Recent content by altaic

I think the OP has done a service to the community by pointing out the autonomous behavior. A lot of cars these days can detect speed limit signs and are drive-by-wire, but they don’t slam on the brakes if the speed limit drops from 65 to 35 because of construction or something. And that’s not...

Highest probability failure mode I’d guess would be corrosion in the battery management system which could cause all sorts of problems including shorting the cells. These batteries are designed to discharge a lot of current which can lead to thermal runaway (i.e. fire). I’ve seen the insides of...

I think you have your answer, whether you like it or not. A battery’s not cheap, but it’s a heck of a lot less (money, hassle, misery, etc.) than your drone plummeting from the sky. Also— remember that the batteries can be used as USB power banks, so it’s still fine to charge your controller...

I don’t want to split hairs about what “safe” means, but there are better solutions than abruptly landing wherever a flying thing happens to be overtop of.

If you’re already flying at altitude, your only option is to continue— aborting in a safe manner. Not only does DJI’s software not encourage that, but it creates a dangerous situation with little time to respond.

How about a warning before a temporary NFZ activates? Or a “soft” NFZ restriction, like you have 30 seconds to land, perhaps only allowing flight away from the center of the NFZ? NFZs have a large buffer built in, so 30 seconds should not allow someone to threaten the object/event dictating a...

This is a really egregious oversight by DJI— please report it to them. Even if their policy is to overly comply with laws, the current situation is dangerous and inevitably will result in injury or in the least bad pr. They should be very happy for the info.

They should invert the colors.

Just remember that breakaway torque is different than tightening torque. Usually it’s best to mark the fastener and mating surface before loosening, then tighten to the same position and record torque value. Also, to be safe, you may want to subtract whatever error the torque wrench has at a...

Red usually requires heat or a lot of torque to remove, which isn’t good for this application. Blue is designed to be removable with a regular wrench. Purple is the weakest and is probably ideal since they don’t have loctite from the factory. Green is between blue and red in terms of strength...

As a computer scientist, I have to agree that DJI should modify their software WRT NFZs. It’s easy to calculate GPS positional error, and if that error (typically shown as a circle on smartphone mapping apps, but in reality is a more complicated shape) intersects with a NFZ (maybe +10% the...

Decisive knowledge

How about something like this? “Ultralight” aluminum and fabric camping table. Pretty cheap and compact. Not sure how quick/easy it is to deploy.

How about a wide angle lens for fov and video quality, as opposed to having to select modes with the much discussed trade offs? Shouldn’t weigh much.

*whoosh* Wait, multiple entendre?