Skydio 2+ went for a swim

[paularity]

Just lost mine in the water a few minutes ago. I do have the Skydio Care plan so hopefully it will be honored. I wish I had found this forum before taking it over water. I was Motion Tracking my kids on a tube. I was well clear of water, probably 50 feet up. It tracked for 30 seconds, disconnected then immediately went into Emergemcy Land mode obstacle avoidance disabled. There was nothing I could do to recover. Talk about your heart dropping and sinking right along with your investment. I won’t be flying over water any longer until I know reflective surfaces are no longer a problem. Does anyone remember seeing any warning about this anomaly from Skydio?

So I actually had an almost identical incident happen about a week ago - unrelated to the event that's further up on this thread (which it turns out was a glitch in the firmware that has since been patched)

If I had to guess, basically what happened to you was a GPS disconnect - not to do with reflective surfaces and unfortunately it is one of the things their warranty won't cover so I think you'll get stung with the $500 replacement cost

I had a 30 second flight and 15 of that was the same thing - out of nowhere got a hover instability warning and then emergency landing into the drink - controller only flight with no input available

There is some co-incidental info I found out about 'drone killers' in this area of the Gold Coast (rich people with signal jammers apparently) but I also know people who regularly fly other drones there too - so go figure

I definitely checked the GPS connection and number of satellites pre-flight and would advise anyone to do so , so I really don't know why you would get a disconnect like that out of nowhere...

Also if you do ever fly your replacement over water - opt for fixed angle tracking, not motion tracking and make sure the height floor is on

 

[scaldedchevy]

Excellent information, thank you!

 

[gsrider]

On the subject of keyframes, it might be good practice to think of your drone as a wild child who will wander off and do strange stuff between keyframes. blue flight path lines be darned. This can happen when you leave a lot of distance between keyframes even over the best of terrain. Add in reflective or shiny surfaces and you've got problems, which is why I don't use keyframes. After several close calls (and really stupid moves by the drone), I decided I would learn to fly smooth paths with the controller and stay away from certain things.

 

[scaldedchevy]

So I reviewed the video today. I didn’t realize that a low quality preview is automatically stored in Files. Now, it appears that right before the problem started, the gimbals starts behaving very erratically, jerking around. Then the emergency shutdown. This is in my opinion clearly a software/hardware glitch. However, as you predicted I had to pay the lost-drone deductible today. This is a huge problem and makes me much less confident in my Skydio. I have posted a link to the last flight video here, and I welcome your comments and opinions. You can see early-on a subtle shake in the gimbal, that gets worse as the flight progresses. Even when it landed in the water, the gimbal was offset.

 

[scaldedchevy]

On the subject of keyframes, it might be good practice to think of your drone as a wild child who will wander off and do strange stuff between keyframes. blue flight path lines be darned. This can happen when you leave a lot of distance between keyframes even over the best of terrain. Add in reflective or shiny surfaces and you've got problems, which is why I don't use keyframes. After several close calls (and really stupid moves by the drone), I decided I would learn to fly smooth paths with the controller and stay away from certain things.

 

[scaldedchevy]

It was determined that I launched without a stable GPS connection, and used Motion Tracking which is ill-advised piloting under these conditions. What I was doing is much better suited for direct controller input or beacon. In short, I caused this. Quite actually it is a relief to know that, even though a costly mistake. I have changed the description of this video to reflect my mistakes and warn others from repeating them. Through it all, Taylor at Skydio has been very professional and kind, even when I expressed frustration and more or less accused Skydio of making me pay for a hardware or software glitch. The lesson to be learned is do not relay completely on the AI, and educate yourself on best-practices for piloting under different conditions.

 

[Ridefreak]

It was determined that I launched without a stable GPS connection, and used Motion Tracking which is ill-advised piloting under these conditions. What I was doing is much better suited for direct controller input or beacon. In short, I caused this. Quite actually it is a relief to know that, even though a costly mistake. I have changed the description of this video to reflect my mistakes and warn others from repeating them. Through it all, Taylor at Skydio has been very professional and kind, even when I expressed frustration and more or less accused Skydio of making me pay for a hardware or software glitch. The lesson to be learned is do not relay completely on the AI, and educate yourself on best-practices for piloting under different conditions.

