Darren, you should contact DJI support, provide them with logs, videos, and describe the situation. It wasn't your failure, and most likely they will send you a new one. (and yes, this is a common practice for DJI, my friends was getting replacement after support confirmed that the problem was caused not by you but the hardware malfunction)
Another thing m8 night time never land your drone at night omg mine bounced then went 3 meters high then hit the ground again several more time s like it had no idea were the ground was
I always notice when i'm flying over water weather sea or a lake with my mini 2 that the drone tends to be trying dipping down in altitude even if i'm high as 8 meters above water, and lately yes sometimes the drone tends to steer left or right without any input in my controller, i always land and recalibrate sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't , still no idea why this happens
Love it when pros crash AND document the event for the community. Max respect bro. Easy for you to buy a new drone and never speak of this but you did the hard thing making this video. Painful day for you but appreciate you making this video for the benefit of the community. Sorry for your loss but RESPECT BRO 😎
sounds like it might have been a balancing issues or something and maybe u could have recalibrated it or something i dunno? either way but good tip if you ever see the drone start to behave oddly. dont fly with it lol and try to check it out first! thanks for the v ideo!
Hi Darren, I think we all realise that every time we fly we are a little closer to a drone loss. I think what really hurts is losing the footage as well. I make it a policy to swap out the Micro SD cards regularly through the day, especially when I think I've nailed some good footage. Coming from a photography back ground I always carry 3 or 4 spares. Another tip is to swap the RC card and the drone card at half time, that way the mornings footage is safely tucked away inside the RC
Hey Darren! So sorry mate!! All is not lost. You have the flight logs so you can raise a ticket with DJI. Not sure if you saw my Mini 3 Pro crash video last month but had a similar issue, crashed over water with no stick input from me. DJI repaired under warranty despite me not having Care Refresh. So raise a ticket, tick the box that says you think it's equipment fault, upload the logs and see what happens..... Best of luck buddy 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Factor 1 moisture: Variation A: With the whole drone itself being at a greater temperature difference than the environment before launch causing potential moisture in various spots of the enclosed compact drone. Variation B: Acclimatized non operational drone to the surroundings temperature should not have or barely create any moisture hence upon launch drone should be ok until the natural occurrence of temperature raise of the battery creating again an immediate temperature difference at the area of battery back and the drones frame (fuselage) causing potential moisture in various spots of the enclosed compact drone. **I like to note that flying in sports mode the power pulled from the drone will increase its battery temperature hence greater moisture build up is possible. FYI: Drone's battery operate best at an optimum temperature hence it will ¨warm¨ up anyways during operation Factor 2 reflection: The downward sensors of the drone being flown over reflective matter could alter the drones ¨intelligence¨. THEROY: This crash could have been a combination of both factors especially with a single droplet in the sensor caused by moisture with reflection of the water. 1) With the droplets reflection plus the lakes reflection the drone could think its upside down and with the last input of joystick pushing UP on the controller the drone perhaps outputs it down movement. 2) With the droplets reflection plus the lakes reflection the drone could think its upside down and (regardless of last moment input of the joystick) its downward sensors thinking its very close to a surface and inputs its automatically correction of upwards movement but outputs downwards because it thinks its upside down. As confusing as it may sound the drone could actually be confused with these double reflections ¨measured/calculated¨ by these downward sensors. DJI: It has been mentioned before to have the option to turn off the downward sensors in all modes (C, N, S) regardless if that actually was the cause of this crash. So far, Darren and others are not totally to blame for a crash of this significance until proven.
Sorry for your loss. For anyone out there, running a Mini 3 Pro in sports mode regardless of what you are flying over. I believe due to the angled rear props, the Mini 3 pro will loose altitude while flying so something to watch in all sports mode flying situations. In addition re-calibration could be a great alternative to see if this fixes the anomalies
My mini 2 was hovering badly on Monday but was just taking photos of frosty scenery but wouldn't stay still even in virtually no wind, checked props and screws and all was fine that day, had her out today and all seems well but had been sitting in cold car whilst in work on that day even tho i had batteries with me. Glad i never flew over water and will always check stability now before flying off. Thanks Darren for this advice and honesty even tho you learnt the hard way we now don't have too.
So sorry to hear and for your loss - thank you for sharing your analysis. My suspicion for the cause is two-fold: potentially lense fog on the downward vision sensors (aka cameras) due to cold weather causing those anomalies in the flight behaviour. Pair this with substantial voltage drops in Sports mode + very cold weather, it's probably caused a malfunction/height drop of some sort.
I had a freak accident. Turned out it shed a blade. It basically flew up to 5,000ish meters (even though it's hard capped at 1k) and was going at m/s speeds I can't recall specifically but it was triple the maximum speed it's meant to fly at. It drained it's entire battery in like 2-3 minutes and turned up 5 suburbs away from where it's crash GPS report signal was from.
Darren - Having lost a Mini 2 in a rushing river, I share your feelings of loss and frustration as to why things like this happen. I hope that DJI can come up with a way to shut off the downward sensors so that they do not get confused over water, snow, or ice.
The exact same thing happened to me with my mini 2. I was filming my brother paddling down the dusi River and it also dropped into the water. Thankfully I was able to retrieve it. Sent it to dji with the flight logs and the fixed it for free because they said it wasn't my fault.
Interesting. I've been flying my Mini 3 in the same conditions over the last week and noticed that the drone was wobbling around in the sky as I was bringing it back down to land, when there wasn't any wind, even at low level. I also noticed the drone drifting to the left when flying forwards from low level to medium level. I thought that it must have been my inputs, but now seeing this video I suspect I had the same issues, and it's brought on by freezing temperatures (maybe misting of the sensors?).
If the sensors down are TOF sensors (time of flight), their measurement principle is sending out light and measure the time the reflection comes back. The time with light speed gets you the distance between the reflecting object and the sensor. In cold environments, if your drone is not fully acclimated, still warmer (and moister) from traveling in your car or being put out of a warm bag into flight, there may be fog building on the TOF optics. This is only a theory! But if the fog is leading to a almost-zero-reflection-time, can the drone eventually cut the motors because it thought it has been grounded or landed?
Man I feel you. I almost crashed mine today against a tree while I was learning how to auto follow trace my car. I hope you feel better tomorrow and think how many drones you actually saved from all the different owners out there. Keep going with your guides and videos. Is the most normal thing to happen to someone as experienced as you. All professionals have to change their gear often. To become the best you have to fail. We all learn from you here, thanks a lot for this unfortunate video.
I had a similar problem 3 weeks ago. My DJI mini 3 pro landed in the water while I was filming a river. It drained the battery in a second and landed in the river. I contacted DJI company and received a free service and a replacement unit, haven't even opened it yet. I am excited and happy with DJI customer service. I was frustrated when that happened and blamed myself as you did. Keep your eyes on the battery indicator for accurate and consistent reading. My unit had issues with that, and the readings were off.
I am just wondering about the mini 3 pro, when it crashes, does it beep once it crashes because if it lands in a tall grass field with no gps u wont be able to find it.
Thank you for the detailed report on your incident. The video of your wobbling drone reminded me of a near-loss of my mini 2 last winter in the alps, where it was about minus 10° C. It quickly started to get unstable, drifting to all sides, hard to control, impossible to hand-land. So, I simply flew it straight into the snow, where I could recover it undamaged. I used it later again in warmer conditions, no problem. It seems like some of the electronics in these drones don't take cold temps well, certainly something to keep in mind. Regards
Oh Darren so sorry to hear your story, not surprised you are gutted? It's the sort of thing that can happen to anyone but shouldn't. You are so good at telling us all how to avoid problems. Another lesson learnt by me!!
Hey ! At 5:01 you can see the water ripples towards the edge of the screen which means you are only 5 CM above the water. Sorry to hear about the drone :( , I been followin you for quiet some time and I am thinking about getting a mavic mini 3 pro, but also started to lean towards the air 2s a lot more… I need your final opinion ! I’ll be shooting 4k30/24 most of the time. To match my Sony a7iv , however I do live in canada and it’s quiet bit windy, most of my shooting will be in the woods while camping and such. Love the fact you can do horizontal on the mini 3pro and the lower aperture. Would also mean that I’d need to get a license for the air 2s, and the air 2s is 300$ more. What would you recommend for the long term ?
i second this, the ripples are a clear visual proof of the m3p flying ultra low, main problem here i think he doesnt have actual seeing his drone real position or maybe he is far away from the shore to see it? (despite the actual sensores geting confused by water reflection
Thanks for the video, sorry for your loss! I fly over water all the time! I've definitely seen it get confused by the height, even when it's just flying straight. I try to keep it 10-15 feet above the water at all times, but do occasionally go lower. So it's a scary thing to know that it might just nosedive on it's own if it's confused..
