***UPDATE*** Thanks for all your comments. 👍A few of you have mentioned that the tape was causing the increase in altitude. You're right. We had initially thought that was indeed the issue, but when we tried the helmet test, it went down when it saw an object below it, so we assumed that something else was going on. The NEO probably lands when a new object is detected below it, but in our test, it was thinking that the ground was still 0 feet away. We probably had some light leaking through the tape because previously, outdoors with tape, it didn’t increase altitude - it just went crazy and lost GPS a few seconds after takeoff. The other two issues we showed in this video are still baffling (1 - the Motion 3's throttle becomes extra sensitive in the dark, and 2 - tenuous GPS connection when the vision system isn't working).
I think the software in the app must be trying to throttle back for safety so without realising it you then pull on the trigger and try to increase speed as the light hits the sensor the auto throttle back reverts to full pelt forward. The Tenous GPS is probably a software issue as the drone is probably not capable of utilizing height data from GPS satellites and uses what the sensor is reading so it can land on a hand, I think starting of with the sensor covered it will take off, but it is probably confusing the software and eventually becomes unstable. As you can see from the goggle recording the height is always at 0.0 ft
So, learning from the comments, we think that in our first video about this problem from a month ago, our tape was nicely sealed, because we never saw a height reading. Maybe a real night test outdoors is what needs to be done. It's just a bit sketchy when / if it goes crazy at night.
You didn't have enough satellites in the video, it was in red almost all the time. You need to wait until good gps lock and nothing red on the screen, white N not red.
Ok, how many is a good number? Do you think the flight would've been stable at a certain number of sats? Also, in the second test, it seemed to have all the satellites in the white (when the vision sensors were uncovered), so there's still some kind of connection between GPS and vision.
@@readysetdroneThe Parrot Mambo didn’t have GPS and it flew very stable with only optical flow sensor under low light conditions. I’m assuming that’s a camera using optical flow algorithms under the Neo. Don’t know why you would need GPS to fly indoors.
@@RW12345 It seems to be two micro cameras plus a third sensor (possibly a simple light meter) of some kind. The parallax between the cameras should allow it to judge distance, and motion detection / optical flow should allow it to correct for drift. But (depending on the frame rate and noise pattern), moving at specific speeds over repetitive patterns could make it completely misjudge its speed, if it doesn't also check the optical results against GPS or against accelerometers.
@@readysetdrone Until you have a Home point. Flying it without homepoint will not let your drone come home automatically that is why you're struggling because you flying it manually.
This completely accords with my experience. I was sending the Neo up in low light. Not super low light, it was evening in a well lit parking lot, but definitely not daylight bright. It had an incredibly difficult time getting satellites! And when I got it up there, at one point it just flew out of control and hit a lamppost and the frame cracked. I had to replace it through the DJI Care. The question is -- why in the world would it fail to get good satellite coverage just because it was dark? Why would that affect satellites? It makes no sense to me.
Sorry to hear you cracked your NEO, but thanks for sharing your experience. It really doesn't make sense that the GPS is affected by low light. Hopefully, we can get some answers and updates soon. Thanks for watching and commenting.
do not fly without fully stable satellite, the error is not from the drone but from the pilot itself. DJI and mostly their apps remind you always not to fly or be caution on flying the drone when in not stable state or with low gps signal. If it doesn't have good satellite signal then don't fly if you're not good on manual mode. There are many reason why it doesn't get good signal satellite like maybe on a certain area that has so many interference and metal that can cause its frequency signal weak or error
We are learning that we should've waited for more than 12 satellites, but while taking off, there was a message that said the home point was updated, so that makes us think that it had enough. Aside from pilot error, there's still the fact that the vision system seems to be linked with poor satellite lock, because as you saw in this video when we removed the tape and flew again, the satellite connection remained solid.
You can look at their forum, there are a lot of such problems and DJI does not pay attention. The last comment from them is that it is all pilot error.
Interesting testing, and nice follow up on your last Neo video. I've never flown mine in the dark yet, so I haven't come across these issues. Grest video, and thanks for sharing.
Fascinating! I have not tried my Neo in the dark; I was warned away from that. But my hat's off to you with your diagnostic skills and processes of elimination. Miss seeing youz guyz. Have fun. Don't fly ... well, you know.
You are a wise man, Dennis. What started this whole series of videos was when I happened to accidentally fly in the dark in this video. ua-cam.com/video/WT7aYH1gTZY/v-deo.html I was not intending to go against DJI's instructions, but it baffled me. So we decided to explore it some more and see how far we could push the NEO. It's a fun little drone and quite amazing for the price! Thanks for watching!
Glad to hear more people talking about this issue, good analysis. The Neo does not work well indoors even with all the lights on. When I go from one lighting condition to another it just takes off forward in a split second at high speed out of control and crashes into whatever is in front of it. None of my other dozen or so drones have this issue including my 5 other DJI drones. Even the my cheap little Mavic Mini and my Tello work fine indoors. DJI Support told me the Neo is meant for outdoor use only even though the users manual says otherwise. I bought the Neo to fly indoors during the winter. Starting to see tons of reports on this issue. Many people are experiencing similar problems. IT HELPS TO STRAP A LIGHT TO THE BOTTOM OF THE NEO BUT, there is no good place to strap it because the battery and camera are in the way. I am an engineer who builds autonomous drones. I'm thinking it is a problem with the optical flow sensor. Most of the other complaints people have don't carry a lot of weight with me because this is a $200 aircraft. But, this going bonkers on a whim is a serious design flaw. I figure DJI will have to address the issue at some point. Nice aircraft otherwise. Love my Avata 2. It can't compete with the Neo because the Neo is entry level meant for a different use. I could go on and on about the differences but not much else matters because they are different classes of aircraft. The Neo is great for what it is. BUT, DJI NEEDS TO FIX THIS DESIGN FLAW WITH THE NEO. All their mumbo-jumbo about this and that is a smoke screen. I've got a lot of experience with their aircraft from the Tello on up. They make good stuff. This one has a serious issue if you want to fly it inside.
Thanks for commenting again. Overall, NEO is pretty amazing, but you're right that there some issues that need work. It definitely helps to have a light on the underside, but (as you saw in our previous NEO video) our light didn't seem bright enough, even though it can be visible for 3 statute miles. Using the FPV RC 3 has been fine for us in low light. Have you had any experience and / or issues with that?
My experience is that it doesn’t need to be very dark for the Neo to become unstable. On cloudy days, it’s not stable flying in my house. I hope a future update improves its low light capabilities.
anyone who has flown the TELLO drone is familiar with this :) the TELLO is affected by patterns and kind of surface that is on the ground, since those infrared sensors are "infrared" it is affected by the amount of infrared light that is reflected back to the sensor "probably, do check out the head tracking it might be "ON"
I hope DJI will take these tests seriously and push an update to resolve the motion controller issue asap. I had the same problem, it just goes bezerk and speeds up. That's a concerning bug because it could lead to injury, damage and even traffic accidents...
Great Video, guys! When I fly the Neo in my House it gets the zoomies in poorly lit areas. My simple fix: more light, when in flight inside.. Cheers Mathias
Interesting tests! Hopefully these tests help DJI improve it in firmware! Now I think about it the other "freak outs" were using the MC 3 too, none were using the RCN3 or FPV controller.
Great video! Your tests and experiments were super helpful. I had a similar acceleration issue while using the RC Motion 3 with Avata 2. Except I had plenty of lighting and GPS. I kept getting RC Motion 3 Interference nearby messages and then the Avata darted off (I was standing next to my car) Letting go of the throttle stopped it. People are using lights on the Neo and Avatas for low light interior flights.
Thanks for sharing your experience. Interesting that you had interference while flying with your Avata 2 by your car. In our previous video about flying the NEO in the dark, we tried attaching a light to it, and it definitely did a lot better, but eventually, crashed.
It's definitely the piece of tape. So basically all dji drones. If you put anything beneath the drone, the drone will go up a little because It detects an obstacle. The only difference is that neo is meant to be landed on your Palm Therfore landed on the helmet, but when you have something right under the sensor when you launch the drone, it obviously will detect it As an obstacle not as a landing spot I ones had the same issue with my Air 3, I wanted to send something over to my friend with the drone. So I taped it to the drone, And the tape covered the downward sensors. So once I got up in the air I couldn't get it to come back down, and I freaked out. Eventually i figured that when im holding the stick down it's slowly decreasing the altitude, it took quite a while to land. Thanks for the content 😊
Ah ok. You are probably right about that. We've experienced the same thing in the past with a camera drone and its sensors, but your logic makes sense here. Thanks. That's one issue resolved. As to why the satellites and vision system are connected is still a mystery. So is the fact that the Motion 3 throttle becomes extra sensitive in the dark.
