Mavic 4 Pro - Obstacle Avoidance Issues

[TheGavAsh]

I’m going to try some more low flying, just need to find an appropriate open space as LA doesn’t have a lot of them.

I have done multiple recalibrations of compass and IMU which hasn’t helped. If there is a different calibration to try let me know!

Many in this thread had a production date from March or April. Mine was last month (08/25).

 

[PINEBARON]

I’m going to try some more low flying, just need to find an appropriate open space as LA doesn’t have a lot of them.

I have done multiple recalibrations of compass and IMU which hasn’t helped. If there is a different calibration to try let me know!

DJI support was super unhelpful for me, they basically said return it to seller and get a new one because they can’t do USA repairs due to shortages

Did you do the compass calibration in a vertical figure of 8 plane, thats the right way to do it. I'm not saying thats the answer however anything is worth a try.

 

[TheGavAsh]

Did you do the compass calibration in a vertical figure of 8 plane, thats the right way to do it. I'm not saying thats the answer however anything is worth a try.

Definitely agree, I want to try everything cause sending it back and buying a new one with tariffs and shipping times is a real pain.

Haven’t heard of the vertical figure of 8 method for compass cal, what’s the process there?

 

[PINEBARON]

Definitely agree, I want to try everything cause sending it back and buying a new one with tariffs and shipping times is a real pain.

Haven’t heard of the vertical figure of 8 method for compass cal, what’s the process there?

Google 'dji mavic 4 pro compass calibration in vertical direction' and take your pick. My apologies; I should have said figure 8 compass calibration for the RC2 or RC Pro 2 controller.
Physical Mavic 4 Pro compass calibration is rotate the drone 360 degrees horizontally and then 360 degrees vertically with the lens facing down.

 

[TheGavAsh]

Google 'dji mavic 4 pro compass calibration in vertical direction' and take your pick. My apologies; I should have said figure 8 compass calibration for the RC2 or RC Pro 2 controller.
Physical Mavic 4 Pro compass calibration is rotate the drone 360 degrees horizontally and then 360 degrees vertically with the lens facing down.

Yep done that.

Did the low flying for a while and no success.
Interestingly when OA Braking is on and it’s 3-4ft from the ground, it won’t fly faster than 6mph (normal mode). When I turn Braking off, it goes its regular top speed.

I think it’s just a defective unit honestly. I think I’ll have to return it and replace.

 

[PINEBARON]

Yep done that.

Did the low flying for a while and no success.
Interestingly when OA Braking is on and it’s 3-4ft from the ground, it won’t fly faster than 6mph (normal mode). When I turn Braking off, it goes its regular top speed.

I think it’s just a defective unit honestly. I think I’ll have to return it and replace.

For low level flying either fly in Sports Mode where OA is disabled or:

• Open the DJI Fly app and connect to your drone.
• Tap the three dots (...) in the top-right corner of the camera view.
• Go to the Safety tab.
• Scroll down to Advanced Safety Settings.
• Find the Vision Positioning and Obstacle Sensing option and toggle it off. This will disable both the VPS and obstacle sensing system.

Be aware this also disables landing protection.

 

[MS Coast]

Interestingly when OA Braking is on and it’s 3-4ft from the ground, it won’t fly faster than 6mph (normal mode). When I turn Braking off, it goes its regular top speed.

That's normal behavior for the model. There's been a new thread posted about it during the past few days. Flying in sport mode removes the speed limit while close to the ground.

Is the spurious braking problem still happening only when flying to the right? Have you confirmed that it happens only in Cine or Normal mode and not in Sport mode?

Having the braking setting too high can cause some abrupt behavior when changing throttle settings quickly. What value do you have it set to?

 

[LapetusOne]

An update to my case, in case it might be helpful to anyone.
After contacting dji support, they suggested to send the unit back to them for inspection.
Before doing so, I thought to try one more time to self-calibrate the sensors.
DJI support suggested that I should perform a low-flight altitude on an area with obstacles and particular something above the aircraft, flying the aircraft on four directions for 2-3 minutes. This did not help at all as it kept detecting false obstacles.

What DID help and fixed the issue was this:
I went to an open area without obstacles (an empty football field) and performed a low altitude flight (2-3m over the ground), flying the Mavic 4 Pro in a cross-like pattern front/back/left/right with obstacle avoidance set to off (not bypass nor brake). The flight was less than 5 minutes (3-4 minutes) and after performing the cross-like flight pattern, I've landed and powered off the aircraft.

