Why did it fly away?

[Drekker]

Only by miracle did I keep my drone.

Why, when the drone is 50m straight up, in open fields, no interference, in Opti mode, with 15 satellites connected, home point found and set, would the drone suddenly:

1) Show a message I can't word exactly, "Satellite information can't be interpreted"

2) Lost connection with the controller.

3) Fly away full speed to the west. (it was above its home point.)

I just don't trust this drone. Is there any advice on how to determine what went wrong?

(I ran West, and after maybe 15m, got a faint signal, with a false location on my smartphone as to where it was. It said it was trying to land, but couldn't. No controls were responding. 5 more minutes and a wild car ride west, I got control, flew up, figured out by image which way was east, and eventually landed in a field I thought i recognized.)

 

[Anthony]

If the mavic was in OPTI mode at 50 meters and outside then something was Very wrong and you should not have taken off.

The mavic sensors on have a max range of 13 meeters but do requre good lighting conditions your home point will only work if the drone is in GPS mode

Can you upload your .txt file so we can have a look ?

 

[Drekker]

Only by miracle did I keep my drone.

Why, when the drone is 50m straight up, in open fields, no interference, in Opti mode, with 15 satellites connected, home point found and set, would the drone suddenly:

1) Show a message I can't word exactly, "Satellite information can't be interpreted"

2) Lost connection with the controller.

3) Fly away full speed to the west. (it was above its home point.)

I just don't trust this drone. Is there any advice on how to determine what went wrong?

(I ran West, and after maybe 15m, got a faint signal, with a false location on my smartphone as to where it was. It said it was trying to land, but couldn't. No controls were responding. 5 more minutes and a wild car ride west, I got control, flew up, figured out by image which way was east, and eventually landed in a field I thought i recognized.)

(not sure if it said GPS or OPTI, going from memory)

 

[halley]

The controller will say READY TO GO long before you should really feel comfortable going anywhere. Don't rush it.

As the Mavic becomes AWARE of various GPS satellites, the number of satellites is updated on your controller and app. This is not a GPS lock. Wait for the GPS mode indication. When the number goes over 8 satellites, AND they have fully informed the Mavic of their ephemeris (orbital characteristics used to calculate position), the Mavic will decide to move from ATTI or OPTI mode to GPS mode. I have definitely seen 15 satellites on the display but still in OPTI mode for a few more seconds.

Once you have a solid lock on 10 satellites or more, AND it has been in GPS mode for ten seconds or so, AND nobody is within rotor area, start your motors. Take off in a straight line at medium speed until you are over 10 meters (32 feet) above your takeoff point. This lets the Mavic memorize what the home location looks like in detail, so it can support a precision landing later. Check your camera focus and exposure. Only after all of these steps should you wander away from the home position in flight.

 

[Drekker]

I can see the flight logs on the app, but how do I share or find the txt file? Sorry for newbie questions.

 

[Drekker]

The controller will say READY TO GO long before you should really feel comfortable going anywhere. Don't rush it.

As the Mavic becomes AWARE of various GPS satellites, the number of satellites is updated on your controller and app. This is not a GPS lock. Wait for the GPS mode indication. When the number goes over 8 satellites, AND they have fully informed the Mavic of their ephemeris (orbital characteristics used to calculate position), the Mavic will decide to move from ATTI or OPTI mode to GPS mode. I have definitely seen 15 satellites on the display but still in OPTI mode for a few more seconds.

Once you have a solid lock on 10 satellites or more, AND it has been in GPS mode for ten seconds or so, AND nobody is within rotor area, start your motors. Take off in a straight line at medium speed until you are over 10 meters (32 feet) above your takeoff point. This lets the Mavic memorize what the home location looks like in detail, so it can support a precision landing later. Check your camera focus and exposure. Only after all of these steps should you wander away from the home position in flight.

Thanks for the tips. i felt I waited and had many satallites visible, but as you say, lock is different. Not sure why the controller would lose all control 50m away though?

 

[Drekker]

Might be this one? What 26 things did I do wrong, other than guessing it went West, when it went North? ;
0

 

[Fido]

Live and learn - glad you still got the drone!

Does seem that in these stories 95 percent of the time it's user error.....

 

[rockydog]

Which app are you using..DJI GO or GO4? There have been similar reports from people using the latest version of the GO app on Android devices.

 

[rustydiver]

I'm still waiting for mine to turn up. I'm starting to get nervous now reading about the fly aways.
But I'm learning from reading about them.
My last hex I had a flyaway luckily it flew in a downward momentum and crashed at the other end off the field but that was a f550 with a frsky trans.

 

[Drekker]

I am using go 4 on Android.

Maybe I made a mistake somewhere on my flight mode (not sure I did), but there is no reason the controller should disconnect with the drone close and in line of sight. Sure, at that point it went nuts on where it was and flew off randomly.

 

[msinger]

Here's the log if anyone wants to check it out:
https://www.phantomhelp.com/logviewer/4S5H1LD3Z4Z70BXTL0ML

 

[msinger]

The start of your flight log shows the following:

1m 3.4s: Switched to ATTI mode
1m 4.6s: Started drifting away with the wind
3m 28.9s: Video downlink dropped

After that point, your Mavic was in "Auto Landing" mode for most of the flight. There are also large periods of time where it appears your remote controller was completely disconnected from your Mavic.

Do you recall if you had the "Main Controller Settings" --> "Advanced Settings" --> "Remote Controller Signal Lost" setting set to "Hover"? If not, I'm not sure why your Mavic was hovering in place when it was supposed to be landing.

 

[Former Member]

Stupid question, but did you remember to extend your antennae?

 

[JTS]

 

[JTS]

Yellow line is normal flight
Gray line is ATTI after it dropped GPS at 1:03 (with 15 satellites)
Blue line is automatic landing
Cyan line is you running around
Black line is Shadow

 

[Hans75]

In 9:06:42.025 springs the parameter ODS.gpsLevel suddenly from 5 to 1 by a scale from 1 to 5.
The number of sattelites stays here. I don´t know the reason, but we had it here already.

 

[JTS]

I've been going through the CSV and I give up.

I can see no reason why GPS is dropped. ("OSD.isGPSused" turns from true to false at CSV line 621 even though "OSD.gpsNum= 15").

Half a second later it switched to ATTI, and one second after that it sends the warning message. Other than that nothing stands out.

Anyone else?

 

[JTS]

OSD.gpsLevel change from 5 to 1 is precisely the same time as OSD.isGPSused goes false;

 

[Hans75]

This here is the same issue:
Did I Have a Fly Away or Did the Drone Return to Home?
H.