Crazy out of control crash...

[Meta4]

Can you do it from a phone?

Yes ... if you connect it to a computer.
I've never tried without the computer.

 

[FMR]

I had EXACTLY the same thing happen to my Mavic Pro.

I took off at night at a hotel out of town in Lake Charles, LA to show my friends how my drone flies.

As I was about to take off, some warnings came up about low light. I cleared it off as I was planning to just fly just to about 10 or 20 ft.

I took my drone up and wow. It took off on its own. This is in the hotel parking lot just at the entrance. Like 3 other random guests outside.

My Mavic took off on it's own and luckily did not go towards parked cars. It went towards the hotel cutting through some palm trees, hitting and crashing into the wall of the hotel just next to a guest's window.

The guests outside were scared and came up to find out what had happened.

Well, I contacted DJI and said drone malfunction. I sent flight log and they said my fault. Cost to fix it was $160 or so. I did not have DJI refresh. I haggled with them and they agreed to fix it for like $130. I sent payment for them to fix it. Instead of fixing it, they sent me a brand new drone with different serial number. The drone which crashed had so many crashes and gimbal was broken.

I was so happy getting a new drone with no scratches at all. Since then I have not flown any drone at night though I almost did tonight since i am out of town and wanted some night shots.

Maybe DJI will come up with some reason that it was pilot's fault. So your fault. I hope they give you a new drone if you send it to them to get it fixed.

Low light and buildings seem to be common denominators in crashes **

 

[JDawg]

And Still No Flight Logs = operator error.

 

[ThorDar]

I see a few things wrong in that screen cap of the log. You had obstacle avoidance turned on. It should to be off when flying at night. It looks like you may have been too close to obstacles like the house and trees when launching. Drone GPS requires a clear 360 view of the sky to obtain and maintain a good lock. And mainly, it looks like you launched before there was a good GPS lock and the home point was set, it didn't set until was 56 ft in the air.

Of course, I could be wrong but that's what it looks like to me. The first two probably wouldn't have been as much of an issue if you had waited until there was a good GPS lock and the home point was set before arming and launching. But the combination of those factors was enough to throw off all the calculations that are involved in modern smart drone flights. They are smart but they need accurate data in order to operate properly.

 

[Starz]

watching. Hopefully someone will learn from this one. Not necessarily the op, but someone.

 

[mnis]

My curiosity ... Who flies at night with activated obstacle detection? Should not we manually deactivate them on night flight? Unfortunately, in Germany we are only allowed to fly from sun rise to sun setting without special permission, but nevertheless I am interested in the correct procedure.

 

[Starz]

Obstacle avoidance is not available at night.

 

[mnis]

Obstacle avoidance is not available at night.

So if it was activated in the DJi go app, will it turn off automatically and reliably at night flight?

 

[Starz]

As soon as you activate the ac at night(no light), ao is not available. It can’t be turned on. It needs light to work. Yes, turns off automatically.

 

[mnis]

As soon as you activate the ac at night(no light), ao is not available. It can’t be turned on. It needs light to work. Yes, turns off automatically.

I had thought it would be better to disable the obstacle detection manually during flights at night, because otherwise problems / irritations could arise from other light sources.

Complement:
Obstacle detection may be self activated when weak light sources are present. So the mode would have to be deactivated during the day or in bright surroundings, so that no unwanted automatic activation takes place at night.

 

[Meta4]

I had EXACTLY the same thing happen to my Mavic Pro.
I took off at night at a hotel out of town in Lake Charles, LA to show my friends how my drone flies.
As I was about to take off, some warnings came up about low light. I cleared it off as I was planning to just fly just to about 10 or 20 ft.
I took my drone up and wow. It took off on its own. This is in the hotel parking lot just at the entrance. Like 3 other random guests outside.

Low light and buildings seem to be common denominators in crashes **

The low light message is just an advisory note informing that obstacle avoidance won't work in low light.
It had nothing to do with the crash.
Having something close by to crash into is always a factor to be concerned about but the incidents described are almost certainly due to screwing up the compass by launching from reinforced concrete or very close to steel.

 

[ThorDar]

Obstacle avoidance is not available at night.

It doesn't go by whether it's night or not, it goes by the ambient light. It doesn't just shut off and stay off. It may turn on and off when in proximity to or pointed at street lights, lit up buildings and so on and then misinterpret what it's seeing causing it to try to avoid things that aren't there. In order to prevent this, it has to be disabled at night.

 

[jasper43]

Ok this is what my log coughed up..

View attachment 53635

Hi Kam, great flight summary. Being a newbie, can you tell me the steps you took to get this table/flight summary please.

