Mavic Pro 1 Random Stops During Litchi Mission

[Conservative Nihilist]

I've repeatedly run into a problem that defies logic. When I launch my Mavic Pro 1 on Litchi waypoint missions over some but not all locations, with all obstacle avoidance and landing assistance sensors switched OFF in both Litchi AND DJI Go4's settings menus, the drone randomly pauses and hovers multiple times for no apparent reason.

For the first time today, despite my RTH altitude being set at 240 feet, the drone ascended higher each time it started moving forward after another uncommanded pause until it was well over 500 feet up, which is an utterly bizarre flight behavior I have never seen or heard of in the past.

This behavior has resulted in my nearly losing the drone more than once during Litchi waypoint missions because all those uncommanded pauses drain the flight battery down to dangerously low levels before I regain control and use sport mode to get the drone home, This random stopping of the drone while flying Litchi missions is baffling because this sort of anomaly is only known to happen if obstacle avoidance sensors are left on prior to launching Litchi waypoint missions. Since I check and re-check to ensure that all the drone's obstacle avoidance ultrasound sensors and landing assistance cameras are turned OFF, I am at a total loss as to what is causing this drone to repeatedly tap the brakes entirely on its own accord.

Any suggestions as to how this annoying pause can be eliminated would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[dave canada]

I fly m1p actually several and litchi missions always never heard of this or seen it It is an internal malfuncation maybe the control board needs replacing It is not in your planning or any other thing you could change ! ther are two large boards in the pro i,m not to sure which one it would be but i,d start with the middle main first it,s cheaper i,m not educated to know which one would carry out the command lines

 

[Conservative Nihilist]

I fly m1p actually several and litchi missions always never heard of this or seen it It is an internal malfuncation maybe the control board needs replacing It is not in your planning or any other thing you could change ! ther are two large boards in the pro i,m not to sure which one it would be but i,d start with the middle main first it,s cheaper i,m not educated to know which one would carry out the command lines

I appreciate this reply, Dave. This stop-and-go flight behavior is utterly baffling and has shaken my confidence so badly I decided to stop flying both my Mavic Pro 1s until I have a better idea of what is causing this erratic anomaly.
.
I sure hope this is not a hardware defect that will require any sort of repair, because I reside out in the Third World sticks where postage of a drone anywhere for repair is simply out of the question. I will fly that same Litchi mission with my trusty old Phantom 3 Standard, which has never done anything weird thus far, just to confirm my hunch that this problem does not arise from my use of Litchi, which has served my drone fleet well for a cumulative 2,900 miles and counting thus far.

 

[dave canada]

yes sir if you have 2 m1p,s the other should be fine, the m1p,s i,m flying sound just like your Phantom. Well the older hasn,t got that many miles close to 2000 ,but during the spring for two months they fly everyday the wind isn,t two high one out each door 5 to 10 flights aday they are pretty much self keepers they return on there own if the misson gets to long well you probably know litchi so I,m sorry but it must be internal fly the other and let me know

 

[mereflyer]

I've repeatedly run into a problem that defies logic. When I launch my Mavic Pro 1 on Litchi waypoint missions over some but not all locations, with all obstacle avoidance and landing assistance sensors switched OFF in both Litchi AND DJI Go4's settings menus, the drone randomly pauses and hovers multiple times for no apparent reason.

For the first time today, despite my RTH altitude being set at 240 feet, the drone ascended higher each time it started moving forward after another uncommanded pause until it was well over 500 feet up, which is an utterly bizarre flight behavior I have never seen or heard of in the past.

This behavior has resulted in my nearly losing the drone more than once during Litchi waypoint missions because all those uncommanded pauses drain the flight battery down to dangerously low levels before I regain control and use sport mode to get the drone home, This random stopping of the drone while flying Litchi missions is baffling because this sort of anomaly is only known to happen if obstacle avoidance sensors are left on prior to launching Litchi waypoint missions. Since I check and re-check to ensure that all the drone's obstacle avoidance ultrasound sensors and landing assistance cameras are turned OFF, I am at a total loss as to what is causing this drone to repeatedly tap the brakes entirely on its own accord.