That's interesting, that gimbal instability you saw was it loosing lock on the subject, The drone shudders then stops tracking. I've seen it more then a few times. On mine the drone stops at that point and hoovers in place, if I also stop and push the blue button on the beacon it will usually regain connection, catch up to me and I can start off again. Were you just using the phone w/o the beacon when that occurred? I know it will follow the person using only the phone but I've never tried it with anything over walking speed, if so I'm impressed it kept up. On another note, was it set to land immediately in the event of a loss of signal? It seemed to come down very quickly. You may know this but you can delay that landing, mine is set to stop an hoover (for 5min I think) It's one you might want to change for future flights esp over water. Loosing connection esp when the drone is new isn't unusual. Ideally it stops and sits there looking for a connection rather then land, I use the drone to chase me on a MC and if I'm not careful I'll sometimes out run it. The recovery is pretty straight forward, come to a stop, push the blue button or wand it a little with the beacon.

If I can make a suggestion, the drone saves logs from successful flights that it uses for future flights, I've found that it often helps to fly the drone some in some easy tracking environments to get some successful flight data in it's tables. Between 2 different drones and a reset from one of the updates I've witnessed the drone's performance improve the more it flies on 3 different occasions. I've also seen it fail miserably out of the box so I've learned to take it easy with it initially and work up to harder situations, I'm not talking a great deal of flights but more then a couple. I've been amazed at some of the places it's tracked me both fast and slow once it's gotten dialed in for lack of a better term. When I've attempted similar scenarios with a new Skydio I was disappointed. Disconnects, poor tracking. I can't say what's happening but it will do better the more it flies.

 

[scaldedchevy]

That's interesting, that gimbal instability you saw was it loosing lock on the subject, The drone shudders then stops tracking. I've seen it more then a few times. On mine the drone stops at that point and hoovers in place, if I also stop and push the blue button on the beacon it will usually regain connection, catch up to me and I can start off again. Were you just using the phone w/o the beacon when that occurred? I know it will follow the person using only the phone but I've never tried it with anything over walking speed, if so I'm impressed it kept up. On another note, was it set to land immediately in the event of a loss of signal? It seemed to come down very quickly. You may know this but you can delay that landing, mine is set to stop an hoover (for 5min I think) It's one you might want to change for future flights esp over water. Loosing connection esp when the drone is new isn't unusual. Ideally it stops and sits there looking for a connection rather then land, I use the drone to chase me on a MC and if I'm not careful I'll sometimes out run it. The recovery is pretty straight forward, come to a stop, push the blue button or wand it a little with the beacon.

If I can make a suggestion, the drone saves logs from successful flights that it uses for future flights, I've found that it often helps to fly the drone some in some easy tracking environments to get some successful flight data in it's tables. Between 2 different drones and a reset from one of the updates I've witnessed the drone's performance improve the more it flies on 3 different occasions. I've also seen it fail miserably out of the box so I've learned to take it easy with it initially and work up to harder situations, I'm not talking a great deal of flights but more then a couple. I've been amazed at some of the places it's tracked me both fast and slow once it's gotten dialed in for lack of a better term. When I've attempted similar scenarios with a new Skydio I was disappointed. Disconnects, poor tracking. I can't say what's happening but it will do better the more it flies.

That's interesting, that gimbal instability you saw was it loosing lock on the subject, The drone shudders then stops tracking. I've seen it more then a few times. On mine the drone stops at that point and hoovers in place, if I also stop and push the blue button on the beacon it will usually regain connection, catch up to me and I can start off again. Were you just using the phone w/o the beacon when that occurred? I know it will follow the person using only the phone but I've never tried it with anything over walking speed, if so I'm impressed it kept up. On another note, was it set to land immediately in the event of a loss of signal? It seemed to come down very quickly. You may know this but you can delay that landing, mine is set to stop an hoover (for 5min I think) It's one you might want to change for future flights esp over water. Loosing connection esp when the drone is new isn't unusual. Ideally it stops and sits there looking for a connection rather then land, I use the drone to chase me on a MC and if I'm not careful I'll sometimes out run it. The recovery is pretty straight forward, come to a stop, push the blue button or wand it a little with the beacon.

