Mini 3 drift problem

[MS Coast]

It even states in manual that this exact case it just asking for trouble, so I would consider it "normal". Good for you that in your case it worked out so far. All depends on the texture of water itself. If its muddy lake, it doesnt have an influence. But clear water and calm surface will interfere

The manual doesn't mention the turbidity of the water as a factor.

From my flight observations, the few hiccups I've seen were related to the reflectance of the surface and direct solar illumination with few clouds rather than diffuse lighting. One instance of drift took place with the drone about four feet above a riffle in rapidly flowing shallow creek. The other two were over a still clear lake and a still pool salt marsh.

In all cases, the problems were minor and readily handled. Two involved minor drift less than one foot per second. In the third, the drone was about 10 feet above the still lake and did not immediately respond to a command to descend. It appeared that it thought it was low enough to enter landing mode and paused before responding to the stick command. I moved the drone a few feet and it then responded as expected and descended.

My point is that flying over water, in my experience, does not commonly or frequently result in a loss of control or odd behavior of the drone.

 

[MS Coast]

Working at heights of less than ten feet the other day, my Mini 2 wouldn't keep a constant altitude, varying up and down nearly a foot while in motion. (not in hover) I really had to pay attention to height, to the detriment of other moves.
No wind.

The problem can be seen here:

If the obstacle avoidance action is set to Bypass, that would be expected as the drone moved over higher and lower surfaces, like plants and bare ground.

 

[Lister]

If the obstacle avoidance action is set to Bypass, that would be expected as the drone moved over higher and lower surfaces, like plants and bare ground.

Not sure how mine is set. Since the Mini 2 has no obstacle avoidance at all (except vertical) I'd forgotten all about it. Thanks for the memory jog.

 

[scottb37]

Anyone else seen this issue with the Mini 3? Takeoff, go to 20' or so, and hover. The drone doesn't just hover in one spot, it randomly drifts, as if there's some control input. It will typically drift sideways for a bit, perhaps 5 to 10', then stop, then drift again. It's not a huge problem if you're just hovering in the clear, but if you're attempting to navigate around some obsticles, or even land, it want's to drift off course significantly require a LOT of strange control input from the pilot. 22 sats before launch, BTW, light wind.

My reference drone is an Air 2S, which will hang in the air motionless just fine.

Having the EXACT same issue, and had the magic air 2 as well, never was an issue…

 

[scottb37]

Maybe the sticks need calibrating, so no input = no change.

I recalibrated the sticks to verify no input, still flys around like it’s drunk

 

[Meta4]

I recalibrated the sticks to verify no input, still flys around like it’s drunk

How much does it move around?
A certain amount is normal.
From the specs:
Hovering Accuracy Range
Vertical:
±0.5 m (with GPS positioning)

Horizontal:
±1.5 m (with GPS positioning)

With VPS and a suitable surface and lighting, those numbers are reduced.
But if the surface is not suitable, the drone may hunt around to try to lock on to something.
What's the ground surface where you've observed this issue?

 

[jpatrickhanley]

I had a drift problem today - it was a faulty propeller. I grazed a tree earlier in the evening and it wasn't a catastrophic interaction and everything seemed like it was in working order, but apparently one of the propellers was not sound. Later in the evening, I fired up the drone just to test out some camera settings, and it drifted into the wall... twice. I replaced the propellers, and that solved everything. I hope your solution is so simple.

 

[Meta4]

I had a drift problem today - it was a faulty propeller. I grazed a tree earlier in the evening and it wasn't a catastrophic interaction and everything seemed like it was in working order, but apparently one of the propellers was not sound. Later in the evening, I fired up the drone just to test out some camera settings, and it drifted into the wall... twice. I replaced the propellers, and that solved everything. I hope your solution is so simple.

A grazed propeller won't make a drone drift.
The cause of your incident was something else.
Post flight data if you want to find out more.

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, or just post the .txt file.

 

[MS Coast]

I had a drift problem today - it was a faulty propeller. I grazed a tree earlier in the evening and it wasn't a catastrophic interaction and everything seemed like it was in working order, but apparently one of the propellers was not sound. Later in the evening, I fired up the drone just to test out some camera settings, and it drifted into the wall... twice. I replaced the propellers, and that solved everything. I hope your solution is so simple.

Or possibly your drone finally had time to acquire a good gps lock or you flew it over a surface that was less uniform.

How could a damaged propeller cause a drone to ignore its guidance system?

As @Meta4 suggests, post the flight log if you want to find the real explanation.