I am taking NEO on a 33-day trip around Asia. Place your bets below on whether or not I lose the drone due to a flyaway and if so, after how many days. First person with the correct answer will get a DJI carry case. 😮
As a beginner I've been looking into the Neo and mostly all I've seen is obviously sponsored reviews where everything works perfectly. It's good to see this type of honest review to temper my expectations and make a more informed decision.
I paid for the drone myself so I wish that everything worked perfectly. Unfortunately, all I can do is to let people know to be careful and hopefully get DJI to look into the issue.
dude, it's the downward position sensors. If you launch this thing at night off of a balcony, it will NOT go UP. Only down. If you fly into a dark area after flying in good light, it might do what you are describing - sudden change of direction and flying at high speed until the lighting changes, it crashes, or you somehow save it. Neo does not like low light. I'm going to try to tape up those damn sensors which should, in theory, force the neo into atti mode - harder to fly but no sudden freakouts
@@DrDinB I tried it. I don't recommend it at all. It flies but continues to do some weird stuff. It may actually use some vision through the main camera to position itself even with the sensors blocked, and in low light this is a problem. First it says: "attitude mode, fly with caution." Then, mid flight it says: "visual positioning failure unable to return home automatically" I can see it doing weird stuff even when I'm not touching the sticks and it's just drifting in the wind. It keeps talking and complaining. ***The biggest issue is landing. There seems to be no way to land without those sensors. You must use the emergency motor shut off after catching it in your hand.*** Be careful, it freaks out if it touches the ground even if you hold down the left stick. It very suddenly runs the motors on full blast, then low rpm, then full blast again. The motors on full blast makes quite a force. It can surprise you. Flip over and bite into your fingers. Do not feel safe until the motors are fully stopped. Conclusion: Do not fly the Neo in low light. End of story. Get a different drone if you want to fly in atti mode.
The only problem I have had with mine happens indoors in low light when flying without a controller, it tends to land if it can't see properly. Other than that I've used mine as standalone, with my phone, with the RCN3 it came with, with the RC2 from my Mini 4 pro / Air 3S & also the FPV kit from my Avata 2. On it's own outdoors, it's never let me down and follows me into places that none of my other drones (that have obstacle avoidance) will do. I'm more than happy with mine.
My drone has been quite the companion too! I’ve got some videos of it following me while I was riding a scooter and a bike. I hope DJI can make some adjustments to the drone to reduce the chances of it flying away, even if it’s sporadic and not guaranteed to occur. Once they’ve done that, they’ll have their work cut out for them to make camera settings more adjustable in the app. Eg. let us reduce sharpening and exposure without the need to buy a controller
@@DrDinB I agree, there are always improvements that can be made and that is another thing I like about DJI as a company, they do continue to improve their drones with plenty of updates for years after release.
I had the same issue a few days ago the Neo became berserk mid-flight, I could land it safely by using RTH, however I can't fly the Neo anymore getting gimbal calibration issues. I contacted customer service couldn't fix it need to send it back on my own cost. It happened within 15 days of purchase, I don't agree. Will try with the seller on Tuesday when I'm off.
The customer should NOT have to pay for shipping when the product has a factory defect. It would be different if you had been using the drone for a few months.
Today I went to MEDIAMARKT where I bought the Neo, Well documented with screenshots from the errors, and copies of my chat with customer services they paid me back instantly. They were also surprised I have to pay for the return, so my advice is, don't buy it online. At the end I upgrade to the Mini 4 pro at Mediamarkt what a machine omg.
My latest experience was probably gps loss or was blown out of the gpx fix. It flew away very fast and very quickly presented the Land or RTH option after I which quickly started the RTH option. It flew on top of the RTH height back to me and landed exactly on my hand from which it started.
I had so many problems with it including it flying off into the woods, not being able to control and all this started with the last update. In the eNd I sent it back. Shame because before that it was a, load of fun.
