M2Z acting up

[digiteye]

Lately I have experienced a number of weird things that I have never seen before.
Sometimes after take off yet still hovering low, I see a message telling me to return the joysticks to normal position (the wording may differ but that's how I understand). I don't continue the flight but land, restart and try again. Then I only fly when I don't see this message anymore.
Sometimes I experience the drone shifting slightly sideways in the air even if I want to fly straight.
Then 4 times in 4 totally different locations I had close to crash experience with the drone landing during RTH far from the HP.
The distance varied from 5 meters to 25 meters. One of these occasions ended up with landing on a tree, fortunately the tree had soft branches that didn't damage the drone and even helped the crash being softened, there was no damage at all.
Another one was on a riverside when the drone started to descend but it was heading straight to the water. Fortunately I managed to stop RTH and saved it by manually getting back to land. Other times RTH is ok. But this thing makes me feel nervous all the time as the device is unreliable.
What I noticed / done:
Compass calibration pops up pretty often vs a few months ago when I had that only once in a blue moon. I do the calibration and it seems fine. But then the above mentioned things happen.
I have calibrated sensors with the DJI assistant, all good. I have calibrated IMU to be safe and also did a trick that I've read somewhere about the controller: I changed the stick layout from default to another mode, restarted the drone and controller and I've set back the stick layout to the default.
After all these I tested and the drone came home precisely where it supposed to.
Until the next day when it started acting up again.
Anyone has such experience or advice? Thanks a lot for helping.

 

[m2zAL]

Was the “trick you read about the controller” anything to do with recalibration the joysticks? If not, I recommend doing that as it resets the max values and center points of each input.

Also, do you remove the sticks before storing the controller? I ask because depending on how you store the controller, of it has the sticks attached, maybe pressure is being exerted on them and they gain a sort of “memory” to a new position instead of the spring center point or normal resting position.

Side note, changing the control stick mode can get confusing for most anyone very fast. So, I get what you were trying in test. I simply would not leave it that way or change it back and forth too often without reprogramming yourself with a bunch of practice on the new mode of operation or else you can easily get disoriented very quickly.

 

[digiteye]

Was the “trick you read about the controller” anything to do with recalibration the joysticks? If not, I recommend doing that as it resets the max values and center points of each input.

Also, do you remove the sticks before storing the controller? I ask because depending on how you store the controller, of it has the sticks attached, maybe pressure is being exerted on them and they gain a sort of “memory” to a new position instead of the spring center point or normal resting position.

Side note, changing the control stick mode can get confusing for most anyone very fast. So, I get what you were trying in test. I simply would not leave it that way or change it back and forth too often without reprogramming yourself with a bunch of practice on the new mode of operation or else you can easily get disoriented very quickly.

Hi, thanks for the reply.
I only changed the stick mode from 2 to 1, then back to 2 right away after restart. I did not calibrate though. I will try it.
I always remove the sticks and store them in the slot designed for that.
I will try to calibrate the sticks, I'm checking now online how to do it.
I've just read a suggestion in a thread with the same problem. Someone suggested to replace the props... Now this one I just can't comprehend. Sounds like a voodoo [emoji4]

 

[new2mavic]

... the drone shifting slightly sideways in the air even if I want to fly straight.
.... the drone landing during RTH far from the HP.
....Compass calibration pops up pretty often.....

It seems that there are some magnetic anomaly in your area due to such reasons as the magnetism of the rocks. May be you can try flying the drone at other places and see if the problem persists.

 

[Spin]

Sounds for sure like a controller issue, recalibrate the sticks. If it keeps acting up recheck to sticks again. I have had these type of issues with Mavic Airs, I owned 3 Airs over different time periods and 2 of the 3 Mavic Air’s had bad controllers involving stick controls. DJI did replace two of the Air controllers for me and one those started acting up again after about a week of use.

Thankfully I have no other issues like that with other DJI drone controllers. My M2Z has been very solid so far.

 

[digiteye]

It seems that there are some magnetic anomaly in your area due to such reasons as the magnetism of the rocks. May be you can try flying the drone at other places and see if the problem persists.

Thanks for the advice, however this is not the case. Like I said, the issue popped up in different locations, twice in Laos, and twice in Cambodia, all of them different locations.