If I can make a suggestion, the drone saves logs from successful flights that it uses for future flights, I've found that it often helps to fly the drone some in some easy tracking environments to get some successful flight data in it's tables. Between 2 different drones and a reset from one of the updates I've witnessed the drone's performance improve the more it flies on 3 different occasions. I've also seen it fail miserably out of the box so I've learned to take it easy with it initially and work up to harder situations, I'm not talking a great deal of flights but more then a couple. I've been amazed at some of the places it's tracked me both fast and slow once it's gotten dialed in for lack of a better term. When I've attempted similar scenarios with a new Skydio I was disappointed. Disconnects, poor tracking. I can't say what's happening but it will do better the more it flies.

All great information, thank you. I was using the controller connected to an iPad mini. You know, I know factually that I had the disconnect and/or return behaviors set on my phone not to land like that. However, now that you have brought it up I am not so sure that I did not change those behaviors on the iPad mini. I’ll have to check. It could be that I had it set up to land. If so, it would be a default setting. For sure though, that gimbal goes bananas before landing. They say it’s due to a few things. First, I launched without a stable gps connection. I can believe that because as soon as I hand-launched I sent it to work. However in my experience if there is an unstable gps connection it will ask my if I want to go auto or manual. I didn’t see that warning, but I can believe the connection wasn’t stable. I would like to see in future updates, the option to delay the launch while it’s calibrating and doing it preflight checks until it gets a stable gps bind. Perhaps that would mitigate things like this.

Second, I used motion tracking over water, which does have a documented problem confusing the AI. Skydio stated that manual direct controller flying or beacon flying is far better suited for this type of activity.

Third, I began changing the angles a bit fast, and all of these things conspired to bring it down.

It’s a bit of a learning curve, the does and do-nots. What does scare me is that I can only use the lost drone deductible once. We may need to find a way to attach a float so that it can at least be recovered if it goes does in water again. Until then, I’m not sure I would be confident enough to use it over water too deep to free dive and recover.

Skydio did agree to replace my battery, SD card, and N32 filter free of charge. So that’s nice.

 

[Ridefreak]

Thanks for the feedback, it's always helpful to know what can confuse this drone. For the water tracking a beacon is probably best, more so then the controller. You can switch up the tracking pretty easily and I've never had it get confused about the selected mode, not saying it can't happen but the drone seems to handle beacon commands pretty consistently. I'm not much of a controller flier, I use the beacon 99% of the time. It does have it's idiosyncrasies but for the most part it works pretty well and it's designed for activities like you were doing. Something I discovered, if the startup and GPS lock is glitchy or if the initial flying appears to be weird, land it, shut it off and start over. The strangest behavior I've witnessed from this drone was right after launch, probably was the same issue you experienced, poor GPS connectivity. Had I been over water at the time I would be paying for a new drone. I've seen that a couple times and like I said the more I used the drone the better it has performed. Those behaviors were soon after getting a brand new replacement, it hasn't done it since.

 

[Hawaii73]

Hi, my Skydio2 did the same using keyframe.

I could not recover the drone, so iPhone video from my iPhone log/file recording hence the poor quality.

I have uploaded the video from the last 2 keyframe X & Y before starting the keyframe recording, where the drone is flying out from the house (X) over the lake (Y) in a strengt line 3-4meters above the water and then it’s initiating the keyframe recording starting from hovering over the lake. On the first flight the drone almost drops into the water and the continues around the house. From the back of the house I reverse the keyframe fight and this time it drops into the Lake. (The reason why I don’t abort the flight when it almost drops into the water is because it’s just behind the trees so I can’t see the drone in this spot).

I do find strange that the drone drops into the water, given his flight a straight line between the X and Y / any comments appreciate.
I’ve seen many skydio videos where People’s fly over water without any problems - so at what condotions would it be “relative” safte to fly ?? (How still/glassy can the watersurface it be??)

cheers Jens

 

[gsrider]

Hi, my Skydio2 did the same using keyframe.

I could not recover the drone, so iPhone video from my iPhone log/file recording hence the poor quality.

