Lost MA2, questions for the pros here

[Meta4]

Did the number of satellites decrease after takeoff

The number of sats in the sky won't have decreased appreciably during the flight.
But the amount of sky visible to the drone's GPS antenna was cut drastically as the drone descended into the narrow canyon.
This reduced the number of sats visible to the drone.

 

[Deleted member 114292]

Yet another good reason to have Atti mode.
Would’ve been easy with An M2.

 

[Capt KO]

Sorry for your loss, sucks. But, Thank you for posting. Believe you have saved much heartache in the future. Probably mine

 

[Mario McFly]

Thats good to know, sorry for your lost.

 

[lostit]

I think it's this guy Man + River

Finds DJI drones in similar situations. At least I know why now, thank you for the heads up.

 

[CallmeDash]

I think this guy experienced OPs situation

Would Atti mode have really helped him out if it was at all possible to enable this mode?

 

[DanMan32]

Generally altitude for flight is determined by barometer, not GPS. If within VPS range, then that height is used, but that doesn't reset the barometer.
At least that's been my experience with P3 and M2. As a matter of fact, in Go app when in VPS range, both altitudes are displayed.

I would think that if barometer based altitude which is relative to TO altitude is significantly lower (negative) than VPS altitude, barometer altitude would prevail in determining altitude limit.

 

[Meta4]

Would Atti mode have really helped him out if it was at all possible to enable this mode?

No it wouldn't have helped, he was already in atti/Opti mode anyway.
What was needed is a way to disable the VPS sensors.
See post #2

He still had no idea and none of his guesses were even close to correct.

 

[Dronebow]

I totally agree. IRRC this has also been an issue if the UAS is descending and "sees" fog/moisture under it. It determines that it has detected Terra Firma and will create a new ground ZERO and NOT allow ascent or descent.

Sloppy programming and something I would have thought they would have resolved by now. Maybe whatever the original intention is for this portion of the programming is more worthy than the problems it's causing.

Wow.. I had not heard of this issue that it will create a new ground zero. Does it post a message to the app stating that the new ground zero has been set or something? This is terrible programming and makes very little sense to me.

 

[bzmot]

So in a Mavic 2 would enabling the sport mode have turned off the vps? It does disable obstacle avoidance, would the vps have shut down too?

 

[Meta4]

So in a Mavic 2 would enabling the sport mode have turned off the vps? It does disable obstacle avoidance, would the vps have shut down too?

In a Mavic 2 you can directly disable sensors in the app settings.

 

[Otisangb]

So in a Mavic 2 would enabling the sport mode have turned off the vps? It does disable obstacle avoidance, would the vps have shut down too?

In sports mode fwd, backward, lateral, and top sensors are disabled. The downward vps sensor is a separate item that can be disabled in go4. Though I am sure the mavic 2 behaves the same way as the ma2 in atti mode / loss of gps. I would have to check the manual.