Mavic Pro takes off (and got lost) after iphone shuts down

[onelobos]

Very sad situation for me on 12/27/17 3:34PM EST. 3rd flight with my Xmas present, my iphone shut down after 6 minutes, due to cold, (?) even though battery was at 100%. At that point, drone just took off away from me at a high speed. Panicking, I immediately warmed up and charged phone, connected it with controller, but it showed no contact with drone. Before first flight, I watched numerous tutorials. Not one mentioned what the drone would do if phone battery shut down. Drone was charged 100%. Only flying for 6 minutes. Last known position was when it lost contact with my phone, very near me. (see photo below) But it seemed to immediately fly so fast away from me it probably kept going, floated, crashed??? I searched everywhere around it's last know area with contact with the controller. (which is this photo) Uploaded flight data and video cache to DJI (after 2 hours on phone with Apple Support to retrieve it) and haven't heard back. They are checking for user error or drone malfunction. It sounds like others have had similar issues with drones just taking off for no reason. Isn't it supposed to fly home at any distress? We calibrated it's GPS. I tried to upload it's last video here, but even a smaller MP4 version is too large to upload here. (62 MB) I attached it's flight records. Here is a screenshot from it's last video, and the last contact I had with it. The photo is roughly 150 yards down the street from where drone took off, then went on it's own. The drone most likely moved far beyond this location. I can post this address, but don't know if that's cool to do here. @msinger

 

[dbyantis]

Very sad situation for me on 12/27/17 3:34PM EST. 3rd flight with my Xmas present, my iphone shut down after 6 minutes, due to cold, (?) even though battery was at 100%. At that point, drone just took off away from me at a high speed. Panicking, I immediately warmed up and charged phone, connected it with controller, but it showed no contact with drone. Before first flight, I watched numerous tutorials. Not one mentioned what the drone would do if phone battery shut down. Drone was charged 100%. Only flying for 6 minutes. Last known position was when it lost contact with my phone, very near me. (see photo below) But it seemed to immediately fly so fast away from me it probably kept going, floated, crashed??? I searched everywhere around it's last know area with contact with the controller. (which is this photo) Uploaded flight data and video cache to DJI (after 2 hours on phone with Apple Support to retrieve it) and haven't heard back. They are checking for user error or drone malfunction. It sounds like others have had similar issues with drones just taking off for no reason. Isn't it supposed to fly home at any distress? We calibrated it's GPS. I tried to upload it's last video here, but even a smaller MP4 version is too large to upload here. (62 MB) If someone can help me get it uploaded here I'd be grateful. I've got two folders, one with flight records, and one with video cache, but the files are huge. Here is a screenshot from it's last video, and the last contact I had with it. The photo is roughly 150 yards down the street from where drone took off, then went on it's own. The drone most likely moved far beyond this location. I can post this address, but don't know if that's cool to do here. @msingerView attachment 28223

Did you try the "Find My Drone" feature in GO4? It is under the menu from the main screen. It should show the Last Known Position.Not sure why it took off, but if you are trying to find it, "why" comes later, I assume.

 

[BerndM]

Were you in visual sight of the MP or were you using FPV?
The phone/tablet should have no bearing on the RC's control of the MP.
You can fly the MP without a phone/tablet as long as you continue to be within visual sight of it.
I hope you find it.

 

[onelobos]

Did you try the "Find My Drone" feature in GO4? It is under the menu from the main screen. It should show the Last Known Position.Not sure why it took off, but if you are trying to find it, "why" comes later, I assume.

Yes, tried "Find my Drone" immediately, but the app said "disconnected" and only showed the location where the drone last had communication with the controller, the picture in my post. I saw the drone fly way past that location.

 

[onelobos]

Were you in visual sight of the MP or were you using FPV?
The phone/tablet should have no bearing on the RC's control of the MP.
You can fly the MP without a phone/tablet as long as you continue to be within visual sight of it.
I hope you find it.

Was in visual sight. My iphone died (so did the app) and my fingers were off the toggles on the controller. Drone took off out of sight as I stared at my dead phone and my controller. Tried to bring it backwards towards me with toggles but to no avail. It was only up 300 or so ft. See photo

 

[Marko9219]

Hmmm...Having the phone shut down has nothing to do with the controller keeping a connection with your drone. It is entirely within control of the controller even without a phone or tablet attached. Now then, let's talk about your Return To Home settings prior to the flight? I can't imagine why it would go rogue if the controller was still communicating with the drone.

 

[Tinker95]

I had a similar issue. I was also flying a POI mission when my iPhone died. I paused the mission. Then I tried to return the Mavic for a landing. Controls on the RC controller did not work as usual. I managed to bring the Mavic back to my location by manipulate the controls in reverse. ( or they were out by 90deg or so ) I was able to descend to 5ft above ground but the quad refused to land and began to drift. I tried RTH without any results. It impacted a spruce tree and luckily it stayed caught up in the branches. The only damage was one broken prop. I contacted my Mavic dealer and he suggested that if this issue reoccurs I should switch to sports mode and back to P mode to exit any missions. I would be interested to hear if others have had this issue when flying a mission and the display dies.

 

[waddellw]

My app shutdown on my phone and the drone shot up to 200 feet or so and did the return to home procedure immediately. Luckily mine came back close to where I took off and I was able to reconnect and land it properly.


Idk why it's so strange! I'd almost prefer it to hover in place using a GPS bearing built into the drone than go mad and attempt to fly itself home.



I'm using a Google Pixel XL not an iPhone and the app doesn't like it at all. Often shutting off for no reason whatsoever.

