Well, it finally happened - crashed the mavic pro

[Jazz62]

Sorry ... I've never looked at a Mac computer to know how to help.
All that's needed is the right .txt file from your app.
There must be a way to find it.
Perhaps another Apple user can help?

Yep, found out how to access them, but as I said in my edit there are a lot of txt files for that flight. I didn't count, but there are definitely more than 20.

 

[Meta4]

I double-clicked one to open it and it's crazy looking...Now what?

It looks crazy if you open the file but when read with the right software it gets decrypted.
Post them all if you can't work out which one.

 

[Jazz62]

I'll be shocked if this is correct, but there it is. For some reason using the attach files button here, the folder view only showed one file with the correct date. Hope this is the right one. And much thanks in advance! I'm considering selling all the remaining sellable items from my MP Fly More combo and taking the plunge on a MA2.

 

[Meta4]

I'll be shocked if this is correct, but there it is. For some reason using the attach files button here, the folder view only showed one file with the correct date. Hope this is the right one. And much thanks in advance! I'm considering selling all the remaining sellable items from my MP Fly More combo and taking the plunge on a MA2.

Here's what that data looks like: DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com
I noticed the drone thought it was avoiding an obstacle in RTH - probably the sun.
I'll look deeper into the flight to see what story it's telling.

 

[Django18]

I

I don't know what time in the day you were flying & if the return leg was directly into the sun ... but it have been reported several times before how MP's sense the sun as an obstacle & try to climb over it ... which can explain the ascending. Then up there the wind was strong enough to stop it making headway. Once lower wind was easier & a proper speed could be maintained.

But it's just speculations ... the cause for this is most probably in the flight logs stored in the mobile device you flew with. If you want to know the reason start up by retrieve the mobile device .TXT log, read up here on how to retrieve --> Mavic Flight Log Retrieval and Analysis Guide (read under section 3.) Attach it then in a new post here.

I have a Mavic Pro Platinum - basically the original MP - and I’ve experienced that issue with the front sensors ‘detecting’ something that wasn’t there and stopping it in its tracks. I was about 100’ up and 300’ from me with nothing but wide open expanse an no objects around, yet coming back home it stopped abruptly with the controller beeping like crazy and the proximity lines flashing away indicating an obstruction! I tried to fly back a few times and almost immediately I had this problem each time. I had to disable the sensors and then it was fine. This was at dusk with a low sun so that may have confused it. I always fly with sensors off now and have never had a problem since.

 

[skunky1]

Welcome to the forum and very sorry for your accident. It’s always devastating to hear.

This opening post “reassuringly” proves that on any forum one hears of negative outcomes and one thinks that’s the norm but most people hardly join forums when everything is going well so there is always a disproportionately high negativity in forums overall be it drone or cars or appliances etc

 

[Meta4]

Hope this is the right one.

5:01.6 - Downlink lost briefly
5:-5.6 - weak signal
5:14 - RTH initiated
5:16.3 - Braking to avoid obstacle 4 times
This message came on when the drone was facing 297°
The drone stops and hovers
5:23.6 the drone starts to move but is stopped again by Braking to avoid obstacle 2 times
5:30.8 Braking to avoid obstacle 6 times & Backing up to avoid to avoid obstacle 30 times
5:42.1 Braking to avoid obstacle 2 times & Backing up to avoid to avoid obstacle 19 times
etc, etc

At 8:41.2 you cancelled the stalled RTH and sat in the driver's seat
You started flying backwards with the drone still facing 297°
8:53.8 Initiated RTH and it started bringing up the same messages about braking and backing up
And the drone goes nowhere in RTH
9:46 RTH cancelled and you manually fly at 297° with only slow speed with full joystick.
11:11.3 Critically Low Power warning, drone begins to autoland
The drone is still facing toward 297°
You fought the autolanding and brought the drone back to 250 feet from home, where it has crashed into/onto something at 12:22.9 and then fallen a further 10 ft before the end of data.

The whole issue was obstacle avoidance refusing to fly toward what it identified as an obstacle at 297°.
This was almost certainly a low, bright sun.
If you had disabled OA or manually flown at another angle rather than straight back, you would have had no problem.

 

[boblui]

It did however do something I just can't explain. While hovering with communication loss and no stick input from me it started rising in altitude, topping out at approximately 430 ft!

The RTH height was set to 50m but the drone ascended beyond that because it was convinced that there were obstacles at the front. From the user manual of MP :



It stopped ascending at 430 ft because the altitude limit of flying zone was reached. As the result, it got stuck there.

At some point connection was re-established and I tried desperately to get it home, but even with full stick it's speed was very slow 2-5 mph.

Because the drone still thought that there were obstacles in front of it.

At almost the same moment I got the 'Critically Low Power/Aircraft Landing" warning, full forward speed returned. Again I tried desperately to get her home. In the panic that ensued and the drone trying unsuccessfully to land itself I inadvertently gave it full forward stick and it crashed into a tree .....

All obstacle avoidance was on so I'm not sure why it flew into the very large tree....

