Mavic Air ascends on its own without touching remote

[MavicAirRock]

G’day folks
Question - haven’t flown my Mavic Air for a number of months now and last time I did, it was acting a little weird like landing a little hard when I brought it down.

Then yesterday I took it out, launched it off my large flat pelican style storage case and the voice said it was in “atti mode”. I waited for GPS to kick in however it didn’t seem to very quickly. I lifted it up to maybe 5 feet off the ground and let go of joystick, however then it just started lifting on its own.
I got concerned as it was a little windy and had trees all around so to be safe, I attempted to bring it back down.
Pulling down on the sticks seemed to bring it down but not at the speed it usually would. Then I let go again and it continued to descend on its own looking like a hard landing was coming.
I powered it back up again in the air and it seemed to do the same thing again. It wasn’t drifting side to side, more up and down like.

So I didn’t risk it any further as my gut was feeling was something bad would happen if I continued to push my luck so I packed it up and went home.

Last night I did a IMU recalibration and also a remote control joystick calibration however I can’t test it out until the coming weekend.

In the meantime, I’m looking for some help / advice.
Has anyone had a similar issue and a simple fix ? Will the IMU calibration have fixed my vertical “drifting” so to speak.

 

[Meta4]

In the meantime, I’m looking for some help / advice.
Has anyone had a similar issue and a simple fix ? Will the IMU calibration have fixed my vertical “drifting” so to speak.

It's quite possible that there was nothing wrong with your drone.
Rather than recalibrating things that might have no effect, it would be better to try to identify what happened and why and work from there.
A look at the recorded flight data will show what, if anything was wrong.

To post your flight data there are a couple of options ...

1. 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 on the flight data.
Come back and post a link to the report it provides and someone might be able to analyse it and give you an understanding of the cause of the incident.
or
2. Just post the .txt file here
or
3. If you use Airdata, you can view the flight data on Airdata and post a link for the Airdata report

If you are using one of the controllers with an integrated screen, the txt files are to be found here:
Android\data\dji.go.v5\files\FlightRecord

 

[AeroJ]

If you don't wait long enough on the ground for more than sufficient GNSS signal (at least 18-20 sats), you can then lose that when you take off and couple of sats drop off for some reason, taking you under the minimum of (I want to say) 13 again, which would put you in Atti mode. But I don't think GPS is used to determine vertical position, so not sure that is even related !

Hard to speculate further without that flight log, but 1 easy thing to check / eliminate would be to look for dirt / fluff on any of the sensors on the bottom of the craft.

 

[Meta4]

If you don't wait long enough on the ground for more than sufficient GNSS signal (at least 18-20 sats), you can then lose that when you take off and couple of sats drop off for some reason, taking you under the minimum of (I want to say) 13 again, which would put you in Atti mode. But I don't think GPS is used to determine vertical position, so not sure that is even related

There is no magic number of sats that ensures proper GPS reception.
It might be 12 sometimes, but other times it might be 17 or 24 or any other number.
What you need to do is to wait until the drone tells you it has proper GPS reception and has recorded a home point.

Watch the satellite icon on screen and you'll see it change from red to yellow and when it has good GPS reception it will change to white and the number of sats isn't what's important.

 

[AeroJ]

Interesting ! I had never seen this condition...

 

[Meta4]

Interesting ! I had never seen this condition...

View attachment 178145

Here are some more

Wait for white

 

[LoudThunder]

the voice said it was in “atti mode”.

I advise every drone pilot not to take off until you have a solid GPS lock. When you take off in atti mode and the Home Point is set later, and it does not matter if it's over a tree, a building, a highway, or water (pond, lake, river, sea or ocean...), that is where it is going to return by itself if you cannot control it. I do not know what caused your issues but taking off in atti mode can only compound a problem.

 

[MA2 317]

Hello from the Crossroads of America MavicAirRock.

Hopefully you'll get it sorted out.

Post the flight log and let others look at it to see what's going on.

Welcome to the Forum.

 

[Kendallfordguy]

Welcome from Wisconsin!

 

[MARK (LI)]

Kind of grasping here, but do you use UAV Forecast? ......one of the conditions it checks for is Geomagnetic storm index....it appears as Kp in the bottom center panel ...if the Kp index exceeds 3, it says that there could be disruptions to GPS reception....I know, it is a bit of a reach.....but possible?

 

[PakNheat380]

Welcome to the forum from NW Montana

 

[Laborous]

Welcome to the forum from the beautiful woods of Maine,USA!

 

[RodPad]

Welcome to the Forum!

As Meta4 stated.
Yes flight log.

DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help

Upload and view flight logs from your DJI drones

www.phantomhelp.com

You will be Shocked what these guys pull out of the data!
REALLY

Rod ..

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

like landing a little hard when I brought it down.....................the voice said it was in “atti mode”. ..............p to maybe 5 feet off the ground and let go of joystick, however then it just started lifting on its own..................Pulling down on the sticks seemed to bring it down but not at the speed it usually would. Then I let go again and it continued to descend on its own looking like a hard landing was coming.

Meta4 is correct, the txt flight log is needed for at least the flight described above.
However, overall that sounds like a probelm with the VPS sensors to me or at least the IR side of them.

The ATTI thing might be that, whilst the drone was on the ground the drone blocked sufficient light from getting underneath the drone for VPS to work. I don't remember if my mavic 2 ( also a Go4 drone ) will take of when there is a low-light/ATTI-mode warning or if I have to authorise the take off but it does normally switch its auxillary light on almost as soon as it gets into the air.

 

[GFields]

Greetings from Birmingham Alabama USA, welcome to the forum! We look forward to hearing from you!

 

[wjkrysak]

Welcome to the forum. You will find plenty of support on this forum. We look forward to your participation and your view of the world.

 

[sarahb]

Welcome!

 

[Meta4]

Kind of grasping here, but do you use UAV Forecast? ......one of the conditions it checks for is Geomagnetic storm index....it appears as Kp in the bottom center panel ...if the Kp index exceeds 3, it says that there could be disruptions to GPS reception....I know, it is a bit of a reach.....but possible?

Yes ... it was a bit of a reach.
The potential effect of a high Kp index has never been shown to have contributed to any drone flying incidents.
A Kp of 3 is nothing and flying in Kp 5 or 6 is still fine for flying.
If the GPS location data was a metre or so out, that wouldn't have any noticeable effect on flying and definitely wouldn't cause issues with the height of the drone.

 

[SpitFire]

GREETINGS from Chicago the Windy City, welcome to the forum.
FLY SAFE & FLY SMART

 

[msinger]

one of the conditions it checks for is Geomagnetic storm index....it appears as Kp in the bottom center panel ...if the Kp index exceeds 3, it says that there could be disruptions to GPS reception....I know, it is a bit of a reach.....but possible?

It's highly unlikely as that is not a common cause of GPS related reception issues (for DJI drones at least).