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

[Youser]

Yes. Once again, note these two screen shots from the 'Flight Record', taken 1 second before, and 1 second after, I did "Home Point Me":

No.

You had any response from DJI yet?

 

[finlayson]

You had any response from DJI yet?

No, not yet. But I'll be sure to update this thread once I do.

 

[isiden]

It's probably my fault but I'm still trying to understand where 's supposed to be the bug..
I'd suggest to use hover as failsafe instead of rth in follow/active track tasks, so if you lose connection you'll always have the time to recover your MP without any rush..
Sorry for your loss..

 

[finlayson]

It's probably my fault but I'm still trying to understand where 's supposed to be the bug..

Yes, it's probably your fault

 

[isiden]

Yes, it's probably your fault

Sure, but mine it's still in my backpack..

 

[BuzzyOne]

Sure, but mine it's still in my backpack..

Ouch.

 

[scjerry]

No, not yet. But I'll be sure to update this thread once I do.

Have the same problem: See Home Point to RC not registered .

Running firmware v. 01.03.1000 and DJI Go 4 v. 4.1.7. under iOS on my Mini4 wifi+cell with an AT&T SIM.

Can you share your DJI contact, since my posting on forum.dji.com elicited silence? See Recurring run-away problems with Mavic & DJI Go 4 Under iOS

As an aside, I reboot my iPad between daily flights to avoid residual data corruption, but since the data files are persistent in DJI Go 4's data store under iOS, that may not work. There's either a bug in the Mavic flight controller or Go 4.

I've also been frustrated with DJI Assistant 2 v. 1.1.6 and the new FW update. I'm not the only one: DJI Support, Assistant 2 and Flight Data .

In general, I'm impressed with the software. The flight controller has over 20 processors, and writing multi-tasking time critical routines is no easy task, so bugs are to be expected. But lack of response to several users with apparently the same problem is not acceptable support.

 

[finlayson]

Can you share your DJI contact, since my posting on forum.dji.com elicited silence? See Recurring run-away problems with Mavic & DJI Go 4 Under iOS

I don't really have a 'contact' at DJI; however, my case is (supposedly) currently being analyzed and investigated. My initial posts on forum.dji.com didn't go through. (I'm not sure why; it might have been because my posted title contained the word "bug".) But a subsequent post - Why are my posts not showing up? - showed up OK. In that thread, someone from DJI asked me to go to this link: DJI Support - Here for You , and use the "Email" support option. I did this, and (after syncing my flight records with DJI) got a case number. I suggest that you do the same. It'll be good to have as many people as possible getting their logs investigated by DJI. I'm scared that we may have trouble getting DJI to understand that the problem may be with the DJI GO 4 app; not with the Mavic itself.

 

[tedten]

This happened to me yesterday

 

[finlayson]

This happened to me yesterday

Please go to DJI Support - Here for You and use the "Email" support option. You'll get your logs analyzed by DJI. If everyone who runs into this problem does this, it'll put pressure on DJI to address the issue.

 

[ZUCSTA]

I have very clear evidence of a serious bug in the Mavic Pro’s "Home Point Me” function (initiated from the DJI GO 4 iPhone app). To summarize: When I did “Home Point Me” (on three separate occasions), the Mavic Pro set its home point not to the location of the controller, but instead to the location of the previous flight’s home point - which, in my case, was more than 7000 feet (2000m) away from the controller. Not realizing what had happened, I then did a “Return to Home’ - which caused my Mavic to fly away.

I have uploaded the flight log here: DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

The cached flight video (from my controller) is here:

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I would be happy to provide additional flight data - from my controller - if necessary to help resolve/fix this bug. (Unfortunately, because my Mavic was lost, I don’t have any video or data from the Mavic itself.)