I was thinking about this the other day. When I got the drone it worked perfectly and then I had my fly-away issue on the latest firmware. The firmware mentioned that it “improved” positioning but I wonder whether they accidentally broke something else.
AS I see most trying to fly with too much object around them. 2.4 GHZ don’t penetrate good in metal buildings or too many trees,houses,cars etc. works well in open field. I use 900 MMHZ in crowded environments. Too many WI-FI in my area really knock some of my drones off the air going nuts!
Cheap GPS drones have fly-aways more often. An example: Some drones fly away or go into toilet bowl when you activate follow-me. That's GPS follow-me, not optical. (DJI people only know active-track) My theory. The processor can't keep up and makes a mistake in the GPS calculations. Either the processor is simply too slow, or gets hots, or loses battery power, or there is a bug in the software.
I had two situations with my NEO while I was flying it in my garden. The NEO was 3 or 4 meters away from the remote (I wasn’t using Wi-Fi), and suddenly, it tried to fly away but was stopped by a tree (no smart follow me stuff, just basic navigation with the remote. In both situations, I was recording at 4K 30 fps. Now I’ve switched to 1080p 60 fps, and this behavior hasn’t happened again.
I’ve been having problems with the neo indoors. It will not sit still in the air when not touching the controls. It is all over the place. Never had this problem with my other DJI drones. While using the fpv controller 3.
With mine, I can fly it in a hallway and certain rooms in my house all day long and it doesn't do that, but in certain areas in some rooms it just takes off forward out of control with an interference warning message. I'm using the Goggles 3 and the RC MC 3 and everything is on the latest firmware. I believe the places where it goes crazy have high wifi interference. Granted I'm not flying with my phone using wifi but I believe wifi interference could be the issue.
Interesting. I guess we will have to wait for DJI to issue an official diagnosis and/or fix. In my case the wifi connection to the drone dropped from 4 to 2 segments so there was likely some interference at play.
an issue I faced is from the controller RCN3, I cancelled RTH right at the last minute of landing and suddenly it started flying sideways, but was able to control it via the controller.
Yes.. me too , same problem , first start , follow me for a moment, and then the neo flew side way with full speed , smash to the bushes. Lucky my neo not damage. then test again, start normal.... to use, and follow ..etc.. but because that issue , I'm not confident this drone to be use anymore, for now, till the Dji Fix the bug that cause it fly away.
Watched your video yesterdayt and it happened to me today :D I got the drone 5 days ago and now the drone's frame is busted :( Any tips? I do have the care package for the drone but since it wasn't my error i think it's DJI's job to replace it.
Sorry to hear that. Does the drone still fly at all? If not then you will need to contact DJI. I am hoping that DJI gives free replacements to people who experienced these issues because it is not fair to require you to use your DJI Care Refresh.
I experienced something similar with my neo, i flew around my house in cinematic mode (low speed) whilst i was inside. There was a corner coming ahead of me so i let out on the stick but then drone kept going straight and eventually crashed into a wall which was really bizarre because i did not get any signal warning or anything. Everything on screen was normal but the drone flew itself straight regardless of the control input i did on the controller. That was my first crash.
There are many similar cases online. Let’s hope that DJI engineers are working hard on fixing these issues. For now, I will only use Neo’s quick shot modes since those worked pretty well for me.
The controller I wanted was sold out, so I’ll get it in a few days. I don’t have one of the other compatible controllers either. I think having a physical controller with proper thumb sticks would be helpful, especially if the Neo lets me shut down the drone in an emergency. But the drone can move so fast and suddenly that it would be hard to regain control even with a good controller.
One thing to add is that having a proper controller like the RC-N3 can lead to issue #2 where switching the flying modes can cause the drone to loose control. I will need to be careful not to switch modes mid flight until there is a fix.
every time i try to use the neo to follow me using the cellphone app, he starts following and after some seconds he gets insane and fly in a random direction and crashes
Did you try not using the app? I found that Neo “follow me” mode worked well when I used quickshots. (I would still keep the phone or controller handy in case that the drone does not return and I need to connect to it manually to attempt a rescue .)