I did almost exactly the same thing with my brand new (on second flight) Magic 3 Classic, about a week and a half ago. Only significant difference is that it didn’t show any odd behavior prior to the incident. I got some interference a second or so before, so I never saw the crash on screen. It just went black and said that the connection was lost. As I couldn’t see it and had started to raise the drone just before the crash, I kept hoping that it would just return home, but nothing happened. 😔 I’m sorry for your loss, Darren. I know how you feel…
Might it have needed re calibrating? I flew my Mini 3 Pro the other day in -7°C, the first flight the gimbal was all over the place, with warning messages; I RTH’d it and swapped out the battery, but before I took off it prompted me to recalibrate the gimbal, next flight was perfectly normal. Something similar may have occurred, but with the flight management rather than the gimbal? Sounds unusual that it wouldn’t stabilise too well, especially where we can see from your footage over the water that it was essentially in calm conditions, ie not that windy?
I’ve had roughly 10 drones in my life. I learned early on that the drone will let you know if something is wrong. You hit the nail on the head when you said you took off and it was moving erratically and you thought something may be wrong. If it doesn’t rise up and sit rocksolid in the air, land it , turn it off, and clean the sensors. Turn it back on and try it again. Sorry to hear about your drone. Don’t feel bad, it happens to all of us. I’ve had roughly 4 crashes. We learned from all of them.
I'm only just recovering from my first and only drone loss - and that was about 10 years ago. It was a sobering experience watching a couple of hundred quid disappear on a fly-away. I abandoned quads and stuck to RC aeroplanes. Now that tech has advanced to a quite frankly insane level, I'm about to pull the trigger on a Mini 3 Pro. I don't think I'll ever not be nervous when flying, god knows, I've taken plenty of aircraft home in black plastic bin bags. I think it's the outright cost of a total loss that scares me the most. Thanks for the vid!
totally understand the sentimental value you mentioned! We do build somewhat of a friendship with our equipment. I have been flying RC aircraft for many years and when they go down it's heartbreaking and sad. Lessons learned and I hope way more safe flying for you! Thanks for sharing this!!
I think I know what's happened with your drone. Getting closer to the water is very risky for downsides sensors. The air from the propellers create circles in the water. And the ground sensors see them become bigger and bigger. Sensors start thinking that the dron is going down. It mess them and they land or turn off propellers. DJI say that we should fly over the water with turned off sensors 😊 It's strange for a people with this experience to do this mistake, but sorry for the last 😢
Darren, sorry you lost your drone. I am new to drone flying. Recently lost mines after two weeks. Saw somewhere that before flying you should always first "calibrate or recalibrate the compass". Not sure it had anything to do with your issue, but interested to hear what you think about calibrations.
Just got my Mini 3 Pro a couple of weeks ago. After about 2 days of flying, I updated the firmware. My drone started displaying some of the jerky movements you described. Then, the camera would refuse to come on and it stayed in Attitude mode. After troubleshooting online with DJI support, was told to recalibrate the compass, which worked temporarily. Then, at their Direction, I used the Assistant 2 app and found out I had a firmware mismatch. Once I reinstalled the firmware, it worked like a champ. Not saying it was your problem, but that's definitely what was wrong with mine. I had updated the firmware over a Wi-Fi hotspot on my phone before, and possibly a glitch happened to prevent the firmware from installing correctly? Sorry for your loss!
Sorry to hear about this story of yours. I was flying my mini 3 pro on Monday morning after the heavy snow in london and I noticed that I had tiny ice crystals on the propellers. Do you think that could have happened to yours? Maybe ice buildup in the motors. I managed to get my lens fogging up which is a problem I have not seen many people have. DJI are gonna replace my drone which I think is great of them.
Sorry for the loss.. I come from an FPV community and just got my first GPS drone last week. I have lost a custom FPV build in a river so I can relate. Really sucks, especially considering the time and work I put into it. That being said, now I am concerned because I have recently noticed my DJI Mini 3 exhibiting similar symptoms as yours. None of the issues with landing, but some wobbling and drift. I can line it up what seems perfectly, I point the gimbal all the way down for one of those epic downward facing shots, and little by little it drifts off course to the left without any user input. I did some research and saw others had similar issues caused by warped props. From the looks of mine they looked ok so I don't know. Was planning on going to the lake with it this week, you may have saved me. Definitely going to look further into my issue, if anyone has any suggestions please offer them up. Happy flying!
I know the feeling brother as I had my first fly away of my Mavic 3 mid December of last year. I am a certified pilot and take great safety precautions when flying. I watched as the drone literally fell out of the sky and wasn’t able to retrieve it. Fortunately I did have DJI Care refresh to cover the fly away, but at the end of the day, I actually cried real tears 😢
Sorry for your loss. What a bummer. I've had my Air 2s act up a couple times. Once, I was flying out over a pasture and river and it was drifting sideways and also drifting when just hovering. I had just calibrated my compass because I was quite a ways from where I normally fly. I brought it back to try to figure out what was going on and had trouble landing accurately. I tried to calibrate the compass again, and was having trouble with that. I finally noticed that there were some pretty big power lines right behind me. I moved to a different area away from the power lines, recalibrated, and everything worked normally. Another time, I was flying at a different remote location in very cold conditions. I tried to calibrate my compass and the calibration kept failing. I noticed a metal picnic table nearby, so I moved away from that, but still kept getting "calibration failed." Eventually, I realized that the gloves I was wearing, which are made so that the end of the index finger and thumb can be folded back so you can expose those 2 fingers, were causing the problem! When you fold them back, there are little magnets in them to hold them folded back out of your way. These magnets must have been affecting the compass while I was trying to calibrate it. I know this probably isn't what happened to you, but I thought it might be useful information for some of your subscribers. Thanks for all your great content.
Thanks for the reminder. I just had the same issues a couple sessions ago. Drone drifting to the right for no reason. Gimbal behaving strangely when raising or lowering it. I inspected the drone there onsite but could see nothing wrong. Flew it again a few days later and had no glitches at all. Did you ever find out why or what happened after the fact?
It's the speed at which it went down! Initially I was thinking I'll not fly below 12m but 8m is 26ft and for it to go down that fast makes you think something failed. On the plus side, try not to think of it as a crashed drone and more of a time capsule..... 😃
I would say it was because below a certain height the downward obstacle avoidance is responsible for maintaining vertical position. Because the water was so clear it did not read it as the ground level and so the sensors were confused. Fairly sure there's something in the manual about not flying below a certain altitude over water. Also, while your telemetry was saying 8m, your downward obstacle readout was saying 4.3m, so you were 4m lower than you thought to start with.
Same thing happened to me with my mini 2. Crashed it flying low in sports mode. I don’t think there was anything wrong with it Darren, the minis don’t hold their altitude with full stick forward, just try with your other mini. Nothing to do with sensors either, the drone should lock on its altitude sensor, but it doesn’t. What I suspect is in sport mode the drone doesn’t have any power headspace it needs to keep that altitude locked. That’s my theory anyway. I then got the pro and this time with the care coverage!
I'm sorry for your drone loss. I think an important thing is to consider is the temperature at which you are flying in. Batteries tend to perform really weirdly when its super cold. Also the bottom facing sensors could have froze over .... basically blinding the drone entirely to its bottom (and giving it false altitude readings) .... remember the drone gives you ONE altitude reading, but in reality it uses multiple sensors to generate that reading. If its within 10 meters from the ground / water it can usually use its bottom facing sensor to generate that reading, but when its higher up it'll give you that info from the GPS. So if you have a faulty bottom facing sensor - that reading is NOT going to be accurate at all unfortunately. It's a good idea to have a pre-flight check-list before using your drone, testing the functionality of the bottom facing sensor should be fairly easy to do. The only other thing I do is swap the SD card between flights - its a small investment to have a few smaller SD cards v.s. one HUGE one. I find that owning 4 or 5 64GB cards is better than having a single 512GB card. The drone max flight time is about 15 minutes anyways in most scenarios, it'll never fill that big card, so why bother? Just swap it!
I've just taken delivery of a Mini 3 Pro, so found your experience (although devastating for you) an invaluable and salutary lesson, Darren. Thanks for passing this on and I hope sincerely that nothing like it ever happens to you again. Best wishes for more great footage and the rest of the festive season. 🤝👍
It's bound to happen again, it's just part of being an aerial photographer. Every flight is one closer to the last for whatever piece of equipment that you're using.
DJI GO4 used to allow you to shut off those bottom sensors which was always a must for flying over water, snow and ice...Fly app does not. Sure wish they'd change this.
It was cold and icy. Were you taking it off and landing it on a snowy surface? The downwards sensors are much closer to the ground than on the other drone and it could have had some water or ice on the sensors. As you flew it over the water it could have refrozen and caused a problem ? Also need to be so careful in icing conditions, it was clear but just a small amount of icing on blades can cause BIG problems, close to water the relative humidity would be higher and in the cold, close to 100% and could have iced the blades. Just my thoughts, I am a pilot by trade and these were my first thoughts.
