NEO log help. Almost lost it.

[Chrislaf]

Hoping someone can shed some light on what happened so I don't repeat this again. I did post the problem on the NEO forum but most of the experts are on here.

I was flying my NEO over a beaver pond taking a pano when a bunch of errors started happening and then the NEO seemed to descend quickly toward the water. I was able to counteract, but it then veered to the right almost hitting the trees. I was able to get it under control and land but want to know what went wrong so I don't repeat this again. I realize the NEO is not recommended to fly over water but I thought I was high enough for GPS.

Here's the Log from the flight. The log seems to end before I recovered control and landed. My iPhone disconnected from the controller but I still had control over the drone.

I was flying in wet falling snow with my iPhone and the RC-N3 controller. I launched from my hand. Since the NEO does not acquire GPS quickly, I launched before the home point was updated as I often do with NEO (not with my other drones) since it often takes a while before enough satellites are acquired.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Chris

 

[samysys]

hi Chrislaf,

somethings went wrong well before you feel it.

1. it seems that NEO get it's position before took off (start with 19 staellites).
2. The logs indicate that you were flying no higher than 40 feet (From IMU reading). Do you think that is accurate?
3. It wasn't windy (as determined in the atti ball while your are hands-off from the sticks). Is that correct?

It is noted that the IMU height and VPS height did not agree with each other from 3min 42 sec onward. the drone should just be ard 10 meter (30 ft) height. The VPS reading jumping up and down (intermittent) whilst the IMU reading remaind stable and consistent with your stick input and description.




I have reviewed the log of my NEO (taken in an uneventful flight in outdoor daytime) and confirmed that NEO's VPS should work well up to ard 20 meters (60 ft).


I do not find the counter movement you mentioned in the log. May be it is spilted in another file? that log (and other flight log of the same day) may also be helpful.

You mentioned about "wet falling snow", so with limited information, my first guess is that intense snowing affected the VPS. However, I also had flied a few times in snowing condition (with mini 3 pro) but never experienced that before. So, may be some expert can share.

For now, I would recommend to test flight a few times in better condition (open space, good lighting & GPS) to confirm if it is a hardware problem or enviornmental problem.

 

[Meta4]

Hoping someone can shed some light on what happened so I don't repeat this again.

I was flying my NEO over a beaver pond taking a pano when a bunch of errors started happening and then the NEO seemed to descend quickly toward the water.

Your flight data doesn't help understand your incident, because your flight data stops before the incident occurred.
It shows no descent and no movement left or right.
At the end of data, your drone is 12 metres higher than your launch point and 60 metres out.
It had been hovering there for 2.5 minutes.

I realize the NEO is not recommended to fly over water but I thought I was high enough for GPS.

It makes no difference to the drone whether you fly over solid ground or water.
DJI put that silly warning in all their manuals.

Your height makes no difference to GPS, unless you are somewhere with the drone's skyview is blocked by trees, buildings or other obstructions.
You had 24-25 sats at the end of the data.

I launched from my hand. Since the NEO does not acquire GPS quickly

You had good enough GPS for teh drone to record a homepoint before you launched.

 

[Chrislaf]

hi Chrislaf,

somethings went wrong well before you feel it.

1. it seems that NEO get it's position before took off (start with 19 staellites).
2. The logs indicate that you were flying no higher than 40 feet (From IMU reading). Do you think that is accurate?
3. It wasn't windy (as determined in the atti ball while your are hands-off from the sticks). Is that correct?

It is noted that the IMU height and VPS height did not agree with each other from 3min 42 sec onward. the drone should just be ard 10 meter (30 ft) height. The VPS reading jumping up and down (intermittent) whilst the IMU reading remaind stable and consistent with your stick input and description.

View attachment 179352


I have reviewed the log of my NEO (taken in an uneventful flight in outdoor daytime) and confirmed that NEO's VPS should work well up to ard 20 meters (60 ft).
View attachment 179353

I do not find the counter movement you mentioned in the log. May be it is spilted in another file? that log (and other flight log of the same day) may also be helpful.

You mentioned about "wet falling snow", so with limited information, my first guess is that intense snowing affected the VPS. However, I also had flied a few times in snowing condition (with mini 3 pro) but never experienced that before. So, may be some expert can share.

For now, I would recommend to test flight a few times in better condition (open space, good lighting & GPS) to confirm if it is a hardware problem or enviornmental problem.

Thanks for your reply.

I did 3 flights that day with the NEO and there are 3 separate log files that were uploaded to DJI and also on my iPhone. The txt logs on the iPhone match the ones uploaded to DJI.

The 3rd flight that was done after the incident was without incident and it was a tracking flight using Active Track from the RC-N3 controller.

Flying in wet snow is not ideal conditions, but one of the reasons I bought the NEO was to fly it in places and conditions I would not fly my other drones.

Chris

 

[MS Coast]

Thanks for your reply.

... there are 3 separate log files that were uploaded to DJI ...

That no longer happens.

 

[Chrislaf]

Thanks for your reply Meta4.

Your flight data doesn't help understand your incident, because your flight data stops before the incident occurred.

I assume that's because the NEO disconnected from the RC-N3. I did counteract the sudden movements and after getting control was able to fly back and land.

It makes no difference to the drone whether you fly over solid ground or water.
DJI put that silly warning in all their manuals.

