MP CSC Motor cut off mid air in flight and restart, simulator and real flight?

[ScottJD]

So I started with the Mavic Pro Simulator for two reasons, but I wasn't a new pilot. So why did I do this, well:
1. It was winter time and I couldn't fly my new Mavic
2. It was the first DJI product I bought and wanted to learn the app on the phone and controls better before I did fly the Mavic Pro.

What I learned from this is the simulator is a very accurate simulation of the real flight. I like how any changes I make of the phone app affect the flight of the simulator. I like how you use the controller also.
It helped me understand all the different features and options.
I do wish it had some trees for things like Max altitude for RTH to test. Or to see how the avoidance sensors would go around a tree when it's returning to home if I enabled that feature.
Being able to increase the wind to 40MPH and see how you can fly the Mavic in high wind, and if changing to sports mode helps. How fast could I change to sports mode to recover the Mavic in flight from a high wind gust?

Let's just say I'm one of those people I want to know everything possible before flying something new. I want to be prepaired and know the limits and capabilities of the Mavic before taking my first flight.

I was even able to test the CSC emergency motor cut off. Yes, I'm one that prefers to manually launch my drone by starting the motors first and it tap a button on a app. What I discovered is I was able to cut my motors if I was above 200ft, and turn them back on fast enough to bring the Mavic Pro back under control before it crashed.
The reasons on why you would do this are debatable, their are plenty of reasons I can think of, but to many to list for now. I just wanted to know if it can be done if I needed to do this. The main point is I highly recommend the simulator for any new pilots or even anyone new to a DJI product and learning the DJI application.

Well if worked on the simulator, the big question was would it work inn actual flight? So when I mentioned this to a friend I never thought he would actually try this in flight. I was wrong, he did try it in flight.

For those interested in trying the simulator that didn't know about it, you can run it doing the following.
How to use the simulator:
Turn on the controller, launch the DJI GO 4 app, make sure you have the Mavic chosen as your drone from the top left drop down of the app.
Remove the props from the mavic, turn on the mavic.
On the top right click the three lines and select Academy, then Choose simulator.
Now what ever setting you choose in the app is the same way the simulator Mavic acts.
To get out of the simulator you have to restart the mavic and the DJI Go 4 app. Double check you settings after you restart it, I don't remember if it keeps the settings you change when your in the simulator or not.
Now try what ever you want, increase wind speeds to 40, try sports mode, practice RTH and canceling RTH.
Even do what Chis just did in his video.
TIP: Go above 200FT minimum to do what chis just did in the simulator and he fast on the sticks.
The simulator is a great way to try any features and practice anything without the risk of crashing your Mavic in real flight.

 

[kykayak]

I've had a medical helicopter sneak up on me flying about 200' AGL. The CNC stop and start would have made descending much faster. Thankfully I was able to switch to sport mode and fly well out of his path.

 

[ScottJD]

Well I just spoke with him. Based off my simulator practice and what I know about the mavic and the electronics I thought it would work. The lowest I could be was 200FT or it voiced a little off the ground in the simulator.
He reviewed the flight logs and he was at 400ft, it dropped 120ft, took another 70ft before it gained enough RPM spin to gain altitude with one second in between the cut off and turning the motors back on.
That's a total drop of 190FT. I am shocked how accurate the simulator seems to be.

At the height you were at you would have had to be quick on the sticks, cut the motors, put the sticks back to center to reset the command sequence and rengange the motors and it would have been a very close call with your 200' AGL, but possible.

If anything, it would have been a fast landing but I think it would have been ok. This is why I practiced stuff like this in the simulator in case I ever needed it.
I know last week some quick thinking switching to sports modes saved me from an unexpected 40MPH wind gust. Without the extra power and thrust of sports mode I probably wouldn't have recovered. Another thing I practice so I remember. I look at sports mode like the defensive driving mode when needed.

 

[ScottJD]

I've had a medical helicopter sneak up on me flying about 200' AGL. The CNC stop and start would have made descending much faster. Thankfully I was able to switch to sport mode and fly well out of his path.

I also just did this thread, I listed a few apps I use to monitor ATC traffic for my local airport. You might want to look into this, you might have heard the call for the medflight take off and landed to check its route with these apps. It could have prevented that close call.

New pilot, new Mavic tips to start

 

[Bunny Too]

Wow, there was a huge thread on here not too long ago about the validity of this very idea. Glad to see it worked.

 

[Bunny Too]

So I started with the Mavic Pro Simulator for two reasons, but I wasn't a new pilot. So why did I do this, well:
1. It was winter time and I couldn't fly my new Mavic
2. It was the first DJI product I bought and wanted to learn the app on the phone and controls better before I did fly the Mavic Pro.

