some point I updated the firmware and Assistant 2 said the firmware was the latest version prior to the 2cd self-turn-on last Saturday.

Note - I think these two incidents were with two different batteries. But, I'm not sure as I didn't pay the first incident much attention.

I'll get on with MCDatFlightRecords etc. now...

 

[Tiger64]

If you were connected to computer could it have powered up through usb cable?
My fpv drones will when i connect them betaflight so just a thought

 

[Gordie_Z]

I uploaded TXT files to Air Data via a two-step process... I uploaded them to the DJI cloud by Go 4/clicking the compass-looking icon that takes you to the "review past flights" screen/clicked the cloud icon with the circular arrows in it. This synced files to the DJI cloud. I'm not sure how to find their size but whatever uploaded did so fairly quickly. Then AirData downloaded them from the DJI cloud and there are six flights to look at. These must be TXT files because AirData does not support DAT from Mavic 2.

My drone's DAT files have been copied to my PC... Under Assistant 2 for Mavic 2/Log Export (normal mode) I exported all instead of just Saturday's flights hoping going back to the beginning might help. It is a 3 GB DAT file. THIS took a long time, not sure how long, but definitely a get-up-and-do-other-things time period.

The mobile DAT files apparently were removed when I uploaded to the DJI cloud. In I-tunes I saved the FlightRecord folder to my PC. Opened the FlightRecord folder and it has an empty MCDatFlightRecords folder and the TXTs for my six flights. So the TXT files and the apparently unreadable DAT files from the Mavic 2 are all that are available.

I have not yet looked at #13 LOGs inside the SD card - I WANT TO KNOW to see if I can get DAT off the drone's chip (or if it's readable by anyone here).

 

[Gordie_Z]

Tiger64 -thanks! No, the random turn-ons are not through a cable. In neither of the two incidents above was a cable connected to the drone. In the second incident, the PC and Go 4 photos were connected via DropBox/the internet but there were no cables attached to the drone. Also the controller was off so no radio connection.

 

[Gordie_Z]

GOOD TIMES - IT HAPPENED AGAIN!

I've been trying to replicate the behavior and vaguely thought each of the two times it had happened previously the battery had been low. So, yesterday I let it get low just fiddling around on the desk with it then shut it down. I removed the battery when I went to sleep and replaced it in the morning.

After the Mavic 2 and this battery had been together for 16h 20 min they fired up. Lights flashing, gimbal dancing around, the whole thing! It was right next to me like you see in the pic up top. Nothing was attached to it and the controller was not on (though Go 4 was up on the phone). The lights flashed yellow fast then blinked red real slow two times then repeated. I made a video within about a minute of it turning on then left the room (I don't think this forum allows videos as "Attach files" did not "see" it). Figured out a few minutes later I should look to see if the motors were spinning, came back, and it had turned itself off. That was probably because the battery completely ran out as it would not re-start at that point. Put the battery in the charger, pulled it out five minutes later, and all four cells had 3.6V, put it back in the charger.

I'll look at #13 LOGs inside the SD card - I WANT TO KNOW tomorrow. But, the drone's DAT files are unintelligible, the Go 4 DATs were erased when I uploaded to the DJI cloud, and the TXTs are only generated when the motors are running and so wouldn't record random power-ups. So unless someone thinks the end of the TXT prior to the last two self-power-ups could be useful or #13 LOGs inside the SD card - I WANT TO KNOW leads to a DAT file we can view, I'm thinking the next step is to ask DJI what they can see unless I hear differently from you'all.

 

[Gordie_Z]

#13 LOGs inside the SD card - I WANT TO KNOW seems to only apply to the removable SD card. Unfortunately this is a brand new Mavic 2, my impression had been the removable SD card was for photography and videography not system files, I was going to get used to flying before getting serious about photography, and so I don't have a removable SD card in the drone.

 

[BudWalker]

#13 LOGs inside the SD card - I WANT TO KNOW seems to only apply to the removable SD card. Unfortunately this is a brand new Mavic 2, my impression had been the removable SD card was for photography and videography not system files, I was going to get used to flying before getting serious about photography, and so I don't have a removable SD card in the drone.

#13 LOGs inside the SD card - I WANT TO KNOW applies only to the Mavic Mini. The Mavic 2 won't have an fc_log.log file.

 

[Gordie_Z]

Electrically, can a Mavic flight controller, motors, etc. initiate boot up and cause the fuselage etc. AND the battery to all start up? Or, can boot up only ever be initiated by the battery? If the model makes a difference, this is a revisit of "Another Drone (Mavic 2) Turning Itself On."

Thanks.

 

[slup]

The RC can't turn on the battery ... for that to be possible the receiver on the AC should need to be active, & it can only be that with the battery on. Neither can the RC turn the battery off.

If you mean the FC on the AC ... it can't either command things without being powered ... the only thing that can power on the battery (without pushing the button) is a malfunction in the battery.

 

[Gordie_Z]

Thanks Slup. I'm hoping others chime in as I'm looking for consensus. My Mavic 2 turns itself on when the RC is not on... 1x/week for the last three weeks, sitting on a desk where nothing could push its button. Yes I will be removing batteries for storage but right now am trying to figure out if it's a battery problem or something else in the drone kicking the battery on.

So far it sounds like there's no way the flight controller or any other element of the AC could kick the battery to life - only the on/off switch or a problem with the battery itself can cause this. Everyone in agreement???