Forced auto-land crash...

[JLane]

And maybe the bigger problem here is that I wasn't able to stop the auto-landing command. With previous firmware versions, you could cancel it with upward stick movement.

In summary, your incident seems to be the result of the combination of two separate issues:

1. The Mavic going into forced landing from a very high altitude. This is caused by incorrect VPS data telling the Mavic that it's close to the ground when it's not. There's a long thread about it on the DJI forums, but the issue was supposed to be fixed in .0400 of the firmware. The fact that you've had this problem with the newest firmware seems to indicate the fix was not good enough. I would highly recommend you go over to that thread and let the moderators know that you've just experienced this same issue. (Reply to one of DJI-Ken's posts in the thread to make sure he gets alerted straight away). Here's the thread: Mavic Pro will NOT descend unless VPS turned off. Also, if you haven't already done so, do start a claim with DJI support so that they can analyze the incident.

Somewhere in that thread I suggested switching off Landing Protection if your Mavic has this VPS issue, to prevent it entering a forced auto landing.

2. Being unable to abort the forced auto landing. As others have said, this is a new (and apparently intentional) "feature" in the .0500 firmware. I made a thread about it not too long ago. I would also suggest you comment on that thread to let DJI know that this "feature" was partly to blame for your incident, and that they should really reverse the change and give us back a way to cancel a forced landing. Here's that thread: Tip: How to Cancel Auto Landing in v01.03.0500 (DJI, please Fix)

 

[mkp2020]

Apparently DJI is planning to go back to allowing throttle-up to cancel Auto Landing in the next firmware version. This was posted by DJI-Ken on March 29 in the thread referenced in post 41. Keeping fingers crossed .

 

[Jussaguy]

Loads of people seem to have this issue lately with the introduction of firmware .4 and/or .5
Not just above water but randomly way up in the air.
Dji blames it mostly on faulty vps units, i have my doubts.
I stopped firmware upgrades at .200 cause every firmware imports gremlins.

I am telling you it's the the wayward homepoints and the inability to set a new one at home even if he knew how to. I know the problem and under the hood, DJI knows.

 

[Saylor101]

That's some really good info msinger! Seems like they could do a couple things to help with this... most importantly, allowing up stick to cancel the landing like in previous firmware. It also seems there should be some sort of safe guard that disables the VPS when your altitude is over a certain height. Why does the Mavic prioritise the VPS data over the altitude data?

I'm hoping DJI will honor the warranty on my Mavic. I haven't tried flying since the crash so I don't if there are any internal issues from the crash. Don't think I should be held responsible for a faulty sensor reading and an unintuitive method of correcting the problem.

EDIT: Another thought... what if users had flight mode switching disabled, which I believe is default. You would have no way of stopping the autolanding without quickly digging into the settings and turning flight mode switching back on.

Did anyone ever answer you about disabling the default setting to quickly switch to sport mode with just the exterior switch?

 

[mkp2020]

Did anyone ever answer you about disabling the default setting to quickly switch to sport mode with just the exterior switch?

I cannot remember who tested this - but their result was toggling the sport mode switch does cancel Auto Land regardless of whether flight mode switching is turned on or off in the app.

 

[Evo1668]

Has anybody actually thought to use the pause button on the controller. Stops the Mavic in its tracks.....

 

[mkp2020]

Has anybody actually thought to use the pause button on the controller. Stops the Mavic in its tracks.....

The pause button does not work in this instance.

 

[Jussaguy]

I am feeling uncomfortable with the automative functionality of the Mavic and I wish I didn't buy it from DJI but wanted to use my credits. If it is not acknowledged or fixed (a couple of these issues), its going back. I bet they say they don't return credit items.

 

[MacIak]

I am feeling uncomfortable with the automative functionality of the Mavic and I wish I didn't buy it from DJI but wanted to use my credits. If it is not acknowledged or fixed (a couple of these issues), its going back. I bet they say they don't return credit items.

Just roll back to previous firmware. Really had zero issues with that.
Im not used to pre assembled stuff either but have to admit that this one is a beautiful piece of work. The mech and design people of dji are awesome. The firmware however is a mess.

 

[Gh0stxSinghx]

In .500 firmware (the latest) the only way to cancel an automatic landing is to switch to sport mode.

