Why I do believe there's a HUGE problem with the Mavic Mini - Flew AWAY the 2nd day

[m80116]

Hello, I am m80(116) new drone and forum user from Italy.

I am writing here because I've lost my Mavic Mini after the 2nd day of ownership. This is by far one of the most embarrassing accident I've ever had in 2019 and one that I feel can't really be blamed for...

I went through a month of preparation, tutorials, safety guides, drills before actually flying my Mini on a b-roll shootout... it all went away in A MINUTE ! And so here I am... to verify am not a complete idiot, although maybe on the way to become, with an open fly-away case from DJI... and plenty of company as I can see.

To be brutally honest considering the sheer amount of cases here, and not being too unfamiliar with faultiness statistics, I do believe I am one of the many victims of a glitchy firmware or bad hardware, and that DJI will never acknowledge the fault, hence compensate us for the trouble and inconvenience caused to us.

If you want to read my experience in full extent here it is How the DJI Mavic Mini TOTALLY RUINED my Christmas Holidays
or at full URL How the DJI Mavic Mini TOTALLY RUINED my Christmas Holidays

 

[Thomas B]

Hello, I am m80(116) new drone and forum user from Italy.

I am writing here because I've lost my Mavic Mini after the 2nd day of ownership. This is by far one of the most embarrassing accident I've ever had in 2019 and one that I feel can't really be blamed for...

I went through a month of preparation, tutorials, safety guides, drills before actually flying my Mini on a b-roll shootout... it all went away in A MINUTE ! And so here I am... to verify am not a complete idiot, although maybe on the way to become, with an open fly-away case from DJI... and plenty of company as I can see.

To be brutally honest considering the sheer amount of cases here, and not being too unfamiliar with faultiness statistics, I do believe I am one of the many victims of a glitchy firmware or bad hardware, and that DJI will never acknowledge the fault, hence compensate us for the trouble and inconvenience caused to us.

If you want to read my experience in full extent here it is How the DJI Mavic Mini TOTALLY RUINED my Christmas Holidays
or at full URL How the DJI Mavic Mini TOTALLY RUINED my Christmas Holidays

Confused as to what your looking for and why a new post in this section. Do you want fly away assistance?

 

[Skywatcher2001]

Sorry for your loss. You will need to post DJI's flight logs if you want @sar104 and @BudWalker to help locate it. Without the logs you are in the hands of DJI's analysis.

 

[Fly Dawg]

To be brutally honest considering the sheer amount of cases here, and not being too unfamiliar with faultiness statistics, I do believe I am one of the many victims of a glitchy firmware or bad hardware,

Don't simply "Assume" that fact. Granted, there have been several so called "Fly Away's" but for the most part they have been pilot error. Especially so flying in too windy conditions. On the other hand, a few were Compass/IMU related. If you want any sort of assistance in proving your point. We will need to see the flight logs. Preferably the device .dat. Other than that, screenshots as above are useless information.

 

[m80116]

Thanks for the info @Skywatcher2001 if you dig deep into my blog post you'll find out that I know where I've lost the drone, but every attempt to find it hasn't succeeded. It may be still tucked into some narrow pocket or i's been taken away, whatever the case I am more concerned about rising awareness about the dangers and possible glitch of this specific new drone model.

Anyway...I need guide on how to extract the flight logs from the DJI app or the online database.

 

[m80116]

I'll do my best to provide the raw log file @Fly Dawg

In the meantime I can link a small video I made to corroborate the evidence.

 

[Fly Dawg]

@m80116 For the logs:

With iOS devices running DJI GO 4 you need to access the app files via computer, either using
iTunes or with a file system browser such as iExplorer. The TXT logs are in Apps » DJI GO 4 »
FlightRecords. The same method can be used to access DJI Fly files in DJI Fly »
FlightRecords, but with DJI Fly they are also accessible using the iOS Files app by selecting
Browse » On My iPhone » DJI Fly » FlightRecords.
With Android devices the file system should mount when plugged into a Windows machine, or
via various software options on a Mac. With DJI GO 4 the TXT logs are in DJI » dji.go.v4 »
FlightRecord. With DJI Fly they are in DJI » dji.go.v5 » FlightRecord.