Here is a summary of key events from the flight log and/or cached controller video:

Flight time Time in cached video Event
0:02 n/a Takeoff (GPS mode); Home Point recorded at [36.608828,-121.711527]
0:56 0:00 Video starts
1:31 0:35 Follow Me mode enabled
7:07 6:11 Error: "Satellite Signal Lost. Acquire signal and retry." (This is a confusing message; I’m guessing that it refers to the loss of GPS coordinates of the *controller*, not the GPS coordinates of the Mavic (because the Mavic was seeing 18 satellites).)
7:10 6:14 Speed drops to zero; Mavic’s GPS location: [36.613579,-121.700561]
~8:40 ~7:44 I stop riding, and realize that my Mavic has stopped following me. I (and the controller) are at [36.61499,-121.69624]
9:26 8:30 Break in downlink (& cached video)
9:39 8:30 Downlink (& cached video) resumes
9:45 8:36 Break in downlink (& cached video)
11:01 8:36 Downlink (& cached video) resumes
11:15 8:50 I use “Home Point Me” to reset the home point, supposedly to the Remote Controller (i.e., my) position, which is at [36.61499,-121.69624]. But instead, the ‘home point' gets set to [36.607533,-121.724625], which was my home point of my *previous* flight - more than 1.6 miles (2.6 km) away from me! (Find My Drone also reports this as the “Aircraft Missing Coordinates”)
11:22 8:57 Without realizing what has actually happened to the home point, I do a RtH
11:49 9:24 Mavic finishes ascending, and starts moving ‘home’. In reality, it’s moving away from me, at a speed of 22 miles per hour (35 km/h)!
12:05 9:40 Confused and concerned about what’s happening, I did “Home Point Me” once again. But the home point remained unchanged; it’s still the home point of my *previous* flight; and my Mavic is still flying away from me at 22 mph!
12:17 9:52 The Mavic switches from “Go Home” mode to P-GPS mode. (I think I may have pressed the “Pause” button here; I’m not sure)
12:20 9:55 Speed drops to zero
12:29 10:04 Forward speed resumes
12:34 10:09 I get a “Weak Signal” warning
13:06 10:41 I do “Home Point Me” once again. But the home point is still wrong (but unfortunately I don’t realize this)!
13:12 10:47 I do a RtH once again (this turned out to be a fatal mistake, because I didn’t appreciate that the home point was wrong, and I’m now near the edge of transmission range)
13:15 10:50 The Mavic starts returning ‘home’ once again. But yet again, it’s moving away from me
13:21 10:56 The cached video ends
13:42 n/a I lose connectivity. The Mavic is moving away from me at 22 mph!

Comments:

• There’s unquestionably a bug in “Home Point Me”. Why did it reset the ‘home point’ to a point that was far away from the controller, and why did it choose the point that happened to be the home (starting) point for my *previous* flight?

• The RtH speed of around 22 mph (35 km/h) seems unusually large. There weren’t strong winds, and I was not in ‘sport mode’. This behavior appears similar to some ‘fly aways’ that have been reported by other people.

• Unfortunately I wasn’t able to find my Mavic. It didn’t return to what it thought was the ‘home’ point (nor to the actual ‘home’ (i.e., starting) point of this flight). I searched along the line from its last known position to its assumed ‘home’ point (and beyond, in case it ended up overshooting this point). Unfortunately it wasn’t possible to do an exhaustive search, because the area is filled with long grass, thick chaparral, large oak trees, and 'poison oak'.

The bottom line: Do not use the “Home Point Me” function until DJI fixes this bug.

(I have also posted this report to DJI’s forum, but I’m also posting it here, in case DJI ignores or deletes it.)

 

[ZUCSTA]

Did you actually check your homepoint on your sat or homepoint map?
It should show you exactly where you say you are ? It always pays to Double check. I have nearly lost mine taking it for granted ...never again.
Also with a loss of GPS on controller it wouldn't of known where you were ,so it descended to rth height and went back to where it last had a definative home point. Was there a reason you were doing a follow me at such a height?
What was the height ? There are certain perameters this drone work well within.
In saying all this, I feel for your Loss , but I also feel there is a good chance your drone could be found.
Any chance you had a name and phone no. Taped to it?
I'm sure some of the Guys and Gals on here are more than willing to try help hunt it down for you. Many success stories as we have much talent with mapping and predictions of final landing zones of Lost Mavics .
I wish you Luck .

 

[Billyboy72]

FYI, my Mavic was quite new - bought in July 2017.



No, I never entered 'sport mode' (which makes the 22 miles-per-hour 'RtH' speed strange).