Any suggestions as to how this annoying pause can be eliminated would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I had the exact same problem with my MP1 about 2 years ago. Turned out sensors needed calibration. Just Calibrate IMU sensors. Main Screen/ Position/ Main Controller Settings/ Advanced/ Sensors/ Calibrate/ follow instructions.

DJI Mavic Pro: When and How to Calibrate The IMU

1 Remove battery for cool down

2 Find completely flat surface

3 Charge battery

4 Power up RC find imu calibration button on DJI Go4

5 Start Calibration.

6 Restart all


If the above does not fix your problem - do this:

Go to dji assistant 2 online.

Assistant 2, download and install to computer. (make sure you have the right version for your MP) - (Windows or Mac OK, not available for Linux).

3 Hook up drone to computer with usb cable - make sure batteries fully charged

4 Switch on Drone.

5 Follow instructions to update firmware for both drone and controller.

Let us know if this fixes your problem - it did for me, have had no further problems since!!

 

[dave canada]

thats good to know these forums can be worth alot some days

 

[Conservative Nihilist]

Mereflyer I doff my hat to you, sir. I'd been studiously avoiding all those calibration procedures because some of them are complex enough to make me adopt the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality, even when over the last few flights the Litchi audio enunciator intoned altitudes that were BELOW GROUND, with negative signs, typically in the minus 15 feet subterranean level.

With your confirmation that your own Mavic Pro was cured of identical symptoms to mine by the simple expedient of calibrating the IMU, I am now going to bite the bullet and go the whole hog to calibrate the IMU, as well as the GPS and all sensors for good measure. I never realized that my failure to calibrate all those features could ultimately result in the drone going AWOL with little hope of search and rescue recovery.

I thank you kindly for this easy-to-follow IMU calibration procedure that I have copied and pasted into my growing file of Mavic Pro1 wisdom. I am reminded now of the old adage that suggests reading the instructions only when all other bumbling trial and error methodologies have failed haha.

 

[mereflyer]

A few more additions to my earlier post.
I now recall going through the same procedures as you will be as you start the re-calibration process.
As I remember (80 year old memory not so clear these days) The complete fix for the problem, only occurred after I did the actual sensor re-calibration via the dji assistant 2 online application downloaded from this site:

https://www.dji.com/au/downloads/products/mavic.

Scroll down to where it refers to the software download for either windows or mac. You need to make sure to get the Mavic Firmware : v 01.03.09.00 to suit your MP1.

Follow instructions very carefully and if you do it correctly you should get the same good result as I did.
I look forward to hearing that all is fixed and your MP1 is flying and returning home again as all good MP1's should!

 

[Conservative Nihilist]

Mereflyer these two nuggets of insight you have posted here are treasures to me. Before remembering to ask the seasoned hands in this forum, I had been contemplating the possibility that my reverting both Mavics to a much earlier than current firmware edition had for some obscure reason started to induce flight continuity errors, weeks after I conducted uneventful test flights to check the reliability of that NLD firmware dabbling.

On both my Mavic Pro 1s, all the proximity and landing sensors are deactivated during the fully autonomous Litchi flights that I launch exclusively out here in the boonies where such long-range flight is permissible. That proximity and landing sensor de-selection was intended to prevent false triggers at certain angles of the sun that can reportedly cause the craft to falter and even make uncommanded stops mid-flight.

I had been quick to discount the likelihood that intentionally deactivated proximity and landing features could still have been contributing factors to account for that near loss of my Mavic Pro1 recently. Your mention of having resolved an identical list of flight anomalies with a comprehensive calibration of all sensors present is that missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle that eluded me. I cannot afford to procrastinate anymore when it comes to the tedious and sometimes cryptic ritual known as "calibration" that every armchair aviator MUST undertake as a rite of passage.

