Mavic mini lost connection while flying, total loss, 4 days old, no help from DJI.

[Tesla Hertz]

mine mini flew away 3 times, gps had a good homepoint, to much wifi interference where i am , if i go to far signal gets lost and it returns home, it is nerve racking till you finally see the bird above you.
After reading all of these Flyaway's i am afraid to fly it far now.

 

[slup]

mine mini flew away 3 times, gps had a good homepoint, to much wifi interference where i am , if i go to far signal gets lost and it returns home, it is nerve racking till you finally see the bird above you.
After reading all of these Flyaway's i am afraid to fly it far now.

What do you mean by "flew away..." It sounds like your Mini does exactly what it's designed to do once the connection is lost? A lost connection between RC & AC can't be called a "Fly away" if the drone acts as it's instructed.

Furthermore I haven't seen many Fly Aways so far ... just a lot of cases coming from clear pilot errors.

Operators that don't bother to get to know their equipment & how it works
Don't know the limits
Don't consider the elements
Flying to high, to fast, to far, in the dark
.
.
.

 

[Capt KO]

mine mini flew away 3 times, gps had a good homepoint, to much wifi interference where i am , if i go to far signal gets lost and it returns home, it is nerve racking till you finally see the bird above you.
After reading all of these Flyaway's i am afraid to fly it far now.

Mark Your Drone! Even magic marker's better than nothing. Put a dollar sign and your phone number and it will come home, sometime, maybe.

 

[Tesla Hertz]

Mark Your Drone! Even magic marker's better than nothing. Put a dollar sign and your phone number and it will come home, sometime, maybe.

on my list of to do things today!! i have these cool stickers.

 

[Tesla Hertz]

What do you mean by "flew away..." It sounds like your Mini does exactly what it's designed to do once the connection is lost? A lost connection between RC & AC can't be called a "Fly away" if the drone acts as it's instructed.

Furthermore I haven't seen many Fly Aways so far ... just a lot of cases coming from clear pilot errors.

Operators that don't bother to get to know their equipment & how it works
Don't know the limits
Don't consider the elements
Flying to high, to fast, to far, in the dark
.
.
.

I watched to many youtube videos, these content makers are making it bad on new users on how far and high they can take the drone, this will cause lots of lost mavic minis i bet, i settled down and i am doing as you say, get to know my drone, i even know every screw and wire and part inside it, i did a complete teardown - mod and put it back together, going to keep it close at bay today after all that action.
Not all videos are bad, but most take the drone beyond it's limit.

 

[Meta4]

Ok I got all my data uploaded to Airdata.com just not sure how to attach the files for everyone to see. Their definitely was some major issues before the crash because it said not enough force/esc error over one hundred times before it crashed. I would be happy to post if I could figure out how.

Flight data?

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

mine mini flew away 3 times, gps had a good homepoint, to much wifi interference where i am , if i go to far signal gets lost and it returns home, it is nerve racking till you finally see the bird above you.
After reading all of these Flyaway's i am afraid to fly it far now.

You just lost connection, didn't you ?
And thankfully conditions and settings allowed RTH to work ?

Maybe you had a blow away where the aircraft was taken out of your wifi range ?
Or local wifi did affect connection ?

Either way, you would be lucky to get it back if you couldn't control the aircraft when you had connection.
Usually when RTH kicks in it will not help the return journey if wind is strong enough to affect flight into the wind direction.

2 things are most important to you flying the mini.

1. Ensure RTH settings are right for each flight, high enough to clear obstacles (as it has no OA tech), but not too high to get into stronger wind.
2. Don't fly in anything other than wind you KNOW your mini can fly back into / against / across, etc.

Blow aways are going to be common for the mini in lighter winds than those of larger Mavic models, especially if they are taken into higher altitudes with RTH function (forced or manually activated).

There are many circumstances I would set loss of wifi signal (failsafe RTH) option to hover, move closer to the aircraft to regain signal will often be safer than using RTH in that situation.

 

[Meta4]

Yeh thought I would share my horror story ..
... after only having it for four days it lost signal while flying directly overhead and took off without me being able to regain control.
Once I lost signal to my iPhone I could not get the drone to turn around it flew out of sight and entered fail-safe mode and started to return home.