I have uploaded the video from the last 2 keyframe X & Y before starting the keyframe recording, where the drone is flying out from the house (X) over the lake (Y) in a strengt line 3-4meters above the water and then it’s initiating the keyframe recording starting from hovering over the lake. On the first flight the drone almost drops into the water and the continues around the house. From the back of the house I reverse the keyframe fight and this time it drops into the Lake. (The reason why I don’t abort the flight when it almost drops into the water is because it’s just behind the trees so I can’t see the drone in this spot).

I do find strange that the drone drops into the water, given his flight a straight line between the X and Y / any comments appreciate.
I’ve seen many skydio videos where People’s fly over water without any problems - so at what condotions would it be “relative” safte to fly ?? (How still/glassy can the watersurface it be??)

cheers Jens

Simply put, you must not assume the drone will fly a straight line between two points. In one of my early experiences with keyframes, instead of flying a direct line through a field from point A to point B, the drone headed off into and down the road getting itself into a clutch of trees and bushes that it almost didn't get out of. I had to take manual control. Needless to say, when I use keframes, which isn't that often, I put in more than a few between an A and B straight line. More often than not, I simply use the controller rather than a keyframe course. Bottom Line: The drone can be like a wild child between keyframes that aren't close together.

 

[scrampker]

It was determined that I launched without a stable GPS connection, and used Motion Tracking which is ill-advised piloting under these conditions. What I was doing is much better suited for direct controller input or beacon. In short, I caused this. Quite actually it is a relief to know that, even though a costly mistake. I have changed the description of this video to reflect my mistakes and warn others from repeating them. Through it all, Taylor at Skydio has been very professional and kind, even when I expressed frustration and more or less accused Skydio of making me pay for a hardware or software glitch. The lesson to be learned is do not relay completely on the AI, and educate yourself on best-practices for piloting under different conditions.

Why wouldn't the drone acquire GPS quickly, or immediately after launching and update, like every other drone on the market?

I ran into a similar situation, except for me, the drone just flew away into oblivion. No traces of it, despite flying over land. It feels like Skydio rolled out Auto-Motion so they could have yet another reason not to honor the replacement policy people paid for.

Lesson learned here should be that you avoid manufacturer care plans. Get the Personal Article Policy from State Farm, like I have. Zero effort to get replacement.

 

[cruiser]

I lost my Skydio 2 today. I hopelessly watched it descending into the Atlantic Ocean, about 50 yards from the shore. If the "I" in AI stands for intelligence, then this being willingly committed suicide.

I have been using my S2 for shooting water sport many times now, kiteboarding, wing foiling, etc. It worked pretty well. I always launch it from the beach and land it on the beach, using kitchen plastic wrap (and rubber band) to waterproof the beacon and hang it behind my neck. Either motion tracking or fix track, it did what I expected.

I guess I became too comfortable with this method, and over-confident with its "intelligence". I set out kite foiling today, checked the main battery level, it was full. The beacon was still in the plastic wrap I used last time, so everything looked good.

On the beach, I launched the drone first, then the kite. Set it to fixed track mode and everything worked like before. In my mind, the drone is smart enough, that if anything goes wrong over the water, it will return to the launching point. Sadly, this wasn't true.

I tied the beacon to my shoulder strap and got into the water. The drone followed me initially, but after a minute or so, it moved away. I thought to myself, my body is blocking the signal, it will come back when I get on my foil. Oh boy, I was wrong.

When I didn't see the drone after a few more minutes, I returned to the shore. There I saw my S2 hovering above the wavy sea, about 50 yards from the shore, slowly descending into the water. It was a hopelessly sinking feeling that I'll probably remember for a while.

It turns out, the plastic wrap I previously used had worn out, it leaked water and the beacon died as soon as I entered the water. Instead of returning to the launching point, the drone decided it should just "land" into the Atlantic Ocean. All the respect I had with this "intelligent" product, accumulated over many months, now is greatly damaged.

I probably won't buy another Skydio drone, until:
1) They come up with a waterproof beacon, and
2) It doesn't commit water suicide anymore.

