Testing Follow me-mode, fly away and crash :( - happy ending! :)

[AndersGB]

The latest on this crash:
DJI is now claiming it's a pilot error, and not a warranty issue. But they can't say what I did wrong. I have replied that I don't accept it if they can't say what I did wrong and if they can't explain why the aircraft flew away when I activated Follow Me mode and also explain the difference between the graphs I've sent them. I don't think they will change though, but I will trie anyhow.

 

[peterepeat69]

Answer to the story, never try out follow me mode, seems to be a real hassle


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[Gpanek]

Hi,

After some 40+ nice flights I decided to test the "Follow me"-mode, after some initial short flying. I was practicing on a large field and maybe did some foolish things. After initiating the "Follow me"-mode, which must be done with the drone above 10 meters, I thought it was a little high and took it down to maybe 5-6 meters, and it still worked ok. I tried the "Follow me"-mode a couple of times, walking around on the field, happy that it went so good. But suddenly the drone just took away, full speed away from me. I saw a message on the screen "Compass error" I think, pressed the RTH button in panic, but nothing happened and the drone crashed into a tree. It all went very fast.

The gimbal is broken and there are som scratches on the drone, ,but luckily enough no one got hurt. I got really scared.

I've tried to start the drone, without propellers, and it does start and gets contact with the RC. It updates the Home Point, and the led's are flashing green. However, when I shut down the drone, pressing the battery button twice, the drone doesn't shut down immediately. The leds on the drone and the red led on the battery are flashing a couple of seconds before it shuts down. I've never seen that before. Anyone knows what it means?

I would appreciate if anyone can help me to understand what happened. What did I do wrong? Or was it something wrong with the drone (even though I don't think so)? I'm planning to repair or buy a new one but I'm a little bit scared now. What if it had flown far away and crashed into a person?

I've uploaded the flight record to Healty Drones here:
HealthyDrones.com - Innovative flight data analysis that matters

And the file is attached also.

You are not alone. Something very similar happened to me just last week. "follow me" worked ok for a bit walking around an open field. Then it didn't and just took off like a bat, but lucky for me I stopped it just in time after it had missed a phone line by inches. I used RTH and it worked. Remember you have to hold it down for about 2 seconds for it to kick in. looking at logs I found mention of compass error at times and also lost gps on mobile device. There was also a cell tower nearby. Jury is still out on why it happened but basically it seems that the mobile device gps has potential to throw everything out of whack, or there is some major flaw in the ap programming for "follow me". You can see the video of my experience here.

 

[Phattaildeuce]

I've used follow me mode in the AutoPilot app a dozen times without incident . Just yesterday I used it track me and my son on our motorcycles. Went about 1 miles down the road and back. At times, it appeared the bird wanted to fly away, but it was more just trying to regain the signal form the remote and "catch up" to where we're moving. It's actually did exactly what it was supposed to do.


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[Mark The Droner]

You are not alone. Something very similar happened to me just last week. "follow me" worked ok for a bit walking around an open field. Then it didn't and just took off like a bat, but lucky for me I stopped it just in time after it had missed a phone line by inches. I used RTH and it worked. Remember you have to hold it down for about 2 seconds for it to kick in. looking at logs I found mention of compass error at times and also lost gps on mobile device. There was also a cell tower nearby. Jury is still out on why it happened but basically it seems that the mobile device gps has potential to throw everything out of whack, or there is some major flaw in the ap programming for "follow me". You can see the video of my experience here.

Glad it worked out for you, but if that was RTH, it's too low IMO.

 

[Gpanek]

Glad it worked out for you, but if that was RTH, it's too low IMO.

I have RTH set at 98' and thats what it went up to when it came back. thats plenty for where I was flying. it took off at the follow me height of 40'

 

[AndersGB]

Hi,

Finally I've got my P3A back! After several weeks of mailing back and forth with DJI in Europe, they finally approved it as a quality problem!

