Wind gust - drone climbing vertical up

[Banung]

Hello,
I have my drone since chrismas and made few flights and testing.
Now i noticed a problem.

Conditions: hill tetrain, snow, about -2C, wind up to 5 m/s or less.

When the drone is hit by wind gust, drone start to climb vertical up. It is not moving in the direction of wind, just vertical up.
One time it was so strong, that on Sport mode I had full down and drone was still climbing up.

I assume It must be some software bug or something ...

Any suggestion how to solve this problem?
Thanks.

 

[old man mavic]

its probably because of the fact that you are flying in hilly terrain, its the updraft from the wind going up the face of the hill
also regardless of what mode you are in ,all that happens when you try to descend your drone ,is that the motors all slow down so the props provide less lift
try flying forwards away from the hill as you descend ,
because the MM is so light the wind is just pushing it up the hill

 

[Phantomrain.org]

I captured this strangeness with the Air 2 : 4:02 min into the video you can see it lifting.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain and Land on the Water

 

[Meta4]

When the drone is hit by wind gust, drone start to climb vertical up. It is not moving in the direction of wind, just vertical up.
One time it was so strong, that on Sport mode I had full down and drone was still climbing up.

Wind shouldn't be causing the drone to climb.
It has sensors to detect changes in height and the flight controller works to hold altitude.
To find of what is actually causing your issue, post the recorded flight data.
That might give some clues about the real situation.

Go to DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help
Follow the instructions there to upload your flight record from your phone or tablet.
That will give you a detailed report of the flight.
Come back and post a link to the report it gives you.
Or .. just post the txt file here.

 

[Meta4]

I captured this strangeness with the Air 2

Wind doesn't cause a drone to rise.
That beeping sound should be a clue about what's actually happening when you turned the drone.

 

[old man mavic]

@Meta4 i agree that wind alone will not make the drone rise
but you know that the MM is greatly underpowered ,when it comes to its ability to fight a strong wind
what i am saying is the updraft going up the hill is what is causing the drone to be unable to descend
because when you give it down stick all that does is reduce the amount of lift from the props ,and gravity takes over to bring the drone down
but it cant descend if the wind going up the face of the hill or cliff is greater than the weight of the drone

 

[Meta4]

@Meta4 i agree that wind alone will not make the drone rise
but you know that the MM is greatly underpowered ,when it comes to its ability to fight a strong wind
what i am saying is the updraft going up the hill is what is causing the drone to be unable to descend
because when you give it down stick all that does is reduce the amount of lift from the props ,and gravity takes over to bring the drone down
but it cant descend if the wind going up the face of the hill or cliff is greater than the weight of the drone

You could suggest this as a possible cause, but you would need to see data that confirms it before you can say that is/was the cause.
I think it's unlikely and would want to see data to find out what actually happened before suggesting anything.

 

[old man mavic]

ok i will add probably before because in my opening sentence ,that way i am still giving my opinion as to the cause

 

[Meta4]

ok i will add probably before because in my opening sentence ,that way i am still giving my opinion as to the cause

Possibly would be a better word, probably indicates a degree of certainty.

The thing about opinions without confirming data is that they are just guesses, and they are often wrong.
Like post #3 where from the audible beeping, it's obvious that the cause there was obstacle avoidance.

 

[Banung]

Thanks for replyies.
It is not caused just by the wind, because you hear the proppelers spinning faster. Drone also doesn´t move in the wind direction.

Fly records attached.

Flight: First I tried to fly, but drone was bumping up and down. So I was going to hand landing. After I landed to hand and turned drone upside down, the drone tried to accelerate and almost escaped from my hand. All in about one minute.
Without switching the drone off i moved to another direction (about 50m away) and tried second flight. After about 20 sec drone started to cllimb up very fast. I switched from Cinema to Sport and push full down. Afterr few seconds it suddenly come down. Another landing to hand but now OK.

It showed IMU calibration is needed, but it wants to calibrate IMU almost beore ewery flight. Even if I calibrate it at home few minutes ago.

I hope I remmember it correctly and it helps analyzing the files.
Thanks again

 

[Banung]

I captured this strangeness with the Air 2 : 4:02 min into the video you can see it lifting.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain and Land on the Water

It is going up in meters. 1-10m depending on how I and drone react...

 

[Meta4]

Thanks for replyies.
It is not caused just by the wind, because you hear the proppelers spinning faster. Drone also doesn´t move in the wind direction.

Fly records attached.

Flight: First I tried to fly, but drone was bumping up and down. So I was going to hand landing. After I landed to hand and turned drone upside down, the drone tried to accelerate and almost escaped from my hand. All in about one minute.
Without switching the drone off i moved to another direction (about 50m away) and tried second flight. After about 20 sec drone started to cllimb up very fast. I switched from Cinema to Sport and push full down. Afterr few seconds it suddenly come down. Another landing to hand but now OK.

It showed IMU calibration is needed, but it wants to calibrate IMU almost beore ewery flight. Even if I calibrate it at home few minutes ago.

I hope I remmember it correctly and it helps analyzing the files.
Thanks again

What joystick mode were you using?

 

[Meta4]

What joystick mode were you using?

Never mind ... I've worked out that it was Mode 1 .. no wonder things look weird.

 

[Meta4]

Thanks for replyies.
It is not caused just by the wind, because you hear the proppelers spinning faster. Drone also doesn´t move in the wind direction.

Fly records attached.