 

[scrampker]

I lost my Skydio 2 today. I hopelessly watched it descending into the Atlantic Ocean, about 50 yards from the shore. If the "I" in AI stands for intelligence, then this being willingly committed suicide.

I have been using my S2 for shooting water sport many times now, kiteboarding, wing foiling, etc. It worked pretty well. I always launch it from the beach and land it on the beach, using kitchen plastic wrap (and rubber band) to waterproof the beacon and hang it behind my neck. Either motion tracking or fix track, it did what I expected.

I guess I became too comfortable with this method, and over-confident with its "intelligence". I set out kite foiling today, checked the main battery level, it was full. The beacon was still in the plastic wrap I used last time, so everything looked good.

On the beach, I launched the drone first, then the kite. Set it to fixed track mode and everything worked like before. In my mind, the drone is smart enough, that if anything goes wrong over the water, it will return to the launching point. Sadly, this wasn't true.

I tied the beacon to my shoulder strap and got into the water. The drone followed me initially, but after a minute or so, it moved away. I thought to myself, my body is blocking the signal, it will come back when I get on my foil. Oh boy, I was wrong.

When I didn't see the drone after a few more minutes, I returned to the shore. There I saw my S2 hovering above the wavy sea, about 50 yards from the shore, slowly descending into the water. It was a hopelessly sinking feeling that I'll probably remember for a while.

It turns out, the plastic wrap I previously used had worn out, it leaked water and the beacon died as soon as I entered the water. Instead of returning to the launching point, the drone decided it should just "land" into the Atlantic Ocean. All the respect I had with this "intelligent" product, accumulated over many months, now is greatly damaged.

I probably won't buy another Skydio drone, until:
1) They come up with a waterproof beacon, and
2) It doesn't commit water suicide anymore.

Why am I not shocked to learn the drone did something moronic...

 

[paularity]

I lost my Skydio 2 today. I hopelessly watched it descending into the Atlantic Ocean, about 50 yards from the shore. If the "I" in AI stands for intelligence, then this being willingly committed suicide.

I have been using my S2 for shooting water sport many times now, kiteboarding, wing foiling, etc. It worked pretty well. I always launch it from the beach and land it on the beach, using kitchen plastic wrap (and rubber band) to waterproof the beacon and hang it behind my neck. Either motion tracking or fix track, it did what I expected.

I guess I became too comfortable with this method, and over-confident with its "intelligence". I set out kite foiling today, checked the main battery level, it was full. The beacon was still in the plastic wrap I used last time, so everything looked good.

On the beach, I launched the drone first, then the kite. Set it to fixed track mode and everything worked like before. In my mind, the drone is smart enough, that if anything goes wrong over the water, it will return to the launching point. Sadly, this wasn't true.

I tied the beacon to my shoulder strap and got into the water. The drone followed me initially, but after a minute or so, it moved away. I thought to myself, my body is blocking the signal, it will come back when I get on my foil. Oh boy, I was wrong.

When I didn't see the drone after a few more minutes, I returned to the shore. There I saw my S2 hovering above the wavy sea, about 50 yards from the shore, slowly descending into the water. It was a hopelessly sinking feeling that I'll probably remember for a while.

It turns out, the plastic wrap I previously used had worn out, it leaked water and the beacon died as soon as I entered the water. Instead of returning to the launching point, the drone decided it should just "land" into the Atlantic Ocean. All the respect I had with this "intelligent" product, accumulated over many months, now is greatly damaged.

I probably won't buy another Skydio drone, until:
1) They come up with a waterproof beacon, and
2) It doesn't commit water suicide anymore.

Why do people join this forum to just immediately complain about the product?!

Shite situation no doubt and I have been there (trust me!), so Im sympathetic to a point...

But that is some shonky method of 'waterproofing' the Beacon mate - a waterproof phone case is not expensive!