I’ve got an Air2 which I use on canoe/kayak trips and have found out you need to be higher than normal to get a stable hover after take off. If I tap the lift of button ( hand launch) and take my eyes off it to sort out some piece of kit in the kayak, it will slowly descend towards the water. I now take off and give it a few extra meters and it’s quite happy to sit there whilst I square away the kayak. I would always be wary of flying in low temperatures, it can really suck the life out of those batteries.
Yes any drifting or odd behavior of the drone can indicate a problem that requires immediate checking. Could be a propellor problem or just a need for Craft and RC Calibrations. Another reviewer lost their Mini 3 Pro recently due to sudden loss of GPS while flying near to a built up river bank and the avoidance sensors did not detect twigs. Sometimes its also a good idea to have a extra set of eyes with you during high risk Sanrio’s 👍
Is it me or maybe I'm reading it wrong because I don't have a Mini 3 Pro. Thinking about purchasing. But at 4:51 in your video, your downward sensor said 4.3m. Your height said 7.7. Seems it was more accurate as to your height. No?
Hi Darren Just wanted to say you are not alone in crashing your Mini 3 pro. I have been flying many Dji different drones since 2016, recently I crashed into the side of a cliff while doing a drone shot at Carrick-a reed rope bridge N.I . Ihad done some research into the height of the cliff & thought I should have been high enough up with the drone obviously I was not. Or else the sensing of the drone hight was badly out,this was also a cold day. Any how surely you need to be able to send DJI the drone back for the Care refresh to be any use? I too was gutted about two weeks ago Jan 2023 has not been a good month. Sometimes we just have to take it on the chin & learn from out mistakes. All the Best. Matt G.
I lost my Mini 2 that l hadn't had for long a few months ago, so l was very disappointed. l had been flying the whole day and filming very nice places here in Vancouver BC Canada, so losing the SD card was nearly as disappointing as loosing the drone. I purchased a Mini 3 Pro a few days ago that l haven't hardly tested yet. I don't want to lose this one, so now l am trying to learn from you guys 😀 Thanks for all your videos. They really help 😀
Also crashed my mini 3 pro in water in December! Problem was a 'schoolboy error' on take off. Was performing a hand launch near water in an enclosed environment and took my hand away too quickly! Cost me £250 for a new replacement drone from DJI, but their turnaround time was fairly fast. Will be taking out a Care Refresh package with the new one! I'm a relative newby to drones and I'll be taking more care with take-off and landing in future. 'Experience is the merely the name men gave to their mistakes' (Oscar Wilde). Great channel by the way!
I'm sure I speak for all of your subscribers, we are very sorry for your loss! Although it was an expensive mistake, we are all learning from your great information and experience. We value all of your content whether displaying great video content and reviews or negative experiences. Keep up the great work!
This is the second video I have watched this week where the drone started off with a strange issue, not hovering etc and it wasn't taken seriously. Sadly a drone lost but a massive lesson learnt I guess. Thanks for sharing
Gutted for you. My mini pro 3 took a nose dive when doing a hand take off, I managed to click a few bits of plastic back in place and the gimbal seems fine but I must admit I’ve lost confidence in the drone. It’s not as smooth when hovering now. I can’t understand why it nosedived as I’ve always done hand take offs and was shocked when it lifted out of my hand dropped 4 ft to the floor. I have DJI care , do you think I should send it back to get it checked out. ?
I had similar thing happen. I was on a boat, launched the Mini 3, it hovered and before I could fly it the boat drifted and the Mini 3 went under a roofline and hit a pole, lost control and ended up in the water. Thank goodness for the DJI refresh which will replace it for $345 AUD. We live and learn, thanks for the great channel.
Hi Darren thanks for the video and my condolences on your loss. I’d just like to say that my 3pro has been “acting up” since the last RC and drone updates. Almost like it’s drunk! Mine has a tendency to drift off course, more leftwards and backwards too if hovering. Swapped props and still it happens even indoors with no influence. Could this be a glitch in the new firmware and software? ESP as the other drone was fine. I’m not trusting mine just at the moment, even less after seeing your video.
The downward sensors are a pair of stereoscopic cameras. If they are looking down on a monolithic surface such as a snow field or car bonnet they have no points of reference and cannot function. An ideal case for a landing mat. The decrease in height when flying fast forward is not new, my old Mavic does the same thing, you just have to monitor the height and correct for it. The reason it does this is because for the drone to move in any direction it must tilt in that direction to provide a component of force in that direction. In tilting like this, as it moves through the air the force from the air passing over the drone likewise produces a component of force in a downward direction. Why the GPS system, which is establishing the height, doesn't correct for this, I don't know, but perhaps some drones are better at this than others.
I didnt see a mention or screenshot, but do you use UAV Forecast before flights? Every flight I check it. If winds are above 19MPH, I don't fly at all. If it's above 15MPH, there's a very high chance I don't fly. If it's 9-14 I keep an eye on it and if gusts are moving it enough, I stop flying. The only time I've had a Mini get moved like yours, was 21 mph winds and then when above a roof (so lots of updraft/crosswinds). I also just had an issue when I was near very high power electrical lines. I learned 3-4 days ago to expect power lines to cause interference with the command link (Air 2 to the DJI controller), and GPS (I normally have 16 satellites, and lock fast... interference dropped me below 9 sats and took long time to lock). I hiked to the top of a hill, which had power lines, but I launched about 200 feet to the side to make sure a RTH didn't have it come back, and then descend into power lines. Despite this, and then flying straight away (at 20' AGL) I still had a lot of interference. Wont ever do this again. If you watch my last video (posted 24 Dec) you'll see the hill. I don't want to spam your channel so I won't post a link unless you say it's ok.
Sorry Darren for losing the drone and, most of all, the footage! I saw a tip a while ago (I don't remember where) to swap out your SD card with every battery change. I have 3 SD cards now and so I have been doing that, so that if it crashes, you loose the last card and content only. Also, I would think that a light, plastic drone would FLOAT and not SINK! That was surprising! I do have the Care Refresh and I have always had it because I just can't afford another drone any time soon if I lose mine! Thanks for the video. It is a great reminder of what can go wrong. Memo to self: buy more spare propellers!
Dumb question but... I wonder if these are light enough to float for a while in calm water? If so, maybe the SD could have been retrieved and the hit on the DJI care wouldn't be so bad.... If you had the DJI care refresh. Just say'n.
So, to begin with: Thank you, Darren, for sharing the chain of events and the unfortunate outcome. I think anyone flying a drone for enough time and locations, treats it like kind of a partner, and so the sadness is well understood. Having living in a place near the sea, I get to fly my M3P over water quite a lot. And I have long noticed that whenever the drone is ~10m or so above the water, its behavior could sometime be unexpected. So, I learned to ALWAYS have one eye on the altitude meter when flying it in that "death zone", and if I notice anything suspicious, I usually shoot it up and regroup. Also, when lowering altitude towards any water body, I usually have my gimbal looking straight down. I don't trust the altitude meter when over water, but I do trust my own eyes.
4:51 ... Altitude indicator says 7.7m yet ground proximity sensors say 4.3m ... closer to the water than you thought maybe? It was super reflective so easy mistake to make.
Made the same mistake the first week owning my Mini 3 this past Summer. Watching yours take a dip brought back the bad memories. Totally my mistake for flying too low. There is definitely a small lag from the drone to the controller, so you must consider that when flying. The info is close to accurate but not exact. I learned to consider that when flying, riskier maneuvers, especially over water. I, fortunately, had the DJI insurance, paid the deductible and got a replacement. I did not have a lot of footage on the SD card, but what a bummer.
Had a similar event with my Mini 3 Pro as well. First flight after getting it and updating the firmware. It was a little dark outside but wanted to get a shot of my house all lit up. Acquired plenty of satellites and home point updated so took off using the Screen(ie press and hold to lift off). Immediately it starts drifting all over the place, I had to take full control to keep it from drifting into my fence or bushes and also to keep it off the ground. But then once I got it a bit more stabile it refused to land. Had to fly it over the soft grass and e-stop the propellers. My thoughts were the downward sensors couldn’t see in the dim light and it was a low enough altitude that it would try and use them. Wonder if it’s a larger issue with the Mini3 pro as now you and also Ian in London lost his too.
Kudos for being honest enough to allow others to benefit from your unfortunate experience. Note to "Auditors"... even when you do nothing obviously wrong the worst CAN (& does) happen. Minor change this from smacking off a soft wet lake with no consequential damage to smacking off a hard COMAH site & starting a fire with damaged batteries. That is going to be an interesting legal "discussion" regarding personal liability & whether consequential damages were foreseeable. ("I'm less than 250g & can do everything without any consequences" might not quite cut it).
Hi, I’m having the same issue. It appears that my drone drifts to the right. If you keep focused on the centre of the screen it appears that the drone is flying slightly sideways as it moving forward even though the left stick is only full forward.
So sorry to hear a few weeks ago I crashed my mini 3 pro, and broke its gimbal I hope you can make a good recovery, and continue with your amazing content one question, do you plan to get a new mini 3 pro, or not? Thank you!
