Nearly lost my drone due to RTH not working

[cowandchicken86]

Hi all.

My Mavic Mini has started doing something very weird as in its stuck in descent mode despite me trying multiple times on two devices to set it to RTH. The app will tell me it's set to RTH on two different devices but the drone will only land when losing contact or me pressing and holding the return to home button (which results in landing where it is). This resulted in me nearly losing the MM in a river when I lost contact with it, only saved by me regaining contact when it was 2m above the river.

Any idea what may be causing this ? I've re-paired controller, removed the battery for a period of time, removed the SD card and I simply can't get it to return to home in any circumstance.

I've also checked I have a decent GPS lock.

Many thanks

 

[Phantomrain.org]

The Original Mavic Mini had this issue of getting stuck, , but the firmware update fixed this issue .
Just make sure your up to date on that to rule that out.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your Mavic Mini in the Rain and land on Water.

 

[cowandchicken86]

The Original Mavic Mini had this issue of getting stuck, , but the firmware update fixed this issue .
Just make sure your up to date on that to rule that out.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your Mavic Mini in the Rain and land on Water.

Thank you for your reply. I doubt it's firmware as it updated a month ago when I bought it, and I last checked for firmware about a week back.

I guess I could try factory resetting it but there doesn't seem to be a way to do that unless I'm plugged into a laptop.

I'll take any suggestions apart from that, and report back it a factory reset fixes this issue, which I guess I need the DJI assistant for

 

[Phantomrain.org]

Here is how you an check to see if you have the Firmware Update , Cover up the Sensors on the bottom of the drone and if it keeps going up , you need the Firmware update.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your Mavic Mini in the Rain and land on Water.

 

[cowandchicken86]

Hi there. I have checked in the app just now and it says my firmware is up to date. Interestingly also, entering sports mode only allows it to climb faster, the horizontal speed is stuck on P mode. There's no obvious damage to the rotor blades and the drone doesn't complain of max power being reached. Also there's little to no wind today. Very odd.

 

[cowandchicken86]

I have written DJI support, I have tried to "refresh" the latest firmware but all behaviours are just the same. Very disapointing because now I have lost trust that the drone is set to RTH because the app reports it, when infact it will do something very different.

Any other things I could try? I also reformatted the SD card as I know the drone stores data on there.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

I have written DJI support, I have tried to "refresh" the latest firmware but all behaviours are just the same. Very disapointing because now I have lost trust that the drone is set to RTH because the app reports it, when infact it will do something very different.

Any other things I could try? I also reformatted the SD card as I know the drone stores data on there.

What phone are u using with the app ?

 

[cowandchicken86]

So primarily I use an iPad Pro 2020 for the screen size and the fact the controller won't charge iOS products. But I tried my Android phone , which is an Oppo Find X2 Pro , same issue. I tried both to rule out a issue with the app.

Perhaps the issue is not fully fixed in the latest firmware update. It's still completely stuck in landing mode for the physical RTH button we well as controller disconnect. I've also tried switching it to hover mode then RTH to give it a kick. Firmware is the latest offered in the Europe region.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

So primarily I use an iPad Pro 2020 for the screen size and the fact the controller won't charge iOS products. But I tried my Android phone , which is an Oppo Find X2 Pro , same issue. I tried both to rule out a issue with the app.

Perhaps the issue is not fully fixed in the latest firmware update. It's still completely stuck in landing mode for the physical RTH button we well as controller disconnect. I've also tried switching it to hover mode then RTH to give it a kick. Firmware is the latest offered in the Europe region.

is that the only issue is the RTH setting ?
You need to be at least 20 meters away or 50 ft for the RTH to work are you aware ?

 

[cowandchicken86]

is that the only issue is the RTH setting ?
You need to be at least 20 meters away or 50 ft for the RTH to work are you aware ?

I thought only RTH setting but travel speed seems to be stuck in something resembling P mode when I am in S mode (accent and decent rate uneffected), no wind to effect max speed today and not very responsive on S mode. This wasn't an issue in the attached log but was in subsequent short range test flights.

I have checked that I was over 50ft away by looking at the AirData. Again, the mode is set to RTH within the app (checked multiple times), but even at at just over +50ft its mode changes to AutoLanding when i press the RTH, also the same when intentionally disconnecting the the controller at the end of this particular flight.

Thanks for your input. I should also add it has been stuck in autoland mode even at 1000ft+ , i thought it was my error by leaving it in that mode, but the app reports RTH for controller disconnect.

Firmware again is the latest, at least what is offered for the European MM.

I will post any response from DJI, maybe it is a rare issue.

 

[Meta4]

I thought only RTH setting but travel speed seems to be stuck in something resembling P mode when I am in S mode (accent and decent rate uneffected), no wind to effect max speed today and not very responsive on S mode. This wasn't an issue in the attached log but was in subsequent short range test flights.

The flight data you posted is not from the flight mentioned in the first post.
RTH was not initiated at all during the flight and the drone was never more than 15 metres from the home point.
Here's what the flight data looks like:

DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help

Upload and view flight logs from your DJI drones

www.phantomhelp.com

You would need to post data from the RTH flight for that incident to be analysed.

Because so much of the flight you posted data for was stop-start, it's hard to tell exactly what's going on, but it looks like the drone might not be getting the correct pitch angle to reach higher speeds.
To be certain you would need to make several longer straight runs at full speed.

 

[Alanji]

Hi all.

My Mavic Mini has started doing something very weird as in its stuck in descent mode despite me trying multiple times on two devices to set it to RTH. The app will tell me it's set to RTH on two different devices but the drone will only land when losing contact or me pressing and holding the return to home button (which results in landing where it is). This resulted in me nearly losing the MM in a river when I lost contact with it, only saved by me regaining contact when it was 2m above the river.

Any idea what may be causing this ? I've re-paired controller, removed the battery for a period of time, removed the SD card and I simply can't get it to return to home in any circumstance.

I've also checked I have a decent GPS lock.

Many thanks

 

[Alanji]

I had some similar problems with my mini the other day and discovered it was because the channel mode had (somehow) changed from automatic to manual. Worth a check.

 

[cowandchicken86]

Hey all, so the RTH appears to be working after leaving the drone powered off for a while, I won't be changing this mode again.

The speed issue indeed was due to the drone failing to pitch to 30 degrees, i played back some data where I am trying to fly at full speed on sports mode and it topped out at a17-18 degree angle. I did not notice any deformation of the back rotors but changing them has solved this issue. Interestingly the drone did not complain about them or its inability to apply enough power to pitch.

All good now , thanks for your time.