Mavic drifted out of control

[gulfrider]

But that's not the question being asked - which is did the aircraft move before you instructed it to take off? It's not supposed to move, or hover, after motor start but before takeoff.

My bad. It did not move prior to take off. Motor ran and it stayed put. I had it sit on the hood of my Jeep (while parked).

 

[JDawg]

" I had it sit on the hood of my Jeep ... "

 

[jbuy41]

The same thing happened to me. It was RTH when it stopped about a foot off the ground. Took off and about hit a fence. I killed it with the sticks in and down.

 

[jbuy41]

It was a sidewalk where I took off. I had previously taken off and landed a couple of times from the same spot without a problem. It shows on the log that I pushed the stick forward, which I don,t think I did. It drifted sideways and headed toward a chain linked fence. Looks like it tried to avoid the fence before I killed it. It was lying upside down when I went to pick it up. No warning is shown concerning magnetic forces or anything.

 

[jbuy41]

When I try to attach the file, it says too large. I read it with Airdata.

 

[jbuy41]

Mavic 2 Pro, I forgot to mention.

 

[sar104]

When I try to attach the file, it says too large. I read it with Airdata.

You can share the Airdata link.

 

[ScubaBob]

are you guys afraid to post your flight logs to see if you were dumb enough to take off without allowing time for home position to be found?

There should be a requirement that in order to post anything dealing with a lost or crashed drone you MUST post your flight log. So much bandwidth and time is wasted by people repeatedly saying, "post your flight log". What we learn from 99.9% of the posted logs is that there was user error--generally dealing with high winds, failure to secure a Home Point on take-off, failure to secure the battery, etc. Gets boring after a while.

 

[gulfrider]

The same thing happened to me. It was RTH when it stopped about a foot off the ground. Took off and about hit a fence. I killed it with the sticks in and down.

Just read this great article on magnetic interference.

Verify the compass is not being negatively affected by nearby interference

Check the status message at the top of DJI GO and make sure it’s not reporting a magnetic interference. If you see this warning, that’s a sign that your drone is near some type of magnetic metal object. After moving your drone to a different location, that warning message should go away.

DJI GO does not always show a warning when the compass is being negatively affected by some type of external magnetic force. So, it’s important to always do these checks before taking off:

When your drone is on the ground at the takeoff spot, look at the map in DJI GO and verify that the red aircraft symbol is pointing in the same direction as the drone. If the drone and arrow are not both pointing in the same direction, that’s a sign that your drone is near some type of magnetic metal object.

Make sure the red aircraft symbol in DJI GO is not slowly rotating as your drone is sitting on the ground. If the red aircraft symbol is rotating, that’s a sign that your drone is near some type of magnetic metal object.

 

[rickw]

I think most people here do most of that already

 

[JDawg]

I think most people here do most of that already

Yep this is old news, but as sar104 has pointed out there is nothing in the manual explaining this which seems strange.

 

[jbuy41]

ScubaBob
How do I view my flight data with Airdata? Did it this morning and forgot what I did.

 

[Billyboy72]

I have-not had time to fly a lot lately, between work or the continuous rain that plagues the south east these past few yrs. After reading it doesnt sound like an isolated occurrence. This happened to several of you. Im curious are you all using the same firmware and did you all happen to fly on the same day or times of day.

 

[JDawg]

I have-not had time to fly a lot lately, between work or the continuous rain that plagues the south east these past few yrs. After reading it doesnt sound like an isolated occurrence. This happened to several of you. Im curious are you all using the same firmware and did you all happen to fly on the same day or times of day.

Magnetic intereference happens becasue of your launch point, not because of firmware, time of day or the KP index.

 

[EGS]

Interesting that that happened to me the last two times I took my Mavic pro in to the air. Mine happened after I launched using the slide button on the screen and selecting the prescission landing box. As soon as the drone rises and stops at about 8 ft height to hover, it starts drifting away as if it was not gps locked. I never take off until the unit gathers and connects to the available satellites and I hear the voice prompt that the home point is being updated and the screen says ready to fly on green.
Today is way too windy to attempt to fly to do more testing and record the logs to share. I too wonder what is going on specially now that I know this is not only happening to me and would like to help to get this issue addressed since I consider this a dangerous situation.
Will also be good to find out if this is just affecting particularly the Mavic pro or this is affecting some of the newer Mavic models and or the Phantom series. So far there has not been firmware updates being pushed for the older Mavic units recently other than some geofencing updates about a month ago or so that I recall.

 

[JDawg]

Interesting that that happened to me the last two times I took my Mavic pro in to the air. Mine happened after I launched using the slide button on the screen and selecting the prescission landing box. As soon as the drone rises and stops at about 8 ft height to hover, it starts drifting away as if it was not gps locked. I never take off until the unit gathers and connects to the available satellites and I hear the voice prompt that the home point is being updated and the screen says ready to fly on green.
Today is way too windy to attempt to fly to do more testing and record the logs to share. I too wonder what is going on specially now that I know this is not only happening to me and would like to help to get this issue addressed since I consider this a dangerous situation.
Will also be good to find out if this is just affecting particularly the Mavic pro or this is affecting some of the newer Mavic models and or the Phantom series. So far there has not been firmware updates being pushed for the older Mavic units recently other than some geofencing updates about a month ago or so that I recall.

A good start would be to post your flight log.

 

[albatross911]

Shouldn't just drop. There have been reports of starting the motors while on a ship at sea. When the ship dropped the AC responded by becoming airborne. I.e., it tried to maintain it's initial altitude when the ship dropped out from under it.

I guess that's me and I can confirm this would happen. It would lift off when the ship drop with the wave. Nearly cut my head off as the ship was moving.

In that case if I start motor while holding it high up and drop my hand it would lift off too right? Or throw it up?

 

[Nosebump]

From my experience, an incorrectly calibrated imu would create the same kind of response. How can you incorrectly calibrate an imu? By performing the sequence around too much metal or electrical interference. One of the most common offenders is concrete. Many don’t know that there’s an abundance of steel rebar hidden within. Look for an open grassy area. The same with tall buildings all around, and concrete sidewalks. I rarely calibrate my imu for this very reason

 

[Meta4]

From my experience, an incorrectly calibrated imu would create the same kind of response. How can you incorrectly calibrate an imu? By performing the sequence around too much metal or electrical interference. One of the most common offenders is concrete. Many don’t know that there’s an abundance of steel rebar hidden within. Look for an open grassy area. The same with tall buildings all around, and concrete sidewalks. I rarely calibrate my imu for this very reason

This is very confused.
Do you mean the IMU or the compass?
You calibrate the IMU by leaving it sitting on a level surface.
You calibrate the compass by rotating the drone on two axes.
Metal (what you really mean is steel) has no effect on the IMU which has no magnetic sensors.
I think that you can't incorrectly calibrate the compass anyway.
The additional external magnetic fields won't rotate with the drone, so won't be measured.
It either calibrates successfully or it doesn't.

 

[Meta4]

What we learn from 99.9% of the posted logs is that there was user error--generally dealing with high winds, failure to secure a Home Point on take-off, failure to secure the battery, etc.

Although often mentioned here, it would be very rare for launching before recording a home point to cause any trouble.

You have to be very impatient to launch before establishing a home point, but if you did, your Mavic is still going to record a home point as soon as it gets GPS reception and that's going to still be fairly close to where you launch from.