Greeting from Arizona high country (Prescott)!

Not sure this is the correct sub-forum for this post. Please let me know if it's not.

Some very odd behavior from the 03 Air Unit in my new GEPRC Cinelog 35 V2. Complete loss of signal and failsafe right next to my location. Details from the video description:

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Flew several packs that day and no other issues. This happened about 15 feet from me. 

The drone is a PNP GEPRC Cinelog 35 V2 only 2 weeks old, never crashed (yet!). Channel selection set to auto. Flying with DJI Goggles 2 and DJI FPV Controller 2. 

Have flown this about a dozen times at various distances and never seen this behavior. 

Note that both signal strength indicators in the goggles are full strength and at 50 Mbps through the entire event. Drone is configured in FCC mode. Have rescue mode configured in BetaFlight 4.4.3 and works perfectly. No other drones being flown nearby when this happened, 

I applied full power to fly out of it and after regaining control, finished the flight with no issues.

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Would appreciate any feedback or suggestions. GPRC support is worthless based upon past experience with them. 

Thanks very much!

Flew several packs that day and no other issues. This happened about 15 feet from me.

The drone is a PNP GEPRC Cinelog 35 V2 only 2 weeks old, never crashed (yet!). Channel selection set to auto. Flying with DJI Goggles 2 and DJI  FPV Controller 2.

Have flown this about a dozen times at various distances and never seen this behavior.

Note that both signal strength indicators in the goggles are full strength and at 50 Mbps through the entire event. Drone is configured in FCC mode. Have rescue mode configured in BetaFlight 4.4.3 and works perfectly. No other drones being flown when this happened,

I applied full power to fly out of it and after regaining control, finished the flight with no issues.

Flew several packs that day and no other issues. This happened about 15 feet from me.

The drone is a PNP GEPRC Cinelog 35 V2 only 2 weeks old, never crashed (yet!). Channel selection set to auto. Flying with DJI Goggles 2 and DJI  FPV Controller 2.

Have flown this about a dozen times at various distances and never seen this behavior.

Note that both signal strength indicators in the goggles are full strength and at 50 Mbps through the entire event. Drone is configured in FCC mode. Have rescue mode configured in BetaFlight 4.4.3 and works perfectly. No other drones being flown when this happened,

I applied full power to fly out of it and after regaining control, finished the flight with no issues.

So as far as I can see that was a Failsafe in message alone. A real failsafe has your drone fall out of the air, with no chance of recovery. The fact it just says that on the messages is largely irrelevant, because it didn't.

Is this a D8 drone?

it was a failsave, it went into rescue mode.

by default rescue mode has some minimum distance, it looked a bit scary so close to homepoint, accelerating nearly in that direction. for my taste it should drop out of the sky and crash in a failsafe situation at that distance for safety reasons, even as it is small...
i would set another min distance for rescue mode, defaults works nice.

the issue you got might be the low distance, the signal needs some distance and likely the antenna deadpoints was facing.
not sure if there is a posibilty to adjust the position of the antenna on the dji controller? it would need adjustements on the mounting of the antenna either.
verticaly would be the best about signal.

for the best link quality and no fear about your experience might be to switch your radio link and transmitter. expresslrs is the common choice, tbs crossfire is more expensive but also possible choice.

If you look on your Goggles OSD, it shows the RC link at full bars throughout so it does not seem that the RC2 ever lost link with the O3. Have you upgraded to the latest firmware, I think there was some issue in the old firmware with the RC2 suddenly losing control but that is supposed to be fixed in the newer firmware. Otherwise double-check the SBUS connection (yellow "HDL"), maybe the connector/pin is loose?

As Hugnose mentioned, you might want to double-check your BF GPS rescue settings. If sanity check is on and you are inside of the minimum distance, your quad should just drop instead of going into rescue mode.

The FPV Controller 2 has the latest firmware as do the air unit and the goggles.

The drone was built by GEPRC, so I'll have to check the SBUS connection. 

