Mavic 3 Atti mode happened.

[kanesimages]

Last night while out in the desert my Mavic 3 suddenly went into a Atti mode. It was a pretty scary experience. The first thing I noticed was I couldn’t get the drone to stay in one spot for a photo, it kept drifting. Thought that was weird. A few seconds later I noticed few more alarming behaviors, my GPS map was blank, completely disengaged…only Elevation was showing, no distance, and that’s when I noticed the red banner across the top of the Fly app saying “Atti mode fly with caution”

It was a pretty stress filled journey back without my GPS that included a Force land.

So what the heck was that? I’ve researched and there’s nothing out there I could locate showing the M3 can do Atti mode.

I have no idea what happened and I’m concerned it could happen again.

Thoughts?

 

[rcanboy27]

Last night while out in the desert my Mavic 3 suddenly went into a Atti mode. It was a pretty scary experience. The first thing I noticed was I couldn’t get the drone to stay in one spot for a photo, it kept drifting. Thought that was weird. A few seconds later I noticed few more alarming behaviors, my GPS map was blank, completely disengaged…only Elevation was showing, no distance, and that’s when I noticed the red banner across the top of the Fly app saying “Atti mode fly with caution”

It was a pretty stress filled journey back without my GPS that included a Force land.

So what the heck was that? I’ve researched and there’s nothing out there I could locate showing the M3 can do Atti mode.

I have no idea what happened and I’m concerned it could happen again.

Thoughts?

I am not an expert, but it sounds like your UAS lost the satellites signals for some reason, maybe the locations you were at. Here is a tip, before going into a remote location, download the map into the controller. Connect to a Wi-Fi, open the map and browse to the location you want to go to, and it will automatically save it into the controller. It won't prevent from losing the satellite signal, but at least you will be able to know where you drone at and fly back to you.

 

[rcanboy27]

Last night while out in the desert my Mavic 3 suddenly went into a Atti mode. It was a pretty scary experience. The first thing I noticed was I couldn’t get the drone to stay in one spot for a photo, it kept drifting. Thought that was weird. A few seconds later I noticed few more alarming behaviors, my GPS map was blank, completely disengaged…only Elevation was showing, no distance, and that’s when I noticed the red banner across the top of the Fly app saying “Atti mode fly with caution”

It was a pretty stress filled journey back without my GPS that included a Force land.

So what the heck was that? I’ve researched and there’s nothing out there I could locate showing the M3 can do Atti mode.

I have no idea what happened and I’m concerned it could happen again.

Thoughts?

Forgot to tell you. Practice atti mode, every time you get a chance. As you witnessed, it is not easy to control the UAS on atty mode, you never know when you will have to apply those skills to save your drone. My other theory is that you hit a dead spot, same thing happened when you are driving and lose cellphone signal. Mark that spot on your map.

 

[KS-6]

I am not an expert, but it sounds like your UAS lost the satellites signals for some reason, maybe the locations you were at. Here is a tip, before going into a remote location, download the map into the controller. Connect to a Wi-Fi, open the map and browse to the location you want to go to, and it will automatically save it into the controller. It won't prevent from losing the satellite signal, but at least you will be able to know where you drone at and fly back to you.

So if I am home in Aspen Colorado and know I am going to be flying out in BLM land near Grand Junction, I go to the map while on Wi-Fi and scroll over to GJ and it will cache it?

Also, to the OP ( Is this Charles’s brother) what controller were you on?

 

[rcanboy27]

That is correct

 

[Meta4]

my GPS map was blank

It's just a map, not a GPS map.

So what the heck was that? I’ve researched and there’s nothing out there I could locate showing the M3 can do Atti mode.

Any drone can "do Atti Mode".
Just take away the satellites and your drone is in atti mode.

I have no idea what happened and I’m concerned it could happen again.

Perhaps your recorded flight data would have some clues to help explain the incident.

Go to DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help
Follow the instructions there to upload your flight record from your phone or tablet.
That will give you a detailed report of the flight.
Come back and post a link to the report it gives you.
Or .. just post the txt file here.

maybe the locations you were at.

There are no locations that have no GPS (Global Positioning System) satellites visible.

Connect to a Wi-Fi, open the map and browse to the location you want to go to, and it will automatically save it into the controller. It won't prevent from losing the satellite signal, but at least you will be able to know where you drone at and fly back to you.

If the drone had no GPS reception, the app won't be able to plot the drone's position on the map.

My other theory is that you hit a dead spot, same thing happened when you are driving and lose cellphone signal. Mark that spot on your map.

There's no such thing as a GPS "dead spot".

 

[SkyeHigh]

Last night while out in the desert my Mavic 3 suddenly went into a Atti mode. It was a pretty scary experience. The first thing I noticed was I couldn’t get the drone to stay in one spot for a photo, it kept drifting. Thought that was weird. A few seconds later I noticed few more alarming behaviors, my GPS map was blank, completely disengaged…only Elevation was showing, no distance, and that’s when I noticed the red banner across the top of the Fly app saying “Atti mode fly with caution”

It was a pretty stress filled journey back without my GPS that included a Force land.

