So I am on my second Mavic Pro now, and have been keeping a good record of flights and distances ect. The first one went down on a cold day with some wind - put it down to adverse conditions. The insurance covered it but rain water had destroyed the craft and we never got to the bottom of the accident.
I remember that we were getting vision system errors with it in the weeks leading up top the accident. These would only last a few seconds/minutes and would clear up of their own accord. Cleaning the sensors made no difference, but there was no visual issues with the sensors. Anyway it went awol one day shortly after takeoff and was lost in the undergrowth for days. That craft had done just over 2,000 kilometers.
so we got a replacement off the insurance and have been going fine with it for months. It is approaching the same mileage as the previous one was, and recently started getting the same error. Again it was intermittent.
So this craft then has the same issue as experienced with the first one where the controls go haywire and the craft has no stability, it is like controlling a racing drone even though the GPS was locked on. The temperature was normal and the wind was low this time.
Thankfully the craft narrowly missed a pond in it's hitting a tree and falling out of the sky hitting every branch painfully on the way down.
So we take it into a DJI accredited repair center before booting it up again.
The camera snapped a bungee and it was sitting over the metal hinge - easy enough repair. The firmware was flashed/updated and everything re calibrated. Test flight was made successfully and the craft returned.
I took it for a brief test without the app connected to see how the new quiet props sound - all good. the next time it went up connected to the app and a vision system error came up again, the craft acted drunk. Managed to land it with a bump that damaged the quiet prop (so flimsy) and took it back to the repair place.
They said that the only thing it could be is the cable that runs from the main board to the vision system and that they would change it. Everything worked fine after that and touch wood it still is.
The engineer informed me that they would usually only happen if the craft had an accident, and this model in particular has not experienced a crash in the 300 or so flights it has had.
It occurs to me that both craft we have had reached a similar number of flights and then had same issues with the vision system arise. It is initially an intermittent issue that clears up but left unchecked turn into a nightmare for stability mid air and leads to a crash.
I don't know why on Earth the vision system cable would need replacing after 250-300 fights at 5-7k's per flight, but this seems to be a pattern. Thankfully we managed to recover this craft and a new set props plus data cable later and we are in the air again. It could have been so much worse - again.
So this is a heads up folks - when you start clocking up large mileage you might start getting vision system errors on startup. They will clear within a few seconds but don't be fooled. This issue can happen mid air and send you off course with no warning. When you start getting these I suggest you get you cable replaced by a qualified mechanic.
They might say it's all fine like mine did at first because the issue is intermittent and won't be diagnosed at first, but you should insist that they change it - keep records of yer errors to show them.
I don't know why it happens, but I think DJI need to be be aware of this fault.
I have lost hundreds of pounds and a month of flight time over this issue, though it's highly unlikely that DJI will even admit that this is a thing.
At least you got a heads up now folks!
I remember that we were getting vision system errors with it in the weeks leading up top the accident. These would only last a few seconds/minutes and would clear up of their own accord. Cleaning the sensors made no difference, but there was no visual issues with the sensors. Anyway it went awol one day shortly after takeoff and was lost in the undergrowth for days. That craft had done just over 2,000 kilometers.
so we got a replacement off the insurance and have been going fine with it for months. It is approaching the same mileage as the previous one was, and recently started getting the same error. Again it was intermittent.
So this craft then has the same issue as experienced with the first one where the controls go haywire and the craft has no stability, it is like controlling a racing drone even though the GPS was locked on. The temperature was normal and the wind was low this time.
Thankfully the craft narrowly missed a pond in it's hitting a tree and falling out of the sky hitting every branch painfully on the way down.
So we take it into a DJI accredited repair center before booting it up again.
The camera snapped a bungee and it was sitting over the metal hinge - easy enough repair. The firmware was flashed/updated and everything re calibrated. Test flight was made successfully and the craft returned.
I took it for a brief test without the app connected to see how the new quiet props sound - all good. the next time it went up connected to the app and a vision system error came up again, the craft acted drunk. Managed to land it with a bump that damaged the quiet prop (so flimsy) and took it back to the repair place.
They said that the only thing it could be is the cable that runs from the main board to the vision system and that they would change it. Everything worked fine after that and touch wood it still is.
The engineer informed me that they would usually only happen if the craft had an accident, and this model in particular has not experienced a crash in the 300 or so flights it has had.
It occurs to me that both craft we have had reached a similar number of flights and then had same issues with the vision system arise. It is initially an intermittent issue that clears up but left unchecked turn into a nightmare for stability mid air and leads to a crash.
I don't know why on Earth the vision system cable would need replacing after 250-300 fights at 5-7k's per flight, but this seems to be a pattern. Thankfully we managed to recover this craft and a new set props plus data cable later and we are in the air again. It could have been so much worse - again.
So this is a heads up folks - when you start clocking up large mileage you might start getting vision system errors on startup. They will clear within a few seconds but don't be fooled. This issue can happen mid air and send you off course with no warning. When you start getting these I suggest you get you cable replaced by a qualified mechanic.
They might say it's all fine like mine did at first because the issue is intermittent and won't be diagnosed at first, but you should insist that they change it - keep records of yer errors to show them.
I don't know why it happens, but I think DJI need to be be aware of this fault.
I have lost hundreds of pounds and a month of flight time over this issue, though it's highly unlikely that DJI will even admit that this is a thing.
At least you got a heads up now folks!
