Finally first day with refresh MA2 replacement, SHOULD'VE STAYED IN BED

[GrafXXX]

I think I may have posted this yesterday in the wrong forum:

As post suggests it was a bad day. Finally got the replacement drone all set up and had a free day, so lets fly.
The first battery ( which was replaced by dji back in February for free, no questions asked, so they took responsibility
for my issue with it) After the first flight it felt like I hadn't taken a day off from flying ( like that saying you never forget how to ride a bike)
Everything felt natural, The first battery / flight was smooth and clear on my ipad screen and around 10 minutes left on battery while flying with video filming, I got the return to home alert due to battery, which was fine and after it was about halfway back I noticed with the video recording off my battery was back over 12 minutes, so I took over the controls to speed it up, then put back into return to home settings just to check the accuracy on the new MA2. It was within 2 feet of home point landing, so my confidence was good. So after changing out the battery to a fully charged battery I had taken the same flight pattern as my previous flight hoping to take a few pictures of my daughter and wife at a friends birthday pool party. Once I got to the same basic area things started acting weird, there was heavy lag from my controls to my screen, and took almost 7-10 seconds to hear the picture taken noise after pressing the picture button. At that point the lag on my screen was too bad to keep flying and had gotten a few RC NOT CONNECTED warnings, so having 528 flights with the MA2 over the past 12 months I was confident it would go into return to home mode due to RC not connected ( as it just did due to the low battery the flight before). Well when the signal came back and I was able to see the screen I noticed it wasnt following the correct route back to home. But it kept going into RC NOT CONNECTED warnings, and I had no control. Again trusting it would go back into RETURN TO HOME mode as it always did. After a little more time the forced landing due to battery warning appeared and a quick connection on the screen gave me a quick view of approx where it was then again RC NOT CONNECTED error and I realized this is not going to end good, and then the FIND MY DRONE option came up. So I pressed it and realized that, that was the only working feature, so I drove to the location on the map and there it was within 3 feet of the mark on the map, in the middle of the entrance to a busy strip mall COMPLETELY DESTROYED. I had hoped it landed on a nice soft patch of grass and my day would continue, but it was the complete opposite, after picking up the main body and whatever was still attached, I was using my hands like a mini brush and pan scraping up all the little debris. And that was the end of the first day with the refresh replacement MA2, Im still upset or actually kinda more then upset. I never experienced not having control like this.

one thing that I did notice that was very weird was during the lagging and the RC NOT CONNECTED errors a flight area restricted screen came up briefly and I interperated as I was near a professional baseball field, well NJ does not have a professional baseball team, and prior to each of my flights I checked B4UFLY app and also made the map large on the DJI software to make sure the area I fly all year has not changed since having my previous MA2. That was a very weird pop up on the screen and really unexpected.

I pulled the .DAT file from IEXPLORER ( love this program for years) and uploaded to AIR DATA and can see things but as far as analyzing it, I was hoping someone could give me some insite.

thanks in advance if anyone can assist me in finding out what happened

sorry for poor grammar, too stressed to re-read and correct

 

[Meta4]

I pulled the .DAT file from IEXPLORER ( love this program for years) and uploaded to AIR DATA and can see things but as far as analyzing it, I was hoping someone could give me some insight.

Can you share the Airdata report and post a link to it?
That would make analysis much easier.

 

[GrafXXX]

yes, does this work better?

 

[Meta4]

yes, does this work better?

There is a gap in the flight data from 303.9 sec to 344.2 seconds and when contact was restored, the drone was in RTH and coming home.
It soon went into Detour Mode, indicating the sensors were detecting an obstacle.
However at the height it was flying, the obstacle could only have been the sun or a sensor malfunction.
At 909.2 sec, you cancelled RTH and went to Sport Mode and resumed coming home.
At 1031 seconds, with the battery at 11% and the drone still 2700 ft from home, it began autolanding because of the low battery state.
The flight data follows the auto-descent until 1049.8 sec when signal was lost with the drone still 115 ft higher than the launch point and 2750 ft from home.
The crash suggests it did not come down on a safe or suitable landing spot.

