Missing drone, DJI service is hopeless

[DMavic]

yes flying with litchi set to 30meters high. the done became disconnect very early on in the mission because of the trees. My disappointment is more that dji don't have a correct gps tracker on the device which is running separate to the battery

Im not defending DJI.
Like their new smart controller with a hefty price tag whoa.

But a drone comes with a manual and how to's and a lot of dont's.
I'm a new drone pilot, mavic pro to be precise.

I've learned a lot by reading, reading and more reading and vid tutorials. Quad808 and CS, msinger, sar, in example.

One of the best stuff to read before you even fly drone is the following link.

Prevent a Crash or Flyaway with Your DJI Mavic (the Complete Guide)

To sum it all up.
Don't blame anyone except yourself.
Check your environment before flying, be sure what the capabilities of your "bird" and the software you are using are.
You were flying a high tech device worth a lot of money, take safety and precaution in consideration. How old is the mavic pro 2 right now? Not older than 6 months?

You used Litchi, instead of dji go4.. different rules and settings..

Learned to be more cautious after reading this topic.

Sorry for your loss!

 

[Jackcutrone]

I think when someone posts they lost there drone only helpful posts should be on the OP’s thread . Does anyone think he wants to hear 50 times that he screwed up . Or quit flying because he messed up on a litchi mission .
Should only be guys helping posting .
That’s it

Disagree. If it stops someone from doing something similar in the future it is beneficial.

 

[freddyrozen]

I think when someone posts they lost there drone only helpful posts should be on the OP’s thread . Does anyone think he wants to hear 50 times that he screwed up . Or quit flying because he messed up on a litchi mission .
Should only be guys helping posting .
That’s it

I would completely agree with you if the OP had not simply posted a rant stating that it was someone else's (DJI's) fault. In his post, he doesn't make a single legitimate request for help. He's just inviting everyone on the planet to stay away from DJI, and blaming DJI for not having a tracker on the drone. To my knowledge, there's not a single drone on the market with such a tracking device built in. I'm not a fanboy of any brand. I currently own a DJI Mavic 2 Zoom, a Mavic Air, a Parrot Anafi, and an Autel EVO. So what I'm about to write is completely unbiased:

I've owned nine DJI products in the last 4 1/2 years. I never had a single problem with any of them. And on top of that, I had two crashes that were completely my fault. I sent them in for repairs, both pretty demolished, and my repair (which is actually a replacement) charge was extremely reasonable, both times coming in under $300 and coming back to me in less than two weeks after shipping the damaged units to them.

So while I won't attack him in any way, I will defend the product and company making it as the probability that it was some kind of user error is extremely high - almost a certainty.

 

[AlanTheBeast]

The DJI service is hopeless, DJI don't care. when i lost my drone because it became disconnected it did not return to me. The return to home button did not work. The find my drone feature was only showing me where I took off. I am so angry with the mavic 2 pro dji product. What is the point of selling drones when you can't track them by gps coordinates? Do I then have to spend another few grand to buy a new product for this to easily happen again?

All they say it is a user error and will take no responsibility for their products. They should be taken off the market until they can install an external gps tracker. How can it be a user error when the drone becomes disconnected over a few trees? The drone is set to return to home automatically when becomes disconnected, although again this feature did not work.

Don’t waste your money, wait until they make the technology better and actually works.

Hmm. I find DJI's technology works in proportion to the time you spend with the manual and setting the settings correctly.

I especially find DJI's "return to home" functions best if one waits for the GPS to have a strong tracking indication before even firing up the motors. Indeed if there is a cardinal pre-take-off rule for most situations, that is probably it.

I'm late to the this thread but I bet others have said similar things ...

As to external GPS tracker there are various products you could should have bought.

 

[freddyrozen]

Hmm. I find DJI's technology works in proportion to the time you spend with the manual and setting the settings correctly.

I especially find DJI's "return to home" functions best if one waits for the GPS to have a strong tracking indication before even firing up the motors. Indeed if there is a cardinal pre-take-off rule for most situations, that is probably it.

I'm late to the this thread but I bet others have said similar things ...

As to external GPS tracker there are various products you could should have bought.

Your post reminded me of my first ALMOST horror story related to return to home. When I purchased my first DJI product almost 5 years ago - Phantom 2 Vision (this thing had a one axis gimbal - that's how long ago it was), I did something extremely stupid. I flew over a town while on a family visit to a suburb of NY. I lost contact with the drone completely - no video stream, no radio signal, nothing. I was positive I was about to walk inside and explain to my wife how I had just pissed away $1299 I had spent just two or three weeks earlier. Plus, I had no idea if I had killed someone in the process! As I'm beginning my walk of shame back inside, I hear the "bees" buzzing 130 feet over my head. My Phantom was back, radio and video signal returned, and I landed my toy without incident. As I'm watching the video that had luckily been recording the entire thing, I see that on its return, the Phantom had a near miss, flying just a few feet over a 10 story building.

If anyone reading this story is inclined to bash me because I was irresponsible flying over people's heads, please don't; I've already beaten myself up enough about it and have never done it again. In all the excitement with this new technology and being able to see from the sky without being there, I never stopped to think how dangerous what I was doing was.

