Lost my new Mavic Pro in the Republic of Panama (GOT IT BACK three weeks later!)

PolarBZ · Mar 5, 2018

laurens23 said:
Why it was much lower [45m] when hitting the tower compared to the [95m] when losing connection I don't understand. RTH should not have descended until above the home point, regardless of the RTH-altitude set in the app.

Could it have impacted the tower, then fell to the 45m before reconnecting that final time to send that data stream? That would account for the strange, unexpected drop during RTH.

sar104 · Mar 5, 2018

PolarBZ said:
Could it have impacted the tower, then fell to the 45m before reconnecting that final time to send that data stream? That would account for the strange, unexpected drop during RTH.

It was still flying after it reconnected at 45 m, and had not yet reached the tower when it disconnected the final time.

msinger · Mar 5, 2018

PolarBZ said:
That would account for the strange, unexpected drop during RTH.

The OP most likely held the throttle stick down while the downlink was disconnected.

Panamawise · Mar 8, 2018

I want to thank you all for your support. I haven't found my MP, not even debris, in spite of frequent visits to the Keops building next door, and nearby businesses, flyers displayed in the street, etc... That's a tough experience and all I can do at this stage is learn as much as I can from it. Did I unwittingly pushed the wrong control and caused my drone to lose altitude? While I can't rule it out, given my lack of experience, I don't think so. The drone was stationary and slowly girating while I was filming. There were no buildings nearby, at all. I was briefly notified of an interference before being totally disconnected. During two minutes, the drone drifted away considerably AND lost altitude. When it did attempt to RTH, it did so in a straight line which unfortunately put it in a collision course with the Keops building, higher than my home point (on the 16th floor roof, next to it. Did it crash, or was it picked up, I'll never know. Why would it crash? What about the much touted crash "avoidance"? I see that the MP PLATINUM offers "precision hovering" which could have prevented the unfortunate drifting away. Perhaps I should get a Platinum, or simply wait for the upcoming Mavic Pro II... I'm also thinking of getting a MARCO POLO tracker. Again, thank you all. This is a great forum, and I'm not quitting.

Mavflyer · Mar 8, 2018

Panamawise said:
I want to thank you all for your support. I haven't found my MP, not even debris, in spite of frequent visits to the Keops building next door, and nearby businesses, flyers displayed in the street, etc... That's a tough experience and all I can do at this stage is learn as much as I can from it. Did I unwittingly pushed the wrong control and caused my drone to lose altitude? While I can't rule it out, given my lack of experience, I don't think so. The drone was stationary and slowly girating while I was filming. There were no buildings nearby, at all. I was briefly notified of an interference before being totally disconnected. During two minutes, the drone drifted away considerably AND lost altitude. When it did attempt to RTH, it did so in a straight line which unfortunately put it in a collision course with the Keops building, higher than my home point (on the 16th floor roof, next to it. Did it crash, or was it picked up, I'll never know. Why would it crash? What about the much touted crash "avoidance"? I see that the MP PLATINUM offers "precision hovering" which could have prevented the unfortunate drifting away. Perhaps I should get a Platinum, or simply wait for the upcoming Mavic Pro II... I'm also thinking of getting a MARCO POLO tracker. Again, thank you all. This is a great forum, and I'm not quitting.

The platinum would have done the same thing. Obstacle avoidance isn't improved over the regular Mavic. I think just the escs and props are the only difference. Having the RTH altitude set higher prob would have been your best bet here. You would have even regained connection had the mavic went up high.

Panamawise · Mar 8, 2018

Point taken, thank you. I shall definitely set up the RTH altitude higher, next time. Steep learning curve, but I will learn.

joejaxvic123 · Mar 9, 2018

Sorry, im still learning here, Is there no obstacles avoidance in rth? I see an option in the settings for smart return which will keep OA on. I am running old firmware though.

Panamawise · Mar 9, 2018

joejaxvic123 said:
Sorry, im still learning here, Is there no obstacles avoidance in rth? I see an option in the settings for smart return which will keep OA on. I am running old firmware though.

Gosh, if you're still learning after receiving 122 likes, that shows I have a LOT to learn... even though I am learning the hard way. I wonder why you would run old firmware. It looks like my issue was due to several unfortunate circumstances: first of all, I was totally disconnected due to a mysterious interference (none visible), then my drone not only lost altitude but drifted for a considerable distance. Finally, when the RTH started automatically, it apparently sent the drone to a collision course with the building next to mine (and higher than mine). I wonder if the obstacle avoidance worked (suggesting that someone might have picked my brand new Mavic as some kind of unexpected gift) or if the drone crashed (but no debris found). Many questions unanswered, but I plan to learn as much as possible before getting a Mavic Pro II...

joejaxvic123 · Mar 9, 2018

Never stop learning.

Panamawise · Mar 9, 2018

It's a promise!