There's a clip-on light made by StartRC for the Neo. Only weighs a few grams and illuminates under the drone. Works really well. I've flown the Neo around inside with nowhere near enough ambient light and it had no issues. I think it cost me about AU$15 from an online Chinese Supplier.
“Hi there, thank you for your patience. Upon checking with the enginering team, it shows as as pilot error as the aircraft is tested in the dark place and everytime the drone comes out from the backdrop its drift as over its mentioned in the manual. Please conduct a test flight in a well-lit environment and check if the issue still occurs. Thank you! “ (c) DJI Natalia
Yes, it's pilot error. But this issue occurs only with the Motion 3, where it speeds up after going through a dark area. Other controllers that we've tried, didn't change the throttle sensitivity.
Since you mentioned that the Neo's acceleration is exaggerated with the Motion 3 when flying in the dark, does pushing the trigger forward help it stop and hover at least?
If you're able to do it exactly right, maybe. Ever time I've tried, because it's going forward so fast, I need to push the accelerator forward a lot to effectively stop the forward motion. At that point, I've either failed and it's already crashed or, now I'm going backwards quite fast. At 4:02 I accelerated a little bit and then tried to reverse (you can see the drone pitching way back), but I ended up crashing into myself. I wish the emergency stop button worked in this situation.
Great video. I tried to take some sun rise shots, it got the satellites, but when i tried to take off it went nuts flying all over the place and crash landed. Now i just fly it in regular light situations.
My 2 cents… differentiate between LAUNCHING with no down sensors, and LOSING down sensors. I figure - no down sensor = no elevation. What do you need if you have no elevation? Lift. NEO drifts up to escape the “I must be on the ground because my down sensors see nothing” feeling it has.
That totally makes sense now. Taping the sensors and that increase in altitude was a bit of a red herring. The main 2 things we wanted to convey were that the Motion 3 becomes really sensitive when the NEO goes into the dark (but other controllers seem fine), and the GPS connection seems to be connected to whether or not the lighting is good or not. Thanks for commenting. We will have a follow-up video in actual darkness, soon.
just got my Motion FMC Neo set yesterday and having a lot of fun with it. Yes it does freak out and sometimes just lands whenever the area is a bit darker or cramp while using the motion controller. DJI please fix this and i need this "cannot fly in the dark " issue GONE.
Great video, hopefully a firmware update can fix some of the issues. I don't have the NEO but I have played with one a couple times. It is a great little drone but sometimes it has issues like me LOL.
Great video... I'm having the exact same issue. But since it does doe have obstacle avoidance, why does it freak out when it approaches ... Same issues with both the MC3 and RC2. I also with 8-10 satellites cannot get the Neo to fly indoors. It goes crazy and uncontrollable. And when with 16 satellites I tried to land it in my hand in a shaded area...it went straight up and hit the ceiling. Neo has issues and I'm sorry I wasted my $$$...
Wow! I guess the issues with the NEO aren't necessarily consistent across all units. For us, it only goes crazy with the MC3, but the RC2 is fine. And that's very strange that it went up instead of landing in your hand. Thanks for sharing your experience.
Totally!!! I've experienced all the exact same behaviors as described in this video when flying with the RC Motion 3 controller. I crashed a Neo and broke the gimbal camera while it suddenly (and unpredictably) accelerated towards a wall inside a poor lighting conditions section of my house. I too, was studying this behavior and encountered the same facts. I didn't know that this acceleration sensitiveness only applied for the motion controller; I have to try and experiment with the FPV Remote Controller 3 in stabilized mode and poor light conditions as well. Probably, this is a bug in the motion controller and can be fixed.
Yeah, we actually thought we broke our gimbal several times while testing. We wiggled it back into place and it seems ok. 🧐 Let us know how it goes for you in stabilized mode with the FPV controller 3 in the dark. Based on our tests, it's only the Motion 3 where the throttle becomes extra sensitive.
@@readysetdrone Hey, did my research flying the Neo with the FPV Controller 3 in stabilized mode during poor lighting conditions. Effectiveley, the drone will have no trouble moving at all. I'm mind blown! I thought all this time that the vision system was messing up with the stabilization process, but now we know it only happens with the motion controller. It is for sure a bug in the firmware. I went as far as directly taping the gimbal camera to block vision completely, making it fly blind; The ToF and IMU sensors still did their stabilization job. I guess I'll have to switch to the FPV Controller 3 due to reliability since I often fly in public places. Quite a shame since I find the Motion Controller a bit more ergonomic, and I like that it activates the HUD flight path vector. BTW, you guys have to make a video about fixing the gimbal camera. Broke mine many times without knowing there was an easy fix. I mean, I had DJI fix it for free thanks to Care Refresh so far, but still, the downtime is not fun :(
Thanks for the update! We are glad to hear that at least your experience aligns with ours. Definitely something going on with the Motion 3, and since it flies normally (even if it drifts a bit) with other controllers, that tells us that a firmware update can fix it. As for the gimbal, oh man, we have knocked out of whack several times in the course of these "NEO in the dark" series of videos, but haven't thought to make a video because each time we just fudged our way to getting it back into place. Just the other day, I had a really bad crash and wiggling it back in didn't work. I needed a flathead screw drive for leverage to click the gimbal housing back into place. That was gnarly! We'll keep it in mind to film ourselves for the next time we crash. 😅
It has happened to me several times that, in broad daylight and with a completely clear sky, while the drone is connected to 15 or more satellites it suddenly loses them, making it difficult to control the flight and bring it down safely.
it happened to me as well, looks like it is not some rare cases but it does happen in most users. I hope DJI could face this issue as it makes the users losing the confidence in flying with DJI.
Interesting, this would potentially also explain what happens over water. If the vision system is confused by the featureless, reflective water, then satellites could also become unstable causing the drone to do crazy things. I had such an experience before I knew about water (new drone owner, presumed water was fine based on marketing videos, later discovered that wasn't the case after I lost my drone). In fact, I have my log still posted on my UA-cam account if someone wants to see it. The satellite lock became very unstable and it just crashed into the water with no way to control it (the entire time using RC-N3, open skies, zero wind).
@@OnlineLuc Hmm. We haven't tried it with the RC-N3 (since we don't own that controller) but that's definitely a possibility, but it could also be another issue. We've had random unexplainable NEO incidents / nose dives with the FPV controller 3.
@@TechnicallyAverage and to add, in my particular case, DJI replaced my drone under warranty (did NOT count towards a care refresh claim). When I asked what the cause was, I was told "a flight a control issue" and they explicitly indicated it was not a user error. The satellite numbers were all over the place on my log during the end. I was away from any possible structures. Should have had clear line of sight to satellites and excellent lock especially since it was many minutes into my flight. But yeah, could be something else... no way to confirm.
When my NEO first arrived, it flew fine outdoors. In my house with windows open and light turned on, if would fly normally for about a second and then abruptly fly horizontally at a high rate of speed and crash into the wall, couch, etc. I discovered if I pulled the left stick back as soon as the Neo became erratic (within 1 -2 seconds after takeoff), I was able to land it before it flew into something. For whatever reason, it would fly with no issues in the kitchen or master bedroom. The kitchen has more light and the bedroom lighting is similar to the living room. After an update, the NEO flies without issue in my house. It never tried to fly upward. It would take of horizontally like a rocket before the update.
I spoke to Chris a couple of days ago and I had an issue with the automated rocket without any controller. The Neo went up and on its way down I think I got slightly underneath it and it stopped at what would have been head height above me, the Neo would not lower itself and I had nothing to stand on until the battery went low and it auto landed. It may have lowered if I had managed to connect my phone to the app, but I am not sure if that would be possible in mid-flight. In my 3 batteries test flights, I had a few issues with the motion controller seeming to go out of sync so the wrist movements got even more exaggerated until I had to turn my whole body. I need a few more flights, but it is very cold in the UK at the moment :) The Neo does seem to need the downward light sensor and anything getting in its way will cause issues. Good to know it is a lot more stable with the controller, I have the FPV controller 3 so should hopefully perform well with that. Great Vid again :)
i have neo, fpv goggles, fpv controller3. but as i live in japan with 100g drone limit i can only fly indoor. that why i enjoy ur videos as i cant fly mine lol
It definitely helps. We tried attaching a light in a dark room and it flew longer than previously, before crashing. Here's that video if you want to see. ua-cam.com/video/QSH5_gR4ltI/v-deo.html
What would be the lightest rates to start flying the DJI Neo in manual mode, for those who have some knowledge, but have never flown in Manual mode? Pith Roll Yaw - thanks for the explanations
This is an outdoor Selfie drone that's meant to be kept close to the subject in good lighting conditions in an environment with little wind. Do anything else and you're asking for trouble.
