P4P drifting up. Does not respond quickly to commands. Crashed straight down.

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I'm brand new to drones but tried to figure out as much as I could watching tutorials so I wasnt trying to fly completely blind my first time. That being said. It doesnt seem to respond to commands at higher altitude and by higher I mean higher than 50 feet. It starts slowly drifting up even though my control sticks are centered and I'm no longer touching them. I calibrated the control sticks to make sure they werent a problem. The first couple flights I'm having this same issue and have to tap the left control stick down a few times to get it to respond and start lowering.

Most recently the drone started to drift upward and as usual I tried lowering it by pressing down on the left stick and then releasing and repeating this. Eventually the drone started lowering very rapidly and eventually hit the ground and breaking 2 ends of the landing gear extenders. Luckily I think the drone is OK overall and nothing major broke. I think the gimbal is ok as well.

Finally, the last thing I did was go into flight simulator and I keep getting messages while flying that say "Braking now, return sticks to midpoints, then continue flying". However at this point I'm not even using the controls. So I was wondering if I have an issue with the control sticks. And when I tried calibrating the joysticks when left alone untouched they both read 0% in the middle and both go all the way to 100% in all directions leading me to believe they are fine.

I've attached my last 3 flight logs hoping someone can spot the issue. Anyone that can offer guidance I'd really appreciate it.
 

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  • DJIFlightRecord_2018-11-04_[07-54-53].txt
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  • DJIFlightRecord_2018-11-04_[11-14-51].txt
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  • DJIFlightRecord_2018-11-04_[11-33-32].txt
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Sorry, I hope this is the correct way.

Flight 1
Notice at the 2:45 mark the drone starts gaining altitude from 60' to 90" without me trying to ascend. This is the issue I'm having.

Flight 2
Notice at the 1m6s I try to descend and nothing happens. I believe this is the flight where it came crashing down as it is the last one in my saved flights. The last recorded altitude is at 62' . I had plenty of battery life and no error messages came up.

I uploaded an imagine of my channel options when trying to change imagine transmission. Essentially its not showing anything besides a tiny bit of green at the bottom.

Finally, I took a pic of my controller screen when in simulation. You can see I'm getting error messages prepare to brake when my hands are off the control sticks. I dont know if this is a clue that its reading movement from the controls when I'm not even touching them or what. But in the flight simulator I'm not experiencing the drifting upward altitude like I do with the drone itself.
I apologize for the sideways photos. I'm struggling enough as is trying to post and hope someone can help.
Image Transmission.jpg
Flight Simulator.jpg
 
I've attached my last 3 flight logs hoping someone can spot the issue. Anyone that can offer guidance I'd really appreciate it.
Here's what your first flight looks like:
DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

The flight data shows that problem is with the downward facing sensors of the VPS system.
Compare the altitude data for the IMU and VPS - they should be very similar but they are quite different.
The VPS altitude data shows a very small number for much of the time even when up high.
Perhaps something is blocking their view downwards so that they give a false reading and the drone thinks it is just inches above the ground.
If you have mounted anything that blocks the sensor view, remove it.
If not, turn the VPS off.
 
Perhaps something is blocking their view downwards so that they give a false reading and the drone thinks it is just inches above the ground.
If you have mounted anything that blocks the sensor view, remove it.
If not, turn the VPS off.

I do have a plastic bracket that goes across the bottom that came with the stabilizer extenders. I didnt realize this would interfere with the bottom sensor. I will try removing this and give an update.

Any idea why i'm not seeing anything on the image transmission channel options when I choose 5.8 GHz?
 
I had to use a Dremel cut off wheel to cut a few new grooves in the gear support to set it back a 1/2 inch farther back and that quickly solved my problem likes yours ...hope you get the issue solved asap ! and you might have the gear support on backwards !
 
Thanks for the advice. Today is a rain day so I'll have to test it out on next available good weather day and report back.
 
Just updating for anyone curious. The stabilizer extender bracket mounted from each side underneath the gimbal must have been the issue. It works well now and havent had any drifting up issues or crash landings. Unfortunate that this is an issue that most new consumers are not aware of for such a cheap faulty accessory to mount onto an expensive piece of equipment.
 
