Dumb questions

[corchard]

I preordered this this thing as a first time drone and fell in love with it. Call me crazy. I have a few questions for those that may have more experience with the DJI and how to get the most out of the air

1) Can I kill all APAS , GPS, sensors... Everything while in the air? I've flown it indoors with flaky GPS signal and had to wrestle it to the ground sweating because it would jump 4 feet at time. I want to bring it to Tahiti on a boat over the ocean and frankly all of this auto stuff is scaring the crap out of me imagining trying to land it on a moving boat. I have a fair bit of RC plane experience so wind gusts, moving targets etc are less of an issue than trying to fight computers and sensors.

2) Is there a kill switch for the propellers? I know about the hold down left stick, grab mavic and flip 90 degrees. Neither seem to be particularly effective for a moving boat in the middle of the ocean.

 

[eaglelooking]

2) Is there a kill switch for the propellers? I know about the hold down left stick, grab mavic and flip 90 degrees. Neither seem to be particularly effective for a moving boat in the middle of the ocean.

Where did the flip 90 degrees idea come from? I have seen that a few times, or “flip it upside down” -> this seems unnecessarily risky to me, the drone will land on your palm if you just hold the stick down. Trying to flip it sends the drone into emergency mode and it wants to get away from you. If you don’t have a good grip, it’s going to cut you.

 

[pixl]

You're going to need to learn to hand launch and hand catch.

The reason for hand launching is that the IMU will detect even small amounts of boat movement before you take off and may actually try to correct its position to the home point without stick input. This may make it fly itself overboard and land in the water .

Second, if it's a steel boat you may not be able to launch at all due to compass and IMU errors. And you can't turn those things off .

Officially, all you can really turn off is the CA sensors.

 

[corchard]

Where did the flip 90 degrees idea come from? I have seen that a few times, or “flip it upside down” -> this seems unnecessarily risky to me, the drone will land on your palm if you just hold the stick down. Trying to flip it sends the drone into emergency mode and it wants to get away from you. If you don’t have a good grip, it’s going to cut you.

Imagine standing on the the bed of a pickup truck while it's rolling slowly down a bumpy road and trying to catch this thing. It just doesn't land well on a moving target. I've tried.

There are a few videos of pilots trying to navigate the mavic pro for a landing on the back of a moving boat around the stays, stanchions, rooftop, dingy... Did I mention Wind? But the PRO is bigger and has a bigger grab spot underneath.

I'm just looking for the best option so that I can practice it. It should make some interesting YouTube fails regardless.

 

[corchard]

You're going to need to learn to hand launch and hand catch.

The reason for hand launching is that the IMU will detect even small amounts of boat movement before you take off and may actually try to correct its position to the home point without stick input. This may make it fly itself overboard and land in the water .

Second, if it's a steel boat you may not be able to launch at all due to compass and IMU errors. And you can't turn those things off .

Officially, all you can really turn off is the CA sensors.

Hand launching is relatively straightforward. The tip for me is to face the drone towards me because there seems to be a slight tip and slide backwards in the first 6 inches of take-off which it corrects.

It's the stick input that I'm messing with. Upon landing on a boat into someone's hand there will be almost constant stick movement until the point where I want it to "Stop Blades right now!"

That last part is kind of important for the willingness of the crew/family to want to participate in future drone flights. Apparently they are attached to their fingers. It seems a bit slower to shutdown with the stick fully down while forward and sideways stick movement exists than a straight downward landing.

 

[Mossiback]

...I've flown it indoors with flaky GPS signal and had to wrestle it to the ground sweating because it would jump 4 feet at time...

You definitely will have flaky GPS signal indoors but while outside it should be very solid. Don't let your indoor experience scare you away from trusting the technology built into your Mavic.

Hand launching is relatively straightforward. The tip for me is to face the drone towards me because there seems to be a slight tip and slide backwards in the first 6 inches of take-off which it corrects...

I would recommend facing it away from you to launch/land. That way the Mavic will match your left/right stick movements making the process easier to do. I would also turn off your downward sensors; they are less effective over water anyway and will stop the Mavic trying to rise above the "obstruction" which is your hand when you try to catch it.

