DJI Mavic, Air and Mini Drones
Friendly, Helpful & Knowledgeable Community
Join Us Now

Lost MA2, questions for the pros here

merg

Member
Joined
Oct 8, 2020
Messages
8
Reactions
4
Age
43
Location
usa
So ive been flying alot with MA2 in various conditions since release. Tight spaces and in many diff environments. Second drone though did not fly as much as the MA2... sad I lost it today

moving on... some questions for the pros to learn expensive lesson...

1) i was flying from a cliffside overlooking a river that becomes a tight gorge. I flew lower than where I was (-10m or so) and there was no way to get to the bottom in that area, but i had line of sight to the drone. gps signal weak and dji fly would not let me gain altitude but i could go backward and fwd. i tried for a few minutes to move around or gain altitude in tripod mode, normal mode, and then sport mode. I gave it a good while of trying but pretty sure was not allowed to gain altitude. again i am looking diagonally down and out to the drone, but it does become a bit hard to see and in sport mode i eventually lost track of it forgot it was on sport and some minor moves led to me hearing my props crunch somewhere below me unseen. I know unrecommended things done here like flying over water but again as an expensive lesson learnt, can i confirm this is how dji fly will operate? Ie that if weak gps and the drone is at -10m altitude it will not be allowed to gain altitude despite line of sight?? I was already concerned when i started trying to come back at an up and back angle from where i went down into the valley/gorge and had straight direct view of it.

2) are flight logs stored on drone and recoverable if drone crashed and lost in water? Or generally where are they stored other than dji app for privacy purposes? Ie in case someone finds it is it easy to see get all the flight data? There may have been a questionable altitude in my recent flight histories...

3) any views on getting another ma2 body now as a replacement? I have all the batteries from the fly more pack... loved flying the thing and plan to fly more in coming months. Have a MA1 as well but not the same...

thanks
 
1) can i confirm this is how dji fly will operate? Ie that if weak gps and the drone is at -10m altitude it will not be allowed to gain altitude
It's not DJI Fly .. it's the drone.
p43 in the manual explains the issue you encountered:
Height is restricted to 16 ft (5 m) when the GPS signal is weak and Downward Vision System is activated.
Height is restricted to 98 ft (30 m) when the GPS signal is weak and Downward Vision System is inactivated.
 
It's not DJI Fly .. it's the drone.
p43 in the manual explains the issue you encountered:
Height is restricted to 16 ft (5 m) when the GPS signal is weak and Downward Vision System is activated.
Height is restricted to 98 ft (30 m) when the GPS signal is weak and Downward Vision System is inactivated.

My understanding is that the height is relative to the take off point. It should be possible to bring the drone at least back to the altitude of the takeoff.
 
  • Like
Reactions: dawgpilot
It's not DJI Fly .. it's the drone.
p43 in the manual explains the issue you encountered:
Height is restricted to 16 ft (5 m) when the GPS signal is weak and Downward Vision System is activated.
Height is restricted to 98 ft (30 m) when the GPS signal is weak and Downward Vision System is inactivated.
But I agree should be an option to disactivate that restriction for cases like his case.
I can see that happening and easily to be avoided. When i take off from my apartment, I need to wait to get GPS signal before I am able to gain altitude.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Thomas B
... i was flying from a cliffside overlooking a river that becomes a tight gorge. I flew lower than where I was (-10m or so) and there was no way to get to the bottom in that area, but i had line of sight to the drone. gps signal weak and dji fly would not let me gain altitude....

I would suggest you to post the .DAT and .TXT flight log files in the phone by following the instruction given in the (only) sticky thread of this sub-forum. May be more insight can be obtained.
 
  • Like
Reactions: dawgpilot
WELCOME to the forum.

Sorry to hear about your "lesson" but hopefully others can learn from is as well.

It sounds like you "went down the rabbit hole" and unknowingly caused the demise of your MA2.

As Meta4 stated above the weak GPS signal is most likely the reason for the "limitations".

I don't have experience with DJI Fly so I'll leave those questions to other members who do have that experience.

Allen
 
  • Like
Reactions: hiflyer201
Sorry I'm a bit confused, when you say GPS signal weak, do you mean that you flew despite a lack of available satellites?

Most likely flying DOWN into the cliff/canyon caused fewer satellites to be available after the initial laugh of the aircraft.
 
My understanding is that the height is relative to the take off point. It should be possible to bring the drone at least back to the altitude of the takeoff.
It's the 3rd time I've encountered this.
If the OP posts his flight data, you'll see that without GPS, if the VPS detects something below the drone, that becomes the new zero height and the drone can only rise 5 metres above that.
This programming is odd and could have been done much better.
It's an unnecessary trap which DJI should have forseen and prevented.
 
It's the 3rd time I've encountered this.
If the OP posts his flight data, you'll see that without GPS, if the VPS detects something below the drone, that becomes the new zero height and the drone can only rise 5 metres above that.
This programming is odd and could have been done much better.
It's an unnecessary trap which DJI should have forseen and prevented.


