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Sad first flight

Xiv

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This is the email report i sent to skydio just now, after my drone crashed on its maiden voyage and broke off its gimbal.

I am beside myself, feeling as broken as my skydio2 appears to be. I hope you can help.

On one of my maiden flights, my first day flying, my drone lost connection when connected to my phone (i had not setup the beacon yet), and returned to where it took off which was a clearing where it should have had no trouble landing on its case. But it stayed at a high altitude when it returned and didnt come down. Despite many attempts it refused to reconnect with my phone. I restarted my wifi, my app, my whole phone, but still it refused to reconnect via my phone, and it was hovering almost directly above me. I then pulled out the beacon, and it appeared to connect to the skydio2 no problem despite having not been setup with it yet. I tried to lower the height of the drone manually using the beacon, both using the (-) button to try and lower its altitude and trying to direct it with the beacon as a wand, neither appeared to move the drone at all. I continued to try reconnecting my phone, but i was beginning to worry about the drones battery and it having been disconnected for so long (those few minutes disconnected felt like an eternity!). I then attempted to get it to lower its height by initiating a landing with the beacon, in the hopes of regaining wifi signal with my phone if it came lower, but when i tried to cancel the landing sequence (almost immediately after starting it), it refused to cancel! I pressed and held the square stop button as it suggested, and it did nothing. I clicked the button quickly and it did nothing. I watched helplessly as my drone landed itself right into a spruce tree.

When connecting my beacon to try getting beacon flight logs, i received the update error shown in the attached screenshot. I have uploaded the main flight logs from the skydio.

Whether the cause of this crash was my fault or the drones, i would very much like to avoid anything like this happening again! Please tell me how the flight could have gone differently to prevent this, if it were possible. The crash was quite emotionally difficult for me, im not going to lie. Regardless of whether its covered under warranty service, i intend to get it fixed, though we are on a very limited income... as I intend to use this drone as an important tool in a wide variety of ways for our small business ventures and family homesteading. We had already become so excited by and attached to our drone as to have named it! Let me know where to send the drone to receive service, and ill ship it out asap.
 

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Still no word back about where to send my broken drone. Beginning to worry.
 
Still no word back about where to send my broken drone. Beginning to worry.
Sorry for that experience. I find there is a problem with the phone app and current
firmware. I fly with the beacon only these days to avoid these problems. The phone app was fine before the update.

If you get a functional S2 I suggest flying without the phone. I know this is a PITA as I use the phone to frame the shot.

Make sure the beacon is paired to your S2, mine lost the pair after the update. We are all waiting eagerly for a new update.
 
Still no word back about where to send my broken drone. Beginning to worry.
Support is painful right now. I'm seeing about 1-1.5 weeks between each email response. Sucks man, such a great product with the worst support.
 
Bummer man! Did you go through the training 'exercises' on your first flight attempt? And they worked just fine? If so, that would seem to be ammo on your side.

Just doing that freaked me out at first cuz I didn't trust what it was gonna do having come from a 100% pilot flown Mavic Pro.

I can imagine a problem if the app thinks it didn't get a full download and thus refuses to work until its fully downloaded and sent to the drone. This seems to be what happened, but it should NOT be allowed to happen mid flight! It shouldn't have allowed takeoff if it weren't fully downloaded.

I dunno about unreliability of flying via phone/app alone post update. I hope to do some testing tomorrow. If beacon testing goes well, I may try just phone/app.

I doubt the beacon was doing anything at any point in your flight...it needs to be paired with the drone via wired connection. I'm guessing the drone initiated landing due to low battery, and thats not cancellable even if you have connection, but you can maneuver the drone in its dying seconds....I flew mine over a dirt road via optics I could see on my phone, and fortunately it landed itself just fine...then I had to go find where it was.

Scary when ya lose connection for sure! Likely most of us have been there to some degree.

Update this thread when ya hear back from Skydio.
 
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Did a little flying in my yard. Tried just the phone/app first.

Inititally just flew via manual and it seemed to be fine.

Switched to follow me (just walking) and the drone, via app, wasnt very good. It would track me at a steady pace sometimes, but sometimes it would accelerate and decelerate and do so in tight circles while watching me (I had it set off to the side, so right and left - tried both).

I could understand it being erratic like that when I first started walking, but it shoulda smoothed out. Was weird!

Switched to beacon and it seemed to fly steadier beside me for some reason.

This is a new drone to me and only second set of test flights. My old drone too would accelerate and slow down when flying to my side as I walk, but it didnt do circles...and the new drone's maneuvers were fairly rapid paced so the gimbal was gettin a workout.

I swear this new drone, at launch, flies up and turns around to look at me quicker than my old one. Just a little quicker, not like 2x as fast or anything.

More testing needed, but now I might not be able to go tomorrow...if not, hopefully Wedn.
 
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There is a relationship between the app and the beacon. Skydio says range is extended when using the beacon and GPS acquisition is stronger when using the app. The problem seems to lie in using the combination together, it wasn't a problem before.
 
The problem seems to lie in using the combination together, it wasn't a problem before.
Please clarify what problem you are referring to.
 
Posted todays test in Robbi's thread linked above. Short version, worked pretty well flying via app connected to beacon and beacon to drone in follow me mode.
 
So skydio got back to me, confirming that because i flew in fog they wouldnt cover it under warranty.
After watching other peoples crash videos, i figure im only a tier 1 ot tier 2 repair so hopefully it wont be too costly. Only things visibly broken are the gimbal and a propeller.

I was however on a schedule, and needing to ship it out to them for repair tomorrow at the latest, or wont have a chance to do so until the new year. I let them know this in an earlier email. Despite the fact i emailed them back less than 3mins after getting their email, (to confirm yes i still want it fixed, even tho it wont be covered by warranty), over 24h later, still no response. I still have no address to ship this thing to, and meanwhile the weather is soon gonna leave me with no oppprtunities to fly till spring :( itll soon drop to -20c and stay that way till april.
 
I had drone flying (hovering) without any response only once, when it was flying 30 meters from large tower (50+meters) with plenty of antennas on it. So it could be electromagnetic interference if it was taking off in close proximity from a powerful source of electromagnetism. other than that never saw such behavior.
 
i agree with dmac, your skydio did an emergency landing due to low battery. you can’t cancel it AND obstacle avoidance is disabled. 😬

this‘ll help you next time…

your drone’s return behavior setting is in it’s default setting. to change it, go here.​
pair your beacon to your skydio with the included cable. then connect your phone to the beacon.​
cheers 😊
 
So skydio got back to me, confirming that because i flew in fog they wouldnt cover it under warranty.
After watching other peoples crash videos, i figure im only a tier 1 ot tier 2 repair so hopefully it wont be too costly. Only things visibly broken are the gimbal and a propeller.

I was however on a schedule, and needing to ship it out to them for repair tomorrow at the latest, or wont have a chance to do so until the new year. I let them know this in an earlier email. Despite the fact i emailed them back less than 3mins after getting their email, (to confirm yes i still want it fixed, even tho it wont be covered by warranty), over 24h later, still no response. I still have no address to ship this thing to, and meanwhile the weather is soon gonna leave me with no oppprtunities to fly till spring :( itll soon drop to -20c and stay that way till april.
You didn't mention that you were flying it in the fog.
So what happened to it actually?
Please share it for our reference.
 
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