Inspire 2 Flyaway

Oddly enough, this popped up on my FB feed just now... might help some of you appreciate why you don't need to calibrate every flight, and why to try moving your home point if your aircraft demands a calibration (see his point #2) ...

DJI Owners group - Compass Calibration

It's not about distance, it's about where you are in the world, and what direction you've moved since the last calibration you did.
 
deltalimatango said:
Maybe. Who's to say? This is a perplexing situation. However, for sure the boat/ship didn't blast the drone as someone suggested. I would not rule out RF interference coming from the ships and surrounding area.
Click to expand...

Failsafe. All drones since forever have it. If the link is lost, the system enters its failsafe state, and for DJI drones, unless the default configuration is changed or GPS knocked out, it will RTH. Signal loss due to interference is a normal and recoverable event.

The only condition that could kill the radio but not enter failsafe would be something frying the actual RX/TX with a concentrated and powerful signal similar to the microwave/radar I described earlier. And it would have to kill it without the rest of the system being able to recognize a loss of link in order to get it to drift away like that. I am still not sure this is at all likely.


This is an important detail. The compass is the most implicated sensor in erratic and uncontrolled flight or what some people call "flyaways". I wrote a primer on it back in the Phantom days but I've kept it up-to-date and it is equally relevant to the I2: Compass Calibration, A Complete Primer.


It seems like it was reasonable distance from you when this all went down. It is hard to tell how the drone is responding at such distances. Flying in ATTI without good spatial orientation would be tricky at best. It is easy to think a drone is either unresponsive or flying in a direction different to the one being commanded when it is far away from you. Not saying this is the case but it has been known to happen.

Can you post a video of the entire flight from the app? It would be useful to see the lost link messages and RTH inputs. Be sure to turn on the stick viewer.


Not a bad summary but I like mine better! Just be aware that there is A LOT of bogus information out there on the compass including from DJI.
 
ive been pretty close to some ship com equipment running with no effects.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0305.PNG
    5.3 MB · Views: 42
I concur with Editor. You should never calibrate the compass on a steel ship. Or any ship. Even 5 meters away from the magnetic backup compass on my polyester yacht I get interference. The radar should/must have been on minimal power as it was not on open sea, so I don't expect that to have been the issue.
[edit] updating firmware without proper testing procedure is also quite a gamble.
 
Last edited:
Wifi interference can also have been the culprit. Powerful hotspots can be found in harbour areas nowadays.
 
I have considerable experience flying around steel ships with Phantoms and Inspires. I agree that you should not calibrate aboard. I've traveled hundreds of miles on ships without calibration and flown from them without incident. I've also had flyaways similar to what you describe and by switching to Atti mode been able to recover the craft. I've been flying an Inspire 2 for several months now with hundreds of flights and never calibrated the compass! It hasn't asked for it, so I've not done it. In several cases where it has asked for a calibration I've moved a bit farther from metal till the compass calibration warning goes away and all is well. Another word of caution: be sure that you have the multiple flights modes option set in the menu or you won't be able to switch to atti when you need it most. If you have a flyaway I believe the first thing you need to do is switch to Atti mode. Get a little farther form the steel and you should be able to go back to GPS. I've flown close to lots of strong radars without incident but military radar might be different. I believe bad compass calibrations have been the cause of most flyaways.
 
Reactions: CoreySnipes
They didn't calibrate onboard the ship, Roar got the message on the quayside and did the cal there. Unfortunately for them, they did exactly what DJI Go and the Inspire asked for, without realising that they were stood over a load of iron and what the message was really saying Unless we've directly experienced it ourselves, most of us could easily fall into the same trap.
 
Reactions: deltalimatango
That is terrifying! We had an I2 go down due to "abnormal compass data" around a giant piece of steel we were shooting. Different problem. Same result - No more I2...
 
Sorry for this trivial question around your serious loss. I am just about to get commercial insurance for my I2. I have DJI refresh, but acknowledge that that is probably not enough. May I ask what company you went with and what sort of premium I can expect? Thanks and again sorry for the flyaway. I can't imagine!
 
Reactions: ProBowie

DJI Refresh will not help you if you do not have the remains of the Inspire. Expect to pay $1000 to $1500 for a million in liability and @ $6000 in hull insurance.
 
My question is;

When you finally realized that you lost your drone, how long did it take for the uneasiness in the pit of your stomach to go away????

I had a similar feeling when I crashed my drone and it stayed with me until I sent the drone off for repair....sob....
 

Know your drone no-fly zones, says store owner

"Naval vessels also have their own rolling no-fly zones to keep drones away, according to Habib."

"Habib said that military installations such as the Canadian Forces Ammunition Depot in Bedford maintain active no-fly zones and any drone entering such areas will be jammed and forced to land."
 

You neglected to post the funniest advice the store owner offered to us

And Dr Drone store owner Edward Habib has some simple advice for Halifax’s drone operators.

“Stay away from airports and don’t be an idiot.”
 
