Strange braking behavior

[calmar81]

I’m sorry for opening a new thread on this.

I noticed a strange braking behavior on my first Mavic 3 and sent it back. DJI has agreed to an exchange and said the problem could be related to loose rear arms / joints.
I received my new / exchanged Fly More package. Did a quick test flight and what should I say... it's behaving exactly the same. So please, fellow M3 pilots... could you please answer this questions or check during your next flight:

When you fly straight forward without ascending or descending and let the control stick center immediately... the drone stops / brakes in one backward pitch movement. So far so good...

But maybe you could check on your drones: When you increase and decrease throttle slowly ... does your drone slow down in a controlled one-pitch-movement or does it somehow "wiggle" back and forth and perform mulitple (I count 3) braking pitches when you throttle down to zero?

The same is the case, when flying forward and performing a slow turn / yaw. It brakes by design (APAS 5.0), that is clear. But also there it performs small pitch movements, what looks even stranger or wilder because of the additional turn. Is that normal?

I mean, I try to like this new drone... and I have no problem with keeping it and waiting for the firmware updates, if someone says, this is the normal state of the flying behavior...

But when someone watches my drone flying and thinks "oh... a complete newbie rocking the sticks on the controller like crazy". I mean, I know better ... The opposite is the case. It behaves that way when I'm really gentle on the sticks.

Maybe someone could confirm my observation as "normal" or not. just can't imagine receiving two faulty ACs.

Here’s a link to 2 short videoclips (one is really blurry, sorry… had my eyes on the drone): https://bmnouci-my.sharepoint.com/:...ZAhmw75aBKsHEBPr2H4McTJNHcFSkAf8ZrRQ?e=MLPWXo

 

[Phantomrain.org]

That wiggle is on mine also, but I think its inherent to the new weight shift of the drone being somewhat top heavy and not as balanced as the other DJI drones.

If you ramp up to sport mode and come to a halt , you will not see the wiggle but little shifts like that , it does become evident , but not really a negative in anyway to the drone itself.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your Mavic 3 In the Rain and Land on the Water.

 

[Arnold LeVine]

Is it possibly an attempt to "dampen" the speed of the stop? Have you made any adjustments to the EXP or sensitivity settings?

 

[calmar81]

That wiggle is on mine also, but I think its inherent to the new weight shift of the drone being somewhat top heavy and not as balanced as the other DJI drones.

If you ramp up to sport mode and come to a halt , you will not see the wiggle but little shifts like that , it does become evident , but not really a negative in anyway to the drone itself.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your Mavic 3 In the Rain and Land on the Water.

Thank you for your reply!

I think the weight shift is not so pronounced because the battery, being the heaviest single part, sitting lower?

I tried sport mode, cine and normal ... when moving slowly, there are 3 wiggles or small shifts... no matter how slow I'm trying to move the sticks. I think the behavior is even more visible when moving the stick as slow as possible.

 

[calmar81]

Is it possibly an attempt to "dampen" the speed of the stop? Have you made any adjustments to the EXP or sensitivity settings?

Thanks for you reply!

I also tried that... in the standard adjustments, the curves are very flat when nearing their zero point. When I try to perform very slight movements on the right stick, the behavior seems to be more visible... no matter how sensivity is configured in the controls EXP menu.

To me, the problem seems to be sensor- and / or APAS related... I don't know ... as if the sensors "see" something and the drone does multiple small braking maneuvers. Maybe there's a way to see from the telemetry .DAT / .TXT, what APAS does or where the small pitch movements come from?

But the pitches / braking attempts the drone does, seem somewhat "undampened" or overexaggerated / too fine? So maybe you're right but the speed of stop comes from the APAS or some kind of software instead of the control stick?

 

[calmar81]

I had an online chat with DJI support last week and provided them a description and videos of this strange flight or braking behavior. I just got a reply that they forwarded my data to the engineering team. I hope they get back to me with some update or even better: hopefully they will include our observations in the further development of the firmware updates.

As soon as I hear something I will report here, for those who follow.

 

[Point Zero]

I had an online chat with DJI support last week and provided them a description and videos of this strange flight or braking behavior. I just got a reply that they forwarded my data to the engineering team. I hope they get back to me with some update or even better: hopefully they will include our observations in the further development of the firmware updates.

As soon as I hear something I will report here, for those who follow.

That's good news. Hopefully it is not the desired behaviour. I am by no means an expert in drone mechanics and physics but isn't this a waste of energy? If you want to break then doing so in one single manoeuvre rather than several is the best possible solution. Just like the Mavic 2 does. The wiggling doesn't look good for a 2022 drone.

 

[calmar81]

I got feedback from DJI, that this is not the desired flight behaviour and they asked me to send in the flight log from the aircraft for analysis – what I did today morning.

However, after I installed FW .0400 a couple of hours ago, my drone seems to be a new aircraft ... flight characteristics feel much more balanced and smooth ... I still have a pronounced pitch movement when braking slowly but just 1 pitch instead of 3 small movements.

When flying forward and beginning to turn, the APAS brake is also more balanced and not so exaggerated. There were no shakes or movements I didn't expect with my stick commands.

So my first quick testflight with .0400 (and my first with the RC Pro, flown RC-N1 before) was kind of the maiden flight I hoped for with the M3 from the beginning and reminded me of the rock solid flight behavior of my good old M2P. I hope that I can confirm the observations in the next few flights and I am already looking forward to it.

In the meantime, I am quite satisfied with the results of the new firmware and very confident that DJI can make this drone something very special with software updates.

 

[Point Zero]

I got feedback from DJI, that this is not the desired flight behaviour and they asked me to send in the flight log from the aircraft for analysis – what I did today morning.

