My new drone - "gone with the wind".

[Drones.n.Pixels]

The fault was mine. No doubt. However I hoped (based on previous experience) - Ok I am above the bad area with GPS interferences. Let's just pass that bad area and GPS would be restored. I had more than 60% battery and very good signal both video and control. The stupid thing I did was to hope a connection continue to be good. I should make U turn, but I didn't. I was perfectly aware that w/o GPS - no RTH of any kind. And the result is sad.

BTW, you said faulty GPS. My question is can GPS lost happen in DJI products. As far as I know DJI has 3 GPS systems: American GPS, Russian GLONASS and European Galileo. Hubzan has only first two. Does anybody have an experience of losing GPS signal "out of the blue" with DJI products?

It can, and it did happen in my case. I wouldn’t say it’s frequent and it only happened on one of my Mavics but it definitely can occur.

 

[Drones.n.Pixels]

After some math - wind speed and direction, my drone altitude, ascending speed etc.

I approximated the area of search and made an aerial scan with my other drone.

Lo and behold - here it is "my precious", waiting for me 3 days.

View attachment 136745

The mission accomplished. Clever me.

Not a single scratch. Perfectly working.

Well done!

 

[Dave P]

I know this is a forum about Mavic Drones. But my main question is “Could it possible to happen with Mavic Drones”.

Recently, I’ve bought Hubzan Zino Mini.

I wanted to check a flight range with a parabolic antenna.
I checked in a rural area - I couldn't properly check a range (was windy), however FPV feed was perfect (the receiver of Zino Mini on the back part, so when I fly back from a long range I have some minor glitches in video feed). In the case with a parabolic antenna when returning home there were no problems whatsoever.

I was very happy and excited - it seems to me that a parabolic antenna works. And I was eager to check a range in non-windy condition.
Yesterday at night there was no wind - perfect condition to fly (on my opinion and on opinion of "UAV Forecast").
So, I started to fly (in semi urban area - suburb). In the range of about 5 km I had an error - "The current environment has a lot of interference to GPS. Flying in attitude mode".

Some days before I've got the same error in the same area. However, I thought that it was minor hiccup - GPS was restored - everything was OK. I was a little bit worried about "GPS interference", checked the internet on the subject, not found something satisfaction - more on this later.

So, I thought surely the GPS would be restored, I have very strong signal – so be it – attitude mode, let's push a little bit forward.
My joystick was in forward position, the drone flew forward. The GPS was occasionally restored and occasionally weakened. I was not worried I went forward - signal was strong.

However, after a while, I lost connection with an error "Adjust your antenna ... ". What I do in such a case - I try to raise my controller up and move myself toward a drone direction as much as possible. Every time it worked, connection was restored and I pressed RTH.

Not in this case. I did everything I raised my hands up, I walked toward the drone about 300 m (it was as much possible I could). I should mention that all this time GPS was disconnected as well. I started to panic. What to do? To wait for the drone automatic RTH but no GPS. I waited about 10 min. The drone wasn't on the horizon. I turned the controller off in desperate hope that it might reconnect to the drone when I turn it on. No luck.

I tried to drive and looked for the drone in "last known location" - nowhere to be found.
In the morning I make a search of "last known location" with my other drone in that area. No luck. My new drone is gone.

About losing GPS signal, I've checked the internet, causes:
1. The sun activity - not my case - "UAV Forecast" said good to fly, at first my drone locked decent amount of satellites. The sun activity could not change so suddenly.
2. Interferences - The error I've got: "The current environment has a lot of interference to GPS" and many people mentioned this cause.
What BS is that. I drive my car in populated urban area, in traffic jumps - I do not lose GPS signal. What is there less interference? It is a mother of all interference. When I drive into a tunnel - yes, I do lose GPS signal - and it is obvious why. However, when I am out the signal is quickly restored and I am happy on my way.

The truth to be told, I did lose GPS signal of my car's built-in GPS (because I think my car's GPS is bad and cheap)
But I never ever ever lose GPS signal of my mobile phone.

If anybody knows what is the real cause of losing GPS signal?

Maybe it's just bad and cheap GPS module in Hubsan Zino Mini Pro?
Can it happen in DJI Mavic products?
Mavic products are thought to be far more reliable and higher quality (maybe next to Autel Evo drones)?
You guys mostly fly DJI drones. Have you experience problems with GPS signal?

P.S.
I am really frustrated. Maybe on the brink of giving up the hobby entirely. The possibility that 500$ or event 2000$ (in case of Mavic 3) just can fly away not so appealing to me.

I don't mean this in a bad way but simply stay away from Hubsan products. I have had four of them and they have all but one flown away or just dropped out if the sky. I still have one left because i am afraid to fly it and fall on someone's house or head.

Buy the mavic mini 2. It is rock solid and the same price or cheaper than the Hubsan mini. It does not have active tracking but I don't use it and from the reviews I have watched, the tracking on the Hubsan sucks.

Btw I only fly far as well and love it. My mavic mini 2 has always returned even when i lost total signal at 5km away.

 

[Crouching Leopard]

I have a friend who is an aircraft accident insurance investigator / adjuster. One of his favourite quotes is "if people appreciated that aircraft are machines developed by humans, and built with the cheapest parts possible, they would never fly in one!"

