REALLY NEED HELP!! Mavic Mini falls from sky into the water! LOG READER NEEDED!

[LoweLilliehorn]

Hi there!
Today, me and my father went to our beach here in Onsala, Gothenburg (Sweden).
We started off starting the motors with pushing the two sticks in to the middle. Everything went as it should. We did check the wind "meter" before taking off, and it was around 2.6 m/s. No problem.
After a while when we drove our drone, the drone fell from the sky into a tree and 0,0000001 cm from a big stone. We wondered for ourselves, "wtf". How? We changed the battery, calibrated all the settings and started to lift off once again. This time, no problem.... yet.
We started to lift up to 17m and we got a message saying that the drones maximum capacity was reached. I was in sport mode, yes. Then, after a couple of seconds the message disappeared and we continued to fly. We flew over the water as you can see in the footage below. Suddenly, when we started to drive home again, the drone started to fly backwards and down to the water. Quick. I started to panic and pressed the RTH. It lifted again. Then, the drone didn't respond to my commands from the controller and down it goes to the sea. At that time, the drone crashed to the water and the drone crashed. We were unable to do anything. The drone is now on the bottom of the sea.

Now, what do we do next?
I got the flight log , but I can't read it. Maybe some of you can? Is it possible to get a refund? We bought it in November 2019.

What should we do?

We need every help we can get!
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Best regards,
Lowe Lilliehorn

 

[Lastrexking]

Sorry you lost your drone. I’m sure someone will be able to read you logs and tell you what went wrong.

 

[LoweLilliehorn]

Sorry you lost your drone. I’m sure someone will be able to read you logs and tell you what went wrong.

I really hope so.

 

[lee82gx]

Sorry, my initial diagnostic was flawed. At

11m 12s

Sport

20satellites

24.3ft

2.8mph

301.8ft

36%

6.782V

3.39V

3.392V

0.002V

You did provide stick input to move forward and right, but did you notice that the aircraft was already descending too close to sea level? At that time did you try to re-ascend. This is part onwards is weird.

Generally after you initiated RTH, it looks like the craft was flying backwards away from home. It looks like the wind was too strong.

I'm sorry I couldnt help more, hopefully the experts will come in soon.

 

[LoweLilliehorn]

I'm not an expert yet but I'm going to try and help...at

9m 7.7s

Go Home

18satellites

-4.9ft

0.2mph

207.7ft

47%

6.935V

3.467V

3.468V

0.001V

RTH: Preascending

you engaged RTH and the aircraft was facing home by itself. It then ascend to the RTH height of 60ft. Without any further stick input it flew backwards away from home (from 9m37s onwards all the way to end of log) in Return to Home mode, which either indicates compass malfunction or too high winds. My guess is winds.

YEah. Exactly... but the problem was that, even if I engaged the RTH, the drone didnt even face me. It continued to descend to the water...

 

[lee82gx]

YEah. Exactly... but the problem was that, even if I engaged the RTH, the drone didnt even face me. It continued to descend to the water...

It looks like the aircraft thinks it is facing you. Are you sure it was not? Generally at a few hundred feet it is not easy to tell the head and tail of the aircraft especially one as small as the Mini.

 

[LoweLilliehorn]

Sorry, my initial diagnostic was flawed. At

11m 12s

Sport

20satellites

24.3ft

2.8mph

301.8ft

36%

6.782V

3.39V

3.392V

0.002V

You did provide stick input to move forward and right, but did you notice that the aircraft was already descending too close to sea level? At that time did you try to re-ascend. This is part onwards is weird.

Generally after you initiated RTH, it looks like the craft was flying backwards away from home. It looks like the wind was too strong.

I'm sorry I couldnt help more, hopefully the experts will come in soon.

No problem!

 

[LoweLilliehorn]

View attachment 91402
It looks like the aircraft thinks it is facing you. Are you sure it was not? Generally at a few hundred feet it is not easy to tell the head and tail of the aircraft especially one as small as the Mini.

No. not really. Usually the gimbal recenters and starts looking at me. Instead, it didnt do anything. I mean the wind was at 2.7 m/s which is not really much...

 

[lee82gx]

No. not really. Usually the gimbal recenters and starts looking at me. Instead, it didnt do anything. I mean the wind was at 2.7 m/s which is not really much...

If you can still see camera / gimbal view and you are sure the aircraft is orienting away from you, i think it points to some failure. That plus the descending without stick input, may point to something. At this point have you started talking to DJI customer service? Its recommended to do so in parallel while waiting for independent experts from this forum...who may be absolutely right, but can't at all replace the aircraft for you. DJI can.

 

[LoweLilliehorn]

If you can still see camera / gimbal view and you are sure the aircraft is orienting away from you, i think it points to some failure. That plus the descending without stick input, may point to something. At this point have you started talking to DJI customer service? Its recommended to do so in parallel while waiting for independent experts from this forum...who may be absolutely right, but can't at all replace the aircraft for you. DJI can.

Yeah.. you are right.. unfortunately I live in Sweden, and DJI doesn't have a customer service there. I will be calling UK service instead. Do you think it will be possible to get the money back? I mean, it is 2*C in the water, and I will not be able to get it, haha!

 

[lee82gx]

As far as I know they will at best replace the aircraft for you at no cost, it won't end up with monetary refund.

I too live in a country with poor DJI service. I can relate.

