Anyone have this happen? Possible loss of control of Neo.

[jaja6009]

I stumbled upon this video and am now wondering is this has happened to any forum member.

I fly my Neo as a Category 1 drone with a Remote ID module attached (Over People/Moving Vehicles).

This video has now scared me about doing Category type flights.

 

[GadgetGuy]

No worries. This video is over a year old. Whatever issues may have existed have surely been resolved by more recent FW updates, assuming they were replicable and not unique to his Neo or his environment. The video is full of wild speculation. The original flight log would be the only way of determining what actually happened and why.

 

[Christian]

Something similar happened to me end of last year.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Something similar happened to me end of last year.

They all appear to be resolved by IMU and Compass recalibrations after hard landings or compass problems caused by nearby metal or magnets.

Most fly aways are not fly aways but bad compass calibrations from launching on top of metal. The infamous J hook. Make sure the compass direction on the app reflects the correct direction. One of the problems with a drone that can be flown without a controller is no warning of poor compass calibrations!

Always launch from your hand away from any metal, and do the compass dance as necessary.

 

[GFields]

No worries here. I only use the NEO for low or interior flights

 

[NEO 317]

No worries here. I only use the NEO for low or interior flights

Too noisy for me for interior flights. My ears are sensitive to the whine but the noise cancelling of the props in the app is impressive during an indoor flight.

My outdoor flights average around ten feet buzzing around the landscape in my yard and chasing the dog while he chases the ball.

He's totally cool with the NEO and more interested in the ball.

He's good training for manual motion tracking.

.

 

[Chrislaf]

I have had two incidents where the Neo became uncontrollable.

In the first case I was flying over a pond in an area where GPS signal is spotty even with my larger drones. I was well over 10m above the water so being low to the water and confusing VPS was not a factor. Suddenly the Neo became uncontrollable and veered toward the trees and almost crashed but I was able to regain control and land. The likely cause was a brief loss of enough GPS satellites before it regained enough to resume control. I was too high for VPS to be of assistance. I had checked the compass direction on the app before launching.

The second incident resulted in a crash. I was out on lake ice just out from the beach and using electronic hand warmers on a cold winter day. The warmers had a magnet in them that allowed them to be attached together to be used as one. In an effort to get the Neo in the air and keep my hands warm, I hand launched Neo failing to check whether the drone orientation and the orientation in the app matched. With the warmers in my nearby coat pocket, it immediately took off at high speed behind me and hit a concrete barrier - the classic sign of a compass deflection. The log verified the reason for the crash.

Chris

 

[Chrislaf]

Too noisy for me for interior flights. My ears are sensitive to the whine but the noise cancelling of the props in the app is impressive during an indoor flight.

After market props with more blades reduce the noise significantly. I have 5 blade props on specifically to increase thrust but the added benefit is the significant noise decrease and the change in tone. There are threads on this and and some YouTube videos if you are interested.

Chris

 

[jaja6009]

Thanks for all of the responses.

The two times I had loss of control was to be expected. It was due to low lighting indoors and another time I flew into a lightly, smokey building and the smoke messed with the downward sensors. Both were with the Motion Controller.

I don't really fly high with the Neo or Neo 2. Most flights never go above 20 feet AGL.

 

[jaja6009]

I have had two incidents where the Neo became uncontrollable.

In the first case I was flying over a pond in an area where GPS signal is spotty even with my larger drones. I was well over 10m above the water so being low to the water and confusing VPS was not a factor. Suddenly the Neo became uncontrollable and veered toward the trees and almost crashed but I was able to regain control and land. The likely cause was a brief loss of enough GPS satellites before it regained enough to resume control. I was too high for VPS to be of assistance. I had checked the compass direction on the app before launching.

The second incident resulted in a crash. I was out on lake ice just out from the beach and using electronic hand warmers on a cold winter day. The warmers had a magnet in them that allowed them to be attached together to be used as one. In an effort to get the Neo in the air and keep my hands warm, I hand launched Neo failing to check whether the drone orientation and the orientation in the app matched. With the warmers in my nearby coat pocket, it immediately took off at high speed behind me and hit a concrete barrier - the classic sign of a compass deflection. The log verified the reason for the crash.

