TESTED: Air 3 air dropper hindered by bottom sensors

[Thmoore]

Some disappointing results using my new Air 3 air dropper, an accessory I've mightily enjoyed using with my Mavic Air 2 (including extensive tests to learn how to drop a beer using a parachute). The Air 3 dropper itself is great, and works fine:

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It straps on nicely and has a photoelectric cell that pulls the pin and drops the payload when the auxiliary light on the bottom is turned on with the Air 3's remote. They did a nice job building it.

But it looks like the downward sensors of the Air 3 are a lot more sensitive than the Mavic Air 2's. On the Air 2, I can hang a beer can with any sort of string just inches below the airframe, and it will not trigger any sensors. Not so with the Air 3.

My Air 3 dropper came with this:

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...and it wasn't out of the goodness of their heart that they provided it. Attach anything with a shorter string, or a thicker string, and the Air 3's downward sensors kick in and make the aircraft almost unflyable.

In practice, what this means is that the aircraft constantly thinks it's less than a foot off the ground, so it tries to rise up at all times – slowly. The only way to bring it down is to put it in landing mode, which is also very slow. You could fly off somewhere with this to deliver a refreshment (or a life jacket, I guess, if you wanted to be less helpful...), but you have no effective vertical control – you're constantly either rising or falling, extremely slowly.

Moreover, when you drop your payload, instead of losing a few inches of parachute cord tied to the pull tab of the beer can, you lose the whole rig that's pictured above.

None of this is fatal. It wouldn't be the end of the world to buy a bunch of little rings and some cord and have a bunch of rigs ready to go. And I think it's safer to have a payload close to the aircraft so you don't get a pendulum effect going, but hanging stuff 18 inches below might be OK. But I'd prefer to do neither.

All of this also makes me wonder whether it'll be difficult to build an Insta360 Sphere for the Air 3 that doesn't interfere with the bottom or side sensors, which would be a shame. I may just have to keep my Mavic Air 2 around for quick deliveries and 360º video.

None of this should be taken as a knock on the Air 3's collision-avoidance sensors, which I adore, and I'm so happy they're there, and I hope they and I spend many happy years avoiding crashes together. They're just making this secondary activity somewhat less convenient than it was with the Mavic Air 2.

 

[RetromanIE]

If you turn off collision avoidance do the downward sensors stay active? I'm guessing they are active in all modes for landing etc.

 

[Thmoore]

They seem to. I flipped it to Sport mode and there was no change.

I can play with that a little more; thank you!

 

[RetromanIE]

They seem to. I flipped it to Sport mode and there was no change.

I can play with that a little more; thank you!

I've got the same dropper on the way to me from Ali Express. Only ordered a few days ago, so probably weeks away at this stage.

 

[solidhouse]

I’ve have a similar dropper for my Mavic 3. Likely, made by the same company. It never triggers the OA. It is a disappointment that it does trigger OA on the Air 3.

I wonder what would happen if you cover the downward vision sensors with tape on the Air 3?

 

[gcopter1]

Following!
I had the same experience you had with an Air2S.

I don't remember exactly what I did but in the end, I managed to fly it without the sensors going crazy.

I also wanted to use the dropper for toy parachutes.

I too, am leery of swinging a long cord beneath lest it swings too far upwards and hits the propellers.

I kep thinking of a way to wrap the whole parachute in order to pinch it closer to the dropper and the aircraft, but couldn't come up with any ideas on how to accomplish this. Perhaps, attaching an empty toilet paper roll to the dropper.

Pierce it in such a way that when the dropper's pin moves, it would release the parachute enclosed in the toilet paper roll.

A toilet paper roll, is the only thing I could think of that is light enough but, alas, it is too long and the diamater, might not fit into the dropper mechanism.

Finding a way to do this is essential if you want to fly with a parachute at a distance and avoid the airspeed or wind buffeting the parachute and swinging it upwards into the propellers in flight.

Just raising the drone vertically works but again, if the wind changes speed, it could swing it up into the propellers.

I now own an Air3 and would like to try a dropper again.

 

[Thmoore]

I've got the same dropper on the way to me from Ali Express. Only ordered a few days ago, so probably weeks away at this stage.

It came pretty fast, all things considered! Good luck!

 

[Supernootz]

I had a bad incident (not exactly a crash) using this thing today!

