Flying into direct sunlight

Anthony Viscomi · Nov 19, 2016

So today I'm flying into the direction of the sun at an altitude over 200 feet and OA kicks in. Was that caused by the reflection of the sun's rays on the front sensors?

Vicrimo · Nov 19, 2016

Yes I believe so and it's a known issue. Hopefully they'll address it with a firmware update.

First time it happen to me I was like wtf[emoji47].

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Anthony Viscomi · Nov 19, 2016

Vicrimo said:
Yes I believe so and it's a known issue. Hopefully they'll address it with a firmware update.

First time it happen to me I was like wtf[emoji47].

Sent from my iPhone using MavicPilots

Thanks...I thought that I was going nuts or else my altitude reading was way off

sonof40 · Nov 19, 2016

Vicrimo · Nov 19, 2016

sonof40 said:
OA=?

Obstacle avoidance

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Graves14 · Nov 19, 2016

This also happens to me quite frequently, as I fly after work when the sun is very low on the horizon.

I've had a few instances where I couldn't fly directly back to the home point. I had to fly sideways to avoid the sun.

I'm quite concerned if RTH was engaged... would it try to fly over the obstruction (the sun in this case!) ??

fryheit · Nov 22, 2016

Graves14 said:
This also happens to me quite frequently, as I fly after work when the sun is very low on the horizon.

I've had a few instances where I couldn't fly directly back to the home point. I had to fly sideways to avoid the sun.

I'm quite concerned if RTH was engaged... would it try to fly over the obstruction (the sun in this case!) ??

very very good question..

FlashGJ · Dec 23, 2016

Curious to know if using a filter may help in this situation. Probably not, but has anyone experienced an obstacle avoidance caused by the sun while having a ND filter installed?

Foxtrot Uniform · Dec 23, 2016

I disable OA before each flight. Its just not worth the hassle until they get the bugs worked out.

stealle · Dec 23, 2016

FlashGJ said:
Curious to know if using a filter may help in this situation. Probably not, but has anyone experienced an obstacle avoidance caused by the sun while having a ND filter installed?

ND filter won't help at all. The sensor is not built into the camera. The sensor are those two things that looks like tiny eyes about the camera. I've also had this problem. I wish they would fix it.

FlashGJ · Dec 23, 2016

stealle said:
ND filter won't help at all. The sensor is not built into the camera. The sensor are those two things that looks like tiny eyes about the camera. I've also had this problem. I wish they would fix it.

I'm an idiot, I knew the sensors are separate from the camera, should have thought about it more before posting my question.

stealle · Dec 23, 2016

It's all good. It's a little early in the day. Have another cup of coffee.

jamgabbi · Dec 23, 2016

Graves14 said:
This also happens to me quite frequently, as I fly after work when the sun is very low on the horizon.

I've had a few instances where I couldn't fly directly back to the home point. I had to fly sideways to avoid the sun.

I'm quite concerned if RTH was engaged... would it try to fly over the obstruction (the sun in this case!) ??

same with mine i flew backwards after a small panic maybe the next time i will disable the front sensors when facing the sun

stealle · Dec 23, 2016

If you have object avoidance enabled it will probably go to its max height you have in the settings, hover until low battery and then land. I think it would be best for you to just turn off the sensors or fly in sport mode.

Ender · Dec 23, 2016

If you want your toy back reliably set a high RTH Altitude and disable forward OA.

Enough reports of Mavics NOT coming back when facing towards the low sun when trying to get home...

Ender

curso88 · Jan 9, 2017

Same problem

Jamnjt · Feb 17, 2017

Yesterday I had the same problem, would not come home into the setting sun from a small mountain at 300 feet no matter what I did. I climbed to my max altitude 400 feet and could clearly see there were no obstacles but it would show an obstacle 4 feet and stop. In RTH it climbed to almost 700 feet and eased it's way home into the sun stopping several times. I was a little nervous but it did it's job and came home. I'll be paying a little more attention to that in the future.

Jr. Stafford · Feb 17, 2017

Graves14 said:
This also happens to me quite frequently, as I fly after work when the sun is very low on the horizon.

I've had a few instances where I couldn't fly directly back to the home point. I had to fly sideways to avoid the sun.

I'm quite concerned if RTH was engaged... would it try to fly over the obstruction (the sun in this case!) ??

I guarantee it will!!!

Litchi locked me out, crashed!

Didn't know what caused the crash until later, hence the title. It was not Litchi, it was OA. Later we found that it tried to fly 'over the sun'. After a few weeks of back and forth, DJI was awesome and replaced it with a new one.