My DJI Matrice 4T started having issues during a recent flight, and I’m not sure what caused it. It was working fine before, but now I’m seeing unexpected problems and need help troubleshooting the drone, possible causes, and the best fix so I can fly safely again.
Start with the basics. The 4T will throw weird behavior from a few common points.
-
Check flight logs in DJI Pilot 2.
Look for compass errors, IMU warnings, RC signal drops, battery voltage sag, motor overload, or ESC faults. The log usually tells you where to look first. -
Inspect props and motors.
Pull all props. Check for chips, bends, loose hubs, and swapped prop positions. Spin each motor by hand. Any grinding, drag, or uneven feel matters. A bad prop or motor will cause drift, vibration, and unstable hover. -
Recalibrate the sensors.
Do IMU, compass, and gimbal calibration on a level surface. If the issue started after transport, firmware update, or a hard landing, this is step one. -
Check firmware on aircraft, RC, batteries.
Mismatch causes strange stuff. Update all of it, or roll back if the problem started right after an update. DJI stuff gets picky about version sync. -
Battery health.
Look at cell balance. If one cell is off by more than about 0.1V under load, that pack is suspect. Cold packs also sag hard. If the drone climbs, then dips or throws power warnings, batttery is a prime suspect. -
Environment.
Metal roofs, rebar, power lines, RTK setup issues, and heavy RF noise mess with GPS and compass. Test in a clean open field. -
Payload and settings.
If you changed thermal settings, obstacle avoidance, gain, RTK, or mounted anything new, revert to stock and test.
If you post the exact symptoms, error messages, flight log screenshot, firmware versions, and whether it had a bump or update, people here can narrow it down fast. Right now it’s a bit too broad.
A lot of what @cazadordeestrellas said is solid, but I’d add a few things that get missed when people jump straight to recalibrations and updates. I actually don’t recalibrate the compass first unless there’s a clear compass warning, because needless compass cal can sometimes make things worse if you do it in a bad spot.
What I’d check next:
- Export the flight logs and look at the exact second the problem started. Not just warnings, but stick input vs aircraft response. That tells you if it was pilot input, sensor confusion, or power/ESC behavior.
- Check arm joints, landing gear mounts, and body shell for hairline cracks. On Matrice platforms, tiny frame damage can show up as vibration or weird attitude hold issues.
- Look at the gimbal and payload connector. A loose payload/data connection can throw odd messages that seem flight-related.
- Disable nonessential stuff for one short test flight. No RTK, no custom mission profile, standard obstacle avoidance settings, normal mode only.
- If it happened only once, don’t assume the drone is “bad” yet. Intermittent RF interference or GNSS multipath can make a perfectly fine aircraft act drunk for a minute.
Biggest thing: describe the exact issue. Drift? altitude jumps? yaw twitch? video loss? braking by itself? forced landing? Those details matter a lot. Right now it’s too broad to do more than educated guesswork tbh.
I’d go one layer deeper than @cazadordeestrellas and separate this into flight-control issue vs power issue vs perception issue.
If the Matrice 4T still hovers but behaves weird, I’d inspect props first, even if they look “fine.” Slight edge chips, blade warp, or a prop installed in the wrong position can cause vibration, attitude corrections, yaw weirdness, and obstacle sensing false positives. Same with motor bells: spin each by hand and feel for roughness, notchiness, or uneven drag.
A thing I slightly disagree on: if you had a hard case transport recently, check for battery seating and latch tension before chasing software. A battery that is not fully locked can create brief voltage drops that look like multiple unrelated faults.
Also check:
- VPS/vision sensors for dust, moisture, or cleaning streaks
- Thermal camera/gimbal initialization behavior at startup
- SD card health if video loss happened with flight warnings
- Mobile device/app resource load if using overlays or live streaming
Quick isolation test:
- Fresh props
- Different battery
- Open field
- Low altitude hover
- Record screen + aircraft logs
Pros for the “”:
- Good readability if you document symptoms clearly
- Helps organize troubleshooting notes
Cons for the “”:
- Not really useful unless you add exact warnings and flight behavior
Post the exact warning messages and whether the problem was drift, yaw twitch, altitude bobbing, sudden braking, or image/link loss. That changes the diagnosis fast.