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.

 

[Eko]

Hi to all,

Would you please be kind to throw your suggestions in here.

Scenario
I will be travelling to an archeological site and will take pictures for photogrammety purposes. Some shootings have to be made inside the ruins of some buildings. The shape is almost a square or a rectangle (close to a square), each side is about 15 meters. The height of the walls are changing from 2 meters to 5 meters. There is no roof for the remains of the ancient buildings and thefore the sky is completely visible and the satellite reception is almost well. I have a Mini4Pro.



Questions
According to the diagram shown above, will a flight with a radius of 2-3 meters be appropriate and sufficient? I am asking this in consideration for the best overlapping ratio to obtain, while also deciding the timelaps for consecutive pictures. Will it work, if I define a POI at every corner and the midpoint of each wall?

Any feedback will be valuable.

 

[Max Headroom]

Flying inside is not a problem if you let go of the sticks the drone will hover and not move put it in cinema mode and take it easy.

 

[Eko]

Flying inside is not a problem if you let go of the sticks the drone will hover and not move put it in cinema mode and take it easy.

OK but, how to calculate the time lapse period, how many pictures to take in a full circle? etc etc…

 

[Max Headroom]

No idea sorry I never use that

 

[Kilrah]

And that has nothing to do with the subject of this topic.

 

[Eko]

And that has nothing to do with the subject of this topic.

No?
I thought it was directly related with the subject of the heading: "Inside flight"
Kindly, what is your recommendation to move my question to which thread?

 

[Kilrah]

It's about control issues when no GPS indoors, not about "how to take photos".

Create your own thread.

 

[AeroJ]

I tend to want prop guards before I am happy flying indoors with any UAVs that aren't toys. Too easy to drift into obstacles otherwise, I find.

 

[Felix le Chat]

Hi to all,

Would you please be kind to throw your suggestions in here.

Scenario
I will be travelling to an archeological site and will take pictures for photogrammety purposes. Some shootings have to be made inside the ruins of some buildings. The shape is almost a square or a rectangle (close to a square), each side is about 15 meters. The height of the walls are changing from 2 meters to 5 meters. There is no roof for the remains of the ancient buildings and thefore the sky is completely visible and the satellite reception is almost well. I have a Mini4Pro.

View attachment 178974

Questions
According to the diagram shown above, will a flight with a radius of 2-3 meters be appropriate and sufficient? I am asking this in consideration for the best overlapping ratio to obtain, while also deciding the timelaps for consecutive pictures. Will it work, if I define a POI at every corner and the midpoint of each wall?

Any feedback will be valuable.

Regarding your specific circumstances - with a drone: you might try a manual flight (with propguards).

Use the same technique used when shooting interior spaces with a DSLR: which is - stand in corner #1 with your back to wall #1, take shot #1 of the opposite wall, then sidestep twice and stand still. Take shot #2. Repeat. Work from one corner to the other, then progress around the inner circumference of the room shooting the opposite wall all the time. The two sidesteps ensure a consistent and high level of overlap.

With the mini 4 pro: feasibly, with careful roll control only and stopping dead still to take the shot, you can achieve a high level of overlap between all frames. Use the on-screen grid display to calculate 30% or greater overlap by eye. Set your height at about 6 feet and don't touch the throttle stick until you've finished and want to land.

There is no reason why obstacle avoidance can't be your best friend here: it should ensure that the drone stays a consistent distance from the wall behind it (6 feet)... but you really have to watch your corners!

 

[Buel]

OK but, how to calculate the time lapse period, how many pictures to take in a full circle? etc etc…

Why not use your phone to take these photos if you are concerned? iPhones will produce almost as good quality as the Mini 4?

 

[Eko]

Why not use your phone

Using a DSLR or an iPhone is not possible, because the floor surface is not even and I can not stand at desired points, there are many decadent stones and water puddles sloughs etc to fight with. So the best way is to take the pictures with a drone.

 

[Felix le Chat]

Using a DSLR or an iPhone is not possible, because the floor surface is not even and I can not stand at desired points, there are many decadent stones and water puddles sloughs etc to fight with. So the best way is to take the pictures with a drone.

If you have access to an i-phone 13, or 13 pro, it has a sophisticated lidar scanner built it to it that can be used to 3D map objects and interior spaces. The results are excellent. This technique was used to scan the body of King Richard III in-situ when it was exhumed during a development in Leicester, England.

With a DSLR you can use a simple monopod, mild variances in floor level won't cause many problems with the stitching process.

 

[Eko]

If you have access to an i-phone 13, or 13 pro, it has a sophisticated lidar scanner built it to it that can be used to 3D map objects and interior spaces. The results are excellent.

With a DSLR you can use a simple monopod, mild variances in floor level won't cause many problems with the stitching process.

But I can not walk within the building, because there is water inside, some places are very muddy (depth unknown) and many scattered rocks everywhere. It is not possible to step inside. :-(

 

[Felix le Chat]

But I can not walk within the building, because there is water inside, some places are very muddy (depth unknown) and many scattered rocks everywhere. It is not possible to step inside. :-(

Okay. Here's a question: it the drone goes nuts (a very real possibility if you're dropping it down into an enclosed space while you're outside without direct LOS), how are you going to retrieve it? But more to the point - if this is a registered or active archaeological site... do you have permission to undertake this mapping shoot?