New Issue Attitude Mode

[bkushner]

For the past few weeks almost every day I fly at some point the screen will jump and it will announce ATTITUDE MODE. I don't see anything different in drone behavior and it seems to not be an issue. Is anyone else getting this? For the record I'd love to see ATI mode brought back

 

[Meta4]

For the past few weeks almost every day I fly at some point the screen will jump and it will announce ATTITUDE MODE. I don't see anything different in drone behavior and it seems to not be an issue. Is anyone else getting this? For the record I'd love to see ATI mode brought back

A look at the flight data might help understand what's going on.
Did the drone lose satellite reception and stay in Atti Mode or was it a momentary glitch that only lasted a fraction of a second?

 

[bkushner]

A look at the flight data might help understand what's going on.
Did the drone lose satellite reception and stay in Atti Mode or was it a momentary glitch that only lasted a fraction of a second?

I am having trouble getting my flight file from the controller. Once I do I will post. It was a split second. No loss of Sat signal I could see.

 

[Meta4]

I am having trouble getting my flight file from the controller. Once I do I will post. It was a split second. No loss of Sat signal I could see.

I've seen a couple of those where for 1/10th of a second the data shows as Atti Mode with no obvious cause.
It has no effect on the flight at all and might be a harmless momentary glitch or even be a false alarm.

 

[bkushner]

I've seen a couple of those where for 1/10th of a second the data shows as Atti Mode with no obvious cause.
It has no effect on the flight at all and might be a harmless momentary glitch or even be a false alarm.

Pulled the flight log..

DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

 

[bkushner]

I'm a novice at reading those logs but it looks like it went atti and out of atti in less then a second. Says week GPS yet it's reporting 27 satellites...Mentions compass too. Perhaps a compass calibration is in order.

 

[slup]

The most visible reason for the ATTI mode at 634sec into the flight, was that the GPSLevel dropped from 5 (best) to 0 (worst) shortly.



GPSLevel is a kind of confidence computation that tells the flight controller if it can trust the positional data or not.

Good positional data aren't just dependent on the number of locked satellites... in the logs you also find something that DJI calls GPSLevel (or Navhealth), it have values from 0 up to the best 5. The HP isn't recorded until it comes up to a 4 for instance. Exactly what's included in the GPSLevel isn't fully clear, but it involves GPS DOP & the compass. If the GPSLevel is low you will see messages about GPS and/or Compass signal weak... & if reaching 0 you will have a switch to ATTI.

 

[Meta4]

I'm a novice at reading those logs but it looks like it went atti and out of atti in less then a second. Says week GPS yet it's reporting 27 satellites...

Here's the relevant section of the data:

It's a bit confused/confusing.
You you were out in the open with 27 sats and the number of sats didn't change.
But the GPS Level dropped to zero.
If GPS Level = zero, the next column Is GPS Used should show False, but it only does for half the time GPS Level =zero.
And the Flight Mode only showed as Atti for part of the time that GPS Level was zero.

I'd tend to write this off as a harmless glitch in the data.
It makes no sense and there's no indication what might have caused it.
Keep any eye out for any recurrences.
If you start seeing this repeating, it might be an issue.
If you don't see it again, it was nothing.

Mentions compass too. Perhaps a compass calibration is in order.

There's nothing wrong with the compass, the message is poorly worded..
Recalibrating the compass is not necessary and won't make any difference.

 

[bkushner]

Did it again today. Same exact thing. Split second and no ill effects. Should I contact DJI about this? Here's today's log.

DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

 

[Meta4]

Did it again today. Same exact thing. Split second and no ill effects. Should I contact DJI about this? Here's today's log.

Yes ... everything in this incident is similar.
It was about 750 feet from the previous incident.
If this has been happening for a few weeks, is it always in the same general location up towards the bridge or are you seeing it anywhere else when you are flying?

 

[bkushner]

Yes ... everything in this incident is similar.
It was about 750 feet from the previous incident.
If this has been happening for a few weeks, is it always in the same general location up towards the bridge or are you seeing it anywhere else when you are flying?

I've seen it in other areas too. Also I've been flying this area for 9 years with many different drones and never saw this before..

 

[Meta4]

I've seen it in other areas too. Also I've been flying this area for 9 years with many different drones and never saw this before..

If it's happening repeatedly in different areas, you may have an intermittent issue worth reporting to DJI.

 

[BudWalker]

I'm a novice at reading those logs but it looks like it went atti and out of atti in less then a second. Says week GPS yet it's reporting 27 satellites...Mentions compass too. Perhaps a compass calibration is in order.

Have you tried a compass calibration? I suspect that's the first thing DJI will suggest. That, and an IMU calibration.

I think you would have mentioned it, but I gotta ask. Have you added some external equipment that would affect the compass?

There are several reasons that gpsLevel will go to 0. GPS problems are one, but there are no other indications that is the cause here. In particular, xSpeed, ySpeed and zSpeed look normal. Less common reasons for gpsLevel = 0 are problems with magnetometer, accelerometer and gyro data. Unfortunately, this data is available only in the .DAT log which, for the Air 3, is encrypted.

 

[bkushner]

I did do a compass calibration and haven't had the issue since.. 5 flights no issue.

 

[BudWalker]

I did do a compass calibration and haven't had the issue since.. 5 flights no issue.

Would you expect to see the issue in the 5 flights? I.e. how often do you see the issue?