 

[digiteye]

Sounds for sure like a controller issue, recalibrate the sticks. If it keeps acting up recheck to sticks again. I have had these issues with Mavic Airs, I owned 3 Airs over different time periods and 2 of the 3 Mavic Air’s had bad controllers involving stick controls. DJI did replace two of the Air controllers for me and one those started acting up again after about a week of use.

Thankfully I have no other issues like that with other DJI drone controllers. My M2Z has been very solid so far.

Thanks, I've just calibrated the sticks as today even the stick error message popped up with the unbearable alerting noise. I'll be testing it out later. Let's hope all is well.

 

[Spin]

Thanks, I've just calibrated the sticks as today even the stick error message popped up with the unbearable alerting noise. I'll be testing it out later. Let's hope all is well.

Good luck! You may try to pick up a backup controller somewhere too if this proves to be the problem. Or maybe even barrow one, then you can test it with a different controller and send in your older one for replacement. Again good luck and hope all goes well for you.

 

[bumper]

Don't know about the Mini, though probably similar to my M2P, if you initiate a RTH within about (guessing) 70 feet distance, it'll land right there. Further away it will RTH as expected.

 

[digiteye]

Don't know about the Mini, though probably similar to my M2P, if you initiate a RTH within about (guessing) 70 feet distance, it'll land right there. Further away it will RTH as expected.

I think you've replied to the wrong thread... [emoji848]
This isn't about Mini.

 

[bumper]

I think you've replied to the wrong thread... [emoji848]
This isn't about Mini.

My intent was to reply to your thread, I just jumbled drones! Still, your drone won't RTH unless it is a set distance away. If closer, it'll land immediately where it is. Does this sound like what you are experiencing?

 

[new2mavic]

.... twice in Laos, and twice in Cambodia....

May be there are landmines in the ground distorting the local magnetic field ?

 

[jzilla80]

I see why your nervous. truly.

If youve changed locations, even different countries, and your getting this range of strange occurrences, which might seem minor, albeit concerning, by themselves, but together are worrisome to be sure.

IMO, you have either; defective internal hardware, which I doubt, or more likely, your software wasnt flashed flawlessly, which likely wasnt anything you would have been informed of, as the system wasnt able to identify it.

It could be the smallest thing, code-wise, that has now cascaded into a larger set of issues.

I say this based on you sounding like you have a pretty good grasp of how these machines operate (ie: GPS, RF link on dual bands, and all that jazz) but, more so, due to how youve explained your situation.
- Successful flight, followed by flight that produces an anomaly, then you attempt to fix the issue by resetting software setting or calibration, and then you again have a successful flight, followed by the very same issues happening a flight or few later.

If you werent doing the minor resets/fixes your trying, I would estimate the problems would get worse, which might manifest visually, to you, or not, but would eventually lead to loss or damage to your AC. This is how cascading malfunctions (or sometimes, failures) work, as they start very minor, maybe even unnoticeable, then a component malfunctions and the system tasks that function to another set of components, putting increased load on other circuits that cant sustain that load, and eventually, the catastrophic failure occurs (luckily, your not there yet!) and your SOL on your expensive flying camera. I dont believe your AC has sustained any permanent damage yet, since you've been actively trying to remedy the issues w/ resets/calibrations, and thus far seem to have helped by resetting those malfunctions.

I'd recommend reflashing (or refreshing on Assistant 2) your FW, to the same version that you currently have on both AC and RC, the take out to known locations and monitor flight. If you face the same issues then, I'd make video of these issues and contact DJI.

I didnt mention the possibilites that a few others have mentioned, such as magnetic anomalous areas or poor GPS signal areas because they already did and it sounds like those are possibilities that youve already considered and did your part in ruling out! If not, do that first, with a compass and your phone, etc

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

I really dislike malfunctioning expensive electronics, but its something that manufacturers always seem to pass some down to its customers.

 

[JFangs]

The very frequent Calibration is something I noticed lately as well. I'm still new with M2Z (~7 months or so) but recently almost every time I turn it on, I'm asked for a calibration.

The second thing you mentioned, drone begins to drift & landed on plants then toppled into it from lack of support, happened to me last month. Looking through the smart controller's flight data, I saw something about "GPS lost/error connection" In my case it wouldn't respond to anything but down stick, so I had no choice but to let it land where it did. This was in Tahiti, in an area I flew before and after this event.

So I'm not sure if it's just a controller issue or also a combo of interference/loss of signal.