Yah, I have flown my Mavic 3 Pro and Mini 3 Pro in this location often without incident and fly over water regularly. The reason I mentioned flying over water was that the last error on the screen indicated that satellite positioning signal was weak, so I thought maybe that since I was over a pond that was still and calm, that VPS if it was being used was confused.

The fact that there is no record of the part of the flight where the drone veered off and where I 'regained' control, is that because the phone had disconnected from the controller? Obviously, the RC must have reconnected at some point after the RC disconnect message otherwise I would not have been able regain control.

Chris

 

[Chrislaf]

That no longer happens.

It does in Canada!

Chris

 

[MS Coast]

It does in Canada!

Chris

Yep. I try to remember to look at the location of the person posting, but forget sometimes.

 

[samysys]

Thanks for your reply.

I did 3 flights that day with the NEO and there are 3 separate log files that were uploaded to DJI and also on my iPhone. The txt logs on the iPhone match the ones uploaded to DJI.

The 3rd flight that was done after the incident was without incident and it was a tracking flight using Active Track from the RC-N3 controller.

Flying in wet snow is not ideal conditions, but one of the reasons I bought the NEO was to fly it in places and conditions I would not fly my other drones.

Chris

Hi Chris,

In that case, would you mind sharing the other two logs too? That would help to confirm the extend of the problem. The log may show something "abonormal" even if the flight is uneventful.

Right now, I can only say that this is unliklely to be a pilot error/ setting error. Yet, not sure if it is due to enviornmental/ hardware problem.

 

[Chrislaf]

Here are the logs for the flights before and after the incident but they are unlikely to shed any light on the problem as they were Active Track flights and there were no problems with either flight other than spotty satellite coverage which is normal for the NEO in this location.

Flight log - Before
Flight log - After

Chris

 

[samysys]

Here are the logs for the flights before and after the incident but they are unlikely to shed any light on the problem as they were Active Track flights and there were no problems with either flight other than spotty satellite coverage which is normal for the NEO in this location.

Flight log - Before
Flight log - After

Chris

hi Chris,

Thanks for your patient.

You are very correct that there were no problem in the 1st and 3rd log. Yet, it does tell something.

1). You were flying in a small hill. Sorry that I overlooked this factors in my first response. Google Earth showed the area as flat land planely because there were no geo-surface data and I was affected by that. I should have noticed that.
2). Having considered 1), it can be concluded that the VPS and IMU were functioning well. This is proved in the 1st and 3rd log.
3) It can also be considered that in the first part of the flight in 2nd log (from take off to 4 min 21 sec), the 2 systems went well too, just like in 1st and 3rd log. The minor discrepancy between IMU and VPS can be well explained by the terrain.
4) what is interesting is the later part in that flight (from 4 min 21 sec onward towards the end). the IMU and VPS did not agree with each other. and basically, it was the VPS jumping up and down even the drone seems to remain stable in the same position
5) the wind seems to be clam during the flight so the cause of VPS variation was unlikely due to tilting of the drone.
6) I suspect the discrepancy was due to environmental factors, e.g. rocky environment, waving long grass, snowing etc.... Given that the NEO aim at the low price market, there may be compromises in the performance.
7) Yet, as @Meta4 rightly stated, the actual cause cannot be concluded without the incident log. (so, yes, 1)-6) were just BS ing....)
8) But given the above, it is safe to consider that the incident was more likely to be one-off than systematic. Your Neo looks fine and ready to fly anytime.
9) if you still have doubt, do a few test flights after reset everything to factory setting.

 

[Chrislaf]

hi Chris,

Thanks for your patient.

You are very correct that there were no problem in the 1st and 3rd log. Yet, it does tell something.

1). You were flying in a small hill. Sorry that I overlooked this factors in my first response. Google Earth showed the area as flat land planely because there were no geo-surface data and I was affected by that. I should have noticed that.
2). Having considered 1), it can be concluded that the VPS and IMU were functioning well. This is proved in the 1st and 3rd log.
3) It can also be considered that in the first part of the flight in 2nd log (from take off to 4 min 21 sec), the 2 systems went well too, just like in 1st and 3rd log. The minor discrepancy between IMU and VPS can be well explained by the terrain.
4) what is interesting is the later part in that flight (from 4 min 21 sec onward towards the end). the IMU and VPS did not agree with each other. and basically, it was the VPS jumping up and down even the drone seems to remain stable in the same position
5) the wind seems to be clam during the flight so the cause of VPS variation was unlikely due to tilting of the drone.
6) I suspect the discrepancy was due to environmental factors, e.g. rocky environment, waving long grass, snowing etc.... Given that the NEO aim at the low price market, there may be compromises in the performance.
7) Yet, as @Meta4 rightly stated, the actual cause cannot be concluded without the incident log. (so, yes, 1)-6) were just BS ing....)
8) But given the above, it is safe to consider that the incident was more likely to be one-off than systematic. Your Neo looks fine and ready to fly anytime.
9) if you still have doubt, do a few test flights after reset everything to factory setting.

Thanks @samysys for taking a look at the other two logs that day. As you indicated there was no problems with the flight before and after the incident. I flew the NEO again a few days later in the same location and in a similar fashion without any problems.

Chris

 

[lomoo]

hello
Does anyone know how to fix this error?

 

[Meta4]

hello
Does anyone know how to fix this error?

Is it an error?
Or has the drone been genuinely reported to DJI and replaced?