 

[GrafXXX]

I also saw many attempts of return to home, every time I would receive a video feed I would put try to get it into return to home, but the lag or frozen screen was terrible, then would have a black disconnected screen. It was partly cloudy out and yes I was higher then any obstacles, I did put it in and out of sport mode also to have it gain speed on the return to home, but also would switch back to normal so it would have the sensors enabled as it should have been approaching my home position. In my experience I don’t recall switching modes causing it to exit rth mode ( could I be wrong?) once I reached the area I had planned to be approx 1/3 into the flight, thru the end I never had a screen view “ connection “ or one with any smooth accuracy with no lag, and the speed would be minimal if any. My wife was at the location and saw the drone above and just thought I was hanging around the area taking pictures of the pool party, then she saw it leave going towards home, we were on our cell phones and I was telling her I kept loosing connection and she told me it was headed back my way.

this was only the 2nd battery on this “ new” refresh replacement that I received this past week.
im trying to decide how to approach DJI with this, the refresh I just used I did express as it was completely my fault as I misjudged the tree in front of my home “ when it had no leaves on it in May” and hit a branch sideways, completely my fault and paid for it, but this issue I felt I had no real control after about 1/3 of the flight in. On one part of Air Data it shows numerous attempts of the rth mode then being detoured like you mentioned at what was an obstacle free height. I’m now 3 weeks into my 2nd year with the MA2 and I have the 2nd year refresh with only 1 available and do not want to just accept it was operator error as I don’t feel it was

the first battery flights just before this one, was on a newer battery that DJI replaced at no cost in February, this battery was one of my original ones but the battery specs I checked were all good. The first battery’s flights were small test flights getting comfortable with the replacement drone, and I felt confident with it and did the same path as this “ bad flight” and it returned and acted normal as it alway did.

is there anyway I could get more detail info on this flight, possibly the sensors or anything that could show that the drone was not flying or responding/ reacting as it was intended too?

META4 thank your for your feedback and information

 

[Kilrah]

every time I would receive a video feed I would put try to get it into return to home, but the lag or frozen screen was terrible, then would have a black disconnected screen. It was partly cloudy out and yes I was higher then any obstacles, I did put it in and out of sport mode also to have it gain speed on the return to home, but also would switch back to normal so it would have the sensors enabled as it should have been approaching my home position. In my experience I don’t recall switching modes causing it to exit rth mode ( could I be wrong?)

Changing mode exits RTH.

When you lose signal it gets into RTH - if you "try to get it into RTH" everytime you get a signal back when it already is then you'd just be canceling it each time.

This seems to match the log where several times it started coming home only to get flipped back to normal and staying put doing nothing for a while just draining battery without coming any closer.

If it loses signal and starts RTH you just sit and wait until it's back, if you get occasional video or telemetry data you just confirm it's doing its thing but you don't mess with it until it's close enough for the signal to be reliable. Anything you would try while you don't see what you're doing is likely to make things worse.

 

[Dawnvt]

I am a newer pilot.
Kindly help me understand why flying so far away is still VLOS?

 

[KaiservonPoopChute]

I am a newer pilot.
Kindly help me understand why flying so far away is still VLOS?

It's not. Unless, of course, OP has had their eyes replaced with eagle eyes in which case they can see something the size of a rabbit from 3 miles away.

 

[Aumoe]

I am a newer pilot.
Kindly help me understand why flying so far away is still VLOS?

How many times are you going to ask the same question ? You know the answer , enough already

 

[GFields]

It is very doubtful that DJI will not say that this is a pilot error. When a pilot flies that far away from the home point you increase the risk of something going wrong. As mentioned previously if the OP had just let it RTH without additional inputs, the drone may have very well done what it is designed to do.

Sorry for the loss but a lesson for everyone who reads

 

[GrafXXX]

Thinking back at previous flights and the return to home feature, I recall but maybe I’m wrong, while in rth mode I was able to increase the speed and possibly the altitude and the drone would stay in rth. To cancel return to home it would require me to manually press the screen, in this case when I did have connection it was either not responding properly to my controls, or later in the flight it was not heading in the correct direction ( as I had the map view enlarged on the screen)

Another thing that I have been thinking about is the forced autolanding due to low battery. I normally don’t let the battery get low enough for that to initiate, I believe I have tested it on another MA2 over the past year WHILE IT WAS WITHIN MY REACH and would do a hand landing. In this case I was able to immediately retrieve it using the find my drone feature, and it was a flat smooth paved area, no trees or obstacles, shouldn’t it have landed correctly given the flat open area it was in, and still showing 10% battery 5 seconds prior to last line in the flight data? All the damage is on the bottom and appears it landed in the correct position, just possibly at full speed. And I just checked again now 2 days later and the battery is not completely dead there is still led light activity when I press the button.

 

[wardtom084]

How can you see, 3 mile strobes.