However, after I installed FW .0400 a couple of hours ago, my drone seems to be a new aircraft ... flight characteristics feel much more balanced and smooth ... I still have a pronounced pitch movement when braking slowly but just 1 pitch instead of 3 small movements.

When flying forward and beginning to turn, the APAS brake is also more balanced and not so exaggerated. There were no shakes or movements I didn't expect with my stick commands.

So my first quick testflight with .0400 (and my first with the RC Pro, flown RC-N1 before) was kind of the maiden flight I hoped for with the M3 from the beginning and reminded me of the rock solid flight behavior of my good old M2P. I hope that I can confirm the observations in the next few flights and I am already looking forward to it.

In the meantime, I am quite satisfied with the results of the new firmware and very confident that DJI can make this drone something very special with software updates.

That's very promising news. Thanks for sharing

 

[ftcros]

I’m sorry for opening a new thread on this.

I noticed a strange braking behavior on my first Mavic 3 and sent it back. DJI has agreed to an exchange and said the problem could be related to loose rear arms / joints.
I received my new / exchanged Fly More package. Did a quick test flight and what should I say... it's behaving exactly the same. So please, fellow M3 pilots... could you please answer this questions or check during your next flight:

When you fly straight forward without ascending or descending and let the control stick center immediately... the drone stops / brakes in one backward pitch movement. So far so good...

But maybe you could check on your drones: When you increase and decrease throttle slowly ... does your drone slow down in a controlled one-pitch-movement or does it somehow "wiggle" back and forth and perform mulitple (I count 3) braking pitches when you throttle down to zero?

The same is the case, when flying forward and performing a slow turn / yaw. It brakes by design (APAS 5.0), that is clear. But also there it performs small pitch movements, what looks even stranger or wilder because of the additional turn. Is that normal?

I mean, I try to like this new drone... and I have no problem with keeping it and waiting for the firmware updates, if someone says, this is the normal state of the flying behavior...

But when someone watches my drone flying and thinks "oh... a complete newbie rocking the sticks on the controller like crazy". I mean, I know better ... The opposite is the case. It behaves that way when I'm really gentle on the sticks.

Maybe someone could confirm my observation as "normal" or not. just can't imagine receiving two faulty ACs.

Here’s a link to 2 short videoclips (one is really blurry, sorry… had my eyes on the drone): https://bmnouci-my.sharepoint.com/:...ZAhmw75aBKsHEBPr2H4McTJNHcFSkAf8ZrRQ?e=MLPWXo

How close to trees, buildings, large objects are you. Sounds like the sensors are picking up nearby obstacles it needs to avoid. I have that rocking phenomenon when landing and taking off.

 

[calmar81]

Thanks for you answer! In some situations I had around 10 m clearance to all sides (especially ground) to be able to see and record it with my iPhone for DJI Support. But in higher altitudes, where no obstacle could be detected (80 m altitude and nothing in its way) the drone behaved the same.

Like I said before, the flight behavior got better with the new firmware, nonetheless DJI asked me to send them the flight data from the testflight after the firmware upgrade, too.

Still waiting for them to get back to me.

 

[polywogfpv]

I’m sorry for opening a new thread on this.

I noticed a strange braking behavior on my first Mavic 3 and sent it back. DJI has agreed to an exchange and said the problem could be related to loose rear arms / joints.
I received my new / exchanged Fly More package. Did a quick test flight and what should I say... it's behaving exactly the same. So please, fellow M3 pilots... could you please answer this questions or check during your next flight:

When you fly straight forward without ascending or descending and let the control stick center immediately... the drone stops / brakes in one backward pitch movement. So far so good...

But maybe you could check on your drones: When you increase and decrease throttle slowly ... does your drone slow down in a controlled one-pitch-movement or does it somehow "wiggle" back and forth and perform mulitple (I count 3) braking pitches when you throttle down to zero?

The same is the case, when flying forward and performing a slow turn / yaw. It brakes by design (APAS 5.0), that is clear. But also there it performs small pitch movements, what looks even stranger or wilder because of the additional turn. Is that normal?

I mean, I try to like this new drone... and I have no problem with keeping it and waiting for the firmware updates, if someone says, this is the normal state of the flying behavior...

But when someone watches my drone flying and thinks "oh... a complete newbie rocking the sticks on the controller like crazy". I mean, I know better ... The opposite is the case. It behaves that way when I'm really gentle on the sticks.

Maybe someone could confirm my observation as "normal" or not. just can't imagine receiving two faulty ACs.

Here’s a link to 2 short videoclips (one is really blurry, sorry… had my eyes on the drone): https://bmnouci-my.sharepoint.com/:...ZAhmw75aBKsHEBPr2H4McTJNHcFSkAf8ZrRQ?e=MLPWXo

That's normal, just enjoy and fly!!!!

 

[Dynamic Learning Machine]

Switch the obstacle avoidance from APAS to brake if you haven’t tried it. Much smoother but I think Firmware with fine tuning will correct it.
I’m being patient.
I have a two M3’s. A Cine premium combo & M3 with fly more combo & stand alone RC Pro controller.
I love the M3.

 

[mrprawn]

I'm on the second mavic 3 cine replacement. The first one had an esc fail on take-off and tweaky flight characteristics. The second unit has rc disconnect issues and tweaky flight.
For the rc pro disconnect I turned off cache recording. It has one disconnect just after take-off but is solid for the rest of the flight.
As for the tweaky flight I have tested the drone to the best of my ability.
The only thing I can pinpoint to be the issue is the downward sensors. Every time I fly slow over anything that's slightly complex for the sensors it has hiccups. Like water, fences, shrubs.
You don't need to be close for this to happen either.
It is the worst over the water.
The drone completely lost stability one day over water and almost put itself in a vortex.