My copy of DJI Assistant2 is current, so I will now boldly venture where just about everybody has been before, that final, much-feared frontier up ahead.....calibration. When I emerge from that warren of rabbit holes, I will update here with gratitude for a short-cut shared that is also a sharp arrow to the expertise quiver of other MavicPro1 owners who confront similar flight abnormalities that call for an exorcism. Once again I am very grateful sir for your having taken a moment to enlighten this relatively new drone flier about a fix to a drone flight malfunction that did confound me for a while there.

 

[mereflyer]

Mereflyer these two nuggets of insight you have posted here are treasures to me. Before remembering to ask the seasoned hands in this forum, I had been contemplating the possibility that my reverting both Mavics to a much earlier than current firmware edition had for some obscure reason started to induce flight continuity errors, weeks after I conducted uneventful test flights to check the reliability of that NLD firmware dabbling.

On both my Mavic Pro 1s, all the proximity and landing sensors are deactivated during the fully autonomous Litchi flights that I launch exclusively out here in the boonies where such long-range flight is permissible. That proximity and landing sensor de-selection was intended to prevent false triggers at certain angles of the sun that can reportedly cause the craft to falter and even make uncommanded stops mid-flight.

I had been quick to discount the likelihood that intentionally deactivated proximity and landing features could still have been contributing factors to account for that near loss of my Mavic Pro1 recently. Your mention of having resolved an identical list of flight anomalies with a comprehensive calibration of all sensors present is that missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle that eluded me. I cannot afford to procrastinate anymore when it comes to the tedious and sometimes cryptic ritual known as "calibration" that every armchair aviator MUST undertake as a rite of passage.

My copy of DJI Assistant2 is current, so I will now boldly venture where just about everybody has been before, that final, much-feared frontier up ahead.....calibration. When I emerge from that warren of rabbit holes, I will update here with gratitude for a short-cut shared that is also a sharp arrow to the expertise quiver of other MavicPro1 owners who confront similar flight abnormalities that call for an exorcism. Once again I am very grateful sir for your having taken a moment to enlighten this relatively new drone flier about a fix to a drone flight malfunction that did confound me for a while there.

You are welcome CN. To hear the news that you have successfully fixed the problem will be my reward!

 

[Conservative Nihilist]

Nothing like a near drone loss to focus the mind. My list of calibrations to run on both my Mavic Pros is going to take some dedicated effort to complete, but I won't dare fly either drone until this checklist is completed.

1. IMU
2. GPS
3. Compass
4. Vision Sensors
5. Camera Gimbal
6. Barometer ( Not sure if this procedure is combined with one of the others listed above.)

 

[Conservative Nihilist]

A somber footnote to this story is in order today as I listen to torrential rain on the tin roof of my home out here in the tropical boonies close to the Equator. Despite calibrating all that could be calibrated on this Mavic 1 Pro, I wound up losing the drone on the inbound leg of a 6-mile round trip Litchi waypoint mission about an hour ago, just before sunset.

My map shows the drone running out of battery power over a rainforest about a mile from home, and I will make a token effort to search for it tomorrow, despite knowing that the ongoing rainfall deluge will most likely render it inoperable permanently even if I do find it. The drone seemed to be working fine as it departed, and to avoid erratic connectivity with the controller, I powered off the controller when I saw the first glitch in the video feedback, just as I do on all my long-range Litchi flights given that such beyond signal range flights are permissible here.

When I estimated the drone was back within signal range based on elapsed time, I stepped outside and switched on the controller, but then as soon as there was a signal connection. I noted that the drone had resumed those uncommanded stops which I never did find a way to cure. Despite having set the cruise speed to a fixed 27 mph, I watched in dismay as the battery level dropped below 20% far from home, in marked contrast with my Mavic 2 Pro which had flown that identical waypoint mission and landed with 35% battery under the same calm conditions.

The drone lurched to a series of uncommanded stops, in between which it would resume forward motion at speeds way below the assigned cruise speed, all the while eating away precious battery power. Just as I'd done in the past whenever signal connectivity became erratic, I clambered up the 60-foot water tower beside my house and switched over to sport mode to try and hurry the drone home but this time there simply wasn't enough battery power to make it back over that forest. In retrospect, this Mavic 1 Pro had been problematic for most of the time I'd owned it after purchasing it on eBay, so finally having it go AWOL came as no surprise.