@DrDinB when I use the controller it works fine, I lost confidence using the button in the drone itself, I thought "if he did this with the phone connected, imagine if he does this and I have no control at all" but I will try next time!
Neither of the explanations fit what's happening qhen the neo starts flying in a certain direction. In most of these scenarios the default behavior for dji drones is to just wait or returm to home. This acts similar to what fpv drones do when something is not right wither in hardware or software. Probably software
The real unknown is, what causes the software to malfunction? It could be 100% software related as you said or it could be some hardware & software interaction causing it. The only thing I can report is the anecdotal evidence of what users observed right before the drone started moving unexpectedly.
How odd the hundreds of thousands of these are made all with the same Components yet just a hand full have problems ! Now is it most of these problems come from new flyers with little idea how to fly in the first place . I’d say the problem lay with user error
We cannot discount that explanation until we collect evidence to the contrary. However, many of the people reporting these issues are experienced drone flyers who never experienced something similar with other drones - DJI or another brand.
I am taking NEO on a 33-day trip around Asia. Place your bets below on whether or not I lose the drone due to a flyaway and if so, after how many days. First person with the correct answer will get a DJI carry case. 😮
No...I bet you will get lost and your Neo will return to Home...If I am right what do I get ?????
Nothing because I will not be back home to send you the free case. Maybe the Neo will fly back to you😂.
As a beginner I've been looking into the Neo and mostly all I've seen is obviously sponsored reviews where everything works perfectly. It's good to see this type of honest review to temper my expectations and make a more informed decision.
I paid for the drone myself so I wish that everything worked perfectly. Unfortunately, all I can do is to let people know to be careful and hopefully get DJI to look into the issue.
dude, it's the downward position sensors.
If you launch this thing at night off of a balcony, it will NOT go UP. Only down.
If you fly into a dark area after flying in good light, it might do what you are describing - sudden change of direction and flying at high speed until the lighting changes, it crashes, or you somehow save it.
Neo does not like low light. I'm going to try to tape up those damn sensors which should, in theory, force the neo into atti mode - harder to fly but no sudden freakouts
That's a very interesting point, I will have to experiment with that!
@@DrDinB I tried it. I don't recommend it at all.
It flies but continues to do some weird stuff. It may actually use some vision through the main camera to position itself even with the sensors blocked, and in low light this is a problem.
First it says:
"attitude mode, fly with caution."
Then, mid flight it says:
"visual positioning failure unable to return home automatically"
I can see it doing weird stuff even when I'm not touching the sticks and it's just drifting in the wind. It keeps talking and complaining.
***The biggest issue is landing. There seems to be no way to land without those sensors. You must use the emergency motor shut off after catching it in your hand.***
Be careful, it freaks out if it touches the ground even if you hold down the left stick. It very suddenly runs the motors on full blast, then low rpm, then full blast again.
The motors on full blast makes quite a force. It can surprise you. Flip over and bite into your fingers. Do not feel safe until the motors are fully stopped.
Conclusion: Do not fly the Neo in low light. End of story. Get a different drone if you want to fly in atti mode.
Thanks for reporting on what works and doesn’t. I have seen people attaching flashlights to Neo! 😅
@@DrDinB No problem. It was fun. Thanks for the replies.
The only problem I have had with mine happens indoors in low light when flying without a controller, it tends to land if it can't see properly. Other than that I've used mine as standalone, with my phone, with the RCN3 it came with, with the RC2 from my Mini 4 pro / Air 3S & also the FPV kit from my Avata 2. On it's own outdoors, it's never let me down and follows me into places that none of my other drones (that have obstacle avoidance) will do. I'm more than happy with mine.
