Almost lost drone

[JoelP]

…By flying longer under 15% you are just hurting your battery killing the lifespan.

I totally agree with zeusfl that flying your battery to such a low level is hard on the battery. I have experienced 2 forced landings with my old M1 where I manually sustained flight to a safe area but totally expended all charge. After doing this the battery was bricked in both cases. I am not about to try this with my more expensive M3 batteries. With such a long battery capacity there is no need to run it so low.

 

[maggior]

DJI puts a buffer in there regarding auto return to home. If you look at the battery level indicator, there's a green range, orange range, and red range. When you get into the orange zone, low battery RTH kicks in. I always cancel it and bring it in myself. On the way back, most times my battery will come back into the green zone. These indicators take the distance from home into account, so if you are further away, the orange zone will be bigger which means you'll see a low battery RTH sooner than if you were closer.

You shouldn't treat the buffer as a a reason to ignore the warning and just keep flying. That buffer will allow you to get home despite a headwind on the way back perhaps.

The red, as I recall, is when it will begin automatic landing. Like others pointed out, flying your battery to this point is just a bad idea, both for getting back safely and for not damaging your battery.

A drawback I see with automated flight with waypoints is the pilot can become less engaged and may not pay as much attention to things like battery as they normally would.

I experienced the "auto land" stage when I was doing some maintenance on my batteries where you are directed to drain the battery to 8%. This is done hovering a few feet from the takeoff point. It was interesting to experience what it took to keep the drone in the air in that controlled setting once it got to the "auto land" stage. It made me never want to encounter that while my drone was above trees and still coming home!!

 

[Bob in Savannah]

Two days after getting my repaired Mavic 3 back from China, I almost lost it again. I made a manual waypoint mission and was flying it. I had 30 some percent battery, so I knew I might not finish it. So I got down to 15% battery, and I aborted a RTH. It was getting close to finishing the mission, which was at my house. I figured I would hit RTH when it got to 10%. But when it got there, a dialog came up, saying it would start a forced landing in 8 seconds, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I was only 400 feet from my house. So it started to land on a house, and I forced it up. I made it to the street, and there were all kinds of wires I had to avoid. I lost signal before it landed. So I frantically started looking for it on my street, and the next street. Nothing. When I was walking home, a trike driver, a Philippine 3 wheel taxi, stopped by me, and asked me if I had a drone? I said yes, and he said his friend had it, and he could take me to him. So I jumped in. I had looked for it where it landed, but I guess the trike driver had taken it before I got there. So I got it back. It looks undamaged. I gave them each 500 pesos, $10. I didn't know it would do an unabortable forced landing at 10%. Wonder how many guys here know that. I wanted to do find my drone, but I guess I don't know how. I'll have to learn that.

Running your battery down that low is just cray cray to me.. I've never been in the air with only 30%, actually. Lol. I'm already on the ground by then. Just me, tho

 

[Filmarik]

I totally agree with zeusfl that flying your battery to such a low level is hard on the battery. I have experienced 2 forced landings with my old M1 where I manually sustained flight to a safe area but totally expended all charge. After doing this the battery was bricked in both cases. I am not about to try this with my more expensive M3 batteries. With such a long battery capacity there is no need to run it so low.

I think DJI should make the information about "safe battery practice" and the "danger of induced forced landing" more clear and obvious in the manual. Not that everyone reads manuals from A to Z but that way at least the info would be out there for everyone to see. Best straight on first or second page and in bold and large capital letters!!
I believe there is a video on DJI website somewhere about how to best use their smart batteries but you need to search for it and it is not M3 specific. If it was highlighted in bold and clear letters in the manual, more people might be aware of the danger, and their batteries might last for longer too..

 

[slup]

... it will begin automatic landing. That triggers when the battery is at 10%...

Again... that's not true. The critical low battery auto landing is height dependent & not a fixed percentage... go back to post #9 & read.

This is how it works for my MA1 for instance... the height/percentages might differ slightly depending on drone model.

 

[maggior]

Again... that's not true. The critical low battery auto landing is height dependent & not a fixed percentage... go back to post #9 & read.

Post updated.