And if you look at any of my videos or posts here I have flown Skydio's over water likely more than anyone else and always recommend to have the Beacon somewhere accessible, not just hanging behind your back - you need to be able to commandeer the drone

I've kited with a forearm mount, or even strapped to my bar previously because you are obviously steering a kite too

And what you just admitted to is user error - the drone would have flown to the last waypoint it had GPS signal from the Beacon - which happened to me 50m over the ocean and since the Beacon was dead it obviously can't re-connect and either commenced an emergency landing or ran out of juice

Now apparently the new update Skydio just announced will have Auto RTH at Battery percentage, which could in theory have saved the drone, but I haven't relied on that for 2.5 years

Skydio waterproofing the Beacon would be nice, but that is only going to benefit a very small subset of their users

This drone is not a sentient being, you need to set it up for success and over water flying is one of the riskier situations where you either pay to insure the drone for a loss replacement or accept eventually something will fail or go wrong and you may never see it again

 

[scrampker]

Why do people join this forum to just immediately complain about the product?!

Shite situation no doubt and I have been there (trust me!), so Im sympathetic to a point...

But that is some shonky method of 'waterproofing' the Beacon mate - a waterproof phone case is not expensive!

And if you look at any of my videos or posts here I have flown Skydio's over water likely more than anyone else and always recommend to have the Beacon somewhere accessible, not just hanging behind your back - you need to be able to commandeer the drone

I've kited with a forearm mount, or even strapped to my bar previously because you are obviously steering a kite too

And what you just admitted to is user error - the drone would have flown to the last waypoint it had GPS signal from the Beacon - which happened to me 50m over the ocean and since the Beacon was dead it obviously can't re-connect and either commenced an emergency landing or ran out of juice

Now apparently the new update Skydio just announced will have Auto RTH at Battery percentage, which could in theory have saved the drone, but I haven't relied on that for 2.5 years

Skydio waterproofing the Beacon would be nice, but that is only going to benefit a very small subset of their users

This drone is not a sentient being, you need to set it up for success and over water flying is one of the riskier situations where you either pay to insure the drone for a loss replacement or accept eventually something will fail or go wrong and you may never see it again

Skydio botched the programming a few months ago when they released some new firmware -- that's why we are seeing so many issues. The drone should return to HOME, or have the option of doing so, regardless of updated location from beacon or controller. My fly-away experience had nothing to do with Beacon, or even moving the phone/controller around. It's pure and simple poor programming, and excuses from the manufacturer, blaming the customers. There's no reason for the bizarre behavior that many of us have experienced, which has cost us ungodly sums of money.

When my Mavic 3 Pro loses radio link, it flies back to where I launched it -- it doesn't randomly zip off into the unknown at full speed, never to be seen again.

 

[paularity]

Skydio botched the programming a few months ago when they released some new firmware -- that's why we are seeing so many issues. The drone should return to HOME, or have the option of doing so, regardless of updated location from beacon or controller. My fly-away experience had nothing to do with Beacon, or even moving the phone/controller around. It's pure and simple poor programming, and excuses from the manufacturer, blaming the customers. There's no reason for the bizarre behavior that many of us have experienced, which has cost us ungodly sums of money.

When my Mavic 3 Pro loses radio link, it flies back to where I launched it -- it doesn't randomly zip off into the unknown at full speed, never to be seen again.

Ungodly sums you reckon...

Mate I'm not going to argue with you that some people have had issues - I have also had random issues in the past

Is it related to a dodgy specific firmware update?

That I, nor anyone else can really say for sure, because we don't have the data

Have my drones occasionally done some whack things - yep they have

But the fact is people also need to take some accountability in how they fly these things instead of ranting on a forum to what end?

Any issues I have had - screen record or if possible film it happen - upload flight logs - send a stern email - wait and see...

I've had Skydio replace units on occasion and I'm in Australia - if it is genuinely a fault from their end I haven't had any dramas

Likewise I've also torched a few of these drones and had to go through the rigamarole of freight forwarding ones here too at my own cost

I've relied on the S2+ recently to ping around a live gas plant autonomously for inspection and that is a significantly more hazardous environment for things to go wrong than clipping a twig in the bush

DJI would be no different in their investigations, just on a larger scale

Stick to your Mavic if you have such a problem with Skydio drones

 

[scrampker]

Ungodly sums you reckon...

Mate I'm not going to argue with you that some people have had issues - I have also had random issues in the past

Is it related to a dodgy specific firmware update?

That I, nor anyone else can really say for sure, because we don't have the data

Have my drones occasionally done some whack things - yep they have

But the fact is people also need to take some accountability in how they fly these things instead of ranting on a forum to what end?

