run away

[Droneted]

A friend had this happen:

It seemed to be OK but all of a sudden it took off. Just prior to it going away I got a message telling me to let go one of joysticks which I wasn't touching. Maybe the remote went bad.

Fortunately I was able to follow the mark on the map where it landed and recovered it. It had no visible damage only one lense lost and one wire that I had soldered broke loose.

I was recording while it went AWOL. I watched the video and could see it landing three blocks away. It landed on the trunk of a car and shut down. The wind must have blown it off.

Any ideas on this?

 

[Meta4]

Any ideas on this?

Not without seeing the recorded flight data.
The data will explain what actually happened.
Without the data, people can only guess, with a high probability of being completely wrong.

 

[Capt KO]

There are many previous posts on retrieving the logs to that flight by using the “search” function, top of page.
Good luck

 

[Great Pumpkin]

Out of sheer ignorance at the time, I once took off from a manhole cover and experienced a flight just like yours. From what did you take off?

 

[Stanzp4p]

Out of sheer ignorance at the time, I once took off from a manhole cover and experienced a flight just like yours. From what did you take off?

My Driveway

 

[Stanzp4p]

A friend had this happen:

It seemed to be OK but all of a sudden it took off. Just prior to it going away I got a message telling me to let go one of joysticks which I wasn't touching. Maybe the remote went bad.

Fortunately I was able to follow the mark on the map where it landed and recovered it. It had no visible damage only one lense lost and one wire that I had soldered broke loose.

I was recording while it went AWOL. I watched the video and could see it landing three blocks away. It landed on the trunk of a car and shut down. The wind must have blown it off.

Any ideas on this?

I tried to find the flight log for this flight but it wasn't there. I did view the map file which gave me four warnings:
GPS signal weak
cpu temperature getting critical
return stick to center and continue
returning to attitude mode.
I thought the broken fan wire was a result of the hard landing but I guess I didn't do a good job of soldering.
It appears as if the joystick is what made it fly away. I wasn't touching it.

 

[Meta4]

I tried to find the flight log for this flight but it wasn't there. I did view the map file which gave me four warnings:

The flight data will be there, in the phone or tablet that you used to fly with.

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.

... and someone might be able to analyse it and give you an understanding of the cause of the incident.

 

[Stanzp4p]

Not without seeing the recorded flight data.
The data will explain what actually happened.
Without the data, people can only guess, with a high probability of being completely wrong.

here it is.

 

[jjdun777]

My Driveway

Any chance we can see the video?

 

[Pygar70]

Joystick controls can move out of alignment and provide input to the controller while in the neutral position - something that can be fixed with a calibration. In hundreds of flights, I've had this happen just once. If in the air, pushing the stick in the opposite direction counters the unwanted input and you eventually reach the neutral point. Provided you don't let go of the stick (and the misalignment is not extreme), you should still be able to steer the drone.

 

[Stanzp4p]

I have two. Will attach both. I guess I have some homework to do. The drone produces mp4 but I can't attach them here??????

 

[Meta4]

A friend had this happen:

It seemed to be OK but all of a sudden it took off. Just prior to it going away I got a message telling me to let go one of joysticks which I wasn't touching. Maybe the remote went bad.

The remote was fine.
The message was: Braking now. Return sticks to midpoints, then continue flying.
The wording isn't clear, but it's a message to let you know that obstacle avoidance is stopping/slowing the drone.

 

[Meta4]

here it is.

You had marginal GPS (with only 8-9 sats) for the early part of the flight, but this dropped to less than satisfactory from 1:59.4 until 7:32.9, which left your drone in atti mode.
Without GPS, the drone loses the ability to hold position and can drift with any wind.
It would still have been controllable, but you didn't do much to stop it being blown away.

The reason for the poor GPS sat numbers isn't clear.
In that area and at the height you flew there shouldn't have been any problem.
It should have been picking up 15 sats or more rather than 6-10.
Is there any metallic sticker on the top of the drone's shell?