Cheers

 

[Starz]

It doesn't go by whether it's night or not, it goes by the ambient light. It doesn't just shut off and stay off. It may turn on and off when in proximity to or pointed at street lights, lit up buildings and so on and then misinterpret what it's seeing causing it to try to avoid things that aren't there. In order to prevent this, it has to be disabled at night.

I guess if you fly at night below 100 feet that may be a possibility. I’ve never been below 250 at night. Also have NEVER seen the ao turn itself on at night.

 

[mnis]

If the automatic obstacle detection in bad lighting conditions misinterpret something, then unpredictable and unwanted flight maneuvers such as backward flight or sideways flight can occur. I had suspected that anyway. And in conclusion, I assumed: The obstacle detection must already be switched off in a bright environment ... before the intended night flight.

 

[Meta4]

Hi Kam, great flight summary. Being a newbie, can you tell me the steps you took to get this table/flight summary please.

It's not a particularly useful summary.
He'd have had much better if he followed the instructions in post #20.

 

[SharkHunter2012]

Tonight I took my Mavic2pro out for a flight. Set up as normal, all good. Took off and hovered, a warning popped up about low light, it was getting dark but I've flown plenty of time in darker. I cleared the warning and went to move off then all of a sudden the thing flies off away up into the air and into a crazy arc down into the ground about 50m away.
The rear left arm is torn off completely. According to the flight log as soon as I take off GPS goes off, I didnt see any warning about this as I'm pretty sure I was frantically trying to regain control at the time.
I've messaged DJI but its Sat night and seems like they wont look at it until monday morning at earliest.
Absolutely gutted.
Where do I go from here?

I feel your pain. After 5 months I took off from my pool deck, something I had done many times, note, it's a big cement deck. I hovered for 45sec @ 3ft, heard my point update, so I lifted to 50 ft and forward 46 feet just above a tree, then my MP Platinum feel from flight, hitting the tree trunk straight down, my heart stopped, I was sickened as I see my drone crashing through the tree. I went over to the crash site and there, my drone with only three blades, gimbal ripped from its throat and laying on it's back, lights out. What had happened was a prop broke off in flight and I can say from experience now, a drone does not fly well with 3blades. My first crash. I am all way careful to calibrate before every flight and stay one mistake away from all obstacles but now I have to wait for it to come back from repair. Thank God for Accident Insurance and replacement. I will obviously loose my drone wrap which means I might not wrap my next incase something happens again who knows. Anyway. I feel you.

 

[SharkHunter2012]

I feel your pain. On November 25, 2018 After 5 months of flying, I took off from my pool deck, something I had done many times, note, it's a big cement deck. I hovered for 45sec @ 3ft, heard my point update, so I lifted to 50 ft and forward 46 feet just above a tree, then my MP Platinum feel from flight, hitting the tree trunk straight down, my heart stopped, I was sickened as I see my drone crashing through the tree. I went over to the crash site and there, my drone with only three blades, gimbal ripped from its throat and laying on it's back, lights out. What had happened was a prop broke off in flight and I can say from experience now, a drone does not fly well with 3blades. My first crash. I am all way careful to calibrate before every flight and stay one mistake away from all obstacles but now I have to wait for it to come back from repair. Thank God for Accident Insurance and replacement. I will obviously loose my drone wrap which means I might not wrap my next incase something happens again who knows. Anyway. I feel you.

 

[Colbymh]

I feel your pain. On November 25, 2018 After 5 months of flying, I took off from my pool deck, something I had done many times, note, it's a big cement deck. I hovered for 45sec @ 3ft, heard my point update, so I lifted to 50 ft and forward 46 feet just above a tree, then my MP Platinum feel from flight, hitting the tree trunk straight down, my heart stopped, I was sickened as I see my drone crashing through the tree. I went over to the crash site and there, my drone with only three blades, gimbal ripped from its throat and laying on it's back, lights out. What had happened was a prop broke off in flight and I can say from experience now, a drone does not fly well with 3blades. My first crash. I am all way careful to calibrate before every flight and stay one mistake away from all obstacles but now I have to wait for it to come back from repair. Thank God for Accident Insurance and replacement. I will obviously loose my drone wrap which means I might not wrap my next incase something happens again who knows. Anyway. I feel you.

Why are u calibrating before each flight?. 100% not necessary .

 

[Starz]

Why are u calibrating before each flight?. 100% not necessary .

I am thinking along the line that there are many people that think calibrating a compass and an imu is some sort of magic remedy for a number of ailments. What they are doing, in the majority of cases, is providing themselves with a little pat on the back to make themselves feel like they have kept the bad fairies out of their ac. AND, in most cases, you WILL NOT change their mind.