Mavic 2 Pro falls out the sky ?

[Invincible Storm Films]

On October 13 2019 while flying my Mavic 2 Pro up at the mountains in up state New York flying over the Hudson River my Mavic 2 all of a sudden lost power, fell from roughly 150ft, under 450 ft distance away from me and with about 62% battery power left.
I received no warning, power was just lost ad the drone as well ? really don't know what to do or where to turn because I've own the drone 1 year September 1st 2018. Any suggestions /help would be greatly appreciated.
Just a little back story this is the 1st time anything like this has happened and I've been flying DJI Drones since the fc40 Phantom from when it 1st came out in 2013 ?

 

[dirkclod]

Welcome to the forum.
Im going to move this to a better section .

 

[Invincible Storm Films]

Welcome to the forum.
Im going to move this to a better section .

Thank you ?

 

[dirkclod]

Thank you ?

No problem. Sounds like your battery came loose but
someone here wil get your flight data I’m sure and tell
you what happened.

 

[MaxHam]

What a bummer!
There is not much you can do in regards to DJI. They want you to send them the drone to assess a possible claim.
Not really sure in which case they do it but sometimes people get a rebate when purchasing a new drone.
Without having DJI Care and being beyond warranty consider it a total loss.

In order to (possibly) find out what happened there are two ways:
You can upload the flight record (.txt file) and share the link right right here in this thread:
DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help
Warning messages Go4 was recording would show up here besides a lot of other parameters.

Then there is a.dat file in the 'black box', which is a non-removable micro sd card inside the drone.
There are specialists here that can analyze this very well.

Very often though both options do not lead to a solid conclusion.
If you lost a prop or hit some wire or some bird was pecking on your drone or your battery was not inserted properly but you were still able to take off and it popped out (all Go4 versions but the latest 4.3.25 allowed this):
There will be no evidence.

 

[DanMan32]

If you've had it a year, you may have a battery production prone to swelling. If it did swell, it could have unlatched and power connection lost.
Check your other batteries that you may have obtained at the same time you bought the M2.

I didn't notice my original batteries were swelling until my third battery during a flight session would not latch easily. I then checked my second one I just flew and it had swelling too. The third battery had a weaker than normal left latch.

 

[DanMan32]

What a bummer!
There is not much you can do in regards to DJI. They want you to send them the drone to assess a possible claim.
Not really sure in which case they do it but sometimes people get a rebate when purchasing a new drone.
Without having DJI Care and being beyond warranty consider it a total loss.

In order to (possibly) find out what happened there are two ways:
You can upload the flight record (.txt file) and share the link right right here in this thread:
DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help
Warning messages Go4 was recording would show up here besides a lot of other parameters.

Then there is a.dat file in the 'black box', which is a non-removable micro sd card inside the drone.
There are specialists here that can analyze this very well.

Very often though both options do not lead to a solid conclusion.
If you lost a prop or hit some wire or some bird was pecking on your drone or your battery was not inserted properly but you were still able to take off and it popped out (all Go4 versions but the latest 4.3.25 allowed this):
There will be no evidence.

The AC DAT files on MA and M2 are retrieveable with Assistant but encrypted where only DJI can read it.

 

[Neil Reid]

Sorry I don't have the expertise to assist, but I've seen some impressive analytics from the super smart and experienced guys on this board. See if you can get the flight data to them. Good luck and sorry about the loss of your drone.

 

[Bill combs]

On October 13 2019 while flying my Mavic 2 Pro up at the mountains in up state New York flying over the Hudson River my Mavic 2 all of a sudden lost power, fell from roughly 150ft, under 450 ft distance away from me and with about 62% battery power left.
I received no warning, power was just lost ad the drone as well ? really don't know what to do or where to turn because I've own the drone 1 year September 1st 2018. Any suggestions /help would be greatly appreciated.
Just a little back story this is the 1st time anything like this has happened and I've been flying DJI Drones since the fc40 Phantom from when it 1st came out in 2013 ?

that’s awful sorry to hear that,i to have the same experience with the same drones

 

[Jet skier]

I imagane you tried the beacon sound but if there’s no battery that won’t work either

 

[Moon4Drone]

I had the same thing happen with my Mavic 2 Pro recently, after 2 years of flying DJI drones (Mavic Pro and M2) without a problem. Fortunately I had Care Refresh (this happened two weeks before expiration) and DJI replaced the drone...no cost. I usually avoid these kinds of plans, but with a drone I think it is a great idea. I took out another Care Refresh plan on the replacement. But I have to admit, it freaked me out. I had been in the air less than a minute, at about 90 ft altitude, when the voice on my Crystal Sky alerted me "Aircraft Disconnected" and the drone came down in the road and was smashed up pretty good. DJI sent me a report with pictures of the damage, external and internal, with an estimate of almost $900 to repair the drone (at their expense), leading to their sending me a new drone. - When flying a couple of days before, upon landing I noticed the battery was not fully seated so I had been very attentive to this the day of the crash. But a full loss of power, for whatever reason, resulted in the crash. Glad no one was hit....a car passed over the crash site in the road about a minute after I picked up the pieces. Made me painfully aware of the risks to others of a drone falling from the sky.

 

[JAW]

When flying a couple of days before, upon landing I noticed the battery was not fully seated so I had been very attentive to this the day of the crash.

This seems to be a recurring theme in several (many?) incidents. Personally, I use a bracket to physically hold the battery in place now before every flight. The bracket also serves as a convenient place to securely attach my Marco Polo, weighs next to nothing, and doesn't interfere with the various external vision compomemets.