As soon as the craft entered the autolanding mode, the craft speeded forward as commanded by stick inputs. Apparently obstacle avoidance is automatically turned off in the autolanding mode. I believe that's why it did not avoid the tree.

there was more than enough battery power for me to manually land safely, but in my panic just couldn't put it together in my head.

Throughout the autolanding process the craft responded to stick inputs well. You should have held the throttle stick at at ~80% up position to prevent it from auto-descending and then flown it back to the home point. From the user instruction :


However what happened was that the throttle stick was released every now and then so the height kept decreasing to the point where it was too low.

I'm wondering about the magnetic interference from it causing the conditions that lead to the crash.

Magnetic interference has nothing to do with it.

 

[AMRE2ME2]

I think if you had changed your heading, flown out a fair distance then turned back to your home point, it may have been enough to get away from the sun that was being interpreted as an object In the way.

 

[yooper]

I crashed my phantom 4pro and it was totaled
I sent it in to DJI to get a quote on fixing it although I new it was to far gone. Body, landing gear and camera completely destroyed. They sent me a quote of 350.00. I was surprised with that so gave them the go ahead. They sent me a brand new phantom 4pro, not a refurbished. So that is the way I would go.

 

[Steel63]

Sorry for you're loss greetings from ?florida

 

[peterc4]

I got 4 years mate as said above it is not if but when, i got a drone only of DJI in april this year with 30% off worth a try contacting them. Good Luck

 

[Ukung]

Bought my Mavic Pro Fly More Combo in 2017. I'm an older person, but felt the technology had come to a point where I could enjoy it without too much fear of losing my investment in a crash. That held true for three years until two days ago and I'm completely stumped about what happened.

Took off from my backyard as I have many many times in the year we've been in our current house. Flew around capturing a sweeping view of Commencement Bay and then completely lost connection with the drone. It was 1800 ft away from home point and altitude was approximately 300 ft when the loss of communication occurred. I did receive "weak signal/adjust antenna" warning. Technically too far to actually see it, but there were zero obstructions from my point to the drone. I initiated a RTH and app showed confirmation of this, but drone didn't move. It did however do something I just can't explain. While hovering with communication loss and no stick input from me it started rising in altitude, topping out at approximately 430 ft! Sometime during this I recieved a "command time out" warning in addition to the "weak signal and strong interference" warnings, of which there were many . Throughout this episode of altitude increase the drone did respond to stick input intermittently to decrease altitude, but it was fleeting only to exhibit the rise in altitude again. I initiated RTH, app showed confirmation but again with no luck. At some point connection was re-established and I tried desperately to get it home, but even with full stick it's speed was very slow 2-5 mph. At almost the same moment I got the 'Critically Low Power/Aircraft Landing" warning, full forward speed returned. Again I tried desperately to get her home. In the panic that ensued and the drone trying unsuccessfully to land itself I inadvertently gave it full forward stick and it crashed into a tree, fell about 50' to a sidewalk and I'm pretty sure is a total loss. All obstacle avoidance was on so I'm not sure why it flew into the very large tree. The most frustrating thing is, there was more than enough battery power for me to manually land safely, but in my panic just couldn't put it together in my head. Was also confused by the app showing the drone should be right above the home point, but it was actually about 100 ft away from it. I'm hearing impaired so was not able to hear it so close by.

Later that evening a possible explanation for this episode came to mind. That was one of the nights that the aurora borealis was at it's peak even long before sunset and I'm wondering about the magnetic interference from it causing the conditions that lead to the crash. It's the only thing I can imagine, but don't know enough about the subject.

Finally - is it possible to buy a new or refurbished Mavic Pro and keep my current controller or can they not be linked properly.

Thanks for reading!

Not much info and discussion on solar storms, but one hit earth around 28 / 29 strength apparently at G2 I have no knowledge how it influences the frequencies the drone is working with.

 

[DanMan32]

I crashed my phantom 4pro and it was totaled
I sent it in to DJI to get a quote on fixing it although I new it was to far gone. Body, landing gear and camera completely destroyed. They sent me a quote of 350.00. I was surprised with that so gave them the go ahead. They sent me a brand new phantom 4pro, not a refurbished. So that is the way I would go.

I've had two of my drones sent to DJI, and I too was surprised with how low the quote was.
P3A hit wire and tumbled onto cement driveway at 10ft. Gimbal smashed, broken legs/compass wire, distorted body. I think that cost $200 or so. Said gimbal repair but clearly they replaced it. It was just after Christmas so maybe they took pity on me.

M2Z accidentally backed over it with my car. Broken arm/leg, some body distortion. Gimbal OK.
Repair quote $230 I think but covered under refresh for $130.

 

[dirkclod]

Not much info and discussion on solar storms, but one hit earth around 28 / 29 strength apparently at G2 I have no knowledge how it influences the frequencies the drone is working with.

Yes if you search there are several on them and have flew during them just to see if it had any affect but it didn't. Maybe if your location is close to where it is the strongest it might but i've never seen it affect anything.

 

[Jazz62]

I will reply more fully this evening when this 10 month old Boxer/Doberman girl is hopefully taking a nap, but firstly just want to thank everyone for their kindness and labor in helping me investigate this crash. Your efforts are not wasted as I am fascinated by everything despite the $ hardship of the crash.

