Flying close to water???

[JoeShmoe]

(a humble advice, in a trembling voice) don't! Water attracts drones.
Flown number of times under small local bridges. Half of the time my drone all of a sudden would start decending when it flies level and close to water surface. I'd say 6 feet or lower. Had this **** happening with M3, DJI FPV, Mini 3P; all of them. No idea why. Never lost a drone, though. When this unexplained decent happened 1st time, I started paying very close attention to altitude; then had multiple "saves" just before drone would touch water.
I suspect the optical sensors become confused.

 

[MS Coast]

I was flying about a foot over a swimming pool one time and a gust of wind or it caught a reflection not sure but it hit the water.

Or the drone might have just gone into landing mode.

 

[Cafguy]

When a DJI Drone cannot reliably know its exact position, It will initiate a RTH.
If the already confused Drone cannot do anything else because it doesnt know its position, it will start to hover,As the bottom sensor becomes more confused because of the featureless surface and the reflection, The Drone will land.
This all happens really quik!

 

[MS Coast]

When a DJI Drone cannot reliably know its exact position, It will initiate a RTH.
If the already confused Drone cannot do anything else because it doesnt know its position, it will start to hover,

You're saying two different things - RTH and hover - when position is not known. It's neither. I'm not aware of any programmed action for loss of position information. The drone just continues to fly. After all, you can launch a drone without position information and it won't immediately hover or RTH.

As the bottom sensor becomes more confused because of the featureless surface and the reflection, The Drone will land.

If a featureless surface causes auto-landing, why doesn't auto-landing occur at higher altitudes over featureless surfaces? Drones go into auto-landing mode when the bottom sensors detect a surface within 30" or so.

 

[Meta4]

Had this **** happening with M3, DJI FPV, Mini 3P; all of them. No idea why.

The solution to this mystery is probably just waiting to be revealed in the recorded flight data.

I suspect the optical sensors become confused.

I see that being repeated a lot.
It's something that satisfies those who don't look for the actual cause.

 

[Meta4]

When a DJI Drone cannot reliably know its exact position, It will initiate a RTH.

For the drone to be unaware of its location, it must have lost GPS reception.
Lose GPS and your drone won't RTH ... it can't RTH but is fully controllable.
If the flyer makes no joystick input, it will just hover.

If the already confused Drone cannot do anything else because it doesnt know its position, it will start to hover,As the bottom sensor becomes more confused because of the featureless surface and the reflection, The Drone will land.
This all happens really quik!

That isn't what happens.
It sounds like you're confused and contributing to the confusion around this topic.

 

[Cafguy]

I see that being repeated a lot.
It's something that satisfies those who don't look for the actual cause.

I agree Yes you CAN have problems over water but its NOT common really and it wouldnt be my first guess if I were to crash in the water. but if I didnt see anything in the DATA then I would know the water got me.

For the drone to be unaware of its location, it must have lost GPS reception.
Lose GPS and your drone won't RTH ... it can't RTH fully controllable.
If the flyer makes no joystick input, it will just hover.


That isn't what happens.
It sounds like you're confused and contributing to the confusion around this topic.

thats the explanation DJI will give you. confusing or not. if the electronics become too confused you wont control it.
A.I says............................
Your DJI drone likely executed a Return to Home (RTH) because its downward-facing sensors were confused by the reflective, featureless surface of water, leading to a loss of stable positioning. Other potential triggers include a loss of signal from the controller, low battery, or a failure to establish a strong GPS lock. When a drone can't reliably determine its position, it may trigger a safety RTH to avoid crashing, although this can be dangerous over water.

 

[MS Coast]

A.I says............................
Your DJI drone likely executed a Return to Home (RTH) because its downward-facing sensors were confused by the reflective, featureless surface of water, leading to a loss of stable positioning. Other potential triggers include a loss of signal from the controller, low battery, or a failure to establish a strong GPS lock. When a drone can't reliably determine its position, it may trigger a safety RTH to avoid crashing, although this can be dangerous over water.

AI creates a response based on all the information it finds on the web, both good and bad. This one is nonsense.

Can you point to a place in the actual documentation for any DJI model that states that RTH is triggered by loss of position information? Again, if that was the case, it would not be possible to launch a drone that hadn't yet acquired a GPS fix, and we know that it is definitely possible.

 

[Meta4]

but if I didnt see anything in the DATA then I would know the water got me.

If "the water got you" there would probably be evidence of how that happened in your data.

thats the explanation DJI will give you. confusing or not. if the electronics become too confused you wont control it.

That's just confused and confusing.
Electronics don't get "confused" and suck your drone into the water.

A.I says............................
Your DJI drone likely executed a Return to Home (RTH) because its downward-facing sensors were confused by the reflective, featureless surface of water, leading to a loss of stable positioning. Other potential triggers include a loss of signal from the controller, low battery, or a failure to establish a strong GPS lock.

Your AI is as confused as you are.

When a drone can't reliably determine its position, it may trigger a safety RTH to avoid crashing, although this can be dangerous over water.

There's no truth in any of that statement.

