Weird white screen appears repeatedly while recording videos

[yonasin]

Hi all,

I was using my new Mavic 2 Pro to capture some cityscape after sunset and its videos became somehow corrupted. The drone's camera seems to be working fine at home now. But I just wanted to figure out what caused the problem so I will never encounter again. Here's what happened.

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I was turning on my Mavic near a highway since I wanted to film the traffic. I went somewhere by the electric pole, next to the highway separated by a wall. Then it started showing something unusual on the video feed on my RC. That feed first looked like the video transmission was disconnected, like when I lost my previous drone on a bushy cliff, greyish screen with slightly bright stripes vertically. Then I started receiving the white screen repeatedly just on a frame in every dozen of frames, which appeared in the same interval faster than the Mavic's blinking green and red lights.

1. I assumed this was caused by the interference from the electric pole I was nearby. So I changed the location to a small park. Then I still get the white blink of screen continuously at an interval just as I did at the first location. The screen is not completely blank but showing some lights captured, like when you take photos with more than EV3+, with some purple outlines of a few objects. Then I found all my photos with Mavic 2 Pro were spoiled with those weird EV extra plus white screens!

2. My second guess was the micro SD cards I was using (I used two and both got the same, the first one I encountered the problem with was Sandisk Extreme Pro 64gb class 3), but after I came home, Both of them have been apparently working fine (although I've only checked the video feed on my phone connected to the RC).

3. My third guess was some sands from a beachside when I was taking videos and photos (I wiped off some visible from the legs).

4. My fourth guess was some damages during my travel when I accidentally dropped my camera bag, but this is less likely cause when I first used the drone it was just working as it should be...

5. My last guess was that since I was using a micro SD card that had been in GoPro and there were some footage from it, it somehow affected the Mavic 2 Pro's filing system.. should that be possible.

I have uploaded one of the videos on YouTube (the link above) and am wondering if anyone has encountered or can figure out what is causing this. I appreciate your insights so I can avoid this with clearer understanding.

Thanks,
Yosuke

 

[Felix le Chat]

To be honest, I think you have nailed the cause with (1). It may well be EMI (electro-magnetic interference) the pulsing is quite regular but alters in frequency as you yaw in a clockwise direction before resuming it's previous frequency (the patch antennas in the drones legs are directional). Check on Google maps and zoom in on your TOAL position(s) and then the rough line the flight took. High tension pylons and large distribution substations will cause problems, not all of them are well insulated. Also, power lines can cause significant magnetic disturbance (up to 150 feet away from the pairs) if the load pairs and return pairs aren't balanced. The smaller power lines are actually the worst for this.

Just to be sure this isn't a component issue, test fly your Mav.2 at another location to determine whether the problem still exists.

 

[HoozierDroneDaddy]

My first question was "Does he have a strobe on his drone?"