Flight: First I tried to fly, but drone was bumping up and down. So I was going to hand landing. After I landed to hand and turned drone upside down, the drone tried to accelerate and almost escaped from my hand. All in about one minute.
Without switching the drone off i moved to another direction (about 50m away) and tried second flight. After about 20 sec drone started to cllimb up very fast. I switched from Cinema to Sport and push full down. Afterr few seconds it suddenly come down. Another landing to hand but now OK.

It showed IMU calibration is needed, but it wants to calibrate IMU almost beore ewery flight. Even if I calibrate it at home few minutes ago.

I hope I remmember it correctly and it helps analyzing the files.
Thanks again

There are problems with the height data.

When you pulled the throttle down hard from 2:57.7 to 3:05.9, the VPS kept showing 22 ft, even though the barometric height went down from 18 ft to zero and then started increased, still with the throttle pulled down.
The indicated rate of descent is very slow too even though the drone was in SPort Mode.

The altitude data is not believable so we cannot tell what the drone was doing.
The Mini is rated for temperatures of 0° to 40°C.
You said the temp was "about -2°C".
Could it have been even colder?

The behaviour I see in the data reminds me of the data from a drone flown in -10°C and I wonder if the sensors were affected by the cold, causing weird performance?

I'd try again when the temp is >0°C and see if things perform normally then.

 

[Banung]

Yes. I use mode 1.
I think temperature was little bit above 0°C.
I was thinking it is caused by low temperature or white environment (snow) or both.

Later a had some flights too. Problem was still there but not so significant.

I`m waiting for the right conditions to try it again.

Is there any way how to turn off sensors that are causing the problems? Or is it a good idea?
Does Mini save the latest GPS position somewhere?

 

[Meta4]

Is there any way how to turn off sensors that are causing the problems?

No

Does Mini save the latest GPS position somewhere?

The app records location data (and a lot more) for each 1/10th of a second of the flight.

 

[Banung]

Today I made testing flight.
Temperature about 1 - 2 C, windy. Flat tetrain, no snow.
The drone was flying without any problems.

Maybe my problem is connected with IMU calibration. I often get message "IMU altitude Error"

 

[rscheff]

I know the cold may cause some weird things with the mini, and probably with the other models. But it could also be numerous other factors including software. I am on my 3rd replacement because of unexplainable issues which DJI could not, or would not explain. One I believe was explainable, I kept getting error message that the gimbal was overheating and land immediately. DJI determined it was a faulty gimbal and gave me a new drone. The second issue was the drone attempted to make an emergency landing as if it was below the battery % for a safe landing (I believe it is 5 %). The problem was the battery was at 92%, and it showed that in the flight records. The 3rd issue was the most recent reason for a new drone. The drone flew beyond the range of the RC for far more than the 11 seconds DJI says the drone will automatically return home, I had to drive closer to the drone to regain contact and return the drone. This happened twice. All of these incidents happened in warm and low wind conditions, so they only point to other issues for erratic behavior. But now I am on my 3rd drone, just got it a week ago, and I was flying in 32 degrees Fahrenheit, not really cold. I received an error msg. that the battery level was critically low, return home immediately. The battery was at 52%, plenty of juice to return from 500 feet away. I returned anyway and put a fresh battery in and flew until 30% without problems.

As far as your IMU error, I often get them if the AC is connected and I am carrying it with no regard to it's position, not a good thing to do any way because the gimbal goes nuts. But I sometimes forget to shut everything off when carrying the drone and walking.

 

[Banung]

I know the cold may cause some weird things with the mini, and probably with the other models. But it could also be numerous other factors including software. I am on my 3rd replacement because of unexplainable issues which DJI could not, or would not explain. One I believe was explainable, I kept getting error message that the gimbal was overheating and land immediately. DJI determined it was a faulty gimbal and gave me a new drone. The second issue was the drone attempted to make an emergency landing as if it was below the battery % for a safe landing (I believe it is 5 %). The problem was the battery was at 92%, and it showed that in the flight records. The 3rd issue was the most recent reason for a new drone. The drone flew beyond the range of the RC for far more than the 11 seconds DJI says the drone will automatically return home, I had to drive closer to the drone to regain contact and return the drone. This happened twice. All of these incidents happened in warm and low wind conditions, so they only point to other issues for erratic behavior. But now I am on my 3rd drone, just got it a week ago, and I was flying in 32 degrees Fahrenheit, not really cold. I received an error msg. that the battery level was critically low, return home immediately. The battery was at 52%, plenty of juice to return from 500 feet away. I returned anyway and put a fresh battery in and flew until 30% without problems.

As far as your IMU error, I often get them if the AC is connected and I am carrying it with no regard to it's position, not a good thing to do any way because the gimbal goes nuts. But I sometimes forget to shut everything off when carrying the drone and walking.

What drone do you have? I`m considering Air 2S as a step up.

 

[Banung]

Today I made another test on the same place, but wery different result.
It was little bit windy. Cold about -2C, snow.

First flight was OK. I got the message that the batery is too cold. I noticed few bumps at the end of this flight, but drone returned to its initial position.

The second flight was the worst flight so far. Drone started bumping (but returned back to initial height alone) Later it got worse and worse. It couldnt make quickshots (drone was not tracking the real height). Then I started to lose signal even if I was much closer than on the first flight. Drone was three times disconected. Landing to hand with cutting my fingers.

So my theory is that it is really the cold. The height and air stream from proppelers are cooling the drone even more so it gets worse in time.

No dubt, that there can be some sowtware problem too ...