I still own a Mavic Pro Platinum which I will test along the same fight path at some point, but if I were in a position to advise any used drone buyer weighing up a purchase of either a Mavic 1 Pro or a Mavic 2 Pro, my advice would be to go for the Mavic 2 Pro because it is in my opinion a far better design in all aspects from windy condition performance to camera specs. So there you have it fellow Mavic 1 Pro pilots, the inevitable finally happened, but oddly enough, I had been resigned to the likelihood of such an outcome long ago.

 

[Felix le Chat]

I've repeatedly run into a problem that defies logic. When I launch my Mavic Pro 1 on Litchi waypoint missions over some but not all locations, with all obstacle avoidance and landing assistance sensors switched OFF in both Litchi AND DJI Go4's settings menus, the drone randomly pauses and hovers multiple times for no apparent reason.

For the first time today, despite my RTH altitude being set at 240 feet, the drone ascended higher each time it started moving forward after another uncommanded pause until it was well over 500 feet up, which is an utterly bizarre flight behavior I have never seen or heard of in the past.

This behavior has resulted in my nearly losing the drone more than once during Litchi waypoint missions because all those uncommanded pauses drain the flight battery down to dangerously low levels before I regain control and use sport mode to get the drone home, This random stopping of the drone while flying Litchi missions is baffling because this sort of anomaly is only known to happen if obstacle avoidance sensors are left on prior to launching Litchi waypoint missions. Since I check and re-check to ensure that all the drone's obstacle avoidance ultrasound sensors and landing assistance cameras are turned OFF, I am at a total loss as to what is causing this drone to repeatedly tap the brakes entirely on its own accord.

Any suggestions as to how this annoying pause can be eliminated would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

You really are having a rough old time of it just lately.... first the Mavic Air and now the Pro/Platinum. Here's an off-the-cuff thought that occurred to me concerning Litchi. First a question: is the Litchi version you are using the most current?
If it is: I was wondering if Litchi is "writing cheques that older drones can't cash" - by which I mean the most current version of the app is attempting to use settings optimized for the use of more recent drones, with the older drone ending up unable to carry out the sub-routine efficiently because it lacks the processing grunt.
Just another thought.... Can you access and install one of the older versions of the Litchi app, if so: run the older version and see if you get the same glitches.

 

[Conservative Nihilist]

You really are having a rough old time of it just lately.... first the Mavic Air and now the Pro/Platinum. Here's an off-the-cuff thought that occurred to me concerning Litchi. First a question: is the Litchi version you are using the most current?
If it is: I was wondering if Litchi is "writing cheques that older drones can't cash" - by which I mean the most current version of the app is attempting to use settings optimized for the use of more recent drones, with the older drone ending up unable to carry out the sub-routine efficiently because it lacks the processing grunt.
Just another thought.... Can you access and install one of the older versions of the Litchi app, if so: run the older version and see if you get the same glitches.

The reason I can say with reasonable certainty that Litchi works fine with all DJI's older rones is that my Mavic 2 Pro completed the exact same flight path TWICE in a row, arriving with 35% of battery charge level remaining, at the precise moment I expected the flight to return.

The Mavic 1 Pro, on the other hand, began to behave erratically during Litchi flights over a year ago, after initially flying Litchi missions as planned and with no departures from any of the flight parameters I specified in the Litchi Mision hub. The stop-and-go behavior of the Mavic 1 Pro entailed the drone abruptly stopping, then veering slightly left and right, before lurching into hesitant forward flight only to grind to a stop a short distance later. By scampering up a 60-foot water tower on two occasions in the past, I got the drone home in sport mode with seconds to spare before a forced landing en route due to a low battery charge level, but I knew that luck could not hold out forever.

I calibrated the IMU, GPS, camera, and collision avoidance sensors repeatedly, even though I always make sure to DISABLE all collision sensors in order to ensure the cruise speed of 27 mph can be attained by the drone so that the flight plan can be completed before battery levels run too low. Those calibrations evidently did not address the cause of that uncommanded stop-and-go anomaly during waypoint missions, so I knew it was only a matter of time before I would lose the drone due to that unresolved problem.

