Mavic Air Fly-away

[bat123]

Color me impressed, I have had my Mavic for a couple of weeks now and am still practicing on my Syma X5C and waiting for the right time to go. I have picked up some very useful info here and I'd like to thank you all.

 

[normr]

When I was a beginner, I read my manuals, watched every video I could find, read countless posts here and on the DJI forums to understand how my craft functioned and how the software worked what I needed to do before my flight and how to read my instrumentation and when I did take to the air, I made sure I was in beginner mode and then learned every aspect of the program. Plus I use an app to help tell me if it’s safe to fly in addition to common sense observations like looking at trees and bushes, flags to see wind conditions, heck even grabbing
A handful of grass and throwing it in the air to see ground level wind direction and strength.

I didn’t just charge up my batteries and go outside and take off and send it up to 100’s of feet.

I’m sorry you experienced what happened but it seems to be the typical pattern we constantly are seeing here with pilots not taking this hobby seriously and learning all the aspects of proper drone operation.

 

[Montypaks]

So @sar104, how could this anomaly have been prevented? Or should we just accept unpredictable gremlins caused it?

 

[Kevjones777]

So @sar104, how could this anomaly have been prevented? Or should we just accept unpredictable gremlins caused it?[/QUOTE
No someone needs to determine exactly what happened and why and how to fix and or prevent.

 

[sar104]

So @sar104, how could this anomaly have been prevented? Or should we just accept unpredictable gremlins caused it?

These issues are generally the result of taking off from a location with a distorted magnetic field, due to rebar in concrete, iron structures, or other ferromagnetic materials in close proximity. Since the magnetometers can only measure the field that they are in, there is no way to prevent that other than to avoid such locations and/or notice that the aircraft direction arrow is pointing incorrectly before takeoff.

 

[Zaheed]

The OP messed up here but it's about time someone admitted Mavic Air is not half the drone Mavic Pro was/is, and that also plays a not so insignificant role here. All the marketing and YT BS reviewers fooled people just for making money. I even know fools that sold MP to buy MA thinking it was an upgrade.

Dual compass and OccuSync connectivity of MP would have made this incident far less likely, if not impossible. I'm not saying OP shouldn't have been careful but you can get away with much more with MP - it's way more forgiving. For example, the signal wouldn't have been lost so early - would have allowed OP a lot more time to course correct manually instead of RTH kicking in because of loss of signal at trivial distance. Also, I cannot emphasize how big a deal dual compass in MP is. Remember the old days of Phantom when flyaways were a common thing, majority of those cases were because of compass issues. I've always been super careful - calibrating compass, checking readings, watching out for potential interference sources - wasn't good enough several times. Then came MP, all problems were gone. Dual compass is almost magical in terms of reliability compared to what you can achieve by calibrating often and being careful with one compass no matter how hard you try.

Opting for Mavic Air is going backwards on the amazing advances with Mavic Pro, by a long long way - in certain aspects nearly going back to the days of older Phantoms with compass and range issues, and so it's not a surprise that the nearly forgotten flyaways are again becoming a thing now with Mavic Air.

If you fly indoors, buy Spark. If you fly outdoors, buy MP. If you need better camera, buy P4P/Inspire. MA is merely a marketing gimmick that's good for nothing.

 

[sar104]

The OP messed up here but it's about time someone admitted Mavic Air is not half the drone Mavic Pro was/is, and that also plays a not so insignificant role here. All the marketing and YT BS reviewers fooled people just for making money. I even know fools that sold MP to buy MA thinking it was an upgrade.

Dual compass and OccuSync connectivity of MP would have made this incident far less likely, if not impossible. I'm not saying OP shouldn't have been careful but you can get away with much more with MP - it's way more forgiving. For example, the signal wouldn't have been lost so early - would have allowed OP a lot more time to course correct manually instead of RTH kicking in because of loss of signal at trivial distance. Also, I cannot emphasize how big a deal dual compass in MP is. Remember the old days of Phantom when flyaways were a common thing, majority of those cases were because of compass issues. I've always been super careful - calibrating compass, checking readings, watching out for potential interference sources - wasn't good enough several times. Then came MP, all problems were gone. Dual compass is almost magical in terms of reliability compared to what you can achieve by calibrating often and being careful with one compass no matter how hard you try.

Opting for Mavic Air is going backwards on the amazing advances with Mavic Pro, by a long long way - in certain aspects nearly going back to the days of older Phantoms with compass and range issues, and so it's not a surprise that the nearly forgotten flyaways are again becoming a thing now with Mavic Air.

If you fly indoors, buy Spark. If you fly outdoors, buy MP. If you need better camera, buy P4P/Inspire. MA is merely a marketing gimmick that's good for nothing.

The Mavic Air has dual IMU and compass.

 

[OldBlueHeron]

The OP messed up here but it's about time someone admitted Mavic Air is not half the drone Mavic Pro was/is, and that also plays a not so insignificant role here. All the marketing and YT BS reviewers fooled people just for making money. I even know fools that sold MP to buy MA thinking it was an upgrade.