I put very light drone strobes facing down and forward to fly in dark rooms. Now they make an led device that's made for the neo. I LOVE the neo. Lots of fun and a great indoor drone.
That seems possible, for sure, but we're just regular guys (not engineers), so our guess is just as good as yours. It would be a logical feature to have!
I have same problem with motion controller. When not enough light, ghosting will happen. But when outdoor in the dark, it become fine again. Something todo with ground pattern too; I think. So if you put a tape underneath, in a DJI no fly zone, because it can't get satellites, you can still fly it.
In our first video when we initially discovered this about a month ago, we tried pressing that as an "emergency stop" but it didn't do anything. It kept on going.
@@readysetdrone even a 20 buck drone doesn't go shooting away on its own , it just hovers and leaves it up to you were it goes unless a big wind gust gets it lol , but the Neo does not even fall back to how a cheap drone flys 😅 Not slagging Neo I have it as well as a few others .
So basically we cannot fly outdoor with MC3 when going to some darker areas like tunnel, under a bridge, etc? A few seconds in dark and Neo will be crazy???
Want to experience something very weird, fly it over red plaid. It automatically lands every time. Crossing a puddle on a walk while being connected to RC2 with full GPS, full chaos and loss of control. It’s a fun little quad but not without its issues. Hopefully they resolve these little issues with future iterations.
Good information a lot of out here only use the phone as a remote, personally I bought my Neo for its size and audio capabilities for my personal UA-cam channel (not a professional channel like yours) I pretty much use it in the pre-programmed modes which I personally feel that’s what it was designed for. note I do have a DJI mini pro 3 but I find myself using it less and less because I don’t wanna go through the hassle of editing to add my voice. I connect the Neo to an iPhone 13 Pro Max with a Hollyland lark one microphone system.
That's awesome! The NEO is a fantastic little drone. Of course, it has its limitations (it will fly into obstacles sometimes as it follows you, and if you go into a shaded or darker area, it will just land), but there's nothing else like it for the price! 👍
This is obvious, even with a good lock, civilian GPS only has an accuracy of a metre or so. The drone uses a combination of the sensors and the GPS to get its position and speed, without either of these it will be erratic. If the sensor is used to gauge how quickly the drone is moving with the motion controller then if the sensor sees all black it may think it’s not moving and attempt to move faster in that direction, this could account for the out of control movement when moving into a dark area, especially if there is no GPS to correct its positional awareness.
I wore blindfolds and the neo flew fine! I'm thinking it has something to do with your motion controller. :) yes yes yes I'm joking...good video...thanks!!!
Some instability is natural and to be expected when it has no GPS signal and the bottom cameras can't see very well due to it being too dark. But it shouldn't be accelerating madly the way it does. I wonder if there's a specific pattern to the low-light noise of the bottom sensors that makes it think the ground is moving forwards (and so it tries to speed up to - in its tiny little brain - "stay in place"). But the fact that it only happens (or happens a lot more) with a specific controller suggests a firmware bug.
I noticed this when flying indoors, I resolved the issue by fitting a small LED light to the bottom of the drone. It obviously uses the ground as a reference and if it can’t see it then it zooms off.
Nice! We tried that in our previous "How to fly the NEO in the dark" video, and it definitely helped, but it eventually crashed. Admittedly, we were pushing its limits, by flying in a pitch black room. 😅 But we're glad to hear that in normal low light conditions, a light helps.
ahh thats why my neo suddenly accelerate towards the wall without even squeezing the trigger. i tried it around on gloomy weather not very dark. im glad this video suddenly popup and watched it
no sattelite lock at take off. when it locked, it use that coordinate as home point, including its Z axis. that and the unstable gps lock makes it compute that it didn't have enough altitude and then rises. The motion controller uses gyro input and alghoritm to predict and makes compensate movement for x and y axis, which then contribute to drifting
@TechnicallyAverage I think Neo needs to have around 25+satellite lock. The icon in the bottom right shows red when it takes off. The best way I think to let it sit for a while when it powers up and it should be ok after the home point has been recorded
Good to know! I would've thought that 12 to 15 would be enough for a stable flight. @@DTSmobileAt 0:41 seconds, it looked like it had 12 sats and was white. Are you referring to another part of the video where it was red during takeoff?
@TechnicallyAverage yes. Looking back at your video, it shows white at take off with 11-12 satellite, but I think your home point isn't recorded. At -0:58, you can clearly see when the drone climbed and reached +1m altitude, the satellites count drop and then even at 11-12, it shows red and in that instance I think it began to drift
@@DTSmobile Interesting. Well, I suppose the only thing to try is to very firmly tape up the sensors, then wait for as many satellites as possible and then take off and see what happens. 😂 I have a feeling it won't do and better.
I tried indoor flights with RC-N3. GPS lock doesn't seem to matter, but enough light is crucial to make down sensors work. Too dark and it isn't able to hover but goes crazy. My conclusion is Neo switches to GPS positioning only beyond a specific height (unknown but higher than a room). GPS receipt is also very weak compared to a smartphone. Takes ages and doesn't get as many satellites under sub optimal conditions. Don't know why. Neo body is large enough to include same antenna as any smartphone.
Strange, when I drive my car in the dark, without my headlights on, with my eyes closed, and no streetlights… I’m able to easily navigate and safely travel to my intended destination 😂 😉
In normal flight, the Neo climbs briefly immediately prior to a landing on your hand. I'd guess that, if the Neo has no visual knowledge of what is beneath it, then these brief climbs will be instigated continually by the software.
Great job guys, it explains why it does what it does sometimes. I was walking having it follow me through a covered bridge, as soon as it didn’t have enough light it auto landed. I was disappointed but makes sense. I had a non-responsive experience with the N3 controller flying under trees, I’m assuming due to low light and not enough satellite coverage. Our forest are beautiful but dark canopies. Hope they can fix this with OTA firmware update.
Yeah, even our light that we strapped on the underside of the NEO in our last video about flying in the dark, didn't stop the landing. An update that could fix some of these limitations would be great! Although, the auto landing issue in the dark seems like just a simple hardware limitation due to cheap components to keep the price down. Seems like you'll have to stick to the Avata in the dark forested areas. Thanks, Joe. 👊
Ah, yeah.You're right. In our previous test, we must have taped it better, but this time, there was probably some light leaking in. At the end of this video is our first try outdoors to see if GPS will keep it stable, while being taped up. ua-cam.com/video/WT7aYH1gTZY/v-deo.htmlsi=q59W6WrqfYglP8dc I feel like, despite the tape situation not being perfect, it still demonstrated that the vision sensors are connected with the GPS receivers in some way. 🤔
Thanks, I actually faced the same problem, and I was flying in the corridor in between apartments, with the RC-N3 and my phone, and I faced the same problem. The drone started speeding out of control and crashed into a wall
Interesting. We don't have the RC-N3, but perhaps it has the same problem. With our RC 2, it just drifts, but remains in our control. It sounds like you experienced the "sensitive throttle" issue that we notice with our Motion 3.
That's awesome! We tried it with a light in our previous NEO video, and it was a lot better, but we were pushing it too much. We were flying in an unrealisticly dark room, so the light only worked for a little bit, eventually it crashed. Flying low, as you mentioned, seems like the key. Thanks for commenting. 👍
do not fly without fully stable satellite, the error is not from the drone but from the pilot itself. DJI and mostly their apps remind you always not to fly or be caution on flying the drone when in not stable state or with low gps signal. If it doesn't have good satellite signal then don't fly if you're not good on manual mode. There are many reason why it doesn't get good signal satellite like maybe on a certain area that has so many interference and metal that can cause its frequency signal weak or error. On your test flying it on a narrow space it's not because it is dark. It's Because the flow of air swinging it around with its own air flow that gives the drone unstable in addition of no signal and no ground sensor to lock its position. If the flow push it forward or backward then it will go that way making it seems like it looses control, a good practice is a quick thinking to push the drone avoiding to hit something if it loses control.
We should've waited for more satellites. We assumed that when the message on the lower right corner said "Home Point had been updated" it had GPS lock, but maybe we needed to wait for another message. Regarding your theory about airflow, this also happens in open areas, so it's not the airflow. Also, as we discovered, it's only with the Motion 3, not any other controllers. Thanks for your analysis.
so thats what happend when I flew my neo. It was the time when I was at home and decided to give it a tour, it was kinda dark but still visible but after a 5 or 6 second controls got locked and it crashed
Same experience, I was flying my neo near dark areas of the trees and it suddenly went straight for the branches on high speed until it crashed with head downwards to the ground 4-6 m
Until DJI fixes this with a firmware update, the only solutions are to fly with the FPV controller 3, or to have more than 20 satellites (based on some of our recent tests) but under trees, the GPS might be weak. 🫤 Hopefully your NEO is ok after the crash.