Hey man.. so I just bought the mini 3 Pro and it’s my first drone. Excuse my ignorance, but I see they sell floating landing gears (pool noodles lol). I don’t seem to see people really using them much on TH-cam anyway. Would that have saved your drone? What’s your take on those (especially for a beginning flying over water)?
Curious if you were flying outside of its rated temperature range (believe is -10 to +40° C). Asking as I just got mine a couple weeks ago and have had it up in the colder temps close to the -10 range.
I always use aa landing pad in the snow to protect the drone and have never had an issue. I noticed at 0.56 seconds that you had your drone sitting directly on the snow, maybe the sensors were affected by that? Sorry about your loss.
This happened to me with the mini 2…I did an update and went flying’s right away. Just like you I was flying over a lake and when I was bringing the drone back I was fighting it to keep altitude but end up crashing into the lake. I contacted dji and they were awesome and send me a new one, is a process that you have to follow and I’m not saying they will send you a new one but it is with trying.
My Mini 3 Pro was doing that same stuff yesterday. Drifting and not hovering in place. It was moving out about 10 feet with hovering. I thought it was odd. I luckily got mine back. Wonder if something was up with DJI software yesterday. Note yesterday was the first time I flown this week
Darren, do you ever fly in acro mode, proper fpv? What happened is pretty obvious to any experienced pilot of racing drones, in full angle mode you are protected but in acro, amd to a lesser degree in sports mode on DJI, in order to go fast your drone angles forwards. This uses some of the thrust which is causing you to hover to be used ti send you forwards, so you need to push the throttle up a little to compensate to maintain altitude. I. Full angle mode (normal mode for DJI, the drone compensates and you don’t have to do it, in sports mode you have less assistance, you need to slightly increase throttle. Commiserations btw
Thanks for the honest video and guide. I often fly super low over water and have had a few 'close' calls and I totally understand how gutting this must be. But it's good to see your analysis of what happened and your review of the drones behaviour throughout the day. Sorry for your loss. 🙏
Hi Darren, I'm sorry for your drone lost. I would like to know how you recovered the footage before the drone crash. I record the images on the SD card, so if I lose the drone in the water, I cannot access the images of the crash.
Interesting, mine was acting like this a few days ago out in the cold! Wouldn't land even into my hand just like you said! Are the sensors lazer based and they're being effected by the cold? 🤷🏻♂️
Oh Darren, Sorry to hear about the drone. I feel your pain man. I lost my 1st Mini 2 as I was bringing it back in sports mode after a 2 mile flight. It was almost home when it ran outta battery and descended into some brush that was in a lake. I tried to retribution it but she's gone. I felt like I killed my best friend. I did not have DJI Care Refresh either. I hope you can get a replacement under the Care Refresh
That Mini 3 Pro of yours and the videos you got from it are what got me started into flying drones. I got a Mini 3 Pro and the fly more kit plus, all because of the stunning videos you created with your Mini 3 Pro. This is sad news indeed.
Very unfortunate, sorry to hear. I read in the manual that the 'downward vision system' does not work properly above water and in sport mode the sensors below are not disabled, only those to the front and rear. Also, the 'Vision System' cannot work properly over water. That may be the cause. I regularly fly at my house behind above water and my mini 2 never stands still, it almost always sinks down a bit. Does it never do above solid ground.
At a steep angle to fly fast, I would expect there to be a downward force from the airflow. I'm not a drone pilot so I don't know if you normally have to compensate for that with upward stick, but if the drone normally compensates for you then perhaps whatever sensor issue you were having also kept it from maintaining altitude. Like sticking your hand out of the car window while driving down the highway, tipping the leading edge down will cause downward force from the oncoming airflow.
Sounds like the mini three pro vision system became disoriented by the lakes surface. Unfortunately, this is a relatively common problem with DJI drone sensors. Thanks for sharing this experience, crashing a drone is always painful.
hi darren. feel your pain and completely get where your coming from. my mavic 2 pro dropped out the sky after 3 years of faultless flying. bulging battery issue. I was gutted but I managed to get it fixed and I'm keeping it around like an old friend that's been on many adventures with me. it did worry me tho. at that point I had complete confidence in dii products and I was a bit gutted dji didn't put something out there to tell you about the battery bulging issue. it has made me more careful with my mavic 3 tho and I have just got the mavic mini 3 pro and when I was flying it in my garden it wasn't staying still at all it was drifting all over the place and loosing altitude. it dont just sit in the exact place like the mavic 2 and 3. there was no wind so at that point I was like I won't be doing any camera setting changes while its hovering because I dont think it sits where u want it to sit.
In cold conditions icing on the rotors can occur. A small drop of water/snow sticking to one of them can change fly characteristics dramatically. De-icing is a big thing for aircrafts and helicopters. Tip would be to fully dry off rotors before making moves. Especially above water. Still sorry for your loss.
I just returned my Mini 3 Pro because of the hovering issue that you were having. I hav to recalibrate the IMU every time I flew the drone and the problem got better but never completely went away.
Oh Darren, I wish this video was out before Sunday as something similar’s happend to my Mini 3 Pro. It was foggy and under 0 degrees. The drone wasn’t overing correctly as your, at some point while trying to let the drone land, it decided to run away straight into a pole and dropping from 3 meters. Arm broken but luckily I got care refresh, the service is fantastic and I already have the new drone. I guess it’s not safe to fly under 0 degrees. Thanks for your videos mate.
Sorry for your loss bro. I noticed while in sport mode, especial with the FPV drone if I raise the altitude stick just a little bit while pressing hard on the forward stick, the drone actually dips a meter or 2 and sometimes more. Try it next time while up high and watch how much it drops. This looks like it's the exact same thing that happened to you.
Gutted for you bud are going to replace it? Think a good chance it was the bottom sensors. Mine was drifting a little the other day, but it's a white out up here in Scotland with weeks of severe frost. Just got the 3 classic last night and flew today in -4, and when flying backwards, you can see little bits of ice flying from the props on the footage
Sorry to hear this, but great video on recovering the flight and joystick logs. I know your pain though, as far as loosing the SD card with the excellent footage.. I filmed a complete Montana mountain UTV trail ride, and lost the GoPro unit later that day in a river! That was once in a lifetime (for me anyway) footage of that Montana mountain ride! But hey, we live and learn every day. Thank you, Cheers.
A couple of weeks ago I noticed my Mini 3 Pro was drifting to the side when flying in a straight line over water, I was flying about 7m above the canal going in a line with it and it was definitely drifting to the right. So this could be a similar issue flying over water.
Had similar issues with my Mini 3 pro after about 4000km. Swapped the props and it flew stable and straight again. The old props had no visible signs of damage. As for the dropping altitude could those props iced up.
I had the same! When you made a video about the big update last week. I did the update and make a test flight to check the update and crashed also. Lucky it was in the grass. I looked ad 2 days ago and there was a new firmware. On the moment the drone is back stabile.
I am OTT cautious flying over water and always change SD card after each flight usually with a battery swap. For me, better to have several smaller SD cards than one big one so at least I save something. (And I put them straight into a full-size SD adapter so they are less easy to lose.) Sorry for your loss, thanks for your analysis - like Ian in London and his erroneous water tracking crash. What do you think of the new VLOS rules. My guess is as many people are going to follow it as fully read through the terms and conditions on software license agreements before clicking the tick.
My mini 3 pro did that about 2 weeks ago. Not flying straight or hovering in place, no wind. Crappy video that night. Safe return. I've used it since, seems fine. Noticed it hoover fine and hasn't lost attitude since. I've flown under 50 ft both flights
bad news - hope you don't make the same mistake!
Hope you have a new mini 3 pro you have the best content
Darren, you should contact DJI support, provide them with logs, videos, and describe the situation. It wasn't your failure, and most likely they will send you a new one.
(and yes, this is a common practice for DJI, my friends was getting replacement after support confirmed that the problem was caused not by you but the hardware malfunction)
It’s was the sensor same thing happened on my mini 2 I could still fly it, but the camera doesn’t work no more
Another thing m8 night time never land your drone at night omg mine bounced then went 3 meters high then hit the ground again several more time s like it had no idea were the ground was
I always notice when i'm flying over water weather sea or a lake with my mini 2 that the drone tends to be trying dipping down in altitude even if i'm high as 8 meters above water, and lately yes sometimes the drone tends to steer left or right without any input in my controller, i always land and recalibrate sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't , still no idea why this happens
Love it when pros crash AND document the event for the community. Max respect bro. Easy for you to buy a new drone and never speak of this but you did the hard thing making this video. Painful day for you but appreciate you making this video for the benefit of the community. Sorry for your loss but RESPECT BRO 😎
🤜🤜
@@DMProductions its a bad time of the year, sorry to hear.
sounds like it might have been a balancing issues or something and maybe u could have recalibrated it or something i dunno? either way but good tip if you ever see the drone start to behave oddly. dont fly with it lol and try to check it out first! thanks for the v ideo!