Happy flying!!

 

[skiptv]

Here is a perfect example of why after you spend $1500 to $2200 to buy a product, you take a class on how to use it. I teach drone flight lessons for a couple of Universities. 99 percent of the time a drone crash is pilot error, just like with private airplanes.

 

[Flynz]

Sorry about your loss. And another valuable thread. On the positive side there are some key learnings.
1. 4000m is a long way and pilots need to ensure the signal can get to the drone. If flying over forest more altitude is required as trees will block the signal.
2. Rising terrain is a key risk. Flying manually is fine if pilots keep their eyes peeled. However if flying a way point mission you need to know the ground levels intimately and probably have some spare altitude. A simple unmapped tree covered knoll (maybe not a grassy knoll) can take you out. Same if you are flying manually and focusing on images.
3.If you get a weak signal indicator stop! Try more altitude and if the indicator continues change or abandon the mission.
4.Do preflight checks, RTH altitude set for the actual ground levels and obstacles and ensure home point is correct before departure.

I recently flew around a bluff over sea taking wave a rock shots. Pushed it a bit and got the weak signal followed by slow video feed. Unable to fly drone properly due to feed and control delay. Was nervous about flying into tree covered bluffs. I paused, ensured I was facing out to sea, climbed and headed for the horizon. Signal quickly improved and I flew home safely.

 

[mike graham]

Just bought a marco polo from the states, it’s the pet tracker but the same thing, very light and stuck on with adhesive velcro (dosnt come off at full speed in sport mode) only tested it without the mavic 2 and would say about 1/2 mile range down the lane with trees etc in the way it worked so a good bet if anyone didn’t fancy the Trackimo, just a thought for peace of mind....basic system but to be fair works well

 

[Canuk]

The Marco Polo is the one I want because most of my flying is remote flying with no cell coverage. If my bird goes down 400 feet away in the trees it will be hard to find . The locator should work for this

This is one place I fly lots . But still no cell service

 

[mike graham]

The Marco Polo is the one I want because most of my flying is remote flying with no cell coverage. If my bird goes down 400 feet away in the trees it will be hard to find . The locator should work for this

It should do, at least give you a fair chance of finding your drone, worth the money I think, bit of an insurance policy, just remember to turn on the beacon before every flight which i’m forgetting to do...don’t fly out of vlos yet though

 

[Canuk]

That would be bad to forget about turning the tag on .

 

[WWMav]

After having read through this thread over two days, I don't recall anyone having asked or commented about what the Litchi mission "end of mission" instructions specified. I've only used Litchi for a single mission but recall there were several options for end of mission, such as "land", "hover", return to home, etc. Is it possible the mission did not specify RTH and the aircraft landed at the last specified waypoint?

 

[sar104]

After having read through this thread over two days, I don't recall anyone having asked or commented about what the Litchi mission "end of mission" instructions specified. I've only used Litchi for a single mission but recall there were several options for end of mission, such as "land", "hover", return to home, etc. Is it possible the mission did not specify RTH and the aircraft landed at the last specified waypoint?

I think that's because with the mission profile used there was no way for the aircraft to get as far as the last waypoint - it was too low.

 

[WWMav]

I think that's because with the mission profile used there was no way for the aircraft to get as far as the last waypoint - it was too low.

I thought there was some uncertainty in the height of potential obstacles along the flight path so thought the end of mission instruction should be considered as a possible reason for it not returning to home point.

 

[sar104]

I thought there was some uncertainty in the height of potential obstacles along the flight path so thought the end of mission instruction should be considered as a possible reason for it not returning to home point.

The OP confirmed that the trees are significantly higher than the ground clearance at the last recorded point, and the ground rises further after that. You are correct that it should always be a consideration but, in this case, it seems like an unlikely explanation.

 

[snoopx]

Just out of interest, would a cheap $10 tracker like this be suitable for attaching to a drone and locating it in the event of a crash?
It claims you can "track and map (with Google Maps) in real-time over the Internet".
Magnetic Mini GPS Tracker Car Spy GSM GPRS Real Time Tracking Locator Device NEW 738596376383 | eBay

 

[Meta4]

Just out of interest, would a cheap $10 tracker like this be suitable for attaching to a drone and locating it in the event of a crash?
It claims you can "track and map (with Google Maps) in real-time over the Internet".

It probably wouldn't have helped the OP since it requires a working sim card and he was in a remote area where mobile phone service is unlikely.
Another potential problem is the "two powerful magnets" which are likely to cause trouble for the Mavic's compass.

 

[snoopx]

Thanks. It's so cheap, it's tempting to buy one to test it out.
It advertises itself as a spying device to eg track and voice record a cheating spouse etc

 

[Canuk]

I would not call it cheap if the magnets mess up the drone and you lose your bird

 

[Boomstick]

Most of the time it can be found with dji go4
Here’s my crash last week was filming some waves and yes I smacked the wave it shot up about 30 feet and kinda sideways maybe upside down and into the surf high tide coming in went that night and found it as tide was going out 6 hours later