So what the heck was that? I’ve researched and there’s nothing out there I could locate showing the M3 can do Atti mode.

I have no idea what happened and I’m concerned it could happen again.

Thoughts?

The GPS receiver built into the aircraft is an independent device with its own processor and provides a very simple text stream with the resulting GPS data being passed to the aircraft’s flight controller.

Loss of GPS in a wide open space can be as simple as the receiver not operating correctly or producing invalid data or the flight controller not interpreting the data correctly.

The flight logs will show the GPS data the flight controller was using, or not, which may be the case here.

A power down/restart would likely resolve this situation unless there is a permanent fault.

 

[RobW01]

Forgot to tell you. Practice atti mode, every time you get a chance. As you witnessed, it is not easy to control the UAS on atty mode, you never know when you will have to apply those skills to save your drone. My other theory is that you hit a dead spot, same thing happened when you are driving and lose cellphone signal. Mark that spot on your map.

How do you put a Mavic into Atti mode to practice?

 

[Ralph thompson]

Is it possible you had a compass error? I had a similar experience some years ago with an Inspire where I'd inadvertently taken off onto of an old buried metal septic tank and once up above the trees in windy conditions, all hell broke loose. The RC blurted out compass error ATTI mode repeatedly and I struggled in the wind to get it back successfully. These functions are interconnected in the control equations.

 

[HoozierDroneDaddy]

Forgot to tell you. Practice atti mode, every time you get a chance. As you witnessed, it is not easy to control the UAS on atty mode, you never know when you will have to apply those skills to save your drone. My other theory is that you hit a dead spot, same thing happened when you are driving and lose cellphone signal. Mark that spot on your map.

With earlier DJI drones, you could go in and change settings to allow switching to ATTI mode. i.e., you could change the Cine or Sport mode switch so you could switch back and forth from Norm to ATTI and fly in ATTI mode. Newer models do not let you do that. Do you have a way to switch into ATTI for the M3 for practice?

 

[Meta4]

Do you have a way to switch into ATTI for the M3 for practice?

That's not possible.

 

[HoozierDroneDaddy]

That's not possible.

That's what I was thinking. Since you said to practice in ATTI mode, thought you might have found a way. TY

 

[RobW01]

With earlier DJI drones, you could go in and change settings to allow switching to ATTI mode. i.e., you could change the Cine or Sport mode switch so you could switch back and forth from Norm to ATTI and fly in ATTI mode. Newer models do not let you do that. Do you have a way to switch into ATTI for the M3 for practice?

Yes, you could go in and out of Atti on the Phantoms via a manual switch. Wasn’t aware that any of the Mavics allowed this.

 

[HoozierDroneDaddy]

Yes, you could go in and out of Atti on the Phantoms via a manual switch. Wasn’t aware that any of the Mavics allowed this.

Yes, you could go in though DJI Assistant and change parameters for the mode switch. I set my Sport mode to ATTI. You could change each position to the desired mode.

Here is a video showing how to change it on the Mavic 2.

 

[RobW01]

Yes, you could go in though DJI Assistant and change parameters for the mode switch. I set my Sport mode to ATTI. You could change each position to the desired mode.

Here is a video showing how to change it on the Mavic 2.

Thanks. I’ve been wondering if Aussie training schools were able to use Mavics instead of Phantoms for students seeking their Remote Pilots Licence (RePL). As part of the official flight test that is required for the RePL, you must be able to demonstrate that you can control the drone in Atti.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Yes, you could go in though DJI Assistant and change parameters for the mode switch. I set my Sport mode to ATTI. You could change each position to the desired mode.

Here is a video showing how to change it on the Mavic 2.

Great, but better hope you don't need Sport mode after that, to fight the wind on the way home! Tripod/Cine mode might be a better choice for everyday use, if you don't mind giving up that mode setting. Does it still work on the Mavic 3, rather than the Mavic 2?

 

[HoozierDroneDaddy]

Great, but better hope you don't need Sport mode after that, to fight the wind on the way home! Tripod/Cine mode might be a better choice for everyday use, if you don't mind giving up that mode setting. Does it still work on the Mavic 3, rather than the Mavic 2?

Actually I did change it to Tripod at a later date just for that reason. At this point, I do not know if it is available for the M3. I had planned to look into it hear in the near future.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Actually I did change it to Tripod at a later date just for that reason. At this point, I do not know if it is available for the M3. I had planned to look into it hear in the near future.

Cool! It's a cool capability, but it needs to be used appropriately, depending upon conditions and objectives. I have used DroneHacks to disable the Forced Auto land on my Mavic 3, so I am sure the Mode Setting parameter change is still availble on the Mavic 3 with the free version of DroneHacks.

 

[RobW01]

Great, but better hope you don't need Sport mode after that, to fight the wind on the way home! Tripod/Cine mode might be a better choice for everyday use, if you don't mind giving up that mode setting. Does it still work on the Mavic 3, rather than the Mavic 2?

Go out in standard mode into the wind and harness the speed of the wind in Atti on the return.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Go out in standard mode into the wind and harness the speed of the wind in Atti on the return.

Indeed! Top speeds well in excess of the max speed have been achieved that way!