Mavic 2 Pro fell out of the sky yesterday....

[pwr406]

Had a horrible day yesteday ... was at a real estate shoot using my M2P for only the 5th or 6th time. Everything went great on my first battery, no issues what so ever. Switch over to my 2nd battery and flying like a dream. I'm starting to finish up my job, just trying to get the last video shots when I receive the low battery warning. No problem I think, I still have time to get one more shot here before I switch out to my final battery. Luckily I only have the drone 4 to 5 feet off the ground because out of nowhere, the drone just falls from the sky. I still had 22% battery remaining but it fell like it completely lost power. The drone hit the ground hard, the battery went flying out and I broke a prop. Doesn't appear to be any damage to the rest of the drone but my nerves were shot and I called it a day with out testing anything with my last battery.

I use airdata.com to log my flights but I'm not seeing a lot of info in there other than the final notification I received was "Gimbal roll reached movement limit". I spent some time on chat with DJI this morning and just completed a repair request ticket (I do have DJI care refresh as well). Really confused by this whole process though...I would prefer not to have to send in my drone unless I know there is a serious issue with it but don't know enough about the flight logs to really troubleshoot what happened.

Edit: I've attached the flight log here but the .DAT file was too large to upload.

 

[GerdS]

You should upload your flight log for analysis here. In addition, you may put the failed (and hopefully not yet recharged) battery in and then look within GO4 app/battery tab if one cell might have died during flight. All four cells should have dsame voltage.

 

[sar104]

If you want any meaningful advice you need to post the txt and DAT files from your mobile device - instructions to retrieve them below. Change the .DAT extension to .txt to get this site to accept the upload.

UPDATE: the site administrators have changed the settings to allow .DAT uploads, so no need to change the file extension now.

DJI Flight Log Viewer - Phantom Help

How to retrieve a V3 .DAT File from the AC

 

[swooshdave]

How low do you typically let your batteries go down to when flying?

 

[macoman]

This is just me but I never let my batteries go below 40%. I usually fly and don't use the drone until 2 to three weeks after.

 

[pwr406]

If you want any meaningful advice you need to post the txt and DAT files from your mobile device - instructions to retrieve them below. Change the .DAT extension to .txt to get this site to accept the upload.

UPDATE: the site administrators have changed the settings to allow .DAT uploads, so no need to change the file extension now.

DJI Flight Log Viewer - Phantom Help

How to retrieve a V3 .DAT File from the AC

Thank you for this, I'll have to do this when I get home from work. Is there anyway to access the flight log from Airdata.com?

 

[pwr406]

How low do you typically let your batteries go down to when flying?

Generally I try to bring it home at 30% when I have the low battery warning go off but sometimes I'll push it to get the final shots and bring it home under 20%.

 

[LapetusOne]

Please post what you find out, interested to see what happened.

 

[sar104]

Thank you for this, I'll have to do this when I get home from work. Is there anyway to access the flight log from Airdata.com?

You can access your own txt logs if the flights are uploaded to AirData, and you can allow others to download the txt log in the sharing settings. AirData doesn't read DAT files though.

 

[Paul2660]

Did you put the battery that was in the drone when it powered off and fell to the ground, back in the drone to see how much power it showed if any, or how many power bars still lit up? At 22% you should still see one green bar.

Dropping from 22 percent to 0 is concerning. I still have my low battery warning set to 30% and was considering dropping to 25, but I believe this is not the first post where a battery in a MP2 went from showing a charge well above the critical point and the drone powered off and crashed.

Other thing I am curious is , by design, when the drone reads a low enough charge, I believe it's 10% it should land or attempt to land due to the low power status. (If I understand this correctly).

Hopefully can get more details once logs are posted.

Paul C

 

[xAli3Nz]

All these posts are making me so nervous to fly mine, its my first drone. [emoji24]

 

[Gray52]

That’s why I’ve already landed at 30%.

 

[Turn11]

Thank you for this, I'll have to do this when I get home from work. Is there anyway to access the flight log from Airdata.com?

AirData has various pricing levels, each one gives different data. This Link should take you to the pricing scheduls and the associated reports.

IMHO you will get a lot more meaningful and useful data from the logs mentioned in post #3. AirData will give you information but not the detailed analysis as @sar104 or @BudWalker would give.

 

[Popster]

Sounds like a battery issue - probably just needs to be replaced?

Also I don’t think you should have to use DJI refresh - I’d try a warranty claim

 

[DanMan32]

All these posts are making me so nervous to fly mine, its my first drone. [emoji24]

Take it slow. Fly around in a ball field in a low altitude, say under 100ft. Even start at 10 to 30 ft up.
I had my Phantom 3 for two years but I still was cautious with my M2 when I first got it. It's like getting a new car. Takes getting used to.

 

[ac0j]

Before the battery charge level can be trusted, the battery has to go from completely full to almost dead in the aircraft at least one time. Otherwise you are getting an estimate. Because the Mavic doesnt yet know what "dead" really is. Every battery is a little different. Brand new batteries, that have never been deep cycled can not be trusted below 30%

 

[rfc]

Before the battery charge level can be trusted, the battery has to go from completely full to almost dead in the aircraft at least one time. Otherwise you are getting an estimate. Because the Mavic doesnt yet know what "dead" really is. Every battery is a little different. Brand new batteries, that have never been deep cycled can not be trusted below 30%

I've read the Lithium Polymer batteries didn't like to be fully discharged. Are you suggesting that with a new bird, one should run it in the bird all the way to shutdown (like idling on the ground) at least once? This won't hurt the battery?

 

[WithTheBirds]

Before the battery charge level can be trusted, the battery has to go from completely full to almost dead in the aircraft at least one time. Otherwise you are getting an estimate. Because the Mavic doesnt yet know what "dead" really is. Every battery is a little different. Brand new batteries, that have never been deep cycled can not be trusted below 30%

That might have been the case with earlier battery management systems- simple coulomb counting is very seldom implemented these days. The BMS DJI employs from Texas Instruments run very sophisticated fuel gauging and battery health algorithms. A full charge before initial use is all that is required. Deep cycling just wastes charge cycles.

 

[Paul2660]

thats why I want to know if the battery that was in the drone when it shut off, was "dead" or the drone powered back up. If the later, then there is more than likely a different problem with the drone and should be a warranty fix.

Paul C

 

[sar104]

The log doesn't show anything abnormal - it just stops. There have been several reports of similar shutdowns with the M2 that may be power failure or system crashes. There's no way to distinguish, currently, since the aircraft DAT file is not readable.