Had a complete nightmare.

[mitchell.atheis]

Hi,

Here's my latest issues with the Mavic

Had 4 battery's only to do some video for a job, on a island, in the middle of the river Nile. I got 2 battery's done with no problems, all quite close proximity stuff but I trusted the Mavic having done over 30 flights with it. I come to the last 2 battery's and I have nothing but problems out the blue. Firstly the app crashes a few times, this has happened a few times before ( perks of android by the looks of it) but it's no biggy as I still have sick controls.

Next up the VPS sensor warning pops up saying front and downward sensor error which turned them off mid flight. Would being over water cause this issue? I know the downward VPS is a little problematic over water but enough to throw an error ?

Finally the biggest problem was the RC started to play up by just resetting or disconnecting randomly for up to 30 seconds completely, even with the quad being metres in front of me. The first time this happend, the quad was under a tall tree 2 metres in front of me and RTH was initiated by default from signal loss. Straight up into the branches it went lodging one motor onto a branch and the other 3 going crazy trying to balance the quad, I had to watch this happen for about 20 seconds before the controller reconnected and I could finally cut the motors and watch the Mavic fall 10 meters to the ground.

I have now set signal loss to hover to prevent the same problem from happening but I really shouldn't need to as there is a huge issue here. I am now more nervous to fly any longer distance in case I loose signal and it just hovers instead of coming home.

Truly baffled by the these recent events and lucky it only suffered a slightly broken front landing leg.

It is running the software version 1 previous to the most recent (updated about 4 weeks ago) and had a good 10 batteries through it since then.

I plan on doing the most recent FW update as soon as I get WiFi somewhere, but I can't see how this would just randomly become a software issue?

Any help would greatly be appreciated, I am on a long trip so unfortunately sending it back is not an option right now

 

[Cerberus]

I'm guessing this has something to do with the Mavic overheating?

you did say you worked through 2 batteries until the third and fourth? maybe the continuous usage made the boards in the mavic get a little too hot, maybe..

 

[tracer bullet]

You had an app problem, an RC problem, and a Mavic problem all at different times but back to back. I'm stumped.

 

[timesnaps]

loose connection on the usb to phone cable/socket?!

 

[mitchell.atheis]

I'm guessing this has something to do with the Mavic overheating?

you did say you worked through 2 batteries until the third and fourth? maybe the continuous usage made the boards in the mavic get a little too hot, maybe..

It could well be a overheating problem, if so it doesn't handle them too well..! They wasn't continuous, maybe a couple of hours apart actually

You had an app problem, an RC problem, and a Mavic problem all at different times but back to back. I'm stumped.

Yep! And to top it off the camera has the focus problem too ..!

loose connection on the usb to phone cable/socket?!

This is possible, I will try another cable, but that only could possibly solve the app problem which is the minor issue here unfortunately

 

[Haloweenhamster]

a bad connection could upset the RC, an upset RC could send erroneous packets to the drone causing extra processing which could cause AC problems

 

[charliesRig]

wow if this was me I would evaluate my Mavic usage.
Maybe buy an infrared heat gun Cheep insurance see if your over cooking your mavic.!

I also own multi battery's and had multi failures. I fly for funzys so when thing go south I just stop
and Pack it in.
I can do that....... You might not have that luxury Flying for pay
time is money so you just can't stop I get that...Please keep us posted
...................C....
.
.

 

[StanTGM]

Sad to read about these problems so far from home...

THis is like the 3rd time I read about the same type of incident:

Mavic under a tree -> RTH kicks in -> drone gets damaged while trying to reach RTH altitude

So this should definitely make it into our check lists:

RTH OFF BEFORE FLYING BENEATH AN OBSTACLE

(or even better, make it a CTM item)

 

[mitchell.atheis]

a bad connection could upset the RC, an upset RC could send erroneous packets to the drone causing extra processing which could cause AC problems

I will give another cable a go & see if the results are different. I didn't it would cause further problems but worth a go

wow if this was me I would evaluate my Mavic usage.
Maybe buy an infrared heat gun Cheep insurance see if your over cooking your mavic.!