You can see what your flight data looks like here: DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com
There's no indication that you lost signal at all during the flight.
The recorded flight data shows the whole flight without any gaps.
You flew out 3491 feet and initiated RTH at 9:20.
You left RTH to do its thing without additional joystick input but at 9:35.7 you pushed the right stick full forward.
Using the joystick probably helped the drone come back faster (still slow at 3-6 mph against a headwind).
At 12:22.2 you pulled down on the left stick which brought the drone lower.
AT 12:42.4 the drone reached a point directly above its homepoint and commenced autolanding.
But you kept the right joystick pushed full forward which took the drone nearly 500 feet away from the home point as it descended.
It looks like the drone crashed into the lake at 13:04.8 with you still giving full right stick forward and full left stick down.

The only problem was I had no clue that’s what it was doing nor where it was at.

You got that part of the story right.
But knowing where your drone is and what it is doing is very important.
Without that knowledge, it's easy to make mistakes that can be serious.

I thought I could see it off in the distance and tried to steer it back toward me. However I made a mistake of touching the joystick and caused the mini to miss home point and crash in the lake.

Your mistake with the joysticks is described above.
That was the problem that caused the loss of the drone

Well i was dead wrong in thinking DJI would fix or replace the problem. ... Ive been battling it out with DJI for over a month now and all they want to do is point at the last few minutes of flight and joystick controls which show in the telemetry data it crashing in the lake.

It's understandable that DJI point to the telemetry because it shows you fighting the autodescent to fly your drone into the lake.
If you had gone hands-off with the joysticks, it would have returned home and landed safely where you launched it.

It is evident to me now that DJI will spin and manipulate the data to their favor and once they have your drone what do you have to go off of.

You might like to re-think that?
I've looked at the same data as DJI did and possibly explained it better than they did.
It doesn't look like DJI did any spinning or manipulation of data.

And the Not Enough Force messages were an irrelevant false alarm.
There's no indication of any problem contributing to this incident.
In the circumstances, I don't think you could expect any better offer from DJI.

 

[Will Owsley]

You can see what your flight data looks like here: DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com
There's no indication that you lost signal at all during the flight.
The recorded flight data shows the whole flight without any gaps.
You flew out 3491 feet and initiated RTH at 9:20.
You left RTH to do its thing without additional joystick input but at 9:35.7 you pushed the right stick full forward.
Using the joystick probably helped the drone come back faster (still slow at 3-6 mph against a headwind).
At 12:22.2 you pulled down on the left stick which brought the drone lower.
AT 12:42.4 the drone reached a point directly above its homepoint and commenced autolanding.
But you kept the right joystick pushed full forward which took the drone nearly 500 feet away from the home point as it descended.
It looks like the drone crashed into the lake at 13:04.8 with you still giving full right stick forward and full left stick down.

You got that part of the story right.
But knowing where your drone is and what it is doing is very important.
Without that knowledge, it's easy to make mistakes that can be serious.

Your mistake with the joysticks is described above.
That was the problem that caused the loss of the drone

It's understandable that DJI point to the telemetry because it shows you fighting the autodescent to fly your drone into the lake.
If you had gone hands-off with the joysticks, it would have returned home and landed safely where you launched it.

You might like to re-think that?
I've looked at the same data as DJI did and possibly explained it better than they did.
It doesn't look like DJI did any spinning or manipulation of data.

And the Not Enough Force messages were an irrelevant false alarm.
There's no indication of any problem contributing to this incident.
In the circumstances, I don't think you could expect any better offer from DJI.

 

[Prismatic]

.... It looks like the drone crashed into the lake at 13:04.8 with you still giving full right stick forward and full left stick down.

This wouldn’t really qualify as a crash. Rather, the drone made a controlled landing in the lake. I’m sure that wasn’t the pilot’s intent, but the drone faithfully executed the commands he gave it.

Those with a new 4WD are often the first to go in the ditch after a snow storm. That is, ignorance of the capabilities and limits of the technology you’re commanding, paired with unwarranted confidence, is a recipe for disaster.

