Out of control drifting and crash into wall

JDawg · Dec 3, 2018

NC S said:
I had identical case as you described. Every point you pinned out is the same as in my case of crashing. No errors at all, perfectly step by step flying and after M2P hit the wall as yours.

Let's see, Flight Log, Flight Log, FLIGHT LOG. Otherwise, PILOT ERROR. YMDV

dannybgoode · Dec 4, 2018

PropSpin said:
I didn't calibrate the compass either out of the box nor have I been prompted to. I've only had it 5 days and flown it 4 times though.

I did on my NA when I got it but completely forgot to even check on my 2P. Everything was green on the controller so off I went and it’s been perfect.

I have not even thought of calibrating the IMU’s on either. Both fly as they should, RTH works, no erratic behaviour etc. I’m beginning to think they’re faulty

PropSpin · Dec 4, 2018

dannybgoode said:
I did on my NA when I got it but completely forgot to even check on my 2P. Everything was green on the controller so off I went and it’s been perfect.

I have not even thought of calibrating the IMU’s on either. Both fly as they should, RTH works, no erratic behaviour etc. I’m beginning to think they’re faulty

I did the IMUs after the first flight for the fun of it. Was watching some guys video and he showed doing that manually. When he went to fly he mentioned a compass calibration screen popping up and so he did that before the flight. But mine hasn't complained, so I figure I may or may not mess with it.

Maireck · Dec 4, 2018

saigonsaigon said:
Hi everyone, first post on the forum (and first crash) after 3 years with DJI drones. My 2 months old Mavic Pro 2 decided to do some drifting today and crashed in a wall.

I was shooting between two factory buildings at a low height (corporate shoot) and instead of hovering like normal, the drone would drift heavily from side to side.
Was in tripod mode to take a shot and the drone decided to drift quickly to the right and crashed into the factory building, thankfully at a very low height (about 2 meters), Did a flip and crashed on its top, battery flying out, top cover will need to be replaced but the camera and gimbal seem fine for the moment, which is a relief.
No specific warnings about compass or magnetic interference but I figure it could have been that.

The side sensors were completely useless, didn't even notice the wall - the drone just drifted 4 or 5 meters straight into the wall, before I had a chance to go full throttle to the left.

On the flight log you can see the flight ending abruptly, without landing. I guess the "upwards obstacle detected" is the ground since the drone had flipped right before crashing.

First real problem with a DJI drone but quite a worrying one, the crash could have done much more damage to the drone.

Flight log : DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

I have encountered this drifting too. While shooting about 5 feet above the ground in between a privacy fence and home. The drifting is significant and is scary when in clise quarters...

Maireck · Dec 4, 2018

I believe this drift is connected to the upward facing sensors. My Mavic drifts when an obstacle is in close proximity to the aircraft...

Eagledrone · Dec 4, 2018

I have to also have complain about drifting just after take off. Since the most recent firmware update.
Just after taking off it will drifting as much as 4 or 5 feet before I interveen. It will usually lose altitude also.
Attached log so less guessing, but something is very different than it use to be.
View attachment DJIFlightRecord_2018-12-04_[16-29-37].txt View attachment DJIFlightRecord_2018-12-04_[16-31-19].txt View attachment DJIFlightRecord_2018-12-04_[16-29-14].txt View attachment DJIFlightRecord_2018-12-04_[16-12-06].txt

PropSpin · Dec 5, 2018

I had problems with drifting just this evening. On take off, while hovering about a meter, it was drifting slightly. Sunset had just occurred about 15 minutes prior so light wasn't super great and it was complaining about light not being good enough for the sensors to work. When landing the first time it was pretty much dark and it wanted to drift while landing. I took off again and on the second landing, I over compensated for rearward drift and kind of made it do a shallow nosedive into leaves on the ground, missing the landing pad by about a foot.

I was surprised by the drifting, to say the least.

Eagledrone · Dec 6, 2018

I just wanted to close the loop on my comment and issue with drifting. I solved mine with an IMU calibration.

