Flying without the phone

[ed48]

Im currently exploring options to use mavic mini as a selfie drone for skiing and mountain biking. The fastest way to use the drone is to fly just with the controller. Connecting the phone takes time, with phone connected its not very pocketable, and to be honest not much use of the phone in winter with gloves and bright sunshine.

Id like to understand what is happening with the drone when its flying just with the controller, as I cannot find much information about this.
1. Whats going to happen if controller lost a connection? will it return to home? I cannot find the settting to hover in case if communication is broken.
2. If you press return to home button on the controller what it going to do? as I dont think it updates the home point without the phone.
3. Is it still using the gps and sensors to help hovering stability?

I shot small video with by bike to practice before I go to the mountains skiing. It work just fine, also I have difficilties to see if it shooting the video or not as there is no display or any other visual signals to help with that.

Regards
Ed

 

[new2mavic]

1. Whats going to happen if controller lost a connection? will it return to home? I cannot find the settting to hover in case if communication is broken.

Yes. It will go home.

2. If you press return to home button on the controller what it going to do? as I dont think it updates the home point without the phone.

The home point is recorded by the drone automatically. The phone is not required

3. Is it still using the gps and sensors to help hovering stability?

Yes

 

[Airbeaver]

1. Whats going to happen if controller lost a connection? will it return to home? I cannot find the settting to hover in case if communication is broken.

Yes. It will go home.

2. If you press return to home button on the controller what it going to do? as I dont think it updates the home point without the phone.

The home point is recorded by the drone automatically. The phone is not required

3. Is it still using the gps and sensors to help hovering stability?

Yes

Interesting question, how is the RTH altitude determined when no phone / tablet is connected? Would it just be the last one used when something was connected or the factory default?

 

[EyesWideShut]

Interesting question, how is the RTH altitude determined when no phone / tablet is connected? Would it just be the last one used when something was connected or the factory default?

I believe the mini has a default RTH altitude of 15 meters/45 feet at startup and that is why you should set the altitude for each flight's environment. If that is the case then when flying without a display, you are stuck with a RTH of 15m/45ft from your take off point, keeping in mind that during RTH if you regain connection you can adjust your altitude, speed and yaw with your sticks and of course cancel RTH if needed. You can change everything except RTH direction if you have FC to AC reception.

 

[ed48]

Thanks for all reply. I decided to experiment with that and what I did today is went to back backyard and tested how this works. I connected the phone first to make sure that it updated the home point just in case. Then disconnected the phone and flown away from how far I could in the back yard - about 15 meters.
1. If you press return to home, it will just land
2. I switched off the controller completely while drone being in the air. and drone started to land again.

Thats the observations if anyone interested.

Regards
Ed

 

[subcon959]

1. If you press return to home, it will just land
2. I switched off the controller completely while drone being in the air. and drone started to land again.

Does that mean that if the controller died during flight the drone would land wherever it is rather than fly back to the last known home point?

 

[DanMan32]

The Mini as of yet does not have the means to change the fail-safe setting, so if controller connection is lost, it will only go to RTH mode.

If you don't have the app connected, your flight height and distance will be limited. I forget what the actual limit is, but I'm sure it's in the manual. It will fly normal limits if the phone/app loses connection during flight.

The AC landed rather than actually returning to home point because you were within 60ft of home point. RTH info is in the manual.

Other than distance limits, the AC will fly normally including setting home point but you'll be blind to its status. It can often take several minutes before the AC is fully locked on GPS and ready to fly so if you take off before GPS lock, your HP might not be at your takeoff position. Your only clue is the status LED at the back of the AC.

Also note that the AC date/time will be set to when you last connected with the app. Even video file date may be wrong. Also no user accessible logs/flight record since that's recorded on the phone.

 

[EyesWideShut]

A note of caution: Another thing to consider when skiing or mountain biking, as the mini establishes Home Point and RTH altitude (15 meters/45 feet) where and when it has GPS lock after takeoff, your HP may be far up the mountain from where you now are when it goes into RTH. It will then climb way up to 15 m above the original takeoff level and that might put it up hundreds of feet that you have descended while shooting into some very heavy blow away winds. Also I'm guessing you might experience loss of signal and tripping RTH while biking thru trees which could block direct LOS.

 

[ed48]

Just tested the mavic mini out of the field, sent it to maximum distance it allowed, about 50m (Im using CE here in Europe). Pressing RTH button sends the drone up to altutude (it felt like higher than 15m) and drone moves back to the HP. Same hapennning if I switch the controller off.

Thats good point about loosing the signal, also MM does not have "hover" option which can be dangerous of flying in the frees, it will hit the branches for sure.
I wonder if you put the phone back into controller will it get more range on the fly

 

[Thomas B]

Interesting question, how is the RTH altitude determined when no phone / tablet is connected? Would it just be the last one used when something was connected or the factory default?

These settings are in the drone not any controlling device.
Answer to last question is yes.