 

[netsonic]

Sorry for your loss, however this thread is a duplicate of this one where the entire log analysis as well all facts were already discussed:

ATTENTION ALL PILOTS! Mavic Mini falls from sky into the water! LOG READER NEEDED!

Hi there! Today, me and my father went to our beach here in Onsala, Gothenburg (Sweden). We started off starting the motors with pushing the two sticks in to the middle. Everything went as it should. We did check the wind "meter" before taking off, and it was around 2.6 m/s. No problem. After a...

mavicpilots.com

As there are no refunds here's a word of advice, sell it once you get it replaced. If you however decide to keep it, please mind flying in other conditions as you see that unpredictable things do happen.

 

[GerdS]

I just have read your story and taken a look to your logs.
Fact is, something went terribly wrong with your MM, but not only with the last flight, but already with the flight before where it has fallen out of the sky through a tree onto a stone.

There you made your first mistake, as you made another flight without first analysing the reason for the MM's behaviour and crash.

Your second mistake was ignoring the tons of overload messages you've got in the last flight.

The third mistake was flying over water with a drone having a problem.

And the fourth mistake was initating RTH on a drone with a problem. Remember, if you cannot control a drone anymore, the flight controller can't control it, too and makes things even more worse instead of better.

Difficult to say how DJI will handle this, based on so many user mistakes. Maybe they'll ask you to retrieve your MM for analysis, as its location in water is known and easy to reach for a diver. I am also wondering about the damage it may have taken from the previous crash, as you didn't mention that.

 

[LoweLilliehorn]

I just have read your story and taken a look to your logs.
Fact is, something went terribly wrong with your MM, but not only with the last flight, but already with the flight before where it has fallen out of the sky through a tree onto a stone.

There you made your first mistake, as you made another flight without first analysing the reason for the MM's behaviour and crash.

Your second mistake was ignoring the tons of overload messages you've got in the last flight.

The third mistake was flying over water with a drone having a problem.

And the fourth mistake was initating RTH on a drone with a problem. Remember, if you cannot control a drone anymore, the flight controller can't control it, too and makes things even more worse instead of better.

Difficult to say how DJI will handle this, based on so many user mistakes. Maybe they'll ask you to retrieve your MM for analysis, as its location in water is known and easy to reach for a diver. I am also wondering about the damage it may have taken from the previous crash, as you didn't mention that.

Alright. So what we did after the first crash was:
Change Battery
Re-Calibrate
CHanged Phone

Talking of all of those messages that popped up, we got some of them. Not all. Yes, we got the wind warning 1 time. But that was just one time! And the wind was at 2.7 m/s which the MM can handle. All of those stick inputs without a response is, now afterwards, signs that something is very off?

 

[GerdS]

After the first crash you was aware that something is going wrong with your MM. I would not put trust into a crashing drone again until I am sure to know the crash reason. Recalibrating and changing phone and battery is just a try & error but no analysis and fix.
I would at least have taken a look into the flight log, hoping to find the reason why the MM has fallen out of the sky. And in worst case, without explanation, would have contacted DJI for repair/replacement.
But even when I would have done a further flight I would have done this in a safe environment to test the drone's behaviour before trusting it again. NEVER EVER I would have flown very high or over water!

 

[LoweLilliehorn]

After the first crash you was aware that something is going wrong with your MM. I would not put trust into a crashing drone again until I am sure to know the crash reason. Recalibrating and changing phone and battery is just a try & error but no analysis and fix.
I would at least have taken a look into the flight log, hoping to find the reason why the MM has fallen out of the sky. And in worst case, without explanation, would have contacted DJI for repair/replacement.
But even when I would have done a further flight I would have done this in a safe environment to test the drone's behaviour before trusting it again. NEVER EVER I would have flown very high or over water!

Ok, but again. How is it my fault that the drone stopped working? I mean, I did not crash the drone with purpose. There was no indicators of something wrong.

 

[GerdS]

Within your other thread you mentioned a further crash by falling out of the sky within your house, which you didn't mention here. So you was aware that something goes wrong with your drone and did ignore that!
Also no word about the damage caused by the previous crashes and how you did repair that.
When I would be DJI, I would doubt about a product failure as I don't know about the full history of your MM, if you have e.g. flown it with damaged props or debris in the motors. Would not wonder if they might ask you to send in the recovered drone for analysis.

 

[Olav van Gerven]

When I look at the log, I see the problem with the wind. Though you say that wind was 2,7 m/s (which is well in the limits of the mini), from the position you are at, there might have been more wind. But regardless, when the drone is giving a wind-warning, you might thnik "there is not much wind..." but the drone thinks different. And the drone will act upon its own data and not on what the pilot (you, me or anyone else) think that should be done. Therefor, if the drone says "to much wind", I would not ignore it, even if I think it is okay.

 

[LoweLilliehorn]

When I look at the log, I see the problem with the wind. Though you say that wind was 2,7 m/s (which is well in the limits of the mini), from the position you are at, there might have been more wind. But regardless, when the drone is giving a wind-warning, you might thnik "there is not much wind..." but the drone thinks different. And the drone will act upon its own data and not on what the pilot (you, me or anyone else) think that should be done. Therefor, if the drone says "to much wind", I would not ignore it, even if I think it is okay.

Yeah. I understand you. I really do. My flightlog shows that the drone recognized "2.7 m/s" wind. And that message can pop-up even inside. So, really, I think it is a bug maybe?

 

[GerdS]

I doubt it was a wind problem. This MM had a defect either from production or from crashing before, causing the overload erros, not the wind.