DJI Mavic, Air and Mini Drones
Friendly, Helpful & Knowledgeable Community
Join Us Now

Mesrsmith

New Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2018
Messages
4
Reactions
1
Age
43
Hi everyone,

today my mavic flew away(or drifted away). It was about -10°C, bit windy, great visibility.

I was about 400m high, then compass error showed up so i started descending. First an iPhone died because of the cold i think, then compass error and yaw error appeared and mavic went from SPORT to ATTI mode. I started descending, but could not see the dron anymore. Controller said its descending, when the drone was in 65m altitude, controller froze and said disconected after few seconds. However the log says it was ascending and then nothing. RTH was not working as ATTI was on. Controller went crazy, sticks didnt work properly, display was slowe and showed wierd values. I think the cold was a player here. Battery was about 70% so it could drifted really far away.

Log: DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

What have i done wrong? Why the drone exited GPS-mode?
Its Mavic pro platinum and iPhone 6S, all updated to the latest firmwares (as far as i know).

As i never thought this could happend, i had no contact written on the dron or some GPS locator attached. Is there a database for lost drones? Does DJI provide some security for lost drones such as disabeling other controllers to connect to the drone?

Thank you for any kind of help.
 
  • Like
Reactions: SMI
I'm thinking that between the cold temperature and the winds, coupled with dead batteries...the result was unfortunate, but there was just too many negative influences on the Mavic to make it back safely. I have flown in rather cold temperatures, but I stay low and close to where I take off from, I've seen the Mavic battery plummet in charge/time left to fly. Might have been your biggest problem. Since the controller has to be linked to your Mavic, there might be a possibility that if someone tries to link up the drone with their own controller, that DJI might become aware of it.
 
you got a battery temp warning at the start for a reason.
at 6 min, 85m high and 320m far, when the first compass errors showed up I would have come back asap and land.

you continue to climb. -10C at the ground can be a lot colder at 400m. even a pre-warmed battery will not be able to keep warm with the low temperature and the wind.
 
  • Like
Reactions: GerdS and MMCompton
Hi everyone,

today my mavic flew away(or drifted away). It was about -10°C, bit windy, great visibility.

I was about 400m high, then compass error showed up so i started descending. First an iPhone died because of the cold i think, then compass error and yaw error appeared and mavic went from SPORT to ATTI mode. I started descending, but could not see the dron anymore. Controller said its descending, when the drone was in 65m altitude, controller froze and said disconected after few seconds. However the log says it was ascending and then nothing. RTH was not working as ATTI was on. Controller went crazy, sticks didnt work properly, display was slowe and showed wierd values. I think the cold was a player here. Battery was about 70% so it could drifted really far away.

Log: DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

What have i done wrong? Why the drone exited GPS-mode?
Its Mavic pro platinum and iPhone 6S, all updated to the latest firmwares (as far as i know).

As i never thought this could happend, i had no contact written on the dron or some GPS locator attached. Is there a database for lost drones? Does DJI provide some security for lost drones such as disabeling other controllers to connect to the drone?

Thank you for any kind of help.

My first thought was ... that's about 1200 ft, isn't it? are you in the USA or Canada ... 90m in Canada and 122m in the US are our limits, and for way more important reasons than cold batteries. There are manned aircraft up there!

Winds will be much faster, you can bet, much colder and ice can be a problem to boot.

The up side is ... I keep learning more and more everyday from the mistakes of others.
 
..... As i never thought this could happend, i had no contact written on the dron or some GPS locator attached. Is there a database for lost drones? Does DJI provide some security for lost drones such as disabeling other controllers to connect to the drone? .....
Others have pointed out what you did wrong, and I feel you probably knew that yourself, as you’ve pointed it all out in your post. What perplexes me is you didn’t write your contact number in your drone before you used it. You say this is because you never thought this could happen. What were you going to do? Wait until you started a flight where you thought you might lose your drone and write your contact details then? I wrote my mobile number inside the battery compartment before I took my drone out of the house for its first flight. It took two minutes.

I hope you find your drone. Please be more careful.
 
Anyone reccomend a gps locator? Easy to use? Are they good? Do they work or is it a waste of time?
 
Anyone reccomend a gps locator? Easy to use? Are they good? Do they work or is it a waste of time?
I have a Marco Polo, waterproof, not GPS, but an electronic signal sent out to the locator. Supposed to go 2miles, under ideal conditions. I have used it a bit to see how it works, but, fortunately, haven't had to rely on it to get my Mavic back
 
Hi,

thank you for your thoughts.

Yesterday i was flying(with my older brother mavic) in -20°C without a problem, i dont thing low temperature is something mavic cant handle. I am familiar with cold weather, so heating batteries before using them is normal procedure.