My drone has been quite the companion too! I’ve got some videos of it following me while I was riding a scooter and a bike. I hope DJI can make some adjustments to the drone to reduce the chances of it flying away, even if it’s sporadic and not guaranteed to occur. Once they’ve done that, they’ll have their work cut out for them to make camera settings more adjustable in the app. Eg. let us reduce sharpening and exposure without the need to buy a controller
@@DrDinB I agree, there are always improvements that can be made and that is another thing I like about DJI as a company, they do continue to improve their drones with plenty of updates for years after release.
I had the same issue a few days ago the Neo became berserk mid-flight, I could land it safely by using RTH, however I can't fly the Neo anymore getting gimbal calibration issues. I contacted customer service couldn't fix it need to send it back on my own cost. It happened within 15 days of purchase, I don't agree. Will try with the seller on Tuesday when I'm off.
The customer should NOT have to pay for shipping when the product has a factory defect. It would be different if you had been using the drone for a few months.
@@DrDinB ill keep you update
Today I went to MEDIAMARKT where I bought the Neo, Well documented with screenshots from the errors, and copies of my chat with customer services they paid me back instantly. They were also surprised I have to pay for the return, so my advice is, don't buy it online. At the end I upgrade to the Mini 4 pro at Mediamarkt what a machine omg.
Thanks for the update. What did DJI Support say when you reported this?
They are replying with a generic message and asking people to submit their flight logs to diagnose the issue.
My latest experience was probably gps loss or was blown out of the gpx fix. It flew away very fast and very quickly presented the Land or RTH option after I which quickly started the RTH option. It flew on top of the RTH height back to me and landed exactly on my hand from which it started.
I had so many problems with it including it flying off into the woods, not being able to control and all this started with the last update. In the eNd I sent it back. Shame because before that it was a, load of fun.
I was thinking about this the other day. When I got the drone it worked perfectly and then I had my fly-away issue on the latest firmware. The firmware mentioned that it “improved” positioning but I wonder whether they accidentally broke something else.
AS I see most trying to fly with too much object around them. 2.4 GHZ don’t penetrate good in metal buildings or too many trees,houses,cars etc. works well in open field. I use 900 MMHZ in crowded environments. Too many WI-FI in my area really knock some of my drones off the air going nuts!
Cheap GPS drones have fly-aways more often. An example: Some drones fly away or go into toilet bowl when you activate follow-me. That's GPS follow-me, not optical. (DJI people only know active-track) My theory. The processor can't keep up and makes a mistake in the GPS calculations. Either the processor is simply too slow, or gets hots, or loses battery power, or there is a bug in the software.
I had two situations with my NEO while I was flying it in my garden. The NEO was 3 or 4 meters away from the remote (I wasn’t using Wi-Fi), and suddenly, it tried to fly away but was stopped by a tree (no smart follow me stuff, just basic navigation with the remote. In both situations, I was recording at 4K 30 fps. Now I’ve switched to 1080p 60 fps, and this behavior hasn’t happened again.
They need to add 2.4K 60 fps. The sensor and processor in Neo are capable of it.
I have issue video after download in dji fly, result in video glitter
Mine has the same problem
I’ve been having problems with the neo indoors. It will not sit still in the air when not touching the controls. It is all over the place. Never had this problem with my other DJI drones. While using the fpv controller 3.
It's a shame they did not apply the same attention to detail to this drone as they did with the other models.
With mine, I can fly it in a hallway and certain rooms in my house all day long and it doesn't do that, but in certain areas in some rooms it just takes off forward out of control with an interference warning message. I'm using the Goggles 3 and the RC MC 3 and everything is on the latest firmware. I believe the places where it goes crazy have high wifi interference. Granted I'm not flying with my phone using wifi but I believe wifi interference could be the issue.
Interesting. I guess we will have to wait for DJI to issue an official diagnosis and/or fix. In my case the wifi connection to the drone dropped from 4 to 2 segments so there was likely some interference at play.
I fly with the n3 controller. Only indoors so far. It's a great indoor drone. No issues yet.
