Flying from inside a car

[saudio]

I just wanted to throw this out there. I fly from the drivers seat of my car a lot, especially in winter. I orient the car so I'm flying the drone away from my front or side window, so the remote is looking through glass and not metal, and I turn off the engine and accessories, and so far it has worked great.

From inside a car, you are comfortable, warm, mobile, and there is no direct sunlight on the screen so you can really see what's going on with your camera. I'm sure the range is compromised somewhat, but so far I've not flown out of range of the remote.

I suggest trying it. I was very worried that the remote simply would not work from a car but it will.

 

[RallySoob]

What about the gps Homepoint? Does that trip the go app out to have your home point traveling? What mode? Any vids?


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[saudio]

I'm sorry if I wasn't clear enough by saying that I turn off the engine and accessories, but I never fly while traveling.

 

[F6Rider]

I'm sorry if I wasn't clear enough by saying that I turn off the engine and accessories, but I never fly while traveling.

Most of us caught that

 

[Bivalve]

Just flew from inside my house. Why, you ask? Because it is flippin cold right now in Maine.

Set up the drone on my back porch, turned it on, then retired to my living room with a nice hot cup of cocoa. Looking out the back picture window, flew down the pond behind my house, over some trees, on out to 6,000 feet when I got bored. Brought it back for speed runs up and down the pond. No problem with reception, whatsoever.

My first day flying this thing. Unbelievable.

 

[TheloniasMark]

I tried some freezing cold weather flying too, very short range, just to see her fly before spring. Heads up-- iPhone battery dead in minutes, (like before my bare hands were too cold) No warning.
Next flight was controlled from the interior of my warmed car.


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[FlyawaySOB]

Some people mount antennas to their cars or roof of their house to do this exact thing.

In depth discussion right here: Flying from inside house or car anyone?

 

[YellowJacket]

And if you want to take it a step further, you could do without even opening your door. Just park car, open window, place mavic on roof above you, launch, then land on roof.

 

[Aeroworks]

I like to mirror cast my phones screen to my 55 inch 4k tv. Sitnon the couch and fly it while watching the big screen. Fun times. Of course i have a spotter outside for me in yelling distance. Faa regulations and all =)

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[erikgraham]

And if you want to take it a step further, you could do without even opening your door. Just park car, open window, place mavic on roof above you, launch, then land on roof.

I tried this and (as expected) the Mavic threw a magnetic interference warning.

 

[YellowJacket]

I tried this and (as expected) the Mavic threw a magnetic interference warning.

That's too bad. Perhaps laying a rubber mprotective mat in the roof of your car with a bulls eye. It would actually be safer for everyone to land in the mat of your own personal property.

 

[Psynchro]

I launch my Mavic from the covered bed of my pickup truck. I also get Mag Interference warnings and suggests I recalibrate the compasses.
I just make sure to recalibrate away from the truck and then place the Mavic on the bed. Once I have enough Sat. signals I takeoff regardless of any Mag Interference and it works fine.
I've flown the Mavic several dozen times and they have ALL been from the bed of my truck.

As for flying from inside the cabin, I've tried it once while the Mavic was hovering slightly higher than default over the bed behind me and when I heard it drifting away I quickly got out of the truck to get eye contact (it was dark outside, maybe slightly windy too) and control the drone back into a steady hover. I'll have to do some more experimenting, but I'll be sure to move the drone into view from my seat in the car before configuring the software on my device.

 

[YellowJacket]

Those errors are probably because there is a metal roof between the receiver and mavic. On top of that, having the mavic directly above the controllers weak spot doesn't help. Try moving the controller antennas closer to the windshield above the dash to avoid the interference warning.

 

[FPVJunkie]

I like to mirror cast my phones screen to my 55 inch 4k tv. Sitnon the couch and fly it while watching the big screen. Fun times. Of course i have a spotter outside for me in yelling distance. Faa regulations and all =)

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Now that is awesome, definitely have to try that out!