 

[Cafguy]

Electronics don't get "confused" and suck your drone into the water.

the confused drone does not get sucked into the water..... It lands there,

Your AI is as confused as you are.

its not my A.I. everyone in the world uses it. If you dont wish to believe it O.K. Please provide us with your explanation....

There's no truth in any of that statement.

You should file a compliant with DJI for lying to their customers. I think you should contact DJI yourself and show them this...Maybe they can explain it to you in a way that does not confuse you..It doesnt confuse me and makes perfect sense. And YES electronic devices can become confused and YES DJI built in a safety landing feature for confused Drones so they dont go flying off until the battery dies.

 

[MS Coast]

its not my A.I. everyone in the world uses it. If you dont wish to believe it O.K. Please provide us with your explanation....

That AI response is simply wrong. Yes, some may choose to believe it, but they do so in opposition to DJI's manuals and simple observations of reality. DJI drones do not initiate RTH, hover, or auto-landing in response to a loss of position information.

To prove this to yourself, just launch your drone before it acquires a GPS fix. Or fly it in a location where there is no GPS signal available, inside a building with substantial structure for instance.

 

[Cafguy]

r fly it in a location where there is no GPS signal available

Your drone uses more than GPS to determine its location. OR orientation for that matter.
Fun fact: DJI drones can read QR code and take directions from them.

 

[JoeShmoe]

The solution to this mystery is probably just waiting to be revealed in the recorded flight data.

Sadly, the 1001 fw doesn't record flight logs....

 

[jephoto]

I was flying about a foot over a swimming pool one time and a gust of wind or it caught a reflection not sure but it hit the water. Straight to the bottom it went. I got out about 10 minutes later and of course it was dead. I still tried a fully charged battery just to see what would happen and nothing happened. I sent it to DJI and I was quoted $1200.00 to fix or replace it. I decided against the Repair and they sent it back to me when I got it back. I put it in the back of my SUV and it stayed back there in the box for seven months. I just kept pushing it from side to side and just never took it out. One day, my wife was cleaning out the SUV and asked me what was in the box and I told her it was my drone and she asked what do you want to do with it? I said it doesn’t matter. You can throw it away if you want to she says well let’s see what it’ll do one more time. Let’s see if it will work. I said it won’t work. I went and got a battery put it in the drone and it has flown perfectly ever since and that was two or three years ago. All it needed was to dry out. The battery that hit the water also dried out and Worked just as good as my other ones.
I’m sure saltwater would have been a different story.

Thats pretty cool. Def miracle...

 

[cneedelman]

I’ve done it a few times, be careful and use a spotter.

 

[MS Coast]

Your drone uses more than GPS to determine its location. OR orientation for that matter.
Fun fact: DJI drones can read QR code and take directions from them.

Yes, but it does not initiate auto-landing or RTH when it loses position information.

 

[Bad Santa]

There's a local guy that may have tried to do this.

https://offerup.com/item/detail/a7e48b27-8562-313d-b8c2-57a1481e96dc

 

[MS Coast]

Pied-Billed Grebe in a Gulf Coast saltmarsh pond yesterday. The Mavic 4 Pro hovered and flew over the pond for 15 minutes without issues.

 

[Meta4]

Sadly, the 1001 fw doesn't record flight logs....

You don't say which drone this refers to, but I find it very hard to believe.
Every Mavic, Air, Mini, Inspire and Phantom since at least 2015 records the flight data from every flight.

 

[Meta4]

the confused drone does not get sucked into the water..... It lands there,

Perhaps confused flyers might land their drones into water, but "confused drones" don't land themselves in water.
The whole "confused drones" thing is a myth caused caused by folks with little understanding talking about drones getting confused.

its not my A.I. everyone in the world uses it. If you dont wish to believe it O.K. Please provide us with your explanation....

If your drone loses GPS it won't and cannot RTH.
No DJI drone that lost it's location data has ever initiated RTH ... none, nada, nix, zilch, despite what you've found with extremely unreliable AI.
I provided an explanation in post 26.

You should file a compliant with DJI for lying to their customers.

I'm filing a complain with you for spreading misinformation.

I think you should contact DJI yourself and show them this...Maybe they can explain it to you in a way that does not confuse you..It doesnt confuse me and makes perfect sense.

You have no idea at all what you are talking about.

And YES electronic devices can become confused and YES DJI built in a safety landing feature for confused Drones so they dont go flying off until the battery dies.

the confused drone does not get sucked into the water..... It lands there,

its not my A.I. everyone in the world uses it. If you dont wish to believe it O.K. Please provide us with your explanation....

You should file a compliant with DJI for lying to their customers. I think you should contact DJI yourself and show them this...Maybe they can explain it to you in a way that does not confuse you..It doesnt confuse me and makes perfect sense. And YES electronic devices can become confused and YES DJI built in a safety landing feature for confused Drones so they dont go flying off until the battery dies.

Again ... more uninformed misinformation.
It's you that's very confused about how your drone works.
If you want to take this further, come up with the recorded flight data to support your imagined scenario.

Your drone uses more than GPS to determine its location. OR orientation for that matter.

Actual fact: The only way that your drone can get location data is from GPS.
It gets orientation data from the gyro sensor in the IMU.