I am from Europe, manned aircrafts are flying way beyond 400m. I have found and bought this locator: Trackimo 3G Drone GPS Tracker Wi-Fi Bluetooth with Drone attachment kit

I havent noticed first compass error, that was basic mistake. Can water be a problem? The whole dam is frozen to death. The only thing that cross my mind is interferenc from the water, which led to compass error, remote miss-behavier and at the end to loosing GPS signal. Wind wasnt so hard, however it was main reason why I switched to Sport mode, I wanted to fly shorter time and to be sure I can handle the wind with higher power up there.

Update: Few minutes ago i flew over the water again(in night so i cas see the mavic) and after just 50m controller showed interference problem. I believe that standing right on the water with controller is main problem. I was loosing signal alot, several errors showed up. All flights before this day were with no problem as I was flying in different locations.
 
Hi,

thank you for your thoughts.

Yesterday i was flying(with my older brother mavic) in -20°C without a problem, i dont thing low temperature is something mavic cant handle. I am familiar with cold weather, so heating batteries before using them is normal procedure.

I am from Europe, manned aircrafts are flying way beyond 400m. I have found and bought this locator: Trackimo 3G Drone GPS Tracker Wi-Fi Bluetooth with Drone attachment kit

I havent noticed first compass error, that was basic mistake. Can water be a problem? The whole dam is frozen to death. The only thing that cross my mind is interferenc from the water, which led to compass error, remote miss-behavier and at the end to loosing GPS signal. Wind wasnt so hard, however it was main reason why I switched to Sport mode, I wanted to fly shorter time and to be sure I can handle the wind with higher power up there.

Update: Few minutes ago i flew over the water again(in night so i cas see the mavic) and after just 50m controller showed interference problem. I believe that standing right on the water with controller is main problem. I was loosing signal alot, several errors showed up. All flights before this day were with no problem as I was flying in different locations.
Just to add..many people fly at the waters edge. Why do you think minus 20 is just not a problem?

I flew at waters edge yesterday it was ok. Bit im new to this. If its a fact that flying standing at waters edge over water causes compass problems and many problems then i will not do it at all and this should be standard knowledge.

Please let me know. You would think dji would simply say this to avoid a simple problem.
 
Also my cousin in canada has minus 35 and his car cannot start unless he uses special engine oil, special chargers etc.

Cold has real effects this is definately a fact. Try flying above 15 degrees, fly to portugal or somewhere warm and give it a go and you will know.

All the best.
 
  • Like
Reactions: macoman
im in canada and i flew in -10c a few times, battery lasted about the same as warmer temps, i dont think cold was ur issue, many dont recomend flying in cold but i think warm humid areas are much worse than cold.
 
if OP can post the logs from the phone we can check the battery temp. it is logged in the .txt flight record files.

you can get the logs from the phone in itunes.
 
I wasnt standing on the water edge, but in the middle of the “lake”. The whole dam is frozen. 2.4GHz gets affected with moisture.

Ofcourse low temp is affecting the gear, but its still normaly useable.

Log is in the first post.
 
According to your logs:
aircraft switched to ATTI mode at T 07m 12s
you lost contact for 1.4 secs at T: 07m 14s
and the last entry was at:
T: 07m 14s Altitude: 401.5 m Home Distance: 311 m

as no more logs are evident, it seems your GO4 and/or device crashed.
Do you have more logs? Did you restarted GO4 and had contact again?

Where did you see that aircraft was at 65m altitude as you reported in your first post?
 
My phone died caused of low temp. I started descending immediately and saw altitude on remote. It stopped on 65m and disconected after. I dont know if it was real altitude, but it cant lie right?
 
saw altitude on remote
Ahhh, i understand. That makes sense.
If you want to have more insight, there are more logs on your remote controller.

The root cause (i think) was the compass error which at some point lead that the FC decided to switch to ATTI mode.
 
flew mine this morning also, the temp here was -12 Celsius, it was also very windy and I just did not like the way the drone was manoeuvring , brought back , loosing a drone is the worst feeling, my question to you is why so High? Especially when it's that cold and windy.
 
Why is it that there are 3 links in the OP, two of which take you to DJI's store, and the other (the Phantom log viewer one) takes you to misinger's help page? Affiliate program? I haven't found the logs yet...
 
Last edited:
Ive flown over many bodies of water in many different conditions with no problems whatsoever. Why do so many people think water confuses the compass? I don’t think that’s true at all
 
  • Like
Reactions: BlairTheMaori
Lycus Tech Mavic Air 3 Case

DJI Drone Deals

New Threads

Forum statistics

Threads
130,585
Messages
1,554,095
Members
159,585
Latest member
maniac2000