Chris

Did you post this on Mavic Pilots in the Crash section? I think I remember this post.

 

[Chrislaf]

Did you post this on Mavic Pilots in the Crash section? I think I remember this post.

Yes, the second one with the hand warmers.

Chris

 

[Droning on and on...]

@Chrislaf, was there damage? if yes, repair or replace?

 

[Chrislaf]

@Chrislaf, was there damage? if yes, repair or replace?

One of the props was broken which I replaced and there were some scuff marks on the prop enclosures and the removable prop guards but nothing was broken on the drone frame. I am still flying that original Neo to this day. It’s one of the most versatile and cost effective drones I have ever purchased.

Chris

 

[Christian]

They all appear to be resolved by IMU and Compass recalibrations after hard landings or compass problems caused by nearby metal or magnets.

Most fly aways are not fly aways but bad compass calibrations from launching on top of metal. The infamous J hook. Make sure the compass direction on the app reflects the correct direction. One of the problems with a drone that can be flown without a controller is no warning of poor compass calibrations!

Always launch from your hand away from any metal, and do the compass dance as necessary.

Nothing to with it. Just need a IMU recalibration after crash. I didn't crash, just dropped the drone from a few inches and didn't do calibration. I could save the drone, but I posted it last year. The big mistake was ignoring a lot of error messages. I just wanted to fly on and once the GPS went red and I lost control completely for few seconds. I kept on pushing the stop button and that helped.

 

[GerdS]

I had two incidents with my Neo 1.

First one happened when I was flying in manual mode and touched a fence with not too much speed. The Neo then stopped reacting to any stick inputs. I increased altitude and tilted to the right, so I feared now having a flyaway. Feeled 20 seconds passed and then stick reaction came slowly back. I was then able to manually fly to my position and land. After battery exchange and restarting it flew normally again and the problem didn't occur a second time since.

Second one happened when I was flying through a forrest in normal mode.Suddenly GPS was grayed out and the Neo was in Atti mode. After some seconds GPS came back.

In general, the Neo 1 GPS receiver and its antenna are of very poor quality. It is a low cost solution developed by DJI themselves, not based on a common GPS chipset. You can see this already after powering the drone, which takes much longer for satellite acquisition compare to other DJI drones.

Both incidents happened with the latest firmware to my knowledge. In any case, if something unexpected will happen, DON'T USE RTH and fly back manually as soon as the stick inputs are recognised again.

I didn't see similar problems with my Neo 2, which has a significantly better GPS receiver.

 

[Christian]

I had two incidents with my Neo 1.

First one happened when I was flying in manual mode and touched a fence with not too much speed. The Neo then stopped reacting to any stick inputs. I increased altitude and tilted to the right, so I feared now having a flyaway. Feeled 20 seconds passed and then stick reaction came slowly back. I was then able to manually fly to my position and land. After battery exchange and restarting it flew normally again and the problem didn't occur a second time since.

Second one happened when I was flying through a forrest in normal mode.Suddenly GPS was grayed out and the Neo was in Atti mode. After some seconds GPS came back.

In general, the Neo 1 GPS receiver and its antenna are of very poor quality. It is a low cost solution developed by DJI themselves, not based on a common GPS chipset. You can see this already after powering the drone, which takes much longer for satellite acquisition compare to other DJI drones.

Both incidents happened with the latest firmware to my knowledge. In any case, if something unexpected will happen, DON'T USE RTH and fly back manually as soon as the stick inputs are recognised again.

I didn't see similar problems with my Neo 2, which has a significantly better GPS receiver.

IMO the GPS is not that bad. After hundreds of flight, it happened only once. I was sitting on the bench, when the drone slipped out of my hands and landed beside me. It was on, but wasn´t flying. From this "nothing", it went crazy. The secret is to calibrate IMU and compass. Even if the settings say "normal". The calibration resolves a lot of GPS related issues.