Today I was flying the Karma in a wooded area with a giant abandoned bridge that goes over a river and valley. After about 7 minutes of flying with complete control and GPS signal to a distance of about 300 ft away, I came back to land on the paved road beneath the bridge. With about 2 feet left until touchdown while I was about 20 feet away, the Karma took complete control of itself, as if it had its own mind, and flew straight up into the bottom of the concrete bridge which is about 80 feet high and the slammed to the pavement below, utterly destroying the drone and Hero5 which was attached. GoPro say that it is not their problem. Very disappointed with them. Glad I sold my shares of the company. NOT HAPPY.
No, no, no all problems are user error! I'm sorry to hear that, I'm guessing you don't have the way overpriced GoPro Care or insurance?
Isn't it a bad idea to land under a bridge? Electomagnetic interference if it's a steel bridge. Also, GPS blocked. I dont have a Karma. I'm thinking about getting one so I'm not trying to give you a hard time. I'm genuinely curious how reliable it is. You know where you were better than I, so do you think the bridge might have been blocking your GPS? And was it a steel bridge?
Hey, I understand you are not trying to give me a hard time. We can all learn from this. So it was not a steel bridge, it was concrete. When I initially took off, I did not have GPS signal, once I got above the tree line and above the bridge, it gained a GPS signal and operated perfectly. I was even able to fly on the opposite side of the bridge and never lost connection with the controller. Weird that it lost connection 20 feet away from me. What confuses me is that when it lost connection, it didn't go down 2 feet to the ground..instead it went 80 feet into the air into the bottom of the bridge. A fault in the design, in my opinion. It has done that to me before and I have been reading numerous other posts about the same problem. For some people, it took off horizontally rather than vertically and they never found it. I would not get it again.
Interesting. Perhaps a bad barometer. Maybe it caught a stray bit of GPS signal and switched itself out of manual. Or a low battery failsafe. I don't know enough about Karma, but whatever it was, I'm never a fan when any drone takes full control away. It's one thing if out of range and it failsafes to return home, but 20 feet away. Sheesh.
At least somebody understands my frustration. Understandable if it is a mile away and I have no idea where it is for it to come back to "home". 20 feet away is a little ridiculous especially when it operated fine with the bridge between the controller and the drone. I think it was since the battery was low, but that is exactly why I was landing it.
Well there's something anyway... It's still gonna cost you at least $160 but that's better than buying a new one.
They are replacing my Karma, Stabilizer, and Hero5. I will look into those settings and be more careful next time. Thanks
I would stay completely off of concrete. The Rebar will interfere with your compass. There are good and really bad days to fly. If you are not aware of this, it is key to keeping your drone from loosing GPS and crashing and having a stong signal. I never fly on days that are 4 and above. Days that are 0-1, you can fly longer distances and never have any issues. I leaned this on March 4, 2017. I lost GPS at 3 feet away from me. Came home and found this and it was a 5 that particular day.
Planetary K-index | NOAA / NWS Space Weather Prediction Center
Planetary K-index | NOAA / NWS Space Weather Prediction Center
Yea when mine tried to fly away it was 4... I still believe that a dual GPS system helps because I don't even think about it with my Mavic but I have to with both the Karma and my Solo.
Taking off with out GPS should only be done if you are used to flying manual mode. Trying to land (or take off) under any structure is usually a bad idea. Doesn't matter what its made of. This is true for any brand drone.
Not so much if you have optical and sonic sensors. I flew my Mavic in my warehouse for an hour yesterday since it was raining all day. No problems at all.
JCLs
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Comparing flying indoors with a bunch of sensors is really not flying, no real skills required. Great if what you want. Flying in open where these tools actually mean little in most cases and loosing GPS or having related issue makes a huge difference. Compare apples to apples. Sell your Karma and be happy! I am like Karma a lot for what I got it for and the Hero 5 and 6 and grip are just fine.
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Context... I was replying to a guy that said that taking off from under a structure was a bad idea with any drone. Again, not so if you have the right sensors. With my Mavic, I can take off from inside a building and land back inside, no problem. I can do that with my old Parrot drone as well because they also had optical and sonic sensors. So are you saying that not having that feature is better because it'll improve your piloting skills? Really? How about not having lost GPS issues in the first place? Or lost signal problems as well? I have 4 "big" drones and several mini drones. The Parrot BeBop, 3DR Solo, GoPro Karma and DJI Mavic. I also have the original AR Drone that's a wall decoration at this point.
JCLs
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You are absolutely correct in that taking off from under a structure with the right sensors can be done. So what? For most people going out and buying RTF Drone and having no real idea of all that is involved is stupid as is blaming the Drone. I could also list all the helicopters And drones I have built and includes an FPV helicopter. I also have several racing drones I fly but. Out with college students except for fun. My reflexes too slow as too old. Oops that makes me unable to try and speak with common sense.
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Um... WTF did I do to you? Sigh,
1. Guy states that it's a bad idea to take off or land under a structure with any drone.
2. I point out that a drone like the Mavic doesn't have that problem because of it's sensors.
3. You cut in to say that flying with sensors doesn't require skill and that I should sell my Karma, presumably to buy a drone with sensors. I list my drones to point out that I already have drones with sensors. I also refer you to point 1 to explain why I said what I did.
4. You now are seemingly accusing me of buying drones with no idea...blah, blah, blah, listing drones, common sense, etc.
Again, huh? none of this had anything to do with you. I just wanted to point out that some drones can do what the first guy said was wrong, period. Quite frankly, if you're such a purist then you think that GPS is unnecessary as well and hampers pilot skill and development. You should get on back out there with your Testors models and have at it.
I'm glad yours works fine indoors. A lot of people have had problems flying the Mavic indoors. Quick search on forums will show that.
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