Mini 3 Pro lost at sea...

[jmrmavic2]

Hi everybody, I am following most mini 3 Pro threads for a while now and I had an issue with mine yesterday when launching from back of sailing boat.
I have some experience with several bigger Dji drones in the past years without any issue, but this was my first mini.
Hand launching from the back deck it took off but lost power and lift almost immediately and it fell in the water without any chance of recuperation.
The wind was 3-4 Beaufort,...I had checked all safety settings before launch and had plenty of satellites.
There was no home point set yet because RC screen showed that ac was moving(sailing), I was expecting a home point setting once airborne.
Although home point at sea is to be reset from time to time.
Wondering if I made a pilot error or this could be hardware fault?
Thanks anyone for any advice, hope you can open the file.
Greetings JM

Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

 

[old man mavic]

@jmrmavic2 ,there is an anomaly with the Mini 3 when hand launching ,and that is not to give it any upwards movement at the moment of launch ,or do the opposite and move your hand down to quickly at the moment of launch ,in both instances the motors stop
although you may not have done either of those movements intentionally ,unfortunately the pitching of the boat would have had a similar affect

 

[DroneSketcher]

In the manual they don't recommend taking off from moving objects such as cars or boats (p. 59)
But that does not help with your lost drone

 

[PeteGSW]

I saw a youtube review saying you could not hand launch this drone. Maybe it was that?

 

[saltydrone]

Did you use the auto-takeoff button on the screen, or did you launch using the joysticks?

 

[jmrmavic2]

Thanks for replying, must have missed or payed no attention to this part in the manual, the pitching of the boat must have caused that effect, never had any problem with handlaunch/catch on solid ground before.
Dji support is still analyzing log...
Thanks again for helping to understand!

 

[jmrmavic2]

Did you use the auto-takeoff button on the screen, or did you launch using the joysticks?

Was with auto-launch button

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Can you post the log here please? Or better yet, upload it to
DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help
then post the URL here?
It would be interesting to see what happens.

 

[MS Coast]

I saw a youtube review saying you could not hand launch this drone. Maybe it was that?

You can. There's no "toss it into the sky" feature on the Mini 3, but you can certainly launch it from your hand.

 

[PeteGSW]

You can. There's no "toss it into the sky" feature on the Mini 3, but you can certainly launch it from your hand.

Apologies. That's right now I remember it.

 

[jmrmavic2]

Can you post the log here please? Or better yet, upload it to DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help then post the URL here?
It would be interesting to see what happens.

Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

Duuuuuuh Homer moment sorry

EDIT
Ah that's a DAT, and probably unprocessable by anyone other than DJI, it's the txt flight log that we 'need', sorry

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

..
The TXT file as per the phantomhelp link post #8.

Sorry for your loss, that would have been terrible watching that happen.
Even though it would have been seconds, it must have seemed like slow motion.

Beaufort 4 is approaching the mini 3 pro lower end of its wind rating, I would be very cautious with gusts around that anywhere, but even more so from an ocean going vessel.

Did you take up Care Refresh ?

 

[jmrmavic2]

Found Aircraft Flight Record Cache in RC Internal Storage but only possibility is to clear cache, usb file transfer is turned on.
RC SD Card contains only Photo Cache and Album Data and can only be cleared also, so no transfer possible...

Remembered last night also that I had a message in red on top of the screen saying "ac is moving" or something like that(at that moment take off was not possible), caused by the moving ship, but after a while message changed to "Take off permitted"...
So that is why I am als doubting it could be a hardware issue.
Screen recording was not active.
I have Care Refresh, Dji support already downloaded the logs from the RC and will report in a couple of days, they will see this "take off permitted" message also I hope.

 

[TimDJI]

Put the RC on USB at your Computer and switch it ON.
Than you can see under "This PC" -- "DJI" "Common use memory"
Here are the flight Records.

 

[jmrmavic2]

Put the RC on USB at your Computer and switch it ON.
Than you can see under "This PC" -- "DJI" "Common use memory"
Here are the flight Records.

Can't find anything similar on the Mac sorry, but will post Dji report here soon.

 

[TimDJI]

Strange

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

I think you need to use something like Android File Transfer when connecting an Android phone to a Mac ..... though I can not get it to work for me lol. Might the same thing apply to the controller i.e. might some form of program be needed on the Mac to allow the controller to be read?

 

[jphoto]

I've been hand launching and landing the Mini 3 Pro, no issues.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

@jmrmavic2 have you seen this thread

HOW TO: Copy TXT flight logs from DJI RC remote controller

Follow these instructions to copy TXT flight logs from the DJI RC remote controller to a memory card: Power on the DJI RC remote controller. Open the door on the bottom of remote controller labeled HOST/MICRO SD and insert a memory card. Swipe down with your finger from the top of the...

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