"Not Enough Force/ESC Error"

Current Worldwide Frequency

RareCommon

Severity: Low Risk

   Low severity, impact on safety is likely not significant

Description

This happens when the Electronic Speed Controller (ESC) is unable to provide enough power to the motors to either maintain hover position, or to fulfil climb/accelerate commands.

This is a common message and in most cases it just means that the drone works harder than normal. However, in a few isolated cases this was observed shortly before a crash.

Consider decreasing altitude and flying less aggressively. If the problem persists, land immediately.

See Also

Drone Types

DJI AGRAS MG-1
DJI AGRAS MG-1P
DJI AGRAS T16
DJI Air 2S
DJI Avata
DJI FPV
DJI Inspire
DJI Inspire 2
DJI Inspire 3
DJI Inspire Pro
DJI M600
DJI M600 Pro
DJI Matrice
DJI Matrice 200
DJI Matrice 200 V2
DJI Matrice 210
DJI Matrice 210 RTK
DJI Matrice 210 RTK V2
DJI Matrice 210 V2
DJI Matrice 300 RTK
DJI Matrice 350 RTK
DJI Mavic 2 Enterprise
DJI Mavic 2 Enterprise Advanced
DJI Mavic 2 Pro
DJI Mavic 2 Zoom
DJI Mavic 3
DJI Mavic 3 Classic
DJI Mavic 3 Pro
DJI Mavic Air
DJI Mavic Air 2
DJI Mavic Mini
DJI Mavic Pro
DJI Mini 2
DJI Mini 2 SE
DJI Mini 3
DJI Mini SE
DJI P4 Multispectral
DJI Phantom 3 4K
DJI Phantom 3 Advanced
DJI Phantom 3 Professional
DJI Phantom 3 SE
DJI Phantom 3 Standard
DJI Phantom 4
DJI Phantom 4 Advanced
DJI Phantom 4 Pro
DJI Phantom 4 Pro V2
DJI Phantom 4 RTK
DJI S900
DJI Spark





Historical Worldwide Frequency
Comment Section Sort by:
[−]
Alina
2 votes, posted 3 years ago
Had this today and my drone crashed.

Firs i had this error "Motor error. Check propellers and fly with caution (Code: 120652)".
Then this "Aircraft max power load reached. Decrease altitude and fly with caution. If this issue persists, land immediately (Code: 30168)."

Tried to land but it wasn't responding, it was increasing altitude by itself and then it stopped and crashed.

The last error on the flight report notifications is "Not Enough Force/ESC Error"
[−]
Paul Hentschel
11 votes, posted 3 years ago
Motor Speed Errors my come from damaged or wrong installed propellers. Try to replace the whole set and install new ones.

I also had the problem while flying in low temp situation with high humidity (fog). Because of the wind-chill-effect on the fast moving propellers, they're freezing on thousands of little ice crystals. The Drone trys to increase the motor speed to compensate the flow drop of the propellers airstream ... if the freezing is too strong and even the motor itself is affected by the freezing, Motor Blocking errors shows up on the Log (30165).

If the ESC can not compensate the insufficient Air Stream Power, the drone will stop motors and drop of the sky.
[−]
Alina
9 votes, posted 3 years ago
Then i suppose the "Low Risk" severity is not pretty accurate.
[−]
Thomas Brandner
3 votes, posted 3 years ago
Exactly the same situation on my side ... cold and foggy :-)
Thx for sharing this info!
Thomas
[−]
james
3 votes, posted 3 years ago
Experienced this error at 6F and 73% humidity. Resulted in the same behavior as @Alina. Had to fight to force a manual landing.

Thanks for the info Paul
[−]
Bharath Mayilsamy
Posted 3 years ago
i had the same error and i was flying over lake over 15ft height as soon as the message drone decends its height and sunked in water.. bad
[−]
Sérgio Garcia de camargo
Posted 3 years ago
Meu Mavic Air2 estava na praia de Pipa que tem ventos muito fortes, no Brasil. Na ida foi a 4000m de distância, comecei a voltar com 51% de bateria e na teoria deveria sobrar, pois fui com 25% de bateria. Mas a bateria começou a cair 10% a cada minuto e pousou na água sem forças no motor pra retornar, deu esse erro no histórico aqui do app.airdata: Not Enough Force/ESC Error 17 times. Caiu cerca de 1500m do ponto de decolagem
[−]
Hawkeye
2 votes, posted 3 years ago
Experienced this after taking batteries out of winter storage.

I executed a short, less than 1m hover from a grassy area to pavement. After initial takeoff to execute initial performance test (directional changes, hover, etc) when I noticed "something" wrong and immediately landed.

