Lost Mavic Mini & How to retrieve it

le_wib · Feb 9, 2020

While travelling to Colombia, I thought it was a great idea to take photos of the city by night, with my Mavic Mini. It didn't turned out so well. The drone failed to return and landed in the middle of nowhere, in a complete dark jungle. Finding where and how wasn't a easy task.

I believe I got distracted with the task to take pictures, and I didn't paid attention to the battery levels. But my first mistake was to rise up too high, consuming a significant part of the energy.

Link to the Airdata flight log if you're interested to take a look : https://app.airdata.com/share/okNImF

Oh yes, I'm french, sorry with my accent

slup · Feb 9, 2020

No, this hadn't anything to do with battery or your focus on taking pictures unfortunately.

Yet another example of an uncommanded descent ... this flight was filled with "notEnoughForce" messages & the winds were weak.

You had a lot of downsignal problems & just before one of them triggered the failsafe RTH your Mini had started to descent without your command. Again the decent starts with a pitch instability & the heading speed goes down as the Mini don't regain the proper negative pitch angle. After that you lose connection followed by RTH but the descent continues with the same crappy pitch angle not creating enough forward thrust.Then at 750sec the pitch angle goes more negative & heading speed picks up for a short while until it fails again at 779sec & you lose connection again.

We haven't been able to explain this behavior so far ...

If you attach the mobile device DAT log here in a new post we perhaps can drill down a bit further, here how to retrieve it (under point 3) --> Flight log retrieval and analysis guide the one related to this flight have FLY039.DAT in the end.

le_wib · Feb 9, 2020

slup said:
No, this hadn't anything to do with battery or your focus on taking pictures unfortunately.

Yet another example of an uncommanded descent ... this flight was filled with "notEnoughForce" messages & the winds were weak.

You had a lot of downsignal problems & just before one of them triggered the failsafe RTH your Mini had started to descent without your command. Again the decent starts with a pitch instability & the heading speed goes down as the Mini don't regain the proper negative pitch angle. After that you lose connection followed by RTH but the descent continues with the same crappy pitch angle not creating enough forward thrust.Then at 750sec the pitch angle goes more negative & heading speed picks up for a short while until it fails again at 779sec & you lose connection again.

We haven't been able to explain this behavior so far ...

If you attach the mobile device DAT log here in a new post we perhaps can drill down a bit further, here how to retrieve it (under point 3) --> Flight log retrieval and analysis guide the one related to this flight have FLY039.DAT in the end.

View attachment 93526

oh very interesting I will check this right away, and provide you the file link.

cybervet · Feb 9, 2020

I can see in the airdata mode changes from p-gps to sport like 100 times in split seconds , this can't be correct, is it?

grahamjohnson10 · Feb 9, 2020

Seems to start its uncontrolled steady descent just after the smart battery enters return to home state.

Please upload the .DAT file.

Microsoft OneDrive

1drv.ms

sar104 · Feb 9, 2020

Not sure about dark jungle - that looks like a city park with a pond. It's probably in the water though.

0.0 0.0 IN FLIGHT0
0.0 0.2 2.7 /HOMEPOINT UPDATED. CHECK NEW HOMEPOINT LOCATION!
5.7 32.8 AIRCRAFT MAX POWER LOAD REACHED. DECREASE ALTITUDE AND FLY WITH CAUTION. IF THIS ISSUE PERSISTS, LAND IMMEDIATELY (CODE: 30168)
32.8 (MAX POWER LOAD REACHED. FLY WITH CAUTION
68.0 68.0 IN FLIGHT0
82.5 AIRCRAFT MAX POWER LOAD REACHED. DECREASE ALTITUDE AND FLY WITH CAUTION. IF THIS ISSUE PERSISTS, LAND IMMEDIATELY (CODE: 30168)
82.5 (MAX POWER LOAD REACHED. FLY WITH CAUTION
86.5 86.5 IN FLIGHT0
90.3 IAIRCRAFT IN HIGH INTERFERENCE ENVIRONMENT. FLY WITH CAUTION (CODE: 80015)
90.3 AIRCRAFT SIGNAL INTERFERENCE
93.3 93.3 IN FLIGHT0
146.4 AIRCRAFT MAX POWER LOAD REACHED. DECREASE ALTITUDE AND FLY WITH CAUTION. IF THIS ISSUE PERSISTS, LAND IMMEDIATELY (CODE: 30168)
146.4 (MAX POWER LOAD REACHED. FLY WITH CAUTION
148.4 148.4 IN FLIGHT0

le_wib · Feb 9, 2020

grahamjohnson10 said:
Seems to start its uncontrolled steady descent just after the smart battery enters return to home state.