First, let me echo how amazingly cool this sub-$30 air drop device is. Very clever design.

But after a few successful water bottle drops, my friends and I got stupid and more careless. I was hot-dogging it and I think the pendulum effect shifted the device so that it slipped off the aux light and partially covered the down sensor. The result was a slow climb that I couldn't stop. And I couldn't release the payload (soda can) because the device was not able to see the light turn on.

Effectively, it ran at a high altitude until the battery got critically weak. Too weak to maintain altitude at all and then dropped from the sky in a rapid decent. The props were still struggling against gravity so the rate of fall was like that of a parachutist. We tried to break the fall with patio furniture seat cushions but our inability to calculate exactly where it was falling resulted in a mere deflection off the cushion and a hard landing.

The result was a couple broken propellers (already replaced in the field) and the gimbal. Sending back to DDS tomorrow. I have no doubt that this will cost a pretty penny to fix but I have to say, it's the price of fun and a lot of laughs.

 

[Sleepy]

I thought the new update made it possible to turn off the downward sensors to help with hand catching and landing on moving objects like boats, so wouldn't that help with this issue?

 

[Supernootz]

I thought the new update made it possible to turn off the downward sensors to help with hand catching and landing on moving objects like boats, so wouldn't that help with this issue?

Since your post I looked into it and yes, indeed the function is there. I will be doing that from now on!

 

[MS Coast]

The result was a slow climb that I couldn't stop.

I encountered something similar with an Insta 360 and an Air 2S. If you hold the left stick full back for a few seconds, the drone will go into landing mode and descend.

 

[Supernootz]

I encountered something similar with an Insta 360 and an Air 2S. If you hold the left stick full back for a few seconds, the drone will go into landing mode and descend.

My problem was compounded by the fact that the down sensor was blocked by the air drop device so it thought it was only a couple feet from the ground. Therefore, descent was painfully slow and the battery gave up the ghost while it was still a few hundred feet up.

 

[MS Coast]

My problem was compounded by the fact that the down sensor was blocked by the air drop device so it thought it was only a couple feet from the ground. Therefore, descent was painfully slow and the battery gave up the ghost while it was still a few hundred feet up.

Blocking the downward facing sensor is exactly the problem I ran into. Putting the drone into landing mode allowed a speedy descent.

Did you happen to notice the descent speed shown on the controller?

 

[Supernootz]

Blocking the downward facing sensor is exactly the problem I ran into. Putting the drone into landing mode allowed a speedy descent.

Did you happen to notice the descent speed shown on the controller?

I was watching the sky and did not notice the speed but it was very, very slow. I knew it was going to run out of battery before reaching the ground. The controller was screaming "low voltage," "battery critically low." I was crapping my pants, thinking it would just drop from the sky.

Towards the end of the descent it was clear to me that there wasn't enough power left to maintain its rate of descent and it started falling fast, but controlled. As I said earlier, about the speed you'd see a parachutist coming in for a landing.

Thing is, I did use the "landing mode" and it was trying to land (evidenced by the fact that the drone turned the camera to the forward, neutral position) but it was as if it was less than a foot from the ground so it was super slow.

 

[Yaros]

There is a way to turn off completely the sensors, even the bottom ones, but I gotta mention you will need to be extremely careful because the drone will not slow down when coming close to ground as it usually does.

In the safety tab, go to the bottom, advanced safety settings, and turn on Vision Positioning. Then go back to Safety, and turn off obstacle avoidance on the top of the page.

 

[MavicShooter]

There is a way to turn off completely the sensors, even the bottom ones, but I gotta mention you will need to be extremely careful because the drone will not slow down when coming close to ground as it usually does.

In the safety tab, go to the bottom, advanced safety settings, and turn on Vision Positioning. Then go back to Safety, and turn off obstacle avoidance on the top of the page.

There is a way to turn off completely the sensors, even the bottom ones, but I gotta mention you will need to be extremely careful because the drone will not slow down when coming close to ground as it usually does.

In the safety tab, go to the bottom, advanced safety settings, and turn on Vision Positioning. Then go back to Safety, and turn off obstacle avoidance on the top of the page.

Of note, you gotta be careful when hovering and be mindfully active of your surroundings. GPS is the only thing keeping it hovering in a relatively same spot but I saw mind sway +-5’