 

[GrafXXX]

in reply to vlos, I mentioned that my wife was at the location and was watching the drone overhead doing weird things and she thought was just taken pictures of them, we were on cell speaker communication, yes I do fly with 2 -3 mile lights and I attached pictures there is also a picture of the battery still not fully dead, as you can see the top of the drone was not really damaged, and my strobes were still blinking and attached when I found it, as you can see all the damage is on the underside which makes me believe that during auto landing at one point it came down full speed and bacsically pancake crashed, during autolanding with 10% battery shouldnt the bottom sensors still work?

 

[AVLJMA]

Changing mode exits RTH.

When you lose signal it gets into RTH - if you "try to get it into RTH" everytime you get a signal back when it already is then you'd just be canceling it each time.

This seems to match the log where several times it started coming home only to get flipped back to normal and staying put doing nothing for a while just draining battery without coming any closer.

If it loses signal and starts RTH you just sit and wait until it's back, if you get occasional video or telemetry data you just confirm it's doing its thing but you don't mess with it until it's close enough for the signal to be reliable. Anything you would try while you don't see what you're doing is likely to make things worse.

That's good to know. Thanks.

 

[Capt KO]

Did you happen to get a device cpu overload warning? The lag you describe sounds like that possibility. Very hard to control by looking at the screen. Requires flying visually looking at the drone. Sorry for your loss

 

[Carlos56]

I wondered if you checked the compass and IMU calibration before you flew. Did you check the map to see if the drone was shown pointing the way it was really pointing? When things go wrong, if the calibration has errors it can lead to flyaway situations.

Sorry you lost the drone. However that was an ambitious flight straight from the box. A couple of small warm up flights in a park would have been a good idea, not so much to get used to flying again, but to make sure the drone is behaving itself. Glitches in the drone build or controller settings will show up in a safer setting. Also, that is a heavily built up area for long flights. Lots of WiFi interference, contributing to signal loss?

Other than that I agree with previous posters - when you lose RC connection, trust in the RTH, do nothing, and let the bird come back to you. In most cases the RTH is smarter than any input you might give it at getting it home before the battery fails.

 

[r.gwynn]

Did she see it impact? Looks like a car ran over it…?‍

 

[Meta4]

I wondered if you checked the compass and IMU calibration before you flew. Did you check the map to see if the drone was shown pointing the way it was really pointing? When things go wrong, if the calibration has errors it can lead to flyaway situations.

There was nothing wrong with the compass or IMU.
The drone wouldn't have flown properly if there was.

 

[GrafXXX]

YES, and thank you for suggesting to check all the setting and calibrations as that is very important to do. I did all the calibrations, checked for updates, this was the second battery with the new drone, prior to this flight I had a full battery worth of local sensor testing with obstacles on and across my home, I did a few RTH's. I checked all my settings and verified. As I mentioned since June 18 2020 (just over a year ) I have had 528 flights on my MA2, AND NO I DONT CONSIDER MYSELF A PROFESSIONAL, that is why I posted this situation then moved it into this specific forum from the general MA2 one. I was looking for serious answers, advise and flight data log interpretation ( as I have seen that offered many times when supplying the DAT logs) I need to make a decision on using my 2nd year 1 and only refresh that is in the plan, and do the express refresh accepting OP FAULT or send it in with valid points and facts that may suggest sensor errors, or anything else that may have seems not to be working correctly on a newly replaced MA2.
In a previous situation, my back left motor was making a clicking noise, and I spent time on this forum uploading videos and as much info I had, and the forum contributors verified my suspicions that the noise was not sounding like it should. Taking that advise I sent back my MA2 and they replaced it without me having to use a refresh, so I do take all serious replies and make a list of "what should I do"
I also learned that I am not a professional and I dont often offer any technical replies as I leave that to the members that are knowledgeable and I wouldnt suggest things that I am not 100% qualified to suggest. I also learned to keep my sarcastic 2 cents to my self and if it was actually 2 real pennys I would have alot of money.
So I do appreciate and thank all the members that reply with positive feedback ( even if the feed back is negative in the nature of the issue, it is still knowledgeable feedback and maybe just not the answer I was hoping for) One thing I hate seeing is ( mainly on the FB groups are the sarcastic replies and the holy grail of replies, SHOULD HAVE READ THE OWNERS MANUAL, well our cars are much more expensive in most cases here, and how many people read the full owners manual located in the glove compartment prior to their first drive in that car?)

So i appreciate all the replies and do look forward to any more suggestions as I still havent decided how to approach DJI with this, deal with it and just express refresh and be flying in a week, or have them look into this with hopes that any information I can give can support the fact that I really felt like the MA2 was not flying or responding to my controls or reconnecting to my RC as it was getting closer to me.

Thank you again