Here are my GPS rescue settings. I have 2 other drones configured like this and never an issue. Would appreciate any suggestions for improvement.

Thanks!

For the SBUS wire, this is on the connector cable that runs from your flight controller to the O3. It maybe enclosed in the middle of the quad. From the manual


As for GPS rescue, it seems that Betaflight has made some changes in 4.4, it seems there will be up to a 20s delay before it disarms even if it fails the sanity checks. However during failsafe stage 1, it still uses the failsafe settings configured on your tab. If you don't want your drone climbing so aggressively in a failsafe, then you might consider lowering that value.
You can read more details here about GPS rescue settings/behavior here.
https://betaflight.com/docs/wiki/archive...escue-v4-4

But if this is a new drone you purchased from GEPRC, you may want to contact them regarding the failsafe. This is not normal behavior as far as I am aware if you are on the latest firmware. Do you have other O3 quads, and assume no issue using the same RC2 and G2?

OK, I'll have to tear the drone apart to check that connection. Being a GEPRC build, the solder connection for that wire might be sub-optimal. 

I fly around a lot of deep gullies & water, hence my setting for rapid climb. Will play with that setting a bit. I fly a few times a week, so I'll see if this issue recurs. I flew this sequence that same day, so normal operation of the drone that day other than this anomaly:



I have a few other 03 quads and no issues with RC2 and G2. All devices have the latest firmware. 

As to support from GEPRC. I have contact them for a few very minor issues. Their answers to my questions were either completely wrong or nonsensical, at best. I should have bought from a reseller, not direct. 

I posted this same discussion over on the DJI support forum. This is their initial response:

Quote:Hello, there. Since the remote controller generally transmits signals in a fixed and front-facing direction, the signal connection strength between the remote controller and the aircraft will be attenuated when the aircraft flies beyond the signal coverage area of the remote controller signal (such as flying behind the operator). The antenna of the DJI Goggles is omnidirectional, and the image transmission signal will always maintain stable. If there is a large difference between the remote controller signal and the image transmission signal, the stick movement signal may be delayed or wrong, which will pose a risk to the operation, so the image transmission screen of the DJI Goggles prompts “RXLOSS”.

My response:

Quote:Why did both signal strength indicators in the goggles remain at full strength and at 50 Mbps through the entire event?

I also posted on Reddit r/fpv and received this response, which may be relevant, but still does not explain why signal strength and throughput remained at 50Mbps nominal levels:

Quote:This is a known problem with the DJI controller 2 and the o3. I believe when the o3 antenna switches from 2.4ghz to 5.0ghz (or vice versa, I can’t remember exactly), the controller loses signal for about 5 seconds. Here is a video with a more technical explanation:
https://youtu.be/teR4S9WxvEU?si=N-sxqBVsyAl8UDDW


It happened to me and I broke an arm on my mark5. As far as I know, the best solution is to switch to an ELRS controller and receiver. That’s what I did and haven’t had a problem since. Hope this helps!

Thanks!

Yes that issue was first noted by Mad's Tech and I thought that he also mentioned it was fixed in a later firmware. But it seems that is not the case if you've already upgraded and you've probably seen this thread on the DJI forums, seems lots of users still having this problem.
https://forum.dji.com/forum.php?mod=view...3D1&page=3

The O3 and FC have connectors so it should be just plugged in on both sides. It is rare, but sometimes the pins on these connectors have bad contact, but it seems more likely to be a DJI issue. I wonder if this only happens when close to you, but if you value your equipment it might be worth investing in an ELRS radio. It will require some soldering and ELRS needs a little patience/learning to setup, but you will get a much more reliable link.

Beautiful video, is that from the O3 with Rocksteady?

Thanks for the link to the DJI thread as I had not seen it. After reading it through, that is the exact same issue and DJI is essentially ignoring it. I posted my comments and a video link in the thread, We'll see if they fix it eventually, but will avoid close in flying behind my position in the interim. 

