Avata 2 Question re: Obstacle Avoidance and Gimbal Damper Part Queries

[Brandnewbolt]

Hello all, I've crashed my recent purchase a couple of times now. I'm new to FOV and the drone has held up okay, I only need to replace a gimbal damper (which I'm waiting in DJI to inform me whether that is available, fingers crossed). I have a 2 part question:

1. Im used to obstacle avoidance in my other drone, and this is what Heliguy in the UK advises:

"DJI Avata only supports downward obstacle sensing when used with DJI FPV Remote Controller, or DJI Motion Controller in N Mode and S Mode.

DJI Avata does not support forward obstacle sensing and avoidance. "

Fine, however, does this mean that in N and S mode (and using the relevant controllers), this function is ALWAYS ON already in the background OR is there a setting I need to toggle to activate this? Would I be crashing if this was on? Would this being ON actually prevent the drone being crashed into the ground even if I'm say steering it to its' death?


2. I'm not holding out hope for the part I need. Does anyone have any idea of a part that exists on an older drone that would do the job?

Cheers in advance, Claire

 

[Droning on and on...]

The downward cameras don't perform what is generally referred to as "Obstacle Avoidance". Their main purpose is holding position while hovering below about 10-20m (Avata 2). When the drone is moving, they are pretty much ignored.

The other function they perform is providing an image of the landing area, that the drone analyzes during automated landing and determines if the surface is suitable for a safe landing. The same algorithms that implement "optical flow" techniques for holding position can detect things like an uneven or sloping surface, and will stop, requiring the pilot to force-land if they want to land there anyway.

The other sensor on the bottom is an Infrared ranging module that provides precise height measurements within the specified sensing range. This is used to control descent during landing.

The Avata 2 upgraded the VPS camera design to copy the corner mounted, 180° spherical FOV cameras from the M3/A3/M4P OA system on the lower rear corners. They are used for both VPS, and rear OA.

This is more helpful than experience with OA on camera drones might cause many of us to believe. The kind of things that would threaten an Avata 2 will almost always be detected, while it's tough enough to come out fine running into stuff that OA typically fails to sense (wires, fine branches).

It's nice having this protection for backing up when you can't see where you're going... FPV flights often find themselves in dense, cluttered spaces.

VPS is enabled all the time in N/S modes. I can't find anything about rear OA, but if it's similar to other DJI drones its only active in N mode.