What I learned from this is the simulator is a very accurate simulation of the real flight. I like how any changes I make of the phone app affect the flight of the simulator. I like how you use the controller also.
It helped me understand all the different features and options.
I do wish it had some trees for things like Max altitude for RTH to test. Or to see how the avoidance sensors would go around a tree when it's returning to home if I enabled that feature.
Being able to increase the wind to 40MPH and see how you can fly the Mavic in high wind, and if changing to sports mode helps. How fast could I change to sports mode to recover the Mavic in flight from a high wind gust?

Let's just say I'm one of those people I want to know everything possible before flying something new. I want to be prepaired and know the limits and capabilities of the Mavic before taking my first flight.

I was even able to test the CSC emergency motor cut off. Yes, I'm one that prefers to manually launch my drone by starting the motors first and it tap a button on a app. What I discovered is I was able to cut my motors if I was above 200ft, and turn them back on fast enough to bring the Mavic Pro back under control before it crashed.
The reasons on why you would do this are debatable, their are plenty of reasons I can think of, but to many to list for now. I just wanted to know if it can be done if I needed to do this. The main point is I highly recommend the simulator for any new pilots or even anyone new to a DJI product and learning the DJI application.

Well if worked on the simulator, the big question was would it work inn actual flight? So when I mentioned this to a friend I never thought he would actually try this in flight. I was wrong, he did try it in flight.

For those interested in trying the simulator that didn't know about it, you can run it doing the following.
How to use the simulator:
Turn on the controller, launch the DJI GO 4 app, make sure you have the Mavic chosen as your drone from the top left drop down of the app.
Remove the props from the mavic, turn on the mavic.
On the top right click the three lines and select Academy, then Choose simulator.
Now what ever setting you choose in the app is the same way the simulator Mavic acts.
To get out of the simulator you have to restart the mavic and the DJI Go 4 app. Double check you settings after you restart it, I don't remember if it keeps the settings you change when your in the simulator or not.
Now try what ever you want, increase wind speeds to 40, try sports mode, practice RTH and canceling RTH.
Even do what Chis just did in his video.
TIP: Go above 200FT minimum to do what chis just did in the simulator and he fast on the sticks.
The simulator is a great way to try any features and practice anything without the risk of crashing your Mavic in real flight.

You should get an upload of the. DAT file so everyone can see exactly what happened with your amazing drone.

 

[Cyberpower678]

DAT file. I want to see that DAT file. I will store it my treasured files.

 

[ScottJD]

Wow, there was a huge thread on here not too long ago about the validity of this very idea. Glad to see it worked.

It's funny you mentioned that thread, that's when I had the idea to try it in the simulator. I'm just the one that did the simulator and studied how it handled in the simulator.

Chris, the one who did the video, was the one crazy enough to try it. He's never done the simulator.
According to the simulator it would have to be at least 200 feet above ground when I did it.
Scott

 

[ScottJD]

DAT file. I want to see that DAT file. I will store it my treasured files.

I've asked him for the DAT file of the flight. I'm hoping he emails it to me later this afternoon. I'm also interested in the data and how it logged the flight.
Scott

 

[Ebruce]

So wait-- ugh-- so he initiated the combo to stop motors obviously. Then he has to initiate the same combo once again and immediately 100% the throttle. And this happens in rapid succession. I know this is a silly question, just want to be absolutely sure I'm wrapping my head around this correctly.

 

[Cyberpower678]

So wait-- ugh-- so he initiated the combo to stop motors obviously. Then he has to initiate the same combo once again and immediately 100% the throttle. And this happens in rapid succession. I know this is a silly question, just want to be absolutely sure I'm wrapping my head around this correctly.

This is what the DAT file is for. It will have all the details.

 

[Cyberpower678]

I've asked him for the DAT file of the flight. I'm hoping he emails it to me later this afternoon. I'm also interested in the data and how it logged the flight.
Scott

It's going to be too large to email. It needs to be placed in a Dropbox.

 

[Ebruce]

Man that test made me feel sick... not my MP obviously.. but I love these birds so much it hurts to see anyone in a hairy situation. Especially when they are purposely doing it for our benefit.. glad things worked out!

 

[ScottJD]

So wait-- ugh-- so he initiated the combo to stop motors obviously. Then he has to initiate the same combo once again and immediately 100% the throttle. And this happens in rapid succession. I know this is a silly question, just want to be absolutely sure I'm wrapping my head around this correctly.

