Obstacle Avoidance - is this normal behavior?

[Kewlio]

As I was flying in a cow pasture my Mavic got real close to some tree branches but didn't hit any and obstacle avoidance started going nuts, the drone began flying erratically and it would not respond to my command to reverse away from the branches until it finally clipped one and went down. Luckily it was only a few feet high and the landing was grass, no visible damage. However, the gimbal is acting funky.

When I power on the drone the gimbal flips from down to up and repeats every few seconds. As this is happening the DJI GO app is reporting gimbal status as "normal", changes to "gimbal obstructed" then to "Restarting" repeating this process.

This is not my first quad but it is my first one with obstacle avoidance. Is this normal behavior? Thanks.

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[DesertWindAero]

Try recalibrating the IMU.

 

[BD0G]

Re calibrate the Gimbal first right?

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[BD0G]

You can also try and calibrate the front obstacle avoidance snesors

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[Kewlio]

Try recalibrating the IMU.

Thanks. I've done that twice, but no change.

 

[Kewlio]

Re calibrate the Gimbal first right?

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I tried that. When I press "Auto Calibrate Gimbal" it goes back to the main screen then does nothing. I don't get a popup starting calibration like in that video.

 

[Kewlio]

I should also note that the gimbal scroll wheel on the RC has no affect on the gimbal... does not move.

 

[chippie]

Try recalibrating the IMU.

Calibrating the IMU for every issue is not the best thing to do (only do it if the app prompts you to) and if you do it them make sure you follow the correct procedure in getting the Mavic as cold as possible in the fridge (no battery) and then calibrating as quickly as possible after removing it and powering on.
The issue here is not IMU related, it is clearly a gimbal issue, if it was the IMU then the drone would be flying erratically and the app would prompt you to calibrate the IMU anyway.

 

[chippie]

@Kewlio Check underneath the gimbal to make sure that all 3 little tabs are located behind the 3 little lips on the underside of the Mavic. If you are not able to calibrate the gimbal then I would think it was damaged in the crash. You could try to rest the camera setting which makes the camera jump a little but I doubt that will have much effect. Also, go into Assistant 2 on your PC and reset all the Factory Default. If that does not help I would RMA it.

OA generally works pretty well with solid objects but if the branches are very thin then it will not always see them, also OA is disabled in Sports Mode etc.

 

[Kewlio]

Calibrating the IMU for every issue is not the best thing to do (only do it if the app prompts you to) and if you do it them make sure you follow the correct procedure in getting the Mavic as cold as possible in the fridge (no battery) and then calibrating as quickly as possible after removing it and powering on.
The issue here is not IMU related, it is clearly a gimbal issue, it it was the IMU then the drone would be flying erratically and the app would prompt you to calibrate the IMU anyway.

Thanks. It definitely appears to be a gimbal problem. What I want to know is if the obstacle avoidance behavior that led to the crash that likely caused the gimbal issue is normal behavior? It certainly did not feel like it to me, as it would not allow me to reverse away from the branches. You can see how shaky and erratic it behaved in the video. That is the point at which I was trying to reverse with the stick and it would not do so.

 

[chippie]

It is hard to tell, to me it looks like you flew into the branches and the sensors reacted to things being very close to them. You can upload your logs from the drone itself and a we can take a look to see exactly what happened. Ultimately though it will be down to DJI if they will repair it under warranty (a fault with OA) or if you have Care Refresh then if not under warranty that will defo cover you for a repair/replacement.

 

[Kewlio]

@Kewlio Check underneath the gimbal to make sure that all 3 little tabs are located behind the 3 little lips on the underside of the Mavic. If you are not able to calibrate the gimbal then I would think it was damaged in the crash. You could try to rest the camera setting which makes the camera jump a little but I doubt that will have much effect. Also, go into Assistant 2 on your PC and reset all the Factory Default. If that does not help I would RMA it.

OA generally works pretty well with solid objects but if the branches are very thin then it will not always see them, also OA is disabled in Sports Mode etc.

Understood. However, I was not in sport more and it definitely saw the branches because the app alarms were going off, the drone would not move forward, and it would not move backward. I don't feel like this is normal behavior, which is what I'm trying to guage from others.

My concern is the drone getting close enough to something to trigger OA and it goes into the weird zombie state like in my video and I have no control to move it back or away from the object. If so I will turn OA off.

I have DJI Care so I will probably just send it in. I can't see any damage to the gimbal but it's certainly not behaving normal...

 

[chippie]

I understand what you are saying but without the logs it is difficult to judge. If the Mavic had detected the branches in time it would have stopped, It looks to me that it saw them but did not have enough time to stop itself before getting entangled. Thin branches can be hard to detect. I have not experienced any 'zombie' like states where I could no back away. Only the drone logs will tell us exactly what happened. You can take a look at if you create an account on HealthyDrones and upload them there. It does not show you all the detail but it may give you a few clues.

 

[networth]

I unboxed it and went to a sea, flew for 5 mins, all good.
Then suddenly, it starts showing gimbal overloaded, vps sensors calibrate required, and then it shows some taking squares toe calibrate, but it doesnt do anything, I almost did 10 squares.