Dual compass and OccuSync connectivity of MP would have made this incident far less likely, if not impossible. I'm not saying OP shouldn't have been careful but you can get away with much more with MP - it's way more forgiving. For example, the signal wouldn't have been lost so early - would have allowed OP a lot more time to course correct manually instead of RTH kicking in because of loss of signal at trivial distance. Also, I cannot emphasize how big a deal dual compass in MP is. Remember the old days of Phantom when flyaways were a common thing, majority of those cases were because of compass issues. I've always been super careful - calibrating compass, checking readings, watching out for potential interference sources - wasn't good enough several times. Then came MP, all problems were gone. Dual compass is almost magical in terms of reliability compared to what you can achieve by calibrating often and being careful with one compass no matter how hard you try.

Opting for Mavic Air is going backwards on the amazing advances with Mavic Pro, by a long long way - in certain aspects nearly going back to the days of older Phantoms with compass and range issues, and so it's not a surprise that the nearly forgotten flyaways are again becoming a thing now with Mavic Air.

If you fly indoors, buy Spark. If you fly outdoors, buy MP. If you need better camera, buy P4P/Inspire. MA is merely a marketing gimmick that's good for nothing.

I own both and you are simply wrong. I don't know how long you've owned a Mavic, but in the early days people were losing them as well. Mostly due to pilot error for lack of precautions taken. Duel compasses and all. The Mavic Air is a small drone. If you take one apart you will notice that it's filled to the gills with tech. I think it would be hard to fit a secondary compass in this particular quad. The Spark only has one compass. I've flown both of these drones for countless hours and never had an issue because precautions and preparation were taken. I love the MP, I really do. I still fly mine a ton. It's an OG, but people need to get over their insecurities or complexes when it comes to comparing these two quads. They are both fantastic pieces of kit.

 

[sar104]

I own both and you are simply wrong. I don't know how long you've owned a Mavic, but in the early days people were losing them as well. Mostly due to pilot error for lack of precautions taken. Duel compasses and all. The Mavic Air is a small drone. If you take one apart you will notice that it's filled to the gills with tech. I think it would be hard to fit a secondary compass in this particular quad. The Spark also only has one compass. I've flown both of these drones for countless hours and never had an issue because precautions and preparation were taken. I love the MP, I really do. I still fly mine a ton. It's an OG, but people need to get over their insecurities or complexes when it comes to comparing these two quads. They are both fantastic pieces of kit.

It was pretty clear that the advent of dual IMUs and dual compasses did improve things, and I'm sure that DJI would not have incurred the added complexity and cost without some measurable benefits. If you look at flight logs enough you will notice that often the FC switches between them to avoid problems.

But, as I mentioned above, the Air has both dual IMUs and dual compasses, so the argument there is moot.

 

[Zaheed]

The Mavic Air has dual IMU and compass.

No it doesn't have dual compass. Please don't blindly falls for the reviews, take time to learn things.

 

[ac0j]

*snap*

Now its going to get real up in here!

 

[Zaheed]

I own both and you are simply wrong. I don't know how long you've owned a Mavic, but in the early days people were losing them as well. Mostly due to pilot error for lack of precautions taken. Duel compasses and all. The Mavic Air is a small drone. If you take one apart you will notice that it's filled to the gills with tech. I think it would be hard to fit a secondary compass in this particular quad. The Spark also only has one compass. I've flown both of these drones for countless hours and never had an issue because precautions and preparation were taken. I love the MP, I really do. I still fly mine a ton. It's an OG, but people need to get over their insecurities or complexes when it comes to comparing these two quads. They are both fantastic pieces of kit.

That fact that you didn't run into any issues proves just about nothing - many many people did. I've been into the hobby of building quad/hexa/octacoptere for almost a decade now, from long before DJI existed. Not having any issues in 100 flights in 100 places gives you almost zero assurance that you won't run into fatal issues in your 101st flight in a new location. People often mistake good GPS signal alone as the key; a good compass reading is just as fundamental. But it's relatively easier to have reliable GPS functionality, compass reliability is much harder to achieve since it's prone to calibration/interference issues. That's why redundancy makes a HUGE difference in overall reliability when it comes to compass.

I do agree with you that Mavic Air is too small to pack 2 compasses far enough apart to make the redundancy fruitful. But that doesn't help the fact that it seriously cripples the reliability - specially compared to something like Mavic Pro, which isn't much bigger anyway.

 

[Benmoore1234]

This is the official line from DJI:

Visual Inertial Odometry (VIO)

A combination of VIO technology and the new positioning algorithm has doubled the Mavic Air's precision positioning. VIO technology calculates the speed and attitude of the aircraft in real-time and locates it, making dual-camera attitude measurements while hovering or flying at any speed. The working range of the vision positioning system is now 0.5 to 30 meters. With VIO technology, the Mavic Air hovers more precisely indoors and responds better to complex environments with finer control stick movement.


3D Map Building

Equipped with an advanced sensing system, the Mavic Air locates itself with accuracy and precision. By processing data from the seven cameras at the front, bottom, and rear of the body, alongside the advanced infrared sensors and IMU, the Mavic Air will construct a 3D map by sensing the environment in real time, which significantly improves overall flight safety.
Advanced Pilot Assistance Systems (APAS)

APAS is the result of DJI’s extensive research on flight path calculation. Users can keep flying forwards and backwards, and APAS will plan an appropriate flight path to bypass obstacles automatically.