Also drones need the same ( find my phone) app on all drones, I have lost 2 drones, and spent many hours looking for them,
Hi Darren,
I think we all realise that every time we fly we are a little closer to a drone loss. I think what really hurts is losing the footage as well. I make it a policy to swap out the Micro SD cards regularly through the day, especially when I think I've nailed some good footage. Coming from a photography back ground I always carry 3 or 4 spares. Another tip is to swap the RC card and the drone card at half time, that way the mornings footage is safely tucked away inside the RC
Hey Darren! So sorry mate!! All is not lost. You have the flight logs so you can raise a ticket with DJI. Not sure if you saw my Mini 3 Pro crash video last month but had a similar issue, crashed over water with no stick input from me. DJI repaired under warranty despite me not having Care Refresh. So raise a ticket, tick the box that says you think it's equipment fault, upload the logs and see what happens..... Best of luck buddy 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Ah really mate ? I may just do that 🙏
@DMProductions keep us in the loop if you do this, would be interesting to find out the cause
Factor 1 moisture:
Variation A: With the whole drone itself being at a greater temperature difference than the environment before launch causing potential moisture in various spots of the enclosed compact drone.
Variation B: Acclimatized non operational drone to the surroundings temperature should not have or barely create any moisture hence upon launch drone should be ok until the natural occurrence of temperature raise of the battery creating again an immediate temperature difference at the area of battery back and the drones frame (fuselage) causing potential moisture in various spots of the enclosed compact drone.
**I like to note that flying in sports mode the power pulled from the drone will increase its battery temperature hence greater moisture build up is possible.
FYI: Drone's battery operate best at an optimum temperature hence it will ¨warm¨ up anyways during operation
Factor 2 reflection:
The downward sensors of the drone being flown over reflective matter could alter the drones ¨intelligence¨.
THEROY:
This crash could have been a combination of both factors especially with a single droplet in the sensor caused by moisture with reflection of the water.
1) With the droplets reflection plus the lakes reflection the drone could think its upside down and with the last input of joystick pushing UP on the controller the drone perhaps outputs it down movement.
2) With the droplets reflection plus the lakes reflection the drone could think its upside down and (regardless of last moment input of the joystick) its downward sensors thinking its very close to a surface and inputs its automatically correction of upwards movement but outputs downwards because it thinks its upside down. As confusing as it may sound the drone could actually be confused with these double reflections ¨measured/calculated¨ by these downward sensors.
DJI:
It has been mentioned before to have the option to turn off the downward sensors in all modes (C, N, S) regardless if that actually was the cause of this crash.
So far, Darren and others are not totally to blame for a crash of this significance until proven.
Sorry for your loss. For anyone out there, running a Mini 3 Pro in sports mode regardless of what you are flying over. I believe due to the angled rear props, the Mini 3 pro will loose altitude while flying so something to watch in all sports mode flying situations. In addition re-calibration could be a great alternative to see if this fixes the anomalies
can confirm, tested with my own
Wouldn’t want this to happen to my Mini 3 Pro. It’s too precious for me to just crash it. Thank you for sharing your experience so we can avoid it.
My mini 2 was hovering badly on Monday but was just taking photos of frosty scenery but wouldn't stay still even in virtually no wind, checked props and screws and all was fine that day, had her out today and all seems well but had been sitting in cold car whilst in work on that day even tho i had batteries with me. Glad i never flew over water and will always check stability now before flying off. Thanks Darren for this advice and honesty even tho you learnt the hard way we now don't have too.
So sorry to hear and for your loss - thank you for sharing your analysis.
My suspicion for the cause is two-fold: potentially lense fog on the downward vision sensors (aka cameras) due to cold weather causing those anomalies in the flight behaviour.
Pair this with substantial voltage drops in Sports mode + very cold weather, it's probably caused a malfunction/height drop of some sort.
I had a freak accident. Turned out it shed a blade. It basically flew up to 5,000ish meters (even though it's hard capped at 1k) and was going at m/s speeds I can't recall specifically but it was triple the maximum speed it's meant to fly at. It drained it's entire battery in like 2-3 minutes and turned up 5 suburbs away from where it's crash GPS report signal was from.
Darren - Having lost a Mini 2 in a rushing river, I share your feelings of loss and frustration as to why things like this happen. I hope that DJI can come up with a way to shut off the downward sensors so that they do not get confused over water, snow, or ice.
The exact same thing happened to me with my mini 2. I was filming my brother paddling down the dusi River and it also dropped into the water. Thankfully I was able to retrieve it. Sent it to dji with the flight logs and the fixed it for free because they said it wasn't my fault.
Interesting. I've been flying my Mini 3 in the same conditions over the last week and noticed that the drone was wobbling around in the sky as I was bringing it back down to land, when there wasn't any wind, even at low level. I also noticed the drone drifting to the left when flying forwards from low level to medium level. I thought that it must have been my inputs, but now seeing this video I suspect I had the same issues, and it's brought on by freezing temperatures (maybe misting of the sensors?).
If the sensors down are TOF sensors (time of flight), their measurement principle is sending out light and measure the time the reflection comes back. The time with light speed gets you the distance between the reflecting object and the sensor. In cold environments, if your drone is not fully acclimated, still warmer (and moister) from traveling in your car or being put out of a warm bag into flight, there may be fog building on the TOF optics.
This is only a theory! But if the fog is leading to a almost-zero-reflection-time, can the drone eventually cut the motors because it thought it has been grounded or landed?
Man I feel you. I almost crashed mine today against a tree while I was learning how to auto follow trace my car. I hope you feel better tomorrow and think how many drones you actually saved from all the different owners out there. Keep going with your guides and videos. Is the most normal thing to happen to someone as experienced as you. All professionals have to change their gear often. To become the best you have to fail. We all learn from you here, thanks a lot for this unfortunate video.
I had a similar problem 3 weeks ago. My DJI mini 3 pro landed in the water while I was filming a river. It drained the battery in a second and landed in the river. I contacted DJI company and received a free service and a replacement unit, haven't even opened it yet. I am excited and happy with DJI customer service. I was frustrated when that happened and blamed myself as you did. Keep your eyes on the battery indicator for accurate and consistent reading. My unit had issues with that, and the readings were off.
I am just wondering about the mini 3 pro, when it crashes, does it beep once it crashes because if it lands in a tall grass field with no gps u wont be able to find it.
Thank you for the detailed report on your incident. The video of your wobbling drone reminded me of a near-loss of my mini 2 last winter in the alps, where it was about minus 10° C. It quickly started to get unstable, drifting to all sides, hard to control, impossible to hand-land. So, I simply flew it straight into the snow, where I could recover it undamaged. I used it later again in warmer conditions, no problem. It seems like some of the electronics in these drones don't take cold temps well, certainly something to keep in mind. Regards
Oh Darren so sorry to hear your story, not surprised you are gutted?
It's the sort of thing that can happen to anyone but shouldn't. You are so good at telling us all how to avoid problems.
Another lesson learnt by me!!
I know mate, can happen to anyone! Hope people see this and can react/avoid any issues
Hey ! At 5:01 you can see the water ripples towards the edge of the screen which means you are only 5 CM above the water. Sorry to hear about the drone :( , I been followin you for quiet some time and I am thinking about getting a mavic mini 3 pro, but also started to lean towards the air 2s a lot more… I need your final opinion !
I’ll be shooting 4k30/24 most of the time. To match my Sony a7iv , however I do live in canada and it’s quiet bit windy, most of my shooting will be in the woods while camping and such.
Love the fact you can do horizontal on the mini 3pro and the lower aperture.
Would also mean that I’d need to get a license for the air 2s, and the air 2s is 300$ more. What would you recommend for the long term ?
i second this, the ripples are a clear visual proof of the m3p flying ultra low, main problem here i think he doesnt have actual seeing his drone real position or maybe he is far away from the shore to see it? (despite the actual sensores geting confused by water reflection
Thanks for the video, sorry for your loss! I fly over water all the time! I've definitely seen it get confused by the height, even when it's just flying straight. I try to keep it 10-15 feet above the water at all times, but do occasionally go lower. So it's a scary thing to know that it might just nosedive on it's own if it's confused..
Nên luôn bay cao tối thiểu 25-30m thì sẽ an toàn tuyệt đối !
@@sonphamngoc1366 tôi đồng ý! nhưng đôi khi thật vui khi bay thấp!
