Does the Mini 3 Pro have Precision Landing?

[Skyryder]

From what I read, the Air 2S, Mavic 3, and more expensive drones all have precision landing. The Mini 2 did not. I am not talking about downward sensors, they all have that. Precision landing is a special feature where they return to home on the exact spot within inches by taking a photo or image after takeoff. Assuming you fallowed the correct take off procedure aloowing it to mark the spot. So did they add this or not?

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

There's no mention of it in the manual so at a guess, no.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

Precision landing is kind of like a mystery to me , The only way that I see that it can be used is on some kind of automation station where you need to land to get a new battery replaced.

Other than that , how do you go about using it , or is it just the novelty of being able to have it work.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain. Land on the Water.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

In good light and from take off you make the drone climb vertically to 7m+ and that is all there is to enabling it. Then you just use it like a normal RTH.

If you are a manual lander then it offers no real advantages over a non precision landing.

 

[Hidden]

Is this something new to the Air 2S. I have never seen the setting. I know regular RTH is not very precision. Close, but far from precision.

 

[old man mavic]

@Skyryder ,precision landing in itself is just another form of automated flight using the sensors,and the camera on the drone to record the surroundings of the spot where it took off from,it saves this info and then uses it when RTH is initiated ,its a good way to impress onlookers as it makes you look a really good pilot, if they are watching as the drone comes down right over the take off /landing pad stops for a moment then lands
it is also useful if the area you are flying from is quite a small patch of level ground ,in an otherwise bumpy rough terrain ,or restricted surroundings
its much more fun if at about 20ft above the ground, you cancel RTH, and then proceed to land the drone yourself ,it hones your stick control ,and can be quite an adventure if the wind is gusting ,unpredictably, its a great feeling when you get it down in the center of the landing pad,
or indeed onto your hand, if you do hand catching

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Wildrat1, I don't know if it is new to the Air 2s but there is no "setting" for it. It's something that is automatically established if the take off is appropriate. If you move the drone horizontally before the drone reaches a height of 7m the take off is not appropriate and precision landing is unavailable.

Page 16 of the manual.

 

[OldGuy]

Precision landing is kind of like a mystery to me , The only way that I see that it can be used is on some kind of automation station where you need to land to get a new battery replaced.

Other than that , how do you go about using it , or is it just the novelty of being able to have it work.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain. Land on the Water.

I had precision landing on my M2Z and it was very useful as I often take off and land from a patch of grass surrounded by trees. My Mini 2 doesen't have precision landing so I have to watch it carefully when on auto RTH. Several times I have had to cancel the RTH and bring the Mini 2 in manually. This may not sound too difficult and it is not but if I take my eye off the ball or am distracted then my Mini 2 can end up in the trees. If you offered me precision landing then I would take it in the blink on an eye.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

I had precision landing on my M2Z and it was very useful as I often take off and land from a patch of grass surrounded by trees. My Mini 2 doesen't have precision landing so I have to watch it carefully when on auto RTH. Several times I have had to cancel the RTH and bring the Mini 2 in manually. This may not sound too difficult and it is not but if I take my eye off the ball or am distracted then my Mini 2 can end up in the trees. If you offered me precision landing then I would take it in the blink on an eye.

You do not need to cancel the Mini 2's RTH to fine tune the drone's positioning, you can leave it in the RTH and add manual adjustments.
Landing in a clearing surrounded by trees, my at home norm, I watch my drones like a hawk irrespective of whether they are using precision landing or not.

 

[Skyryder]

Wildrat1, I don't know if it is new to the Air 2s but there is no "setting" for it. It's something that is automatically established if the take off is appropriate. If you move the drone horizontally before the drone reaches a height of 7m the take off is not appropriate and precision landing is unavailable.

Page 16 of the manual.

It's not new, always been there from what I have read. According to the manual you have to fly up 23ft (dont quote me on this) give it a few seconds to hover, then take off. That's it. Those few seconds are when it records it's exact location somehow including it's ability to match it exactly when it returns.

There is a caveat to this. If you dramatically change the landing spot like moving the landing pad or other items that were in the downward shot such as a group of people casting long black shadows, it might not recognizes the exact spot.

It's a cool backup feature, I like it a lot.

 

[Meta4]

You do not need to cancel the Mini 2's RTH to fine tune the drone's positioning, you can leave it in the RTH and add manual adjustments.

If you are close to trees or other obstacles, you would be advised to cancel RTH and resume manual control.
If you leave RTH active and try to over-ride it, the drone will fight you and keep trying to land where it believes the home point is.
With the variable inaccuracy of GPS, that could be 5 metres or more from where you think it is.
There have been more than enough cases of damage or loss caused by fighting against a drone that wants to follow RTH programming.

 

[EpicFlight]

It's not new, always been there from what I have read. According to the manual you have to fly up 23ft (dont quote me on this) give it a few seconds to hover, then take off. That's it. Those few seconds are when it records it's exact location somehow including it's ability to match it exactly when it returns.

