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Air 2 hand catching observation....

smwoodward

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Just got my MA2 the other day, and last night I hand caught it a couple of times, but I noticed something when I did it. I noticed that it pulled really hard against my hand, so I tested a few things, mainly it trying to keep the same hover location. When I pulled it down and let go it did fly up as it was trying to adjust, but it didn't fly up much. Then I tried pulling it back and let go and when I let go of it, it shot 8-10 ft forward, stabilized and then drifted back to the original location. I tried it one more time, and when I let go it shot forward, flipped over and crashed. Fortunately the only thing that got damage (because I was stupid and on concrete at the time) was a little bit of scuffing on the nose plate and one of the front antenna/legs. Once I made sure everything else was fine, I too it to soft grass area and did a few more tests. I tried pulling the aircraft forward and to each side to see if it did the same things as for the distance it shot forward, and it didn't. It resisted and did shoot back in the opposite direction that I was pulling it, but it only overshot the original position by maybe a foot or so. Tested it again by pulling it towards the rear, and again it shot 8-10 ft forward and then came back. I also tried to not block any of the obstacle sensors other than the ones on the bottom.

Wasn't sure if this might be a bug in the firmware or if it's intended to do that, but wanted to at least share the experience.
 
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Just got my MA2 the other day, and last night I hand caught it a couple of times, but I noticed something when I did it. I noticed that it pulled really hard against my hand, so I tested a few things, mainly it trying to keep the same hover location. When I pulled it down and let go it did fly up as it was trying to adjust, but it didn't fly up much. Then I tried pulling it back and let go and when I let go of it, it shot 8-10 ft forward, stabilized and then drifted back to the original location. I tried it one more time, and when I let go it shot forward, flipped over and crashed. Fortunately the only thing that got damage (because I was stupid and on concrete at the time) was a little bit of scuffing on the nose plate and one of the front antenna/legs. Once I made sure everything else was fine, I too it to soft grass area and did a few more tests. I tried pulling the aircraft forward and to each side to see if it did the same things as for the distance it shot forward, and it didn't. It resisted and did shoot back in the opposite direction that I was pulling it, but it only overshot the original position by maybe a foot or so. Tested it again by pulling it towards the rear, and again it shot 8-10 ft forward and then came back. I also tried to not block any of the obstacle sensors other than the ones on the bottom.

Wasn't sure if this might be a bug in the firmware or if it's intended to do that, but wanted to at least share the experience.
with any drone with GPS it holds its position by knowing where it is in space using the sats ,but this is only accurate to around 8ft orso, thats why when its close to the ground ,the bottom sensors come into play and help to pinpoint its position so when you let it go, it flew away because the sensors were covered by your hand, then they kicked in again and it tried to return to its original position its the same thing if you hover at just above head height the pull the drone in any direction it will try and resist and then when you let go it will move back to its original position
 
with any drone with GPS it holds its position by knowing where it is in space using the sats ,but this is only accurate to around 8ft orso, thats why when its close to the ground ,the bottom sensors come into play and help to pinpoint its position so when you let it go, it flew away because the sensors were covered by your hand, then they kicked in again and it tried to return to its original position its the same thing if you hover at just above head height the pull the drone in any direction it will try and resist and then when you let go it will move back to its original position
I completely understand how and why, but hand catching other drones I never noticed them pull this hard. That's why I tested the different directions. If pulling the aircraft in other directions would have resulted in the same 8-10' rebound, that would be one thing, but it only rebounds that far when the aircraft is pulled to the rear. And I'm not talking about pulling the aircraft 3' to the rear, this was maybe 3" to the rear and it rebounded that far forward. Didn't do the same for any other direction.
 
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Oh. I don't try to pull it down until I have the props stopped. I reach out and hold it with my right, push the throttle stick down with my left to shut it off, then wonder how to stop the video. I've noticed it fights less and shuts down quicker than my spark does.
 
I completely understand how and why, but hand catching other drones I never noticed them pull this hard. That's why I tested the different directions. If pulling the aircraft in other directions would have resulted in the same 8-10' rebound, that would be one thing, but it only rebounds that far when the aircraft is pulled to the rear. And I'm not talking about pulling the aircraft 3' to the rear, this was maybe 3" to the rear and it rebounded that far forward. Didn't do the same for any other direction.
did your other drones have rear facing sensors ,maybe thats whats triggering the response you are getting try it with them turned off if you can
 
With hand catching why not keep your hand still until the motors stop? The catch and twist thing aside, I believe moving your hand just confuses the drone making it think it is still airborne.
I assume the MA2 behaves in the same manner as my Mavic Mini. I normally have my Mini hover over my hand and then close the throttle, the Mini descends into/onto my hand and I just normally keep the throttle closed until the motors stop. However I do have the recollection of having released the throttle as it landed and the motors still stopped a second or so later.
 
