Huge dilemma with DJI return home policy

[Photo Booth]

I agree with others. Pilot error. You cancelled RTH and, based on flight logs, ignored REPEATED warnings about remaining battery.

I suspect you were thinking too linearly with regard to the battery. I've noticed that, in general, the first 20% of battery life (from 100% to 80%) doesn't get burned up as quickly as the last 20% of battery life (40% to 20%). Yes, I consider 20% to be the END of battery life. I occasionally land my Mavic at about 15% battery life but 99% of the time I land when it's between 20% and 30%. LAND at that point, not start bringing it back home. So, the "halfway" point in battery life is 60% (100 - 20 = 80 / 2 = 40, 100 - 40 = 60%).

You got your first battery warning at 62%. Halfway. In your mind you were probably thinking you could hang out around 3 miles out until 50%. Mistake.

Sorry, pilot error.

Mark

 

[TomHTx]

The logs are fun to read. It is interesting that at 10 minutes flight time, he was over 15000 feet away, and only at 165 FEET IMU altitude, in hilly terrain, when the first of numerous low battery, disconnect and rth warnings began to appear. Essentially, he had flown south to north, and was not able to come back. He would up going west. SO many things wrong here.

 

[elwyn5150]

I don't think the OP liked all those reasoned responses and left.

I am curious how his charge back went. Will he get in trouble for it? Is it analogous to cancelling a cheque/check after receiving goods in proper conditions?

 

[Photo Booth]

I would not characterize the early battery warning as "low battery". There's a difference between a low battery warning and a "you flew so far away you need to turn back now" warning. The app was telling him to bring the Mavic back ASAP and he was apparently unhappy that it occurred only 10 minutes into the flight. Well, he burned HALF the safely available battery life in that time. 100% to 62% in 10 minutes. Hovering doesn't burn as much energy as flying at a constant 19-20 mph.

3 miles out and didn't heed the warning to come back. Not DJI's fault.

Mark

 

[TomHTx]

I would not characterize the early battery warning as "low battery". There's a difference between a low battery warning and a "you flew so far away you need to turn back now" warning. The app was telling him to bring the Mavic back ASAP and he was apparently unhappy that it occurred only 10 minutes into the flight. Well, he burned HALF the safely available battery life in that time. 100% to 62% in 10 minutes. Hovering doesn't burn as much energy as flying at a constant 19-20 mph.

3 miles out and didn't heed the warning to come back. Not DJI's fault.

Mark

Agreed, and clarification noted. The exact wording from the logs was not "low battery", it was, in RED - "Warning__The remaining battery is only enough for RTH. Return home now." It is also interesting that in the last minute of flight he changed to sport mode, and speed increased to 26, but he was still heading west, not south.

 

[Qoncussion]

Hovering doesn't burn as much energy as flying at a constant 19-20 mph.

In truth, the Mavic is more battery efficient when it's in motion, vs. hovering. Odd, but true. I have a feeling that we're never going to be hearing from the OP again.

 

[ScubaBob]

I am having a big problem with DJI.

They are always trying to turn the situation in their adavantage.

All they do in case of flyaway and lost drone is offering 15% discount on the next drone and if/when you dispute it they just attach the manual .pdf to the previous reply without even taking in account what the customer is asking. BAD AND POOR AFTER SALE AND TECH SUPPORT.

They have no respect for their customer, their after sale is terrible, and their analysts are lazy and with the fakest courtesy incite you to write again should you have other doubts. Of course, all of this will stays unanswered.

Long story short I was flying my drone on a wonderful day:

Compass calibration perfect
No obstacles on the way
Clear sky
0 wind
Antennas full stretched (90 degress)
100% battery

Wow it seems that this is the ideal condition to test what they sell on their specs. With all the above condition the drone should go about 7km in lenght, also because the new Mavic Platinum has a battery that lasts 30 minutes. WOW.

Well gents, that's the first lie.

Secondly, I was flying at about 5km with 62% of battery left. Battery was going down tremendously despite of the good weather and 0 wind. BRAND NEW BATTERY. 2 weeks new and very few flights beacuse it was raining last week.

Hang on a second, 10:07 flight with all the ideal weather conditions and no wind and with a full battery, without obstacles on the way, and you are telling me low battery? Something must be wrong in the specs isn't it? It should have said that at about 15:00 minute. Otherwise write somewhere that the flying time is 70% of the 100% because after 30% this thing goes crazy.

So they blame me for canceling the return to home.

Now, how about when the app disconnected from the RC at 51% then?

I couldn't control anymore the drone. The screen freezed, no signal, aircraft disconnected ... and the fantastic following features didn't activate:

How to use DJI’s Return to Home (RTH) Safely

Failsafe RTH:

Failsafe RTH happens when your drone loses signal for 3 seconds when using the remote controller or 20 seconds if using Wi-Fi. When it kicks in it will do one of three things depending on how you have set it up. Firstly, if you have it set to RTH then it will ascend to the set RTH height and start to fly back to you, and once you get the signal back, then you can cancel it. Secondly, if you have it set to Hover then your drone will just hover in its current position, so you can walk towards it and re-establish your signal. However, if you fail to re-establish your signal and the Battery RTH is triggered then the drone will either return home or land depending on your Battery RTH settings. Thirdly, it can be set to land, so it’ll just land in its current position.

MY SETTING WHERE TO RETURN TO THE HOME POINT.

ARE WE SERIOUS HERE?

Do you know what DJI took in account?

The last seconds of the flight record when the drone had only 28% and it wasn't enough to go back home.

This is so low from them.

They didn't mention at all the return home failing trigger when with 51% battery.

