Drone took off and crashed

[Fdp718x]

Today I was busy recording a video of my Maverick Mini 2, the controller suddenly showed drone not connected to rc. The drone took off rapidly spinning till it crashed. Luckily the video kept recording. I don't know what caused it. And the drone is actually badly damaged. I will try and contact Dji, hopefully they will have better customer service than Gopro.

 

[MA2 317]

Hello from the Crossroads of America Fdp718x.

Follow the instructions from the link below to find and share your flight log from that flight to possibly see what happened.

DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help

Upload and view flight logs from your DJI drones

www.phantomhelp.com

Good luck and welcome to the Forum.

 

[Jam0ne]

Today I was busy recording a video of my Maverick Mini 2, the controller suddenly showed drone not connected to rc. The drone took off rapidly spinning till it crashed. Luckily the video kept recording. I don't know what caused it. And the drone is actually badly damaged. I will try and contact Dji, hopefully they will have better customer service than Gopro.

Whats the FIRMWARE version/number on the Quad and on the controller ?
after upgrading to 1.04 I got a few of the "RC not connected" (or something similar) , since then I am scared/hesitant to fly my Mini 2.. I haven't flown in a COUPLE of MONTHS NOW.... for the fear of incident such as the OP

I've been seriously searching for a Mini 2 or Mini SE lately, with firmware before 1.04, to purchase,
then i'll sell my current Mini 2 to someone here that doesn't think 1.04 Firmware has any issues...

 

[Meta4]

I will try and contact Dji, hopefully they will have better customer service than Gopro.

DJI won't be much help and if the drone is over 12 months old, they would want you to pay for data analysis.
You would get better help, faster and free here.

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 on the flight data.
Come back and post a link to the report it provides and someone might be able to analyse it and give you an understanding of the cause of the incident.

 

[Meta4]

Whats the FIRMWARE version/number on the Quad and on the controller ?
after upgrading to 1.04 I got a few of the "RC not connected" (or something similar) , since then I am scared/hesitant to fly my Mini 2.. I haven't flown in a COUPLE of MONTHS NOW.... for the fear of incident such as the OP

No firmware causes drones to crash.
If it did, the forum would be full of reports about it.
Losing connection doesn't cause crashes either.
On losing signal your drone would initiate its failsafe action, which by default is to RTH.

Start flying your drone again and enjoy it.

 

[Crash Pro]

My Mini 2 did something similar once. The cause was a cracked propeller which shattered upon start up. The drone took off twirling madly about and was completely unresponsive to stick control. In a last ditch effort I hit the return home button and unbelievably it came back on its own. Changed the props and was back flying a few minutes later.

 

[mavictk]

DJI won't be much help and if the drone is over 12 months old, they would want you to pay for data analysis.
You would get better help, faster and free here.

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 on the flight data.
Come back and post a link to the report it provides and someone might be able to analyse it and give you an understanding of the cause of the incident.

Even if he wants to contact DJI it is better to have an idea about what the real problem was before talking with DJI. Meta4 and others did a great analysis for me and prepared me well for dealing with DJI. The result of my interactions was a replaced Air 2S and 3 batteries and I did not have the DJI insurance. I was still in the warranty period.

 

[Fdp718x]

DJI won't be much help and if the drone is over 12 months old, they would want you to pay for data analysis.
You would get better help, faster and free here.

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 on the flight data.
Come back and post a link to the report it provides and someone might be able to analyse it and give you an understanding of the cause of the incident.

DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

 

[msinger]

At 6m 15.8s into the flight, the drone made impact while flying about 13.8 feet from the ground. It appears that's what triggered the incident.

Any idea if you were flying close to these obstacles?

 

[Meta4]

DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

The data shows a collision with something at 6:15.8 which didn't immediately bring the drone down.
It wobbled around for 1.5 seconds and then settled down.
But from 6:16 the speed data started jumping around in a way that's not normal and can't be believed.
The data doesn't show any spinning or loss of altitude.
It just stops at 6:24.7 with the drone still about 40 feet up..

 

[msinger]

But from 6:16 the speed data started jumping around in a way that's not normal and can't be believed

Perhaps the data is not accurate? I have seen other flight logs where the flight controller recorded bogus data after a crash.

 

[mobilehomer]

This might help

 

[Meta4]

Perhaps the data is not accurate? I have seen other flight logs where the flight controller recorded bogus data after a crash.

The speed data after that is obviously not accurate because the drone's speed can't jump around like that and the drone can't fly so fast.

