DJI versus Garmin..unCAGE fight

[Buckshot Ranch]

I had just completed a fly over survey of my ranch and was on RTH with about 20% battery when Buck, my German Shepherd , trotted up and sat down next to me. All of the sudden...DEAD STICK (DS)...at 24' off the deck. Down came my Air like a dead sparrow. It hit hard on the snow covered ice, but stuck the landing. All appeared well until later that evening I discovered that the plastic cap which holds the antenna leg in place had snapped a piece off about the size of a pencil eraser. Grabbing a flashlight, I went back out to the crash site and miraculously found the broken piece in the snow. After a little bit of super glue surgery the next day, all is good and "Scout" (that's what I named it) is flying just fine. I looked at the flight log and noted loss of signal at the moment of DS. But why? I wondered to myself. I only fly my ranch and I was at least a 1/2 mile from the neighbors ranch house when Scout went DS. Then I remembered my trusted companion, Buck. He doesn't like Scout. In his first intro to Scout he tried to snatch him at launch. For his troubles, Buck got prop slapped on the snout. No injury, but it pissed him off. Ever since, he usually stays about 50 or more feet away from me when I'm flying. But as I mentioned at the beginning, he came over and sat next to me just before the DS crash. Why is that significant? Well, our ranch gets a lot of apex predators drifting through, so we like to keep tabs on Buck at all times when he's outdoors. So last year we bought Buck a Garmin tracking collar. The collar has a very powerful GPS and radio transmitter/receiver. Using the handheld controller, we can receive Bucks GPS and radio signals and transmit radio commands as needed. The unit is so powerful that we can do this not only within the thick canopy of our timber, but from within our home as well! Garmin claims that the unit will track and transmit up to 9 miles! Naturally, I have no way of proving my theory, but just in case....Bucks collar gets turned off now when I fly. I figure that as long as he doesn't figure out how to turn the collar on himself, I should be ok.....cause I swear I saw a smile on his face when Scout did it's "face plant!"

 

[Starz]

Would like to see the flight log on this one just to find out if the Garmin is the culprit. Hopefully the masterminds will catch this one.

 

[BuffaloAir]

Liked the story, and I bet Buck's collar is to blame and that smile was there and mean exactly what you inferred. Informative and fun.

 

[Buckshot Ranch]

Would like to see the flight log on this one just to find out if the Garmin is the culprit. Hopefully the masterminds will catch this one.

I never keep the logs...always zero out after landing. Guess I use my Mav a little differently than most folks. While I enjoy the flying, I view it as just another ranch tool that helps me do my chores. When it went DS, I did view that log and noted that the moment recorded loss of GPS signal. I figured it was Buck's collar so I zero'd the record and went off to milk the cow (actually I made that part up....I don't have a milk cow )

 

[Buckshot Ranch]

Liked the story, and I bet Buck's collar is to blame and that smile was there and mean exactly what you inferred. Informative and fun.

Yep, ol' Buckaroo has a bit of an ornery streak in him!

 

[JDawg]

I never keep the logs...always zero out after landing. Guess I use my Mav a little differently than most folks. While I enjoy the flying, I view it as just another ranch tool that helps me do my chores. When it went DS, I did view that log and noted that the moment recorded loss of GPS signal. I figured it was Buck's collar so I zero'd the record and went off to milk the cow (actually I made that part up....I don't have a milk cow )

Why would you delete the flight logs?

 

[Buckshot Ranch]

In my case, I'm neither a hobbyist or a pro so I don't see a need in keeping them. Like I said, it's just another ranch tool to me (that I am still weighing for value). And if or when I no longer see a value in it for my application, I'll return it. I bought it from Costco last month when they had it on sale for $599. I figured I would play with it awhile and then decide if I should keep it? Since I bought it with a credit card that extends theft and damage coverage, if I get tired of it, I'll notify the CC of the minor repair and return it for a refund.

Years ago I took flying lessons. I got to the point in instruction where I questioned the relevance and cost of "hobby" flying to my position in life at the time? You know.....do I really want a pilots license just to go get a $100 hamburger now and again? I decided I had other fish to fry. But who knows...I can TO and land a sport aircraft on my ranch. So maybe someday I'll rekindle that fire?

 

[JDawg]

OK. was just wondering why you would delete flight logs, that's all, never heard of anyone doing that.

 

[Buckshot Ranch]

All good!

 

[Meta4]

But as I mentioned at the beginning, he came over and sat next to me just before the DS crash. Why is that significant? ... Naturally, I have no way of proving my theory, but just in case....Bucks collar gets turned off now when I fly.

I would think it extremely unlikely that your dog's GPS collar had anything at all to do with the incident.
At worst, it would only cause radio interference and swamp your control signal causing the drone to RTH.
Interference doesn't cause a drone to shut down in mid-air.
Deleting the logs from your app is a strange thing to do but you would still have the data in the internal data recorder.
That would show what actually caused the incident and it would be a lot better to know what really caused it than guessing it was something unlikely.

 

[DanMan32]

Unfortunately the Air and M2 encrypts the onboard flight logs that only DJI can read. This is unfortunate DJI does this as it can provide useful info when the problem occurs after a disconnect. After all the app can't record what it didn't receive.

Unless you completely delete the app or app data, you probably still have at least the DAT files on the mobile device. However if the app disconnected from the RC, or AC from RC, the app might not have what's needed.

I agree with Meta. The dog collar and the receiver is unlikely to shut down nearby electronics. The mobile device itself didn't shut down/reboot after all, did it? Or your electronic watch you might be wearing? FCC wouldn't allow a consumer device to cause so much interference that it completely disrupts computer functions.