Multiple Redundancies

Besides dual IMUs, FlightAutonomy 2.0 has more redundant modules to increase the Mavic Air’s safety level. The Vision Compass will assist the navigation system to estimate flight direction when the compass experiences interference. When only one direction of the front, bottom, or rear vision systems is functioning normally, the aircraft will still position itself successfully. There are two sets of sensor fusion algorithms based on two independent hardware platforms. When an error occurs to one set of algorithms, the aircraft will switch to the other pair seamlessly to resume normal functionality.

Just a copy and paste from another post

 

[Zaheed]

It was pretty clear that the advent of dual IMUs and dual compasses did improve things, and I'm sure that DJI would not have incurred the added complexity and cost without some measurable benefits. If you look at flight logs enough you will notice that often the FC switches between them to avoid problems.

But, as I mentioned above, the Air has both dual IMUs and dual compasses, so the argument there is moot.

And like I mentioned, it only has ONE compass (for the real definition of compass, not as per some marketing BS wording).
Why not just check the Mavic Air sensor readings yourself instead of listening to what people tell you?

 

[Zaheed]

This is the official line from DJI:

Visual Inertial Odometry (VIO)

A combination of VIO technology and the new positioning algorithm has doubled the Mavic Air's precision positioning. VIO technology calculates the speed and attitude of the aircraft in real-time and locates it, making dual-camera attitude measurements while hovering or flying at any speed. The working range of the vision positioning system is now 0.5 to 30 meters. With VIO technology, the Mavic Air hovers more precisely indoors and responds better to complex environments with finer control stick movement.


3D Map Building

Equipped with an advanced sensing system, the Mavic Air locates itself with accuracy and precision. By processing data from the seven cameras at the front, bottom, and rear of the body, alongside the advanced infrared sensors and IMU, the Mavic Air will construct a 3D map by sensing the environment in real time, which significantly improves overall flight safety.
Advanced Pilot Assistance Systems (APAS)

APAS is the result of DJI’s extensive research on flight path calculation. Users can keep flying forwards and backwards, and APAS will plan an appropriate flight path to bypass obstacles automatically.

Multiple Redundancies

Besides dual IMUs, FlightAutonomy 2.0 has more redundant modules to increase the Mavic Air’s safety level. The Vision Compass will assist the navigation system to estimate flight direction when the compass experiences interference. When only one direction of the front, bottom, or rear vision systems is functioning normally, the aircraft will still position itself successfully. There are two sets of sensor fusion algorithms based on two independent hardware platforms. When an error occurs to one set of algorithms, the aircraft will switch to the other pair seamlessly to resume normal functionality.

Just a copy and paste from another post

"Vision compass" is NOT a real compass. That is marketing BS. Just check the sensor reading for your Mavic Air - you'll see there's reading from its dual IMU sensors but just ONE compass.

 

[Prismatic]

... Please don't blindly falls [sic] for the reviews, take time to learn things. ... Why not just check the Mavic Air sensor readings yourself instead of listening to what people tell you?

Setting aside your supercilious tone, the credentials you claim--if true--suggest you could offer useful insights here.

But an ad hominem attack on the technical competence of @sar104--a highly skilled and valued contributor to this forum--puts you in a bad light. A very bad light.

Incidentally, the approach you've taken so far will never earn you the respect you seem to crave.

 

[sar104]

No it doesn't have dual compass. Please don't blindly falls for the reviews, take time to learn things.

I'm not going by reviews at all. I'm going by the DAT log files that clearly show separate data streams to the FC from two IMUs and two 3-axis magnetometers. Perhaps you could share how you think you know that there is only one 3-axis magnetometer?

 

[Jameslavis]

If it was a half step it would have been sold as such. Related MacBook Air to pro strategies.

Mavic is running their next gen tech which you will likely see a variation of in the MP2. Do your checks and fly with caution and it comes back. Maybe the air is less forgiving to noobs

 

[Zaheed]

I'm not going by reviews at all. I'm going by the DAT log files that clearly show separate data streams to the FC from two IMUs and two 3-axis magnetometers. Perhaps you could share how you think you know that there is only one 3-axis magnetometer?

Please tell me where do you see 2 compass readings in my attached screenshots of Mavic Air vs Mavic Pro?
Anyone with Mavic Air and/or Pro can check themselves and compare with my screenshot to verify whether you're right or me.

 

[Zaheed]

Setting aside your supercilious tone, the credentials you claim--if true--suggest you could offer useful insights here.

But an ad hominem attack on the technical competence of @sar104--a highly skilled and valued contributor to this forum--puts you in a bad light. A very bad light.

Incidentally, the approach you've taken so far will never earn you the respect you seem to crave.

Interesting thought. But as you'll see above, I didn't attack anyone - merely stated the truth. Then it's him who attacked my statement with falsehood. Doesn't matter if someone is highly skilled or even the president, if they use falsehood to make incorrect claims, they are still wrong.