If I'd had a better appreciation that 'Home Point Me' had failed, then I would have been able to recover my drone. But because I was near the edge of transmission range, and because my drone was moving away from me so quickly, it flew out of range before I could come to my senses :-(

I have seen that option but never used it myself. Now I don't know that I'd ever attempt it. As long as you have your DJI care they will replace your drone. You shouldn't have any issues with them doing that for you specially after seeing the footage.

 

[Billyboy72]

Actually thats a great point. Where was the last RTH point? Go there or along that path incase the bat died on its way home. Where are you located? This community is pretty good at looking out for one another I'm sure someone would love to be the guy/gal handing your Mav back to you. I know I would

 

[BuzzyOne]

I have seen that option but never used it myself. Now I don't know that I'd ever attempt it. As long as you have your DJI care they will replace your drone. You shouldn't have any issues with them doing that for you specially after seeing the footage.

DJI Care will not replace a lost drone. You have to send whatever is left to them or no dice.

 

[MavicMoira]

I am sorry for your loss. I too have had moments of panic in the early days of flying my MP when she is doing unexpected things. What I have learned is a) not to fly beyond the low battery warning b) always check the home point on the map and c) always check the direction of flight when RTH is initiated. I have only used the Home Point Me option once and it worked fine but this was a few updates ago.

There is some good advice in this thread and I would follow up on the suggestion to seek help from the experts who can estimate the likely course and end point of your MP
Good luck.

 

[Lone Droner 10]

I have very clear evidence of a serious bug in the Mavic Pro’s "Home Point Me” function (initiated from the DJI GO 4 iPhone app). To summarize: When I did “Home Point Me” (on three separate occasions), the Mavic Pro set its home point not to the location of the controller, but instead to the location of the previous flight’s home point - which, in my case, was more than 7000 feet (2000m) away from the controller. Not realizing what had happened, I then did a “Return to Home’ - which caused my Mavic to fly away.

I have uploaded the flight log here: DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

The cached flight video (from my controller) is here:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

I would be happy to provide additional flight data - from my controller - if necessary to help resolve/fix this bug. (Unfortunately, because my Mavic was lost, I don’t have any video or data from the Mavic itself.)

Here is a summary of key events from the flight log and/or cached controller video:

Flight time Time in cached video Event
0:02 n/a Takeoff (GPS mode); Home Point recorded at [36.608828,-121.711527]
0:56 0:00 Video starts
1:31 0:35 Follow Me mode enabled
7:07 6:11 Error: "Satellite Signal Lost. Acquire signal and retry." (This is a confusing message; I’m guessing that it refers to the loss of GPS coordinates of the *controller*, not the GPS coordinates of the Mavic (because the Mavic was seeing 18 satellites).)
7:10 6:14 Speed drops to zero; Mavic’s GPS location: [36.613579,-121.700561]
~8:40 ~7:44 I stop riding, and realize that my Mavic has stopped following me. I (and the controller) are at [36.61499,-121.69624]
9:26 8:30 Break in downlink (& cached video)
9:39 8:30 Downlink (& cached video) resumes
9:45 8:36 Break in downlink (& cached video)
11:01 8:36 Downlink (& cached video) resumes
11:15 8:50 I use “Home Point Me” to reset the home point, supposedly to the Remote Controller (i.e., my) position, which is at [36.61499,-121.69624]. But instead, the ‘home point' gets set to [36.607533,-121.724625], which was my home point of my *previous* flight - more than 1.6 miles (2.6 km) away from me! (Find My Drone also reports this as the “Aircraft Missing Coordinates”)
11:22 8:57 Without realizing what has actually happened to the home point, I do a RtH
11:49 9:24 Mavic finishes ascending, and starts moving ‘home’. In reality, it’s moving away from me, at a speed of 22 miles per hour (35 km/h)!
12:05 9:40 Confused and concerned about what’s happening, I did “Home Point Me” once again. But the home point remained unchanged; it’s still the home point of my *previous* flight; and my Mavic is still flying away from me at 22 mph!
12:17 9:52 The Mavic switches from “Go Home” mode to P-GPS mode. (I think I may have pressed the “Pause” button here; I’m not sure)
12:20 9:55 Speed drops to zero
12:29 10:04 Forward speed resumes
12:34 10:09 I get a “Weak Signal” warning
13:06 10:41 I do “Home Point Me” once again. But the home point is still wrong (but unfortunately I don’t realize this)!
13:12 10:47 I do a RtH once again (this turned out to be a fatal mistake, because I didn’t appreciate that the home point was wrong, and I’m now near the edge of transmission range)
13:15 10:50 The Mavic starts returning ‘home’ once again. But yet again, it’s moving away from me
13:21 10:56 The cached video ends
13:42 n/a I lose connectivity. The Mavic is moving away from me at 22 mph!