I did almost exactly the same thing with my brand new (on second flight) Magic 3 Classic, about a week and a half ago. Only significant difference is that it didn’t show any odd behavior prior to the incident. I got some interference a second or so before, so I never saw the crash on screen. It just went black and said that the connection was lost. As I couldn’t see it and had started to raise the drone just before the crash, I kept hoping that it would just return home, but nothing happened. 😔
I’m sorry for your loss, Darren. I know how you feel…
Might it have needed re calibrating? I flew my Mini 3 Pro the other day in -7°C, the first flight the gimbal was all over the place, with warning messages; I RTH’d it and swapped out the battery, but before I took off it prompted me to recalibrate the gimbal, next flight was perfectly normal. Something similar may have occurred, but with the flight management rather than the gimbal? Sounds unusual that it wouldn’t stabilise too well, especially where we can see from your footage over the water that it was essentially in calm conditions, ie not that windy?
I’ve had roughly 10 drones in my life. I learned early on that the drone will let you know if something is wrong. You hit the nail on the head when you said you took off and it was moving erratically and you thought something may be wrong. If it doesn’t rise up and sit rocksolid in the air, land it , turn it off, and clean the sensors. Turn it back on and try it again. Sorry to hear about your drone. Don’t feel bad, it happens to all of us. I’ve had roughly 4 crashes. We learned from all of them.
I'm only just recovering from my first and only drone loss - and that was about 10 years ago. It was a sobering experience watching a couple of hundred quid disappear on a fly-away. I abandoned quads and stuck to RC aeroplanes.
Now that tech has advanced to a quite frankly insane level, I'm about to pull the trigger on a Mini 3 Pro. I don't think I'll ever not be nervous when flying, god knows, I've taken plenty of aircraft home in black plastic bin bags. I think it's the outright cost of a total loss that scares me the most.
Thanks for the vid!
totally understand the sentimental value you mentioned! We do build somewhat of a friendship with our equipment. I have been flying RC aircraft for many years and when they go down it's heartbreaking and sad. Lessons learned and I hope way more safe flying for you! Thanks for sharing this!!
04:50 Downward (sensor) 4.2 m ... while the altitude on the left shows H7.7m
Just an explanation of what happened
Spot on!! And glossy smooth water surface makes it extremely difficult to judge height visually, perfect conditions for a wipeout...
I think I know what's happened with your drone. Getting closer to the water is very risky for downsides sensors. The air from the propellers create circles in the water. And the ground sensors see them become bigger and bigger. Sensors start thinking that the dron is going down. It mess them and they land or turn off propellers. DJI say that we should fly over the water with turned off sensors 😊 It's strange for a people with this experience to do this mistake, but sorry for the last 😢
Darren, sorry you lost your drone. I am new to drone flying. Recently lost mines after two weeks. Saw somewhere that before flying you should always first "calibrate or recalibrate the compass". Not sure it had anything to do with your issue, but interested to hear what you think about calibrations.
Just got my Mini 3 Pro a couple of weeks ago. After about 2 days of flying, I updated the firmware. My drone started displaying some of the jerky movements you described. Then, the camera would refuse to come on and it stayed in Attitude mode. After troubleshooting online with DJI support, was told to recalibrate the compass, which worked temporarily. Then, at their Direction, I used the Assistant 2 app and found out I had a firmware mismatch. Once I reinstalled the firmware, it worked like a champ.
Not saying it was your problem, but that's definitely what was wrong with mine. I had updated the firmware over a Wi-Fi hotspot on my phone before, and possibly a glitch happened to prevent the firmware from installing correctly?
Sorry for your loss!
Sorry to hear about this story of yours. I was flying my mini 3 pro on Monday morning after the heavy snow in london and I noticed that I had tiny ice crystals on the propellers. Do you think that could have happened to yours? Maybe ice buildup in the motors. I managed to get my lens fogging up which is a problem I have not seen many people have. DJI are gonna replace my drone which I think is great of them.
Sorry for the loss.. I come from an FPV community and just got my first GPS drone last week. I have lost a custom FPV build in a river so I can relate. Really sucks, especially considering the time and work I put into it.
That being said, now I am concerned because I have recently noticed my DJI Mini 3 exhibiting similar symptoms as yours. None of the issues with landing, but some wobbling and drift. I can line it up what seems perfectly, I point the gimbal all the way down for one of those epic downward facing shots, and little by little it drifts off course to the left without any user input.
I did some research and saw others had similar issues caused by warped props. From the looks of mine they looked ok so I don't know. Was planning on going to the lake with it this week, you may have saved me. Definitely going to look further into my issue, if anyone has any suggestions please offer them up. Happy flying!
I know the feeling brother as I had my first fly away of my Mavic 3 mid December of last year. I am a certified pilot and take great safety precautions when flying. I watched as the drone literally fell out of the sky and wasn’t able to retrieve it. Fortunately I did have DJI Care refresh to cover the fly away, but at the end of the day, I actually cried real tears 😢
Did you ever figure out what caused the flyway? What were the circumstances around the event? Flying low? Over water?
Sorry for your loss. What a bummer. I've had my Air 2s act up a couple times. Once, I was flying out over a pasture and river and it was drifting sideways and also drifting when just hovering. I had just calibrated my compass because I was quite a ways from where I normally fly. I brought it back to try to figure out what was going on and had trouble landing accurately.
I tried to calibrate the compass again, and was having trouble with that. I finally noticed that there were some pretty big power lines right behind me. I moved to a different area away from the power lines, recalibrated, and everything worked normally.
Another time, I was flying at a different remote location in very cold conditions. I tried to calibrate my compass and the calibration kept failing. I noticed a metal picnic table nearby, so I moved away from that, but still kept getting "calibration failed." Eventually, I realized that the gloves I was wearing, which are made so that the end of the index finger and thumb can be folded back so you can expose those 2 fingers, were causing the problem! When you fold them back, there are little magnets in them to hold them folded back out of your way. These magnets must have been affecting the compass while I was trying to calibrate it.
I know this probably isn't what happened to you, but I thought it might be useful information for some of your subscribers. Thanks for all your great content.
Thanks for the reminder. I just had the same issues a couple sessions ago. Drone drifting to the right for no reason. Gimbal behaving strangely when raising or lowering it. I inspected the drone there onsite but could see nothing wrong. Flew it again a few days later and had no glitches at all. Did you ever find out why or what happened after the fact?
It's the speed at which it went down! Initially I was thinking I'll not fly below 12m but 8m is 26ft and for it to go down that fast makes you think something failed.
On the plus side, try not to think of it as a crashed drone and more of a time capsule..... 😃
I would say it was because below a certain height the downward obstacle avoidance is responsible for maintaining vertical position. Because the water was so clear it did not read it as the ground level and so the sensors were confused. Fairly sure there's something in the manual about not flying below a certain altitude over water. Also, while your telemetry was saying 8m, your downward obstacle readout was saying 4.3m, so you were 4m lower than you thought to start with.
I was scanning the comments to find this! I also noticed the discrepancy on the screen recording.
Same thing happened to me with my mini 2. Crashed it flying low in sports mode. I don’t think there was anything wrong with it Darren, the minis don’t hold their altitude with full stick forward, just try with your other mini. Nothing to do with sensors either, the drone should lock on its altitude sensor, but it doesn’t. What I suspect is in sport mode the drone doesn’t have any power headspace it needs to keep that altitude locked. That’s my theory anyway. I then got the pro and this time with the care coverage!
I'm sorry for your drone loss. I think an important thing is to consider is the temperature at which you are flying in. Batteries tend to perform really weirdly when its super cold. Also the bottom facing sensors could have froze over .... basically blinding the drone entirely to its bottom (and giving it false altitude readings) .... remember the drone gives you ONE altitude reading, but in reality it uses multiple sensors to generate that reading. If its within 10 meters from the ground / water it can usually use its bottom facing sensor to generate that reading, but when its higher up it'll give you that info from the GPS. So if you have a faulty bottom facing sensor - that reading is NOT going to be accurate at all unfortunately. It's a good idea to have a pre-flight check-list before using your drone, testing the functionality of the bottom facing sensor should be fairly easy to do. The only other thing I do is swap the SD card between flights - its a small investment to have a few smaller SD cards v.s. one HUGE one. I find that owning 4 or 5 64GB cards is better than having a single 512GB card. The drone max flight time is about 15 minutes anyways in most scenarios, it'll never fill that big card, so why bother? Just swap it!
I've just taken delivery of a Mini 3 Pro, so found your experience (although devastating for you) an invaluable and salutary lesson, Darren. Thanks for passing this on and I hope sincerely that nothing like it ever happens to you again. Best wishes for more great footage and the rest of the festive season. 🤝👍
It's bound to happen again, it's just part of being an aerial photographer. Every flight is one closer to the last for whatever piece of equipment that you're using.
DJI GO4 used to allow you to shut off those bottom sensors which was always a must for flying over water, snow and ice...Fly app does not. Sure wish they'd change this.
Me too 😊
It was cold and icy. Were you taking it off and landing it on a snowy surface? The downwards sensors are much closer to the ground than on the other drone and it could have had some water or ice on the sensors. As you flew it over the water it could have refrozen and caused a problem ? Also need to be so careful in icing conditions, it was clear but just a small amount of icing on blades can cause BIG problems, close to water the relative humidity would be higher and in the cold, close to 100% and could have iced the blades.
