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Landing Pad Homing Capability

toddlaroche

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Does the Mavic Air 2 have the capability to “lock in” on a landing pad? I saw a video of a guy using a drone (not sure which one) that homes in on a logo-stamped landing pad for perfect landings right on the pad every time. Very cool.
 
It is the take off area in general that is "locked in" PROVIDING that the drone ascends 7m on take off without any horizontal movement. P15 of v1.4 manual
Anything that helps make the take off point identifiable helps.
 
I fire mine up on the pad after she says home point updated I go straight up about 20 feet and hover for a couple seconds and every time I've tried the RTH it lands right on the pad. I don't use the RTH much , just on occasion to make sure it is working though. Have to give it a "target" to see though. Whenever I land it on the bed cover on my truck (all flat black) it doesnt even want to land, I have to agree and do a forced landing.

IMG_4470.JPG
 
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Does the Mavic Air 2 have the capability to “lock in” on a landing pad? I saw a video of a guy using a drone (not sure which one) that homes in on a logo-stamped landing pad for perfect landings right on the pad every time. Very cool.
It can lock on to the launch point regardless of whether there is a landing pad or not.
 
There are 2 landing modes standard & precision. Standard is the default and will land back to home point within GPS error so it can be about 0-3m.
you can engage precision landing which used GPS and the bottom sensors to give a very accurate repeatable landing accuracy. Give it take 10cm or so.
To engage you need a landing spot that has enough contrast for sensors to register. Retail Landing pads are perfect. Fields of grass are not so good but you will still get decent results just not as accurate.

ok so the key is when you take off you ascend 7m(21ft) without any side inputs. Just go straight up nothing else. This allows the drone to survey the landing spot properly.
It works awesome.
 
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ok so the key is when you take off you ascend 7m(21ft) without any side inputs. Just go straight up nothing else. This allows the drone to survey the landing spot properly.
It works awesome.
I am at a loss on the actual correct sequence as I have only been doing Precision landings myself for a short time around 8 months, but have been following for several years on various platforms on many threads. I was taught and practice the assent slowly to a height not to exceed the above postings.

There is some questions as to pause a few times on that rise which I will do on occasion. The aircraft has been said to take a few pictures for storage and will use them to steer down. I get a onscreen flash message that states when Precision landing is taking place on landing sequence at least on a SC, so I assume this is at least a Go4 (Can't speak for Fly App) thing. As it is hard to say what DJI has invested on it's aircraft beyond what I fly, but as said no input other than up in the slightest or it will cancel the taking of ground shots as above.

I will include a maiden flight of my M2Z (Fast forward to near end at 8:30) I took off from a simple floor mat, you can see it steer in and nail the landing. The M2A is much newer and should be equipped with the same if not more tech. Note that my aircraft did not come out of the box with PL, it was added with firmware later. (This flight was a RTH for the tail end of flight so all automated)

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I am at a loss on the actual correct sequence as I have only been doing Precision landings myself for a short time around 8 months, but have been following for several years on various platforms on many threads. I was taught and practice the assent slowly to a height not to exceed the above postings.

There is some questions as to pause a few times on that rise which I will do on occasion. The aircraft has been said to take a few pictures for storage and will use them to steer down. I get a onscreen flash message that states when Precision landing is taking place on landing sequence at least on a SC, so I assume this is at least a Go4 (Can't speak for Fly App) thing. As it is hard to say what DJI has invested on it's aircraft beyond what I fly, but as said no input other than up in the slightest or it will cancel the taking of ground shots as above.

I will include a maiden flight of my M2Z (Fast forward to near end at 8:30) I took off from a simple floor mat, you can see it steer in and nail the landing. The M2A is much newer and should be equipped with the same if not more tech. Note that my aircraft did not come out of the box with PL, it was added with firmware later. (This flight was a RTH for the tail end of flight so all automated)

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Does that drone have precision landing?

the MA2 has a section in the manual that explains it.

I can’t tell from your post if you are having problems with the MA2 because I only have experience with that drone.
796D85CB-3BA9-45FC-ACF6-959AF8D15AFA.jpeg
I basically go up 7m wait for a tiny bit and go fly. The manual doesn’t say anything about waiting either but I do out of habit.
 
Does that drone have precision landing?

the MA2 has a section in the manual that explains it.

I can’t tell from your post if you are having problems with the MA2 because I only have experience with that drone.
View attachment 123312
I basically go up 7m wait for a tiny bit and go fly. The manual doesn’t say anything about waiting either but I do out of habit.
He indicated he had an M2Z, and that the M2Z didn't have PL on M2 until a later firmware.

M2 didnt have PL at release until added through firmware 6 months later. We were all shocked since the M1 did, and so did the MA1 I believe.

PL only requires ascent vertically 7m, then go your merry way. No need to pause on ascent. M1 requires selecting PL on takeoff (or did DJI remove that?)
 
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He indicated he had an M2Z, and that the M2Z didn't have PL on M2 until a later firmware.

M2 didnt have PL at release until added through firmware 6 months later. We were all shocked since the M1 did, and so did the MA1 I believe.

PL only requires ascent vertically 7m, then go your merry way. No need to pause on ascent. M1 requires selecting PL on takeoff (or did DJI remove that?)

Thanks for information. I really had no idea about PL on other drones.

I’d seen videos of others pausing and stating you needed to pause after 7m . But yes I had my doubts as it wasn’t mentioned. I pause out of habit, it’s like that’s done now for my flight. Mind you I so rarely RTH these days. Just fly on home and land or catch. I can fly home much quicker then the RTH procedure. But I keep the PL in the memory in case of lost connections, or other unforeseen things. It’s too easy a process and fits just part of my take off procedure now. Only caveat would be a really awkward take off site maybe.

I really like the automations in these drones, yet I use them rarely.
 
Ok; so PL is “automatically” engaged with RTH when the correct launch procedure is followed, correct? There is no controller input required to “engage” it? Given this, I would assume hand launches (from about 7 feet AGL) are problematic for the drone to assess the landing area for a precision landing.
 
Ok; so PL is “automatically” engaged with RTH when the correct launch procedure is followed, correct? There is no controller input required to “engage” it? Given this, I would assume hand launches (from about 7 feet AGL) are problematic for the drone to assess the landing area for a precision landing.

Yep, you that’s right as long as launch proved is followed you just hit RTH as per usual. You will notice as it comes to land it adjusts in the last 3m. To me, it uses GPS and if it has a PL stored that kicks in and adapts in the last few metres.
In saying that. How it would then deal with the fact that the hand that launched it (Re hand launching question) is no longer in the picture is your guess. It will have a reasonable accuracy as GPS got it into the vicinity. But unless you can put your hand back exactly at same spot as you launched I think it will just do it’s best. You would have to experiment to know exactly how it goes in that situation.
 
I would assume hand launches (from about 7 feet AGL) are problematic for the drone to assess the landing area for a precision landing.
It shouldn't make any difference (as long as you step back from the launch spot before climbing to 7 metres.
The RTH point only records the horizontal position, not the height.
 

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