Comments:

• There’s unquestionably a bug in “Home Point Me”. Why did it reset the ‘home point’ to a point that was far away from the controller, and why did it choose the point that happened to be the home (starting) point for my *previous* flight?

• The RtH speed of around 22 mph (35 km/h) seems unusually large. There weren’t strong winds, and I was not in ‘sport mode’. This behavior appears similar to some ‘fly aways’ that have been reported by other people.

• Unfortunately I wasn’t able to find my Mavic. It didn’t return to what it thought was the ‘home’ point (nor to the actual ‘home’ (i.e., starting) point of this flight). I searched along the line from its last known position to its assumed ‘home’ point (and beyond, in case it ended up overshooting this point). Unfortunately it wasn’t possible to do an exhaustive search, because the area is filled with long grass, thick chaparral, large oak trees, and 'poison oak'.

The bottom line: Do not use the “Home Point Me” function until DJI fixes this bug.

(I have also posted this report to DJI’s forum, but I’m also posting it here, in case DJI ignores or deletes it.)

There is no question that the RTH and the "Home Point" issue is serious. I have already lost two Mavic's due to the failure of RTH. After spending well over a month dealing with DJI; sending them the flight logs they are sending me a new Mavic under warranty. But, for all of you with Mavic Pro's beware! DJI refuses to admit there is something amiss with their firmware and that "fly aways" can occur at anytime. All the speculation on this forum for the reasons that this is happening is a waste to everyone's time. If you own a Mavic Pro and it is more than one year old and therefore not under warranty, I wish you all the best of luck. Sort of like cars that have recalls. Some will crash and others will never have a problem. I will say this - my first one fly off and I blamed myself for flying it in an area with a lot of interference. It was only 2,500' away but RTH failed and off it went. I was able to find it using latitude and longitude on the flight log but it was completely smashed. Insurance covered it. The second one was within 200' and I hit RTH and off it went, never to be found. I wish you all luck!

 

[Tetrapike]

I have very clear evidence of a serious bug in the Mavic Pro’s "Home Point Me” function (initiated from the DJI GO 4 iPhone app). To summarize: When I did “Home Point Me” (on three separate occasions), the Mavic Pro set its home point not to the location of the controller, but instead to the location of the previous flight’s home point - which, in my case, was more than 7000 feet (2000m) away from the controller. Not realizing what had happened, I then did a “Return to Home’ - which caused my Mavic to fly away.

I have uploaded the flight log here: DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

The cached flight video (from my controller) is here:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

I would be happy to provide additional flight data - from my controller - if necessary to help resolve/fix this bug. (Unfortunately, because my Mavic was lost, I don’t have any video or data from the Mavic itself.)

Here is a summary of key events from the flight log and/or cached controller video:

Flight time Time in cached video Event
0:02 n/a Takeoff (GPS mode); Home Point recorded at [36.608828,-121.711527]
0:56 0:00 Video starts
1:31 0:35 Follow Me mode enabled
7:07 6:11 Error: "Satellite Signal Lost. Acquire signal and retry." (This is a confusing message; I’m guessing that it refers to the loss of GPS coordinates of the *controller*, not the GPS coordinates of the Mavic (because the Mavic was seeing 18 satellites).)
7:10 6:14 Speed drops to zero; Mavic’s GPS location: [36.613579,-121.700561]
~8:40 ~7:44 I stop riding, and realize that my Mavic has stopped following me. I (and the controller) are at [36.61499,-121.69624]
9:26 8:30 Break in downlink (& cached video)
9:39 8:30 Downlink (& cached video) resumes
9:45 8:36 Break in downlink (& cached video)
11:01 8:36 Downlink (& cached video) resumes
11:15 8:50 I use “Home Point Me” to reset the home point, supposedly to the Remote Controller (i.e., my) position, which is at [36.61499,-121.69624]. But instead, the ‘home point' gets set to [36.607533,-121.724625], which was my home point of my *previous* flight - more than 1.6 miles (2.6 km) away from me! (Find My Drone also reports this as the “Aircraft Missing Coordinates”)
11:22 8:57 Without realizing what has actually happened to the home point, I do a RtH
11:49 9:24 Mavic finishes ascending, and starts moving ‘home’. In reality, it’s moving away from me, at a speed of 22 miles per hour (35 km/h)!
12:05 9:40 Confused and concerned about what’s happening, I did “Home Point Me” once again. But the home point remained unchanged; it’s still the home point of my *previous* flight; and my Mavic is still flying away from me at 22 mph!
12:17 9:52 The Mavic switches from “Go Home” mode to P-GPS mode. (I think I may have pressed the “Pause” button here; I’m not sure)
12:20 9:55 Speed drops to zero
12:29 10:04 Forward speed resumes
12:34 10:09 I get a “Weak Signal” warning
13:06 10:41 I do “Home Point Me” once again. But the home point is still wrong (but unfortunately I don’t realize this)!
13:12 10:47 I do a RtH once again (this turned out to be a fatal mistake, because I didn’t appreciate that the home point was wrong, and I’m now near the edge of transmission range)
13:15 10:50 The Mavic starts returning ‘home’ once again. But yet again, it’s moving away from me
13:21 10:56 The cached video ends
13:42 n/a I lose connectivity. The Mavic is moving away from me at 22 mph!

Comments:

• There’s unquestionably a bug in “Home Point Me”. Why did it reset the ‘home point’ to a point that was far away from the controller, and why did it choose the point that happened to be the home (starting) point for my *previous* flight?

• The RtH speed of around 22 mph (35 km/h) seems unusually large. There weren’t strong winds, and I was not in ‘sport mode’. This behavior appears similar to some ‘fly aways’ that have been reported by other people.

• Unfortunately I wasn’t able to find my Mavic. It didn’t return to what it thought was the ‘home’ point (nor to the actual ‘home’ (i.e., starting) point of this flight). I searched along the line from its last known position to its assumed ‘home’ point (and beyond, in case it ended up overshooting this point). Unfortunately it wasn’t possible to do an exhaustive search, because the area is filled with long grass, thick chaparral, large oak trees, and 'poison oak'.

The bottom line: Do not use the “Home Point Me” function until DJI fixes this bug.

(I have also posted this report to DJI’s forum, but I’m also posting it here, in case DJI ignores or deletes it.)

Be sure to log the bug in the app under Me ->DJI Support -> Bug feedback. This is a direct link to the development team.

Also, why didn't you press the pause button when you noticed it was flying away... there is also a find my drone feature if you didn't know about it.

 

[SatDoug]

Hi All...a bit of a Newbie so excuse my ignorance...
What and where is 'Home Point Me'. I never have heard of it before. Is this different than 'Return to Home'. Whenever I take off the Mavic records my home point and I confirm it on the map. I'd like to learn from this.
A comment above notes "it's a SAFE idea to go to ur map and update device home point and drone homepoint prior to take off". How would I do that as I thought the Mavic does it automatically. How and when (why) does one update the DEVICE home point (assume this is the controller) as well as DRONE home point?
Sorry if these are basic questions!
-Doug

 

[CaliChris]

Yeah sure seems like there should be logic programmed in to prevent ever setting a home point from another day or if the location is impossible, ie would never make it with available battery time etc. This should be fairly easily fixable and I don't think you can blame the pilot. Sure there may be things you could have done to save it, but the liability should be on DJI, they can't expect every pilot to be able to react properly at times of emergency. Your nerves calm with experience but when it starts flying away it's like you're a newb. Many road accidents could be prevented if the other driver is defensive and reacts correctly to an out of control car, but we would never blame them for not being able to correctly counter in an emergency situation...