With hand catching why not keep your hand still until the motors stop? The catch and twist thing aside, I believe moving your hand just confuses the drone making it think it is still airborne.
I assume the MA2 behaves in the same manner as my Mavic Mini. I normally have my Mini hover over my hand and then close the throttle, the Mini descends into/onto my hand and I just normally keep the throttle closed until the motors stop. However I do have the recollection of having released the throttle as it landed and the motors still stopped a second or so later.
This particular time I got positive control of the aircraft before turning off the motors and that's when I noticed that it seemed to pull harder against it than expected and I experienced with other drones. That's where I started testing different things and noticed what seemed as a severe rebound towards the front but not other directions.
 
That's fair enough but what I am suggesting is that if you want to avoid it 'fighting you' keep your hand still until the motors have stopped.
I can land my mini and, with some nervousness, a mavic 2 pro on my flat palm and they don't 'fight me'.
Even if you feel the necessity to 'grip' the drone if you keep your hand still I suspect it will not fight.
I have found that I am now tending to cup the mini rather than landing it on a flat palm but I keep my hand still and the motors stop.
I can hand launch by doing virtually the opposite i.e. whilst 'holding' the drone (always slightly concerned about it 'slipping' off a falt palm) start the motors with a CSC, let the props idle and then move my hand up fast enough that I feel the motors respond (speed up) then, if I lower my hand, the Mini hovers out of or off my hand,
 
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That's fair enough but what I am suggesting is that if you want to avoid it 'fighting you' keep your hand still until the motors have stopped.
I can land my mini and, with some nervousness, a mavic 2 pro on a my flat palm and they don't 'fight me'.
Even if you feel the necessity to 'grip' the drone if you keep your hand still I suspect it will not fight.
I have found that I am now tending to cup the mini rather than landing it on a flat palm but I keep my hand still and the motors stop.
I can hand launch by doing virtually the opposite i.e. start the motors with a CSC, let the props idle and then move my hand up fast enough that I feel the motors respond (speed up) then, if I lower my hand, the Mini hovers out of or off my hand,
I've talked to DJI about it and had someone call me. They want me to do some testing and review of a few things, as the 8-10' rebound forward doesn't appear to be what it's suppose to do.
 
Sorry I am failing to understand the point you are making but that's my fault.
 
Sorry I am failing to understand the point you are making but that's my fault.
No problem, this was more of a reporting for people to understand. Many people do palm land their drone, but I have had some times where I need to get positive control of the craft without the delay in the drone go into landing mode. When gaining positive control of the craft, the craft will resist because it's trying to maintain the same location to hover. This is where I noticed that the strength of resistance was more, way more than I expected. This is where I thought what if someone gains positive control of the craft but doesn't have enough control and it slips from their hands. That's when I tested grabbing the craft, and pulling it back a little (I pulled it back maybe 2-3") and release the craft to see how far it will rebound to maintain it's position. That is when the aircraft rebounded forward 8-10 feet, which seemed excessive to me. I tried the same in all other directions and the craft would rebound about a foot or two and drift back to it's original position. But when pulling it 2-3" to the rear it rebounded way way more then would drift back to it's original position.
 
Ahh got you, I think you 'grabbing it out of the air' as it is in flight/hover
 
In my experience Air2 is the easiest drone to land in hand. older drones would simply refuse to land based on IR sensors.
Air 2 is very forgiving. But reading at your story, if your drone is pulling while you trying to grab, you simply haven't let your Air 2 to land fully.

The trick in hand catching is not to grab at all, you simply hold your palm open, stick fully down and wait until it full settles in your hand and the blades RPM will drop. Then you can grab. If you do it any time before, drone will give resistance and this is when mess happens.

And the old method what people use to do by turning the drone on its side was cause older generation was harder to hand land, and side flipping it would automatically shut down the motors due a safety feature built in the IMU. But this is 100% not required with Air 2, nor it was ever a recommended method.
 
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I saw a professional movie drone pilot flip sideways and been doing it ever since. It kills the motors instantly! This guy flips it completely over!
I've seen drones flipped over also but not an air2. That video you gave is of a mini. I have no hands on experience with the mini BUT, I believe the air2 is way stronger and harder to flip over. I'm not going to try it again till I see others doing it. When I said it got mean, I mean it went nuts.
 
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