 

[ronk]

The data you uploaded shows a lot of "compass errors". In addition, it looks like the mavic lost GPS and switched to ATTI @06m 01s into the flight at a height of 103.7 ft and 125 ft away from home. The mavic was also being pushed way by a 24 mph wind. Finally your RTH seemed to have been set at 30 meters.

What was the compass status before take off? Did you calibrate it?

@06m 01s Mode changed to Atti
@06m 07s Yaw Error. Warning:Weak GPS signal. Positional accuracy may be compromised. Please fly with caution.

 

[sar104]

The problem started with significant compass errors at 76 seconds, coinciding with the first yaw command of the flight at which point the IMU yaw and magnetic yaw readings likely diverged. It's probable that was due to taking off from a magnetically distorted location, although there could be other reasons. Those errors were followed by more compass errors, yaw errors and high wind warnings, that unfortunately you ignored. At 321 seconds it started to exhibit the classic toilet bowl motion characteristic of a large yaw error (see graph below), but somewhat surprisingly the FC didn't switch to ATTI mode until 361 seconds at which point it stopped holding position and started to drift to the south east with a 20 mph wind. The velocities shown are real, and computed from the GPS data since the IMU had completely lost track of yaw and velocity at this point.

You made some sporadic throttle and rudder inputs after that, but nothing else until the record ends at 386 seconds. Is there a reason that you made no attempt to use elevator or aileron to bring it back?

Anyway, the RC was reporting good signal strength right up to the end of the log, so it's not clear that the RC lost contact with the aircraft when the app crashed. That makes estimating where it might have ended up rather difficult. With the RC connected and no stick inputs it will hold altitude and continue to drift until critical low battery, at which point it will autoland. If the RC disconnects in ATTI mode then it will autoland immediately. But there is no way to know how long the RC remained connected unless you switched it off, which I suspect that you did not, and so there is no way to make any reasonable estimate of how far it will have travelled before autolanding. The battery was at 80%, so it could have drifted several miles if it remained connected. There is little chance of finding it in my opinion.

DJI has offered replacements in similar cases where the apparent loss of control was caused by a switch to ATTI, so it's worth pursuing with them.

 

[djaco]

I had my iPhone go dead while flying it with Litchi, after seeing another MP get weird when an iPhone shuts down, I just hit return to home and watched my MP land perfectly. My old homemade quads with gps would have fly aways when the compass wasn't calibrated correctly, It seems reasonable to assume the compass may not have been calibrated or may have been calibrated in an area that had significant disturbances during calibration. If I calibrate my MP indoors, it gets all messed up due to the 110volt power lines in the walls and basement, just below where I tried to calibrate.
Easy to sit here and guess what may have occurred, hope you find it or get a replacement.

 

[locoman]

Makes no sense that the MP would go crazy if a phone shuts down. unless you are flying WiFi. I thought that the MP is controlled by the RC, not the phone.

 

[Njoro]

Makes no sense that the MP would go crazy if a phone shuts down. unless you are flying WiFi. I thought that the MP is controlled by the RC, not the phone.

My thoughts too!

 

[msinger]

@onelobos, here's a link to your uploaded flight log:
DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

At the end of your flight log, your Mavic was drifting with the wind close to the red line below. Assuming the remote controller disconnected from the Mavic close to the end of the flight log, it would have drifted for about 23 more seconds before it was able to descend low enough to land (or make impact with a tree/building).

Start looking for it in this yellow box:

 

[msinger]

Makes no sense that the MP would go crazy if a phone shuts down. unless you are flying WiFi. I thought that the MP is controlled by the RC, not the phone.

Right. It didn't go crazy. It switched to ATTI mode and started drifting away with the wind since the OP made no attempt to control it (according to the data in the flight log).

 

[Lapeer20m]

My app shutdown on my phone and the drone shot up to 200 feet or so and did the return to home procedure immediately. Luckily mine came back close to where I took off and I was able to reconnect and land it properly.


Idk why it's so strange! I'd almost prefer it to hover in place using a GPS bearing built into the drone than go mad and attempt to fly itself home.



I'm using a Google Pixel XL not an iPhone and the app doesn't like it at all. Often shutting off for no reason whatsoever.

You can change the setting in go4 from rth to hover.

 

[msinger]

You can change the setting in go4 from rth to hover.

True. But, how would that have helped the OP in this case?

 

[Lapeer20m]

True. But, how would that have helped the OP in this case?

It would not have.

My mistake. I should have included the text from the post I was replying to.

Waddlw wrote a few posts back "Idk why it's so strange! I'd almost prefer it to hover in place using a GPS bearing built into the drone than go mad and attempt to fly itself home"

And I was replying to that.

 

[waddellw]

It would not have.

My mistake. I should have included the text from the post I was replying to.

Waddlw wrote a few posts back "Idk why it's so strange! I'd almost prefer it to hover in place using a GPS bearing built into the drone than go mad and attempt to fly itself home"

And I was replying to that.

Thanks! I found the setting in the DJI app.

Does the community think that hover could be a good option during a disconnect or would that only make things worse??

This is the third or so mavic with compass interference I've seen on here go missing in the last week!

 

[msinger]

My mistake. I should have included the text from the post I was replying to.

Waddlw wrote a few posts back "Idk why it's so strange! I'd almost prefer it to hover in place using a GPS bearing built into the drone than go mad and attempt to fly itself home"

Ah. That would not have been a good setting to use for this case. If the OP had done that, the Mavic would have hovered in place when the remote controller signal was lost and drifted with the wind until the battery reached the critically low level.