@@readysetdrone the neo turned out well with some minor scratches, however the magnetic lens filter from freewell got cracked. Ive noticed some minor flaws as well on flights with a mobile phone. Where it doesn't want to go upward until the area is well lit.
Mine will glitch and freeze in midair in manual mode if pushed too hard. It locks up at an angle and drops but usually I can recover if I have enough altitude. Also the performance drops off substantially when the battery gets below 50%
most probably its the firmware expecting to get proper data from the sensors looking down and when those sensors are not recieving proper data something happens inside firmware. They can easily make a sensor switch allowing the user to just disable the reading of the sensor so firmware can continue its loop by only using satellites and gyro to control the drone. I want to get the neo, but seing all these weird fly offs not buying until I see its fixed.
You said you'll fly it with satellite gps locked but base on your phone status it has no stable satellite that is why it has no gps lock on. So what's the point of flying it without any lock on? it will eventually uncontrollable without any experience manually and when you tried to bring it down it now have stable GPS but you're bringing it down manually so that is why it still not stable.
We thought we had GPS lock. Notice that as we were talking off, the notification on the lower right said that the home point was updated. As far as we knew, that's what seemed to be a sign of a GPS lock.
Interesting. It definitely freaked us out! In hindsight, putting tape on the sensors to simulate nighttime, was a red herring. What we really wanted to highlight was that when the sensors don't have enough light, the GPS lock becomes unstable (even with 12 sats). Also, the throttle becomes really sensitive when it's in the dark, rather than simply drifting, like it does with other controllers.
very thank you for sharing precious experiences with this gps controversial drone!... However I found many NEO users complaining about while not related with light ambiance ! They said this randomly occur even in very clear spaces outdoor when get under 14-16 satellites?? Why so high limit for a simple flight that is never from a pro drone this case?? It seems there is far any else originated! They often lost NEO control by some buggy I suppose unreliable, low sensitive or internal nearby circuits interference with its very cheap as it seems gps receiver due to NEO very small higher density designed in relative with its high complexity circuits ! On the other hands, it is so weirdly to have any gps positioning dependency with the other sensors as they mainly should complement each other, so whenever light is lower, gps should be mainly used instead as to provide an acceptable safety return to home at least. However it could be also software bug as caused by some badly settled priorities among internal signals to process, God DJI knows only, but the issue seems to be unhappily wide spread today so we all hope for an update to try... fix it (still hope to be software exclusively...)😟😶 So sad...NEO could be far the smartest AI featured drone DJI ever release if not this huge nightmare... Meanwhile we also hope new FLIP will natively avoid gps issues as well as any other interference with sensors even if could use LIDAR as we also very hope!..😎
Same here. If it's bridge enough, it's all good. We fly it all the time without sats, but one time we went through a gap that was dark, just for a few seconds, and I kept crashing, and I couldn't figure out what was happening. This video started this little rabbit hole. ua-cam.com/video/WT7aYH1gTZY/v-deo.htmlsi=mFzonxUOzx4_Kp59
Yeah, you're right. That was our first thought, but then we were also thinking that the NEO is trained to land when it sees something underneath it. However, since the tape was there from the beginning, it didn't see it as a landing spot, and as you said, it was just probably trying to get away from the ground. What's strange is that it does show its altitude correctly on the lower left of the screen, so it should've known that it's in the air. 😄 Again, we are expecting it to do too much AND doing things we should be doing, so we'll cut it some slack.
@ 🤣😝 I’m on my third Neo locking in satellites is beyond painful. They literally go backwards to no satellites many times I almost lost it twice when in Hawaii felt not fun! I love the little Neo but needs some firmware updates for sure! Simon says hi. 😽
Maybe its designed to fly away.. maybe it's a side scam 🤷🏻♂️ mind always tries to fly away. It's sketchy. Maybe they should fix it in the next firmware update. Otherwise I'm going to have a couple of my computer science friends from MIT take a look at the code and hardware. It's weird and it should be looked into. Junk drones don't even do this. It will make a good video for my channel.
But that's the beauty of the NEO! It's such a versatile drone. We're definitely a fan of it, but hopefully a firmware update can smooth out some of the issues.
5:14 ahhh come on Dad… it’s all their fault… *fingers in ears* nah nah nah… whaaaa… make my under $200 autonomous flying thingy BETTER! (trying best big baby, pouting child)
Thanks for your test but PLEASE stop using that stupid black tape ! Go out at night in a clear sky area , stick your little led light under the Neo and WAIT till Neo gets MORE than 20 satellites .......after that go high more than 10 meters .........it drifts ?
***UPDATE*** Thanks for all your comments. 👍A few of you have mentioned that the tape was causing the increase in altitude. You're right. We had initially thought that was indeed the issue, but when we tried the helmet test, it went down when it saw an object below it, so we assumed that something else was going on. The NEO probably lands when a new object is detected below it, but in our test, it was thinking that the ground was still 0 feet away. We probably had some light leaking through the tape because previously, outdoors with tape, it didn’t increase altitude - it just went crazy and lost GPS a few seconds after takeoff. The other two issues we showed in this video are still baffling (1 - the Motion 3's throttle becomes extra sensitive in the dark, and 2 - tenuous GPS connection when the vision system isn't working).
I think the software in the app must be trying to throttle back for safety so without realising it you then pull on the trigger and try to increase speed as the light hits the sensor the auto throttle back reverts to full pelt forward. The Tenous GPS is probably a software issue as the drone is probably not capable of utilizing height data from GPS satellites and uses what the sensor is reading so it can land on a hand, I think starting of with the sensor covered it will take off, but it is probably confusing the software and eventually becomes unstable. As you can see from the goggle recording the height is always at 0.0 ft
So, learning from the comments, we think that in our first video about this problem from a month ago, our tape was nicely sealed, because we never saw a height reading.
Maybe a real night test outdoors is what needs to be done. It's just a bit sketchy when / if it goes crazy at night.
😮😮😢
The Chinese must shake their heads when it comes to us Americans. JUST TELL EVERYONE DON'T FLY AT NIGHT WITH IT. PROBLEM SOLVED.
@@myexperience_is lol... We don't do what we are told! 😂
You didn't have enough satellites in the video, it was in red almost all the time. You need to wait until good gps lock and nothing red on the screen, white N not red.
Ok, how many is a good number?
Do you think the flight would've been stable at a certain number of sats?
Also, in the second test, it seemed to have all the satellites in the white (when the vision sensors were uncovered), so there's still some kind of connection between GPS and vision.
@@readysetdroneThe Parrot Mambo didn’t have GPS and it flew very stable with only optical flow sensor under low light conditions. I’m assuming that’s a camera using optical flow algorithms under the Neo. Don’t know why you would need GPS to fly indoors.
I think you need 15/16 or more satellites. @readysetdrone
@@RW12345 It seems to be two micro cameras plus a third sensor (possibly a simple light meter) of some kind. The parallax between the cameras should allow it to judge distance, and motion detection / optical flow should allow it to correct for drift.
But (depending on the frame rate and noise pattern), moving at specific speeds over repetitive patterns could make it completely misjudge its speed, if it doesn't also check the optical results against GPS or against accelerometers.
@@readysetdrone Until you have a Home point. Flying it without homepoint will not let your drone come home automatically that is why you're struggling because you flying it manually.
GPS is used for positioning (latitude and longitude) not altitude. DJI drones use a barometer and downward infrared sensors for flight altitude.
This completely accords with my experience. I was sending the Neo up in low light. Not super low light, it was evening in a well lit parking lot, but definitely not daylight bright. It had an incredibly difficult time getting satellites! And when I got it up there, at one point it just flew out of control and hit a lamppost and the frame cracked. I had to replace it through the DJI Care. The question is -- why in the world would it fail to get good satellite coverage just because it was dark? Why would that affect satellites? It makes no sense to me.
Sorry to hear you cracked your NEO, but thanks for sharing your experience. It really doesn't make sense that the GPS is affected by low light. Hopefully, we can get some answers and updates soon. Thanks for watching and commenting.
@@readysetdrone Great to hear. Subscribing so I don't miss updates on this :D
do not fly without fully stable satellite, the error is not from the drone but from the pilot itself. DJI and mostly their apps remind you always not to fly or be caution on flying the drone when in not stable state or with low gps signal. If it doesn't have good satellite signal then don't fly if you're not good on manual mode. There are many reason why it doesn't get good signal satellite like maybe on a certain area that has so many interference and metal that can cause its frequency signal weak or error
We are learning that we should've waited for more than 12 satellites, but while taking off, there was a message that said the home point was updated, so that makes us think that it had enough.