It's dumb and bad design to make the highly intuitive "left stick up" not cancel it, I have no idea why DJI did that and I hope they change it back soon.

Will have good .500 firmware? Will to cancel an automatic landing is to switch to sport mode? I always GPS mode - when i on way out far away (like 8000m) ok, and back (RTH) then cancel to RTH run fast, when automatic landing.... can to cancel an automatic landing?

 

[WIMMPYIII]

Will have good .500 firmware? Will to cancel an automatic landing is to switch to sport mode? I always GPS mode - when i on way out far away (like 8000m) ok, and back (RTH) then cancel to RTH run fast, when automatic landing.... can to cancel an automatic landing?

Reading this hurt my head. Maybe I just didnt get enough sleep.

 

[Rbruz]

Good to know and VERY TRUE -- there is no reason why left stick up shouldn't stop the landing. Odd that with so many settings in the remote, there isn't a way to manually change this.

Also, as the weather gets warmer I'm going to be doing a lot more flying from our boat, and the takeoff/landing area on the rear deck is pretty small. Good to know that once I start that "forced landing" procedure, I am committed to the landing spot. I mistakenly thought that if the landing starts to go wrong, I could throttle up and attempt a do-over. I guess not!

On boats the safest bet is hand launch/landing ! I rather never but I rather on a boat so I don't loose the bird. Been making landing pads gor years for quads etc so all about safety first.

 

[FordP]

I cannot remember who tested this - but their result was toggling the sport mode switch does cancel Auto Land regardless of whether flight mode switching is turned on or off in the app.

Here

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[Peio64270]

The VPS data should always be most accurate when the Mavic is close to the ground. Furthermore, once the Mavic flies away from the home point, the altitude will no longer be an accurate measurement from the ground up if the ground elevation changes. The Mavic has no way of knowing where the ground is located unless it's near the ground and the VPS is detecting an accurate measurement.

Not to mention that I had large errors (up to -80m) of altitude measurement with my Mavic. I think that if altitude had been priorized against VPS, landing had been hard since when flying at about 15m over my exact takeoff point, the barometric altitude was measured as -35m (minus 35m). This Mavic was recently replaced under warranty by DJI but now, I'm much less confident in this drone than I was in my two Phantom 3A that I own for more than one year without any issue of no kind.

 

[larkin]

It'll auto land if battery is critically low

 

[Matchlock]

I forget right now what the function is called, but I'm speaking of the option in the DJI Go4 App that when landing, it stops the Mavic a few feet above the ground while it's checking to see if everything is safe before it lands. What if that particular function was turned off? Would that prevent the Mavic Pro from automatically landing in those situations?

I don't have nearly the experience with the Mavic Pro that some of you do but I'm just trying to help and this is just one thing that came to mind.

Bud

 

[Jussaguy]

I forget right now what the function is called, but I'm speaking of the option in the DJI Go4 App that when landing, it stops the Mavic a few feet above the ground while it's checking to see if everything is safe before it lands. What if that particular function was turned off? Would that prevent the Mavic Pro from automatically landing in those situations?

I don't have nearly the experience with the Mavic Pro that some of you do but I'm just trying to help and this is just one thing that came to mind.

Bud

Yes. Turning off the auto landing check will remove this issue. On the other hand, it's a nice feature.

DJI should just re-institute aborting auto-landing by any movement. I don't know why they love breaking unbroken things.

 

[RonTheTech]

Loads of people seem to have this issue lately with the introduction of firmware .4 and/or .5
Not just above water but randomly way up in the air.
Dji blames it mostly on faulty vps units, i have my doubts.
I stopped firmware upgrades at .200 cause every firmware imports gremlins.

Whats a VPS unit?

 

[JLane]

Whats a VPS unit?

Vision Positioning System = The suite of downwards sensors that the Mavic uses for increased flight stability at lower heights.

 

[limbows]

Have the same problem since i opened the box back in desember 2016. The vps always reads 0.1-0.2m on the controller, while it fly hundreds meters up. So everytime i descent it thinks it near the earth so start landing by itself.. Always use sport mode until .400 update, it works great now. And i just ignore the latest updates since..