Land anywhere else then "home" possible?

[Rekal007]

I'd like to take a flight and then land in a friend's yard.
You can put the camera down and then aim where it should land, click "land"
While lowering she will lose the signal at a certain height and stop the landing, and will come home automatically.
Is there any way to land her even if the signal drops out and turn off the engines without wanting to come home?

 

[Jordaneer]

change the lose signal behavior

 

[Rekal007]

I was already thinking about that possibility. I will test that tomorrow.
Obviously I only have to change that at the last minute if I am 100% sure that I have enough space to land.
Because it will land there, with or without me

 

[dawgpilot]

You should probably consider the safety of intentionally trying to land your drone out of range of your controller. Pretty sure that is outside VLOS regulations too.

 

[Jordaneer]

You should probably consider the safety of intentionally trying to land your drone out of range of your controller. Pretty sure that is outside VLOS regulations too.

belgium may have different rules than the US on VLOS

 

[Zbip57]

Is there any way to land her even if the signal drops out and turn off the engines without wanting to come home?

 

[Zbip57]

That aborts if the signal is lost to the RC.

Exactly. Which is why you need to watch to the end of that video, or the three previous videos in that series.

 

[Lets Fly]

Excellent tutorial, now fix that prop.

 

[Zbip57]

Excellent tutorial, now fix that prop.

That was my first flight on the new v01.00.0500 firmware and my first time getting that Motor Speed warning. I replaced the left-rear prop right away. I have subsequently also replaced the right-rear and left-front. Only the right-front is now still original.

We had long (and heated) discussions about this issue over on the DJI forum. Actual data plots from flightlogs confirm there is a difference in Motor Speeds between old props and fresh props in hands-off hover tests. See pages 5 and 6 in this thread. [Guide] How to check for prop wear.

 

[Rekal007]

this is perfect,
tested a few days ago and had it set the failsafe to "DESCEND", when I turned the controller OFF it did desend, but it kept hovering above ground (it won't land untill battery is way low)
If you first select "LAND" an then set failsafe to "DESCEND", it will land when you turn the controller off. (or loses signal)
I will test this later today...

update:
I just got back, I just wanted to test this.
I'm running IOS fly app 1.1.3 (released today)
flown to a spot and put the RTH to "Descend".
then clicked on "land" and turned the controller off.
1m above the ground it continues to hoover, so it does NOT land.
Tried twice.
after 20sec and not landing, turned the controller back on and get this question

the guy on the video has a DJI mavic MINI not a AIR2, apparently there is difference in how it reacts.
So i'm back to zero :-(

 

[Zbip57]

I did three earlier videos on this back in December to demonstrate that it was impossible to ensure the Mavic Mini would actually land successfully in a remote ditching location, as any potential loss-of-signal would always trigger RTH. All other DJI drones provide a user choice between RTH, Descend, or Hover, but the Mini would only ever RTH. Pressing the RTH button on the app gives an option of Land or RTH. It seemed reasonable to assume that choosing Land would actually make it land, but it won't if signal is lost on the way down.

I posted these demonstrations on the DJI Forum and sent an email to DJI. Their tech support promised to raise the issue to the next level for consideration. That resulted in changes in the Fly App v1.0.8 which introduced the option of selecting the Failsafe response between RTH, Descend, or Hover.

This 4th video was a test to see if v1.0.8 fixed the issue. Well, the Land option alone is still not enough, because a loss-of-signal will still trigger a Failsafe response. But, if you've switched that Failsafe setting to Descend, at least you know if will continue to descend and try to land.

However, as you've seen for yourself, and as seen in the first of my four videos (Mavic Mini - Forced Landing Tests - YouTube), there still is no way to override the Mini's "Landing Protection". The Mavic Mini's vision system detects whether or not the chosen landing site is "suitable". If the Mini doesn't like what it sees, it'll just hover and wait for further instructions. And, if you've already lost your signal connection, there's no way to give it any further instructions. So it'll hover there until the battery runs down. Brilliant, huh?

Here's how Landing Protection is described in the User Manual on pages 14 and 38.

 

[Rekal007]

Thank for this input @Zbip57 !
It was a bit dark (sensors stopped working) so I will try again tomorrow if there is more light during the day.

so if I understand it correctly you don't even have to activate the landing.
just turn off the controller and it will land. --> if the failsafe is set to Descend
of course if you activate the landing first you can see him landing as far as possible until he loses the signal.
I will let you know tomorrow! and thank you very much for explaining this so well.

 

[Zbip57]

Ideally you would just manually land the thing where ever you please. That way, even if "Landing Protection" kicks in, you can always override that by just holding the throttle stick full down.

The only question is how to ensure the Mini will actually land in the spot you've chosen, if for whatever reason you lose the control signal on the way down.

If the default Failsafe setting is RTH, then 11 seconds after loss of signal the Mini will start climbing to its RTH height and start heading Home. If instead you've changed the Failsafe setting to Descend, then the Mini will continue to descend even if it loses control signal. However, it may yet decide it doesn't like the look of the landing spot and it'll instead hover there without actually touching down.

It seems the only way to get around that automatic "Landing Protection" is to make absolutely certain beforehand that you very carefully select a "suitable" landing site in which to ditch your Mini.

I do not fully understand how the Mini determines what is or isn't suitable. In my previous test videos I didn't want it landing in the snow, so I set out a couple of plywood boards. It landed fine on the clean plywood. But it wasn't happy landing on the board with the oil stains and red paint. Sometimes it was okay with that, other times not.

 

[Rekal007]

today I was able to test it (despite the wind)
If you set the failsafe to "DESCEND" and you turn off the controller (so the signal drops) it will indeed descend (dhuu) and land.
But pay attention: only if there is enough light, so not if it is too dark for the sensors, in that case it will hover 1m above the ground