I crashed my Mavic not once, but twice

Rodcast · May 29, 2017

Yesterday I had a great success using Active track. Today I tried again through a wooded area. I'm not sure what happened but the **** thing went right into a branch. Luckily the mavic hovered after hitting the branch but the second time I wasn't so lucky. I'm not certain why the mavic swirled toward the tree both times using Active track. Anyway, here's the video of the crash.

By the way a small plastic piece broke off the gimbal and all 4 props cracked or broke. I powered it back on after crash and the gimbal and camera worked pretty good. I ordered some props so I can't really test it until I receive the props.

rgunnell · May 29, 2017

Cool vids. Sorry bout ur drone.

Oingo Boingo · May 29, 2017

" I tried it in a wooded area....." That line has impending disaster written all over it

Rodcast · May 31, 2017

I just realized I linked to the wrong video. Here is the link to the video of the crash

tcope · May 31, 2017

Collision Avoidance is visually based on done with software. It does not always detect small or thin objects. It's up to you to make sure that the flight path is clear. Attempting to get the Mavic to fly around trees on its own will only lead to further crashes.

DomoDan · May 31, 2017

That sucks! I did some testing with "Active Track - Trace" in my neighborhood with my kids riding their bikes, as I wanted to see if it would cut corners (we have some corners in the neighborhood with big trees right on the corner). I was on the stick ready to take over at any time. The Mavic did cut the corners, but also stopped short of running in to the trees. Now, the trees were full of leaves and the Mavic was moving forward.

One thing I did not though, which I also seemed to notice in your video, is that sometimes the Mavic got very jerky. It would be cruising along, tracking my son on his scooter, then all of the sudden quickly dart 3 feet to the left and then 2 fee back to the right. It did this multiple times, once it went laterally scary close to a tree! In your video it seemed to jerk forwards a few times. Maybe that was just YouTube...who knows.

Oyibo VFX · May 31, 2017

This is my Jeep. Autopilot allows you greater distance then DJI GO app

Rodcast · May 31, 2017

tcope said:
Collision Avoidance is visually based on done with software. It does not always detect small or thin objects. It's up to you to make sure that the flight path is clear. Attempting to get the Mavic to fly around trees on its own will only lead to further crashes.

Thanks. I unfortunately learned the hard way. I can understand the first crash as the branch was small and thin but the second crash was into a much larger tree. It's hard to tell on the video as I sped it up but the drone kept drifting to the right directly into the tree. I went ahead and shipped it in as I recently had been experiencing issues with the obstacle avoidance sensors. For example, I would be flying in the clear wide open area and the obstacle avoidance would come on and the drone would just stop and the gimbal would begin moving wildly on its own.

Rodcast · May 31, 2017

DomoDan said:
That sucks! I did some testing with "Active Track - Trace" in my neighborhood with my kids riding their bikes, as I wanted to see if it would cut corners (we have some corners in the neighborhood with big trees right on the corner). I was on the stick ready to take over at any time. The Mavic did cut the corners, but also stopped short of running in to the trees. Now, the trees were full of leaves and the Mavic was moving forward.

One thing I did not though, which I also seemed to notice in your video, is that sometimes the Mavic got very jerky. It would be cruising along, tracking my son on his scooter, then all of the sudden quickly dart 3 feet to the left and then 2 fee back to the right. It did this multiple times, once it went laterally scary close to a tree! In your video it seemed to jerk forwards a few times. Maybe that was just YouTube...who knows.

Yeah I did speed up the video during post editing so it does look jerky but you are right it did start moving over to the right on the second crash and then hit the tree.

Rodcast · May 31, 2017

Oyibo VFX said:
This is my Jeep. Autopilot allows you greater distance then DJI GO app

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Thanks! I'll have to try out autopilot. By the way nice video. I wish I had a place around here like that! Looks like you were having fun in your jeep!

dewster · Jun 1, 2017

I flew just under a mile using Active Track. There was considerable space between trees on opposite sides of the road. I still flew above the average height of trees on the roadway.

https://instagram.com/p/BTAsaDGljju/

Oyibo VFX · Jun 1, 2017

Rodcast said:
Thanks. I unfortunately learned the hard way. I can understand the first crash as the branch was small and thin but the second crash was into a much larger tree. It's hard to tell on the video as I sped it up but the drone kept drifting to the right directly into the tree. I went ahead and shipped it in as I recently had been experiencing issues with the obstacle avoidance sensors. For example, I would be flying in the clear wide open area and the obstacle avoidance would come on and the drone would just stop and the gimbal would begin moving wildly on its own.

I think your biggest "mistake" is your speed. Also the distance between the Mavic and the car seems too big. Then the Mavic loses track and start "searching". And of course if you go into sport mode, no CA...

beach_Dr · Jun 1, 2017

Where was your controller during the flight? Anything that could have touched the sticks? Bumping around against seats in the car? Stick input could have made mavic try to pan left or right around subject. Also, as above post, your subject changes size quickly as you accelerate, could confuse its computer brain.

I would have stopped after the first crash...