When you have both files share them back here.

 

[Thomas B]

Airdata UAV - Flight Data Analysis for Drones

Airdata UAV - Flight Data Analysis for Drones

app.airdata.com

 

[m80116]

I think I've managed to extract the right files.

Here the txt <REMOVED - PM message me to request link>
and here's the zip of the txt as uploaded by the app <REMOVED - PM message me to request link>

Here's the online flight data
REMOVED - PM message me to request link

 

[Fly Dawg]

@m80116 I don't see anything overly unusual in this flight. The aircraft responded to all of your inputs until signal loss. There is no way to know if that was only downlink, but in most cases that is what happens first. Assuming you still had control of the aircraft, there is no way to determine what you were doing after the end of the data. Assuming the above is true, RTH would not have initiated. See this link for your flight profile: DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

 

[Fly Dawg]

@m80116 Another View:

 

[m80116]

But assuming the link loss the RTH should have been auto-initiated, am I right ? The remote was beeping at me like crazy for minutes.

I took care not move the control sticks (even though I was unlinked) and pressed the RTH button two or three times at different moments, hoping that somehow the remote ignored any possible channel regulation and blasted the RTH signal in every possible and conceivable channel at maximum strength.

Nothing happened... I didn't regain control, neither it did return to home, nor I could find it hovering at lost contact point.

 

[Fly Dawg]

But assuming the link loss the RTH should have been auto-initiated, am I right ?

Only if you lost uplink to the aircraft.

and pressed the RTH button two or three times at different moments,

You may have cancelled RTH by multiple presses.

nor I could find it hovering at lost contact point.

Most likely an autoland occurred.

 

[Lastrexking]

Only if you lost uplink to the aircraft.


You may have cancelled RTH by multiple presses.



Most likely an autoland occurred.

Unfortunately people don’t realise pressing RTH cancels it.

 

[DanMan32]

If LEDs on RC are all blinking, then RC link to AC was lost. If steady, then link is still established and you still have control.

App will distinguish between app connection loss to RC vs loss of connection to AC.

If RC is beeping, then RTH is likely in effect, though it could also be AC low battery warning. Get to know the difference in sound.

 

[m80116]

Thanks for the info @DanMan32 . It was a complete loss of link, both up and down. Yes, the remote was beeping for auto-RTH I am led to believe, the remote battery level was probably around 60% ore more being the last flight of the day.

 

[Meta4]

I took care not move the control sticks (even though I was unlinked) and pressed the RTH button two or three times at different moments, hoping that somehow the remtoe ignored any possible channel regulation and blasted the RTH signal in every possible and conceivable channel at maximum strength.

This is a concern.
Although you can initiate RTH with the RTH button, RTH is also initiated when the control signal is lost.
But if the drone is returning and control signal has been reconnected, pressing the RTH button will cancel the RTH.

 

[Fly Dawg]

It was a complete loss of link, both up and down.

And you know this how? You can't even see the Mini at over 300meters.

I never regained signal... the log data proves that as well.

The log only proves loss of downlink ( Video and Telemetry ). Not control signal.

 

[Meta4]

And posting your comments about your incident on every other thread is not a good idea.
It only confuses things.

 

[Meta4]

It makes perfect sense not to be left alone in cases like this...and I've had several failures in one, as you can read.

And I've read about it way too much in too many unrelated threads.
Most of the threads you've added to were incidents where the cause can be identified and are unrelated to yours.
Your case is frustrating because there is no data to show what happened.

One of the forum's rules that is relevant includes:
6. Do not post the same discussion more than once or in more than one forum.