While I am none the wiser as to the exact cause of the Mavic 1 Pro's stuttering flight, I must absolve Litchi completely from any blame in this instance, especially since my older Phantom 3 Standard also continues to fly Litchi missions with no problems to report. In the flight path segment that I've copied from the Air Data record of the ill-fated final flight of my Mavic 1 Pro, the sawtooth flight path is clearly evident, as is the location of the drone's final resting place atop the canopy of old timber trees, regrettably.


Air Data only records the portion of the flight during which there was connectivity between the drone and the controller, so the remainder of the flight path continues off the page to the left, beyond the catfish ponds. Despite being able to pretty much pinpoint the exact tree in which the drone succumbed to gravity, I was unable to get to it due to the network of jungle lianas that draped all the trees in the area, so it is safe to say that my Mavic 1 Pro has officially joined its ancestors never to return.

One fact I have learned after well in excess of 3,000 country miles covered by my drone fleet under fully autonomous Litchi wayp[oint control, is that the Mavic 2 Pro is the reigning monarch of the skies. If I could sell my Phantoms and Mavic Mini 3 to replace them with another Mavic 2 Pro, I would do so in a heartbeat. The icing on the cake for lucky fliers like me who reside beyond the jurisdiction of both the FAA and the CAA is that Ali Express now sells after-market extended-range batteries for the M2P that boost its flight time to an epic 37 minutes aloft, during which twelve miles can be covered on a single charge. For anyone interested in that monster battery, here is the link to buy them from Ali Express.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005545080207.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.5.5d715c11U07VPs&algo_pvid=81fb98d8-492d-492f-8ca5-fe53af2e938c&algo_exp_id=81fb98d8-492d-492f-8ca5-fe53af2e938c-2&pdp_npi=4%40dis%21USD%21397.43%21198.72%21%21%212888.30%21%21%4021038ed816955597098485688e2925%2112000033481753906%21sea%21CA%21865320506%21&curPageLogUid=CoppECL3z3ug

 

[Conservative Nihilist]

I have some unexpected good news to report today. My renegade Mavic 1 Pro made a textbook emergency landing a full HALF MILE BEYOND the location indicated as the final fix by the Air Data map, hence my recovery efforts were doomed to failure from the onset. An honest person found my drone and resisted the temptation to sell it, so I handed over a generous cash reward over the objections of the Good Samaritan.

Another major stroke of good luck was that the drone was recovered and taken indoors barely an hour before a powerful tropical lightning storm's sudden deluge swept through the area. That water ingress would certainly have wreaked severe and irreparable damage on the drone's internal circuitry, so I lucked out in more than one way for sure.

I will now conduct a comprehensive recalibration of everything that can be calibrated on this Maric 1 Pro so that its annoying and baffling stop-and-go behavior is cured before my next flight. Three near losses of this drone due to stuttering flight anomaly are now sufficient warning to convince me that NO further flights must be attempted before I resolve the problem.

 

[Conservative Nihilist]

As a footnote, I can finally unveil the SOLE, and exclusive cause of the random pauses my Mavic 1 Pro displayed during Litchi waypoint flights. To my utter astonishment, it turns out that my failure to calibrate the obstacle avoidance and landing sensors of the M1P with the DJI Assistant 2 "Checker Board" screen, was the single cause of all the stop-and-go jerky flight anomalies this drone has displayed virtually from the time I bought it a year ago.

Given that I am always careful to DISABLE all obstacle avoidance and landing sensors on this M1P to maximize airspeed and distance covered during all Litchi waypoint missions, and having tried that tedious, neck-straining sequence of sensor calibrations a couple of times earlier without success, I wrongly presumed that my de-selection of all those sensors made their calibration optional rather than obligatory for normal flight. The logic of my erroneous conclusion was that any of the drone's circuitry intentionally switched off could not affect flight characteristics if left uncalibrated. The truth is that obstacle avoidance sensors MUST be calibrated as and when needed, REGARDLESS of whether those sensors are deployed or deactivated before any particular flight.

