Can Minis be used indoors without GPS?

[Buel]

Hi all.

Was talkin to a friend the other day and he said that he crashed his Mini 4 indoors the other day due to him not having GPS / the appropriate amount of satellites..please can I ask if this would be the reason why?
Additionally, can Mavic Minis be used reliably in buildings with big walls that affect signal?

Thanks, all!

 

[Kilrah]

The lack of GPS wouldn't be "the reason why", but him not being trained to handle the aircraft switching between GPS/OPTI/ATTI will be.

 

[Buel]

Great.
What would you recommend? Might help me too....!

Maybe flying in ATTI mode?

 

[Meta4]

Great.
What would you recommend? Might help me too....!

Maybe flying in ATTI mode?

If the drone doesn't have satellite reception and it can't use the VPS because of low light or a suitable floor surface, it will be in Atti Mode without you doing anything.
In Atti Mode the drone has no horizontal position holding ability and has no brakes.
You would need to be very gentle on the sticks, fly slowly and use the sticks to brake when necessary.
You would have to be very careful to avoid getting close to walls or other obstacles.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

I fly both a mini 1 and 2 indoors a lot.
They work perfectly well providing the room is well lit ( best if from above ) and the floor has a clearly visible pattern that the VPS system can use to hold position.
The only time I have run into problems was when I tried to fly it up a stairwell without the overhead lights on, it switched to ATTI mode and I crashed it on the first attempt.
I have subsequently managed to fly up/down that stair well in ATTI mode but it needs a really gentle stick movement and there is a need to keep the drone away from walls etc. as the down draught near a wall can make things awkward.

In general you have to use very subtle stick movements, even more so is ATTI mode.

I imagine the same things apply to the the mini 3 and 4 but switch OA OFF.

Before the motors will start there may be a need to acknowledge a warning about low light conditions and accept responsibility for any crashes, I get that a lot, but once the drone is in the air the illumination is sufficient for VPS to work.

I normally use the N flight mode.

 

[Max Headroom]

I flew my Mini 2 indoors to get used to the controller my rooms are small so i used cinema mode to keep it slow and smooth i didn't have any problems.