Gesture Mode AC Random Start-up

[topcat]

tried the gesture mode today using the button on the back of the air without the remote. Everything worked fine...landed and motors shut down. As I carried back in my garage the motors suddenly started in my hand and it tried to take-off. I held on for dear life til I was able to disengage battery. Luckily no harm to my new car, my air or most importantly me but scared the heck out of me. Anyone have a similar situation or know what might have been wrong? I should have turned off battery and flipped over...

 

[MavicAirMike]

Agree on both points. I have turned the drone onto it's back to turn off the drone, without turning off the battery. This came with a warning that the drone needs inspection because of a collision. I've only seen this message once, myself.

 

[meens]

Did you switch off the flight controller or was the flight controller outside of the garage. In any case it is possible the drone disconnected from the controller and initiated a RTH. This is the reason why the drone shall be switched off before the flight controller.

 

[topcat]

I did not have the controller But it was nearby in the house and may have been turned on. So when I landed the first time are you saying that would have disabled Gesture mode but switched it back to the controller which then initiated RTH? It somewhat makes sense but I didn’t realize it would reconnect to the controller. I guess I’m best to use it with the controller off or with me...still seems strange. Thanks!

 

[thongbong]

I did not have the controller But it was nearby in the house and may have been turned on. So when I landed the first time are you saying that would have disabled Gesture mode but switched it back to the controller which then initiated RTH? It somewhat makes sense but I didn’t realize it would reconnect to the controller. I guess I’m best to use it with the controller off or with me...still seems strange. Thanks!

Even if it was still on, I don't see how the motors would have initiated without CSC. This is concerning maybe worth some investigating, maybe reporting to DJI.

 

[Air Beetle]

I had the exact same thing happen to me after I commanded it to land. I went to pick it up and it launched again. I have it on video. I didn’t think much of it and assumed that I did something wrong. My family was filming it from an iPhone and laughed hard. It’s on my wife’s Facebook page lol.

 

[topcat]

With some testing I may have figured out the issue for me at least. I may have had the remote/app on in my house so even though I initiated gesture mode on the ac it would have opened gesture mode on the app. If that’s what happened then even after it lands the app is still in gesture mode so as I carried it into the garage either a wave of the hand or something made it think I was commanding it up. Make sense?
I was thinking that using the button without the remote being turned on would be great for a quick selfie but the risk is high if you have an issue...not sure I’d trust it.

 

[thongbong]

With some testing I may have figured out the issue for me at least. I may have had the remote/app on in my house so even though I initiated gesture mode on the ac it would have opened gesture mode on the app. If that’s what happened then even after it lands the app is still in gesture mode so as I carried it into the garage either a wave of the hand or something made it think I was commanding it up. Make sense?
I was thinking that using the button without the remote being turned on would be great for a quick selfie but the risk is high if you have an issue...not sure I’d trust it.

If that is so, it would definitely be a major firmware flaw. Anyone who has experienced this should report to DJI. If the craft had already landed with the motors off, it should not initiate RTH at all. This is the worst case scenario for any RC pilot, the props arming after disarming. The only thing that should arm the motors again should be launching in app, CSC or smart capture. This does not sound intentional by deign.

 

[thongbong]

I had the exact same thing happen to me after I commanded it to land. I went to pick it up and it launched again. I have it on video. I didn’t think much of it and assumed that I did something wrong. My family was filming it from an iPhone and laughed hard. It’s on my wife’s Facebook page lol.

Can I suggest sending in the footage to DJI or bringing it to their attention. This sounds dangerous. Motors should not arm after being disarmed.

 

[Mike4884]

Did you switch off the flight controller or was the flight controller outside of the garage. In any case it is possible the drone disconnected from the controller and initiated a RTH. This is the reason why the drone shall be switched off before the flight controller.

It will not do this in that mode....in gesture mode, it will only land it will not return to home there was too many crashes with the Spark so DJI changed it

 

[Mike4884]

Even if it was still on, I don't see how the motors would have initiated without CSC. This is concerning maybe worth some investigating, maybe reporting to DJI.

Well it initiated because he was still in smart capture the gesture mode, so it probably thought he waved his hand or something and fired back up. this is definitely bad someone could get hurt.....if this is a bug DJI better get on it!

 

[topcat]

I did talk to a tech guy at DJI and he confirmed that once in an intelligent flight mode it stays in that mode until you exit it or turn off the ac. That’s fine for all modes except the smart capture mode. The other modes won’t accidentally restart the ac but in smart mode a mistaken gesture looks like it could cause a start up. He agreed it seemed like an issue and was going to pass along to engineers but we'll see where that goes. Hopefully someone jumps on it but in the meantime approach with caution and shut off the ac as soon as you're done with smart capture. Now that I’m aware of the situation it should be easy to avoid issues but in my case I wasn’t aware.

 

[smokeyboy]

When I have landed in smart gesture I always walk around the back of the aircraft so the camera can,t see you and immediately turn it off before going back to the remote