The drone, an Inspire, would only begin to pirouette on its RF leg, when takeoff power applied. I shut off the aircraft, checked motor (RF), prop clearances, battery signals. All appeared clear. I carefully reattempted takeoff, followed by low level hover and slow maneuver for 10 minutes and completed over an hour of subsequent flight without incident.

Upon return and debrief I noted this error. I am contributing this comment in an effort to assist diagnosis of the overall issue.
[−]
Rodolphe CABON
1 vote, posted 3 years ago
had this 2 xeeks ago and my drone crashed also.
Immediatly after this, drone fell down.
[−]
Carlos Delgado
1 vote, posted 3 years ago
volando a la orilla del mar, el dron mavic 2 pro, dejo de responder y se apagaron los motores y cayo al agua y lo perdi, hoy uso por primera vez esta pagina app.airdata y me arroja este error (Not Enough Force/ESC Error) en el registro de vuelo. Dji debe avisar en su aplicacion este tipo de errores, yo perdi mi drone por esta falla tecnica y es un drone con apenas 6 horas de vuelo. dinero al agua
[−]
ricardo paula
1 vote, posted 3 years ago
The same on my Crash. Many times it happens . I change the escs and motors and it normalize . I`m Happy I do a hard test 500 meters altitude and cross clouds on the top of a 486 meters hill. I love the image and the result of the information that the AIRDATA gave to me. My crash I have to much luck, I go to visit some friends on a 11 floor of a buiding in Rio de Janeiro. The motor go with no force and came down rotating and drop on a tree and nothing happens I get him with stairs shut it down and on and flight again only for 2 meters above. And came home to see whats happen in here. Luck Guy (71 years old) kkkkkk
[−]
Pavan Lulla
1 vote, posted 3 years ago
Same problem here. I never received the error notification while flying. It is only on checking the logs post crash, that I got to see the cause. DJI is liable for this one.
[−]
mauro martinelli
Posted 3 years ago
tive esse problema hj de erro de Not+Enough+Force/ESC+Error. o drone começou a baixar sozinho mas consegui trazer ele de volta
[−]
Chrisonymouz
Posted 3 years ago
Hi
Just to share my story, DJI doesn't even care, doesn't accept litchi logs, so can't do nothing for me... like 500eu isn't nothing...
But: flying at a temperature around -9°C at night. Flying at eyeheight and a few meters distance, ready to land. But ...
[−]
Jay Archibald
Posted 3 years ago
Had this error today and it acted exactly like Alina's comment below. I was hovering then suddenly it started to climb then I saw the camera go wild then disconnected error. Looking at the log and route the disconnect came after it crashed. Log also shows I gave it no control inputs. Since the Air was still connected it logged a spiral down to earth from over 200ft up hitting the ground at 80+mph. No more drone. Looks like one or more props failed mid air as I couldn't find any of the pieces.
[−]
STEPHANE VISSOL
Posted 3 years ago
Bonjour,
Meme incident avec un Mavic Pro 2 tout neuf. 1er vol le 17/04/2021. vol stationnaire à 110M de hauteur puis descente à 25m toujours en stationnaire puis chute brutale. Log AirData: Not Enough Force/ESC Error (repeated 8 times) + ensuite Barometer Dead in Air. Low severity, impact on safety is likely not significantNot Enough Force/ESC Error (repeated 16 times).
Je ne pense pas que ce soit un "risque faible". Résultat: un hélice cassée et retour SAV pour échange du drone. Un moindre mal...
[−]
Patrick Walsh
Posted 3 years ago
I had an ESC error appear on. my screen for a split second and then went away. I’m not overly concerned but at the same time, it did happen once before a few months back. I still had a smooth flight and landed safely. I fly a Mavic Air 2.
[−]
Andwar
Posted 3 years ago
I have a Mavic 2 Enterprise. This inconvenience just happened to me. I was flying at a distance of about 400m and at an altitude of 120m, when the message "IMU is initializing. Please do not move the aircraft until initialization is complete" appeared. Since this is not the first time I have seen this warning, I opted to leave the controls. It is at this time that the "ESC / Insufficient Force Error (repeated 23 times)" alert appeared. Then I lost control of the aircraft. It only glided, but it did not ascend or descend. Fortunately it was only 5 seconds. I took control of the aircraft again and landed to verify if it had not been damaged by a bird of prey, since I fly in an area where they are. The fuselage is in perfect condition, as are the propellers. The weather conditions are favorable, that is why I do not understand why this problem has happened. I hope to rule out some kind of technical failure.
[−]
Сергей Гетманов
Posted 3 years ago
Today it happened to me. Phantom 4 advance crashed into the sea... It was mooving on 16mph speed and then just fall... Logs say that the last warning was Not Enough Force/ESC Error
[−]
Louis Adamo
Posted 3 years ago
Lost my Mavic 2 Pro to this error a few days ago. I was at 115' 14 minutes into an automated Pix4D Capture flight when drone erratically went off course. As I was using Pix4D, I did not know the error. The logs reveal that it reported Not Enough Force/ESC, Exited GPS Mode, and attempted Auto Landing errors many times. It hit the ground with 47% battery reported and then started reporting Propeller Fell Off.
[−]
B Bakker
Posted 3 years ago
After a mission I landed the Phantom 4 advanced. And when I picked it out of the sky when hoovering, it shut down without warning. The battery went just off. later in the log I could see that cell 4 of the battery had a lot of deviation for a minute during the mission and that the battery temperature was 61degrees Celsius. Pretty sure the battery had shut itself down as a safety matter. Now the question is: Did this also happen with the other cases in the comments? And can I still thrust this battery? In a later flight everything was normal. A battery temperature warning would be helpful so I could land the drone in time. An other question is: Can these battery's be tested and analyzed by the dealer to check their health. they are expensive enough.
[−]
Adam Simmons
Posted 3 years ago
This code appeared when my Inspire 2's sweptback arm assembly became loose in flight after lowering the landing gear. The propellor struck the forward obstacle avoidance assembly breaking off half of the air foil and sending my Inspire 2 into spin. Fortunately the craft automatically switches into a "headless" mode that allowed me to safely land.
[−]
John Scott
Posted 2 years ago
First time I've ever noticed this error on my Mini 2. I was certainly flying high enough and in VERY windy conditions so I can understand why this error showed in my log. Reading through the comments, it does concern me that several people experienced this shortly before a bad crash or losing their drone altogether.
[−]
Morapancha
Posted 2 years ago




