In flight CSC shut down, possible?

[PascalG]

I ve been thinking about possible crash causes whether Mini 2 or others and wonder if it is possible to accidentally shut down the motors in flight. I lost an Anafi (my previous drone before the Mini 2) when it suddenly fell out of the sky for no obvious reasons.

I was recording a friend in a Lyft eFoil (electric foiling board) and was possibly panning right while moving left and backing out. This would be pretty close to the shut down command and all it would take is pulling the left stick down a bit.

I wonder why the software doesn’t alert the user before it actually shut down the motors in flight. It just feel like when shooting sports or any action, you could shut down your motors...

Or am I over thinking this?

 

[slup]

The DJI Fly app have 2 settings regarding the CSC for stopping the motors ...

Emergency only (default)
Any time

If set on default something critical need to be ongoing ... a crash or out of the limit craft movements, otherwise the CSC will not work.

 

[Meta4]

I ve been thinking about possible crash causes whether Mini 2 or others and wonder if it is possible to accidentally shut down the motors in flight.

It's possible to CSC in flight.
But it's not likely to happen accidentally.
You are never going to have your joysticks in that position in normal flight.
And if you fly in a way that you could accidentally CSC, you were going to crash pretty soon anyway.

 

[Meta4]

The DJI Fly app have 2 settings regarding the CSC for stopping the motors ...

Emergency only (default)
Any time

I've never seen anything from DJI to explain what "emergency only" means and how it would work.
Do you have any ideas on that?

 

[slup]

I've never seen anything from DJI to explain what "emergency only" means and how it would work.
Do you have any ideas on that?

Nothing definitive... only vaguely mentioning "flyaway" together with "crashes".

The only clear difference between the 2 settings, coming from pilots that tried it out, seems to be that with Anytime CSC stops the motors in flight... but with the setting on Emergency it don't (... as they didn't try to crash the AC ).

 

[Meta4]

Nothing definitive... only vaguely mentioning "flyaway" together with "crashes".

The only clear difference between the 2 settings, coming from pilots that tried it out, seems to be that with Anytime CSC stops the motors in flight... but with the setting on Emergency it don't (... as they didn't try to crash the AC ).

The obvious question is:
What constitutes an emergency and how could the drone tell?
What could be normal flight in most circumstances could be an emergency in others?

 

[slup]

The obvious question is:
What constitutes an emergency and how could the drone tell?
What could be normal flight in most circumstances could be an emergency in others?

Yep ... you could hope that DJI knows, but I doubt it.

With experience from working in a big global Mining equipment manufacturing company with a lot of different departments, Design & development, Software/Firmware development & Technical documentation ... these 3 rarely agree on how thing's work. It's mostly the guys in field, the Service Engineers that knows how thing's actually operate.

If just going to my own MA1 & compare how thing's work by my own experience & how the manual state it ... it's several bigger deviations.

The fancy function coming in with the newer Mavic's that allows the AC using Sport tilts in normal mode if fighting a head wind ... yeah, my MA1 have that function also, well documented from several logs, but nothing is mentioned in the manual.

The CSC command to stop the motors ... yep, according to the manual, it's a clear yes, doing it shall stop the motors weather on ground or airborne. The problem is that it's not working if airborne, have tried it several times & as soon the log reports "in air" the CSC don't work.

 

[gremlin16]

I always wondered (but obviously can't test it) if it has to be a sudden and deliberate movement of the sticks to the positions, or say if you went to descend whilst spiralling right, gradually moving the sticks to that position, would it think its a CSC request?

 

[teeroy]

I always wondered (but obviously can't test it) if it has to be a sudden and deliberate movement of the sticks to the positions, or say if you went to descend whilst spiralling right, gradually moving the sticks to that position, would it think its a CSC request?

there are a few videos of guys trying the CSC command, it takes a few seconds of holding both controls in the position before the AC follows the CSC command. I imagine it is to prevent accidental initiation.

 

[PascalG]

Thanks for the tip on advanced safety page... glad it a emergency only which hopefully wil avoid accidental shutdown.
They are possible when shooting action videos

 

[Meta4]

Thanks for the tip on advanced safety page... glad it a emergency only which hopefully wil avoid accidental shutdown.
They are possible when shooting action videos

In over 6 years of flying and reading forums, I haven't ever heard of any accidental CSC in normal flying.
It just doesn't happen.

 

[PascalG]

Maybe because when the drone falls out of the sky everybody assumes it was a failure of some kind. That’s what I did until I started thinking about the shot I was getting.

 

[Meta4]

Maybe because when the drone falls out of the sky everybody assumes it was a failure of some kind. That’s what I did until I started thinking about the shot I was getting.

No .. a crash due to CSC would show clearly in the flight data.

If you think you could accidentally put your sticks in the CSC position during a flight, think about what you would have to be doing with the drone.
You would have it flying backwards and sideways at full speed at the same time it was also descending and spiraling at full speed.
Anyone who flies like that is going to crash quite soon anyway.
Accidental CSC just doesn't happen.

 

[PascalG]

You are right that the CSC should show up in the flight log but I have shot many clips of people tubing, foiling or riding a jet ski. Backward, sideways, panning while descending is not usual

 

[Meta4]

You are right that the CSC should show up in the flight log but I have shot many clips of people tubing, foiling or riding a jet ski. Backward, sideways, panning while descending is not usual

But not at full stick.
You aren't corkscrewing downwards at full speed while also flying backwards-sideways at full speed.
Despite the concerns of inexperienced flyers, it's just not something you need to worry about.
It just isn't happening.

 

[PascalG]

Well I ve been flying drones since the P2 so i am a little above inexperienced level. As mentioned I do a lot of watersports video when on the boat here in the Bahamas and it often requires some pretty wild moves to keep up and get interesting footage... and quite a bit of editing.

 

[Meta4]

As mentioned I do a lot of watersports video when on the boat here in the Bahamas and it often requires some pretty wild moves to keep up and get interesting footage..

And how many times have you accidentally CSCd while making those wild moves?

 

[PascalG]

I m pretty sure once with an Anafi. I recovered the drone from 10’ of water and saved the footage but never checked the log thinking it was a malfunction. Who knows.

 

[Ronny St.]

I was reading this topic, but cannot figure out what CSC stands for... It would be nice if someone would make a post regarding all abbreviations used here

 

[teeroy]

Combination stick command.