I think something similar for drones would be "if people appreciated that drones are machines designed by humans and built from the cheapest parts possible, we would never pay $100s or $1000s for them, and we would keep them as close as possible to us"

In truth, a failure can happen at any time with any make. 2 years ago I had a telemetry chip failure on my Mini whilst it was hovering about 10 metres off the ground 20 metres away. It just hovered for 20 minutes until the battery died. Nothing I could do could bring it down as the control / telemetry chip board had a crack which allowed it to pass quality inspection, and didn't show up until one very hot Australian summers day. Warranty job, but it could have landed on someone instead of on an empty sports field.

Only 7 days ago, my replacement (warranty) brand-new-straight-out-of-the-box-that-afternoon 2 pro almost descended into the local bay half way through a DJI go4 waypoint mission set 250 Metres away from me over the water. The reason?, an unusual bug in the IOS version of the automated waypoint mission software which told it to descend rapidly to 1.9 metres above the waves when it should have been 50 metres. I had less than 10 seconds from maneuver start to pushing the emergency stop button. Parallax error made things even worse. This bug does not exist in the Android version of the same release. If I hadn't been watching the drone and stopped the mission at the last moment, it would have been a very wet and heartbreaking trip home.

I also had a failure of a DJI FPV battery whilst it was landing. The battery had power, but the battery's "intelligent" circuit board failed whilst it was still in the air. No damage to the FPV and the battery was warranty replaced. This is apparently a design issue related to the very tight fit of the board into a corner of the battery's right hand rubber landing "foot" and the very thin plastic in that area.

Thankfully, I have flown hundreds of hours, with many hundreds of takeoffs and have only had these 3 failures

Drones. I Love them, I hate them!

 

[slup]

I think something similar for drones would be "if people appreciated that drones are machines designed by humans and built from the cheapest parts possible, we would never pay $100s or $1000s for them, and we would keep them as close as possible to us"

Yeah ... agree there about always expect the worst & plan the flight accordingly. But luckily hardware failures on DJI drones only stands for a couple percent of all incidents that show up here at the forum ... the wast majority comes from pure pilot errors.

Someone took the time some years ago & went through all incidents here in the Crash & help sections for all models ... & it turned out that pilot errors was the cause of the incidents in 98% of the cases.

 

[Skwirl]

I think that pilot error very easy to believe.
My feeling is that the operation of a drone isnt even close to the advertising I read.
The quick start quide is pretty much a joke.
Theres so much to learn about the drone operation and what to do when, its overwhelming.
I'm thankful I havent crashed my mini the few times I've flown it. It's been a few weeks since I've had it out, cold temps now.
I'll be starting all over again, with a primary focus on setting the failsafes correctly and making sure to understand what the drone will do if this happens.
I'm starting to think I should have bought a metal detector, lol.

 

[RobertR]

I'm starting to think I should have bought a metal detector, lol.......

If you bought one, you could perhaps use it to find your drone if you lost it

 

[snowghost]

Yeah ... agree there about always expect the worst & plan the flight accordingly. But luckily hardware failures on DJI drones only stands for a couple percent of all incidents that show up here at the forum ... the wast majority comes from pure pilot errors.

Someone took the time some years ago & went through all incidents here in the Crash & help sections for all models ... & it turned out that pilot errors was the cause of the incidents in 98% of the cases.

I've read in several posts (and at least one video) that DJI QC is much better for units sold through foreign retailers.

 

[slup]

I've read in several posts (and at least one video) that DJI QC is much better for units sold through foreign retailers.

Can't comment on that ... have never seen such statistics & haven't seen any of that here at the forum.

 

[Meta4]

I've read in several posts (and at least one video) that DJI QC is much better for units sold through foreign retailers.

That sounds unlikely and one would question how anyone who posted that would really know.
You read plenty and see lots of Youtube videos with misinformation.

 

[MS Coast]

I've read in several posts (and at least one video) that DJI QC is much better for units sold through foreign retailers.

(By foreign you mean retailers not in China?)

I've even read here that DJI QC is better for units sold through two particular US retail outlets compared to others sellers.

The idea that a company has different QC procedures for units based on where they are to be sold just isn't realistic.

The complexity and expense of scheduling different product runs, switching procedures for different product runs, and keeping inventory separate would not be trivial. Different product numbers for finished items and parts would be necessary, too. And how would they even know where specific units were to be sold? Modern manufacturing is driven by standardization, just-in-time scheduling of parts supplies, and prompt deliver to keep inventory levels low.

And an even more basic question - What would be the advantage to DJI?

 

[AZDave]

I've read in several posts (and at least one video) that DJI QC is much better for units sold through foreign retailers.

Unless you had reason to believe that those "sources" knew what they were talking about, why would you believe them? Did any of them cite their credentials or explain how they got their information? If not, you're just perpetuating unfounded rumors like 98% of the rest of the internet does.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

If not, you're just perpetuating unfounded rumors like 98% of the rest of the internet does.

98% ?
I read on some site it was 95%.

 

[AZDave]

98% ?
I read on some site it was 95%.

Good retort! I actually chuckled out loud at it. Well done.