Lost Connection Results in Destruction of Brand New Mavic Air/1st Flight

sanityassassin · Sep 7, 2018

Here's the first log...welcome others to look at it in detail but it looks like it jives with what I said above...she armed and hovered right in front of her a few inches off the ground before landing...had no issues. Landed to save battery and ask me a question about camera settings. Then I took off for real as shown in the logs uploaded earlier.

Those are ALL of the .txt logs from this aircraft...there are no more @sar104

Bigbird48 · Sep 8, 2018

See video in post #16 my point is how did clipping a branch on the way down cause your drone to fall and completely destroy it ? As you see in this video mine crashed at least 5 or 6 times into the branches, righted itself each time and I was finally able to regain control and land it. put new props on and was good to go.I also crashed into a tree one time were it landed in the tree and it was fine when I retrieved it.

sanityassassin · Sep 8, 2018

Bigbird48 said:
See video in post #16 my point is how did clipping a branch on the way down cause your drone to fall and completely destroy it ? As you see in this video mine crashed at least 5 or 6 times into the branches, righted itself each time and I was finally able to regain control and land it. put new props on and was good to go.I also crashed into a tree one time were it landed in the tree and it was fine when I retrieved it.

sanityassassin · Sep 8, 2018

Gravity vs. plastic. Gravity won.

Astom22 · Sep 8, 2018

sanityassassin said:
Gravity vs. plastic. Gravity won.

Was your battery dislodged in the tree collision? Seems odd that it just dropped, if it still had power.

Bigbird48 · Sep 8, 2018

that was my point also it wouldn't just drop it would try to right itself and continue flying. I'd like to see a picture of this destroyed copter

Astom22 said:
Was your battery dislodged in the tree collision? Seems odd that it just dropped, if it still had power.

sanityassassin · Sep 8, 2018

Astom22 said:
Was your battery dislodged in the tree collision? Seems odd that it just dropped, if it still had power.

The issue was the loss of connection and inability to regain control... Not what happened afterward (not sure why so many want to concentrate on that). Since I had no connection, the logs from app can't tell me exactly what happened at that point. I can surmise one of two things: motor overload and shutdown (one prop was hitting the branch), or it slowed down enough to think it landed and shut down the motors. End result is the same--it fell 100 feet into pieces.

Again, not questioning the RTH which worked as advertised... The issue was the loss of signal and zero control with the sticks at 90 ft distance.

sanityassassin · Sep 8, 2018

Bigbird48 said:
that was my point also it wouldn't just drop it would try to right itself and continue flying. I'd like to see a picture of this destroyed copter

You know what? Forget it. I came in here to report an issue and seek input from others who may have seen a similar problem (I've seen several similar reports myself) and maybe start a dialogue as to why these incidents seem to be occuring.

Instead, all I've gotten is a bunch of flak and thinly veiled accusations of me not being truthful as to what occurred. Not sure if this the result of fanboyism or something more nefarious. Regardless, the unit is on the way to DJI, I have DJI Care and insurance (so I have no reason to lie), and unless someone wishes to discuss the actual issue that occurred (rather than throw shade), I'm done.

Astom22 · Sep 8, 2018

sanityassassin said:
You know what? Forget it. I came in here to report an issue and seek input from others who may have seen a similar problem (I've seen several similar reports myself) and maybe start a dialogue as to why these incidents seem to be occuring.

Instead, all I've gotten is a bunch of flak and thinly veiled accusations of me not being truthful as to what occurred. Not sure if this the result of fanboyism or something more nefarious. Regardless, the unit is on the way to DJI, I have DJI Care and insurance (so I have no reason to lie), and unless someone wishes to discuss the actual issue that occurred (rather than throw shade), I'm done.

I was just seeking more info, no accusations implied or otherwise. I have flown drones, both dji and homemade fpv racing drones and seeking more info.

A motor shouldn't overload from contacting a limb and shut off. If the battery dislodged, it could explain the "dropping out of the sky" part. A functioning drone shouldn't just shut down and drop like that, even after contact with an obstacle.

