Grab by hand while hovering as a way of landing

[Zbip57]

I only have a very old Phantom, a Phantom 3 Pro, and the Mini-1. I have no experience of, or desire for, a Mavic 3. Nor do I have access to the DroneHack app. So I can't tell you whether that'll work for the Mavic 3 either.

But I have confirmed that Landing Protection can be turned off via the Litchi app for the Mini-1 (which is a DJI Fly drone).

Your mileage may vary, void where prohibited, use at own risk, don't run with scissors, change your underwear often, always listen your mom, etc. etc.

 

[Filmarik]

I only have a very old Phantom, a Phantom 3 Pro, and the Mini-1. I have no experience of, or desire for, a Mavic 3. Nor do I have access to the DroneHack app. So I can't tell you whether that'll work for the Mavic 3 either.

But I have confirmed that Landing Protection can be turned off via the Litchi app for the Mini-1 (which is a DJI Fly drone).

Your mileage may vary, void where prohibited, use at own risk, don't run with scissors, change your underwear often, always listen your mom, etc. etc.

We go round and round here, mixing M3 with other drones, offering Litchi which does not work with M3, hacks which are untested and unproven to work etc etc. The OP must be sick and tired of all of us not being able to give him a simple solution he is after. A few suggestions were offered but without being able to switch off the downward vision sensors protecting the landing, there is not many options left. To sum this up, the only feasible solution it seems is as follows: turn off the OAS before bringing the drone close and slowly over outstretched arm with palm facing up, lower the M3 down into the hand, gently grab it from underneath and hold it steady while keeping the throttle stick down until the motors stop.
That seems to me as the safest way to go about this.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

There is no way to disable Landing Protection via the DJI Fly app.

However, Landing Protection can be toggled on/off via the Litchi app, or through the DroneHack app.

I just posted a video demonstrating this with my Mini-1.

Check this post:
mavicpilots.com/threads/yes-landing-protection-can-be-disabled-but.134162/

Great post and video, I didn't realise Litchi could do that....but I don't use it much.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Grab like this:

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02:10 and 02:43
except the aircraft is hovering steady and no flip overs once grabbed.

How is he seemingly disabling landing protection?

the most important part of what I wanted to know was not shown! That was the LEFT hand on the RC. I had no clue what you were doing with the sticks.

02:10 I'm pretty sure the drone revved like it normally does, but he had the left stick down to 'land' pretty early (as you need to) . . . he actually says he pulled the throttle / power stick down.

02:43 he turns the aircraft on its side before it revs as it senses the 'object' (hand) beneath, and cuts out immediately.

Now, there MIGHT be an option to this . . .

Earlier drones had landing sensors that would only pick up an object from more than X distance away, you could slide your hand in within 3 or 4 inches from the back or side, and it wouldn't fight like it normally would while left stick is held down.
Some testing of this might be worth a shot.

Trouble is do the side / back sensors cause an issue with the M3 ?

I'd still be wary of this obviously in really windy conditions, or on a pitching boat deck !!

 

[journo]

I had to launch from a work vessel and it was very difficult, due to all the metal on this large boat to calibrate the drone. I did not hand launch once I finally calibrated. Once launched, it was a race to get photos of the boat at work before the battery gave out; the drone kept triggering RTH at around 30%, because it thought the home-point was much farther away due to the boat moving constantly forward. And RTH wouldn't work because of the boat movement. I had to keep cancelling the RTH so I could manually land it on the stern, which wasn't working well due to the situation. I hand caught the drone and got a tiny cut on one finger which I bandaged on the spot. The good news for me is that I made the decision to do this job with my Mavic Mini, since the weather was perfect with virtually no wind. It wouldn't have gone well if I had brought my Mavic 3. The safety features wouldn't have let me hand-catch it since I would not have disabled them (I wasn't originally planning to hand-catch) and the props would have done much more damage to my hand. My policy is if hand-catching is a possibility, use the smallest drone possible.

 

[GadgetGuy]

I had to launch from a work vessel and it was very difficult, due to all the metal on this large boat to calibrate the drone. I did not hand launch once I finally calibrated. Once launched, it was a race to get photos of the boat at work before the battery gave out; the drone kept triggering RTH at around 30%, because it thought the home-point was much farther away due to the boat moving constantly forward. And RTH wouldn't work because of the boat movement. I had to keep cancelling the RTH so I could manually land it on the stern, which wasn't working well due to the situation. I hand caught the drone and got a tiny cut on one finger which I bandaged on the spot. The good news for me is that I made the decision to do this job with my Mavic Mini, since the weather was perfect with virtually no wind. It wouldn't have gone well if I had brought my Mavic 3. The safety features wouldn't have let me hand-catch it since I would not have disabled them (I wasn't originally planning to hand-catch) and the props would have done much more damage to my hand. My policy is if hand-catching is a possibility, use the smallest drone possible.

