Weird issues with new dji air 3s?

[gleavitt513]

Weird issues with new dji air 3s?

Having some weird issues with my brand new dji air3s. Have only owned it for a few weeks, bought it new.
Within my last two flights however, I've had this recurring issue of what I call "power cycling". It seems at random, the remote begins to rapidly disconnect and reconnect power with my phone, like someone rapidly unplugging and replugging my device.
Once this happens, it either returns to home, or it randomly reconnects.
I also own two other dji drones, and neither have this issue.
At first I thought it was a faulty usb-c cord, so I swapped it out and tried again. Same issue. I have no idea what causes it, or what triggers it, as it's only happened a few times, but not consistently. I have the frequency set to dual band, so my best guess is its a single frequency issue when it switches frequencies?? But if so, why would that cause it to "power cycle"?

The other issue I have, is with the smart rth. When returning to home, it ascends into the sky hundreds of feet above its preset rth altitude, at random. I thought maybe it was the obstacle avoidance sensors, but turning them off doesn't seem to help either. The smart path just randomly arches up into the sky before leveling out again, and then arching up again. Does the smart rth not work at night or something? I'm still very new to this drone, (having upgraded from an air 2 and mini 3) so maybe there's settings I'm not aware about? Let me know what yall think.
Any help is appreciated.

Attached is a screen recording showcasing both issues.lv_0_20260117000638.mp4

 

[AeroJ]

Sorry to hear that - both of those issues quite concerning, not to mention flight disturbing ! Very difficult to trust a drone that is sporadically doing that sort of thing...

I would get the logs off the drone initially, and see if they offer additional clues about what is going wrong. You could try sending those to DJI (don't know how far that will get you given the current situation) or posting them here where experts can take a look and hopefully advise.

Like you I suspect vision sensors somehow responsible for the uncommanded rise problems, but, from what I surmise you can at least avoid so far by not using RTH and piloting it back home yourself ? If so that would seem the minimum you'd have to do if you wanted to continue trying to fly it at night, but if you keep losing control signal as well then that would pretty much ground that aircraft for me until you are much more certain about the cause and can conduct safe, short-range daytime tests.

It might be altogether safer and quicker to try and get a swap-out or refund from the place you bought it.