I can provide exact times for the many weak signal, strong interference etc warnings, but having viewed the flight record in the app several times now to confirm, there was not a single obstacle avoidance warning in the entire flight except for the very first one at take-off which was expected as there's a patio table near the take-off location.

 

[slup]

I will reply more fully this evening when this 10 month old Boxer/Doberman girl is hopefully taking a nap, but firstly just want to thank everyone for their kindness and labor in helping me investigate this crash. Your efforts are not wasted as I am fascinated by everything despite the $ hardship of the crash.

I can provide exact times for the many weak signal, strong interference etc warnings, but having viewed the flight record in the app several times now to confirm, there was not a single obstacle avoidance warning in the entire flight except for the very first one at take-off which was expected as there's a patio table near the take-off location.

That you didn't see anything about the obstacle avoidance during the RTH phase ... but you did, in the beginning of your flight is due to that these 2 data is different.

That one you saw is belonging to app data & are shown on your screen ...



But those during the RTH phase belongs to the data group OSD.gohomestatus ... & these are not shown on your screen, but they are in the flight log. Here below you see the braking & the bypassing where the MP tries to ascend over.

 

[Dr. Bill 1969]

Bought my Mavic Pro Fly More Combo in 2017. I'm an older person, but felt the technology had come to a point where I could enjoy it without too much fear of losing my investment in a crash. That held true for three years until two days ago and I'm completely stumped about what happened.

Took off from my backyard as I have many many times in the year we've been in our current house. Flew around capturing a sweeping view of Commencement Bay and then completely lost connection with the drone. It was 1800 ft away from home point and altitude was approximately 300 ft when the loss of communication occurred. I did receive "weak signal/adjust antenna" warning. Technically too far to actually see it, but there were zero obstructions from my point to the drone. I initiated a RTH and app showed confirmation of this, but drone didn't move. It did however do something I just can't explain. While hovering with communication loss and no stick input from me it started rising in altitude, topping out at approximately 430 ft! Sometime during this I recieved a "command time out" warning in addition to the "weak signal and strong interference" warnings, of which there were many . Throughout this episode of altitude increase the drone did respond to stick input intermittently to decrease altitude, but it was fleeting only to exhibit the rise in altitude again. I initiated RTH, app showed confirmation but again with no luck. At some point connection was re-established and I tried desperately to get it home, but even with full stick it's speed was very slow 2-5 mph. At almost the same moment I got the 'Critically Low Power/Aircraft Landing" warning, full forward speed returned. Again I tried desperately to get her home. In the panic that ensued and the drone trying unsuccessfully to land itself I inadvertently gave it full forward stick and it crashed into a tree, fell about 50' to a sidewalk and I'm pretty sure is a total loss. All obstacle avoidance was on so I'm not sure why it flew into the very large tree. The most frustrating thing is, there was more than enough battery power for me to manually land safely, but in my panic just couldn't put it together in my head. Was also confused by the app showing the drone should be right above the home point, but it was actually about 100 ft away from it. I'm hearing impaired so was not able to hear it so close by.

Later that evening a possible explanation for this episode came to mind. That was one of the nights that the aurora borealis was at it's peak even long before sunset and I'm wondering about the magnetic interference from it causing the conditions that lead to the crash. It's the only thing I can imagine, but don't know enough about the subject.

Finally - is it possible to buy a new or refurbished Mavic Pro and keep my current controller or can they not be linked properly.

Thanks for reading!

The aurora borealis(Northern Lights) can wreak havoc with RF transmissions especially GPS signals. As an avid amateur radio operator of over 50 years I can testify to that. For further explanation of the hows and whys see:What causes the aurora borealis? | EarthSky.org

 

[Jazz62]

The aurora borealis(Northern Lights) can wreak havoc with RF transmissions especially GPS signals. As an avid amateur radio operator of over 50 years I can testify to that. For further explanation of the hows and whys see:What causes the aurora borealis? | EarthSky.org

Just a quick check in on this thread and yes, a friend who has been a licensed amateur radio operator for many years confirmed this just an hour ago. I've flown in this very specific area over 30 times in the last year and have never ever had weak signal warnings, strong interference warnings or command timeouts. There's got to be a connection to the aurora which was so noteworthy in western WA for those couple of days that it was all over the local news.

 

[Meta4]

Not much info and discussion on solar storms, but one hit earth around 28 / 29 strength apparently at G2 I have no knowledge how it influences the frequencies the drone is working with.

The aurora borealis(Northern Lights) can wreak havoc with RF transmissions especially GPS signals. As an avid amateur radio operator of over 50 years I can testify to that.

Solar storms have virtually no effect on GPS or drone control frequencies.
There has never been a drone flight incident that could be attributed to solar activity.

The effect on GPS accuracy in a serious solar event is to cause inaccuracy of up to one metre.
Considering that the variable inaccuracy that is normal in GPS is more than that, you wouldn't even notice it.
This paper explains in detail: Assessing the Performance of GPS Precise Point Positioning Under Different Geomagnetic Storm Conditions during Solar Cycle 24