Aside from pilot error, there's still the fact that the vision system seems to be linked with poor satellite lock, because as you saw in this video when we removed the tape and flew again, the satellite connection remained solid.
Thanks for the work done. DJI should fix this bug in the firmware. We have been waiting for a month!
Hopefully they will! 🤞
@DJISupportGlobal what do you think?
You can look at their forum, there are a lot of such problems and DJI does not pay attention. The last comment from them is that it is all pilot error.
Interesting testing, and nice follow up on your last Neo video. I've never flown mine in the dark yet, so I haven't come across these issues. Grest video, and thanks for sharing.
Fascinating! I have not tried my Neo in the dark; I was warned away from that. But my hat's off to you with your diagnostic skills and processes of elimination. Miss seeing youz guyz. Have fun. Don't fly ... well, you know.
You are a wise man, Dennis. What started this whole series of videos was when I happened to accidentally fly in the dark in this video. ua-cam.com/video/WT7aYH1gTZY/v-deo.html
I was not intending to go against DJI's instructions, but it baffled me. So we decided to explore it some more and see how far we could push the NEO. It's a fun little drone and quite amazing for the price!
Thanks for watching!
Glad to hear more people talking about this issue, good analysis. The Neo does not work well indoors even with all the lights on. When I go from one lighting condition to another it just takes off forward in a split second at high speed out of control and crashes into whatever is in front of it. None of my other dozen or so drones have this issue including my 5 other DJI drones. Even the my cheap little Mavic Mini and my Tello work fine indoors. DJI Support told me the Neo is meant for outdoor use only even though the users manual says otherwise. I bought the Neo to fly indoors during the winter. Starting to see tons of reports on this issue. Many people are experiencing similar problems. IT HELPS TO STRAP A LIGHT TO THE BOTTOM OF THE NEO BUT, there is no good place to strap it because the battery and camera are in the way. I am an engineer who builds autonomous drones. I'm thinking it is a problem with the optical flow sensor. Most of the other complaints people have don't carry a lot of weight with me because this is a $200 aircraft. But, this going bonkers on a whim is a serious design flaw. I figure DJI will have to address the issue at some point. Nice aircraft otherwise. Love my Avata 2. It can't compete with the Neo because the Neo is entry level meant for a different use. I could go on and on about the differences but not much else matters because they are different classes of aircraft. The Neo is great for what it is. BUT, DJI NEEDS TO FIX THIS DESIGN FLAW WITH THE NEO. All their mumbo-jumbo about this and that is a smoke screen. I've got a lot of experience with their aircraft from the Tello on up. They make good stuff. This one has a serious issue if you want to fly it inside.
Thanks for commenting again. Overall, NEO is pretty amazing, but you're right that there some issues that need work.
It definitely helps to have a light on the underside, but (as you saw in our previous NEO video) our light didn't seem bright enough, even though it can be visible for 3 statute miles.
Using the FPV RC 3 has been fine for us in low light. Have you had any experience and / or issues with that?
My experience is that it doesn’t need to be very dark for the Neo to become unstable. On cloudy days, it’s not stable flying in my house. I hope a future update improves its low light capabilities.
Awesome work! I really love flying the Neo. I got to buy me a motion 3, it looks really cool to control with!!
Hey Rob!! It is cool, but not in low light!
anyone who has flown the TELLO drone is familiar with this :) the TELLO is affected by patterns and kind of surface that is on the ground, since those infrared sensors are "infrared" it is affected by the amount of infrared light that is reflected back to the sensor "probably, do check out the head tracking it might be "ON"
I cannot fly with head tracking on. I would definitely notice it. Thanks for your suggestion and info. 👍
Aw....torturing the poor little Neo. 😥 Nice testing gentlemen! 🙂
We hope it won't be traumatized for life! 😄 Thanks for watching, Marcus.
I hope DJI will take these tests seriously and push an update to resolve the motion controller issue asap. I had the same problem, it just goes bezerk and speeds up. That's a concerning bug because it could lead to injury, damage and even traffic accidents...
Mine speeds up and hits random walls in low light! @dji
Great Video, guys!
When I fly the Neo in my House it gets the zoomies in poorly lit areas.
My simple fix: more light, when in flight inside..
Cheers
Mathias
Makes sense! Thanks, Mathias.
Interesting tests! Hopefully these tests help DJI improve it in firmware! Now I think about it the other "freak outs" were using the MC 3 too, none were using the RCN3 or FPV controller.
Great video! Your tests and experiments were super helpful. I had a similar acceleration issue while using the RC Motion 3 with Avata 2. Except I had plenty of lighting and GPS. I kept getting RC Motion 3 Interference nearby messages and then the Avata darted off (I was standing next to my car) Letting go of the throttle stopped it. People are using lights on the Neo and Avatas for low light interior flights.
Thanks for sharing your experience. Interesting that you had interference while flying with your Avata 2 by your car.
In our previous video about flying the NEO in the dark, we tried attaching a light to it, and it definitely did a lot better, but eventually, crashed.
It's definitely the piece of tape. So basically all dji drones. If you put anything beneath the drone, the drone will go up a little because
It detects an obstacle. The only difference is that neo is meant to be landed on your Palm Therfore landed on the helmet, but when you have something right under the sensor when you launch the drone, it obviously will detect it As an obstacle not as a landing spot
I ones had the same issue with my Air 3, I wanted to send something over to my friend with the drone. So I taped it to the drone,
And the tape covered the downward sensors. So once I got up in the air I couldn't get it to come back down, and I freaked out. Eventually i figured that when im holding the stick down it's slowly decreasing the altitude, it took quite a while to land.
Thanks for the content 😊
Ah ok. You are probably right about that. We've experienced the same thing in the past with a camera drone and its sensors, but your logic makes sense here. Thanks.
That's one issue resolved. As to why the satellites and vision system are connected is still a mystery. So is the fact that the Motion 3 throttle becomes extra sensitive in the dark.
Hello. Thanks for the video. Can you tell where the Neo has installed the GPS antenna? Above or below? Thank you
There's a clip-on light made by StartRC for the Neo. Only weighs a few grams and illuminates under the drone. Works really well. I've flown the Neo around inside with nowhere near enough ambient light and it had no issues. I think it cost me about AU$15 from an online Chinese Supplier.
That's awesome!
“Hi there, thank you for your patience. Upon checking with the enginering team, it shows as as pilot error as the aircraft is tested in the dark place and everytime the drone comes out from the backdrop its drift as over its mentioned in the manual. Please conduct a test flight in a well-lit environment and check if the issue still occurs.
Thank you! “ (c) DJI Natalia
Yes, it's pilot error. But this issue occurs only with the Motion 3, where it speeds up after going through a dark area. Other controllers that we've tried, didn't change the throttle sensitivity.
@@readysetdrone That's right. We're trying to get DJI to fix the mc 3. Obviously, something can be done about it, like making the drone just stop.
So you had the sensors covered it really wasn't my fault. LOL. Good video and thanks for letting me fly that little dude. MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE
Lol Chris! 🤣 👊 Merry Christmas!
Wow, I've never been out at night before, but have put tape over my eyes. When that drone is close to the camera, its the size of an SUV.
It must be a UFO! 👽 🤣
Don, what do you think of the NEO having an exercise mode? 😉 ua-cam.com/users/shortsydrAshmuii0?feature=share
@@readysetdrone Ha ha! Yes, that sounds like a great exercise plan!
Since you mentioned that the Neo's acceleration is exaggerated with the Motion 3 when flying in the dark, does pushing the trigger forward help it stop and hover at least?
If you're able to do it exactly right, maybe. Ever time I've tried, because it's going forward so fast, I need to push the accelerator forward a lot to effectively stop the forward motion. At that point, I've either failed and it's already crashed or, now I'm going backwards quite fast.
At 4:02 I accelerated a little bit and then tried to reverse (you can see the drone pitching way back), but I ended up crashing into myself. I wish the emergency stop button worked in this situation.
Great video. I tried to take some sun rise shots, it got the satellites, but when i tried to take off it went nuts flying all over the place and crash landed. Now i just fly it in regular light situations.
It definitely doesn't like the dark, lol. mine went nuts and crashed, but fortunately, it's so durable. Thanks for sharing 😁 👌 👍 🇬🇧
Kelly, i havent flown my Neo , outside, in the dark; thx for explaining the results.
Gotta try it in Jersey at night? 🤔😂 JK
Very informative and quick thinking by Kris 💥🚀 back to China!
😂 lol Dan-O! That'd be hilarious.
It was appropriate
My 2 cents… differentiate between LAUNCHING with no down sensors, and LOSING down sensors.
I figure - no down sensor = no elevation. What do you need if you have no elevation? Lift.
