Mavic 2 Pro RTH not accurate

[gnirtS]

I cant see getting my drone before next week as its still in China so cant test.

I will say though the manual should mention landing accuracy will be degraded with APAS off if it IS true. It should also mention the slow climb to 6m to get a more accurate landing if its true.
(Then again, nobody reads a manual anyway).

I really want someone to test this!

 

[GringoLoco]

I cant see getting my drone before next week as its still in China so cant test.

I will say though the manual should mention landing accuracy will be degraded with APAS off if it IS true. It should also mention the slow climb to 6m to get a more accurate landing if its true.
(Then again, nobody reads a manual anyway).

I really want someone to test this!

LOL I actually read the manual, but it's my first drone so a LOT of it didn't really sink in. I'll scan it again for info, I just remember that it specifically said you should always enable APAS when available. Can't remember if it's on by default.

 

[gnirtS]

Previous manuals go into detail about precision landing criteria.

 

[GringoLoco]

Well, ****. I checked the manual again, and I could be pretty much, well, wrong. It talks about using the downward vision system for accurate flying indoors or without GPS at low altitude, and then talks about a landing protection system that decides if it's safe to land, but no mention of APAS or the vision cameras being involved in landing. Worse than that, there's a footnote that warns "Vision Systems are disabled during landing. Be sure to land the aircraft with caution." Unfortunately I don't know if that means there is no precision landing, or if they're warning that the front/back/side cameras won't save you from something off to the side.

 

[gnirtS]

The old mavic used to say "Landing. Obstacle avoidance will be disabled" but if its the same thing or not who knows.

Im struggling to believe they'd remove this feature that all the previous generation of drones have had.

 

[GringoLoco]

It could be one of the likely many things that will arrive with another firmware update. On new tech like this I don't mind waiting a month or so for the firmware to catch up, but I'll be annoyed if it isn't coming.

 

[Greg Smithski]

That's not all that's missing.
Mavic Pro 1 vs 2 - "Lost" features?

 

[GringoLoco]

A lot of the missing features to me seem somewhat related to, or at least use similar resources as, the waypoint 2.0 that's coming. I wonder if waypoint needs to be finished before the other features will work right. Maybe we'll get a bunch of stuff all at once.

 

[cpokrywka]

Well, ****. I checked the manual again, and I could be pretty much, well, wrong. It talks about using the downward vision system for accurate flying indoors or without GPS at low altitude, and then talks about a landing protection system that decides if it's safe to land, but no mention of APAS or the vision cameras being involved in landing. Worse than that, there's a footnote that warns "Vision Systems are disabled during landing. Be sure to land the aircraft with caution." Unfortunately I don't know if that means there is no precision landing, or if they're warning that the front/back/side cameras won't save you from something off to the side.

I was doing a Hyperlapse on my Mavic 2 Pro last night and didn't realize my battery was getting so low and that it was going to auto land at 10%. It was the next street over and over some trees and I was trying to help guide it to a safe place to land and I THINK APAS did kick in and helped me avoid crashing into a tree and I was able to land in someone's driveway. Total rookie move on my part. But yeah, I'm hoping APAS helped save my skin or I was extremely lucky to have avoided the tree last second as heck haha

 

[gnirtS]

APAS is one thing for avoiding obstacles but thats not the same thing as landing exactly where it took off.

 

[JDPEagle]

M1P and M2P owner here. I can confirm (used a high contrast landing pad) that precision auto landing is no longer a feature in the M2P. Took off slowly, hovered at around 3m for ground image acquisition (if it did indeed acquire) and flew off. RTH resulting in an auto-landing almost 6-8 feet away from the launch point. Three subsequent flights yielded similar results.

The non-inclusion of this feature could have been the result of the removal of the sonar sensors in the underbelly of the aircraft. Precision height is purely optical and barometric pressure now. That removes some of the altitude precision.

 

[gnirtS]

Previous precision takeoff required *6m* not 3m to be effective.

The precision is the optical cameras taking snapshots so its nothing to so with the ultrasound.

 

[JDPEagle]

The precision is the optical cameras taking snapshots so its nothing to so with the ultrasound.

That is not correct. Precision landing utilized both downward optical and ultrasonic sensors. The "optical flow" capabilities of the M1P were provided by information from ultrasonic sensors to supplement its optical view of patterned surfaces. (DJI) This was used in the precision landing function.

Previous precision takeoff required *6m* not 3m to be effective.

3m was always more than sufficient for my >600 hours of flight time on the M1P.

 

[gnirtS]

*supplement* but ultimately it still optically adjusts. Using those alone it should be fine in most contrast/lighting conditions, especially with the landing light.
Precision landing was an excellent "last resort" drone saver.
Under the new system you're going to have to manually land every single flight...thats assuming your RC works and can connect to the drone.

 

[Joola]

3m was always more than sufficient for my >600 hours of flight time on the M1P.

Sorry for being off-topic but holy crap 600+ hours is a lot of stick time on the M1P. Is this your primary line of work? I wish I had that much time to fly.

 

[gnirtS]

Not everyone has the luxury of a 100% flat, completely free of all obstacles, debris and weeds radius of 3m to fly in. The whole point of the mavic is launch and recovery from small spaces.
If i need to use RTH or its forced due to some RC problem id rather it landed at a safe spot not "near" a safe spot.

GPS is 3-5m error radius, more so if the sky is obstructed (buildings, trees etc).

 

[Turn11]

My experience out-of-the-box with S/W updated and compass calibration.

When I made my first flight with the M2P there was zero wind, it had 17 satellites. no metal or electrical anywhere around. Auto takeoff, it went up close to 4' shifted about 5' to the left and stayed there until I took control and I flew for about 10 minutes then auto RTH. It tried to land about 5' behind the original takeoff point (landing pad) orange against green grass. 2 subsequent flights all RTH was "close enough" but not as close as my MPP. All flights were at least or close to a half mile distance.
All three flights were auto takeoff and all announced home point was updated. I APAS is default from factory.


If you haven't noticed BE CAREFUL it appears that CSC is automatically enabled with the M2. with the MPP you had to enable it.

 

[gnirtS]

Again that profile is *not* what would have got a precision fix for landing on the mavic pro/mpp/air/spark.

For that you HAVE to climb vertically to roughly 20-30ft without moving the drone laterally at all. Any lower than that you have partial or GPS only return not precision.

 

[JDPEagle]

Sorry for being off-topic but holy crap 600+ hours is a lot of stick time on the M1P. Is this your primary line of work? I wish I had that much time to fly.

It is my line of work. I am a contracted UAS operator for a major utility company and an instructor in unmanned systems engineering for a large university.

 

[GringoLoco]

Well, at least I don't have to buy a landing pad now.