Weird Outing with some questions.

[imnotreallyscott]

Tonight I took my Mavic out to catch the sunset over the beach and a couple of strange things happened. I'd love some clarity if anyone could offer and ideas.

1. I was taking video and everything was clear and perfect. Autofocus was on and working well. I was using cinematic mode for some nice footage. At one point I stopped moving and switched to camera mode in an attempt to take some pics of the sunrise. The camera never again regained focus. It simply would not focus on anything. I clicked and clicked...nothing. Eventually I gave up and switched back to video mode. No dice. Still wouldn't focus. I hit RTH and called it a night without ever having regained focus.

2. The drone did its job and came back to the area it took off from. But, as I'm bragging to a friend how precise the RTH is, it ends up hovering over our shed for a bit before sending the message "Not suitable for landing." For the first time ever it didn't come back to the precise spot. It was off by about 12-15 feet. Does ambient light play a role? Why would it be so off?

Some notes: I did lose RC at one point for approximately a second. I flew low apparently signal was lost. I held the stick up and within a second the drone was climbing and the signal was back.


3. I just thought of this: are the two issues potentially related?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

 

[Tim32581]

Mine did the same thing tonight. I also noticed that the LEDs weren't working. Hoping it was just from low light. Gonna be nervous about it until I can fly again, hopefully in the morning.

 

[Cerberus]

If I read right, you were taking the vids and pics at sunset..

I believe it has gotten to the point where light is too dim for all the positioning cameras to work right, including your autofocus.

as to the RTH, again, low light might make it unable to see clearly the spot from where you took off..

but the thing with RTH is, it is never 100% even in the best of bright days.. so just have to take a pinch of salt to its landing precision.

 

[Tim32581]

I should add that I brought mine into my bright kitchen and could not get the camera to focus. I'll try with natural light tomorrow. I'm a little worried because in the past I've never had this issue.

 

[Slayerstwin]

You 100% sure you are not on manual focus?

 

[Cerberus]

I should add that I brought mine into my bright kitchen and could not get the camera to focus. I'll try with natural light tomorrow. I'm a little worried because in the past I've never had this issue.

Don't worry too much over it... just try it out the next day and look over your camera settings, I'm sure you will find the culprit soon enough and you'll have a good laugh over it

 

[Pathogen]

My Mavic lost the ability to focus entirely once. I expect it was because it got itself stuck in macro focus from taking off of a platform I made from some scrap wood. That's my theory because the very beginning of the video, it is perfectly focused on the wood a few inches away from the lens.

 

[charliesRig]

I had a flyaway after startup/warm up yawl went away drifted into an apple tree @ 15-20 ft
for some impromptu pruning
turned mavic around to 9 oclock and drove it out of the apple tree went to land and yawl came back.?
tried just hovering @ 20 ft Mavic would not settle down while hovering it made 1 ft curcles

powered down Mavic controller and tablet changed Mavic battery and flew again no issues.?
I don't trust Mavic anymore
.
Why Mavic Why do you have to be so sketchy.??
.
.

 

[Tim32581]

So after trying a complete reset of the entire device my focus seems to be working again. Tomorrow I'll readjust all of my settings and trims and give it a try. Feeling pretty good about it now.

 

[imnotreallyscott]

You 100% sure you are not on manual focus?

I don't know how to turn that on or use it yet. So I'm guessing no, it wasn't on. But that's on my list of things to figure out.

 

[imnotreallyscott]

My Mavic lost the ability to focus entirely once. I expect it was because it got itself stuck in macro focus from taking off of a platform I made from some scrap wood. That's my theory because the very beginning of the video, it is perfectly focused on the wood a few inches away from the lens.

What is Macro focus? Is it a setting or something I may have accidentally hit?

 

[Pathogen]

What is Macro focus? Is it a setting or something I may have accidentally hit?

Macro focus is just focus on things VERY close to the lens.. My camcorder stops being able to auto focus if I enter into macro focus area, for example.

 

[rydfree]

Camera focus or precision landing does not work well in low light . My mavic will return to the exact spot almost to the mm for most flights but the closer I fly to the hour near sunset it will be off or give the Not suitable for landing message as you received . The cameras just can not see well enough .

 

[imnotreallyscott]

Camera focus or precision landing does not work well in low light . My mavic will return to the exact spot almost to the mm for most flights but the closer I fly to the hour near sunset it will be off or give the Not suitable for landing message as you received . The cameras just can not see well enough .

So then I guess I really need to figure out manual focus if I want to do more in the future. What's weird is that it was fine until I switched. And then it just never came back.

 

[imcoryw]

Mine has had this issue before. Just taped around and yelled at it and it started working somehow again. Must be a button i hit by accident.

 

[2nckayakers]

One thing no one has mentioned or asked is if you were using iOS or Android. I use Android and I have had the issue where mine wouldn't focus either. I set my C2 button to center focus just because I don't like tapping the screen and sometimes it quits working (regardless of sun) and I can tap the screen and it doesn't work as well. BUT I can shut down GO4 (yes in flight) and restart it and both the C2 button and the tap screen works again. I find I have fewer problems if I put my phone into airplane mode and make sure the cashe is cleared out before going on a flight. But my problem may not be yours.

 

[Kilrah]

Ambient light, and ambient light.

For the focus it's possible it's something like what I sometimes have, I have the camera set to manual exposure from a previous flight, it won't focus (or at least not downlinking a sharp image - it could be that it's actually focused, but the preview is messed up). I need to switch to auto, focus, then back in manual.

 

[imnotreallyscott]

One thing no one has mentioned or asked is if you were using iOS or Android.

I use iOS, iPhone 6s Plus.

I've never tried shutting down the app mid-flight. The idea scares the bejeezus out of me. But if this happens again, perhaps I'll try it. I was 150 feet up and 2,000 feet away...so perhaps not the best test situation for me.

 

[Pathogen]

I use iOS, iPhone 6s Plus.

I've never tried shutting down the app mid-flight. The idea scares the bejeezus out of me. But if this happens again, perhaps I'll try it. I was 150 feet up and 2,000 feet away...so perhaps not the best test situation for me.

The app is not to be relied on. The remote control display is. It is routine on my crappy phone for the app to claim 'LOST CONNECTION', but a quick look at the remote control screen shows the connection is perfect, and I still have perfect control of the craft.