I totally agree. IRRC this has also been an issue if the UAS is descending and "sees" fog/moisture under it. It determines that it has detected Terra Firma and will create a new ground ZERO and NOT allow ascent or descent.

Sloppy programming and something I would have thought they would have resolved by now. Maybe whatever the original intention is for this portion of the programming is more worthy than the problems it's causing.
 
It's the 3rd time I've encountered this.
If the OP posts his flight data, you'll see that without GPS, if the VPS detects something below the drone, that becomes the new zero height and the drone can only rise 5 metres above that.
This programming is odd and could have been done much better.
It's an unnecessary trap which DJI should have forseen and prevented.

I see....

When the M1P was just out, it has the strange behavior of automatically descending to a few meters above the ground if the drone was flown to the outside from the balcony ( no GPS to start with ). DJI has subsequently modified the firmware so that the drone will just hover but still it cannot ascend until GPS is acquired.

I have expected that such stupid restriction is totally removed from new drones like the Air 2 but apparently it's not.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Scubadiver1944
So, you’re hoping to recover it or is the area inaccessible? Once you post the flight logs and get a better idea of the location, you should attempt to recover it. Don’t give up. Make the effort.

Were you Recording video at the time of crash? Another thing I learned the hard way... always have the video recording when flying as it provides visuals for the crash for recovery. I’ve gotten lucky with a few crashes I thought unlikely to find.

Flying low altitudes with a lot of obstructions from trees and landforms is always risky. I also like to fly mountainous areas with trees, rivers, streams and varied topography. As soon as I see the slightest glitch on my display, I increase altitude. You don’t have much control in how a drone will respond in a RTH.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Roy1957
I have expected that such stupid restriction is totally removed from new drones like the Air 2 but apparently it's not.
My guess is that the intention is to put limits on how high you can fly if you launch without GPS.
But having the VPS reset the zero height is an unintended bit of sloppy programming since there's no real reason for it.
With a Phantom this isn't a big an issue (if the flyer is aware of the atti.vps height limit) as the flyer can deactivate the VPS and have a greater max altitude limit of 50 metres.
But with the more recent Mavics, it's not possible to switch off the VPS and you are stuck with a 5 metre limit.
Once you post the flight logs and get a better idea of the location ....
As lack of GPS was the issue, that might not work out.
 
  • Like
Reactions: hiflyer201
So, you’re hoping to recover it or is the area inaccessible? Once you post the flight logs and get a better idea of the location, you should attempt to recover it. Don’t give up. Make the effort.

Were you Recording video at the time of crash? Another thing I learned the hard way... always have the video recording when flying as it provides visuals for the crash for recovery. I’ve gotten lucky with a few crashes I thought unlikely to find.

Flying low altitudes with a lot of obstructions from trees and landforms is always risky. I also like to fly mountainous areas with trees, rivers, streams and varied topography. As soon as I see the slightest glitch on my display, I increase altitude. You don’t have much control in how a drone will respond in a RTH.
I think the environment is something like this :

View attachment 114656
I think the environment is something like this :

View attachment 114656


so many replies! Thanks!

yes similar but much tighter and not as high and im essentially flying diagonally down into a an area that also has a bit of overhang. It wasnt much bigger than a slot canyon

to other repliers... i wrote it off already and not going back. i knew it was risky and still went for it assuming im staring straight at it it would come back, seems the iffy programming logic of resetting altitude is indeed the case given the replies seen here. Id been getting hubris flying through trees and hallways and other enclosed areas so thought that if im staring straight at it id have no issues but this lesson is learnt now.

ive crashed and recovered my air 1 a few times already but not an error like this, biggest regret is not using the 1 instead knowing this was a riskier flight... too lazy/forgot to charge
 
  • Like
Reactions: hiflyer201
I think the environment is something like this :

View attachment 114656
May as well post image here. I flew out and gradually lower, the drone is actually in this shot tho not visible it was hovering over the waterfalls. Roughly 10m down. I kept backing up and out the way i came but it didnt move up and this is the error that puzzled me and is explained by the replies here about the altitude resetting to moisture or water.


467D1B58-4D8D-4296-935A-FE9D61E92DBB.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: Roy1957
merg, that looks like inaccessible unless you have a death wish...you have our sympathies. And thanks for sharing this, I have not considered this scenario, and I'd easily have flown the same flight as you and sent my MA2 into the gorge.
Me too!!! I set this thread to watch and I'm glad I did.
 
May as well post image here. I flew out and gradually lower, the drone is actually in this shot tho not visible it was hovering over the waterfalls. Roughly 10m down. I kept backing up and out the way i came but it didnt move up and this is the error that puzzled me and is explained by the replies here about the altitude resetting to moisture or water.


View attachment 114657

Sorry to hear.

Did the number of satellites decrease after takeoff

Please post the logs for us to see what happened?

Also for the experts...can the VPS not be turned off whilst in flight to cancel that height limitation or to force ATTI mode ?
 
Lycus Tech Mavic Air 3 Case

DJI Drone Deals

New Threads

Forum statistics

Threads
130,600
Messages
1,554,281
Members
159,607
Latest member
Schmidteh121