This is what they wrote:

"Dear Customer,

Thank you for contacting DJI technical support.

This is DJI Data Analysis engineer.

First, i apologize to you for our mistake.

The crash was caused by a quality problem.
We will soon arrange a Free-RMA for you."

And this, from another mail:

"Ok, i get the data analysis result now.

Here is the data analysis result.

1.The coordinates ware hopping when you enabled the Follow me function.

2.Then the drone was cheesing the new coordinates, So, i found that the drone was flying backwards very fast once you enabled the Follow me function.

3.Now, the problem is why the coordinates was hopping in that time. Actually, our engineer regard this preformance as a problem of the
Monitor devices. But you are using a compatiable devices - ipad mini 4.

4.So, we make a judagement, we cant find any error operations during the whole flight. This case will be covered by warranty.

5.I hope you can send the drone to us for repair."

No mentioning about that the software wasn't the latest version, I've seen others that has been rejected as a warranty errand because of that.

So now I'm out flying again, but with a little more caution and no more Follow Me!

Many thanks for all the help in this forum, I don't think I would have succeded to convince DJI about the cause of the accident without your help, especially BudWalker, msinger and ferraript.

Anders

 

[Mark The Droner]

Congrats! And kudos to DJI.

 

[ferraript]

nice to hear that, many happy flying hours

 

[rene van der meer]

Anders,
A great story to follow. We have learned a lot from it. Thanks!
I am happy the accident is finally covered by warranty. Happy flying.

 

[syotr]

It pays to be persistent. Glad they took care of it.

 

[BudWalker]

Hi,

Finally I've got my P3A back! After several weeks of mailing back and forth with DJI in Europe, they finally approved it as a quality problem!

This is what they wrote:

"Dear Customer,

Thank you for contacting DJI technical support.

This is DJI Data Analysis engineer.

First, i apologize to you for our mistake.

The crash was caused by a quality problem.
We will soon arrange a Free-RMA for you."

And this, from another mail:

"Ok, i get the data analysis result now.

Here is the data analysis result.

1.The coordinates ware hopping when you enabled the Follow me function.

2.Then the drone was cheesing the new coordinates, So, i found that the drone was flying backwards very fast once you enabled the Follow me function.

3.Now, the problem is why the coordinates was hopping in that time. Actually, our engineer regard this preformance as a problem of the
Monitor devices. But you are using a compatiable devices - ipad mini 4.

4.So, we make a judagement, we cant find any error operations during the whole flight. This case will be covered by warranty.

5.I hope you can send the drone to us for repair."

No mentioning about that the software wasn't the latest version, I've seen others that has been rejected as a warranty errand because of that.

So now I'm out flying again, but with a little more caution and no more Follow Me!

Many thanks for all the help in this forum, I don't think I would have succeded to convince DJI about the cause of the accident without your help, especially BudWalker, msinger and ferraript.

Anders

This is a great story. @AndersGB you combined existing tools in a novel way to prove that there is a problem. Then you had the perseverance to take that proof and escalate it within DJI who finally had to admit there is a problem. Any improvements that we see in the FollowMe mode will be due, at least in part, to your efforts.

 

[happydays]

Great stuff!

 

[AndersGB]

This is a great story. @AndersGB you combined existing tools in a novel way to prove that there is a problem. Then you had the perseverance to take that proof and escalate it within DJI who finally had to admit there is a problem. Any improvements that we see in the FollowMe mode will be due, at least in part, to your efforts.

Many thanks for your nice words! But without your help and your encouragement I wouldn't have succeeded!

Maybe I should send an invoice to DJI, "Investigation of possible quality problems with the Follow Me function". And we can share the money.

I'm so happy to be flying again. This is what I mostly use it for ... selfies from above.

 

[jiu89]

Fly some with the ATTI mode and learn how it is like a air hockey puck....

It really takes some getting used too.........

Its really nice. Have you ever tried air hockey. If interested then check Playcraft Easton Air Hockey Table Review