Need a little help with Air2s.

[RParker762]

Threw the Air2s up just to grab a couple pictures of an incoming dust storm. Took off like normal but when I tried to ascend, it would move about a foot or so then stop. I would let off the stick and press it again and it would barely move. Then I brought it down, shut everything off and restarted it and the same thing happened. This time I switched between Cine and Sport and both modes allowed it to ascend like normal. No warnings were given. Yes my battery was at 50% but was only going to be up for a couple minutes. Airdata don't show controls as it says flight wasn't long enough. I would appreciate any help.

Deleted the PhantomHelp file as it was the wrong one. Not sure how to retrieve the file...

 

[Deleted member 103366]

Up load the same log to Phantomhelp as you did to Airdata i.e. DJIFlightRecord_2021-11-23_[14-38-29].txt.

 

[RParker762]

Up load the same log to Phantomhelp as you did to Airdata i.e. DJIFlightRecord_2021-11-23_[14-38-29].txt.

DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help

Upload and view flight logs from your DJI drones

www.phantomhelp.com

 

[slup]

Yeah ... we have seen this before from the Air2s ... Your AC was during longer periods in a mode called Detour (Airdata.com) or GentleGPS (if looking at the log in PhantomHelp.com) ... both means that the APAS is active in the ordinary N mode.

It's clearly seen here when the log is transferred in to chart form showing vertical speed & throttle.

From the left ... the background colors:
Dark pink followed by green= motor start & take off
Pink=GentleGPS (N mode with APAS active)
Brownish=Sport mode
Light blue=Tripod mode

The graphs:
Blue=Vertical speed (negative value means ascend, positive means descend) Air2s should do 13mph(or 6m/s)
Purple=Throttle (neutral stick=value 1024)

(Click on the chart to make it larger)

As seen the vertical speed is really low & inconsistent when the throttle is commanded during the pink areas ... During the brownish areas all is normal.

Can't say why APAS messes the vertical speeds up ... but try to deactivate the APAS function if this happens again.

 

[RParker762]

I opened a case with DJI so we'll see what they say.

 

[RParker762]

Yeah ... we have seen this before from the Air2s ... Your AC was during longer periods in a mode called Detour (Airdata.com) or GentleGPS (if looking at the log in PhantomHelp.com) ... both means that the APAS is active in the ordinary N mode.

It's clearly seen here when the log is transferred in to chart form showing vertical speed & throttle.

From the left ... the background colors:
Dark pink followed by green= motor start & take off
Pink=GentleGPS (N mode with APAS active)
Brownish=Sport mode
Light blue=Tripod mode

The graphs:
Blue=Vertical speed (negative value means ascend, positive means descend) Air2s should do 13mph(or 6m/s)
Purple=Throttle (neutral stick=value 1024)

(Click on the chart to make it larger)
View attachment 138949
As seen the vertical speed is really low & inconsistent when the throttle is commanded during the pink areas ... During the brownish areas all is normal.

Can't say why APAS messes the vertical speeds up ... but try to deactivate the APAS function if this happens again.

Thanks for the info.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

It behaves the way my M2Z does when its upward looking sensors see something above the drone but this was surely a clear sky flight.
As a test, can the sensors be disabled or would it be safe to mask them?
Wait to see what others say before you risk what is probably a new drone doing the latter,......but just for curiosity I just masked the upward looking sensors on my M2Z and was able to clean the cobwebs from near the ceiling. Normally it wont go within 3ft of the ceiling.

 

[RParker762]

It behaves the way my M2Z does when its upward looking sensors see something above the drone but this was surely a clear sky flight.
As a test, can the sensors be disabled or would it be safe to mask them?
Wait to see what others say before you risk what is probably a new drone doing the latter,......but just for curiosity I just masked the upward looking sensors on my M2Z and was able to clean the cobwebs from near the ceiling. Normally it wont go within 3ft of the ceiling.

I charged a battery to full and decided to try again. This time the flight was normal. Aside from the information provided above about the APAS, I wonder if there was an issue with the switch position at start up. It was in CINE just before take off and I flipped it to Normal. Not saying that was it but I was thinking maybe it was like a glitch, like my PS4 controller if I start a game with one of the sticks not dead center, it wanders until I restart. Just thinking of other possible causes.

 

[slup]

... I wonder if there was an issue with the switch position at start up. It was in CINE just before take off and I flipped it to Normal. Not saying that was it but I was thinking maybe it was like a glitch...

That would have been seen in the log... but it wasn't.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

I don't know if it's in the manual but it seems that Mavic controllers start the first flight after drone switch-on in the middle-speed flight mode irrespective of the switch setting.
If the switch is not in the middle-speed position then it has to be moved to that position BEFORE either the slow or fast mode can be activated.
If you subsequently landed in slow or fast mode, allowed the motors to stop but did not switch the drone off and then take off again, the slow or fast mode may carry over to the second flight.
Well, that's the way my Mavic Mini and or the Mini 2 behaves, I think the M2Z does too.
Whether or not it's a cause of the problem, your guess is as good as mine.

 

[slup]

As a test, can the sensors be disabled or would it be safe to mask them?

As the APAS functionality is totally dependent of the OD sensors that wouldn't be any conclusive test at all I'm afraid ... either you turn off APAS or you cover/disable the sensors (or fly when it's too dark) ... all will lead to that APAS not will be working.

...If you subsequently landed in slow or fast mode, allowed the motors to stop but did not switch the drone off and then take off again, the slow or fast mode may carry over to the second flight.

As said ... what ever that carries over regarding switch/glitch/mode, all will be seen in the flight log. Will never be possible to have a some kind of switch process tricking the pilot into believing that the craft is in another mode than it is ... & get it also reflected in the flight log. The log will always show what mode the craft used no matter what any switch showed or what the pilot thought it was.

In this case the craft was in APAS supported N mode when the problem occurred ... the log doesn't clearly spell out that this is APAS to blame though ... but it's a strong indication & it correlated to all other cases where similar have happened for MA2s.

 

[RParker762]

As the APAS functionality is totally dependent of the OD sensors that wouldn't be any conclusive test at all I'm afraid ... either you turn off APAS or you cover/disable the sensors (or fly when it's too dark) ... all will lead to that APAS not will be working.


As said ... what ever that carries over regarding switch/glitch/mode, all will be seen in the flight log. Will never be possible to have a some kind of switch process tricking the pilot into believing that the craft is in another mode than it is ... & get it also reflected in the flight log. The log will always show what mode the craft used no matter what any switch showed or what the pilot thought it was.

In this case the craft was in APAS supported N mode when the problem occurred ... the log doesn't clearly spell out that this is APAS to blame though ... but it's a strong indication & it correlated to all other cases where similar have happened for MA2s.

Gotcha.

 

[CorralesDan]

May I ask a dumb question as I'm getting my Air2S Monday. What does APAS stand for?

 

[slup]

May I ask a dumb question as I'm getting my Air2S Monday. What does APAS stand for?

Advanced Pilot Assistance System

 

[RParker762]

Does it seem logical that DJI support just sent me an email asking me to send them my entire Flight Record folder? Not just the flight records for this flight?

 

[slup]

Have happened before ... perhaps they want to spare some hassle getting the wrong log, or they trying to find a pattern, pointing to what's wrong from other flights.