Just my thoughts, I am a pilot by trade and these were my first thoughts.
I’ve got an Air2 which I use on canoe/kayak trips and have found out you need to be higher than normal to get a stable hover after take off. If I tap the lift of button ( hand launch) and take my eyes off it to sort out some piece of kit in the kayak, it will slowly descend towards the water. I now take off and give it a few extra meters and it’s quite happy to sit there whilst I square away the kayak. I would always be wary of flying in low temperatures, it can really suck the life out of those batteries.
Yes any drifting or odd behavior of the drone can indicate a problem that requires immediate checking. Could be a propellor problem or just a need for Craft and RC Calibrations. Another reviewer lost their Mini 3 Pro recently due to sudden loss of GPS while flying near to a built up river bank and the avoidance sensors did not detect twigs. Sometimes its also a good idea to have a extra set of eyes with you during high risk Sanrio’s 👍
Is it me or maybe I'm reading it wrong because I don't have a Mini 3 Pro. Thinking about purchasing. But at 4:51 in your video, your downward sensor said 4.3m. Your height said 7.7. Seems it was more accurate as to your height. No?
Hi Darren Just wanted to say you are not alone in crashing your Mini 3 pro. I have been flying many Dji different drones since 2016, recently I crashed into the side of a cliff while doing a drone shot at Carrick-a reed rope bridge N.I . Ihad done some research into the height of the cliff & thought I should have been high enough up with the drone obviously I was not. Or else the sensing of the drone hight was badly out,this was also a cold day. Any how surely you need to be able to send DJI the drone back for the Care refresh to be any use? I too was gutted about two weeks ago Jan 2023 has not been a good month. Sometimes we just have to take it on the chin & learn from out mistakes. All the Best. Matt G.
I lost my Mini 2 that l hadn't had for long a few months ago, so l was very disappointed. l had been flying the whole day and filming very nice places here in Vancouver BC Canada, so losing the SD card was nearly as disappointing as loosing the drone. I purchased a Mini 3 Pro a few days ago that l haven't hardly tested yet. I don't want to lose this one, so now l am trying to learn from you guys 😀 Thanks for all your videos. They really help 😀
Also crashed my mini 3 pro in water in December! Problem was a 'schoolboy error' on take off. Was performing a hand launch near water in an enclosed environment and took my hand away too quickly! Cost me £250 for a new replacement drone from DJI, but their turnaround time was fairly fast. Will be taking out a Care Refresh package with the new one! I'm a relative newby to drones and I'll be taking more care with take-off and landing in future. 'Experience is the merely the name men gave to their mistakes' (Oscar Wilde). Great channel by the way!
I'm sure I speak for all of your subscribers, we are very sorry for your loss! Although it was an expensive mistake, we are all learning from your great information and experience. We value all of your content whether displaying great video content and reviews or negative experiences. Keep up the great work!
Thank you 🙏
@@DMProductions You didn't purchase the replacement plan?
@@dhoser9296 He addressed that in the video.
This is the second video I have watched this week where the drone started off with a strange issue, not hovering etc and it wasn't taken seriously. Sadly a drone lost but a massive lesson learnt I guess. Thanks for sharing
Gutted for you. My mini pro 3 took a nose dive when doing a hand take off, I managed to click a few bits of plastic back in place and the gimbal seems fine but I must admit I’ve lost confidence in the drone. It’s not as smooth when hovering now. I can’t understand why it nosedived as I’ve always done hand take offs and was shocked when it lifted out of my hand dropped 4 ft to the floor. I have DJI care , do you think I should send it back to get it checked out. ?
I had similar thing happen. I was on a boat, launched the Mini 3, it hovered and before I could fly it the boat drifted and the Mini 3 went under a roofline and hit a pole, lost control and ended up in the water. Thank goodness for the DJI refresh which will replace it for $345 AUD. We live and learn, thanks for the great channel.
4:45 the sensors detected that the drone was 4.4m above the surface of the water. Was the altitude reading showing zero as wherever you launched from?
Hi Darren thanks for the video and my condolences on your loss. I’d just like to say that my 3pro has been “acting up” since the last RC and drone updates. Almost like it’s drunk! Mine has a tendency to drift off course, more leftwards and backwards too if hovering. Swapped props and still it happens even indoors with no influence. Could this be a glitch in the new firmware and software? ESP as the other drone was fine. I’m not trusting mine just at the moment, even less after seeing your video.
The downward sensors are a pair of stereoscopic cameras. If they are looking down on a monolithic surface such as a snow field or car bonnet they have no points of reference and cannot function. An ideal case for a landing mat.
The decrease in height when flying fast forward is not new, my old Mavic does the same thing, you just have to monitor the height and correct for it. The reason it does this is because for the drone to move in any direction it must tilt in that direction to provide a component of force in that direction. In tilting like this, as it moves through the air the force from the air passing over the drone likewise produces a component of force in a downward direction. Why the GPS system, which is establishing the height, doesn't correct for this, I don't know, but perhaps some drones are better at this than others.
I didnt see a mention or screenshot, but do you use UAV Forecast before flights? Every flight I check it. If winds are above 19MPH, I don't fly at all. If it's above 15MPH, there's a very high chance I don't fly. If it's 9-14 I keep an eye on it and if gusts are moving it enough, I stop flying. The only time I've had a Mini get moved like yours, was 21 mph winds and then when above a roof (so lots of updraft/crosswinds).
I also just had an issue when I was near very high power electrical lines. I learned 3-4 days ago to expect power lines to cause interference with the command link (Air 2 to the DJI controller), and GPS (I normally have 16 satellites, and lock fast... interference dropped me below 9 sats and took long time to lock). I hiked to the top of a hill, which had power lines, but I launched about 200 feet to the side to make sure a RTH didn't have it come back, and then descend into power lines. Despite this, and then flying straight away (at 20' AGL) I still had a lot of interference. Wont ever do this again. If you watch my last video (posted 24 Dec) you'll see the hill. I don't want to spam your channel so I won't post a link unless you say it's ok.
Sorry Darren for losing the drone and, most of all, the footage! I saw a tip a while ago (I don't remember where) to swap out your SD card with every battery change. I have 3 SD cards now and so I have been doing that, so that if it crashes, you loose the last card and content only.
Also, I would think that a light, plastic drone would FLOAT and not SINK! That was surprising! I do have the Care Refresh and I have always had it because I just can't afford another drone any time soon if I lose mine!
Thanks for the video. It is a great reminder of what can go wrong. Memo to self: buy more spare propellers!
Dumb question but...
I wonder if these are light enough to float for a while in calm water?
If so, maybe the SD could have been retrieved and the hit on the DJI care wouldn't be so bad....
If you had the DJI care refresh. Just say'n.
So, to begin with: Thank you, Darren, for sharing the chain of events and the unfortunate outcome. I think anyone flying a drone for enough time and locations, treats it like kind of a partner, and so the sadness is well understood.
Having living in a place near the sea, I get to fly my M3P over water quite a lot. And I have long noticed that whenever the drone is ~10m or so above the water, its behavior could sometime be unexpected. So, I learned to ALWAYS have one eye on the altitude meter when flying it in that "death zone", and if I notice anything suspicious, I usually shoot it up and regroup. Also, when lowering altitude towards any water body, I usually have my gimbal looking straight down. I don't trust the altitude meter when over water, but I do trust my own eyes.
4:51 ... Altitude indicator says 7.7m yet ground proximity sensors say 4.3m ... closer to the water than you thought maybe? It was super reflective so easy mistake to make.
Made the same mistake the first week owning my Mini 3 this past Summer. Watching yours take a dip brought back the bad memories. Totally my mistake for flying too low. There is definitely a small lag from the drone to the controller, so you must consider that when flying. The info is close to accurate but not exact. I learned to consider that when flying, riskier maneuvers, especially over water. I, fortunately, had the DJI insurance, paid the deductible and got a replacement. I did not have a lot of footage on the SD card, but what a bummer.
Had a similar event with my Mini 3 Pro as well.
First flight after getting it and updating the firmware. It was a little dark outside but wanted to get a shot of my house all lit up. Acquired plenty of satellites and home point updated so took off using the Screen(ie press and hold to lift off). Immediately it starts drifting all over the place, I had to take full control to keep it from drifting into my fence or bushes and also to keep it off the ground. But then once I got it a bit more stabile it refused to land. Had to fly it over the soft grass and e-stop the propellers.
My thoughts were the downward sensors couldn’t see in the dim light and it was a low enough altitude that it would try and use them. Wonder if it’s a larger issue with the Mini3 pro as now you and also Ian in London lost his too.
Kudos for being honest enough to allow others to benefit from your unfortunate experience.
Note to "Auditors"... even when you do nothing obviously wrong the worst CAN (& does) happen. Minor change this from smacking off a soft wet lake with no consequential damage to smacking off a hard COMAH site & starting a fire with damaged batteries. That is going to be an interesting legal "discussion" regarding personal liability & whether consequential damages were foreseeable. ("I'm less than 250g & can do everything without any consequences" might not quite cut it).