 

[BudWalker]

Today I was busy recording a video of my Maverick Mini 2, the controller suddenly showed drone not connected to rc. The drone took off rapidly spinning till it crashed. Luckily the video kept recording. I don't know what caused it. And the drone is actually badly damaged. I will try and contact Dji, hopefully they will have better customer service than Gopro.

There are multiple inconsistencies about this flight. Can you retrieve the .DAT from the controller. The instructions for retrieving the .DAT can be found here
Mavic Flight Log Retrieval and Analysis Guide
section 3. Log File Retrieval ->Mobile device DAT files (DJI GO 4 & DJI Fly)

I didn't see any evidence of a collision at 375.8 secs (6 mins, 15.8 secs). It does appear that the AC began to tumble (spinning on all 3 axes). We would need the .DAT to determine if it was tumbling.

With regards to the horizontal speed dilemma there is another indication that the Mini2 was moving faster than the specs would allow.

The the green plot shows the horizontal speed logged in the .txt that @msinger and @Meta4 noted isn't physically plausible. The red plot is horizontal speed computed as sqrt(xSpeed * xSpeed + ySpeed * ySpeed). xSpeed and ySpeed are believed to be derived from the doppler shift in the received GPS signals.

The foregoing indicates some problem with the GPS data. @Fdp718x does the trajectory indicated by the green arrows show the final moments of the flight?


In the above chart the black plot is the Mini 2 tilt. It indicates that tilt was constant even though the horizontal speed was increasing. A stuck or broken gyro could have caused this. And, there is this from the eventLog

376.4 : Gyroscope initialization failed. Restart aircraft (Code: 30045).

Can you retrieve the .DAT?

 

[msinger]

I didn't see any evidence of a collision at 375.8 secs (6 mins, 15.8 secs). It does appear that the AC began to tumble (spinning on all 3 axes).

That's why I was assuming a possible collision. What else have you seen that caused such behavior in the past?

 

[BudWalker]

That's why I was assuming a possible collision. What else have you seen that caused such behavior in the past?

Loss of propulsion in a motor/propeller.

 

[Fdp718x]

There are multiple inconsistencies about this flight. Can you retrieve the .DAT from the controller. The instructions for retrieving the .DAT can be found here
Mavic Flight Log Retrieval and Analysis Guide
section 3. Log File Retrieval ->Mobile device DAT files (DJI GO 4 & DJI Fly)

I didn't see any evidence of a collision at 375.8 secs (6 mins, 15.8 secs). It does appear that the AC began to tumble (spinning on all 3 axes). We would need the .DAT to determine if it was tumbling.

With regards to the horizontal speed dilemma there is another indication that the Mini2 was moving faster than the specs would allow.
View attachment 157888
The the green plot shows the horizontal speed logged in the .txt that @msinger and @Meta4 noted isn't physically plausible. The red plot is horizontal speed computed as sqrt(xSpeed * xSpeed + ySpeed * ySpeed). xSpeed and ySpeed are believed to be derived from the doppler shift in the received GPS signals.

The foregoing indicates some problem with the GPS data. @Fdp718x does the trajectory indicated by the green arrows show the final moments of the flight?
View attachment 157890

In the above chart the black plot is the Mini 2 tilt. It indicates that tilt was constant even though the horizontal speed was increasing. A stuck or broken gyro could have caused this. And, there is this from the eventLog

376.4 : Gyroscope initialization failed. Restart aircraft (Code: 30045).

Can you retrieve the .DAT?

Hi thank you for your info, yes the green arrow area is the last flight section of the drone. That whole section was when it flew off and spun around like crazy with the RC not doing anything to the drone. I kept holding the up joystick to try and get the drone to fly up instead of crashing but it had no effect. Please see the attached Dat file.

 

[BudWalker]

Hi thank you for your info, yes the green arrow area is the last flight section of the drone. That whole section was when it flew off and spun around like crazy with the RC not doing anything to the drone. I kept holding the up joystick to try and get the drone to fly up instead of crashing but it had no effect. Please see the attached Dat file.

My apologies. I forgot the Mini 2 .DAT is encrypted and won't be much use to us. The file you submitted was the same .txt you submitted in post #8.

My guess is that the Mini 2 really was going that fast. The horizontal speed limit is implemented by constraining the tilt angle. Higher speeds can be achieved if higher tilt angles are allowed. However, instabilities can occur with too much tilt.

I suspect the accelerometer, and possibly gyro, data were incorrect. The Mini 2 thought the tilt angle was constant but it was actually increasing. This was the cause of the higher speeds and unstable flight.

Too bad the .DAT can't be used.