Down the bottom of the Support page ... open an online chat with them and they'll steer you in the right direction
It's best if you have synched your flight data before talking to them.
Mavic Mini Fly Away. 8000ft?
- Thread starter chad1
- Start date
It's best if you have synched your flight data before talking to them.
That's what it does when the drone climbs above VPS range - it's completely normal.
Agreed that rising air wasn't likely involved in Chad1's misfortune, but suspect that such a thing could happen in well under a million years.
As a hang glider pilot, I've spent a lot of time combing the sky for lift, the way buzzards and hawks do. Sometimes one finds lift that is shockingly strong, and can whisk you skyward like a rocket. A few times, I've found it hard--in one case, very hard indeed--to find air that was sinking so I could go down and land. (That was at a flying site famous for its ability to at times produce a "wonder wind"--in which a vast area of air is evenly lifting, and nearly everywhere you fly your glider, you go up--tons of fun.)
So I wonder what would happen to a MM in truly heroic lift. The question wouldn't strictly be one flight physics, but would also involve the drone's programming. When a hang glider pilot is looking for lift, if he feels a bump upward on one wing, he turns into it, "centering the lift." If one side of a drone experienced a bump upward, I suspect that the flight controller would accelerate the opposite props, decelerate the bumped-up props, or both; this might have the effect of what the hang glider pilot does to stay in the lift. And our drones likely have no programming to seek out sinking air, as a hang glider pilot would.
This said, I looked up the weather conditions in Toronto on 12/29/2020, and looked over Chad1's flying site on Google Earth. I saw neither atmospheric conditions nor terrain features one would associate with strong lift. Laminar air flow--unperturbed wind across flat ground--does not lift, and there don't appear to be significant ridges where this flight occurred. There seems to have been partial sun at times, but probably not enough to cause the heating needed for powerful thermals to develop.
Chad1, I'm sorry about the loss of your drone, and hopeful that DJI decides it's their fault and sends you a replacement ASAP. My experiences with DJI customer support have been good, so I'm betting yours will be too.
--Jub
Last edited:
It would attempt to descend to maintain altitude.
It would be an unusual feature to keep lifting the drone as it blew along over a mile.
Besides, there's plenty of evidence of altitude instability before it went high.
Ive had fun flying in the uplift on an ocean cliff, but in 6 years of reading these forums I've never heard of any drone carried up high by a mysterious air current.
Yeah ... this flight is full of height instabilities. But they don't originate from up drafts or something else effecting the Mini from outside ... I believe this instead is a IMU error together with a flight controller brain fart.
Have made a small cutout from the initial Sport mode flight in below chart when the Mini climbed from approx 102m to 160m height ... but mainly was commanded the opposite.
Looking at how the black graph, the right backwards stick (stick mode 3 was used, elevator = throttle) ... the red height barometric measurement & the blue graph which is the vertical speed (negative = ascend & positive = descend) interact ...
... we see that the stick movement to full backwards for descend (Black) is indeed answered by a large positive (descend) increase in the vertical speed (Blue) ... but this isn't at all reflected in the barometric height (Red).
This pattern is repeated throughout the whole flight ... & also during the different RTH instances, the vertical speed is nearly all the time positive indicating descent but height increases. It looks like the flight controller choose to believe some sensor values & disregard others. It's clear that the FC thought that the stick input gave the desired effect as the vertical positive speed increase was reported back & settled it with that & disregarded the climbing barometric height.
Just in the end if this Sport mode session we find another spectacular measurement of the vertical speed ... ramping up to a maximum 24m/s descend. This time this is somewhat reflected in the barometric measurement as the height loss there was around 30m during roughly 3,5sec. Kind of a free fall I should say ... looks like the FC finally turned it's attention to the barometric data.
But yes ... this is all on DJI.
Have made a small cutout from the initial Sport mode flight in below chart when the Mini climbed from approx 102m to 160m height ... but mainly was commanded the opposite.
Looking at how the black graph, the right backwards stick (stick mode 3 was used, elevator = throttle) ... the red height barometric measurement & the blue graph which is the vertical speed (negative = ascend & positive = descend) interact ...
... we see that the stick movement to full backwards for descend (Black) is indeed answered by a large positive (descend) increase in the vertical speed (Blue) ... but this isn't at all reflected in the barometric height (Red).
This pattern is repeated throughout the whole flight ... & also during the different RTH instances, the vertical speed is nearly all the time positive indicating descent but height increases. It looks like the flight controller choose to believe some sensor values & disregard others. It's clear that the FC thought that the stick input gave the desired effect as the vertical positive speed increase was reported back & settled it with that & disregarded the climbing barometric height.
