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ggold82

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Hey all...New to the forum, but glad to be here.

Recently had a catastrophic crash of my Mavic 2 Pro. I had purchased it second-hand and as far as all my research could tell me , it was in perfect condition. No crashes and only flown a handful of times.

I was flying over a river at a pretty decent horizontal distance. I wanted a little bit more speed for the video so I increased altitude and put into sport mode. There was nothing around the drone to cause a crash, but the aircraft was out of line of sight for me (just due to Horizontal distance, not line of sight bein obstructed). All of a sudden, the video started going crazy and I got the message "Gimbal roll reached movement limit" then the message "Motor Idling, propeller loose or missing" then the message "Gyroscope data error, contact DJI support" then a weak GPS signal and the warning "Satellite positioning off, fly with caution." The aircraft then switched to backup IMU and gave the message "IMU attitude error, restart the aircraft."

The aircraft then crashed into the bank of the river, thankfully not in it, but all of the arms and propellers were broken, the body became slightly separated, the camera and gimble were completely broken off, the camera lens shattered, and the battery weirdly only slightly damaged.

I'm wondering what actually happened to my aircraft? I'm not sure what would cause any of this. Aircraft was working flawlessly up until then. I have no idea if this was user error or something unavoidable? I did not have DJI care refresh on this particular aircraft and I'm not quite sure what to do about any repairs for it. I have since purchased a new Mavic 2 Zoom with DJI care refresh so I don't have to go through this again.

If anyone could give me some assistance or some answers, It would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks...
 

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I'm sorry for your loss! That sounds like a horrible event. You're able to recall a lot of details about the error messages, but it might be good to upload the log files and let some of the log wizzards here have a look at it... you'll be surprised about the amount of insight they can provide.
Wishing you all the best, cheers Joost
 
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Hi there & welcome to the forum even though it's under sad circumstances ...

Your story telling is the first step to investigate this ... after that, flight logs is King.

Read up here on how to retrieve the mobile device .TXT log, it's stored in the device you flew with --> Mavic Flight Log Retrieval and Analysis Guide (read under section 3.) attach it then in a new post here.
 
Thanks for the response!

Can you let me know how to import them to this thread? I tried to export the logs in the DJI 4 app and I can't seem to find where they are sent?

Sorry, just saw your response @slup. will look now
 
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Alright, Downloaded Airdata. Not sure how to link the entire flight to the forum like I've seen in some other posts, but I've got the text file here, which I imagine is all the data necessary.

Let me know if I need to upload anything else...

Thanks
 

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Alright, Downloaded Airdata. Not sure how to link the entire flight to the forum like I've seen in some other posts, but I've got the text file here, which I imagine is all the data necessary.

Let me know if I need to upload anything else...
The .txt file should be enough but the one you've uploaded is a dud and doesn't contain any flight data that AIrdata etc can read.
Is it the right one - it's dated 6th February?

Here's some alternative advice for finding the right file and posting it.
Go to DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help
Follow the instructions there to upload your flight record from your phone or tablet.
That will give you a detailed report of the flight.
Come back and post a link to the report it gives you.
Or .. just post the txt file here.
 
Alright, Downloaded Airdata. Not sure how to link the entire flight to the forum like I've seen in some other posts, but I've got the text file here, which I imagine is all the data necessary.

Let me know if I need to upload anything else...

Thanks
Or if it's the correct data and Airdata reads the file for you, tick the share box in AIrdata and post a link to the Airdata report
 
Sorry for the crash.

The Mavic Crash Investigators in this forum will be very helpful in finding out what happened.
 
Alright, Downloaded Airdata. Not sure how to link the entire flight to the forum like I've seen in some other posts, but I've got the text file here, which I imagine is all the data necessary.

Let me know if I need to upload anything else...

Thanks

That's unfortunate - the Mavic 2 is generally very reliable apart from some isolated battery disconnection issues. In this case it appears that the front right prop failed, or came off, at 166.7 s into the flight. The txt file message sequence also indicates a free motor condition (although it doesn't identify which motor), consistent with prop loss. The pitch roll and yaw deviations and subsequent oscillations are the primary indications here:

Graph0.png

Were you using OEM props, or something aftermarket? The mobile device DAT file ending FLY082.DAT would be very useful to confirm the issue, if you can find and post it.
 
In this case it appears that the front right prop failed, or came off, at 166.7 s into the flight.
What tricks did you use to get that .txt file to read?
 
... In this case it appears that the front right prop failed, or came off, at 166.7 s into the flight.
Yep ... agree, something happened at the right front. And most probably a prop failure due to the "Propeller Fell Off. Motor Idling (Propeller Loose or Missing)" message.