Panamawise · Mar 25, 2018

YES! I got it back... A million thanks to all of you who offered your help. In particular, MSINGER, DRONEUSER and LAURENS23 whose conclusions were uncannily accurate: my MP did indeed crash into the nearby KEOPS TOWER! Thanks to your investigation, I had checked the terraces of the whole building and searched for debris around it. Eventually, I had printed rewards posters that I plastered around the block. Workers about to paint the building found it on a ledge on the top level. That was close and I guess the avoidance system did not work. The guy who found it got his reward, but it's only later I realized that he had removed the micro SD card (smart guy) which prevents me from getting additional information. The drone is damaged, but not too much I hope (I'll post a photo) mostly in the top area (canopy?) and I already ordered a spare part on eBay. I get SYS WARNING /CHECK APP - Flight error record - Compass error / exit P-GPS mode - GPS ENCOUNTERS DISCONNECT Please reset and check connection. I'm a bit stumped and shall need to do some research on this excellent forum. I wonder if there's a reliable technician in Panama...

I am still wondering what happened, but I now have an interesting clue... My drone might have been shut down by someone armed with a signal jamming device. These things should be illegal as you may use those weapons to disable a Cessna or the police helicopter! I have learned that a local politician owns one such device - and lives a few blocks from my building. I might have crossed his path and he reportedly has made a hobby of shooting down drones. I was flying at twilight, and when I stopped to take a full-circle panoramic movie, that was the perfect target. That would account why my drone suddenly lost a lot of altitude for no reason. Why would I hit "descend" when I was revolving? Also I had selected an area free from any tall building, so I did not expect any interference.

joejaxvic123 · Mar 25, 2018

Glad you found it. Hopefully an easy repair. The SD card is gone? Strange.

Panamawise · Mar 25, 2018

joejaxvic123 said:
Glad you found it. Hopefully an easy repair. The SD card is gone? Strange.

Not so strange... that fellow did not wait for the reward. And a nice 64 card is probably expensive in Panama. I still wonder where I could find a repairman, but will attempt to recalibrate everything. Thanks.

laurens23 · Mar 25, 2018

Panamawise said:
YES! I got it back...

Nice!

Panamawise said:
I guess the avoidance system did not work

Or it was turned off, or the mavic did "see" the tower and stopped, but eventually when it ran out of battery it descended into the tower?

Panamawise said:
only later I realized that he had removed the micro SD card (smart guy) which prevents me from getting additional information.

If I found a Mavic I would definitely check out the SD card, but put it back after. sad he took it. However you can still get the .DAT flightlog from inside the drone if you want. it has more data than the .txt from the phone, and should include the whole part where you lost connection.

Panamawise said:
The drone is damaged, but not too much I hope (I'll post a photo) mostly in the top area (canopy?) and I already ordered a spare part on eBay. I get SYS WARNING /CHECK APP - Flight error record - Compass error / exit P-GPS mode - GPS ENCOUNTERS DISCONNECT Please reset and check connection. I'm a bit stumped and shall need to do some research on this excellent forum. I wonder if there's a reliable technician in Panama...

the damage looks nasty because the electronics are exposed. breaking an arm or two and the gimbal are easy to fix because those are external and easy to replace. But its a tough bird and might be successfully repaired, or replaced if the have DJI care.

Panamawise said:
My drone might have been shut down by someone armed with a signal jamming device. These things should be illegal as you may use those weapons to disable a Cessna or the police helicopter!

highly unlikely to the first and NO to the second part. You simply lost connection because the Tower blocked the signal to the drone. the fact that in RTH it hit the tower proves that, because in RTH it flies a direct line to the homepoint.

Jamming is very extremely unlikely. The only thing a Cessna and a drone have in common is a GPS receiver. (A lot of Cessna don't even have GPS) Jamming GPS, while highly illegal, is theoretically possible, but did not happen in this case. Because without GPS RTH does not work. a plane would fly thorugh the jammed zone so quickly it likely never noticed. there are also several alternative navigation methods and GPS is likely not even the primary navigation.

Jamming the plane radio is also possible. and also very unlikely, and very illegal. again the plane will probably not even notice, but if it does, there are special rules to follow when losing communication, whatever the reason may be. a Drone operates on different frequencies so it will never notice this.

Jamming the RC signal form the drone is possible. These are open frequencies and a jammer for this is not difficult. However this is also unlikely because something strong enough to jam a drone flying overhead would have likely eliminated all WiFi in the whole area. I bet people would be complaining about that. Furthermore the drone would have gotten its signal back when RTH brought it back far enough.

anyway good luck with the repairs, and safe flying

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Panamawise · Mar 25, 2018

Thank you again Laurens23. Since I don't have DJI care, I plan to recalibrate everything if that's possible (I get SYS WARNING /CHECK APP - Flight error record - Compass error / exit P-GPS mode - GPS ENCOUNTERS DISCONNECT Please reset and check connection) I'll have to find out how to exit P-GPS mode, to begin with... Finding a local repair technician is not going to be easy! I would probably dismiss the signal jamming conspiracy theory, if I did not hear reports from similar incidents at the same location. The neighboring tower became an obstacle only at the end of the flight, but I can guarantee there was no physical interference at the site where my drone was gently hovering and girating.

laurens23 · Mar 25, 2018

P-GPS mode is the normal standard mode to fly the drone. Exiting this mode is the problem. It seems it is exiting because there is an issue with the compass and the GPS. If the compass and GPS give conflicting results, the drone cannot fly itself and will EXIT P-GPS and enter ATTI mode.

fixing the compass and GPS errors probably also fixes the sys error.

As you said start by try re-calibrating everything. Make sure to test with props off for safety.
closest DJI repair center is costa rica [email protected] (506)2528-5100
there are also people on the forum who have repair service.