DJI Mavic Discussion

Snow is out here ;)

Today out flying my Mavic over a partially frozen lake at about 9,000 feet elevation. At 100 feet above the water and 2,000 feet out my phone display rebooted so I couldn't see anything. Less than a minute later the DJI controller locked up. No camera view and no control. I had just turned it around to head home. I could not hear the machine. It never RTH as it should have. After 20 minutes when I realized it was lost I rebooted the phone and opened the DJI4 App. I had no cell coverage so the map was low res. It showed the last minute of flight then stopped. It also showed the Lat/Lon coordinates. I didn't have a gps but I plugged the coords into Google Map. I found the Mavic crashed into the mountain behind me. It over flew Home and flew about 900 feet further before impacting the mountain. Luck the cell phone GPS was accurate. Unbelievable nothing damaged. The camera gimble was jarred out of place but easy to push back. Flew it again and everything was fine including the camera.

Lesson DO NOT trust DJI to have their machines do as they are advertised. It's my third DJI. It did not RTH. It did not climb to my RTH altitude of 400 feet. Just plain luck finding it on a snow and sage brush covered mountain side.

Lesson DO NOT fly these near people, buildings or vehicles. Eventually something will fail and you will hurt someone.

You using S7 yes? Check recent Android update .. I have heard some things that make all sorts of badness. Lesson: If it works, do not allow updates, unless having heard form others (kind of like firmware updates before the other people figure out the bad stuff for you first)

DJI makes stuff to work with existing base software .. some update changed that relationship, hence random glitches, restarts, crash. Thanks for the warning ... have not updated, but reminder to check and re-check the Go 4 app version to S7 version to make correct. Of course you won't learn that from DJI ... only from the forums. Recommend RCGroups as they are more involved and active DJI representatives/testers WILL answer you ... the DJI forums are full of fanboys, and too many dead threads.

If not right, then bad.

Glad you got your bird back.

Yup, the Samsung S7 ... top of the line Android. I have over 25 hours flight time on this Mavic and the phone has failed three times. This was the first that caused the controller to lock up also.

It's a worthy warning. Not had such lockups (so far) but all it takes is once.

I think I'll use the phone as backup (have S7 too) it was the one that locked up when I first installed the Go 4 app ... then the regular Go app would not work with my other rig, made a mess of things, recent update of Go and Go 4 apps helped that .. no problems since.

But will likely use the ipad Mini2 (which I got for use with DJI stuff) and stick with that for both Mavic, Osmo RAW rig, Lightbridge unit, and P4P. I'll keep the S7 and the Shield tablet as spares/backup, but it always seems like the iOS people have more stability.

Seems like some people with same device have more problems than others ... may be conflicts or allocations or some kind of BS they never thought of when designing these apps.

Another thought is that you possibly have bad controller. Try it with different device (install Go 4 and hook up via lower USB connection) and see if you can get it to crash. Not the bird .. the App. It's possible the brain in your controller is a little funky? You've mentioned multiple lockups/crashes.

Not really a joke (cuz jokes are funny, right?) But buying two of any DJI device ... so you have one to use for the 3+ weeks it takes to send in/repair the faulty one ... in fact is why I have P4P in addition to Mavic.

Obviously prefer the P4P image, but Mavic has its uses for sure.

That's a frightening experience Don, glad to read it 'only' crashed into a mountain and you actually got it back safely. I recently bought a Mavic as well and was trying to figure out which device to use with it. According to their website, the S7 isn't officially supported (yet). The S5 and S6 would be. Maybe that explains some of the issues that you and others have experienced.

I hope to test the Mavic this weekend and will be using an iPad mini 4. Like Gene suggests, it actually fits into the controller (although you have to be a bit careful not to break one of the holders). I used the P4 almost daily for 3 months on end, and never had any problems or bugs. Really hope the Mavic will be as reliable...

Oha, strange news! Be happy that it didn't fall in a driving car window or damaged people in any other way.
That's the reason for our new regulations in GER which are coming up:
So or so, insurance is absolute duty, no flying higher than 100m, only so far as we can see, no flying above people groups and the copter must have a fire-resistant adress sticker. By all this regulations i ask why i still need an insurance ;)

Last weekend i tried out the low power RTH on a field. Worked perfect and landed at the same point like startet. Maybe 1cm better and the video would be a perfect loop except the cloud plane. The obstacle warning worked also more as perfect. My Mavic stopped the flight because there was a top of a blade of reed to near although i was sure the Mavic would fly above it.
But as you write it's a reminder not to be too sure in case of a few hours well experience. Last night my S7 had the system update. I hope all works well like before because in the afternnon after work i'll go flying.

F*** Nougat Update :\
3 Flights = 3 Problems

1st the DJGO app goes crazy with absolute over-exposure. When changing to manual-mode and increasing shutterspeed or so the app resets my setups by flying and exposure flickers. Last not least manual mode fails because by changing flight or gimbal direction (changing light!) the exposure becomes too dark or too light. In auto-mode last weekend it worked very perfect.
2nd flight: After take off some meters the horizon was diagonal on my screen, ..... häääää? So again landed, shutted down all and start again. Ok, but now in the flight the video was shaking like crazy. At the ground absolute now wind, at 100m altitude i don't know because my Hoover- and Forecast-App gave me no information and couldn't locate my position.
3rd flight short before sunset: Ok, but in manual-mode video is noisy :( After this flight i would take off a bit with low battery only straight upwards ascend. I could, but the DJGO app freezed my smartphone total, nothing worked, also no shut down possible. In fact i could make photo and video only with the controller. Was happy that i had the Mavic in my sight. Don't know if RTH works without smartphone.
Now i have deinstalled DJGO app and reinstalled new. Hope today all works fine again, else i will reset my phone to the factory settings.

RTH does work without smartphone IF

IF

Home point was set correctly before takeoff, or at least close.

Updates suck. Sounds like another close call! Disallow updates of Android until DJI comes out with updates of APP/firmware to compensate.

One test take off props, power up, look at map and walk bird away. Can you retrace steps back to bird using map?

If strange video things happening, do not take off.

If battery low, do not take off, even to test.