Mavic 3 spotlight & POI problem

So I treated myself to a Mavic 3 last week and boy what a weapon it is!
Everything is working perfectly except the spotlight or POI mode (not tried the master shot).
The drone seems to be trying too hard to keep the subject central and 90% of the time results in an unusable jittery video (as seen in the link) and sometimes has a mind of it’s own and points the camera in some other random direction.
My Air 2s has been faultless when using spotlight or POI from day one and as it’s a mode I use a lot in my flights I’m disappointed with the poor results of the M3.
I’ve tried refreshing the drone via DJI Assistant, as well as backdating then updating (not flown with the downgrade).
Updated the RC, done the IMU and compass etc but still no good. If anything it’s getting worse.
Even tried a different RC to no avail.
The only thing I have not done is to uninstall and reinstall the Fly app on my I-pad but don’t think this will do much but is worth a try.
Any suggestions as to what may be the cause before I send it back to DJI?
Thanks in advance

Could it be the APAS?

It is known. The drone is a bit “flighty” either turn it off or to brake. It does make a world of difference.
Hope this helps

Scratch that, I answered before I watched the video. I would send it back. Mine is absolutely not like this at all. Mine is steady as a rock compared to yours.

Could it be something in the gimbal settings menu. I know on the mavic air 2 there are setting to make the gimbal movements smoother.

Thank for the feed back.
Today I uninstalled and reinstalled the Fly App on my I-pad and just had a quick flight with no joy.
Still the same jumpy video when locked on to a ‘target’ that it identifies as a boat or car etc.
Weather is not so good at the moment with showers and windy but hope get out and try it again later.

I’d get it back to whoever you bought it from for a refund or replacement rather than sending it to DJI to diagnose as it’ll be considerably quicker (assuming you didn’t buy it from DJI).

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Quick update.
Re calibrated the compass in an area with no metal to interfere with things and due to a high wind tested the drone in a sheltered carpark
In spotlight mode it locked on to a parked car and seemed to behave as it should with perhaps an almost unnoticeable amount of jitter. Flew it back in the shipyard, only 50mtr away from the carpark, and it was playing up again.
If the wind dies down a bit I intend to go to a completely different rural area, re calibrate the compass with no phone, keys, belt buckle, watch, pace maker and anything else metal and try again.
My Air2s performs faultlessly in the shipyard so unless the Mavic 3 is over sensitive to metal structures etc I can’t see this being the cause but will see what happens.
If this fails I will contact the seller about the issue again but I got the impression I will be sending it back to DJI in any case.
Thanks for your inputs.

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It’s disappointing when tings don’t work as you’d expect, hope you get it sorted soon

The one thing you haven’t mentioned is having calibrated the gimbal, especially after software updates….:thinking:

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Ok! so I got to an open area last evening and re-calibrated the compass and IMU (didn’t do the gimble though) and as can be seen in the video everything was working as it should in spotlight mode.
Tested the ‘follow me’ in all directions, POI and everything else I could and this worked fine, if not better than expected.
Pleased with the results I then went back to the shipyard to see if there was an improvement or not. It was a very big NOT!
It was fine just flying around close to and above the boats and a nearby phone mast, as is the case with my other drones ,UNTIL spotlight mode was engaged where everything got silly with the actual drone jigging around as well as the gimble. Not seen it do that before now.
In my tiny mind I would expect at least a radio interference warning to come up before engaging spotlight mode, if the phone mast happened to be the cause.
This phone mast has never previously caused a problem even when flying very close above and around in any auto mode so I don’t think this could be the cause.
Why only have this problem in auto mode only and only in this location with this drone and not the others? Something strange going on here!.
What I could really do with is another proven Mavic 3 to fly in the shipyard just to see what happens.
Any takers in the Plymouth or SE Cornwall area that may like to fly around a shipyard with their Mavic 3?
Sorry to bore you all with this again.

Could it be magnetic interference

Just come in from further tests within the shipyard and my findings are as follows.
In spotlight mode.
If a green square is drawn and the drone recognises the subject as a person or vehicle it works just fine.
If a green square is drawn around a building or an area on the ground it also works fine
But if a green square is drawn around a boat and it identifies it as such, that’s any boat or ship no matter how big or small afloat or not, it constantly fails to keep a clean lock on it resulting in a jittery footage.
Also tested with and without APAS and flew very close to the local phone mast and successfully used spotlight mode on it.
Changed channels to the 3 different setting, 5.8 showing the best results, that made no difference to the spotlight reluctance to lock on fully to a boat.
So my conclusions are I have bought a drone that’s a land lubber and is nervous around boats!
With me working and living in a marine environment a drone with this problem is not much use to me as most of my filming is of boats and ships etc and spotlight mode is my go-to active track setting.
It’s going to be an interesting conversation when I contact the seller or DJI of my findings and request a replacement drone that actually feels comfortable around boats! LOL Not asking too much am I?
Thanks all & watch this space.

Told you the other day to send it back :see_no_evil:

Yes Dear I know! LOL
Been onto seller and now it will be sent back to DJI for them to check it out.
I had to rule out any possible causes my end before sending it back.
Regards

Quick update…
DJI has found a faulty gimbal coaxial cable that will be repaired free of charge.
Too right they should!!!
I bet they will just replace the entire drone with a ‘refurbished’ one though…time will tell.

OK! So I got a replacement drone back from DJI Holland in a quick time and went through all the updates and calibrations possible only to fly the thing and find the issue with spotlight and POI mode is possibly worse than the original drone!
Back onto DJI and they asked for a screen recording of what’s happening. What a game to go from IOS to Windows then only to find my editing program will not recognise the file. Managed to sort that out via Handbrake.
Now waiting for a reply from the tech bods at DJI. Hope they can sort it out before I blow my stack with this drone. Shame really as it’s really very good in all other aspects.
Here’s a sample.

Rant over and out.

The third replacement Mavic 3 is on it’s way.
Will this one work as it should or not? that IS the question.

This from DJI ‘product specialists’ reference the replacement…
They have requested one thing only: That if by any chance you still meet this issue, they advise you to not fly anymore and contact us so that we can guide you on how to extract some data from your aircraft via DJI Assistant 2.
They seem to be positive that the issue will be fully resolved by the replacement though. So hopefully this will not be necessary anymore. :slight_smile:

Here we go again! Is the Mavic 3 model haunted or what?
A delay has occurred due to late processing by UPS brokerage. We are adjusting delivery plans as quickly as possible.
Rotterdam, Netherlands
Then…
A late flight has caused a delay. We will update the delivery date as soon as possible. / Your delivery will be rescheduled.
Castle Donington, United Kingdom
Looks like I may get hold of it some time next week.
If you don’t get an update from me for a week or so then I suggest you check the News channels and look for the story about a drone owner that’s gone berserk and smashed up a Mavic 3 because the fault is still present. LOL

Did they say what was wrong this time?

They did not say exactly what was wrong but did send an e-mail stating a new ‘Aircraft Core Board Module’ has been fitted free of charge, this seems to be standard procedure as I had a similar one with the last replacement even though it was a completely different drone they sent to me.
The 3rd replacement Mavic 3 is now due to be delivered tomorrow PM so here’s to hoping it will work as it should, but if I’m honest I’m not banking on it happening that easy.

Ah well good luck. Surely it must be sorted with this replacement? :rofl: