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

[m80116]

I think I can answer your question @Dakarenduro

Yes, operating LoS should have made possible to recover the drone more easily besides the fact that I stopped moving the control sticks and accurately never touched them ever after.

 

[m80116]

The difference is subtle and it is easy to mistake one for the other*;
[...]
"Aircraft not connected to RC" and "RC not connected to mobile device" but I am skeptical that this is the case. I am also confused by this claim you make

I've tried to address your concern before but probably my message has been lost in between the lines...

The basic DJI Fly is different and easier than the GO4 app you're referring to. The message I was mentioning has been verified before I posted my answer this morning, and is indeed that very message set as I reported between the quote marks. So in the case of the DJI Fly is relatively easy to discern the two.

Did you do this at the time of the incident; i.e., after you lost connection with the AC. Or are you saying you verified you can do this without the RC needing to be connected to the AC post the incident?

This happened at the time of the incident, a short test this morning confirmed it was probably a left-over frozen data-frame from when the downlink was still active. I mentioned, I haven't been able to reproduce it.

Finally, I urge you to rethink this "I know everything I need to know and I know what I am doing" attitude of yours. The capacity to be critical about your self [...] This is meant as a friendly advice, you can take or leave it; your choice.

I accept each and everyone's way of thinking, advice and critique as you could probably see... some are still making out totally unsubstantial claims, some about wind speed, some LoS, some about heavy interference warnings or who knows what, Venus alignment with Mars. I feel to be on the correct the side to try and explain at my best if one's conclusion is spoilt by a wrong assumption or perception of the facts. And I let it go whenever this carries on seemingly intentionally...

Like... I know you're trying to help, and I appreciated your hand, but I did already mention about the test I've conducted with my remote, I wanted to take screenshots but I thought -it's just a notice-, it's quite easily verifiable by everyone that has a MM controller. Ah... one thing I did forget to mention: the MM Remote Control does not have a link LED that can change color based on link status.

But thanks anyway for the help and the advices. You said you don't blame me for the loss and I do... I think it was a mistake in the first place trusting the indicators, hence you could probably deduce I was following the tips of yours even before you expressed that to me

 

[Deleted member 94047]

I did forget to mention: the MM Remote Control does not have a link LED that can change color based on link status.

Didn't know that, thanks! Why DJI removed this from the Mini's RC is puzzling to me.

The basic DJI Fly is different and easier than the GO4 app you're referring to

I haven't seen the Fly app interface and I am totally ignorant in this regard. It was wrong of me to question your report. My apologies!

 

[DanMan32]

On MM, RC battery level LED lights will blink in unison when there's no AC connection. The battery level LEDs are the only visual indicators on the RC itself on an MM.

 

[Deleted member 94047]

On MM, RC battery level LED lights will blink in unison when there's no AC connection. The battery level LEDs are the only visual indicators on the RC itself on an MM.

Way to go DJI - remove an existing simple, elegant, dedicated AC-RC connection status indicator and jumble this function with the RC battery status indicator! WHY?

 

[Meta4]

But if the flight was kept within VLOS then there would be no guessing and perhaps a drone recovery, correct?

In visual range the pilot would have been able to see the drone and if watching it he would have a better idea where it went.
But being out of visual range makes no difference to the drone's ability to RTH.

 

[m80116]

Note to self (and MM owners): if you want to scan the 5.8 GHz band the frequency range is 5.725 – 5.850 GHz for both the US and CE model, from channel 144 to 169. Using my mobile's chip I can scan up to 165 which should give a pretty good idea if there are signals in the adjacent 169 channel.

With my other (older) mobile phone I was able to scan up to channel 124 but I am glad to report that with my S9+ I can scan almost the whole spectrum for the Mavic Mini... good find.

 

[Meta4]

What's the big deal? There's still a status indication.
Now if you wanted to express disappointment about not having an LCD status display, I could agree. I'm quite fond of the LCD display on The M2 RC as supplemental info. But it's missing on account of cost.

Big Deal?
No idea what you are on about.
It seems you didn't read (or understand) the post you are replying to.

 

[DanMan32]

You're right. I meant to quote Doppler on post 106.

 

[DanMan32]

Let's try this again.

Way to go DJI - remove an existing simple, elegant, dedicated AC-RC connection status indicator and jumble this function with the RC battery status indicator! WHY?

What's the big deal? There's still a status indication.
Now if you wanted to express disappointment about not having an LCD status display, I could agree. I'm quite fond of the LCD display on The M2 RC as supplemental info. But it's missing on account of cost.

 

[Deleted member 94047]

It is a design choice that makes little sense since the function was better implemented already. Yes, removing a built in screen to cut costs makes sense, removing a single led status indicator does not.

