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DJI Air 2S swirling crash itself while Quickshot (asteroid)

p.solomos

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Good evening all!

Days ago while I was flying my Air 2S and it had a weird crash itelf. I was flying with my second (fully charged) battery about 13 minutes. Then, at 40% of battery, I decided to do some Quickshots. I did one rocket quickshot and all were just fine. Then I decided to do an asteroid quickshot. The drone started going back and at the point that it should go up faster, it suddenly did some kind of swirling itself and crashed down. I wasn't doing nothing at all and I couldn't control it! I was just watching it fall. It was on automatic mode cause it did quickshot. I wasn't terrified cause I know it was not my fault at all. Then, I found it, it was stuck between a wall and a metal gate of a house, but the motors didn't stop even it was get stuck, they were making so noise and they were too hot. Shouldn't the motors be stopped for safety reasons after the crash??? Well, I then looked up for the flight logs. I uploaded the log to PhantomHelp.com and I can't understand why the crash isn't be shown there!? Also as you will see, the final moves of the log show that the drone started the asteroid quickshot, and all of a sudden it shows that it changed to tripod mode while it was on the same altitude. The problem is that I changed to tripod mode only when it got crashed. Not while doing quickshot. I never cancelled the quickshot. I have talked with expert pilots and mechanics and they told me the same I suppose as a fault. One of drone's motor may got stucked that's why it did swirling. I had changed the propellers with new ones five or six flights ago before this flight. All propellers were placed as they should. Drone was 20 meters away from me, with no air, no birds or something hit it cause I had clear view of it. The problem is that the txt. log file, it doesn't show the crash! Will Dji find more flight log info about it? I mean, it can't be only the txt. log file we all can see on sites like PhantomHelp.com, right?

Also to notice, I make every flight check before flying the drone. But as I told, i was flying about 12-13 minutes before the crash and I did about 3 kilometers of flight with no problem. And I have checked the video from the sd card. It has recorded only about 4 seconds of the asteroid and then it's the point that it started swirling but it hasn't recorded this. I didn't cancelled the asteroid cause in the video you can see that I don't look my smartphone or moving my finger on the remote controller.

Video: VEED - DJI_0148.MP4

Flight log: DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

PS: In the flight log, you will see differences between the IMU and VPS altitude. That's because I took it off on the side of an mountain edge.

Please tell me how to proceed and tell me what do you think about the missing crash log time. I have the 1 year Dji Care Refresh but the fault is not mine. Thanks in advance!
 
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Nothing abnormal is immediately found in the log... the flight seems to just end airborne. But if looking into all different battery data we can note that the battery communication seems to end approx where the flight mode goes to Tripod mode at 939sec, not the flight telemetry though.

Have below put up all battery data that usually should fluctuate during a 10sec period... but all just flatlines on the last known value. The black graph is the pitch angle... just to show that the telemetry still works.

This could indicate a battery that have started to disengage & then the power was cut completely & by that the log ends & the drone goes down... but if the motors still was running when you found it, it could instead been some electrical fault that caused all this.

The craft itself have .DAT logs... but for a Mavic Air 2s it's only DJI staff that can decrypt & read them, they record between power on to power off.

1676998256176.png
 
Nothing abnormal is immediately found in the log... the flight seems to just end airborne. But if looking into all different battery data we can note that the battery communication seems to end approx where the flight mode goes to Tripod mode at 939sec, not the flight telemetry though.

Have below put up all battery data that usually should fluctuate during a 10sec period... but all just flatlines on the last known value. The black graph is the pitch angle... just to show that the telemetry still works.

This could indicate a battery that have started to disengage & then the power was cut completely & by that the log ends & the drone goes down... but if the motors still was running when you found it, it could instead been some electrical fault that caused all this.

The craft itself have .DAT logs... but for a Mavic Air 2s it's only DJI staff that can decrypt & read them, they record between power on to power off.

View attachment 160939
Thank you so much for your information!

I suppose you think that the battery made the problem.
But the drone as it falls, I could hear the motors make sound and plus, I found them working when the drone fell down and stuck between a metallic door and a wall. The propellers were stuck beacuse of the drone's stucking, but I could hear them try to work and they were very hot ( much hotter than when they usually work fine on the air). My thought is that as you say something make the drone to "black out" because I didn't change to tripod mode* cause as you see in the video, I am just watching the drone doing the asteroid quickshot and when the recording stopped, the drone fell. It's like something happened to drone's power. Like a "black out" with the battey, may stopped for milliseconds and then started again but something happened? I don't know. I have sent the drone today to Dji and I wish they can find more information and don't blame me :( cause I will be very dissapointed...even if I have Care Refresh.

*I think the tripod mode was turned on because I pressed the pitch up to see if the drone will react, but it was swirling while falling and it didn't react.

Thanks a lot.
 
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This is strange, the log indicates a power loss, but the motors were running when you found it. Maybe some fault inside the drone...

I have the 1 year Dji Care Refresh but the fault is not mine.
If you see that the drone is broken or doesn't work well after the crash, send it to DJI for replacement.

Shouldn't the motors be stopped for safety reasons after the crash???
Absolutely, actually, I have crashed an Air 2S before and the motors seemed to have stopped almost immediately, but I have also crashed my Air 2 and same as in your case, the motors were running while the drone was upside down on the ground to the point that it made physical damage to the frame because of that.
 
This is strange, the log indicates a power loss, but the motors were running when you found it. Maybe some fault inside the drone...


If you see that the drone is broken or doesn't work well after the crash, send it to DJI for replacement.