-AC pitch forward (negative) indicate lost thrust in the front.
-AC rolls to the right (positive) indicate lost thrust on the right.
-AC starts to rotate CCW indicating that one CW torquing prop doesn't generate thrust ... either right front or left rear.

This pinpoint the right front as the problem side.

1617455044917.png
 
Hey all...New to the forum, but glad to be here.

Recently had a catastrophic crash of my Mavic 2 Pro. I had purchased it second-hand and as far as all my research could tell me , it was in perfect condition. No crashes and only flown a handful of times.

I was flying over a river at a pretty decent horizontal distance. I wanted a little bit more speed for the video so I increased altitude and put into sport mode. There was nothing around the drone to cause a crash, but the aircraft was out of line of sight for me (just due to Horizontal distance, not line of sight bein obstructed). All of a sudden, the video started going crazy and I got the message "Gimbal roll reached movement limit" then the message "Motor Idling, propeller loose or missing" then the message "Gyroscope data error, contact DJI support" then a weak GPS signal and the warning "Satellite positioning off, fly with caution." The aircraft then switched to backup IMU and gave the message "IMU attitude error, restart the aircraft."

The aircraft then crashed into the bank of the river, thankfully not in it, but all of the arms and propellers were broken, the body became slightly separated, the camera and gimble were completely broken off, the camera lens shattered, and the battery weirdly only slightly damaged.

I'm wondering what actually happened to my aircraft? I'm not sure what would cause any of this. Aircraft was working flawlessly up until then. I have no idea if this was user error or something unavoidable? I did not have DJI care refresh on this particular aircraft and I'm not quite sure what to do about any repairs for it. I have since purchased a new Mavic 2 Zoom with DJI care refresh so I don't have to go through this again.

If anyone could give me some assistance or some answers, It would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks...
GGold82: Have a look at one of my posts on prop failure,

Aftermarket Mavic Pro Low Noise Propeller Failure​


I posted this message on June 24, 2019.

I was very lucky to see that one of the retaining pins fell out after I had just landed.

Since you purchased this 2nd hand, have you verified the type of props you have on the M2P? Probably not possible if they broke up on impact.

Could be bird strike or could be prop failure.
 

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No one else mentioned this but you shouldn't have been flying BVLOS. If you hadn't you might have seen it was in trouble, though at that point probably was nothing you could have done.
 
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Expensive crash. For safety of the drone and for people around it, always have Visual Line of Sight - at all times - with your drone and airspace.

From experience, I recommend always doing a full drone inspection before each flight - saved me a couple times. Props and gimbal the main focus - feel blades, tighten screws, etc. I start and idle the motors on a table each time after I do too so you can see visually if anything is out of balance.

Perhaps look to the video for clues? The prop stops creating lift but that could be bird, wire or prop vibrations / breaking. If a bird or wire/branch, you would likely see drone move around on camera before falling starts. If prop issue alone, more likely immediately to dip forward to the side then start the fall.

Great idea on the DJI Care too! You will crash, pretty much a given for all of us!
 
Thanks for looking through the data, I was looking through it yesterday as well and I can see the moment things went awry, which was obviously a prop issue, but no indication as to what could have caused it. analyzing the video shows no obvious strikes.

about a week before that, I had replaced 2 of the blades. I'm wondering if I possibly put a non-counter rotating blade in the wrong spot which weakened it over time? Or maybe if when I put it in sport mode and the aircraft maybe quick movements at high speed, it put too much force on a prop, which weakened it and eventually broke? Or maybe a combination of the two? These were also non-DJI brand blades that I replaced, so it definitely could've been an inferior product as well.

Great analysis, @slup, thanks for that. It's nice to know which it was and how to find it. @SkiProiii, I'm very thankful that no one was around. I wouldn't have flown like I did if there had been someone there, but still, that is a 2lb weight falling uncontrolled out of the sky. And in this case, not just straight down. That could definitely cause some lifechanging issues. With the new zoom, I definitely do much more in-depth pre-flight checks before lifting off.

I do want to fix this one, but I'm not sure the expense would be worth it if I can't get DJI care refresh or any kind of insurance on it after repairs. I called DJI the other day and they said if I were to get it repaired, it wouldn't be covered
 
You can send to DJI and get an estimate. If too much, you just pay shipping I believe. The DJI chat is fast and easy to be sure I’m right on that.
 
yeah, I'm thinking I may do that. I was looking on ebay yesterday. Saw some blank Mavic 2's on there and they sellers were saying that they had never been activated so once fitted with a camera and activated, they were eligible for DJI care refresh. Has anyone tried this before? Is there any truth to this? I wouldn't mind just getting the camera fixed or buying a new Mavic 2 zoom camera and fitting it on one of these blanks if it's eligible for coverage
 
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