Was the downward sensor dry before take off? I wonder if condensation blocked this downward sensor causing the VPS to perform poorly
Hi, I’m having the same issue. It appears that my drone drifts to the right. If you keep focused on the centre of the screen it appears that the drone is flying slightly sideways as it moving forward even though the left stick is only full forward.
So sorry to hear
a few weeks ago I crashed my mini 3 pro, and broke its gimbal
I hope you can make a good recovery, and continue with your amazing content
one question, do you plan to get a new mini 3 pro, or not? Thank you!
Hey man.. so I just bought the mini 3 Pro and it’s my first drone. Excuse my ignorance, but I see they sell floating landing gears (pool noodles lol). I don’t seem to see people really using them much on TH-cam anyway. Would that have saved your drone? What’s your take on those (especially for a beginning flying over water)?
Curious if you were flying outside of its rated temperature range (believe is -10 to +40° C). Asking as I just got mine a couple weeks ago and have had it up in the colder temps close to the -10 range.
I always use aa landing pad in the snow to protect the drone and have never had an issue. I noticed at 0.56 seconds that you had your drone sitting directly on the snow, maybe the sensors were affected by that? Sorry about your loss.
Any chance of ice, prop freeze Darren?
Could be but I was only flying in that area for about 5 mins before the crash
This happened to me with the mini 2…I did an update and went flying’s right away. Just like you I was flying over a lake and when I was bringing the drone back I was fighting it to keep altitude but end up crashing into the lake. I contacted dji and they were awesome and send me a new one, is a process that you have to follow and I’m not saying they will send you a new one but it is with trying.
My Mini 3 Pro was doing that same stuff yesterday. Drifting and not hovering in place. It was moving out about 10 feet with hovering. I thought it was odd. I luckily got mine back. Wonder if something was up with DJI software yesterday. Note yesterday was the first time I flown this week
Darren, do you ever fly in acro mode, proper fpv? What happened is pretty obvious to any experienced pilot of racing drones, in full angle mode you are protected but in acro, amd to a lesser degree in sports mode on DJI, in order to go fast your drone angles forwards. This uses some of the thrust which is causing you to hover to be used ti send you forwards, so you need to push the throttle up a little to compensate to maintain altitude. I. Full angle mode (normal mode for DJI, the drone compensates and you don’t have to do it, in sports mode you have less assistance, you need to slightly increase throttle. Commiserations btw
I feel your pain 😢
Is it possible the propellers needed changing, or loose? I've always wondered how do you know when you need change the propellers.
Didn't know Matt Damon is such a drone expert!
Thanks for the honest video and guide. I often fly super low over water and have had a few 'close' calls and I totally understand how gutting this must be. But it's good to see your analysis of what happened and your review of the drones behaviour throughout the day. Sorry for your loss. 🙏
Hi Darren, I'm sorry for your drone lost. I would like to know how you recovered the footage before the drone crash. I record the images on the SD card, so if I lose the drone in the water, I cannot access the images of the crash.
Interesting, mine was acting like this a few days ago out in the cold! Wouldn't land even into my hand just like you said!
Are the sensors lazer based and they're being effected by the cold? 🤷🏻♂️
Oh Darren, Sorry to hear about the drone. I feel your pain man. I lost my 1st Mini 2 as I was bringing it back in sports mode after a 2 mile flight. It was almost home when it ran outta battery and descended into some brush that was in a lake. I tried to retribution it but she's gone. I felt like I killed my best friend. I did not have DJI Care Refresh either. I hope you can get a replacement under the Care Refresh
That Mini 3 Pro of yours and the videos you got from it are what got me started into flying drones. I got a Mini 3 Pro and the fly more kit plus, all because of the stunning videos you created with your Mini 3 Pro. This is sad news indeed.
Very unfortunate, sorry to hear.
I read in the manual that the 'downward vision system' does not work properly above water and in sport mode the sensors below are not disabled, only those to the front and rear. Also, the 'Vision System' cannot work properly over water. That may be the cause. I regularly fly at my house behind above water and my mini 2 never stands still, it almost always sinks down a bit. Does it never do above solid ground.
At a steep angle to fly fast, I would expect there to be a downward force from the airflow. I'm not a drone pilot so I don't know if you normally have to compensate for that with upward stick, but if the drone normally compensates for you then perhaps whatever sensor issue you were having also kept it from maintaining altitude. Like sticking your hand out of the car window while driving down the highway, tipping the leading edge down will cause downward force from the oncoming airflow.
Sounds like the mini three pro vision system became disoriented by the lakes surface. Unfortunately, this is a relatively common problem with DJI drone sensors. Thanks for sharing this experience, crashing a drone is always painful.
hi darren. feel your pain and completely get where your coming from. my mavic 2 pro dropped out the sky after 3 years of faultless flying. bulging battery issue. I was gutted but I managed to get it fixed and I'm keeping it around like an old friend that's been on many adventures with me. it did worry me tho. at that point I had complete confidence in dii products and I was a bit gutted dji didn't put something out there to tell you about the battery bulging issue. it has made me more careful with my mavic 3 tho and I have just got the mavic mini 3 pro and when I was flying it in my garden it wasn't staying still at all it was drifting all over the place and loosing altitude. it dont just sit in the exact place like the mavic 2 and 3. there was no wind so at that point I was like I won't be doing any camera setting changes while its hovering because I dont think it sits where u want it to sit.
When you do all of this traveling with the drone, do you regularly do an IMU Calibration?
In cold conditions icing on the rotors can occur. A small drop of water/snow sticking to one of them can change fly characteristics dramatically. De-icing is a big thing for aircrafts and helicopters.
Tip would be to fully dry off rotors before making moves. Especially above water.
Still sorry for your loss.
I just returned my Mini 3 Pro because of the hovering issue that you were having. I hav to recalibrate the IMU every time I flew the drone and the problem got better but never completely went away.
Sorry to hear/see about the loss but I've learnt a lot so thank you for posting the vid.
I appreciate that
Oh Darren, I wish this video was out before Sunday as something similar’s happend to my Mini 3 Pro. It was foggy and under 0 degrees. The drone wasn’t overing correctly as your, at some point while trying to let the drone land, it decided to run away straight into a pole and dropping from 3 meters. Arm broken but luckily I got care refresh, the service is fantastic and I already have the new drone. I guess it’s not safe to fly under 0 degrees. Thanks for your videos mate.
Question: In case the drone is insured and you crash it in the ocean and you cant recover it will dji care refresh give you a new one?
Sorry for your loss bro. I noticed while in sport mode, especial with the FPV drone if I raise the altitude stick just a little bit while pressing hard on the forward stick, the drone actually dips a meter or 2 and sometimes more. Try it next time while up high and watch how much it drops. This looks like it's the exact same thing that happened to you.
Gutted for you bud are going to replace it? Think a good chance it was the bottom sensors. Mine was drifting a little the other day, but it's a white out up here in Scotland with weeks of severe frost. Just got the 3 classic last night and flew today in -4, and when flying backwards, you can see little bits of ice flying from the props on the footage
Sorry to hear this, but great video on recovering the flight and joystick logs. I know your pain though, as far as loosing the SD card with the excellent footage.. I filmed a complete Montana mountain UTV trail ride, and lost the GoPro unit later that day in a river! That was once in a lifetime (for me anyway) footage of that Montana mountain ride! But hey, we live and learn every day. Thank you, Cheers.
A couple of weeks ago I noticed my Mini 3 Pro was drifting to the side when flying in a straight line over water, I was flying about 7m above the canal going in a line with it and it was definitely drifting to the right. So this could be a similar issue flying over water.
Had similar issues with my Mini 3 pro after about 4000km. Swapped the props and it flew stable and straight again. The old props had no visible signs of damage. As for the dropping altitude could those props iced up.
Dji cloud is a great idea
I think so too!
I had the same! When you made a video about the big update last week. I did the update and make a test flight to check the update and crashed also. Lucky it was in the grass. I looked ad 2 days ago and there was a new firmware. On the moment the drone is back stabile.
Would DJI care refresh have helped at all with this loss.
I thought you had to return the drone for a refresh?
I am OTT cautious flying over water and always change SD card after each flight usually with a battery swap. For me, better to have several smaller SD cards than one big one so at least I save something. (And I put them straight into a full-size SD adapter so they are less easy to lose.) Sorry for your loss, thanks for your analysis - like Ian in London and his erroneous water tracking crash. What do you think of the new VLOS rules. My guess is as many people are going to follow it as fully read through the terms and conditions on software license agreements before clicking the tick.
My mini 3 pro did that about 2 weeks ago. Not flying straight or hovering in place, no wind. Crappy video that night. Safe return. I've used it since, seems fine. Noticed it hoover fine and hasn't lost attitude since. I've flown under 50 ft both flights