Mini 2 Altitidue error and I lost control - why?

[craig9563]

Hi folks,
I had a bad experience with the DJI mini 2 drone last weekend and I am wondering why?
- I'm not too experiecned, have only flown it several times. I took it to the coast, everything fully charged. It started , and went up fine, then I sent it out over the shoreline.
- I was not at the set altitude limit.
- I let it get out of my line of sight, which I should not have done.
- Suddenly, a red warning appeared on my phone, on the top left of the App. It was brief then vanished but said something like "Altitude Error." I then lost all control. When I moved the joysticks, nothing happened. Just a still image of the shoreline it was last over. No indication the drone was moving anywhere.
- I pressed RTH, but the map in the corner did not show any movement of the drone.
- Frantically, I pressed "Find my Drone", and started looking for it. I finally found it, as the GPS map implied it was not far from where I was first standing. It was upside down in some bushes not far from the shoreline. Had it gone into the sea (only about 10 feet away) it would have been wrecked and gone.
- This has shaken my confidence with it. I checked in the manual and online but could not work out what I had done wrong, or what that red error warning meant. Any clues?
Thanks
Craig
Melbourne, Australia.

 

[GFields]

Greetings from Birmingham Alabama USA, welcome to the forum!

I'm moving your thread to a better section.

DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help

• Post your flight data to get help
• Go to DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help
• Follow the instructions there to upload your flight record from your phone or tablet.
• That will give you a detailed report on the flight data.
• Come back and post a link to the report it provides.

You are also welcome to just post the txt file here.

Upload and view DJI Phantom, Mavic, and Spark flight logs online

@Meta4 and @slup are great at offering explanations from the data.

 

[Meta4]

This has shaken my confidence with it. I checked in the manual and online but could not work out what I had done wrong, or what that red error warning meant. Any clues?

The only clue from your description is that warning message.
But I suspect is said something different from what you think it did.
If you can post your recorded flight data, that will give lots more information and point to what actually happened.

Go to DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help
Follow the instructions there to upload your flight record from your phone or tablet.
That will give you a detailed report of the flight.
Come back and post a link to the report it gives you.
Or .. just post the txt file here.

 

[craig9563]

Thanks folks. I think I downloaded the text data correctly. Meta4 is correct- it did say something other than I thought it did. It said aircraft in "Attitude mode" (not Altitude ! LOL. ) It see it also says weak GPS signla and then saying drone was in the Indian Ocean off Africa (?) but it was in Melbourne, Australia. Does this below help:

DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help

Upload and view flight logs from your DJI drones

www.phantomhelp.com

 

[Meta4]

That's what I expected.
Tied up right now but will look into it in half an hour or so.

 

[Meta4]

Hi folks,
I had a bad experience with the DJI mini 2 drone last weekend and I am wondering why?
- I'm not too experiecned, have only flown it several times. I took it to the coast, everything fully charged. It started , and went up fine, then I sent it out over the shoreline.

Hi Craig ... the flight data fits part of your story, but the "flight" only lasts for 0.4 seconds and stops before you launched.
Perhaps you saw the warning and shut down but tried again at another time?
If you can find a data record for the flight you described, I can give a more detailed explanation,
But from your description I can say : ....
Atti mode means that the drone doesn't have GPS reception.
If that's right at the start of the flight, it's probably just because you launched prematurely before getting GPS reception.
If you haven't flown for a week or so it might take a minute or two.
If you've recently flown in the vicinity, it might only take 10 or 20 seconds.

I then lost all control. When I moved the joysticks, nothing happened.

Atti mode can be confusing if you haven't experienced it before.
The drone won't have the ability to hold position, it will drift with any wind and it won't have any "brakes".
But despite that it's still fully controllable, just disorienting if you aren't expecting it.

- I pressed RTH, but the map in the corner did not show any movement of the drone.

The drone can't RTH unless it has good GPS reception.
It also cannot record a homepoint until it gets good GPS.

This has shaken my confidence with it. I checked in the manual and online but could not work out what I had done wrong, or what that red error warning meant.

No worries ... If you wait for GPS before launching, things will be much better and a lot less scary.
To know when your drone has good GPS, watch the satellite icon in the top right of the screen.
It starts out red when you power on, changes to yellow-ish and when the drone has good GPS location data and has recorded a home point, it turns white.

If you have any extra questions or need more info, just ask.

ps .. look closely at my screenshot above and you might recognise the scene?

 

[craig9563]

Thanks so much, this is really very helpful.

 

[Sime]

On a good day, especially where I am, you can have 31 satellites linked, drone doesn’t move an inch.

 

[craig9563]

Here is another log. It actually shows where the drone came down. It says motor unable to rotate

DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help

Upload and view flight logs from your DJI drones

www.phantomhelp.com

 

[Meta4]

Here is another log. It actually shows where the drone came down. It says motor unable to rotate

That flight seems quite normal.
You had full GPS the whole time and brought the drone back and landed 26 metres from the starting point.
The motor unable to rotate was obviously a false alarm, maybe caused by some vegetation or another minor obstruction interfering with the propeller?

 

[slup]

That flight seems quite normal...

Besides that he manually flies the Mini2 with full elevator backwards in nearly 15mph, 1,6ft above ground... & then applies full throttle for ascending & hitting those bushes & crashes.

Here below the VPS height, stick moves & speeds in the very end before the Mini2 crashed...

-Suddenly, a red warning appeared on my phone
-then lost all control. When I moved the joysticks, nothing happened.
-Just a still image of the shoreline it was last over. No indication the drone was moving anywhere.
-I pressed RTH, but the map in the corner did not show any movement of the drone.

- This has shaken my confidence with it.

The only warning appearing in the log comes briefly at 4.6s into the flight... it's about "Motor unable to rotate. Check motor (Code: 30142)" & has, as said earlier, most probably to do with the props hitting something before getting airborne when you start this flight... this error doesn't come back later.

Nothing in the log indicate that you ever lost any control... the Mini2 nicely follows all your stick movements the whole flight, both speed & craft attitude wise.

The down & uplink between the RC & Mini2 aren't degraded at all during the whole flight... it's just in the very end just before you manually crash the Mini2 the log shows a slight degradation on the downlink. (If you by mistake pull the USB cable out from the mobile device the live view will be greyed out... that will also stop the log recording, but that isn't seen here. If that really happened it's a mystery.)

No RTH was ever recorded in the log... meaning, you didn't succeed to initiate it, even if you thought you did.

All this really feels like you for some reason came into a panic mode... & that ended with that you nailed the elevator stick for backwards flight the whole way into ground once reaching the beach.

 

[craig9563]

Thanks both Meta4 and slup.

slup is right, I did go into a panic mode.
With regard to "motor not rotating", I recall that I did take off on flat sand that had some short tufts of grasses here and there. One of the props probably hit one or two blades of grass.
I guess it means more and more careful practice for me (and not letting the mini2 out of my sight). Thank you again for your time, greatly appreciated. Craig.