 

[maggior]

I think DJI should make the information about "safe battery practice" and the "danger of induced forced landing" more clear and obvious in the manual. Not that everyone reads manuals from A to Z but that way at least the info would be out there for everyone to see. Best straight on first or second page and in bold and large capital letters!!
I believe there is a video on DJI website somewhere about how to best use their smart batteries but you need to search for it and it is not M3 specific. If it was highlighted in bold and clear letters in the manual, more people might be aware of the danger, and their batteries might last for longer too..

People can't follow prompts thrown up in the software or just allow the drone to automatically return to home when the battery is low, what good is an update in the manual going to be?

The RTH stages are described in detail in the manual.

 

[shb]

DJI can tell when the pilot is still controlling the drone. What do you accomplish, by forcing a landing, and have the drone try to descend, so that you have to continuously push up on the stick to keep it in the air? If this hadn't happened, I could of easily landed at my home point. The constant beeping doesn't help either.
As far as battery damage, where does DJI say this? Yes, they say don't let it goto 0%. That being the case, when the drone has landed, why doesn't DJI automatically turn off the drone, to prevent damage to the battery? In this case, I landed at 9%, and the drone stayed powered on, and recording, till I got to it 12 minutes later.

 

[SkyeHigh]

As far as battery damage, where does DJI say this? Yes, they say don't let it goto 0%. That being the case, when the drone has landed, why doesn't DJI automatically turn off the drone, to prevent damage to the battery? In this case, I landed at 9%, and the drone stayed powered on, and recording, till I got to it 12 minutes later.

Because it enables you to use the ‘Find my Drone’ feature if it has landed out of sight.

 

[JoelP]

DJI can tell when the pilot is still controlling the drone. What do you accomplish, by forcing a landing, and have the drone try to descend, so that you have to continuously push up on the stick to keep it in the air? If this hadn't happened, I could of easily landed at my home point. The constant beeping doesn't help either.
As far as battery damage, where does DJI say this? Yes, they say don't let it goto 0%. That being the case, when the drone has landed, why doesn't DJI automatically turn off the drone, to prevent damage to the battery? In this case, I landed at 9%, and the drone stayed powered on, and recording, till I got to it 12 minutes later.

When my M1 autolanded in a BLM Forest I was able to help it find a clearing rather than landing in a tree. I always fly with a strobe making it easier to find in such a circumstance.

 

[GadgetGuy]

DJI can tell when the pilot is still controlling the drone. What do you accomplish, by forcing a landing, and have the drone try to descend, so that you have to continuously push up on the stick to keep it in the air? If this hadn't happened, I could of easily landed at my home point. The constant beeping doesn't help either.
As far as battery damage, where does DJI say this? Yes, they say don't let it goto 0%. That being the case, when the drone has landed, why doesn't DJI automatically turn off the drone, to prevent damage to the battery? In this case, I landed at 9%, and the drone stayed powered on, and recording, till I got to it 12 minutes later.

I completely agree that, as an experienced pilot, I want to be fully in control of the landing of the aircraft, until the battery can no longer sustain flight (which is roughly 2 minutes after 0% battery is displayed), even if prolonging flight damages the battery in the process, as preserving the aircraft is far more important than ruining a single battery. A premature forced landing could be into a lake or the ocean or over a cliff from which I am flying, or onto a busy street or intersection, or an inaccessible backyard nearby. Let me fly it all the way back to me, as long as the battery can still sustain flight!

That's exactly why I have used www.Drone-Hacks.com to change the critically low battery auto landing to off, and why I have the heart attack beeping turned off by silencing the transducer. I can now safely hand catch at well under 10% battery without attracting a crowd of onlookers, and just quietly walk away! If it is after dark, just be sure to also turn the Auxiliary Landing Light to OFF in the settings, so you don't get night blinded under the default AUTO setting, as you reach up for it!