The drone should have gone back horizontally them start discending.
with the drone getting closer to the home point and with 21% battery from 51 to 30% I could have certainly got it closer, regained connection with the app and have an eye, the gimbal, to look where the drone was and even if it start descending I could have controlled it and landed it safely.
They only want to see what they want to see and for this reason if they don't send me a full refund or a brand new drone, I will charge it back to the credit card company and invite all of you to do so.

#irresponsible

Sorry for your loss BUT why did you send your drone 7KM away? If I want to see something from my drone's perspective that is 7KM away I get closer before launching--like 6 KM. You should keep your drone in your line of sight. That is the only way to know what is really going on with your drone. Just because DJI says it can travel 7 or 8 KM away does not mean you have to go that far. Your car will probably go 100 mph but that doesn't mean you should do that. Use your head.

 

[shb]

I've never seen a log file before. Interesting. But it takes forever to scroll through the
data. Is there any way to scroll through faster.

The battery definitly seems defective. It jumped from 57% to 51%, and 5 other times
including 48% to 34%, I've never seen my batteries move by more than 1% at a time.

13:11 went from 57 to 51

13:53.1 went from 51 to 48

17:31.8 48 to 34

18:43.7 34 to 30

19:24.4 30 to 28

19:24.5 log ended

I think they should add RC signal strenght to the log. That's important.

I don't see where he canceled RTH. Is that in the log?

Another thing is, why should the app EVER disconnect from the RC. That contributed to
me losing my drone too. I have many RAID USB 3 hard drives, which transfer data at 2,000
mbps and they don't disconnect. If USB isn't good enough for DJI to keep the app connected,
they should come out with their own system, but disconnects are not acceptable.

It's true that just because DJI lies about the mavic performance, you can't ignore
the data you see.
I can only fly 2,000 feet before I lose signal where I live. And that's at 400 feet altitude.
Steve

 

[Plawa]

Another thing is, why should the app EVER disconnect from the RC. That contributed to
me losing my drone too. I have many RAID USB 3 hard drives, which transfer data at 2,000mbps and they don't disconnect.

You're comparing incomparable. The app disconnect is a SW issue, not a HW disconnect.

 

[DeeCee]

. Use your head.

Or in other words, common sense, something the OP significantly lacks.

 

[colinfowler]

Is radio propagation different in Europe? Better or worse?

lower output

 

[Plawa]

The speed of light is different too...

 

[shb]

You're comparing incomparable. The app disconnect is a SW issue, not a HW disconnect.

then fix the software. it's all dji software. does litchi disconnect?

 

[Keule]

The speed of light is different too...

I like that one!

 

[CChoiVA]

This post was interesting to say the least.

 

[RayOZ]

Looks like OP came here for sympathy and support abt his situation, and didn't expect to be blamed for pilot error. I guess he didn't like being pointed out by seasoned flyers that he was in the wrong. According to manual; max transmission: 7km, max range: 13km for IDEAL situation. If you do the maths, you'd be short by 1km if you attempt to go the full 7km distance anyway. Maybe in this case, DJI was a bit generous offering 15% discount. I guess you could blame DJI for over-engineering the antenna transmission.
If a car's spec says it could go 800 km on a full tank, and every driver tries to drive the 800 km before filling up, there'd did be a lot of breakdowns on the road.

 

[teslar]

Yep. My car says I can get 54 miles a gallon tank holds 20 gallons so I’m not filling up till I’ve done a least 1000 miles, regardless what the gauge says. I expect VW to pay my recovery bill if I get stuck anywhere

 

[colinfowler]

According to manual; max transmission: 7km, max range: 13km for IDEAL situation

not sure were he is located but this range only applies to US its lower in EU

 

[shb]

actually, with his defective battery, and the wind, he might not of made it home if he hadn't canceled rth

 

[abellodentro]

The logs are fun to read. It is interesting that at 10 minutes flight time, he was over 15000 feet away, and only at 165 FEET IMU altitude, in hilly terrain, when the first of numerous low battery, disconnect and rth warnings began to appear. Essentially, he had flown south to north, and was not able to come back. He would up going west. SO many things wrong here.

Good morning teacher, wow, you know a lot about drones. Therefore beginners like me should stay away from them. However I do trust the company that sell this super drones. They make them so attractive for first starters and write a lot of bullshits in the specs. Now someone on this thread is going on and about that specs are different in Europe. Yet no. I have checked the Spanish one and it's 7km range. How come it got mad a 4.8? Why do they don't recommend study geology or be expert flyers before buying a Mavic but they say EASY TO FLY, Return home and so on. I spent 1300€ may friend and pushed it in range of the spec with the weather you recommend to do so. Where is it written on the spec about hills and so on. So do this is pilot error in first place. Because the pilot is ignorant in this regard. So how about them cheating with the specs? Moreover I cancelled the flight only once at 62% and whilst the drone was hovering I have tried to reconnect the app by plugging and unplugging the usb, and restarting the app. That's why the drone stopped mid air hovering for about a minute. During that time I had 5 seconds before the app disconnected again after each attempt I made to return the drone home. Every single time I managed to press the botton return home then the app disconnects again. So why the return home didn't trigger. First could have been my fault but how about the other attempts? Also, where is the wind????? Horizontal speed is constant during the flight, vertical is 0 m/s apart for 20 second, between 1.4 - 3, way before the accident happened and I didn't get any wind alert. Now tell me, do you have to buy this super drone only if you are an expert. Am I to blame because I pushed a drone 70% of his reach according to specs and I cancel the return home with 62% battery?????? What about what happened next? Why don't they sell them only to expert ???????? Easy like that isn't it? First mistake you pay. Next time I won't lose it. So they learn to be fair pre-sale.