My Mavic2 IS DOWN IN THE RIVER

[Michael G]

I already contacted Dji today and they are evaluating my case. Thanks for your informations

Hi Marco. I read with great interest about your unfortunate loss and marveled at the helpful and informative responses it received on this forum. Sadly, I also noted the sarcastic and insensitive replies as well.

I purchased an M2P less than a year ago and have enjoyed it immensely. I have it insured with State Farm so I am able to at least be comforted by the fact that if I do something that causes it to be damaged or lost, I will be compensated. So, I would certainly add my encouragement to get your next drone insured.

This is my first post on this forum. I have always believed that when you know little and have almost no experience with something that you should keep your mouth shut and listen so that you can learn. I try to practice that policy always.

Nevertheless, as a retired former electronics designer and software developer I would like to put my two-cents in regarding your statements suggesting that DJI should 1) not allow a drone to take-off if it doesn't have at least x-number of GPS links, and 2) the drone should allow more time before landing especially when it determines that it is in a NFZ.

Personally, if I were a DJI developer, I would immediately look to implement those suggestions and would urge DJI to push out a drone update incorporating those changes as soon as possible. Those ideas make perfect sense to me, although it's clear that some responders on this forum might not necessarily agree.

Certainly, you should have known that you were in a NFZ before you attempted to fly your drone (you've already admitted that), and certainly you should have handled the sudden emergency more expertly and avoided the loss---Hind-sight is always 20-20. You didn't, and you've admitted all that, and you paid the price for it. And we all feel your pain because I'm sure we've all done things that could have been equally as disastrous.

However, all that does not make your suggestions about improving the behavior of the DJI drone less important or insignificant and I hope your ideas get back to DJI developers and are considered by them to be worthy of implementing in a future update.

Meta4: Thanks for the link to PhantomHelp.com and that amazing breakdown of the flight log. I plan to checkout that site to see if I can learn to create flight log data like that for my own flights. I don't know if I will ever be as good as you are at interpreting that data, but your work was certainly inspiring enough to make me want to try.

 

[sar104]

Hi Marco. I read with great interest about your unfortunate loss and marveled at the helpful and informative responses it received on this forum. Sadly, I also noted the sarcastic and insensitive replies as well.

I purchased an M2P less than a year ago and have enjoyed it immensely. I have it insured with State Farm so I am able to at least be comforted by the fact that if I do something that causes it to be damaged or lost, I will be compensated. So, I would certainly add my encouragement to get your next drone insured.

This is my first post on this forum. I have always believed that when you know little and have almost no experience with something that you should keep your mouth shut and listen so that you can learn. I try to practice that policy always.

Nevertheless, as a retired former electronics designer and software developer I would like to put my two-cents in regarding your statements suggesting that DJI should 1) not allow a drone to take-off if it doesn't have at least x-number of GPS links, and 2) the drone should allow more time before landing especially when it determines that it is in a NFZ.

Personally, if I were a DJI developer, I would immediately look to implement those suggestions and would urge DJI to push out a drone update incorporating those changes as soon as possible. Those ideas make perfect sense to me, although it's clear that some responders on this forum might not necessarily agree.

Certainly, you should have known that you were in a NFZ before you attempted to fly your drone (you've already admitted that), and certainly you should have handled the sudden emergency more expertly and avoided the loss---Hind-sight is always 20-20. You didn't, and you've admitted all that, and you paid the price for it. And we all feel your pain because I'm sure we've all done things that could have been equally as disastrous.

However, all that does not make your suggestions about improving the behavior of the DJI drone less important or insignificant and I hope your ideas get back to DJI developers and are considered by them to be worthy of implementing in a future update.

Meta4: Thanks for the link to PhantomHelp.com and that amazing breakdown of the flight log. I plan to checkout that site to see if I can learn to create flight log data like that for my own flights. I don't know if I will ever be as good as you are at interpreting that data, but your work was certainly inspiring enough to make me want to try.

These aircraft are designed to be able to fly with VPS instead of GPS, and so programming them not to be able to take off without a certain HDOP or locked homepoint would not be consistent. These are not intended to be so completely foolproof that they will only fly under ideal conditions. Some user knowledge and responsibility is required.

 

[MarcoMavic2pro]

Hi Marco. I read with great interest about your unfortunate loss and marveled at the helpful and informative responses it received on this forum. Sadly, I also noted the sarcastic and insensitive replies as well.

I purchased an M2P less than a year ago and have enjoyed it immensely. I have it insured with State Farm so I am able to at least be comforted by the fact that if I do something that causes it to be damaged or lost, I will be compensated. So, I would certainly add my encouragement to get your next drone insured.

This is my first post on this forum. I have always believed that when you know little and have almost no experience with something that you should keep your mouth shut and listen so that you can learn. I try to practice that policy always.

Nevertheless, as a retired former electronics designer and software developer I would like to put my two-cents in regarding your statements suggesting that DJI should 1) not allow a drone to take-off if it doesn't have at least x-number of GPS links, and 2) the drone should allow more time before landing especially when it determines that it is in a NFZ.

Personally, if I were a DJI developer, I would immediately look to implement those suggestions and would urge DJI to push out a drone update incorporating those changes as soon as possible. Those ideas make perfect sense to me, although it's clear that some responders on this forum might not necessarily agree.

Certainly, you should have known that you were in a NFZ before you attempted to fly your drone (you've already admitted that), and certainly you should have handled the sudden emergency more expertly and avoided the loss---Hind-sight is always 20-20. You didn't, and you've admitted all that, and you paid the price for it. And we all feel your pain because I'm sure we've all done things that could have been equally as disastrous.