NEO drifts up to escape the “I must be on the ground because my down sensors see nothing” feeling it has.
That totally makes sense now. Taping the sensors and that increase in altitude was a bit of a red herring. The main 2 things we wanted to convey were that the Motion 3 becomes really sensitive when the NEO goes into the dark (but other controllers seem fine), and the GPS connection seems to be connected to whether or not the lighting is good or not.
Thanks for commenting. We will have a follow-up video in actual darkness, soon.
just got my Motion FMC Neo set yesterday and having a lot of fun with it. Yes it does freak out and sometimes just lands whenever the area is a bit darker or cramp while using the motion controller. DJI please fix this and i need this "cannot fly in the dark " issue GONE.
Great video, hopefully a firmware update can fix some of the issues. I don't have the NEO but I have played with one a couple times. It is a great little drone but sometimes it has issues like me LOL.
Ha ha! 🤣 Thanks, Dan.
Great video... I'm having the exact same issue. But since it does doe have obstacle avoidance, why does it freak out when it approaches ... Same issues with both the MC3 and RC2. I also with 8-10 satellites cannot get the Neo to fly indoors. It goes crazy and uncontrollable. And when with 16 satellites I tried to land it in my hand in a shaded area...it went straight up and hit the ceiling. Neo has issues and I'm sorry I wasted my $$$...
Wow! I guess the issues with the NEO aren't necessarily consistent across all units. For us, it only goes crazy with the MC3, but the RC2 is fine. And that's very strange that it went up instead of landing in your hand. Thanks for sharing your experience.
Thanks for the reminder.
Totally!!! I've experienced all the exact same behaviors as described in this video when flying with the RC Motion 3 controller. I crashed a Neo and broke the gimbal camera while it suddenly (and unpredictably) accelerated towards a wall inside a poor lighting conditions section of my house. I too, was studying this behavior and encountered the same facts. I didn't know that this acceleration sensitiveness only applied for the motion controller; I have to try and experiment with the FPV Remote Controller 3 in stabilized mode and poor light conditions as well. Probably, this is a bug in the motion controller and can be fixed.
Yeah, we actually thought we broke our gimbal several times while testing. We wiggled it back into place and it seems ok. 🧐 Let us know how it goes for you in stabilized mode with the FPV controller 3 in the dark. Based on our tests, it's only the Motion 3 where the throttle becomes extra sensitive.
@@readysetdrone
Hey, did my research flying the Neo with the FPV Controller 3 in stabilized mode during poor lighting conditions. Effectiveley, the drone will have no trouble moving at all. I'm mind blown! I thought all this time that the vision system was messing up with the stabilization process, but now we know it only happens with the motion controller. It is for sure a bug in the firmware. I went as far as directly taping the gimbal camera to block vision completely, making it fly blind; The ToF and IMU sensors still did their stabilization job.
I guess I'll have to switch to the FPV Controller 3 due to reliability since I often fly in public places. Quite a shame since I find the Motion Controller a bit more ergonomic, and I like that it activates the HUD flight path vector.
BTW, you guys have to make a video about fixing the gimbal camera. Broke mine many times without knowing there was an easy fix. I mean, I had DJI fix it for free thanks to Care Refresh so far, but still, the downtime is not fun :(
Forgot to mention. I was flying indoors without GPS assistance.
Thanks for the update! We are glad to hear that at least your experience aligns with ours.
Definitely something going on with the Motion 3, and since it flies normally (even if it drifts a bit) with other controllers, that tells us that a firmware update can fix it.
As for the gimbal, oh man, we have knocked out of whack several times in the course of these "NEO in the dark" series of videos, but haven't thought to make a video because each time we just fudged our way to getting it back into place. Just the other day, I had a really bad crash and wiggling it back in didn't work. I needed a flathead screw drive for leverage to click the gimbal housing back into place. That was gnarly!
We'll keep it in mind to film ourselves for the next time we crash. 😅
It has happened to me several times that, in broad daylight and with a completely clear sky, while the drone is connected to 15 or more satellites it suddenly loses them, making it difficult to control the flight and bring it down safely.
it happened to me as well, looks like it is not some rare cases but it does happen in most users. I hope DJI could face this issue as it makes the users losing the confidence in flying with DJI.
Thank you for the video. I hope DJI work on it.
Interesting, this would potentially also explain what happens over water. If the vision system is confused by the featureless, reflective water, then satellites could also become unstable causing the drone to do crazy things. I had such an experience before I knew about water (new drone owner, presumed water was fine based on marketing videos, later discovered that wasn't the case after I lost my drone).
In fact, I have my log still posted on my UA-cam account if someone wants to see it. The satellite lock became very unstable and it just crashed into the water with no way to control it (the entire time using RC-N3, open skies, zero wind).
@@OnlineLuc Hmm. We haven't tried it with the RC-N3 (since we don't own that controller) but that's definitely a possibility, but it could also be another issue. We've had random unexplainable NEO incidents / nose dives with the FPV controller 3.
@@TechnicallyAverage and to add, in my particular case, DJI replaced my drone under warranty (did NOT count towards a care refresh claim). When I asked what the cause was, I was told "a flight a control issue" and they explicitly indicated it was not a user error. The satellite numbers were all over the place on my log during the end. I was away from any possible structures. Should have had clear line of sight to satellites and excellent lock especially since it was many minutes into my flight.
But yeah, could be something else... no way to confirm.
@@OnlineLuc Wow, I'm glad they replaced it! At least that's good to hear!
When my NEO first arrived, it flew fine outdoors. In my house with windows open and light turned on, if would fly normally for about a second and then abruptly fly horizontally at a high rate of speed and crash into the wall, couch, etc. I discovered if I pulled the left stick back as soon as the Neo became erratic (within 1 -2 seconds after takeoff), I was able to land it before it flew into something. For whatever reason, it would fly with no issues in the kitchen or master bedroom. The kitchen has more light and the bedroom lighting is similar to the living room. After an update, the NEO flies without issue in my house. It never tried to fly upward. It would take of horizontally like a rocket before the update.
Wow, that's crazy!
Flying with the motion 3 I had my neo take off in broad daylight, thought it was lost, but luckily it finally came down.
I spoke to Chris a couple of days ago and I had an issue with the automated rocket without any controller. The Neo went up and on its way down I think I got slightly underneath it and it stopped at what would have been head height above me, the Neo would not lower itself and I had nothing to stand on until the battery went low and it auto landed. It may have lowered if I had managed to connect my phone to the app, but I am not sure if that would be possible in mid-flight. In my 3 batteries test flights, I had a few issues with the motion controller seeming to go out of sync so the wrist movements got even more exaggerated until I had to turn my whole body. I need a few more flights, but it is very cold in the UK at the moment :) The Neo does seem to need the downward light sensor and anything getting in its way will cause issues. Good to know it is a lot more stable with the controller, I have the FPV controller 3 so should hopefully perform well with that. Great Vid again :)
Have a good time flying with the FPV controller 3, Paul. 🤘
i have neo, fpv goggles, fpv controller3. but as i live in japan with 100g drone limit i can only fly indoor. that why i enjoy ur videos as i cant fly mine lol
Thank you for watching!
I wonder if you attached a small light or 2 on it if this would resolve this issue?
It definitely helps. We tried attaching a light in a dark room and it flew longer than previously, before crashing. Here's that video if you want to see.
ua-cam.com/video/QSH5_gR4ltI/v-deo.html
What would be the lightest rates to start flying the DJI Neo in manual mode, for those who have some knowledge, but have never flown in Manual mode? Pith Roll Yaw - thanks for the explanations
This is an outdoor Selfie drone that's meant to be kept close to the subject in good lighting conditions in an environment with little wind. Do anything else and you're asking for trouble.
I put very light drone strobes facing down and forward to fly in dark rooms. Now they make an led device that's made for the neo.
I LOVE the neo. Lots of fun and a great indoor drone.
That's awesome! We tried it and it definitely helped, but eventually the NEO crashed. We love the NEO too. Is an amazingly versatile flyer!
The sats were dropping and it uses the downward sensors to land, and help with flying close to the ground.
Thank you. I just need and wish DJI can put the Return To Home function while using cell phone as a controller. Do you think it is possible?
That seems possible, for sure, but we're just regular guys (not engineers), so our guess is just as good as yours. It would be a logical feature to have!
I have same problem with motion controller. When not enough light, ghosting will happen. But when outdoor in the dark, it become fine again. Something todo with ground pattern too; I think. So if you put a tape underneath, in a DJI no fly zone, because it can't get satellites, you can still fly it.
Not even dark though. It will freak out inside with all the damn lights on.
does pressing the big red stop button on the dongle 3 stop it shooting away so fast ?
