I had exactly the same experience, without the dangerous occupants. I recovered by quickly connecting with the N3 controller (GPS), updating the home point to the controller, and all was well; I connected and got it back. I would have tried exiting the Fly app and re-connecting that way ! Did it go beyond WiFi range ?
I suspect your problem wasn't the water but the compass calibration that it would have performed before takeoff. If there was enough metal in the boat (even screws and nails can do it) the vehicle will get confused. It tends to affect GPS hold/positioning. Will respond to joystick inputs because they are relative to the vehicle itself. When the vehicle has to correct to compensate for drift or wind it will apply thrust in the wrong direction because the compass is incorrect. The thrust then increases to compensate again in the wrong direction and just accelerates away. The New is particularly sensitive to this because it sits so low to the ground. I suspect if you could have taken off from your hand you would have been fine.
This is really great advice. I had something very similar many years ago when I was building drones and accidentally turned the GPS unit about 90deg and it behaved exactly as you described. In this case, the whole boat was wooden, and powered by nothing more than a large wooden oar. The pond was also very still so almost no movement at take off. But...to your point, I was a loooong way from where I last calibrated the compass. I was in Peru and the compass was last calibrated in NJ. I should have calibrated when I arrived and that certainly could have been a factor. Thanks for weighing in to help.
Could you have been in a weak Wifi area? The connection could've been lost... If I try it over water it'll be with the RC 2 Remote, not a phone. Ocusynch 4 should be a lot stronger than Wifi. Just a thought.
I have no doubt that things would have been much better if I were using an RC2 remote. However, the whole point (for me) of buying this was to have minimal extra equipment. If I was going to start bringing another device/screen then I might as well just bring a mini instead of a Neo. That was why, for me, I decided to sell it - it didn't fit the brief I had for it.
it seems using the goggle or controller is a must out in the wild if one must use it at all... multiple videos have said the same thing about this neo, wifi connection can be really strange at the 'correct' time to cause some disturbance on holiday.
@@aviosmedia yeah, i see. wish we had a pro version, combining air 3s and neo and a pro max, combining air 3s, neo and avatar 2 but prob not, they just want you to buy them all separately.
They have a habit of keeping things separate so that you have to buy multiples. Great example being the Mavic 3 Pro which has no SDK, whereas the Mavic 3 Enterprise has almost no useful creative features for video. So if you want to do mapping and shoot video (I do both) then you have to buy two drones.
I have a mini 2 and have noticed that, if there are not enough satellites, the compass does not seem to be active either. Has anyone else noticed this either other drones? I have only noticed this on start-up
Can't say that I have noticed that. But if you are only using the mobile app it doesn't show you how many sats you have ... or at least it didn't. I think they should add that as it might help people.
I had this 3 days ago but I could not get my neo back from the location. I had updated to the new firmware 1.00.0400 and this was the first flight with it. When it took off I had no control of it but when it crashed I was able to reconect but it was at an angle so would not take off. Just after it took off the flight logs shows it lost GPS for a few seconds before flying away. The location kept changing every time I opened the flyaway tracking app. I will put a airtag on my replacement drone next time. One thing I found was
I'm sorry to hear that. I didn't show it in the video, but after taking off mine too lost gps before getting it back (dropped to ATTI mode). That sounds very similar. I also could connect but not take off because of the angle. Then it said it was overheating. And then it shut down. I was at least able to download my last videos before it did that.
If you dont get time to download your videos to your phone they are stored in lower res in the DJI app in the MediaCaches folder along with flight records
An interesting cautionary tale and thanks for sharing. But I'm not totally convinced it was a water problem. If it just did a forced landing when it's confused by reflections from the water, I would get it, but fly aways and then descend. I'm not so sure. And I agree, the Neo isn't so great. Even compared to any of the Minis it's video and photograph quality isn't that good and it doesn't fly well.
I sent the logs to DJI and this was their response. "For your case CAS-18817378-XXXXXX, we have finished the analysis, and the result is as follows: 1. The aircraft worked under GPS mode; 2. Flight Time T=00:58, Relative Height H=4.6 m, Distance to Home Point D=11.5 m, the aircraft's performance was affected by the surface of the water, it started to drift and crashed at the end of the flight; According to the analysis, the incident was caused by non-manufacturing factors."
Spotlight mode should accomplish what you were trying to do. In mobile app set the default to photo rather than video. Launch off the back of the boat and voila you have a built in very cool tripod to capture those pics you would never be able to before
The log said I had 9 at the start, and it went up to 15. But one issue is that when using the phone instead of the controller, it doesn't tell you how many satellites you have, so you just have to wait a bit. The person who analyzed the logs at DJI said it was operating under GPS and only mentioned water as the factor. That said, perhaps having a few more satellites locked would have been useful and if I had a way to see I would have waited until I had at least 10.
@@aviosmedia Yep, it's real. It was in the news this week that the Finnish authorities are switching some old VOR/DME beacons back on, after several flights to airfields in the east of the country had to return to Helsinki due to GPS interference.