This was done 3 times in sequence.

After that, the sensors no longer detect false obstacles, the drone flights fine with either bypass or brake obstacle avoidance action and I can perform automated flights (Mastershots, Waypoints, etc) without issues on the same areas that previously was not possible (in these same areas, the Mavic 3 can do them without issues).

In any case, that's what I did and now the aircraft is working perfectly.
Hope this helps someone.

View attachment 184264

Ok, I just did this twice and it did not work for me. Am I missing something?

I flew another M4P two months ago and it did not exhibit this issue whatsoever.

 

[LapetusOne]

Ok, I just did this twice and it did not work for me. Am I missing something?

I flew another M4P two months ago and it did not exhibit this issue whatsoever.

Here’s some more info on the issue. The problem happens from 0-20’ AGL. Above 20AGL there is no issue.

Also, there are no yellow or red warning arcs present when it happens.

 

[MS Coast]

Here’s some more info on the issue. The problem happens from 0-20’ AGL. Above 20AGL there is no issue.

Also, there are no yellow or red warning arcs present when it happens.

I observed it at 80- 150'. It resolved after flying low over a field in no particular pattern fo 15 minutes or so.

 

[LapetusOne]

I observed it at 80- 150'. It resolved after flying low over a field in no particular pattern fo 15 minutes or so.

How fast did you fly the pattern? Full speed or slow?

 

[LapetusOne]

Yep done that.

Did the low flying for a while and no success.
Interestingly when OA Braking is on and it’s 3-4ft from the ground, it won’t fly faster than 6mph (normal mode). When I turn Braking off, it goes its regular top speed.

I think it’s just a defective unit honestly. I think I’ll have to return it and replace.

Did you resolve the issue or did you return the drone?

 

[LapetusOne]

An update to my case, in case it might be helpful to anyone.
After contacting dji support, they suggested to send the unit back to them for inspection.
Before doing so, I thought to try one more time to self-calibrate the sensors.
DJI support suggested that I should perform a low-flight altitude on an area with obstacles and particular something above the aircraft, flying the aircraft on four directions for 2-3 minutes. This did not help at all as it kept detecting false obstacles.

What DID help and fixed the issue was this:
I went to an open area without obstacles (an empty football field) and performed a low altitude flight (2-3m over the ground), flying the Mavic 4 Pro in a cross-like pattern front/back/left/right with obstacle avoidance set to off (not bypass nor brake). The flight was less than 5 minutes (3-4 minutes) and after performing the cross-like flight pattern, I've landed and powered off the aircraft.

This was done 3 times in sequence.

After that, the sensors no longer detect false obstacles, the drone flights fine with either bypass or brake obstacle avoidance action and I can perform automated flights (Mastershots, Waypoints, etc) without issues on the same areas that previously was not possible (in these same areas, the Mavic 3 can do them without issues).

In any case, that's what I did and now the aircraft is working perfectly.
Hope this helps someone.

View attachment 184264

What speed did you fly this pattern? Full throttle, medium, slow?

 

[MS Coast]

How fast did you fly the pattern? Full speed or slow?

Normal mode. No particular speed, everything from hover to full throttle.

 

[Mavicthemaveric]

Yep, got a bad Mavic 4 from S. Korea on ebay also. Forward obstacle avoidance causes braking every few meters with no objects nearby at ant altitude. It does not brake sometimes when it should. Return to home is off by 20 meters.

The a-hole retailer in S. Korea says I pay for the return shipping and they won't give a full refund because it's opened.

Contacted DJI who had me troubleshoot and try to calibrate OA by flying at a few meters forward and backward for a few minutes. Tried several times with no change in malfunction. DJI says it needs repair, took my serial number, and has now ghosted me. This has been going on for 10 days and I'm severely irritated.

I did buy this on ebay and purchased the Allstate warranty but that does not take effect until after 30 days even though they advertise the drone is covered as soon as received, absolute bs!

All this is caused by Skydio hiring a special interest group to legally bribe NY Senator Kristin Gillibrand, to ban DJI from the US.

Based on my experience and what I'm reading in the forums DO NOT BUY A MAVIC 4 PRO FROM OVERSEAS!

I just noticed a US retailer on Amazon selling the pro combo for about $2,900, and if you buy it with Prime and it's defective, you can just send it back at no cost right away, per amazon policy.