Yes, that's exactly what he did.
The mavic doesn't loose power or turn off any of the other systems like the gyroscope stabilization, GPS and everything else. So once it had power back to the motors and he hit full throttle back up it brought it self back to the level horizontal position it's know to be so good at for hovering and started to punch out. Then he let off the throttle once he had control of it again.

I have several smaller micro drones that I hand toss when I start them off, and they level out automatically when I start the motors. I thought that the Mavic pro has no reason to act the same way with all the systems it runs and monitors.

That might be the next video, lol. Hand toss starting a Mavic Pro, maybe I should mention that to him. Or maybe not, I don't want him to crash it. He already had a few smaller crashes trying to land in a moving vehicle, specifically a bed of a pickup truck. That was his idea all the way, that's when I mentioned the CSC maneuver for maybe using it to land in the bed of the truck.
I would have been worried if I knew he was going to try this, I might of even tried to talk him out of it. But he didn't tell me he was going to try it.

It shocked me when I saw the video, glad it worked or I would have felt bad even thought I wasn't aware he was going to try it. At the same time it's good to know it's worked and valuable information for everyone that owns a Mavic Pro.

 

[Gary cato]

oh boy this is the kind of guy that drives the probabilities into the reality, i would like to see this repeated just to be sure it was not a one off. Am i brave enough to do it no way, respect to ths guy i saw the video of him trying to land in the truck i was willing him on but he just could not make it. Someone will, Maybe even him now he knows how to do the CSC lol.

i have been waiting for someone to do this since that thread too.

Glad to see it worked out, I think DJI should give the guy a new Mavic for free just for showing what they have can do this.

 

[ScottJD]

oh boy this is the kind of guy that drives the probabilities into the reality, i would like to see this repeated just to be sure it was not a one off. Am i brave enough to do it no way, respect to ths guy i saw the video of him trying to land in the truck i was willing him on but he just could not make it. Someone will, Maybe even him now he knows how to do the CSC lol.

i have been waiting for someone to do this since that thread too.

Glad to see it worked out, I think DJI should give the guy a new Mavic for free just for showing what they have can do this.

It's funny you mentioned the landing in truck video, that's when we had that conversation and when I mentioned the CSC maneuver. That's the same conversation when we talked about the CSC maneuver.
We had debated if he could do that with the inertia of the mavic moving forward to slide into the bed of the truck. Basically if the mavic was moving slightly faster then the truck, and with the motors off it took him out of danger of getting cut up. We were going over other ways to do this successfully also. We had a few good ideas, so he may revisit this video again?
You'll have to wait and see, maybe subscribe to his channel.
Chris Rollins
Scott

 

[ScottJD]

It's going to be too large to email. It needs to be placed in a Dropbox.

I just did a video showing him how to provide me the text file for that flight. I hope to get this later. He has no problem giving it to me.
Now the DAT file I didn't mention. I asked for the text file since some sites like phantomhelp only allow the import of the text file. When I tried the dat file it had an error.

Should I be asking for the dat file also. I have a Dropbox account I can share a folder on. I also run a file server from the house he can upload to. So getting the file won't be a problem for me. I may even remote into his computer to make this easier and just grab the files. But I am working on getting something for you guys.
Scott

 

[ScottJD]

DAT file. I want to see that DAT file. I will store it my treasured files.

Ok, so what's the difference between the DAT file and text file? The DAT file seems to be either encrypted or a binary file.
Maybe I can get an exemption for you cyberpower, but I did promise him I would scrub any location data and personal data from the flight log first.
PM me if you want to start a conversation on this, and if you need the DAT file, and the text file isn't enough for you.
Thanks,
Scott

 

[msinger]

what's the difference between the DAT file and text file?

The DAT flight log contains more data points than the TXT flight log. While this won't apply in this case, it's also more helpful sometimes since it writes data even when the downlink disconnects.

 

[ScottJD]

The DAT flight log contains more data points than the TXT flight log. While this won't apply in this case, it's also more helpful sometimes since it writes data even when the downlink disconnects.

Thanks msinger. How Harrisburg these days, it's been a while since I was in town.

Ok, so I have some text files and some DAT files now. I did promise no personal information in the flight would be showed. I'm going to work on it tomorrow and review them, convert the DAT files and also make sure I have the correct files for that flight.

Apparently when the CSC motor cutoff happens the logging stops, then another log started when the motors started back up. So this was logged as two separate flights.
I guess if the mavic was ever hard coded for a max of 400ft altitude this would be a risky way to keep it climbing since the second flight is starting at a new ground altitude, or so it thought it was. Little did it know it was in the air when it started that new flight.
Scott