Try flying somewhere a few miles away, in a large, open area and keep an eye on the sat numbers.
If it's low again, there may be a problem with the GPS receiver.

 

[Stanzp4p]

You had marginal GPS (with only 8-9 sats) for the early part of the flight, but this dropped to less than satisfactory from 1:59.4 until 7:32.9, which left your drone in atti mode.
Without GPS, the drone loses the ability to hold position and can drift with any wind.
It would still have been controllable, but you didn't do much to stop it being blown away.

The reason for the poor GPS sat numbers isn't clear.
In that area and at the height you flew there shouldn't have been any problem.
It should have been picking up 15 sats or more rather than 6-10.
Is there any metallic sticker on the top of the drone's shell?

Try flying somewhere a few miles away, in a large, open area and keep an eye on the sat numbers.
If it's low again, there may be a problem with the GPS receiver.

:Thanks for your input. I will look into the GPS problem. My other drones get more satellites in the garage than this one out in the open.
I haven't ruled out the problem with the remote sticks. When it went AWOL by the time I could see the direction it went it was out of sight. We did have some wind that day but it wasn't in the direction the drone took. If you look at the flight path it looks as if it was a straight line, not just drifting with the wind. This is the first event like this so I will look into both before flying it again.
Thanks.

 

[Stanzp4p]

:Thanks for your input. I will look into the GPS problem. My other drones get more satellites in the garage than this one out in the open.
I haven't ruled out the problem with the remote sticks. When it went AWOL by the time I could see the direction it went it was out of sight. We did have some wind that day but it wasn't in the direction the drone took. If you look at the flight path it looks as if it was a straight line, not just drifting with the wind. This is the first event like this so I will look into both before flying it again.
Thanks.

Seems when I was working with Military aircraft two sats was enough unless we wanted altitude then we needed three.

 

[Stanzp4p]

You had marginal GPS (with only 8-9 sats) for the early part of the flight, but this dropped to less than satisfactory from 1:59.4 until 7:32.9, which left your drone in atti mode.
Without GPS, the drone loses the ability to hold position and can drift with any wind.
It would still have been controllable, but you didn't do much to stop it being blown away.

The reason for the poor GPS sat numbers isn't clear.
In that area and at the height you flew there shouldn't have been any problem.
It should have been picking up 15 sats or more rather than 6-10.
Is there any metallic sticker on the top of the drone's shell?

Try flying somewhere a few miles away, in a large, open area and keep an eye on the sat numbers.
If it's low again, there may be a problem with the GPS receiver.

Nice photos, what filter were you using?

 

[Meta4]

If you look at the flight path it looks as if it was a straight line, not just drifting with the wind.

The flight path shown is straight because there was no GPS (no positions to record) for most of the time and the software has filled in the blank space by drawing a straight line between the points where you had position data.

Seems when I was working with Military aircraft two sats was enough unless we wanted altitude then we needed three.

GPS needs a minimum of 4 sats to give a reliable position.
Because it also needs a suitable spread of sats, it can take more than the minimum before you get a good 3D position.
DJI drones won't go to P-GPS mode without a minimum of 6 sats, but to have a good spread, it will often require more.

 

[Meta4]

Nice photos, what filter were you using?

None ... filters won't help for drone still photography.
And ND filters seriously handicap you for stills photography.

 

[Stanzp4p]

The flight path shown is straight because there was no GPS (no positions to record) for most of the time and the software has filled in the blank space by drawing a straight line between the points where you had position data.

GPS needs a minimum of 4 sats to give a reliable position.
Because it also needs a suitable spread of sats, it can take more than the minimum before you get a good 3D position.
DJI drones won't go to P-GPS mode without a minimum of 6 sats, but to have a good spread, it will often require more.

Thanks, I'm getting a good education from that run away.

 

[Droneted]

Now we seem to be getting somewhere. I have been busy and not following this thread like I should have. Now I am trying to remember, Has this drone ever crashed?