Please upload the .DAT file.

unfortunately the file have been since synch to the DJI servers, on my phone the folder is empty.

sar104 said:
Not sure about dark jungle - that looks like a city park with a pond. It's probably in the water though.

View attachment 93538

YEs it was in the water. For your information, it's not really a city parc but more a wild wetzone in the middle of the city. In this video you can clearly see the place where I was (the tennis court)

cybervet said:
I can see in the airdata mode changes from p-gps to sport like 100 times in split seconds , this can't be correct, is it?

I can agree, it's weird.

slup said:
If you attach the mobile device DAT log here in a new post we perhaps can drill down a bit further,

Unless DJI helps, there is no way to retrieve it, like you said in the other post.

Thanks everyone for you feedback.

grahamjohnson10 · Feb 9, 2020

I have looked at the log in detail and there is no reason I can see why is descended like it did, very worrying.

grahamjohnson10 · Feb 9, 2020

sar104 said:
Not sure about dark jungle - that looks like a city park with a pond. It's probably in the water though.

View attachment 93538

0.0 0.0 IN FLIGHT0
0.0 0.2 2.7 /HOMEPOINT UPDATED. CHECK NEW HOMEPOINT LOCATION!
5.7 32.8 AIRCRAFT MAX POWER LOAD REACHED. DECREASE ALTITUDE AND FLY WITH CAUTION. IF THIS ISSUE PERSISTS, LAND IMMEDIATELY (CODE: 30168)
32.8 (MAX POWER LOAD REACHED. FLY WITH CAUTION
68.0 68.0 IN FLIGHT0
82.5 AIRCRAFT MAX POWER LOAD REACHED. DECREASE ALTITUDE AND FLY WITH CAUTION. IF THIS ISSUE PERSISTS, LAND IMMEDIATELY (CODE: 30168)
82.5 (MAX POWER LOAD REACHED. FLY WITH CAUTION
86.5 86.5 IN FLIGHT0
90.3 IAIRCRAFT IN HIGH INTERFERENCE ENVIRONMENT. FLY WITH CAUTION (CODE: 80015)
90.3 AIRCRAFT SIGNAL INTERFERENCE
93.3 93.3 IN FLIGHT0
146.4 AIRCRAFT MAX POWER LOAD REACHED. DECREASE ALTITUDE AND FLY WITH CAUTION. IF THIS ISSUE PERSISTS, LAND IMMEDIATELY (CODE: 30168)
146.4 (MAX POWER LOAD REACHED. FLY WITH CAUTION
148.4 148.4 IN FLIGHT0

I personally think it might be on land and not in the water, I uploaded the log to Flight Log Converter and then played it back in GE.

sar104 · Feb 9, 2020

grahamjohnson10 said:
I personally think it might be on land and not in the water, I uploaded the log to Flight Log Converter and then played it back in GE.

The OP already posted that it was found in the water. See post #7 above.

Bill Dunnuck · Feb 10, 2020

le_wib said:
While travelling to Colombia, I thought it was a great idea to take photos of the city by night, with my Mavic Mini. It didn't turned out so well. The drone failed to return and landed in the middle of nowhere, in a complete dark jungle. Finding where and how wasn't a easy task.

I believe I got distracted with the task to take pictures, and I didn't paid attention to the battery levels. But my first mistake was to rise up too high, consuming a significant part of the energy.

Link to the Airdata flight log if you're interested to take a look : https://app.airdata.com/share/okNImF

Oh yes, I'm french, sorry with my accent

That was an incredible summary and beautiful videos from such a small package. Amazing that the Mini survived the water dunking to fly once again. I am more conscious of the wind when flying my Mini than other drones.

le_wib · Feb 10, 2020

Bill Dunnuck said:
That was an incredible summary and beautiful videos from such a small package. Amazing that the Mini survived the water dunking to fly once again. I am more conscious of the wind when flying my Mini than other drones.

Thank you so much for your comment.