 

[Bryan Conover]

Those errors are probably because there is a metal roof between the receiver and mavic. On top of that, having the mavic directly above the controllers weak spot doesn't help. Try moving the controller antennas closer to the windshield above the dash to avoid the interference warning.

Just making this up as you go along?...DJI drones really dislike metal near their compass. It's hardly rocket science but you persist in your encouragement to take off from that kind of surface...reckless and yes it can cause you to crash thus damaging your device.

 

[erikgraham]

I'll just globally reply to all the comments spawned by my previous posting.

The reason I expected mag interference is because, well, metal. Also because I have a fair amount of experience taking off from vehicles.

If you really want to do it, the solution is pretty simple. Put a cardboard box on your roof (ideally over the sun roof) and take off from that. The interference from metal (power lines also) dies off quickly over a short distance. Just google "inverse square law" if you want more info.

It's a little trickier from a pickup bed where you have metal on the sides. A bigger box, or ideally an overturned (plastic) trash can should do. You can also do the same thing when you want to take off from a turf field with pipes or rebar in concrete running underneath (common for artificial sports fields).

I've done this over many years with drones I've built and drones I've bought. It's pretty rare that I've needed to launch from a vehicle, but it comes up now and then.

I tested it with the Mavic a couple days ago because there was snow all around and I just thought I'd give it a try. Didn't have a card board box handy so I tamped down the snow and did a standard launch.

 

[Darryl]

I tried some freezing cold weather flying too, very short range, just to see her fly before spring. Heads up-- iPhone battery dead in minutes, (like before my bare hands were too cold) No warning.
Next flight was controlled from the interior of my warmed car.


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That's weird you must have an old iPhone battery. I fly in -30°C. iPhone lasts way longer then I can. People need to stop being so worried about flying their dji in the cold. I've been flying dji in these cold temps for years without ever having an issue

 

[erikgraham]

That's weird you must have an old iPhone battery. I fly in -30°C. iPhone lasts way longer then I can. People need to stop being so worried about flying their dji in the cold. I've been flying dji in these cold temps for years without ever having an issue

Its kind of well known that smartphone batteries go quickly in the cold, so I'm not sure what your saying. You must have a super phone.

Anyway... When I fly in extreme cold (haven't with the Mavic yet), I slap adhesive toe warmers onto the iPad/iPhone. We have boxes of them lying around. Use 2 or 3 on a tablet.

When were are out in the field skiing or snow showing, we just pack hand warmers around the batteries and stuff them in an insulated bag. In extreme cold (-5F to -25F) keeping a battery in an inner jacket pocket doesn't work.

Disclaimer: I haven't flown the Mavic in extreme cold, but I have many other drones. The general procedure is always to leave the drone out (without battery) in the cold for a good 10 minutes to acclimate. This prevents condensation frost from forming in the barometer (which is really the only sensitive instrument in the cold). Then pop in a toasty warm battery, take off quickly and hover for a minute. It will heat itself at that point. With naked lipos, you can stick toe warmers on them, but that's not relevant for the Mavic.

If you have the luxury of flying from inside a car, consider yourself lucky. Working a touch screen with thin electrostatic gloves in -20F is rough. There are RC "gloves" you can stick your entire hand into, but they are even more of a pain in the arse if you ask me.

Example RC glove:
http://www.tjshobbies.co.uk/images/TXGlove.jpg

Toe warmers refered to above:
Amazon.com : HotHands Toe Warmers : Sports & Outdoors

 

[ghostrider215]

Thanks for the start of this thread. While I don't plan to fly the drone from the comfort of inside my car or home(although, sounds pretty cool!), other then the extenders they sell on amazon for the Mavic remote(have them on order already), is there any way to increase the signal from remote to Mavic? I did a test flight and started getting signal loss at 2500 ft from my house and while I don't plan to go much further, there's an area about 4000 ft from my house that I want to get to and don't want to risk it with the signal loss warnings. Any suggestions?

 

[LakeTravis]

I'm just glad I live in Austin... we have very few days where it doesn't get at least into the 40's. it was over 75° two days last week, and over 80° one day. I grew up in the cold winters of Nebraska, don't miss it a bit