Reactions: Advexure and dkotinsky

Yes that may be all well and good but jamming signals aren't selective. They would affect everything in the area to include civilian and other naval vessels. Not to mention any other civilian applications. I don't think they threw a jamming signal at the OP's drone as it would cause too much collateral damage.
 
Reactions: NickU
Not selective but can be highly directional depending on the type of antenna system used and effective range depending on radiating power. Even if there are no report of other parties being affected, it does not mean it did not happen, it was a military vessel afterall. Unless the shoot was officially commissioned by the military and the ship was part of the shoot then we can possibly rule out jamming. Likely it was new firmware and compass calibration that caused it though.

Question: Assuming RTH was selected as failsafe, if the craft knows it's currrent GPS coordinate and the home point GPS coordinate, does it still need compass data? In theory, the craft can just estimate a heading and fly towards the HP. If the compass was in error and the new GPS coordinate goes in the wrong direction, then the craft can just turn and "home" in on the home point by trial and error. Thoughts?
 

Good Day. I fly around cargo ships and tugboats and to simply say: I always have permission from the vsl. As a USCG Licensed captain myself I carry a VHF to talk with the bridge. I NEVER EVER FLY near a military vessel whatsoever unless I have acknowledgement.

USCG regulations permit the Captain to turn off radar at his discretion. In close maneuvers with no real need for radar, I request radar to be shut off.

Military vessels emit RF far and above most civilian vsls. Marine radar and satellite technicians supplied me with a list of radio frequencies common to US Naval ships. I sent those frequencies to DJI Support asking if there was any shielding from the frequencies. There was no specific response other than to say, don't fly near ships. LOL. The same advice re: Microwave antennas.

That said, most large ships of any size, radar is but one set of RF interference as ships are transmitting on radios of various frequencies from VHF to otherwise, use massive broadband capabilities, and other transmitting devices that we may not know about. I stay at least 75 feet away from any antenna. And certainly do NOT fly directly in front of a radar dish. One can research the expanding radius of its signal. And stay clear...as much as one can.

The US Navy -- Fact File: AN/SPS-48G

Fact sheet for: AN/SPS-48G
www.navy.mil


As you can read, military systems are exceptionally complex to detect incoming at almost 360 degrees and at low and high altitude. Not your every day Garmin Radar on a tugboat.

"The processor supports contact processing rates of non-coherent and coherent detections per 4-second scan. Doppler filtering is utilized to make coherent detections. The radar has been designed to function in two separate scan modes: Low Elevation (LOW-E) and Equal Angle Coverage (EAC) mode. LOW-E is designed to detect and track low flying anti-ship missiles utilizing Moving Target Indicator (MTI). EAC mode is designed for high angle volume search and to track both high and low altitude targets. Either scan mode can be selected for all 360 degrees in azimuth coverage (Background Mode) or can be entered as scan mode gates in sectors not smaller than 5.6 degrees and as large as 360 degrees."
 
jonathan Atkin said:
As you can read, military systems are exceptionally complex to detect incoming at almost 360 degrees and at low and high altitude. Not your every day Garmin Radar on a tugboat.
Click to expand...
And even these "every day Garmin radars" can mess with DJI drone. Last summer I was filming a little tugboat towing a lumber on Arrow Lake BC, get too close and my usually very reliable Phantom 4 Pro went crazy. Compass Error warning message was followed by entering ATTI Mode flight, which I was able to manage safely. P-Mode returned shortly after escape to a safe distance away from this vessel.

Bottom line: flying DJI drone within marina environment must be carried cautiously.
 
Bottom line: flying DJI drone within marina environment must be carried cautiously.
[/QUOTE/]
So true! When I was photographing this yacht I asked the captain to switch the radar off, to eliminate any possibility of RF interference. It was a hair raising gig but I encountered zero issues, thanks god. The biggest challenge was to land the drone safely in strong wind on sloping canopy/suite roof near the small square window next to the passage to the bow. I was standing in that passage when flying and photoshoped out myself and my assistant/spotter from the final photos.
 

Attachments

  • CEDB175E-89F3-4F8A-8BDD-4E8AD8A94355.jpeg
    449.4 KB · Views: 10
Last edited:
Reactions: niki
How far were you away from this Naval ship? Also how far away was the drone from the Ship? And finally how far was the drone from you when it went AWOL?
 
You know this thread is from 2017?

But on topic.. I have also lost contact with my drone around a naval ship. I did reconnected and got my drone home again.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

A
INSPIRE 2 Litchi Waypoints
Replies
2
Views
2K
Inspire 2 Discussion
dave canadaIhclit
D
Inspire 2 Drone With Accessories - Washingtonville NY
Replies
0
Views
459
Classifieds
AP3
S
Selling My Mint Inspire 2 Gear
Replies
0
Views
1K
Classifieds
Sharpshooter7
S
M
Inspire 2, $1500
Replies
7
Views
2K
Classifieds
mkcoxn
M
L
DJI inspire 2 new user
Replies
1
Views
1K
Inspire 2 Discussion
Donnie Frank
Menu
Log in
Register