That is good to hear that you are having a good experience.
an issue I faced is from the controller RCN3, I cancelled RTH right at the last minute of landing and suddenly it started flying sideways, but was able to control it via the controller.
I've heard of this happening to a few people so it's not just a one-off issue, hopefully DJI will address it.
Happen to me today...arghhhhh..I was using the phone app to control it. As soon as I took off it went crazy.
Yes.. me too , same problem , first start , follow me for a moment, and then the neo flew side way with full speed , smash to the bushes. Lucky my neo not damage.
then test again, start normal.... to use, and follow ..etc.. but because that issue , I'm not confident this drone to be use anymore, for now, till the Dji Fix the bug that cause it fly away.
Watched your video yesterdayt and it happened to me today :D
I got the drone 5 days ago and now the drone's frame is busted :(
Any tips? I do have the care package for the drone but since it wasn't my error i think it's DJI's job to replace it.
Sorry to hear that. Does the drone still fly at all? If not then you will need to contact DJI. I am hoping that DJI gives free replacements to people who experienced these issues because it is not fair to require you to use your DJI Care Refresh.
@ yes it flies but anyway the frame is busted. I contacted them already. Generic responses
I experienced something similar with my neo, i flew around my house in cinematic mode (low speed) whilst i was inside. There was a corner coming ahead of me so i let out on the stick but then drone kept going straight and eventually crashed into a wall which was really bizarre because i did not get any signal warning or anything. Everything on screen was normal but the drone flew itself straight regardless of the control input i did on the controller. That was my first crash.
There are many similar cases online. Let’s hope that DJI engineers are working hard on fixing these issues. For now, I will only use Neo’s quick shot modes since those worked pretty well for me.
are you using the controller? or the phone app?
The controller I wanted was sold out, so I’ll get it in a few days. I don’t have one of the other compatible controllers either. I think having a physical controller with proper thumb sticks would be helpful, especially if the Neo lets me shut down the drone in an emergency. But the drone can move so fast and suddenly that it would be hard to regain control even with a good controller.
One thing to add is that having a proper controller like the RC-N3 can lead to issue #2 where switching the flying modes can cause the drone to loose control. I will need to be careful not to switch modes mid flight until there is a fix.
every time i try to use the neo to follow me using the cellphone app, he starts following and after some seconds he gets insane and fly in a random direction and crashes
Did you try not using the app? I found that Neo “follow me” mode worked well when I used quickshots. (I would still keep the phone or controller handy in case that the drone does not return and I need to connect to it manually to attempt a rescue .)
@DrDinB when I use the controller it works fine, I lost confidence using the button in the drone itself, I thought "if he did this with the phone connected, imagine if he does this and I have no control at all" but I will try next time!
@@kigoibikeGood point. One reason I like quickshots is that it doesn’t encourage me to fly high and far away as I would with a controller 😅
Neither of the explanations fit what's happening qhen the neo starts flying in a certain direction. In most of these scenarios the default behavior for dji drones is to just wait or returm to home. This acts similar to what fpv drones do when something is not right wither in hardware or software. Probably software
The real unknown is, what causes the software to malfunction? It could be 100% software related as you said or it could be some hardware & software interaction causing it. The only thing I can report is the anecdotal evidence of what users observed right before the drone started moving unexpectedly.
How odd the hundreds of thousands of these are made all with the same Components yet just a hand full have problems !
Now is it most of these problems come from new flyers with little idea how to fly in the first place .
I’d say the problem lay with user error
We cannot discount that explanation until we collect evidence to the contrary. However, many of the people reporting these issues are experienced drone flyers who never experienced something similar with other drones - DJI or another brand.
"Even to minor loss of a GPS signal". The drone doesn't even have GPS, how can it lose GPS signal?
It does have GPS
It does have it. You can see in one of my clips that I connected to 24 satellites right before loosing control of the drone.
Yes this happened to me took me two hours to find it again !!