Pix4d capture inspire2 serious loss of control

[nickedw]

Yesterday I was flying a repeat mission for the 3rd time capturing an ortho grid of a lagoon using my i2 and pix4d Capture.

the aircraft travels 400m or so to get to the start point, then starts shooting. I had already noticed the camera was out of focus during the travel, but usually this corrects with the first shot. It didn’t this time, so I paused the mission to start DJI go to correct it, at which point pixcapture flashed an error message I didn’t have time to read and went into ‘emergency landing’ mode.

I was 70m up and the aircraft started a controlled descent. Whilst surprised, I wasn’t concerned UNTIL I realised I couldn’t cancel it, and had no stick authority. what ever I did with the pix app, the DJI go app or the control sticks had no effect.

eventually within about 1m of the ground I got an ‘unsuitable landing site’ message and the aircraft went into hover. 95% of this mission is over water so it was pure luck that it chose to descend over the shore line.

I continued to try and take control from this hover, and failed. There is a slider that says ‘force landing’ which I had to use before the battery drained.

I then had a 1 hour trek through difficult terrain and undergrowth to get to the other side of the lagoon where the aircraft came down.

as it happens it landed in dense brambles and was totally unscathed, not even a chipped prop, but that’s not the point.

I raised this with PIX4D support to give them the opportunity to respond before going public with this, and they were 100% disinterested as it’s ‘free software’ (I am a Pix4d subscriber as it happens but that doesn’t count)

OK I know I shouldn’t use DJI go when pix is running, but even so, there should never be a scenario that prevents your radio from taking control.

I've been a professional operator for over 7 years and used pix a lot, I’ve never seen anything like this before, so beware! I may switch to another product for capture following this incident.

 

[The Editor]

Yesterday I was flying a repeat mission for the 3rd time capturing an ortho grid of a lagoon using my i2 and pix4d Capture.

the aircraft travels 400m or so to get to the start point, then starts shooting. I had already noticed the camera was out of focus during the travel, but usually this corrects with the first shot. It didn’t this time, so I paused the mission to start DJI go to correct it, at which point pixcapture flashed an error message I didn’t have time to read and went into ‘emergency landing’ mode.

I was 70m up and the aircraft started a controlled descent. Whilst surprised, I wasn’t concerned UNTIL I realised I couldn’t cancel it, and had no stick authority. what ever I did with the pix app, the DJI go app or the control sticks had no effect.

eventually within about 1m of the ground I got an ‘unsuitable landing site’ message and the aircraft went into hover. 95% of this mission is over water so it was pure luck that it chose to descend over the shore line.

I continued to try and take control from this hover, and failed. There is a slider that says ‘force landing’ which I had to use before the battery drained.

I then had a 1 hour trek through difficult terrain and undergrowth to get to the other side of the lagoon where the aircraft came down.

as it happens it landed in dense brambles and was totally unscathed, not even a chipped prop, but that’s not the point.

I raised this with PIX4D support to give them the opportunity to respond before going public with this, and they were 100% disinterested as it’s ‘free software’ (I am a Pix4d subscriber as it happens but that doesn’t count)

OK I know I shouldn’t use DJI go when pix is running, but even so, there should never be a scenario that prevents your radio from taking control.

I've been a professional operator for over 7 years and used pix a lot, I’ve never seen anything like this before, so beware! I may switch to another product for capture following this incident.

Having more than one control app open at any one time is a complete no no.
In the event of a conflict which is highly likely running two apps simultaneously the USB port can temporarily lock up before releasing its handshake.
This can have the effect of freezing remote commands - albeit for a short time.
It has nothing to do with firmware or design, it’s a legacy issue resulting from USB protocols.

 

[Brett8883]

Yesterday I was flying a repeat mission for the 3rd time capturing an ortho grid of a lagoon using my i2 and pix4d Capture.

the aircraft travels 400m or so to get to the start point, then starts shooting. I had already noticed the camera was out of focus during the travel, but usually this corrects with the first shot. It didn’t this time, so I paused the mission to start DJI go to correct it, at which point pixcapture flashed an error message I didn’t have time to read and went into ‘emergency landing’ mode.

I was 70m up and the aircraft started a controlled descent. Whilst surprised, I wasn’t concerned UNTIL I realised I couldn’t cancel it, and had no stick authority. what ever I did with the pix app, the DJI go app or the control sticks had no effect.

eventually within about 1m of the ground I got an ‘unsuitable landing site’ message and the aircraft went into hover. 95% of this mission is over water so it was pure luck that it chose to descend over the shore line.

I continued to try and take control from this hover, and failed. There is a slider that says ‘force landing’ which I had to use before the battery drained.

I then had a 1 hour trek through difficult terrain and undergrowth to get to the other side of the lagoon where the aircraft came down.

as it happens it landed in dense brambles and was totally unscathed, not even a chipped prop, but that’s not the point.

I raised this with PIX4D support to give them the opportunity to respond before going public with this, and they were 100% disinterested as it’s ‘free software’ (I am a Pix4d subscriber as it happens but that doesn’t count)

OK I know I shouldn’t use DJI go when pix is running, but even so, there should never be a scenario that prevents your radio from taking control.

I've been a professional operator for over 7 years and used pix a lot, I’ve never seen anything like this before, so beware! I may switch to another product for capture following this incident.

Did you switch to sport or atti mode? This is typically the procedure in this kind of situation. This cuts off automated flight control and allows you to regain manual control.

You can also tap the RTH button to stop automatic RTH or landing in most situations.

 

[The Editor]

Did you switch to sport or atti mode? This is typically the procedure in this kind of situation. This cuts off automated flight control and allows you to regain manual control.

You can also tap the RTH button to stop automatic RTH or landing in most situations.

Not if the USB handshake is not released it isn't. The remote can lock up in this scenario and remain unresponsive for a few seconds.

 

[hhung516]

I used to switch between Go4 and a custom app for capturing panorama and it seems to work fine at least for me. Wondering if by disabling apps running in background (I use iPad) would help in this case? So basically as soon as you press home button, app is no longer running.

 

[Brett8883]

I used to switch between Go4 and a custom app for capturing panorama and it seems to work fine at least for me. Wondering if by disabling apps running in background (I use iPad) would help in this case? So basically as soon as you press home button, app is no longer running.

This issue doesn’t happen on iOS only Android. I switch control apps all the time with my iPhone but trying it on Android devices like the Crystal Sky is always a mess.