MC Data Error

damoncooper · Mar 12, 2015

I got this today after flying for about 10 min.

Scared me quite a bit, as the status bar went red, the bird was about 300M away over water and I had no idea what it meant, whether I had control or not etc.

So I just mashed the home button and thankfully it responded, I landed and after a restart of the app, controller and the I1, the error condition went away.

But I'm hesitant to fly again without understanding what the heck happened here. I'm on v.16 and there were a bunch of dialog errors that popped up saying updates were needed, try restarting the aircraft etc etc.

Anyone seen this before?

damoncooper · Mar 12, 2015

Ok, found Tahoe Ed's reply on the DJI forum in response to users with this error:

"As Amber stated, power cycle the Inspire and you should be fine. This is the Flight Data recording SD card that is on the FC not in the camera. You can look at the status of the card by clicking on the mode icon, and then Advanced. The last entry is for the black box. You can connect your computer to the usb port in the tail and a mass storage device will appear. That is the SD card in question."

Not sure I'm super jazzed about this or understand why a "black box" recorder wouldn't automatically manage its own space / overwrite old data quietly without going status red in the app, throwing alerts and scaring the poop out of pilots mid-flight, but hey....I'm glad it isn't something serious.

Just curious though: how often should I expect this mysterious little SD card to fill up and have the Inspire melt down with "MC Data Errors" mid flight?

damoncooper · Mar 13, 2015

Has anyone else gotten this error? I wonder if the FC is logging unnecessarily that it is one version behind (in my case v.16) and filling up the internal black box SD card?

DustyVisor · Mar 13, 2015

I had this error 3 minutes into a flight a week ago. I was only 30m high and 50m away from home point. I brought back, landed and powered down. When I got home I turned it back on and the error wasn't there. I thought maybe it had to do with still being on firmware v .16, so I updated to .17. Haven't seen this error again.

Kilrah · Mar 13, 2015

I've had it too. Apparently it waits until it's full and throws the error, then deletes old logs on the next reboot. It should instead either delete as required even in flight, or at least make sure there is enough free space for a decent time on each boot. For now it seems it won't delete preventively on boot even if there's only enough space for a 2-minute recording...

And the FC logs constantly, even on the ground.

huppe · Mar 13, 2015

I did have it too.Jus in the middle of a flight.Went home and landed.The Inspire was all the way under control so no problems with that.Since I was in the middle of nowhere and wasn't going home because it happened after 2 minutes I powered down and restart everything and all warnings were gone and didn't came back.So I went on flying in short range and from there build up confidence again.

The Editor · Mar 13, 2015

Kilrah said:
I've had it too. Apparently it waits until it's full and throws the error, then deletes old logs on the next reboot. It should instead either delete as required even in flight, or at least make sure there is enough free space for a decent time on each boot. For now it seems it won't delete preventively on boot even if there's only enough space for a 2-minute recording...

And the FC logs constantly, even on the ground.

Sooooooo... I guess this means that if someone is unlucky enough to have a mishap caused by craft malfunction mid flight after the data log is full, there will be no proof to give to DJI as evidence of non pilot error?
Best practice would be AS SOON as you see this in flight, land, reboot and continue from where you left off me thinks !!!

huppe · Mar 13, 2015

The Editor said:
Sooooooo... I guess this means that if someone is unlucky enough to have a mishap caused by craft malfunction mid flight after the data log is full, there will be no proof to give to DJI as evidence of non pilot error?
Best practice would be AS SOON as you see this in flight, land, reboot and continue from where you left off me thinks !!!

Maybe it is an option to store this data on your PC and do this on a regular time.Just in case.Don't know this is possible?

blade strike · Mar 13, 2015

huppe said:
Maybe it is an option to store this data on your PC and do this on a regular time.Just in case.Don't know this is possible?

Guys

IF the card gets full during flight you will receive this error. Please understand that the controller can't free up space while it's writing, just not enough i/o to do this.

If you receive this error you should land the craft at the earliest convenience to avoid no logging. Rest assured that the craft will function properly and no need to panic.

Kilrah · Mar 13, 2015

Still maintain that they should be able to erase as needed, BUT if they really don't want then they need to delete enough files so there is a reasonable amount of free space at every boot. Current way of doing it makes no sense.

blade strike · Mar 13, 2015

Kilrah said:
Still maintain that they should be able to erase as needed, BUT if they really don't want then they need to delete enough files so there is a reasonable amount of free space at every boot. Current way of doing it makes no sense.

I agree, maybe after so many logs it deletes the oldest log before it starts writing a new log.

Kilrah · Mar 13, 2015

Yeah, just make sure on boot there is at least 1GB of free space or so.

A typical flight takes 300-400MB, I've seen a 800+MB file when just letting the I1 powered on on a table for about 45min.

damoncooper · Mar 13, 2015

blade strike said:
I agree, maybe after so many logs it deletes the oldest log before it starts writing a new log.

+1 to that feature request.

Moleyb · Mar 16, 2015

I had the MC error during a flight on Saturday. It was only my third flight so I can't see how the internal card would be full?

During the same flight I also had GPS drop out and its flicked between P-Atti and P-Opti. Also saw multiple camera gimble resets - so not the best flight overall. There was a strong breeze so it was quite a scary progress getting it back under control, especially in P-Opti where it seems to fly at twice the speed.

There was sun glare on the screen so I only noticed the red MC error after about 10 mins of flight (not sure how long it was like that). An audible warning here would have been very useful! However, the flight record was all there still, so I can see the mode changing, but no mention of the MC error in the flight record?

blade strike · Mar 16, 2015

Bench testing also logs. This error also appears if the log gets corrupt or cant write to the card.

Blurfonz · Mar 16, 2015

I had this error just last week... Yep and immediately landed the baby and power cycle it and next I was up in the sky again!

Indeed it was scary!

Eric · May 4, 2015

Just had my first MC error last week, flight 70 something. No problems here, I didn't like that I was over water when I noticed it but at least she was just as responsive. I wish I had seen this thread before hand, I woulda had a few less heartbeats for sure

. Fast forward a few flights while I was close to a half mile out my iphone 6+ decided to over heat (78F ambient) and then shut off :-(. I got her back as fast as possible without incident again, but that's irrelevant to this thread.