Just in the end if this Sport mode session we find another spectacular measurement of the vertical speed ... ramping up to a maximum 24m/s descend. This time this is somewhat reflected in the barometric measurement as the height loss there was around 30m during roughly 3,5sec. Kind of a free fall I should say ... looks like the FC finally turned it's attention to the barometric data.
But yes ... this is all on DJI.
MavicMiniMaster
Member
It can be a long drawn out procedure, but I had a DJI at fault loss with my P3Pro. They eventually admitted fault and replaced it. Good luck. That was no fault of yours.
I hadn't either, was just throwing it out there.
However I had gotten both a prop obstructed and prop loose warning at the same time with my P3A while flying over the bay in a windy day. I thought my P3 was a goner for a second but FPV was quite stable so I relaxed. I didn't think horizontal winds could account for that. But then the CW and CCW props are both thrusting down, so up or down draft probably wouldn't account for it either.
Hello everyone.
Just a quick update on my situation. DJI confirmed it was indeed some sort of hardware malfunction. I asked for details but all they gave me was that it could have been due to some altitude sensor but since the drone wasn't recovered they couldn't provide specifics.
They are replacing the drone as well as the battery that was lost. I have also requested a new SD card to replace the lost one and they said they would give me a coupon in the next few days for that as well.
Hopefully my next drone flys a little better!
Just a quick update on my situation. DJI confirmed it was indeed some sort of hardware malfunction. I asked for details but all they gave me was that it could have been due to some altitude sensor but since the drone wasn't recovered they couldn't provide specifics.
They are replacing the drone as well as the battery that was lost. I have also requested a new SD card to replace the lost one and they said they would give me a coupon in the next few days for that as well.
Hopefully my next drone flys a little better!
I just noticed the heights in this thread.
To the chad1, I appreciate that this problem was not your fault and I am in no way blaming you for it but can I suggest that you look at the CSC procedure and in particular the "anytime" response mode.
It is unlikely to have saved the drone but it might have prevented it from climbing to those heights.
It is likely taht the CSC command, in the default "emergency only" mode, would have done nothing 'useful' in this instance but in "anytime" mode it is likely to have shut the drone's motors down causing it to freefall.
I am not sure of the connection of the two Phantomhelp pages to this thread as the OP's location is given as Ontario and one Phantomhelp page shows a flight near Stockholm, Sweden whilst the other appears to be now empty/dead but if this flight was flown at the location near Stockholm then it is near an airport, 5 miles or so, and the drone climbed into dangerous airspace.
I recollect there was/is another thread involving, I think a Mavic Mini, where the drone went into an uncommanded climb but in that instance the pilot did manage to CSC it. The fall was, from memory, 800+ft and amazingly the drone survived with little damage. I will see if I can find the thread.
mavicpilots.com
To the chad1, I appreciate that this problem was not your fault and I am in no way blaming you for it but can I suggest that you look at the CSC procedure and in particular the "anytime" response mode.
It is unlikely to have saved the drone but it might have prevented it from climbing to those heights.
It is likely taht the CSC command, in the default "emergency only" mode, would have done nothing 'useful' in this instance but in "anytime" mode it is likely to have shut the drone's motors down causing it to freefall.
I am not sure of the connection of the two Phantomhelp pages to this thread as the OP's location is given as Ontario and one Phantomhelp page shows a flight near Stockholm, Sweden whilst the other appears to be now empty/dead but if this flight was flown at the location near Stockholm then it is near an airport, 5 miles or so, and the drone climbed into dangerous airspace.
I recollect there was/is another thread involving, I think a Mavic Mini, where the drone went into an uncommanded climb but in that instance the pilot did manage to CSC it. The fall was, from memory, 800+ft and amazingly the drone survived with little damage. I will see if I can find the thread.
Fly away immediately at launch
Ahh you might need to use the I tunes thing, HOW TO: Retrieve DJI Phantom Flight Logs from an Apple Device | Phantom Help I think Meta4 will need the DAT file which should be in the MCDatFlightRecords folder. From what I can see the text file your flight went bananas and reached 964m at its...
mavicpilots.com
Last edited by a moderator:
Well, if it was flown near a thunderstorm, this could easily happen. But the OP didn’t mention that so I’m assuming that’s not the case.
Just curious, do you or @slup have a copy of the txt flightlog for this thread, it's missing from my records, I deleted some a while back for some unknown reason that I now regret.
Similar threads
DJI Drone Deals
New Threads
-
-
-
-
Litchi needs permission to start and control phone conversations & record audio?!
- Started by Ronny St.
- Replies: 0
-
Forum statistics
