Lost at Sea :( Please Help3

[Cylan]

Hi All, so I've been flying drones since the DJI Phantom 3 came out.

I'm in the USCG, and was flying off the back of the flight deck. Before I got underway I updated all the firmware, because I understood I'd be restricted if I didn't. I did not do a test flight after the update. I updated, and packed it up.

Today I went to go fly it off the flight deck. It flew into the air, and would not fly forward.
I was at 98ft, and it told me I was at max altitude. I tried moving forward, and it would not respond. I started to panic.
The ship is moving, and I have no control over the ships movements. So its getting further and further away.
I restart the app, restart the controller. Everything reconnects.

It starts flying at 2-3mph, and then goes down to a hover, it will fly lower, but no higher than 163 ft. I've made sure my settings are at 500m in the app, everything is good to go.

Every now and then it will fly up to 7-8mph, but then die down to a hover and will not respond.

I try flying it backwards to me, it flies up to 22mph, but then dies down to a hover and will not respond.

The app is telling me that the drone is like 163ft away from me the entire time, in reality its about 2miles away at this time. Battery is continuing to drain. I start to accept the fact I'm going to lose the drone. I restart the app again, and controller. Everything reconnects.

I try pushing it into sport mode, and out of sport mode. nothing. No speed increase.

Long story short, my drone is gone.

I'm at a loss, I'm underway right now, so pushing a log file to you guys will be hard right now, but I can once I get to a port or something. Since I don't have the drone, or dji refresh.
is this something that DJI will maybe look at and possibly cover for me?

I've never seen the drone just not respond to me.

Please help if you have any idea as to what happened.

thanks

 

[Mavic Dude]

So sorry I can't help
Looks like the only you'll get answers is when you can upload flight logs.
God bless you and your family for your service

 

[RavenTBK]

Based on the description alone, this looks like pilot error.

First, new firmware and an untedted critical flight don't go together. Big no no. Doing so is what caused the incident from the getgo.

Next, switching your home point to the controller would've suddenly "made you closer" and likely able to move again since you can't stop the boat. The bird can't tell you are moving away, it only remembers where it took off from and where it is now.

The sudden limit on flight is a result of the new firmware, and needing to re-log-in to your DJI account on your mobile device, which has been covered ad nauseum recently. Being at sea, I get why a login would fail.

And actually, no you wouldn't have been restricted if you didn't upgrade. Things would continue as normal from a firmware perspective. Only question is if you were running the latest Go4, and that has been demanding an update....not of firmware but of the app itself.

Sorry for your loss...but dang. So much was wrong all at the same time here.

 

[msinger]

Check out your TXT flight log to see if it explains what happened. You can upload and view it online here. If you'd like other people to review and comment on your flight log, then please post a link back here after you upload it.

 

[Cylan]

Thank you for this. I will not be able to post this until I get a stable internet connection unfortunately. I hope that will not hurt my chances with DJI?

Check out your TXT flight log to see if it explains what happened. You can upload and view it online here. If you'd like other people to review and comment on your flight log, then please post a link back here after you upload it.[/QUOUTE]

 

[msinger]

I hope that will not hurt my chances with DJI?

DJI will likely not cover anything without at least seeing the TXT flight log.

 

[Cylan]

Right but it may be a considerable amount of time before I can send them the file. Have you ever heard of someone getting their mavic replaced without sending in the drone? If the TXT file shows it was their fault?

Do I have to have an internet connection to get the TXT File?

 

[msinger]

Have you ever heard of someone getting their mavic replaced without sending in the drone? If the TXT file shows it was their fault?

Yes. If the fault cannot be determined, they will likely either not cover it or take something like 30% off the cost of a replacement.

Do I have to have an internet connection to get the TXT File?

No. Follow my instructions here.

 

[Cylan]

So I've been looking at the forums, it looks like the problem the people in this post had DJI max distance
happened to me. Except I was unable to do anything about it, because I was on a moving ship. Therefore the drone got lost.

Again, once I get the TXT file uploaded, i'll share it.

 

[maviccoder]

Thank you for your service. If it is pilot error as suggested by one prior poster is the cause then I'll just say it's a mistake I could see myself making. I do not think it was ethical of DJI to suddenly restrict existing drones until logged in partly due to edge cases like this which will happen. Good luck sailor, I hope the logs help put some blame of DJI.

 

[Bunny Too]

So I've been looking at the forums, it looks like the problem the people in this post had DJI max distance
happened to me. Except I was unable to do anything about it, because I was on a moving ship. Therefore the drone got lost.

Again, once I get the TXT file uploaded, i'll share it.

Exceeding max distance should give you a fault code, have you launched it off the back of the ship before?

 

[Cylan]

I have launched it off the boat before with no problems.

This is what I'm thinking what happened. The firmware update restricted the drone in a "bubble" sotospeak, which is why the drone would not more forward, because I (on the ship) was moving away from it.
It would go backward, but then go back into a hover again and not move (Because of the bubble restriction) - I believe.
My settings were at max, the drone would go lower, and higher up to a max alt of like 163 if I recall. it would go forward, then slow down to a crawl and eventually into a hover and not respond to my commands. I believe because of the restrictions set forth in the firmware update.

