Loss of Connectivity and control upon follow mode activation

[Gonçalo]

Dear all,

Yesterday while flying on a beach i almost crashed the Mavic upon activation of follow me mode. The sequence of events was the following:

0) deactivated landing protection for future hand catch.

1) initiated flight in normal mode and flew for a couple of meters and returned to close by position without landing.

2) toggled from normal mode into follow me mode and walked for aprox. 30 meters with drone following me along the beach.

3) corrected drone altitude and suddenly DJI go app became “locked” : not disconnected however impossible to exit follow me mode.

4) attempt to land ( descend was responding) and hand catch but once i grab the drone it throttles to 100% and creating a dangerous situation. I continued to try to exit follow me mode but without success.

5) finally i had to let go of the Mavic and it initiated a RTH and almost crashing into palm tree. Rapidly i disconnected remote and closed app and reconnected and at last moment before collision i regained control.

Also during the same day afterwards:
During 2 flights i lost image however HD signal in the app was looking fine at full strength even without any image!

Any ideas of what must have happened?
Thanks in advance guys!

 

[MadValley]

What device is DJI GO 4 running on?

 

[Dragonfly]

First, follow me mode uses the GPS signal from your phone/device which is sent to the Mavic to follow. In some ways it is a good mode as it does not rely on visual with drone as in track mode and can be better around obstacles.

The down fall is if your device locks or app crashes then no GPS update for Mavic to follow. You must also have a good GPS lock on your device. (of course follow mode only works if your device had a built in GPS and its turned on)

2. As soon as your app locked/crashed you should switch the switch on right side off controller to Sports Mode, this will instantly disengage all engaged actions you have initiated and give you back full control of Mavic, which you could now just fly and land as normal.

3. Next time you hand catch Mavic while landing protection is switched ON, which will cause it to try and rise or pull away from you. 2 things you can do, 1 is just hold down off throttle and it will shut down or 2 even quicker in this situation is just rotate Mavic 90°on its side and it will shut down instantly.

For future reference go into settings and turn off landing protection, it is not needed and causes more problems than its worth. Once off you can hand catch with no problem or land without it hovering and waiting for you to say yes.

 

[Gonçalo]

What device is DJI GO 4 running on?

Iphone SE with version iOS 11.1.1

 

[Gonçalo]

First, follow me mode uses the GPS signal from your phone/device which is sent to the Mavic to follow. In some ways it is a good mode as it does not rely on visual with drone as in track mode and can be better around obstacles.

The down fall is if your device locks or app crashes then no GPS update for Mavic to follow. You must also have a good GPS lock on your device. (of course follow mode only works if your device had a built in GPS and its turned on)

2. As soon as your app locked/crashed you should switch the switch on right side off controller to Sports Mode, this will instantly disengage all engaged actions you have initiated and give you back full control of Mavic, which you could now just fly and land as normal.

3. Next time you hand catch Mavic while landing protection is switched ON, which will cause it to try and rise or pull away from you. 2 things you can do, 1 is just hold down off throttle and it will shut down or 2 even quicker in this situation is just rotate Mavic 90°on its side and it will shut down instantly.

For future reference go into settings and turn off landing protection, it is not needed and causes more problems than its worth. Once off you can hand catch with no problem or land without it hovering and waiting for you to say yes.

Hi Dragonfly

Thanks for your prompt reply and help.
Please find my replies to each of your comments:

1) GPS was activated. Follow mode was behaving as expected however since i had no image i wanted to exit the follow me mode and return to normal. Commands for direction and to descend responded reason why i managed to bring the drone to my hand.

2) The app didn’t crash but it did not respond (locked not responding for exiting mode and without image transmission).
I wasn’t aware i could use the Sports Mode switch to toggle of the follow me mode. Does this work with other modes whenever i wish to return to normal?
If i well understood i shall activate it like entering sports mode, is this correct?

3) My landing protection is always off i normally use hand catch however prior to the take off i ensured it was off as well as recorded RTH.

Frankly i don’t use follow me mode just tripod and cinematic modes. I have been told that this mode is not reliable and now i have experienced it.

Perhaps there might be an issue with DJI Go 4 app in combination with iOS version.
A few weeks ago app was constantly crashing due to a wrong date synchronization between the Dji app and iOS at the time I managed to go around this issue by changing to a date prior to 2nd of December. Meanwhile i dont have this time synchro issue anymore perhaps due to app or iOS update.

Thanks again for your comments

 

[dbyantis]

Dear all,

Yesterday while flying on a beach i almost crashed the Mavic upon activation of follow me mode. The sequence of events was the following:

0) deactivated landing protection for future hand catch.

1) initiated flight in normal mode and flew for a couple of meters and returned to close by position without landing.

2) toggled from normal mode into follow me mode and walked for aprox. 30 meters with drone following me along the beach.

3) corrected drone altitude and suddenly DJI go app became “locked” : not disconnected however impossible to exit follow me mode.

4) attempt to land ( descend was responding) and hand catch but once i grab the drone it throttles to 100% and creating a dangerous situation. I continued to try to exit follow me mode but without success.

5) finally i had to let go of the Mavic and it initiated a RTH and almost crashing into palm tree. Rapidly i disconnected remote and closed app and reconnected and at last moment before collision i regained control.

Also during the same day afterwards:
During 2 flights i lost image however HD signal in the app was looking fine at full strength even without any image!

Any ideas of what must have happened?
Thanks in advance guys!

If you have a running Mavic in your hand you can rotate it 90 degrees to shut off the motors.

 

[Gonçalo]

If you have a running Mavic in your hand you can rotate it 90 degrees to shut off the motors.

Thanks i didnt know that. Normally motors shutdown when i reduce throttle since landing protection is deactivated.
However this is a good thing to know!

 

[dbyantis]

Thanks i didnt know that. Normally motors shutdown when i reduce throttle since landing protection is deactivated.
However this is a good thing to know!

I normally will turn off the motors the the throttle, but in an emergency hand landing, might help.

 

[MadValley]

Iphone SE with version iOS 11.1.1

There have been other threads talking about stability improvements with iOS 11.1.2.

 

[Gonçalo]

There have been other threads talking about stability improvements with iOS 11.1.2.

Just updated to iOS 11.2.1 and lets see how the Mavic performs on the next flights.