In our first video when we initially discovered this about a month ago, we tried pressing that as an "emergency stop" but it didn't do anything. It kept on going.
Nope. At that point it seems to speed up forward while _thinking_ it's hovering in place.
@@readysetdrone even a 20 buck drone doesn't go shooting away on its own , it just hovers and leaves it up to you were it goes unless a big wind gust gets it lol , but the Neo does not even fall back to how a cheap drone flys 😅 Not slagging Neo I have it as well as a few others .
Lol yeah 😄 We love the NEO, but there are definitely some improvements to be made.
So basically we cannot fly outdoor with MC3 when going to some darker areas like tunnel, under a bridge, etc? A few seconds in dark and Neo will be crazy???
Exactly. 🫤
@@readysetdrone thats very sad and dont think it cannot be solve with new firmware
Knowing nothing about computer coding, I would think it could be possible because it doesn't go crazy with the FPV RC3.
@@readysetdrone neo should only drift, like every drone it atti mode...
Yeah. That is what it seems to do with the other controllers that we've flown it with.
Want to experience something very weird, fly it over red plaid. It automatically lands every time. Crossing a puddle on a walk while being connected to RC2 with full GPS, full chaos and loss of control. It’s a fun little quad but not without its issues. Hopefully they resolve these little issues with future iterations.
Oh geez! That's weird.
Good information a lot of out here only use the phone as a remote, personally I bought my Neo for its size and audio capabilities for my personal UA-cam channel (not a professional channel like yours) I pretty much use it in the pre-programmed modes which I personally feel that’s what it was designed for. note I do have a DJI mini pro 3 but I find myself using it less and less because I don’t wanna go through the hassle of editing to add my voice. I connect the Neo to an iPhone 13 Pro Max with a Hollyland lark one microphone system.
That's awesome! The NEO is a fantastic little drone. Of course, it has its limitations (it will fly into obstacles sometimes as it follows you, and if you go into a shaded or darker area, it will just land), but there's nothing else like it for the price! 👍
flying my dji neo on a cloudy day on a not even that dark day makes it freak out, it only happens during these conditions (from what happened to me)
This is obvious, even with a good lock, civilian GPS only has an accuracy of a metre or so. The drone uses a combination of the sensors and the GPS to get its position and speed, without either of these it will be erratic.
If the sensor is used to gauge how quickly the drone is moving with the motion controller then if the sensor sees all black it may think it’s not moving and attempt to move faster in that direction, this could account for the out of control movement when moving into a dark area, especially if there is no GPS to correct its positional awareness.
They should make it so we can plug in a thermal phone camera into the charging port on the drone 😂
I wore blindfolds and the neo flew fine! I'm thinking it has something to do with your motion controller. :) yes yes yes I'm joking...good video...thanks!!!
Ha ha! We like to do things we're not supposed to do, apparently, but in a fun and safe way. 😉 Thanks for watching.
Some instability is natural and to be expected when it has no GPS signal and the bottom cameras can't see very well due to it being too dark. But it shouldn't be accelerating madly the way it does. I wonder if there's a specific pattern to the low-light noise of the bottom sensors that makes it think the ground is moving forwards (and so it tries to speed up to - in its tiny little brain - "stay in place"). But the fact that it only happens (or happens a lot more) with a specific controller suggests a firmware bug.
I noticed this when flying indoors, I resolved the issue by fitting a small LED light to the bottom of the drone. It obviously uses the ground as a reference and if it can’t see it then it zooms off.
Nice! We tried that in our previous "How to fly the NEO in the dark" video, and it definitely helped, but it eventually crashed. Admittedly, we were pushing its limits, by flying in a pitch black room. 😅 But we're glad to hear that in normal low light conditions, a light helps.
ahh thats why my neo suddenly accelerate towards the wall without even squeezing the trigger. i tried it around on gloomy weather not very dark. im glad this video suddenly popup and watched it
no sattelite lock at take off. when it locked, it use that coordinate as home point, including its Z axis. that and the unstable gps lock makes it compute that it didn't have enough altitude and then rises. The motion controller uses gyro input and alghoritm to predict and makes compensate movement for x and y axis, which then contribute to drifting
What's the best way to know when it has satellite lock?
@TechnicallyAverage I think Neo needs to have around 25+satellite lock. The icon in the bottom right shows red when it takes off. The best way I think to let it sit for a while when it powers up and it should be ok after the home point has been recorded
Good to know! I would've thought that 12 to 15 would be enough for a stable flight. @@DTSmobileAt 0:41 seconds, it looked like it had 12 sats and was white. Are you referring to another part of the video where it was red during takeoff?
@TechnicallyAverage yes. Looking back at your video, it shows white at take off with 11-12 satellite, but I think your home point isn't recorded. At -0:58, you can clearly see when the drone climbed and reached +1m altitude, the satellites count drop and then even at 11-12, it shows red and in that instance I think it began to drift
@@DTSmobile Interesting. Well, I suppose the only thing to try is to very firmly tape up the sensors, then wait for as many satellites as possible and then take off and see what happens. 😂 I have a feeling it won't do and better.
I tried indoor flights with RC-N3. GPS lock doesn't seem to matter, but enough light is crucial to make down sensors work. Too dark and it isn't able to hover but goes crazy. My conclusion is Neo switches to GPS positioning only beyond a specific height (unknown but higher than a room).
GPS receipt is also very weak compared to a smartphone. Takes ages and doesn't get as many satellites under sub optimal conditions. Don't know why. Neo body is large enough to include same antenna as any smartphone.
Interesting theory about the height. You might be right about that.
Strange, when I drive my car in the dark, without my headlights on, with my eyes closed, and no streetlights… I’m able to easily navigate and safely travel to my intended destination 😂 😉
Lmao 🤣
DJI NEED TO DO ANOTHER FIRMWARE UPDATE ASAP AS TO MANY FLY AWAYS HAPPENING ETC
Agreed! It seems like it could be fixed pretty easily.
I flew indoors with all house lights on but when it got a bit dark the neo shot off into the wall for no reason,.,,,,,dji need to sort this out asap
In normal flight, the Neo climbs briefly immediately prior to a landing on your hand. I'd guess that, if the Neo has no visual knowledge of what is beneath it, then these brief climbs will be instigated continually by the software.
the other guy said, in order to fly it over water you need at least 20-25 satellites because the motion sensor freaks out over water...
but my Neo do max 15 Neo got Sh..t GPS
I love my Neo but if you fly it over a dark object or area it does freak out indoors or outdoors. I hope DJI can fix it with a firmware update.
Took a mind of its own inside. Full lights on seemed ok. Got a clip on lights and didn’t require all lights on in house and flew ok.
Great job guys, it explains why it does what it does sometimes. I was walking having it follow me through a covered bridge, as soon as it didn’t have enough light it auto landed. I was disappointed but makes sense. I had a non-responsive experience with the N3 controller flying under trees, I’m assuming due to low light and not enough satellite coverage. Our forest are beautiful but dark canopies. Hope they can fix this with OTA firmware update.
Yeah, even our light that we strapped on the underside of the NEO in our last video about flying in the dark, didn't stop the landing.
An update that could fix some of these limitations would be great! Although, the auto landing issue in the dark seems like just a simple hardware limitation due to cheap components to keep the price down.
Seems like you'll have to stick to the Avata in the dark forested areas.
Thanks, Joe. 👊
Look in the middle bottom of the screen. It says 0.0 feet. It's trying to use the bottom sensors but can't
Ah, yeah.You're right. In our previous test, we must have taped it better, but this time, there was probably some light leaking in.
At the end of this video is our first try outdoors to see if GPS will keep it stable, while being taped up.
ua-cam.com/video/WT7aYH1gTZY/v-deo.htmlsi=q59W6WrqfYglP8dc
I feel like, despite the tape situation not being perfect, it still demonstrated that the vision sensors are connected with the GPS receivers in some way. 🤔
Thanks, I actually faced the same problem, and I was flying in the corridor in between apartments, with the RC-N3 and my phone, and I faced the same problem. The drone started speeding out of control and crashed into a wall
Interesting. We don't have the RC-N3, but perhaps it has the same problem. With our RC 2, it just drifts, but remains in our control. It sounds like you experienced the "sensitive throttle" issue that we notice with our Motion 3.
Pitch dark no GPS low altitude w/LED undercarriage strip Goggles 3 and FPV Controller 3 in normal mode. Very fun and stable.
That's awesome! We tried it with a light in our previous NEO video, and it was a lot better, but we were pushing it too much. We were flying in an unrealisticly dark room, so the light only worked for a little bit, eventually it crashed.