It was with considerable surprise it dawned on me that my own corner-cutting failure to complete an omnidirectional sensor calibration had all along been the primary reason that Mavic 1 Pro had over many months seemed so utterly unreliable for long-distance waypoint missions, given its propensity for interrupting its assigned mission cruise speeds by coming to complete stops repeatedly and without apparent reason.

In short, M1P owners MUST periodically perform a comprehensive obstacle avoidance and landing sensor calibration, in tandem with calibrations of the IMU, compass, and camera gimbal. There is no getting around this requirement and failure to do so could result in the outright loss of the drone, as nearly happened to me twice before I finally bit the bullet and carried out ALL calibrations to the letter of the instructions.

 

[Felix le Chat]

As a footnote, I can finally unveil the SOLE, and exclusive cause of the random pauses my Mavic 1 Pro displayed during Litchi waypoint flights. To my utter astonishment, it turns out that my failure to calibrate the obstacle avoidance and landing sensors of the M1P with the DJI Assistant 2 "Checker Board" screen, was the single cause of all the stop-and-go jerky flight anomalies this drone has displayed virtually from the time I bought it a year ago.

Given that I am always careful to DISABLE all obstacle avoidance and landing sensors on this M1P to maximize airspeed and distance covered during all Litchi waypoint missions, and having tried that tedious, neck-straining sequence of sensor calibrations a couple of times earlier without success, I wrongly presumed that my de-selection of all those sensors made their calibration optional rather than obligatory for normal flight. The logic of my erroneous conclusion was that any of the drone's circuitry intentionally switched off could not affect flight characteristics if left uncalibrated. The truth is that obstacle avoidance sensors MUST be calibrated as and when needed, REGARDLESS of whether those sensors are deployed or deactivated before any particular flight.

It was with considerable surprise it dawned on me that my own corner-cutting failure to complete an omnidirectional sensor calibration had all along been the primary reason that Mavic 1 Pro had over many months seemed so utterly unreliable for long-distance waypoint missions, given its propensity for interrupting its assigned mission cruise speeds by coming to complete stops repeatedly and without apparent reason.

In short, M1P owners MUST periodically perform a comprehensive obstacle avoidance and landing sensor calibration, in tandem with calibrations of the IMU, compass, and camera gimbal. There is no getting around this requirement and failure to do so could result in the outright loss of the drone, as nearly happened to me twice before I finally bit the bullet and carried out ALL calibrations to the letter of the instructions.

Not sure whether you're registered with DJI as a developer, so just in case you're not: got an email from the SDK developer team on the 29th November stating that effective immediately, all (consumer class) drones with an accessible SDK have been abandoned.
I took this to mean that anything using the pre-FLY flight apps is now classified as obsolete.

 

[Conservative Nihilist]

Not sure whether you're registered with DJI as a developer, so just in case you're not: got an email from the SDK developer team on the 29th November stating that effective immediately, all drones with an accessible SDK have been abandoned.
I took this to mean that anything using the pre-FLY flight apps is now classified as obsolete.

Depending on whether one regards the cup as being half-full or half-empty, a declaration by DJI that all older drones are "obsolete" could be regarded as a cause for quiet jubilation or a reason for sadness.

If the classification as being obsolete means that older DJI drones are not required to comply with the growing list of rules and regulations that are hard-wired into the newer generation of DJI drones, then owning an obsolete DJI drone should be a reason for contentment rather than angst. If, on the other hand, DJI chooses to hobble older drones by withdrawing certain capabilities remotely, then the market price of vintage DJI drones would plummet overnight.

While Chinese corporations typically shrug off the rantings of dissatisfied customers who threaten class-action lawsuits, it is still highly unlikely that DJI will go to the extent of grounding all older drones or remotely degrading their performance in any way. My layman's speculative conclusion therefore is that older DJI drones will find a new lease of life in the Third World where laws are a lot more relaxed when it comes to toys that fly.