 

[MS Coast]

The a-hole retailer in S. Korea says I pay for the return shipping and they won't give a full refund because it's opened.

Did they change the return policy after you bought the drone, or are they just applying the policy posted at the time of the sale?

 

[iceman77]

Yep, got a bad Mavic 4 from S. Korea on ebay also. Forward obstacle avoidance causes braking every few meters with no objects nearby at ant altitude. It does not brake sometimes when it should. Return to home is off by 20 meters.

The a-hole retailer in S. Korea says I pay for the return shipping and they won't give a full refund because it's opened.

Contacted DJI who had me troubleshoot and try to calibrate OA by flying at a few meters forward and backward for a few minutes. Tried several times with no change in malfunction. DJI says it needs repair, took my serial number, and has now ghosted me. This has been going on for 10 days and I'm severely irritated.

I did buy this on ebay and purchased the Allstate warranty but that does not take effect until after 30 days even though they advertise the drone is covered as soon as received, absolute bs!

All this is caused by Skydio hiring a special interest group to legally bribe NY Senator Kristin Gillibrand, to ban DJI from the US.

Based on my experience and what I'm reading in the forums DO NOT BUY A MAVIC 4 PRO FROM OVERSEAS!

I just noticed a US retailer on Amazon selling the pro combo for about $2,900, and if you buy it with Prime and it's defective, you can just send it back at no cost right away, per amazon policy.

Man, I am very sorry to hear what you are going through. I purchased my first M4P from S.Korea (eBay seller @with_us_store) drone came brand new, fully functional, but during my initial flight, RC started throwing error about OA malfunctioning. When switching to OA camera views, it was showing blank, black screen, for all OA cameras. Drone was flying fine, but no OA functionality at all. I tried to upgrade/downgrade firmware, no help. Contacted DJI support and after sending them logs, they instructed me to send the drone back for repair/replacement. Now, since drone was purchased in S.Korea, with no support for this model here in US, I was instructed to send the drone back to DJI in S.Korea. I contacted my eBay seller about this, explained the situation, he was super nice, sent me a prepaid shipping label with FedEx, sent the drone back (with all accessories it came with), once they received it, they sent it further to DJI for repair/replacement. I was able to trace the repair process with DJI support myself. They received the drone, the very same day, they shipped a brand new replacement back to my Korean contact, once he received it, he shipped it to me via FedEx. It was quite a lengthy process, close to 3 weeks or so, not talking about all those nerves I had to go through. But I did not pay a single penny out of my pocket and received a brand new replacement. I created a thread about this here you can read about my ordeal if you want to. My new replacement drone works like a charm, and I am a happy M4P owner now.

 

[PyroProdigy]

Man, I am very sorry to hear what you are going through. I purchased my first M4P from S.Korea (eBay seller @with_us_store) drone came brand new, fully functional, but during my initial flight, RC started throwing error about OA malfunctioning. When switching to OA camera views, it was showing blank, black screen, for all OA cameras. Drone was flying fine, but no OA functionality at all. I tried to upgrade/downgrade firmware, no help. Contacted DJI support and after sending them logs, they instructed me to send the drone back for repair/replacement. Now, since drone was purchased in S.Korea, with no support for this model here in US, I was instructed to send the drone back to DJI in S.Korea. I contacted my eBay seller about this, explained the situation, he was super nice, sent me a prepaid shipping label with FedEx, sent the drone back (with all accessories it came with), once they received it, they sent it further to DJI for repair/replacement. I was able to trace the repair process with DJI support myself. They received the drone, the very same day, they shipped a brand new replacement back to my Korean contact, once he received it, he shipped it to me via FedEx. It was quite a lengthy process, close to 3 weeks or so, not talking about all those nerves I had to go through. But I did not pay a single penny out of my pocket and received a brand new replacement. I created a thread about this here you can read about my ordeal if you want to. My new replacement drone works like a charm, and I am a happy M4P owner now.

The reason he was so nice is that you could've and should have filed a return request with eBay and then got your money back for that drone. Or you should have told him you'll send that one back and to send you a new one. On eBay, if a new item has issues within 1 month you can request a full return. He/she sold you a defective drone that had issues on the maiden flight.

 

[LapetusOne]

Question for those who did the flying cross calibration.
What speed can you maintain at 10' AGL flying forward with full throttle in Normal mode?