Absolutely, actually, I have crashed an Air 2S before and the motors seemed to have stopped almost immediately, but I have also crashed my Air 2 and same as in your case, the motors were running while the drone was upside down on the ground to the point that it made physical damage to the frame because of that.
Thanks for the message and info.

Maybe the power loss created problem to the drone's circuit itself or the motors didn't take the voltage they need to be steady.

Yes, the drone has broken the two "legs", the four propellers, and the gimbal was little broken. But I could turn it on. I sent it today at Dji Service. I wish they don't blame me at all for this. But I'm sure I did all right.

It was strange guys, because when I had visual activity of the drone after the crash, I could hear it 70 meters away cause the motors were still working but the propellers were not turning cause the drone was stuck between the door and the wall. It was not just the sound of the board and processor it does when it's just turned on. I think you understand what I mean.

Also the fact that the asteroid quickshot stopped recording at 4th second, says that the drone "cancelled" the quickshot itself someway but without losing the subject as i can see from the log or without pressing any button from me on the remote controller (as you can see on the video my hand just keeping the remote). How is that possible? I think it lost it's power for milliseconds and then turned on again. That's why it stopped recording.
 
We could take a look at the DAT log that is stored in the mobile device you used during this flight... I'm not fully sure if it's encrypted or not, but we can try.

You find the mobile device .DAT log in the same place as the .TXT log, but in a subfolder, MCDatFlightRecords. The correct log ends with FLY091.DAT. Retrieve it & attach it in a new post in this thread.
 
No... that one doesn't end with FLY091.DAT. Did you check inside the MCDatFlightRecords folder?
That folder is empty. I remember finding an DAT file on my home pc when I connected the phone but I think it was only that with the same date and name.
 
That folder is empty. I remember finding an DAT file on my home pc when I connected the phone but I think it was only that with the same date and name.
The naming convention of a mobile device Dat log is... YY-MM-DD-hr-min-sec_FLYXXX.DAT For your flight this DAT log ends with FLY091.DAT... & begins with the date & time for the flight.

If the MCDatFlightRecords folder is empty it's most probably due to that you have synced your flights with the DJI cloud service. If I'm remembering correctly the DJI Fly app have auto sync turned on by default & you need actively turn it off if you don't want the mobile device .DAT log to disappear.
 
The naming convention of a mobile device Dat log is... YY-MM-DD-hr-min-sec_FLYXXX.DAT For your flight this DAT log ends with FLY091.DAT... & begins with the date & time for the flight.

If the MCDatFlightRecords folder is empty it's most probably due to that you have synced your flights with the DJI cloud service. If I'm remembering correctly the DJI Fly app have auto sync turned on by default & you need actively turn it off if you don't want the mobile device .DAT log to disappear.
Yes I had the sync turned on cause also when i sent the drone to dji they said that it had to be turned on.

Can I find it somewhere else?
 
I believe DJI will be fair with you and replace under warranty, especially as it's a recent model drone. Sometimes mechanical things go bad without owners fault. Good thing you have Refresh, just in case. Hope you are flying again in a couple weeks.
 
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No, if you synced the logs & that folder now is empty... it's gone for you & DJI have access to it now.
It is strange, but I find that Airdata app somehow still has the ability to upload the flight logs to their service even after I sync with DJI and the files aren't there anymore, I don't know how but I think they have some integration with DJI Fly as stated on their website.

So maybe try to download their app from play/app store and sync with a free account, then using the website check the logs. They give you even more info such as battery stats.
 
It is strange, but I find that Airdata app somehow still has the ability to upload the flight logs to their service even after I sync with DJI and the files aren't there anymore, I don't know how but I think they have some integration with DJI Fly as stated on their website.

So maybe try to download their app from play/app store and sync with a free account, then using the website check the logs. They give you even more info such as battery stats.
The Airdata.com service takes the .txt logs from the DJI cloud service, not directly from your mobile device ... & Airdata doesn't collect .DAT logs.
 
I believe DJI will be fair with you and replace under warranty, especially as it's a recent model drone. Sometimes mechanical things go bad without owners fault. Good thing you have Refresh, just in case. Hope you are flying again in a couple weeks.
Thank you mate!!! And all the users here on this forum.
 
Thanks for the message and info.

Maybe the power loss created problem to the drone's circuit itself or the motors didn't take the voltage they need to be steady.

Yes, the drone has broken the two "legs", the four propellers, and the gimbal was little broken. But I could turn it on. I sent it today at Dji Service. I wish they don't blame me at all for this. But I'm sure I did all right.

It was strange guys, because when I had visual activity of the drone after the crash, I could hear it 70 meters away cause the motors were still working but the propellers were not turning cause the drone was stuck between the door and the wall. It was not just the sound of the board and processor it does when it's just turned on. I think you understand what I mean.

Also the fact that the asteroid quickshot stopped recording at 4th second, says that the drone "cancelled" the quickshot itself someway but without losing the subject as i can see from the log or without pressing any button from me on the remote controller (as you can see on the video my hand just keeping the remote). How is that possible? I think it lost it's power for milliseconds and then turned on again. That's why it stopped recording.
I had a weird thing happen recently to my Air 2S and blamed newbie skills. My video recording stopped and then restarted a new file in the middle of a flight. After another couple of minutes it just dropped to the ground - almost into a creek (yikes!) but I flew up and it returned OK.
I noticed after a few more flights that one of my batteries wasn't holding a charge. It would self discharge by 30% over a couple of days.
After reading about your experience here, I'm pretty certain my issues were caused by a malfunctioning battery. I returned it to DJI, they tested the battery and told me it was defective and sent out a new one.
 
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