Serious bug in the Mavic's "Home Point Me" function - caused loss of drone!

[BuzzyOne]

If it was me, once I received the "Satellite Signal Lost. Acquire signal and retry" I would have stopped right there and landed. I certainly would not have then tried to update the GPS location. Sorry to say, it was pilot error after that point and also is the fact you initially missed the message since your RC was in your pack. Once the MP stopped and hovered, you should have then stopped and seen the message. At the very least, abort the mission and investigate since you say you missed the message and then had no clue as to why the MP stopped.

 

[finlayson]

Looks like they won't have any excuse for denying coverage here.

Now I just need to get DJI to notice me; my post (the same one that I posted here) hasn't yet shown up on their "Mavic" forum...

 

[BuzzyOne]

Looks like they won't have any excuse for denying coverage here. The logs are pretty telling.

I'd stick with the story that a user should not be able to use an old, previous Home Point without any warning or notification from the RC. To me that really is a sort of bug unless it is something on the OS side that they have no control over.

 

[finlayson]

Once the MP stopped and hovered, you should have then stopped and seen the message.

y
Unfortunately I didn't notice that the Mavic wasn't following me until about 90 seconds later. That's when I stopped. I didn't see any error message then.

At the very least, abort the mission

Yes. My mistake was to try to "abort the mission" by doing "Home Point Me" followed by RtH

 

[BuzzyOne]

Sorry...Abort mission = Stop doing those things that are taking your MP farther away from you and land.

 

[finlayson]

Sorry...Abort mission = Stop doing those things that are taking your MP farther away from you and land.

Yes indeed. "Hindsight is 20/20"

 

[BigDuke6ixx]

Yes indeed. "Hindsight is 20/20"

Nope, standard operating procedure.

 

[Hollow Dog]

This one is pilot error. The pilot made a number of assumption that were incorrect, and did not react well the problem was noticed.
Could happen to anyone.

 

[finlayson]

This one is pilot error.

Sigh...

Folks, it's possible to keep two different thoughts in your mind at the same time:

1. There's a bug in the Mavic's software that can cause it to mishandle the "Home Point Me" function, and
2. When this (unexpectedly) happened to me, I panicked a bit, and didn't react as well as I could. I could have avoided losing my drone.

I'm really not interested in hearing more about point 2. I know this. Please don't bother responding unless you're willing to address point 1 (or unless you happened to find my drone

 

[Youser]

So whats the advice for pilots that may find themselves in a similar situation?

I haven't got my Mavic yet but wouldn't mind knowing how to cancel RTH. Think someone on this thread said you can't cancel/control RTH?

 

[mightyarrow]

It is possible to take both sides here, folks. I personally think both pilot and DJI are at fault here.

From a product liability standpoint, DJI is on the hook here for the full value due to a software bug. Heck, if this was supposedly a known issue, then it's even more on DJI for failing to correct it.

That being said, pilot is at fault for failing to stop it, as it sounds like he had every opportunity to with the simple flick of the Sport mode switch.

I could see DJI trying to offer 80% off, but at the same time, they're technically on the hook for the full value. It's unfortunate for both sides.

 

[finlayson]

So whats the advice for pilots that may find themselves in a similar situation?

I haven't got my Mavic yet but wouldn't mind knowing how to cancel RTH. Think someone on this thread said you can't cancel/control RTH?

You can cancel RtH by pressing the "Pause" button on the controller. (I should have done that before my Mavic flew out of range

 

[Chunter]

I've found that if I don't force close the app when I power off my tablet when I take off again,even if it says home point recorded,it sometimes remembers old home points miles away.our of habit now I force close posting on and off of tablet.

 

[finlayson]

I've found that if I don't force close the app when I power off my tablet when I take off again,even if it says home point recorded,it sometimes remembers old home points miles away.our of habit now I force close posting on and off of tablet.

Interesting... This suggests that the bug is probably in the "DJI GO 4" app, rather than in the Mavic's firmware. However, in my case - according to the "Flight Record" - the app had the correct GPS location when I did "Home Point Me", so it's strange that it would give an old 'home point' to the Mavic.

But I wish someone from DJI would respond here with definitive information (either that, or they hurry up and put my post up on their Mavic forum

 

[ric96]

Interesting... This suggests that the bug is probably in the "DJI GO 4" app, rather than in the Mavic's firmware. However, in my case - according to the "Flight Record" - the app had the correct GPS location when I did "Home Point Me", so it's strange that it would give an old 'home point' to the Mavic.

But I wish someone from DJI would respond here with definitive information (either that, or they hurry up and put my post up on their Mavic forum

Can't you create your own post on the DJI forum?

 

[finlayson]

Can't you create your own post on the DJI forum?

Yes, I did - in their "Mavic" forum, but it hasn't shown up there yet. Apparently DJI forum posts are moderated, and don't appear automatically.

 

[Wakesetter101]

I agree, there is a bug in the return to controller functionality. I have experienced the same thing with iPhone 6 (10.3.3). I've had it follow me on the bike just fine, so my phone was reporting the correct location and the blue dot (me) on the screen was accurate; however, when I tried updating the homepoint (and voice prompt said updated) and use return to controller, it flew off to I think the initial homepoint or some other homepoint. I've cancelled so it didn't get away from me, but I kept trying to update the homepoint to no success. I flew it back to me manually using the compass. I would say definite bug in Go app using iOS. I may have not closed the app after a battery swap as someone else suggested, I will need to do more testing.

 

[locoman]

Now that I think about it, I think this happen to me once a few weeks ago, just before I crashed it by running into a power line.

I was videoing at my bother-in-law's, about 5 miles from home, where I usually fly and have previously set "home points". I set a new home point at my current location at the time and it shows up on the map as "H". I flew right in the area for a few minutes, made some photos, then pressed the RTH button to test it out. Checking the flight log, a couple HP notice flashed on the screen, HP symbol disappears and the distance changed from 40' to 26,562 ' and the bird took off like a batt out of H..l, for "my home" five miles away. Short of having a complete panic attach melt down, I hit the pause button and stopped it flying off to never never land. Then manually flew it. back to me. landed it and started over. I was not in sport mode, in fact I have never flown in sport mode. I still have the flight record, if DJI wants to look at it and see what happen. Except I don't know how to get it off my iPhone and send it to you. Also, might be a mute point, since it was that MP that latter crashed and was returned to DJI.

FYI
I was using an iPhone 6
Current FW updates at the time which I think was .900
Go 4, prior to the 4.1.9 update

Jim

PS
Just realized this is a little off thread. Although is it a flyaway issue.

 

[ric96]

Yes, I did - in their "Mavic" forum, but it hasn't shown up there yet. Apparently DJI forum posts are moderated, and don't appear automatically.

You should be able to start your own thread after about 5 posts to existing threads.

 

[locoman]

ric96, I post it over there and it showed up right away. but no response for them yet.