Sadly, the neo is a rushed response to the Hoverair. It is pretty flawed and DJI needs to get it sorted because at present it is letting down their brand. To not be able to take photo's or adjust contrast settings etc, along with water issues, and even land-based fly aways, are things they must get resolved within a couple of updates.
Do yourself a favour and get a DJI Pocket 3. They are far superior to a phone, SLR & GoPro put together! Thanks for the tip about not flying over water. I didn't know that. I'm not surprised your NEO performed poorly in the breeze; it's only a toy.
I guess it all depends on what you are used to. I have many larger drones (it's what I do for a living), and compared to those, this gets pushed around a lot. I did find it was slightly better when I took the prop guards off.
@@aviosmedia Well doh. I'm not that stupid. I was suggesting you use it instead of your phone as it has an inbuilt gimbal and, as I have found, is far superior to a phone camera for travel vlogs, etc.
LOL - sorry. But actually most of what I do when I'm traveling is photos. Video is great but I find I take it and then never do anything with it so the phone works great for me.
I also bought a Neo with the idea that being able to do simple flights in Manual mode with no need for a controller would be great, in my case for bicycling. After a pretty fair amount of testing I've come to the conclusion that, over water or not, flying without a controller in Manual mode just does not work as advertised. Even with a solid WiFi connection and the aircraft within 15 or 20 feet in my yard, the aircraft behaves erratically: yawing, moving forward backward and sideways despite no input from the controls. Manual mode with no controller is not ready for prime time and is best avoided under any circumstances. Hopefully with some further firmware development DJI can work out the bugs. Works fine with a controller, and is best used that way.
I had a similar reaction. It was twitchy at the best time. Controller works great from what I can see but then it is no longer what I needed. I have other drones for that already.
I had exactly the same experience, without the dangerous occupants. I recovered by quickly connecting with the N3 controller (GPS), updating the home point to the controller, and all was well; I connected and got it back. I would have tried exiting the Fly app and re-connecting that way !
Did it go beyond WiFi range ?
I was able to reconnect, but because of the angle, it wouldn't take off.
I suspect your problem wasn't the water but the compass calibration that it would have performed before takeoff. If there was enough metal in the boat (even screws and nails can do it) the vehicle will get confused. It tends to affect GPS hold/positioning. Will respond to joystick inputs because they are relative to the vehicle itself. When the vehicle has to correct to compensate for drift or wind it will apply thrust in the wrong direction because the compass is incorrect. The thrust then increases to compensate again in the wrong direction and just accelerates away. The New is particularly sensitive to this because it sits so low to the ground. I suspect if you could have taken off from your hand you would have been fine.
This is really great advice. I had something very similar many years ago when I was building drones and accidentally turned the GPS unit about 90deg and it behaved exactly as you described.
In this case, the whole boat was wooden, and powered by nothing more than a large wooden oar. The pond was also very still so almost no movement at take off.
But...to your point, I was a loooong way from where I last calibrated the compass. I was in Peru and the compass was last calibrated in NJ. I should have calibrated when I arrived and that certainly could have been a factor. Thanks for weighing in to help.
What a bummer! Great video and great to know!
Gald you liked it 😀
Could you have been in a weak Wifi area? The connection could've been lost... If I try it over water it'll be with the RC 2 Remote, not a phone. Ocusynch 4 should be a lot stronger than Wifi. Just a thought.
I have no doubt that things would have been much better if I were using an RC2 remote. However, the whole point (for me) of buying this was to have minimal extra equipment. If I was going to start bringing another device/screen then I might as well just bring a mini instead of a Neo. That was why, for me, I decided to sell it - it didn't fit the brief I had for it.
it seems using the goggle or controller is a must out in the wild if one must use it at all... multiple videos have said the same thing about this neo, wifi connection can be really strange at the 'correct' time to cause some disturbance on holiday.
Yeah, the whole point of it was to have minimal extra equipment - if you need to start taking extra stuff then I'd say a mini is the better option.
@@aviosmedia yeah, i see. wish we had a pro version, combining air 3s and neo and a pro max, combining air 3s, neo and avatar 2 but prob not, they just want you to buy them all separately.
They have a habit of keeping things separate so that you have to buy multiples. Great example being the Mavic 3 Pro which has no SDK, whereas the Mavic 3 Enterprise has almost no useful creative features for video. So if you want to do mapping and shoot video (I do both) then you have to buy two drones.
I have a mini 2 and have noticed that, if there are not enough satellites, the compass does not seem to be active either. Has anyone else noticed this either other drones? I have only noticed this on start-up
Can't say that I have noticed that. But if you are only using the mobile app it doesn't show you how many sats you have ... or at least it didn't. I think they should add that as it might help people.