However, all that does not make your suggestions about improving the behavior of the DJI drone less important or insignificant and I hope your ideas get back to DJI developers and are considered by them to be worthy of implementing in a future update.

Meta4: Thanks for the link to PhantomHelp.com and that amazing breakdown of the flight log. I plan to checkout that site to see if I can learn to create flight log data like that for my own flights. I don't know if I will ever be as good as you are at interpreting that data, but your work was certainly inspiring enough to make me want to try.

I appreciate your comment very much and I fully agree with what you said

 

[paulatkin73]

These aircraft are designed to be able to fly with VPS instead of GPS, and so programming them not to be able to take off without a certain HDOP or locked homepoint would not be consistent. These are not intended to be so completely foolproof that they will only fly under ideal conditions. Some user knowledge and responsibility is required.

in ardupilot one can customize this behavior by setting specific options of what HDOP value is minimally acceptable, and, i personally have an additional switch on the radio to activate geo-fence feature that locks Fc into a mode where an acceptable GPS lock becomes a mandatory element in the pre-flight checklist, and until it is complete - FC is not switching into an armed state.

the issue with DJI is that they tried to make it all so simple and automatic, and the fact that remote has no additional swicthes at all to control anything. from other perspective, their simplicity of operations is the key to their commercial success, as, good luck for a non-engineer to figure it out how to deal with hundreds of options in the ardupilot software. so, the compromise is probably somewhere in between... i wish DJI did more to expose that additional configurations layer somewhere, to make such customization possible, as for me it is almost always a mandatory pre-requisite to make sure i do have a proper gps lock prior to take-off. i would not mind it to be automated, if, say, a P mode is chosen initially.

 

[sar104]

in ardupilot one can customize this behavior by setting specific options of what HDOP value is minimally acceptable, and, i personally have an additional switch on the radio to activate geo-fence feature that locks Fc into a mode where an acceptable GPS lock becomes a mandatory element in the pre-flight checklist, and until it is complete - FC is not switching into an armed state.

the issue with DJI is that they tried to make it all so simple and automatic, and the fact that remote has no additional swicthes at all to control anything. from other perspective, their simplicity of operations is the key to their commercial success, as, good luck for a non-engineer to figure it out how to deal with hundreds of options in the ardupilot software. so, the compromise is probably somewhere in between... i wish DJI did more to expose that additional configurations layer somewhere, to make such customization possible, as for me it is almost always a mandatory pre-requisite to make sure i do have a proper gps lock prior to take-off. i would not mind it to be automated, if, say, a P mode is chosen initially.

I agree that it would be nice to have more control. However, those who would know enough to use such advanced options would probably not be making fundamental mistakes to begin with.

 

[altaic]

As a computer scientist, I have to agree that DJI should modify their software WRT NFZs. It’s easy to calculate GPS positional error, and if that error (typically shown as a circle on smartphone mapping apps, but in reality is a more complicated shape) intersects with a NFZ (maybe +10% the error), it should initiate a “near NFZ” mode which is more of a soft limit. Perhaps that mode could be disabled (with a warning) by users with special requirements. Either way, the current situation is not good.

 

[MarcoMavic2pro]

I have been able to communicate with Dji these days. I pointed out in detail what happened to me with smartphone log files and folders. In addition to being very understanding, they made me understand with the facts that much of the responsibility for what happened to me is also Dji's. Surely, in short, the behavior of the drone in NFZ will be improved by avoiding such falls ruinous. For my part, I can only say that Dji acted like a serious and responsible company. WITH THEIR BEHAVIOR THEY HAVE A SATISFIED CUSTOMER FOREVER !!

 

[peros550]

I have been able to communicate with Dji these days. I pointed out in detail what happened to me with smartphone log files and folders. In addition to being very understanding, they made me understand with the facts that much of the responsibility for what happened to me is also Dji's. Surely, in short, the behavior of the drone in NFZ will be improved by avoiding such falls ruinous. For my part, I can only say that Dji acted like a serious and responsible company. WITH THEIR BEHAVIOR THEY HAVE A SATISFIED CUSTOMER FOREVER !!

Did they accept this claim under warranty?

 

[AnzacJack]

I had the SAME problem with my Mavic 2 Pro. Was in tripod mode, very slowly moving backward about 1 1/2 feet above a pond. As it neared the bank where I was standing, "it said" "LANDING"...Since it was so low there was not enough time to about landing and it "landed on a marshy bank" in about 2 inches of water.

I quickly recovered it aand dried it off. No physical damage although as it was "landing" the rear props nicked some tall grass-like plant.

I let it dry out at home for a few days and turned it on. It went through gimbal dance and all, but did not beep and would not connect to my smart controller.

I sent it to drone Nerds for repair.

Drone Nerds said they cannot replace anything with water damage and that it has to go to DJI.

I opened a case with DJI online.

Then I received a quote for $1180. *they didn't even have the drone yet !)

They they said I'll get a discount and I only have to pay $812.

I asked what items needed repair and/or replacement and how much labor time at what rate.

I went back and forth many times via email, explaining that this was a malfunction. Uncommanded auto landing.

I am experienced with flying drones with over 1000 flights logged with AirData.

I said that this should be warranty.

They said to send them the log file.

I said YOU HAVE THE LOG FILE on my Smart ControllerI included with the Mavic 2 Pro.

They repeatedly asked for the log file and I repeated that they have the Smart Controller.

They said if I don't pay the invoice, they will send it back unrepaired.

That took 3 weeks to get to that point.

I finally paid their $812 ransom.

This is h ow DJI operated. I have had similar issues with this scam before..

Your the dude that came on with all the big talk about Taking legal action against DJI. Looks like you were full of hot air and still buying DJI products and still complaining about repairs