Every Flight Is A White Knuckle Experience

[HDBOB]

Did you download DJI Assistant 2 to a PC and upgrade your firmware on aircraft, controller, batteries .... then do IMU, compass, and remote calibrations? If NO .... then that is your problem. Also are you using DJIGo4 app latest update? It isn't going to fly correctly right out of the box.

 

[DroningOn]

Did you download DJI Assistant 2 to a PC and upgrade your firmware on aircraft, controller, batteries .... then do IMU, compass, and remote calibrations? If NO .... then that is your problem. Also are you using DJIGo4 app latest update? It isn't going to fly correctly right out of the box.

The problem was a bad quad. It’s been replaced and all is well now.

 

[radmanzulu]

Don’t give up. Have you considered your phone might be the problem? You’ve tried everything else. You shouldn’t have to calibrate your IMU or compass on a regular basis.

 

[PTBperegrine]

Hi guys, I'm in Brisbane, Australia and some unusual disconnects last Thursday. Checking "Magnetology" app for IOS I later found that sunspot activity was "High" with a probability of interference.
Could this be part of the problem?

 

[Tropdiver]

I'm new to drones and have had 2 MPPs in the last 3 weeks. I spent a week working with DJI trying to get the first one to activate, but they told me to take it back for a replacement.

I was able to get the second one to activate and fly. However, I'm finding that nearly every flight is a white knuckle experience with random "Recalibrate compass...", lost GPS, RC disconnects and "Extreme interference..." issues along with a few short uneventful flights. For every battery worth of flying, I end up stressed out and spending hours researching, installing firmware/software and trying to download and analyze the fight data in an effort to find out why I keep having these issues.

Everything is up to the latest version installed multiple times to make sure it sticks, but every time I start to fly, it's a whole new adventure. Sometimes the problems start as soon as I get everything powered up, other times it's after flying for 1-x minutes. All my flights have been in a semi-rural area with no power lines and only 3 houses with barns in about 20 acres. I always put my Galaxy S7 in airplane mode.

Is all this normal for drones in general, DJI products, the MPP in particular ? If it is, I think I'll find another hobby. If not, was I just unlucky and got another defective MPP ?

I'm having a similar experience, I've owned 3 MavPros in 2 months. All for different reasons, they have failed in a short time. 1st one had camera issues, 2nd one had already been activated prior to me owning it. (DJI wouldn't tell me how long or where it was activated, just said I should return it.) 3rd one flew beautifully and then started giving the issues you described. Compass/ GPS simultaneous failures. My observations are it's the newly manufactured one that are failing, perhaps a batch of bad components going through the factory right now.

 

[bonka]

This morning when I went out to fly, it told me I needed to calibrate the compass as soon as I turned everything on. I tried and failed 4 times, so I checked the status of the compasses, and #1 was a full, solid red bar.

I see you tried a remote location, and it seems like a dead compass indeed, so my experience might not apply to you directly. But as a compass rule of thumb, remember places can have have huge and often hidden magnetic anomalies coming from infrastructure such as dense masses, iron grids and misc. electric and radio interference. You should calibrate the compass somewhere without such anamolies and strongly consider against flying if your drone asks for a recalibration.

I flew at a newly constructed public port a few months ago, the compasses went mental and wanted me to recalibrate. I understood it was the huge underwater/ground displacement that was causing it, and took off. Apart from flying just fine on the old calibration when 10-20 meters off the ground, I had a hard time taking off and landing with it not holding its place. It was in fact flying around on its own, controlled by the big magnetic anomalies. Scary!

 

[DroningOn]

OP..... I think you need to edit post #1 with a big “Mavic was defective”. People are obviously reading it and going no further before responding.

 

[Nathan Greene]

I live in Battle Ground. My wife used to have a friend who lived there, so we would drive up and spend a couple of days once or twice a year. I grew up in a similar area in Oregon, Pacific City, and love the Pacific Coast.

I'm retired, but in the middle of a big project, so wouldn't be able to meet up until Sept. or later anyway.

I live in Camas and I’m a relative novice but I’ve been happy with my MPP from Costco. I’d be happy to meet up and compare notes.

 

[VintageDude]

Updated:
It's become clear that many are not reading from the beginning of this thread and just adding to the noise. I got 2 bad birds and it ALL went away when I got a good one.

 

[Wasafisherman]

Glad to hear that all the troubles have gone away. You described your flying area as being near both Ham radio operators and high tension lines.

In 4 years of flying Phantoms, Mavic Pros, and MPPs, I’ve certainly never had the problems that you described having with your first 2 MPPs, but I have run into EMI circumstances where my radio contact got intermittent. And In all cases I’ve been near high power lines and/or a broadcast antenna of some description.

Just sayin’

 

[Zorox78]

As an experienced flyer and flying in some very unfriendly RF environments, (I live in New Orleans and the river with all of the navigation radar, radios, etc. can make for a very short range.), I agree with many of the above mentioned suggestions of improper handling at the store. I have been fortunate to never have had a lemon from DJI, and I have had 5 different drones now. It would take some pretty extreme RFI to cause what you are describing. Based on the compass and GPS irregularities on both devices, I can only surmise the units were exposed to strong magnetism, and I do mean strong. I once like an idiot flew between to ships with active radar at 35 feet and lost signal for a grueling 3 minutes. When the ships cleared, it went up to the home point return altitude and reconnected. That was the worst I have seen so far.

 

[GFields]

Many don't include it. I noticed you didn't either. To each his own.

I take it back, there is no where in the profile to list the state you're in.

 

[Stephenmaycol]

My Pro was doing all the same stressful acting . I was going to send it in but because I live in northern Alberta I know it would be 2 months without my drone .
The way I got mine going is I took a level and got my table sitting 100% bang on . I then did the imu and when it gets to the position of nose up it must be leaning on the legs and not the motors . It will sit upright either way . Once that was done I went for a drive and went far enough that I was even out of cell service . I put a app on my phone that checks for ground magnetism . I found a spot that I felt was good and did the gps calibration. Make sure your phone is at least 50 feet away from your drone . You will know when to put your drone on it’s side for the,ast part of the calibration as the tail light will change it pattern from the first half of the setup .after I finished my in the sticks tuneup my Pro has been flawless . It was terrible with all the warnings and junk that was going on . I could not even fly it as it got so bad . 20 feet up hovering and showing 20 sat’s it would go into atti from extreme interference. Very stressful . Give it a try like I did and let me know if it works for you like-it did for me .
Good luck captain


Troy

Thanks.... I am going to try that. My MPP is doing the same.... this is my 2nd MPP and the 1st one did NOT have ANY issues... cept I crashed it going sideways while filming forward.......