Help me figure out why I crashed please

[stapleflyer]

All -

Thanks for any help - the Air is my first drone and I have 4-5 hours of experience with it -so still brand new and learning. Lots to learn.

We got a foot and a half of snow here in New England yesterday and I took my Air to work with me today to get some snowy footage. I parked on a farm road - launched the drone (from the top of my hard case) and got some decent video of horses in the snowy pasture. That took about 10 mins and I hand caught the drone because I was surrounded by snow and the hard case top is about the same size and the Air - and hard to land on. (Is it okay to land on the roof of my car? I thought about doing that but didn't because I thought all the metal may cause a problem)

Here is where I think I went wrong -

Because I still had about 1/2 a battery left I just left the drone and controller turned on and put them in the back seat while I drove a few hundred yards down the road to get my car out of the way for the next shot. I put the Air on the hard case on the ground again and started the props for a few seconds while I checked the camera settings. Pushed up on on the left stick and the Air rose up a few feet and then went nuts. I tried to regain control and hit the pause button but it clipped a branch, bounced off a tree and landed in the snow.

I am guessing that moving it while on maybe up messed the sensors somehow but I have no idea - that's why I am posting here.

Ended up breaking 2 props but everything else seemed okay. I figured the best way to get snow out of it was to fly it so I replaced the props and sent her up (after rebooting the drone and RC). It worked fine so no harm as far as I can tell. After that battery was exhausted I took it out and left the Air unfolded on my desk all day. Blew it out with some compressed air but nothing really came out by then.

Thanks again for any help.

 

[james_mav]

You already know the mistake you made was not turning the drone & controller off when you moved down the road. The drones surrounded by the cars metal & its moving down the road which is being detected by the IMU & throwing everything out of whack.

 

[laurens23]

You already know the mistake you made was not turning the drone & controller off when you moved down the road. The drones surrounded by the cars metal & its moving down the road which is being detected by the IMU & throwing everything out of whack.

Did it record the car-ride in the .txt log on the phone?
It would be nice to have a look at the data.

 

[stapleflyer]

Thanks for the confirmation that leaving it on in a car is not a good idea. Would landing, leaving it on, and walking a couple hundred yards have the same effect or is it entirely down to the metal cage of the car?

I have never really looked at the logs but I poked around and I think this is what you are referring to -

## 07:54:30
Weak GPS signal. Aircraft is in Attitude mode and hovering may be unstable. Fly with caution.
## 07:54:45
Remote controller assisted takeoff initiated.
## 07:54:56
Weak GPS signal. Aircraft is in Attitude mode and hovering may be unstable. Fly with caution.
## 07:55:14
Home Point recorded. Return-to-Home Altitude:98FT
## 08:04:30
Remote controller assisted takeoff initiated.
## 08:04:37
Aircraft has rolled over. Check for damage.
## 08:04:45
Current RTH route will pass a no-fly zone. Pay attention to the aircraft's position to avoid RTH failure.

7:54-8:04 would be the first short flight. Then tried to take off again at 8:04 and went down.

If there is a different log somewhere just let me know where to find it.

Thanks all.

 

[laurens23]

If there is a different log somewhere just let me know where to find it.
Thanks all.

For Apple devices:
See this page for instructions on retrieving your DJI GO log from iTunes.
For Android devices:
Connect your device to a computer via a USB cable and go to "DJI/dji.pilot/FlightRecord" (for DJI GO 3) or "DJI/dji.go.v4/FlightRecord" (for DJI GO 4).

I think the issue is not really the metal from the car, but the random bumping from driving the car throwing the IMU out of whack. If the drive part is in the log it will show some of the IMU data.

 

[Simmo]

DJI Flight Log Viewer

 

[NestleQuik]

Hmmm i would question why your drones RTH would fly through a no fly zone, I would think if that was the case, you may have been really close to the 5 mile radius of an airport and your drone setting were reacting.

 

[InvisibleName]

I thought the general advice on here was to ALWAYS turn the Air off before moving it. You’re putting an awful lot of trust in the fact that it doesn’t suddenly burst into life, those props can do a lot of damage before they break, and imagine if it happened in the car while you’re driving!!

 

[genesimmons]

i have a simmilar story but i didnt transport my mav while on, theres one area at local beach that must have some weird kind of interfiernce, the first time i flew and took off from there i was using litchi and everything seemed normal no warnings i launched and pushed the stick up and she went up and veered very far to the left and continued to veer and clumb with no stick movement, i thought for sure she was doing a flyaway then i get a inerfierence warning and i got back in control but for about 3 seconds she wasnt in control, i flew my misson took some photos then was scared to land but she came home no problem, i went back there about a week later and used dji go to launch and to my surprise it did alsmost the same thing, uncontrolled vertical and veer but this time to the right, again rest of the flight was fine but i wont launch there any more, not sure what could cause that and if it was related to your incident but sure scared me not being in con trol for 3 seconds glad nothing was in the way trees etc or for sure she wwould have crashed

 

[stapleflyer]

Thanks again all. I found the logs and used the viewer. Strangely - there does not seem to be a log in that folder for the first ~10 min flight which would include the drive down the road. There are 15kB and 17kB tiny sized logs (I think one is the crash and the other is after the crash when I spun up the props and noticed the broken one) and a 1.2MB file that is the last flight after I replaced the props. I believe I read here or elsewhere that others have missing logs.

I was wondering about that no fly zone. I was at work on our 400 acre campus and the nearest airport (just a +) is about 10 miles from us the way the drone flies. I don't know what that could be - there is a highway that cuts through our property but nothing else around there.

If the general advice isn't to shut it down when moving it on the ground it should be now. I know I will.

 

[callsignace]

next time when flying if you do end up forgetting and moving with the drone reconnect the gps before takeoff. this will force the drone to reset and check its surroundings again. good luck if anything is out of whack make sure you reset the drone for the next flight.

 

[Lake_Flyer]

reconnect the gps before takeoff. this will force the drone to reset and check its surroundings again.

You mean just power off and on and wait for enough sats, right?
But what do you mean by 'check its surroundings again'? It doesn't check the surroundings at all. It writes the homepoint in memory regardless of the situation (if you have enough sats).