 

[corchard]

You definitely will have flaky GPS signal indoors but while outside it should be very solid. Don't let your indoor experience scare you away from trusting the technology built into your Mavic.

I would recommend facing it away from you to launch/land. That way the Mavic will match your left/right stick movements making the process easier to do. I would also turn off your downward sensors; they are less effective over water anyway and will stop the Mavic trying to rise above the "obstruction" which is your hand when you try to catch it.

My comments about flakey GPS signal and facing away on take-off are just meant as comments about my flying skills. I'm not an expert, but I have enough stick skills that a drone jumping 4 feet at a time and orientation awareness that flying in reverse view really don't bother me. Besides the shot is cool. Up up and away.

I've done a few walking landings where a friend is walking slowly holding a piece of plywood and we coordinate drone landing on the moving board but the time for the props to stop seems to take forever. The prop wash over a wobbly piece of plywood makes it extra challenging.

I may need to steal the plastic mosquito screen from the side door to practice with instead of plywood.

Normal flights are full tripod or cinematic mode with all of the bells and whistles that the technology can provide. It almost makes flying too easy. But I do want to be ready and practiced for my big ocean boat trip.

 

[Qoncussion]

... but the time for the props to stop seems to take forever...

Both sticks in and down - kills the motors immediately. It's called CSC: Combination Stick Command. It's in the manual.

 

[thongbong]

I preordered this this thing as a first time drone and fell in love with it. Call me crazy. I have a few questions for those that may have more experience with the DJI and how to get the most out of the air

1) Can I kill all APAS , GPS, sensors... Everything while in the air? I've flown it indoors with flaky GPS signal and had to wrestle it to the ground sweating because it would jump 4 feet at time. I want to bring it to Tahiti on a boat over the ocean and frankly all of this auto stuff is scaring the crap out of me imagining trying to land it on a moving boat. I have a fair bit of RC plane experience so wind gusts, moving targets etc are less of an issue than trying to fight computers and sensors.

2) Is there a kill switch for the propellers? I know about the hold down left stick, grab mavic and flip 90 degrees. Neither seem to be particularly effective for a moving boat in the middle of the ocean.

Here's an idea, hover the drone over a net then perform the CSC. Drone falls in, fingers stay on. No need to catch on moving boat, and all you have to do is have somone move the net under the drone. I don't think it's ever been done before so post a video.

 

[corchard]

Hmm... CSC while in directional motion flight. It requires some thought.

My experience so far with CSC is that it takes a bit of time to kick in if there is active stick control. Probably to prevent accidental prop kill in flight.

Pin sticks in and down will initially cause yaw, and pitch in front back direction as well as to the side.

Maybe match the boats forward motion by flying the drone backwards with a 45 degree crab to minimize the initial pitch impact of the CSC manœuvre.

If flying backwards 45 degree crab adding CSC manœuvre adds counterclockwise yaw (as viewed from above) and pitch forwardish until the props die. If I deaden the yaw sensitivity gain before landing it may reduce the spinning impact. Still I've got a moving object with dead controls, 2 axis of spin (yaw and forward tilt) and a downward forward motion. I'll get the friend I like least to catch that one. I think it is more risky than just a height stick down attempt but worth some practice.

Nets? I like it. I will rename my drone Pieris Rapae. Here here pretty butterfly.

 

[corchard]

CSC kill in flight is a "heck no". I practiced most of the day on a frozen lake that was as smooth as glass. I would start at about 1m above the ice and start the forward movement then the decent. Best result was a drone that spun like a figure skater who had just fallen out her butt after a failed triple axle.

I tried all sorts of attempts but while moving forward, the peg down and in caused all sorts of chaos. The backwards 45 degree crab didn't really help.

Just before I went sunset chasing, I found something that seemed to work the best. It's so simple, I feel stupid: Touch the land icon on the screen. On the descent it still allows full pitch stick movement. I was able to land several times on the ice with a strong skidding forward motion. Translated to my moving boat problem, that's an easy catch. Or even a net. The blades stopped very quickly when it hit the ice.

It was pretty windy out there, I hit 100% quite a few times on the compensation circle in normal mode.

Tomorrow is human clinical trials.