It uses the downward VPS cameras to capture and store an image which is then used to compare against the live image as it descends. The same optical flow algorithm that holds position by comparing sequential frames from the VPS cameras just compares them to the takeoff image.

I love it, and land with it most of the time (exception, FPV). I stopped benefiting long, long ago honing my skills landing, and find it rather boring. In fact flying back is incredibly boring, so I let RTH do the work.

The exception, of course, is the FPV. While it has PL, it's always a blast landing. The tighter, vertically, the confines, the better.

 

[Hidden]

It's not new, always been there from what I have read. According to the manual you have to fly up 23ft (dont quote me on this) give it a few seconds to hover, then take off. That's it. Those few seconds are when it records it's exact location somehow including it's ability to match it exactly when it returns.

There is a caveat to this. If you dramatically change the landing spot like moving the landing pad or other items that were in the downward shot such as a group of people casting long black shadows, it might not recognizes the exact spot.

It's a cool backup feature, I like it a lot.

Yes, I usually manually takeoff, and rarely use RTH. I will check this feature out next time I fly.

 

[Meta4]

It's not new, always been there from what I have read. According to the manual you have to fly up 23ft (dont quote me on this) give it a few seconds to hover, then take off.

There's no need to hover for a time.
The important thing is to climb straight up for 23 feet, or as the manual says:
During takeoff, the aircraft must ascend at least 7 m before flying horizontally.

 

[Torque]

According to Hunter Haopeng Chen of DJI the Mini 3 does have precision landing.
Here is a copy and paste reply from one of my FB groups this morning:

""Hi Joe, Mini 3 Pro supports Precision landing. It needs a GPS signal strong enough to initiate Precision Landing so that the drone can be navigated back to the vicinity of the take-off point. Then, the aircraft needs to be able to visually recognize the pattern of the ground it took off from, for example, cracks or other identifiable patterns. A uniform patch of sand, however, is not suitable for Precision Landing. Finally, the Mini 3 Pro needs to capture footage of the ground during take-off to record its appearance. This means you may wait for the drone to recognize the takeoff point, instead of moving away immediately after take-off."
However so far I have not been able to demonstrate it, nor can I find a youtube video showing the M3P landing any closer than a foot or two away from the take off point.

 

[Skyryder]

Yeah, I think the only drones that have prrecision landing have downard cameras in ADDITIION to downward sensors like the Air 2s. As far as I can see, the M3P has no downward cameras, just basic sensors.

 

[bsmorgan]

According to the Mini 3 Pro User Manual, it has Forward, Backward, and Downward vision systems. Infrared sensing system as well.

The user manuals for the Mavic 3 and the Air 2S contain a section labeled "Precision Landing" just before the section "Vision Systems and Infrared Sensing System". The user manual for the Mini 3 Pro does NOT have a "Precision Landing" section.

I think this means that the Mini 3 Pro has the necessary hardware, but not the necessary firmware.

 

[Droning on and on...]

You do not need to cancel the Mini 2's RTH to fine tune the drone's positioning, you can leave it in the RTH and add manual adjustments.
Landing in a clearing surrounded by trees, my at home norm, I watch my drones like a hawk irrespective of whether they are using precision landing or not.

My opinion: It is always dangerous to have only partial control of an aircraft. Either let it fly itself fully, or take complete control yourself.

Why: Your brain doesn't work in a panic. If something occurs that requires a split-second action that involves canceling RTH to be able to ascend, you won't remember, as all your focus is on desperately getting away from that german shepherd whose jaws are inches from the drone as he jumps trying to get it.

You'll even be pushing up on the left stick puzzled and panicking even more when it doesn't ascend.

Ask any psychologist. Heck, any certified SCUBA diver.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

My opinion: It is always dangerous to have only partial control of an aircraft. Either let it fly itself fully, or take complete control yourself.

Why: Your brain doesn't work in a panic. If something occurs that requires a split-second action that involves canceling RTH to be able to ascend, you won't remember, as all your focus is on desperately getting away from that german shepherd whose jaws are inches from the drone as he jumps trying to get it.

You'll even be pushing up on the left stick puzzled and panicking even more when it doesn't ascend.

Ask any psychologist. Heck, any certified SCUBA diver.

Admittedly panic removes all thought but I did refer to "positioning", which was meant to imply horizontal movement and not the throttle.
Besides, it is my recollection that I had one of the Minis landing, in the descent phase of an RTH, at the front of the house and, just for the heck of it, decided to make it land at the back of the house. I gave it full throttle, forcing it to climb, flew it over the house and then centred the controls. It descended to a landing, I may have had to tweak the horizontal position as it descended but that's normal for me so I give it no thought.

 

[SkiProiii]

In my experience, the MP3 is not exact in the RTH precision landing, particularly in the wind. I have tried the high visibility orange and the blue pad side too. You will need to manually tweak to land the drone to hit the pad most of the time. I will try the hovering noted above for some time to see if that improves it.