I also own multi battery's and had multi failures. I fly for funzys so when thing go south I just stop
and Pack it in.
I can do that....... You might not have that luxury Flying for pay
time is money so you just can't stop I get that...Please keep us posted
...................C....
.
.

I would rather not be re-evaluating its use for the money I paid for it ! I will keep posted, updating today so will test I'm the next few days.

I'm not technically getting paid for the work, just offer to make some videos on my travels in return of accommodation

 

[mitchell.atheis]

Sad to read about these problems so far from home...

THis is like the 3rd time I read about the same type of incident:

Mavic under a tree -> RTH kicks in -> drone gets damaged while trying to reach RTH altitude

So this should definitely make it into our check lists:

RTH OFF BEFORE FLYING BENEATH AN OBSTACLE

(or even better, make it a CTM item)

You are completely right with that one, just a pain to go through that extra procedure for each different flight path. I won't be back home for at least a year so I really am hoping it was just having a bad day

 

[ncameron]

Just an idea, but were all your batteries on the same firmware?

 

[mitchell.atheis]

Just an idea, but were all your batteries on the same firmware?

You've beat me, I didn't even know you can update a battery ? Only settings or details I can see is serial number, times charged & time to discharge

 

[mattdt83]

Just an idea, but were all your batteries on the same firmware?

You can update batteries?

 

[StanTGM]

Yes, batteries can be updaten too. But this does not happen with every update - The last one for example did not include a battery update.

The only way I know to find out if the batteries also need to be updated is to power down the Mavic (while connected to the PC, after updating the Mavic itself), change batteries, power up, do another firmware update and see if an update actually takes place or not.

With the update of the Mavic already done, the update of just the batteries is usually very quick.

 

[Haloweenhamster]

Go 4 will also tell you and update if it is required

 

[mitchell.atheis]

Okay so a few days have passed & in the time I've got the quad attached up to the laptop, VPS sensors have now been recalibrated and seem to be working fine again.

Am now using my official USB cable from phone manufacturer and haven't had one drop out since. Have only put one battery back through it so far though.

After having the quad on the table for a while turned on, I noticed that it gets very hot and the fans stay on 90% of the time, is that normal ? I understand it will be cooled when flying just interested to see if it's running hotter then it should?

Checked the batteries on Assistant and all seems up to date.

Finally, and annoyingly, I have found some damage from the fall. The rear left arm which took the hit is a little wobbly when it's fully extended and causes some osilactions, in some conditions. Not too sure what to do with this one but luckily it's still flyable. the plastic 'stopper' on the main body is busted so im assuming that's the culprit, will attach a picture.

 

[mitchell.atheis]

It's that stopper a easily replaceable part?

 

[tracer bullet]

It's that stopper a easily replaceable part?

@Thunderdrones would be good to answer that.

 

[mitchell.atheis]

Few weeks down the line since the incident.. not one issue with 5+ battery's put through it. I am using the official usb cable that was provided with my phone, and not the DJI provided cable which I was using when it had the meltdown

 

[kruzlifix]

Okay so a few days have passed & in the time I've got the quad attached up to the laptop, VPS sensors have now been recalibrated and seem to be working fine again.

Am now using my official USB cable from phone manufacturer and haven't had one drop out since. Have only put one battery back through it so far though.

After having the quad on the table for a while turned on, I noticed that it gets very hot and the fans stay on 90% of the time, is that normal ? I understand it will be cooled when flying just interested to see if it's running hotter then it should?

Checked the batteries on Assistant and all seems up to date.

Finally, and annoyingly, I have found some damage from the fall. The rear left arm which took the hit is a little wobbly when it's fully extended and causes some osilactions, in some conditions. Not too sure what to do with this one but luckily it's still flyable. the plastic 'stopper' on the main body is busted so im assuming that's the culprit, will attach a picture.

it happened already to 3 backarms. i found there is a good fix:
1) acrylic glue
2) aditional fixation with a small wire „cerclage“