I had this 3 days ago but I could not get my neo back from the location. I had updated to the new firmware 1.00.0400 and this was the first flight with it. When it took off I had no control of it but when it crashed I was able to reconect but it was at an angle so would not take off. Just after it took off the flight logs shows it lost GPS for a few seconds before flying away. The location kept changing every time I opened the flyaway tracking app. I will put a airtag on my replacement drone next time. One thing I found was
I'm sorry to hear that. I didn't show it in the video, but after taking off mine too lost gps before getting it back (dropped to ATTI mode). That sounds very similar.
I also could connect but not take off because of the angle. Then it said it was overheating. And then it shut down. I was at least able to download my last videos before it did that.
If you dont get time to download your videos to your phone they are stored in lower res in the DJI app in the MediaCaches folder along with flight records
Thanks. Useful info. In my case, I was able to download it, but others may not be so lucky.
Submitted a flyaway to DJI and they confirmed it was a warranty case and is giving me a free replacement, great news thank you DJI
Interesting that yours was a warranty case and mine wasn't. Was it over water?
An interesting cautionary tale and thanks for sharing. But I'm not totally convinced it was a water problem. If it just did a forced landing when it's confused by reflections from the water, I would get it, but fly aways and then descend. I'm not so sure. And I agree, the Neo isn't so great. Even compared to any of the Minis it's video and photograph quality isn't that good and it doesn't fly well.
I sent the logs to DJI and this was their response.
"For your case CAS-18817378-XXXXXX, we have finished the analysis, and the result is as follows:
1. The aircraft worked under GPS mode;
2. Flight Time T=00:58, Relative Height H=4.6 m, Distance to Home Point D=11.5 m, the aircraft's performance was affected by the surface of the water, it started to drift and crashed at the end of the flight;
According to the analysis, the incident was caused by non-manufacturing factors."
Spotlight mode should accomplish what you were trying to do. In mobile app set the default to photo rather than video. Launch off the back of the boat and voila you have a built in very cool tripod to capture those pics you would never be able to before
Yup. Spotlight mode could have worked perhaps. Good idea.
You may not have had enough gps satellites locked
The log said I had 9 at the start, and it went up to 15. But one issue is that when using the phone instead of the controller, it doesn't tell you how many satellites you have, so you just have to wait a bit. The person who analyzed the logs at DJI said it was operating under GPS and only mentioned water as the factor. That said, perhaps having a few more satellites locked would have been useful and if I had a way to see I would have waited until I had at least 10.
I go close enough to the Russian border that even that's not a guarantee!
GPS jamming?
@@aviosmedia Yep, it's real. It was in the news this week that the Finnish authorities are switching some old VOR/DME beacons back on, after several flights to airfields in the east of the country had to return to Helsinki due to GPS interference.
@6yjjk wow. If GPS becomes unreliable that's really going to affect a lot of stuff!
Oh dear...a bummer....did you try to make a flyaway warranty claim? DJI is pretty good about that if you provide them your flight logs
I did. They agreed it was a flyaway and sent a new one but it did cost me $89. It arrived and I sold it without even opening the box.
Sadly, the neo is a rushed response to the Hoverair. It is pretty flawed and DJI needs to get it sorted because at present it is letting down their brand. To not be able to take photo's or adjust contrast settings etc, along with water issues, and even land-based fly aways, are things they must get resolved within a couple of updates.
I don't think that's a fair comparison, after all, a Hoverair is about twice the price. You get what you pay for
I'm not sure I'd say it was rushed. It's designed for a different type of user, perhaps. Might be great for a vlogger. Not for me, though.
Do yourself a favour and get a DJI Pocket 3. They are far superior to a phone, SLR & GoPro put together! Thanks for the tip about not flying over water. I didn't know that. I'm not surprised your NEO performed poorly in the breeze; it's only a toy.
Mine did good in wind....I was scared I'd lose it, but it came back 🤷🏽♀️
I guess it all depends on what you are used to. I have many larger drones (it's what I do for a living), and compared to those, this gets pushed around a lot. I did find it was slightly better when I took the prop guards off.
Thr pocket 3 is great but it doesn't fly 😀
@@aviosmedia Well doh. I'm not that stupid. I was suggesting you use it instead of your phone as it has an inbuilt gimbal and, as I have found, is far superior to a phone camera for travel vlogs, etc.
LOL - sorry. But actually most of what I do when I'm traveling is photos. Video is great but I find I take it and then never do anything with it so the phone works great for me.
I also bought a Neo with the idea that being able to do simple flights in Manual mode with no need for a controller would be great, in my case for bicycling. After a pretty fair amount of testing I've come to the conclusion that, over water or not, flying without a controller in Manual mode just does not work as advertised. Even with a solid WiFi connection and the aircraft within 15 or 20 feet in my yard, the aircraft behaves erratically: yawing, moving forward backward and sideways despite no input from the controls. Manual mode with no controller is not ready for prime time and is best avoided under any circumstances. Hopefully with some further firmware development DJI can work out the bugs.
Works fine with a controller, and is best used that way.
I had a similar reaction. It was twitchy at the best time. Controller works great from what I can see but then it is no longer what I needed. I have other drones for that already.
Will the tracking work while using the controller?
I don't see why not.