 

[shb]

I completely agree that, as an experienced pilot, I want to be fully in control of the landing of the aircraft, until the battery can no longer sustain flight (which is roughly 2 minutes after 0% battery is displayed), even if prolonging flight damages the battery in the process, as preserving the aircraft is far more important than ruining a single battery. A premature forced landing could be into a lake or the ocean or over a cliff from which I am flying, or onto a busy street or intersection, or an inaccessible backyard nearby. Let me fly it all the way back to me, as long as the battery can still sustain flight!

That's exactly why I have used www.Drone-Hacks.com to change the critically low battery auto landing to off, and why I have the heart attack beeping turned off by silencing the transducer. I can now safely hand catch at well under 10% battery without attracting a crowd of onlookers, and just quietly walk away! If it is after dark, just be sure to also turn the Auxiliary Landing Light to OFF in the settings, so you don't get night blinded under the default AUTO setting, as you reach up for it!

I'm not sure what you mean by silencing the transducer. Is that something you do on drone hacks? Forced landing is ok if you're no longer connected to the drone. Is that maintained? But I agree that this forced landing while you are still connected is more likely to lose your drone than save it. Steve

 

[shb]

Well, I finally got one of the videos done of the forced landing. This is the screen capture. The 4k, YouTube tried to make it into a 180 degree video so I have to fix it.

 

[GadgetGuy]

I'm not sure what you mean by silencing the transducer. Is that something you do on drone hacks? Forced landing is ok if you're no longer connected to the drone. Is that maintained? But I agree that this forced landing while you are still connected is more likely to lose your drone than save it. Steve

The transducer on the RC-N1 must be manually silenced by drilling a hole in top of the case and inserting a cut off Q tip into the tiny hole on the top of the transducer. The same can be done on the RC Pro and the DJI RC. However, it has been discovered that the volume setting on the RC Pro can silence the transducer as well, after turning the volume down to 0 and then checking the popup box to silence ALL sounds. No drilling needed! Unsure about whether the DJI RC can be silenced this way, too, or if still requires drilling.

The appropriate response to disconnection (loss of signal) is RTH, not a forced landing. Turning off the Autoland parameter described above in Drone-Hacks has no effect upon the loss of signal setting in the Fly app, whose default setting is RTH.

 

[shb]

The transducer on the RC-N1 must be manually silenced by drilling a hole in top of the case and inserting a cut off Q tip into the tiny hole on the top of the transducer. The same can be done on the RC Pro and the DJI RC. However, it has been discovered that the volume setting on the RC Pro can silence the transducer as well, after turning the volume down to 0 and then checking the popup box to silence ALL sounds. No drilling needed! Unsure about whether the DJI RC can be silenced this way, too, or if still requires drilling.

The appropriate response to disconnection (loss of signal) is RTH, not a forced landing. Turning off the Autoland parameter described above in Drone-Hacks has no effect upon the loss of signal setting in the Fly app, whose default setting is RTH.

Right, but if the drone isn't connected, and the battery gets to 10%, it will still do a forced landing, even if forced landing is turned off, right?

 

[shb]

Well, I finally got the drone video to work at 1080p. See a kid on his bicycle retrieved the drone. It could easily been run over by a vehicle. You see my feet at the end.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Personally I don't think you should be showing faces.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Right, but if the drone isn't connected, and the battery gets to 10%, it will still do a forced landing, even if forced landing is turned off, right?

It shouldn't. Once forced landing is turned off at 10%, it won't land at 10% even under autonomous RTH control. It will continue to keep coming home until the battery is completely exhausted, which what you want it to do, if it is over water or irretrievable if it lands anywhere else, other than back at the launch site or the current Home Point setting. The difference is that you don't have to fight the descent with full up left stick. It will maintain its RTH altitude until signal can be restored, or it reaches the Home Point and lands under RTH.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Once forced landing is turned off at 10%, it won't land at 10% even under autonomous RTH control. It will continue to keep coming home until the battery is completely exhausted, which what you want it to do..........

Or falls from the sky because the motors switch off?

 

[GadgetGuy]

Well, I finally got the drone video to work at 1080p. See a kid on his bicycle retrieved the drone. It could easily been run over by a vehicle. You see my feet at the end.

What was wrong with letting it land on top of the horizontal solar panels inside the edges of the roof? Looks a lot better there, than among the power lines below and on the street!