Call me crazy, But I'm thinking this is what happened.

 

[Bunny Too]

I have launched it off the boat before with no problems.

This is what I'm thinking what happened. The firmware update restricted the drone in a "bubble" sotospeak, which is why the drone would not more forward, because I (on the ship) was moving away from it.
It would go backward, but then go back into a hover again and not move (Because of the bubble restriction) - I believe.
My settings were at max, the drone would go lower, and higher up to a max alt of like 163 if I recall. it would go forward, then slow down to a crawl and eventually into a hover and not respond to my commands. I believe because of the restrictions set forth in the firmware update.

Call me crazy, But I'm thinking this is what happened.

You make a valid point.

 

[AlanTheBeast]

As others point out it appears the "logged in to DJI" requirement is most likely what got your bird. Not sure how that can work at sea and the presumably rationed bandwidth you're allowed or have access to. Had you done a test flight to be sure all was well before embarking it should have worked out far better.

I can't believe there has to be a live connection to DJI all of the time - that would kill all sorts of drone use in remote areas.

Sorry for you loss - a small thing can cause accidents quickly ... I'd write to DJI and demand they replace the drone due to "unintended consequences" of the changes. Probably won't get you relief - but it might start to sink in on them that they are not thinking through their changes very well.

 

[danman999]

As a former Coastie myself (TRACEN Cape May, Morgenthau WHEC-722 Alameda) thank you for your service. Also, I am jealous. Some of the best moments of my life were spent underway on the bridge, standing watch. If I could go back and do it again, I would in a heartbeat.
Sorry for your loss. Most of the people on this board are great, and will help you as much as they can. However, I don't think you will get much sympathy from DJI.

 

[Cylan]

As others point out it appears the "logged in to DJI" requirement is most likely what got your bird. Not sure how that can work at sea and the presumably rationed bandwidth you're allowed or have access to. Had you done a test flight to be sure all was well before embarking it should have worked out far better.

I can't believe there has to be a live connection to DJI all of the time - that would kill all sorts of drone use in remote areas.

Sorry for you loss - a small thing can cause accidents quickly ... I'd write to DJI and demand they replace the drone due to "unintended consequences" of the changes. Probably won't get you relief - but it might start to sink in on them that they are not thinking through their changes very well.

Thank you for the support. I will definitely be writing to them, and seeing what they can do. I feel better knowing its not my fault, or at least that it was out of my hands. Because I was out in the middle of the ocean, I had no popup telling me to update or anything like that, so I thought I was good to go.. Very sad day for me, but maybe DJI will make me whole.

Thanks guys! I feel somewhat better now.

 

[mkp2020]

Does anyone know if you power up the Mavic and are not logged in, do you get a warning message telling you about the restrictions?

 

[dwallersv]

I have launched it off the boat before with no problems.

This is what I'm thinking what happened. The firmware update restricted the drone in a "bubble" sotospeak, which is why the drone would not more forward, because I (on the ship) was moving away from it.
It would go backward, but then go back into a hover again and not move (Because of the bubble restriction) - I believe.
My settings were at max, the drone would go lower, and higher up to a max alt of like 163 if I recall. it would go forward, then slow down to a crawl and eventually into a hover and not respond to my commands. I believe because of the restrictions set forth in the firmware update.

Call me crazy, But I'm thinking this is what happened.

I'm sure this is what happened. The numbers you cite are exactly what the new firmware limits you to until you've satisfied the new connection requirements (30m height, 50m distance). This is a cylinder around the Home Point.

Combined with your moving platform, as soon as you had moved more than 50m from the launch point you were completely hosed.

Lesson of the story: Do not launch off a moving platform over water you do not have control over. There are plenty of other lessons here, some covered by others, but this is the single most important one.

 

[Cylan]

I'm sure this is what happened. The numbers you cite are exactly what the new firmware limits you to until you've satisfied the new connection requirements (30m height, 50m distance). This is a cylinder around the Home Point.

Combined with your moving platform, as soon as you had moved more than 50m from the launch point you were completely hosed.

Lesson of the story: Do not launch off a moving platform over water you do not have control over. There are plenty of other lessons here, some covered by others, but this is the single most important one.

I've done it before, and haven't had issues. Had this update pushed by DJI not been in place things would have gone a lot differently. This is one of the reasons I bought the drone, morale reasons underway. Having this thing literally stripped away from me in horror, because of an update DJI Pushed is unacceptable in my eyes. Before I deployed, I updated the firmware, as I always do to stay current underway. I believe and hope that DJI will understand my point of view, and replace my device because of this firmware update that was out of my control.

 

[mark_t]

Two ways to explain what happened.

Either you updated firmware on controller and aircraft but did not update the app to a recent version, or you failed to log into the app at some point before your flight while you had an internet connection.

Either will cause what you saw, and both were explained in the firmware update notes and and on-screen pop-ups.

I suspect the best DJI will offer is a discount voucher against the purchase of a replacement aircraft.

First flight after updates should never be from the back of a moving ship, but I'm sure you won't do that again...