 

[Rcarman]

Are you planning on buying a replacement drone? If not, I would be interested in buying the remote and accessories from you... if your interested please email me at [email protected]

 

[ajkm]

Well, you had a wifi interference warning as soon as you started - hardly surprising given where you were - then you flew away from the Arno down a main street with buildings on both sides, and there’s no possible way you could have been able to see the MM at that distance (300+m) in that situation. I would describe that as reckless and bordering on (deliberate) negligence. All this on your second day of flight.

The conclusion to be drawn from this behaviour is clear for all to see and it is not a MM malfunction...

 

[sar104]

Well, you had a wifi interference warning as soon as you started - hardly surprising given where you were - then you flew away from the Arno down a main street with buildings on both sides, and there’s no possible way you could have been able to see the MM at that distance (300+m) in that situation. I would describe that as reckless and bordering on (deliberate) negligence. All this on your second day of flight.

The conclusion to be drawn from this behaviour is clear for all to see and it is not a MM malfunction...

Except that it didn't successfully execute failsafe RTH - that part is, as yet, unexplained.

 

[m80116]

And it did not show any information warning apart from two brief notices that quickly disappeared about midway through the flight, while signal meter staying full.

Ok it's Mini... but I've seen people flying through a city with other DJI drones. I expect and demand that the signal strength meter decreases linearly with distance and get a lot more warnings should be the case of interference. I brought this hypothesis to DJI's attention for the loss of signal part.

In the mean time DJI released a firmware update for the Mavic Mini... would this be the cure for so many fly-aways ?

Thanks everybody for the support. I've agreed a 30% discount to get another Mini, I am keeping my accessory set.

 

[amriceman]

Hi m80116,

Really feel for you - got my Mavic Mini to fly away in very similar circumstances on Dec 26th here, in Ontario, Canada. Was flying it over a local park, let it go 400 m away over an empty field, and had a good control on it. When decided to bring it back (the battery was about 50%), the drone instead of going my direction, started to go backwards. There were some "strong wind" warnings poping out during the flight, but the drone was handling it nicely. Before I could switch to the "sport" mode to overcome the wind, the connection got lost. The Mini went into RTH mode, but instead of going back, it seemingly kept drifting away. The connection restored for a moment, and the last video clip I had in my iPad Mini video cash was from drone hovering above some residential area in 180 m downwind from the point it lost connection in the first time. And that is all I have left from my Mavic Mini. It was my 4th outing with it, really enjoyed flying that little bugger. Surprisingly, there was no flight log left from that last flight in my iPad Mini , despite it was in the air for about 10 minutes after the take off.

So long, my tiny Mavic Mini, and $600! Had really high hopes for it...

 

[CareyL]

+1
You could have also added "and over people."

The OP fully makes the case of why we have +250 gram regulations that are so stringent and why they are soon likely to apply to everything flown in public airspace.

Well, you had a wifi interference warning as soon as you started - hardly surprising given where you were - then you flew away from the Arno down a main street with buildings on both sides, and there’s no possible way you could have been able to see the MM at that distance (300+m) in that situation. I would describe that as reckless and bordering on (deliberate) negligence. All this on your second day of flight.

The conclusion to be drawn from this behaviour is clear for all to see and it is not a MM malfunction...

 

[m80116]

Surprisingly, there was no flight log left from that last flight in my iPad Mini , despite it was in the air for about 10 minutes after the take off.

Sorry to hear this. I expect iProducts to be different than Droids in this respect, it was no problem for me to extract the logs with sar104's Flight Log retrieval guide. It seems your poor MM got caught by the wind.

 

[amriceman]

Well, it looks like we are not alone, m80116! When I go through the topics on this board, I see a lot of other pilots telling the similar stories.

I actually managed to pull out the log for that last flight. Thanks to the same sar104's retrieval guide! After all, it was created in my iPad Mini, but in some reasons was not shown in DJI Fly app. May be because it was terminated ungracefully. Apparently, the reason was the "Not Enough Force/ESC Error" error which began to appear after 4 minutes of flight, when the battery depleted to 60%. Before that point, it was flying just beautifully, with the same wind and same altitude. It also seems that the telemetry kept coming all the time it was drifting away, but the video feed and RC control was lost, so I did not have a chance to save it:

 

[sar104]

Well, it looks like we are not alone, m80116! When I go through the topics on this board, I see a lot of other pilots telling the similar stories.

I actually managed to pull out the log for that last flight. Thanks to the same sar104's retrieval guide! After all, it was created in my iPad Mini, but in some reasons was not shown in DJI Fly app. May be because it was terminated ungracefully. Apparently, the reason was the "Not Enough Force/ESC Error" error which began to appear after 4 minutes of flight, when the battery depleted to 60%. Before that point, it was flying just beautifully, with the same wind and same altitude. It also seems that the telemetry kept coming all the time it was drifting away, but the video feed and RC control was lost, so I did not have a chance to save it:

Right - but the characteristics of your flight indicate that the problem was wind speeds that the Mini couldn't handle. The flight log would confirm that if you feel like posting it. That's a different problem than the OPs.