 

[The Puertorican Mohican]

This seems to be a recurring theme in several (many?) incidents. Personally, I use a bracket to physically hold the battery in place now before every flight. The bracket also serves as a convenient place to securely attach my Marco Polo, weighs next to nothing, and doesn't interfere with the various external vision compomemets.

Could you link the products?

 

[JAW]

Could you link the products?

I removed the 1/4x20 camera mount screw and fashioned a mount for my Marco Polo.

3.89US $ 23% OFF|360 Degree Panoramic Sports Camera VR Top Mount Bracket Holder Connector Tripod Adapter for DJI MAVIC 2 PRO /ZOOM Quadcopter|Drone Accessories Kits| - AliExpress

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com

www.aliexpress.com

 

[HarrySmooth]

Mine did the same thing, due to "Battery Swelling"...and of course I sent my Flight Data to DJI, then they wanted me to send the entire Aircraft to them.....ahhhhh NO! Im NOT sending my entire Mavic to them for a Battery Swelling Issue!!!!
does ANYONE know if DJI has addressed this issue, and if New NON-SWELLING Batteries are Out???? Im Scared to DEATH to Fly over Water now, and I live in FLA!!!! LOL

 

[f13dfx]

I as well am fearing this, but just a thought for a handy solution, although JAW’s strap above would be the best. I used a couple of those wide rubber bands they use to tie a bunch of asparagus together at your local grocery. Would be a healthy solution at least

 

[DanMan32]

Mine did the same thing, due to "Battery Swelling"...and of course I sent my Flight Data to DJI, then they wanted me to send the entire Aircraft to them.....ahhhhh NO! Im NOT sending my entire Mavic to them for a Battery Swelling Issue!!!!
does ANYONE know if DJI has addressed this issue, and if New NON-SWELLING Batteries are Out???? Im Scared to DEATH to Fly over Water now, and I live in FLA!!!! LOL

Yes, but a poor excuse of a solution: enable changing days to discharge (previously was fixed at 10 days for M2) and set default to 5 days. It's almost admitting a defect since the default has been 10 days across all their products for over 4 years. It seems to be localized to M2 batteries produced 7-8/2018 though a few made after those months have swelled. MA batteries appear to also have a problem but nothing clear as to what productions are prone to it.

 

[HarrySmooth]

Thanks Dan,
I’m kind of a newbie at this Mavic....had the old Gen1 Phantom for years, and just got this Mavic Pro Platinum.....can you explain in layman’s term what you mean above? I’m sorry man.....I’m trying to learn this thing! LOL
TThanks again Dan!!
Harry

 

[HarrySmooth]

I removed the 1/4x20 camera mount screw and fashioned a mount for my Marco Polo.

3.89US $ 23% OFF|360 Degree Panoramic Sports Camera VR Top Mount Bracket Holder Connector Tripod Adapter for DJI MAVIC 2 PRO /ZOOM Quadcopter|Drone Accessories Kits| - AliExpress

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com

www.aliexpress.com

View attachment 83793

I just ordered one of these, JUST to prevent my “Swelling Batteries” From “Popping Off” again!!! Great Idea!
Thanks a Bunch!!!!

 

[Mykle]

On October 13 2019 while flying my Mavic 2 Pro up at the mountains in up state New York flying over the Hudson River my Mavic 2 all of a sudden lost power, fell from roughly 150ft, under 450 ft distance away from me and with about 62% battery power left.
I received no warning, power was just lost ad the drone as well ? really don't know what to do or where to turn because I've own the drone 1 year September 1st 2018. Any suggestions /help would be greatly appreciated.
Just a little back story this is the 1st time anything like this has happened and I've been flying DJI Drones since the fc40 Phantom from when it 1st came out in 2013 ?

Aircraft falling from the sky is a common topic on this forum. Focus on the data file, assuming you were controlling with DJI Go 4 or Litchi. MaxHam included a link to a Flight Log Viewer that will convert the binary file to text. I use it religiously.

When my aircraft lost power and impacted the ground from 100', the log file provided the answer. Voltages for each of the battery cells are included for the entire flight. Plotting these values showed that one cell was not tracking the others, and the voltage dropped rapidly until the aircraft died (electrically) and then died (physically).

One other value being tracked in the data file is the deviation of voltage for all cells. Normally this value is well below 1v, but in the battery that died this value was well ABOVE 1v. It would be very nice if DJI popped a Critical Error when deviation gets large, so you know to land NOW before the aircraft succumbs to gravity.

There have been a few discussions about "battery conditioning" on the forum, and we could use more of them. Every few months (three to six months have been mentioned) drain your batteries (some say 20%, others say 5%) and then charge them to 100%. But don't store them at 100% (some say 60%, others say 80%). I did this to my other two original batteries (almost 2 years old, with about 50 charges each) and that appears to have "conditioned" the cells to discharge more evenly during flight.

There is a battery icon on the top line in DJI Go 4. Click it and the battery settings will be displayed, showing voltages for each of your cells. They should all be close to the same value. Yeah, you need to do that while you are paying attention to everything else while flying (!).

All of this is in addition to the excellent care-and-feeding notes that many have listed about heat and cold and storage.

But you need to look at your log file (converted to text), or post it on the forum so others can review. Instructions for retrieving your log file are included in the link posted by MaxHam. It covers IOS and Android, and DJI Go 4 and Litchi. The file may not reveal your problem, but it will show what are NOT problems.