Flying low, as you mentioned, seems like the key. Thanks for commenting. 👍
do not fly without fully stable satellite, the error is not from the drone but from the pilot itself. DJI and mostly their apps remind you always not to fly or be caution on flying the drone when in not stable state or with low gps signal. If it doesn't have good satellite signal then don't fly if you're not good on manual mode. There are many reason why it doesn't get good signal satellite like maybe on a certain area that has so many interference and metal that can cause its frequency signal weak or error. On your test flying it on a narrow space it's not because it is dark. It's Because the flow of air swinging it around with its own air flow that gives the drone unstable in addition of no signal and no ground sensor to lock its position. If the flow push it forward or backward then it will go that way making it seems like it looses control, a good practice is a quick thinking to push the drone avoiding to hit something if it loses control.
We should've waited for more satellites. We assumed that when the message on the lower right corner said "Home Point had been updated" it had GPS lock, but maybe we needed to wait for another message.
Regarding your theory about airflow, this also happens in open areas, so it's not the airflow. Also, as we discovered, it's only with the Motion 3, not any other controllers.
Thanks for your analysis.
so thats what happend when I flew my neo. It was the time when I was at home and decided to give it a tour, it was kinda dark but still visible but after a 5 or 6 second controls got locked and it crashed
Same experience, I was flying my neo near dark areas of the trees and it suddenly went straight for the branches on high speed until it crashed with head downwards to the ground 4-6 m
Until DJI fixes this with a firmware update, the only solutions are to fly with the FPV controller 3, or to have more than 20 satellites (based on some of our recent tests) but under trees, the GPS might be weak. 🫤 Hopefully your NEO is ok after the crash.
@@readysetdrone the neo turned out well with some minor scratches, however the magnetic lens filter from freewell got cracked. Ive noticed some minor flaws as well on flights with a mobile phone. Where it doesn't want to go upward until the area is well lit.
Mine will glitch and freeze in midair in manual mode if pushed too hard. It locks up at an angle and drops but usually I can recover if I have enough altitude. Also the performance drops off substantially when the battery gets below 50%
The last firmware update was over 30 days ago, and the Neo's issues are surely well known by now. Let's expect a Christmas gift, FW update from DJI.
Haha! Yes, please! 🎅
most probably its the firmware expecting to get proper data from the sensors looking down and when those sensors are not recieving proper data something happens inside firmware. They can easily make a sensor switch allowing the user to just disable the reading of the sensor so firmware can continue its loop by only using satellites and gyro to control the drone. I want to get the neo, but seing all these weird fly offs not buying until I see its fixed.
You said you'll fly it with satellite gps locked but base on your phone status it has no stable satellite that is why it has no gps lock on. So what's the point of flying it without any lock on? it will eventually uncontrollable without any experience manually and when you tried to bring it down it now have stable GPS but you're bringing it down manually so that is why it still not stable.
We thought we had GPS lock. Notice that as we were talking off, the notification on the lower right said that the home point was updated. As far as we knew, that's what seemed to be a sign of a GPS lock.
This is the 2nd video I've seen of a neo just going up, might be a bug!
Interesting. It definitely freaked us out!
In hindsight, putting tape on the sensors to simulate nighttime, was a red herring. What we really wanted to highlight was that when the sensors don't have enough light, the GPS lock becomes unstable (even with 12 sats). Also, the throttle becomes really sensitive when it's in the dark, rather than simply drifting, like it does with other controllers.
very thank you for sharing precious experiences with this gps controversial drone!...
However I found many NEO users complaining about while not related with light ambiance ! They said this randomly occur even in very clear spaces outdoor when get under 14-16 satellites?? Why so high limit for a simple flight that is never from a pro drone this case?? It seems there is far any else originated!
They often lost NEO control by some buggy I suppose unreliable, low sensitive or internal nearby circuits interference with its very cheap as it seems gps receiver due to NEO very small higher density designed in relative with its high complexity circuits !
On the other hands, it is so weirdly to have any gps positioning dependency with the other sensors as they mainly should complement each other, so whenever light is lower, gps should be mainly used instead as to provide an acceptable safety return to home at least.
However it could be also software bug as caused by some badly settled priorities among internal signals to process, God DJI knows only, but the issue seems to be unhappily wide spread today so we all hope for an update to try... fix it (still hope to be software exclusively...)😟😶
So sad...NEO could be far the smartest AI featured drone DJI ever release if not this huge nightmare...
Meanwhile we also hope new FLIP will natively avoid gps issues as well as any other interference with sensors even if could use LIDAR as we also very hope!..😎
Interesting! We didn't know that this bug also occurs without flying in low light. Thanks for sharing!
Confirming this when i tried in very low light conditions.
Thanks for confirming. It's a great little drone, but these limitations seem like something that can potentially be improved with a firmware update.
3:37 It happened to me with RC N3 too
Ohh ok. Wow. That is the one controller that we don't have. Sounds like a firmware update could solve this issue.
Was wondering this as the mini 2 you could do the same
i've flown my neo in the basement with no gps satellites , but lights, and it flies perfectly, but tells me there is no satellites.
Same here. If it's bridge enough, it's all good. We fly it all the time without sats, but one time we went through a gap that was dark, just for a few seconds, and I kept crashing, and I couldn't figure out what was happening. This video started this little rabbit hole. ua-cam.com/video/WT7aYH1gTZY/v-deo.htmlsi=mFzonxUOzx4_Kp59
Neo thought the tape was the ground.
Yeah, you're right. That was our first thought, but then we were also thinking that the NEO is trained to land when it sees something underneath it. However, since the tape was there from the beginning, it didn't see it as a landing spot, and as you said, it was just probably trying to get away from the ground.
What's strange is that it does show its altitude correctly on the lower left of the screen, so it should've known that it's in the air. 😄 Again, we are expecting it to do too much AND doing things we should be doing, so we'll cut it some slack.
If u block gps it drifts.
If the system itself blocks gps, it doesn't.
Interesting. In what situations would it block GPS itself? And what's your take on the loss of GPS when there's no vision system?
@readysetdrone It's been analyzed the wrong way. You need answers from a engineer in programming and see in *real time* how the source code works.
Don't get sued for stream it live 🤗
We are just a couple of regular guys. We aren't smart enough for that! 😅
I fly mine inside all the time with SHIT for gos signal...
Flies FINE - unless its darker...
Its all about light - which is super annoying at times
dji plz update
It always has to be watching. From: China
Sats are always in the red so pretty much it.
Simon always waits for his satellites to turn white before taking off. 😸
@ 🤣😝 I’m on my third Neo locking in satellites is beyond painful. They literally go backwards to no satellites many times I almost lost it twice when in Hawaii felt not fun! I love the little Neo but needs some firmware updates for sure! Simon says hi. 😽
Interesting. I thought the neo was pretty stable in full sun even without sats.
Simon says don't bonk him in the head while he's trying to nap. 😹
And yes, the NEO definitely needs firmware updates!
@@readysetdrone no worries he's very familiar with soft cotton balls ammo. 😹
I'm sorry to inform you that your DJI Care Refresh warranty is no longer valid.
Probably so! We are doing many things that we aren't supposed to be doing! 😄
i didnt buy this drone for this reason, if dji fixes this issue the neo and avata 2 will be mine
Its a 200 dollar 2s whoop. Cant be too mad about it.
For sure! 👍 We are doing stupid things with it to see what we can learn.
Neo has Nyctophobia 🤭
😂
Maybe its designed to fly away.. maybe it's a side scam 🤷🏻♂️ mind always tries to fly away. It's sketchy. Maybe they should fix it in the next firmware update. Otherwise I'm going to have a couple of my computer science friends from MIT take a look at the code and hardware. It's weird and it should be looked into. Junk drones don't even do this. It will make a good video for my channel.
That definitely would make a good video! We don't know anyone who could dig into the code.
But, yeah, hopefully they update the firmware.
bad info , not a fan of this. not what your supposed to be doing. its small and needs both to operate. . . .
We actually said exactly that in the video. Agreed. Thanks for watching!
DJI regrets the decision to support all controllers compatibility with Neo.
It won't happen in the future. Thanks!
But that's the beauty of the NEO! It's such a versatile drone. We're definitely a fan of it, but hopefully a firmware update can smooth out some of the issues.
5:14 ahhh come on Dad… it’s all their fault… *fingers in ears* nah nah nah… whaaaa… make my under $200 autonomous flying thingy BETTER!
(trying best big baby, pouting child)
That was spot on, Brett! 😅
Thanks for your test but PLEASE stop using that stupid black tape ! Go out at night in a clear sky area , stick your little led light under the Neo and WAIT till Neo gets MORE than 20 satellites .......after that go high more than 10 meters .........it drifts ?
Ha! You're right. We need to stop being afraid of flying it in the actual darkness, outdoors. 👻 We will make an updated video soon. Thanks!