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Mavic Air 2 "RC signal interference"

Dincena

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Hey all fairly new to the drone game was hoping you guys could give me some info as to what happened in my situation, been trying to get a hold of DJI support but no response yet im hoping it was due to the long holiday weekend. I was flying my mavic air 2 in a park near me (Authorization zone) it was connected to 18 antennas, i took off from along side the park and flew over a nearby river hoping to get some nice shots of the water and park. The drone couldn't have been more than a half a mile away from me when i receieved a message on my phone/control "RC signal interference" i lost total control of the drone. RTH button did not work and i could not control the drone at all. The drone started slowly decending into the river and there was absolutely nothing i could do. I watched my 3 day old mavic air 2 slowly land into the water and my heart was hurting. Any info on what could have been the cause of this? Also would DJI issue me a replacement? I purchased DJI care refresh along with the drone. This happened on saturday night 5/23 at around 11pm and my whole weekend was ruined from it. I have not slept since. Any info is appreciated. Thank you all for taking the time to read. I have attached a photo of the incident
 

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sorry for your loss,


you can see how to retrieve the flight logs and attach here for analysis.

however just looking from your screen shot, you have somehow set the home point in the water, so the drone just faithfully executed the return to home in the water.

there could be many reasons for this, for example you manually set the home point in the water, or you took off too soon after power up and by the time the drone gets a good satellite lock and set the home point automatically, it was on the water.

you can hear the audible "home point has been updated, please check it on the map" actually it is important to pay attention and do as it says, ie check the home point to see if it will auto land at the right place.

as for the drone losing RC signal and connection there could be many reasons, some of them are like you point the rc at the wrong place, there was obstruction, or simply there really was RF interference. none of those directly cause your drone to land in water. they cause your drone to return and land at home point.

if you manage to retrieve it and have refresh then you can claim another one, but if not, please read the entire manual and hope you take it is a lesson.
 
sorry for your loss,


you can see how to retrieve the flight logs and attach here for analysis.

however just looking from your screen shot, you have somehow set the home point in the water, so the drone just faithfully executed the return to home in the water.

there could be many reasons for this, for example you manually set the home point in the water, or you took off too soon after power up and by the time the drone gets a good satellite lock and set the home point automatically, it was on the water.

you can hear the audible "home point has been updated, please check it on the map" actually it is important to pay attention and do as it says, ie check the home point to see if it will auto land at the right place.

as for the drone losing RC signal and connection there could be many reasons, some of them are like you point the rc at the wrong place, there was obstruction, or simply there really was RF interference. none of those directly cause your drone to land in water. they cause your drone to return and land at home point.

if you manage to retrieve it and have refresh then you can claim another one, but if not, please read the entire manual and hope you take it is a lesson.
Thank you for all the info. I took off and let it hover for a few seconds and heard the "homepoint has been updated". I will try and post the flight logs so you can see some more detail of the flight.
 
I will try and post the flight logs so you can see some more detail of the flight.
Here are some simple instructions.
It should only take 1-2 minutes and will give an explanation of what happened.
How far from the water was your launch point?

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.
 
Here are some simple instructions.
It should only take 1-2 minutes and will give an explanation of what happened.
How far from the water was your launch point?

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.
My launch point was about 20ft from the river it landed in
 
your flight logs are in dji\dji.go.v5\FlightRecord folder if on android

then follow Meta4's attached instructions.
 
It was set to return to the controller but it couldn't detect where it was

Not return to the homepoint near the bank of the river but to the remote controller's location which cannot be fixed ? Is it possible that the GPS of your phone is not working ?

Anyway, posting the flight log will help a lot in identifying the reason.
 
The Home point is set at take-off based on the MA2’s location, not the RC. If you decide to update your Home Point while in flight, it will be set to wherever the drone is at that time, not where the RC is; your flight log will show if this action took place.

unfortunately, if this turns out to be the case and you can’t recover your drone, Care Refresh won’t work as they always insist on receiving the drone before replacing it. However, if your flight logs show that you correctly recorded the Home Point and didn’t change it, I think you’d have a good claim for a warrantee replacement.
 
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Thank you all for your help/info
I have attached a link to the flight log


Firstly, you misunderstood the messages, there were no connection signal problems. You did take off, however, with no GPS lock, with the aircraft operating in a mixture of VPS and ATTI modes. Unfortunately that also means that the aircraft did not know its location, and did not know that it was in an authorization zone for La Guardia. After it achieved a position lock the lack of authorization kicked in and it transitioned to the autoland mode AirportAvoidLanding, which was not cancellable.
 
Thank you all for your help/info
I have attached a link to the flight log
Some additional info ...

You launched from where tree cover blocked the sky and prevented you getting GPS (and the airport NFZ notificantion).
You flew a little way (and the drone may have drifted) and climbed to 50 feet before acquiring GPS 38 seconds after launching.
When the drone got good GPS after 38 seconds, it recorded a home point.
This was not where you launched from and was about 45 feet out from the river bank, over the water.
This home point was the only one set for the flight.
You did not reset the home point to the controller's location.

If you the flight had proceeded normally and you relied on RTH to bring it back, it would have tried to land 45 feet from the bank of the river, unless you cancelled the RTH and resumed control.
 
Sorry, but unfortunately it looks like you are going to learn a very expensive lesson the hardway!

the only good thing that can come out of this is, assuming you decide to purchase a replacement, I doubt you’ll make the same mistakes again. This sport is great but SMALL steps are needed in the early days of learning it.
 
This was a very informative thread. A hard lesson to stomach. I can imagine the sick feeling of watching your investment slowly sink into that river. Hopefully many of us learn from this experience as well.
 
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