Any issues I have had - screen record or if possible film it happen - upload flight logs - send a stern email - wait and see...

I've had Skydio replace units on occasion and I'm in Australia - if it is genuinely a fault from their end I haven't had any dramas

Likewise I've also torched a few of these drones and had to go through the rigamarole of freight forwarding ones here too at my own cost

I've relied on the S2+ recently to ping around a live gas plant autonomously for inspection and that is a significantly more hazardous environment for things to go wrong than clipping a twig in the bush

DJI would be no different in their investigations, just on a larger scale

Stick to your Mavic if you have such a problem with Skydio drones

If you've torched a few of these drones, it doesn't sound like you should be a spokesman for these units. I had mine since the first batch, and never wrecked or had a single issue, until a firmware upgrade that seems to have caused others to experience erratic behavior.

You ask to what end, and it's simple--to warn others about these issues. Perhaps prevent someone from wasting $3k to get terrible customer service.

If Skydio could fix the current firmware and crap logic they've programmed in, improve customer support, and most importantly, the shitty range, then this would be the GOAT. Even with sub-optimal optics and portability, I'd take it with me over my other 4 drones in a heartbeat.

I'm no shill for DJI. That's why I threw so much money after Skydio, supporting the s2 from day one.

 

[Ridefreak]

If you've torched a few of these drones, it doesn't sound like you should be a spokesman for these units. I had mine since the first batch, and never wrecked or had a single issue, until a firmware upgrade that seems to have caused others to experience erratic behavior.

You ask to what end, and it's simple--to warn others about these issues. Perhaps prevent someone from wasting $3k to get terrible customer service.

If Skydio could fix the current firmware and crap logic they've programmed in, improve customer support, and most importantly, the shitty range, then this would be the GOAT. Even with sub-optimal optics and portability, I'd take it with me over my other 4 drones in a heartbeat.

I'm no shill for DJI. That's why I threw so much money after Skydio, supporting the s2 from day one.

I've been flying one of these since before they were released, I don't like the changes to the software ether. Bitching about it on here isn't going to change the software or get me more range. Many of us have experienced the same pains as you.

This isn't Skydio's gateway forum, that's a discord site you're welcome to join and it's moderated by Skydio employees. Obviously you had a less then acceptable experience with the company, I get that. That site is a far more effective platform to air you problems (the kind that nobody on here can fix for you) publicly, Skydio reads what's posted.

 

[cruiser]

Why do people join this forum to just immediately complain about the product?!

Shite situation no doubt and I have been there (trust me!), so Im sympathetic to a point...

But that is some shonky method of 'waterproofing' the Beacon mate - a waterproof phone case is not expensive!

And if you look at any of my videos or posts here I have flown Skydio's over water likely more than anyone else and always recommend to have the Beacon somewhere accessible, not just hanging behind your back - you need to be able to commandeer the drone

I've kited with a forearm mount, or even strapped to my bar previously because you are obviously steering a kite too

And what you just admitted to is user error - the drone would have flown to the last waypoint it had GPS signal from the Beacon - which happened to me 50m over the ocean and since the Beacon was dead it obviously can't re-connect and either commenced an emergency landing or ran out of juice

Now apparently the new update Skydio just announced will have Auto RTH at Battery percentage, which could in theory have saved the drone, but I haven't relied on that for 2.5 years

Skydio waterproofing the Beacon would be nice, but that is only going to benefit a very small subset of their users

This drone is not a sentient being, you need to set it up for success and over water flying is one of the riskier situations where you either pay to insure the drone for a loss replacement or accept eventually something will fail or go wrong and you may never see it again

I joined the forum a year ago, and had been stayed silent just reading others’ posts because I didn’t feel I had anything valuable to add… until now.

It’s a bit ironic that exactly one year after, I had my first post, and it’s complaining about my drone’s death…

The reason for my posting was straightforward: to warn other pilot, don’t overestimate the “AI” in your S2. Avoid making the same mistake I made. Your very first mistake can be your last mistake with this drone.

As for Skydio the company, I have neither hate nor amor toward them, the consumer and market will decide its future.