 

[Will Owsley]

Take a look at the joystick commands in correlation to what the drone is actually doing after the six minute mark. Seems odd for it to continue in straight line even though the joystick was pressed to the right. The not enough force esc error was for real because when I did retrieve the drone it had what looked like fishing line around one motor, I really think someone had another drone with a net.

 

[dirkclod]

. I really think someone had another drone with a net.

Surely you jest.

 

[Prismatic]

Take a look at the joystick commands in correlation to what the drone is actually doing after the six minute mark. Seems odd for it to continue in straight line even though the joystick was pressed to the right. The not enough force esc error was for real because when I did retrieve the drone it had what looked like fishing line around one motor, I really think someone had another drone with a net.

The only anomalous aircraft motion I could see in the data appears to be wind related. For example, the following data is at a time when both sticks are neutral, but the drone is losing ground against the wind, which is 11.2 mph in excess of the drone’s ability to withstand.

6m 16s

Sport

14satellites

324.5ft

11.2mph

45.0ft

“Another drone with a net”? You can’t be serious! When you land in a lake, you can’t be surprised by discarded tackle.

 

[BigAl07]

Take a look at the joystick commands in correlation to what the drone is actually doing after the six minute mark. Seems odd for it to continue in straight line even though the joystick was pressed to the right. The not enough force esc error was for real because when I did retrieve the drone it had what looked like fishing line around one motor, I really think someone had another drone with a net.

You're grasping at straws my friend. Most likely the aircraft encountered fishing line IN the lake.

 

[Meta4]

Take a look at the joystick commands in correlation to what the drone is actually doing after the six minute mark. Seems odd for it to continue in straight line even though the joystick was pressed to the right. The not enough force esc error was for real because when I did retrieve the drone it had what looked like fishing line around one motor, I really think someone had another drone with a net.

The joystick was pushed full forward and full left.
The drone went just where you'd expect.

The not enough force esc error was for real because when I did retrieve the drone it had what looked like fishing line around one motor, I really think someone had another drone with a net.

The Not Enough Force messages don't even show in the actual flight data.
Perhaps they are just one of the odd things that Airdata generates in its interpretation of the data.
But it's quite clear that there was no propulsion problem.
But there was a big problem as outlined in post #28 above.

I suppose it could be a drone belonging to someone else that just happened to be in the same spot in the lake where yours crashed.
It would be a very odd coincidence though.
You could go back and see if you can find yours?

 

[Prismatic]

... I suppose it could be a drone belonging to someone else that just happened to be in the same spot in the lake where yours crashed.
It would be a very odd coincidence though.
You could go back and see if you can find yours?

It would be easy to check the serial number of the recovered drone against the documentation that came with his.

But it’s not clear what is really meant by “another drone with a net.” The more I think about it, the less I understand it.

 

[slup]

Take a look at the joystick commands in correlation to what the drone is actually doing after the six minute mark. Seems odd for it to continue in straight line even though the joystick was pressed to the right. The not enough force esc error was for real because when I did retrieve the drone it had what looked like fishing line around one motor, I really think someone had another drone with a net.

Oh my ... did you froze your movements after the drone returned home? Full stick forward & full down until it went into the lake ... you can only blame yourself for this, sorry.
Also you flew above specified max winds the whole flight ... lucky that you didn't got a Blow away, it wasn't far away for that. Nothing seems odd in this flight ... unfortunately.
Another drone ... with a net ???

Sorry to say that this again was only pilot errors to blame ... To much of "Let's go out & fly the **** out of it" and to little "Let's learn this little thing before we get airborne"

 

[StubbornSwiss]

Take a look at the joystick commands in correlation to what the drone is actually doing after the six minute mark. Seems odd for it to continue in straight line even though the joystick was pressed to the right. The not enough force esc error was for real because when I did retrieve the drone it had what looked like fishing line around one motor, I really think someone had another drone with a net.

>> Could it have been the "Drone Police"?



MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE!!

 

[StubbornSwiss]

>> Or maybe the good old “DroneCatcher”?
>> Any way to tell from the logs ? ?



Forgive me…… I’m on vacation, and obviously have too much time on my hands!!

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

>> Any way to tell from the logs ? ?

Yes, type 1 would maintain altitude after caught for a little while, type 2 would drop like a rock for a short while before the tether took up slack. ?