Why is it that the Mini 3 pro drifts and do not hold position around 30 feet high (with 32 satellites). When over water, it drifts and loses altitude without any stick input. When analyzing flight records, IMU altitude is 0 feet where as the VPS altitude shows 28 feet just above water. I am told it is the same with P4P.
 
Why is it that the Mini 3 pro drifts and do not hold position around 30 feet high (with 32 satellites). When over water, it drifts and loses altitude without any stick input. When analyzing flight records, IMU altitude is 0 feet where as the VPS altitude shows 28 feet just above water.
Perhaps if you post your recorded flight data, someone might be able to provide an explanation.
I am told it is the same with P4P.
Your information source is wrong.
 
Perhaps if you post your recorded flight data, someone might be able to provide an explanation.

Your information source is wrong.
Thanks for your suggestion. Attached is the flight record. The stationary AC at about 11 meters plunged in to the pond without any stick input. (The flight record shows otherwise where the left stick was between 4 & 5 of the clock). Any help will be greatly appreciated.
 

Attachments

  • DJIFlightRecord_2022-10-01_[10-49-22].txt
    2.1 MB · Views: 84
Thanks for your suggestion. Attached is the flight record. The stationary AC at about 11 meters plunged in to the pond without any stick input. (The flight record shows otherwise where the left stick was between 4 & 5 of the clock). Any help will be greatly appreciated.
The drone was hovering over water when at 7:45.0, the left joystick was pulled full back and to the right.
The drone started losing height and rotating in a clockwise direction.
The downward speed accelerated to 6.7 feet/sec but slowed as it got closer to the water.
When the drone reached a height of 3 feet above the water at 7:53.0, landing protection held it there for a second (with the drone still rotating clockwise).
But holding the left stick full down for 3 seconds confirmed that you wanted to land the drone and it recommenced the descent and slowly landed into the water.
It appears that you accidentally pulled the left joystick down and to the right, or perhaps you caught it on something.
 
The drone was hovering over water when at 7:45.0, the left joystick was pulled full back and to the right.
The drone started losing height and rotating in a clockwise direction.
The downward speed accelerated to 6.7 feet/sec but slowed as it got closer to the water.
When the drone reached a height of 3 feet above the water at 7:53.0, landing protection held it there for a second (with the drone still rotating clockwise).
But holding the left stick full down for 3 seconds confirmed that you wanted to land the drone and it recommenced the descent and slowly landed into the water.
It appears that you accidentally pulled the left joystick down and to the right, or perhaps you caught it on something.
Thank you for the analysis. What surprises me is that my hands were not on the sticks when the drone went down. Also there was no audio and visual warning when the drone wanted to land. I have had similar experience before while hovering the drone over water, where in I was able to recover the AC on time. The AC looses altitude while hovering without any stick inputs. There are also no warning on calibrating IMU/ GPS in pre flight check. What surprises me is @7m49s the IMU altitude is 0 Ft and VPS altitude 18ft. Did the downward visual sensor malfunction?( I did not get any audio or visual warning on the mobile device when the drone lands.) The flight log clearly shows the left stick between 4 & 5 of the clock signaling pilot error.
 
I have had similar experience before while hovering the drone over water, where in I was able to recover the AC on time.
The left stick was pulled back the whole time the drone was descending.
The recorded data shows no indication of any attempt to make the drone climb.
The AC looses altitude while hovering without any stick inputs.
The joystick input is clearly shown in the data.
There are also no warning on calibrating IMU/ GPS in pre flight check.
There is no need to recalibrate anything before flying and there's no indication that anything was requiring recalibration.
What surprises me is @7m49s the IMU altitude is 0 Ft and VPS altitude 18ft. Did the downward visual sensor malfunction?
The IMU height comes from measuring air pressure which can change during a flight.
Because of that there can be differences of 20 feet or so in IMU height over the time of a flight.
(Yours was 18 ft)
This explains the differences you noted in IMU vs VPS heights.

Your VPS is quite accurate and only registers distances up to 23 feet above the surface below it.
At 7:48.4 the drone descended below 23 ft above the water and VPS data starts to show again.
You can see the accurate descent heights in the VPS data.

 
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