You could have avoided the problematic RTH trigger at around 30% by regularly resetting the Home Point to your current location, as needed.

 

[journo]

I'm not aware of being able to have the home point continuously reset from a moving object.

 

[Filmarik]

I'm not aware of being able to have the home point continuously reset from a moving object.

You would need to do it regularly manually in the FlyApp. It would be rather inconvenient and distracting doing it during flight, I can imagine. So, I am not sure how workable this would be in real life situation. Flying off a boat is very demanding job on its own.

 

[Sir Maxwell Greene]

A question, how accurate is the

You would need to do it regularly manually in the FlyApp. It would be rather inconvenient and distracting doing it during flight, I can imagine. So, I am not sure how workable this would be in real life situation. Flying off a boat is very demanding job on its own.

Would it not make more sense setting the controller as the 'home point'? Sorry i have no experience with this aspect.
If so, how accurate is it?

 

[Filmarik]

A question, how accurate is the

Would it not make more sense setting the controller as the 'home point'? Sorry i have no experience with this aspect.
If so, how accurate is it?

That option is not available at the moment. Which leads me to a question, does RCPro controller have a GPS receptor build in ??

 

[journo]

It would have been impossible to reset the home point manually while trying to fly and photograph. I knew I was under a faster time constraint keeping up with the vessel on the battery life, I didn't know it was going to be quite as fast as it was to burn this battery's time down, and I didn't want to attempt a second flight.

 

[journo]

A question, how accurate is the

Would it not make more sense setting the controller as the 'home point'? Sorry i have no experience with this aspect.
If so, how accurate is it?

I think it sort of was doing that, but it couldn't keep up with the constant change with forward movement.

 

[Sir Maxwell Greene]

That option is not available at the moment. Which leads me to a question, does RCPro controller have a GPS receptor build in ??

Its available to me on the RC, i just have not tested it out.

 

[Filmarik]

Its available to me on the RC, i just have not tested it out.

I think we are talking about two different things. Updating the Home Point manually through FlyApp is available on RCPro also. But what the OP would want and need is "Dynamic Home Point" feature. This feature automatically updates Home Point coordinates periodically and every time the controller's position changes by predermined coordinates value. It is feature available on Inspire 2 via GO4.

 

[GadgetGuy]

A question, how accurate is the

Would it not make more sense setting the controller as the 'home point'? Sorry i have no experience with this aspect.
If so, how accurate is it?

Exactly. It's just a few clicks away at all times. However, you need to keep repeating it, as needed, because it is a static setting to where the RC is, each time you reset it, and not a dynamic tracking setting, like on the Inspire 2 in GO 4.

 

[GadgetGuy]

It would have been impossible to reset the home point manually while trying to fly and photograph. I knew I was under a faster time constraint keeping up with the vessel on the battery life, I didn't know it was going to be quite as fast as it was to burn this battery's time down, and I didn't want to attempt a second flight.

You only need to do it once, when it triggers the Smart Battery RTH at 30% to regain more flight time. You may need to repeat it, but you are already done flying and photographing when it triggers and are in recovery mode, unless you reset the HP to the RC or to the current drone setting, or drag it to somewhere ahead on the map where the vessel will be when you intend to land.

Given your scenario, if you know the route the work vessel will be taking, after launching, you can manually drag the HP on the map to a location in the direction the vessel will be sailing to, so the distance will constantly be declining to the HP, instead of increasing. Essentially, it's a one way "suicide" mission. No return to home necessary.

 

[journo]

You only need to do it once, when it triggers the Smart Battery RTH at 30% to regain more flight time. You may need to repeat it, but you are already done flying and photographing when it triggers and are in recovery mode, unless you reset the HP to the RC or to the current drone setting, or drag it to somewhere ahead on the map where the vessel will be when you intend to land.

Given your scenario, if you know the route the work vessel will be taking, after launching, you can manually drag the HP on the map to a location in the direction the vessel will be sailing to, so the distance will constantly be declining to the HP, instead of increasing. Essentially, it's a one way "suicide" mission. No return to home necessary.

Thanks for the info. It did indeed feel like a suicide mission, but was able to catch the mini, got the shot and changed all 8 propellers (one was broken, others for safety) upon return. I'm glad I didn't try with Mavic 3. That would have been really rough sailing.