PropSpin · Dec 6, 2018

Eagledrone said:
I just wanted to close the loop on my comment and issue with drifting. I solved mine with an IMU calibration.

Huh, from what I recall, the first flight or two before I calibrated the IMU it was hovering off the pad rock solid. Not until afterwards have I noticed a problem. Will try it again.
Edit: flew this morning at the same location with no trouble holding position. I had more light and 13 satellites this time. Not sure how many satellites I had last time and it was dark. I didn't do any calibrations, etc. Since last flight, so maybe I didn't have enough SATs last time.

saigonsaigon · Dec 8, 2018

Just wanted to update on the issue. Sent all the data to DJI who called me 3 days later to tell me it was not pilot error and they were covering the repair under warranty. Brought it to my local drone shop, it was fixed for free in 24 hours. Still not 100% sure what the issue was, the drone shop did say they've seen it happen quite a bit with the Mavic 2 Pro.

sar104 · Dec 8, 2018

saigonsaigon said:
Just wanted to update on the issue. Sent all the data to DJI who called me 3 days later to tell me it was not pilot error and they were covering the repair under warranty. Brought it to my local drone shop, it was fixed for free in 24 hours. Still not 100% sure what the issue was, the drone shop did say they've seen it happen quite a bit with the Mavic 2 Pro.

I suspect that they also concluded magnetic interference. While that arguably is pilot error to some degree, DJI seem to be pretty consistent in treating it as a warranty issue. And that's probably reasonable since they have never given any sensible advice on how to check for and avoid the problem, even though it's well understood by many of us how to do that.

PropSpin · Dec 8, 2018

PropSpin said:
Huh, from what I recall, the first flight or two before I calibrated the IMU it was hovering off the pad rock solid. Not until afterwards have I noticed a problem. Will try it again.

saigonsaigon said:
Just wanted to update on the issue. Sent all the data to DJI who called me 3 days later to tell me it was not pilot error and they were covering the repair under warranty. Brought it to my local drone shop, it was fixed for free in 24 hours. Still not 100% sure what the issue was, the drone shop did say they've seen it happen quite a bit with the Mavic 2 Pro.

Maybe this means we'll be seeing another firmware update soon.
Glad to hear they're covering it.

PropSpin · Dec 8, 2018

sar104 said:
I suspect that they also concluded magnetic interference. While that arguably is pilot error to some degree, DJI seem to be pretty consistent in treating it as a warranty issue. And that's probably reasonable since they have never given any sensible advice on how to check for and avoid the problem, even though it's well understood by many of us how to do that.

For the uninitiated, how to do this? Is there a decent thread on this?

sar104 · Dec 8, 2018

PropSpin said:
For the uninitiated, how to do this? Is there a decent thread on this?

Simple enough - just check before takeoff that the aircraft heading arrow on the map is pointing in the same direction, relative to north, that the aircraft is actually facing.

PropSpin · Dec 8, 2018

sar104 said:
Simple enough - just check before takeoff that the aircraft heading arrow on the map is pointing in the same direction, relative to north, that the aircraft is actually facing.

Ha, yeah that is simple. Thanks.

sar104 · Dec 8, 2018

PropSpin said:
Ha, yeah that is simple. Thanks.

To clarify - what that ensures is that the IMU yaw value is correctly initialized by the magnetometer data at startup. That's all that matters.

peros550 · Dec 10, 2018

jeplane said:
I am anxiously waiting for the 30 days reset, which should happen in the next 48 hrs I guess...

Hi , sorry for the out of topic. I was curious to know what happened with your MP2 after the ~~suspected~~ reset period.

Did it ask for calibration?

Fly safe

Edit: I just checked the manual and it says that compass calibration is recommended if 30 days have passed since the previous flight. Therefore, it looks that if you fly frequently, within a range of 30miles/50Km and not trigger yourself a compass calibration warning because of the chosen environment, then you should be good to go without a need for compass calibration.