I will considering the ELRS solution, but I would have to learn how to install the module, buy a controller and reconfigure Betaflight. That said, I have experienced loss of video signal with concurrent loss of control and failsafe has always saved the drone, so far! I have maintained control down to 2Mbps.

As to the video, thanks for the compliment. These are the details of how I produced it:

DJI 03 camera
N16 filter
4K 60fps
Shutter 1/120
10 bit flat color
White balance fixed 6200k
ISO auto  - 800 max
EIS off - Stabilized in GyroFlow with horizon lock
Edited/graded in Filmora 13

It has taken some experimentation in post to get good results from the 03 camera. As you probably know, a GoPro has much better dynamic range, but cuts flight time in half with this drone, even with the 11 black mini. 

Thanks!

The response on the DJI forum:

Quote:"We are sorry for the inconvenience caused to you. Since the O3 air unit is used with a third-party flight controller, the content of the OSD will also be displayed according to the logic of the flight controller. When the flight controller detects that there has been a continuous loss of rods, "RXloss" may prompt. It is recommended that you adjust your flight position accordingly as DJI Wanda suggested and pay attention to flight safety. Thank you for your understanding. "

That's about right coming from DJI.

Most of the responses that DJI seem to provide to people are unfortunately a waste of space and about as useful as a chocolate teapot.

The O3 image resolution is very nice, but too bad they can't work the magic that Gopro does in the shadows although some color/details can be recovered lifting in post. I haven't tried 10bit though, my single O3 that I don't fly is still on the older firmware. The problem for me was more seeing in backlit situations, and having to shoot at minimum 60fps.

What a nice reply from DJI, basically telling you to get a better control link if you are not flying "their" drones. If you are not comfortable installing ELRS, maybe consider getting it pre-installed on your next BNF. There is a little fuss setting everything up, but its not terrible and plenty of tutorials as well as community support in case you run into issues and so many choices for radios too.

I will consider adding ELRS receivers to my existing drones and picking up a remote, but have to research/learn first. Most certainly the next drone I buy will have ELRS. Thanks to everyone here that helped me out with this!

Yep, the GoPro has much better dynamic range, but I find it to be more work in post to get the grade right. Here's some video from a GP. Nothing special, just blasting around at the same lake:



Details:

DJI FPV acro mode
GoPro 11 Black Mini
4K 4x3
30 FPS
1/60 shutter
ND16 filter
ISO max 800
Flat 10 bit color
5500 White balance
Wide
Wind auto
Sharpness medium
High bitrate
EIS off - Gyroflow
Graded

Interesting, I prefer the look/grade of your O3 clip, but that is probably due to the different lighting and slower/low flying. So you were flying the Mini on the DJI Potato drone? It looked like it handled it quite well. What kind of flight times do you get.

I picked up a Mini on sale a while back, but always felt it was too heavy to fly and was thinking to strip it down... but just end up flying lighter cameras like a Naked 8 or Thumb Pro instead as most of my setups are lightweight 3S/4S micros. However this autumn trying to follow geese on windy days proved a bit challenging. Here is a compilation of clips from goggles DVR and various cameras, it would have been nice to have the Mini in the air.

https://youtu.be/LtQC5DgMmoQ?si=PPCITAPi5p10Z6AZ

Yep the potato is great for flying fast and as a solid camera platform. With the 11 mini on it, I get about 5-7 minutes & great wind stability. A friend just bought one on Ebay used with battery & accessories for under $400.

Just got to be careful with the potato & aerobatic moves low when carrying the GP though:



Luckily, only busted props in that crash!

I also find it's a great drone to introduce people to FPV using the motion controller. We have a small drone club here and one flight hooks most people into the hobby very quickly!

Love your clips with the geese and beautiful scenery & color grading! We have geese at that lake in the Spring and Fall, so will have to try chasing them when they are back. It looks like they avoid the drone well, which has been my concern flying with them.