Llevo volando desde 2017 con este dron con un mantenimiento muy serio, lo uso para trabajos profesionales y el 19 de Julio en un vuelo convencional cuando estaba ya aterrizando, aproximadamente a 29ft el motor delantero izquiero (rojo) se comporta erraticamente y se desploma con daños severos.

Durante el vuelo se vieron interferencia en la pantalla del piloto constantemente pero no en la del operador de camara, en la aproximación ocurrio lo comentado anteriormente.

La tempertura se ve en los logs, no pasaría de 28º -30ºC a las 10:00am
-----

I have been flying since 2017 with this drone with a very serious maintenance, I use it for professional work and on July 19 in a conventional flight when it was already landing, approximately at 29ft the front left motor (red) behaves erratically and collapses with damage severe.

During the flight, interference was constantly seen on the pilot's screen, but not on the camera operator's. During the approach, the aforementioned occurred.

The temperature is seen in the logs, it would not exceed 28º -30ºC at 10:00 a.m.
[−]
David Camille
Posted one year ago
Mavic Mini indoor flying with propeller guards. Elevation is 5,900 feet and propellers are new hoping that would solve my problem. Mini flies well until battery power hits 50% and then countless "Not Enough Force/ESC Error" are identified in flight log. Mini can no longer climb and descends to the ground where it becomes unstable, and I force a landing. All three batteries produce the same result. Other notifications include GPS and High Altitude. Thoughts/Ideas?
[−]
Serge D
Posted one year ago
J'ai eu le même message aujourd'hui lors d'un petit vol avec Mini 2 par temps froid et brumeux.
Heureusement ai évité le crash

Messages :
Erreur moteur-vérifier les hélices Piloter avec précaution (code 30163)
Puissance de poussée max atteinte
Not Enough Force/ ESC Error
[−]
Steven Stile/SBI
Posted 12 months ago
Experienced this today with a battery set that is as I suspect, no longer viable even with a full charge. Started a test flight at 64% and ended at 39% as the system attempted a RTH with 42% battery life. I have this system set to 30% RTH. Received same error announcement after reviewing that "Not Enough Force/ESC Error".
[−]
Jacob Claassen
Posted 10 months ago
Mainly get this error when I fly in very strong winds.
[−]
Mike C
Posted 6 months ago
Is there any way to tell which motor is having this problem? Trying to troubleshoot this error resulting in crashes of my Spark. Thanks
[−]
Mike C
Posted 6 months ago
Is there any way to tell which motor is having this problem? Trying to troubleshoot this error resulting in crashes of my Spark. Thanks
[−]
MArk Rubenstein
Posted 5 months ago
This seems to be a common error jsut before a crash. I understnad if you fly into something or if there is humidity but this error occured 30 metres up and with clear weather. What i did notice was cell voltage deviation. Why this occured i am not sure and what is acceptable voltage deviation.
[−]
Alex Legrismith
-1 vote, posted 3 years ago
Lost a phantom 4 RTK to this one. $5800. Ouch
[−]
Goran_Kingkong
-1 vote, posted 3 years ago
Me to. Twice.. With as good as new drones.
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