I'm just an outside observer, but no one is attacking or doubting you, just seeking more info to try to figure out what happened.

sanityassassin · Sep 8, 2018

Astom22 said:
I was just seeking more info, no accusations implied or otherwise. I have flown drones, both dji and homemade fpv racing drones and seeking more info.

A motor shouldn't overload from contacting a limb and shut off. If the battery dislodged, it could explain the "dropping out of the sky" part. A functioning drone shouldn't just shut down and drop like that, even after contact with an obstacle.

I'm just an outside observer, but no one is attacking or doubting you, just seeking more info to try to figure out what happened.

The unit was still powered but props were not running when it hit the ground.. It stopped flying when it contacted the tree. I've seen motor overloads occur before when someone hit an obstacle with other units so as far as know that's still a thing.

As far as the accusation thing... The whole "show me a picture" is what I was referring to. I actually didn't take a picture of the unit before I boxed it up, but it's not too hard to imagine what a couple of broken arms look like, yes?

And again it's not the aftermath of the RTH that concerns me... It's the whole losing signal in a non RF rich environment, within speaking distance of the drone, antennas properly facing the drone, and inability to regain control.

Astom22 · Sep 8, 2018

sanityassassin said:
The unit was still powered but props were not running when it hit the ground.. It stopped flying when it contacted the tree. I've seen motor overloads occur before when someone hit an obstacle with other units so as far as know that's still a thing.

As far as the accusation thing... The whole "show me a picture" is what I was referring to. I actually didn't take a picture of the unit before I boxed it up, but it's not too hard to imagine what a couple of broken arms look like, yes?

And again it's not the aftermath of the RTH that concerns me... It's the whole losing signal in a non RF rich environment, within speaking distance of the drone, antennas properly facing the drone, and inability to regain control.

It is strange, I have had mine drop a couple of times while flying in areas where there should have been zero interference. I had one really mysterious one on the family farm, so I can understand the mystery drops. It was on one of my very first flights, haven't had it since (knock on wood).

Be patient, lots of great guys here, and lots of help. We all have the same goal, making sure our drones are as good as possible.

Hopefully dji gets you fixed up asap.

sanityassassin · Sep 8, 2018

Astom22 said:
It is strange, I have had mine drop a couple of times while flying in areas where there should have been zero interference. I had one really mysterious one on the family farm, so I can understand the mystery drops. It was on one of my very first flights, haven't had it since (knock on wood).

Be patient, lots of great guys here, and lots of help. We all have the same goal, making sure our drones are as good as possible.

Hopefully dji gets you fixed up asap.

Me too!

EyeFlightDrone · Sep 17, 2018

I suspect the battery over heated which caused massive failure. Sorry for the loss.

sanityassassin · Sep 17, 2018

EyeFlightDrone said:
I suspect the battery over heated which caused massive failure. Sorry for the loss.

Got word today that DJI will be repairing the unit under warranty. No explanation of failure given at this time (trying to get more details). I don't have much faith in receiving the same unit back with just repaired arms and not addressing the issue that caused the problem. I've asked what information was in the .dat files in the unit. I hope they give me something.

sanityassassin · Sep 18, 2018

sanityassassin said:
Got word today that DJI will be repairing the unit under warranty. No explanation of failure given at this time (trying to get more details). I don't have much faith in receiving the same unit back with just repaired arms and not addressing the issue that caused the problem. I've asked what information was in the .dat files in the unit. I hope they give me something.

Response I got back:

Brian Dale Upon checking the case log, we do not find any pilot error, so it proceeds as a warranty case. The designated team will do a fully flight test after repaired, no worries. Hope we can figure it out soon.

sanityassassin · Sep 18, 2018

Got shipment info today... Based on serial numbers the units they are sending me are a week or two newer than my brand new unit that crashed... So likely new... Build date 22 July for the drone and 7 July for the controller.

ac0j · Sep 18, 2018

Good news!

sanityassassin · Sep 23, 2018

ac0j said:
Good news!

Indeed. I put the new unit through the paces today and even mistreated it by disconnecting the cable, mispositioning the antenna, etc... All so I could gain some faith in this model. It worked flawlessly.