DJI Mavic, Air and Mini Drones
Friendly, Helpful & Knowledgeable Community
Join Us Now

Increasing Drone Tilt Angle for Faster P-Mode Flying

Conservative Nihilist

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 9, 2020
Messages
415
Reactions
303
Age
39
Location
Down the dirt road a ways.
I'm currently awaiting the postage arrival of a Mavic Air 1 drone I bought on eBay, that is intended to be used for the sole purpose of flying Litchi waypoint missions, most of which will be flown beyond the signal range of the controller because such beyond-signal-range flying is permissible in my Third World backwater.

Looking at the specifications of the Mavic Air 1, I note that in P-Mode (GPS mode) the maximum speed listed in the spec sheet is 17.9 mph, which is attainable when the drone is tilted into the maximum GPS mode nose-down attitude of 25 degrees, In Sport Mode, the maximum speed a Mavic Air1 can attain is listed as 42.5 mph when the drone is tilted into a nose-down attitude of 35 degrees.

Since fully autonomous Litchi waypoint missions are the ONLY type of drone flying I ever do, I intend to use my newly arrived Mavic Air 1 in the P-Mode exclusively, and never in the Sport Mode, since Litchi only works with the drone set to its GPS mode. Hoping to squeeze some extra round trip distance out of the drone on those planned Litchi missions, I am seeking a way to increase the drone's maximum speed in P-mode from 17.9 mph to say 25 mph, by increasing the maximum nose-down attitude in P mode from 25 degrees to say 30 degrees, without making any changes to the nose down attitude in sports mode since that won't be needed.

My intention is to use either DJI Go4 or NLD to increase that nose-down attitude for P mode only from 25 to 30 degrees, so as to boost the P mode speed from 17.9 mph to 25 mph or thereabouts, in the hopes of thereby increasing the round trip distance covered during Litchi waypoint missions that I typically set up to last until the drone's flight battery drops down to 20% charge capacity. Since obstacle avoidance is not recommended for Litchi waypoint missions flown well above the treetops, I'll always disengage that feature and so won't be concerned about exceeding the 17.9 maximum speed above which obstacle avoidance evidently cannot function as intended.

My question to the more seasoned Mavic Air 1 pilots here is whether the planned adjustment of the drone's maximum speed nose-down angle from 25 to 30 degrees could wind up having any negative effect on the overall performance of the drone when used for waypoint flights at 150 to 200 feet AGL. In other words, I remain just a little bit apprehensive about tinkering with the maximum nose-down angle and airspeed attainable in P mode, when I consider the possibility that there might be a reason relating to aerodynamics that DJI limited the Mavic Air 1's maximum P mode speed to just 17.9 mph. Any thoughts on this subject that can be shared would be appreciated by this new Mavic Air 1 owner.


Much thanks in advance and blue skies to you all.
 
It is my recollection that flat out in P mode is generally considered to be the best compromise for distance and battery life.
The greater the angle of tilt, the faster the props have to turn to provide the necessary vertical component of thrust to carry the drone's weight i.e. maintain height.
I would be inclined to experiment before you make any desicion, the likes of Drone Hacks is, I beleive, the way to modify the firmware.
Remember that the amount of battery required to return home varies with distance, relying on a fixed percentage would be risk.
Ditto trying to squeeze the last few feet of distance-travelled out of a battery is risky and bear in mind the direction of the wind for the return journey.
 
It is my recollection that flat out in P mode is generally considered to be the best compromise for distance and battery life.
The greater the angle of tilt, the faster the props have to turn to provide the necessary vertical component of thrust to carry the drone's weight i.e. maintain height.
I would be inclined to experiment before you make any desicion, the likes of Drone Hacks is, I beleive, the way to modify the firmware.
Remember that the amount of battery required to return home varies with distance, relying on a fixed percentage would be risk.
Ditto trying to squeeze the last few feet of distance-travelled out of a battery is risky and bear in mind the direction of the wind for the return journey.
1660020135225.jpeg

The graph copied here was originally produced by high school students and was published some time ago in the Mavic Pro 1 forum. That graph's findings agree with your expectation that the greatest round-trip distance of travel should theoretically be covered at the maximum speed of the drone in P mode.

Inspired by this graph I ran a number of tests flying my Mavic Pro 1 while varying the speed of each mission incrementally between 17.9 mph and 30 mph for each test flight. I expected to see the maximum achievable round-trip distance covered increase linearly with increasing speed, as suggested by this graph, but instead, low-battery smart RTH kicked in sooner during each flight as the assigned speed was increased, sending the drone in a bee-line vector for home without completing its intended flight path.

The upshot of my flight tests was that my Mavic Pro1 did not appreciably improve its existing round-trip distance record of 6.1 miles, regardless of how fast it flew above the speed of 17.9 mph at which I'd flown all along mostly because that speed is assigned as the default setting by Litchi. With a new-to-me Mavic Air 1 inbound with the post, I'm curious to see whether the same speed versus distance tests will yield different results than the Mavic Pro1 whose performance at greater speeds was decidedly underwhelming.

Your wise cautions about flying a drone too far downrange, and about the fickle nature of winds aloft are well taken. Recently my Phantom 3 Standard made a controlled landing into the undergrowth of a tree plantation within earshot of its home point. It was only located and retrieved a day later, surprisingly undamaged by its ordeal. That crash landing occurred at the tail end of a low-battery RTH that abbreviated a Litchi waypoint test flight I set up to travel an overly ambitious 8 miles, round-trip.

1660020432660.jpeg
 

Attachments

  • Mavic Efficiency.jpg
    Mavic Efficiency.jpg
    103.7 KB · Views: 9
Last edited:
I am seeking a way to increase the drone's maximum speed in P-mode from 17.9 mph to say 25 mph, by increasing the maximum nose-down attitude in P mode from 25 degrees to say 30 degrees
You probably would increase speed and max distance doing that with the original Air.
But you'd only need to increase the tilt angle to 25°.
Compare the specs of the Air with other models and you see it's a very slow drone in P mode and the difference between P Mode and Sport Mode speeds is very large (18 mph vs 42 mph).
The reason is that the Air has a P Mode tilt angle of only 15°, not 25° like most other DJI drones.
Pushing that to 25° would likely give more speed and maximum distance per battery.
 
I can't wait to experiment with steeper nose-down attitudes when my newly purchased Mavic Air1 finally shows up in the post. I did notice that the maximum speed of the Mavic Air 1 in P mode is less than half the full speed in Sport Mode, which got me wondering whether that huge variation in maximum speed between P mode and S mode exists due to an obscure aerodynamic peculiarity of the Mavic Air 1, or whether it is instead the obstacle avoidance's drone speed limitation that calls for that very modest maximum speed in P mode.


I'll update this discussion topic with my speed test findings when the time comes for sure.
 
Looking forward to reading about your findings. The MA1 is indeed very slow in P mode, barely faster than the Spark. Disabling collision avoidance should help though, will have to try.
 
Yo get the oldest version, and change the javascript file, all yo have to do is take out the 2 // and the you can get into debug mode and change the parameters.
Im trying to do the same thing on my Air2 but the firmware is yet to be hacked **** it, But i did get my mavic 1 pro up to 60mph at a tilt of 55degrees, and I got it up to 1.5km high and 1km distance, just as a test. In a NFZ. cool hacks. NLD.
 
I've "solved" lowering the Sport speed.
It's not possibile speed up the P mode.
 
Lycus Tech Mavic Air 3 Case

DJI Drone Deals

New Threads

Forum statistics

Threads
130,583
Messages
1,554,088
Members
159,588
Latest member
gfusato