Low altitude limit

[UAV Ernst]

My nephew moved into our area a few months ago and purchased a new home. I volunteered to create a little 360 panorama so that family and friends can better visualize where he and his family now make their new home.

For some reason, I kept getting a warning that my Mini 4 Pro had reached its maximum altitude limit at only 24 metres. Take off was allowed, no restrictions warnings, and it is not in any kind of a geo zone. Yikes, what gives?

I had flown closer to home the day before and the day after, no problems going to 120 metres both times.

Has anyone experienced a similar very low altitude limit? I’d be very grateful for any insights!

Kind regards from Vancouver Island

 

[Jafo28]

I've only seen this when my RC2/fly app wasn't signed in. Not sure if that was the case for you.

 

[Felix le Chat]

I've only seen this when my RC2/fly app wasn't signed in. Not sure if that was the case for you.

Concur. Check that you're signed in to your DJI account then try again. Either that or check to see if the property is in a temporary altitude restricted zone.

 

[UAV Ernst]

Jafo28 et Felix le Chat, merci beaucoup mes amis, it may indeed be the case that I didn’t sign in to my account. It was definitely not a restricted zone.

Thanks so much for taking the time to respond,
Ernst

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

The height limit when not logged in is 30m isn't it ?
Is there an air corridor above the house ?

 

[UAV Ernst]

The height limit when not logged in is 30m isn't it ?
Is there an air corridor above the house ?

Thanks, Yorkshire Pud, but no restrictions over the house according to the DJI maps or that of Nav Canada both of which are sometimes at odds with one another.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Thanks, Yorkshire Pud, but no restrictions over the house according to the DJI maps or that of Nav Canada both of which are sometimes at odds with one another.

What does the flight log show as the height limit when over the house ? I assume that you will not post the log since it would be giving the address.

 

[akdrone]

Is it possible that you had set that in your settings?

 

[offtheback]

My nephew moved into our area a few months ago and purchased a new home. I volunteered to create a little 360 panorama so that family and friends can better visualize where he and his family now make their new home.

For some reason, I kept getting a warning that my Mini 4 Pro had reached its maximum altitude limit at only 24 metres. Take off was allowed, no restrictions warnings, and it is not in any kind of a geo zone. Yikes, what gives?

I had flown closer to home the day before and the day after, no problems going to 120 metres both times.

Has anyone experienced a similar very low altitude limit? I’d be very grateful for any insights!

Kind regards from Vancouver Island

I've had altitude limits("Height is restricted to 16 ft (5 m) when the GPS signal is weak and Infrared Sensing System is operating.)when GPS is poor on the Mavic 2.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

I've had altitude limits("Height is restricted to 16 ft (5 m) when the GPS signal is weak and Infrared Sensing System is operating.)when GPS is poor on the Mavic 2.

That's a different "kettle of fish" altogether.

 

[offtheback]

That's a different "kettle of fish" altogether.

Part of DJI's "Idiot proof"safety protocol.I don't take it personally.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Part of DJI's "Idiot proof"safety protocol.I don't take it personally.

The problem is, the idiots will always find other ways to .........

 

[LoudThunder]

My nephew moved into our area a few months ago and purchased a new home. I volunteered to create a little 360 panorama so that family and friends can better visualize where he and his family now make their new home.

When you work out all your other issues, shoot that "360 panorama" (also called a Globe or Photosphere…) and then publish in on Google Maps and Google Earth…

And then when they let friends and family know about the new house, they can send the Google Link… the link can be scrolled all around and even zoomed into…

Google Maps

LoudThunder signing off…

 

[offtheback]

The problem is, the idiots will always find other ways to .........

We do

 

[UAV Ernst]

Is it possible that you had set that in your settings?

Gosh, Alaska, what a rookie mistake. I just double-checked and indeed, it had somehow re-set from the usual 120 metres down to 25! And yet, I did a flight the day before and the day after where I flew well above 25 metres. Lesson learned if it happens again.

 

[UAV Ernst]

When you work out all your other issues, shoot that "360 panorama" (also called a Globe or Photosphere…) and then publish in on Google Maps and Google Earth…

And then when they let friends and family know about the new house, they can send the Google Link… the link can be scrolled all around and even zoomed into…

Google Maps

LoudThunder signing off…

Thanks, LoudThunder. I enjoy making these 360 panos—here is a recent example posted on Kuula of our little town's waterfront: Panorama of Comox BC Waterfront Taken on May 20th, 2024 and another from my own neighbourhood: Comox, October 28th, 2022 with Filberg Park in the foreground.

 

[UAV Ernst]

When you work out all your other issues, shoot that "360 panorama" (also called a Globe or Photosphere…) and then publish in on Google Maps and Google Earth…

And then when they let friends and family know about the new house, they can send the Google Link… the link can be scrolled all around and even zoomed into…

Google Maps

LoudThunder signing off…

BTW, nice pano by you in your area, LoudThunder. I must learn more about posting these on Google Earth!

Thanks again,
Ernst

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Gosh, Alaska, what a rookie mistake. I just double-checked and indeed, it had somehow re-set from the usual 120 metres down to 25!

That is one of the problems with these slider button that are used in the fly app, the other is the resolution with which you can set the desired height, they adjust incrementally, not continuously.

And yet, I did a flight the day before before and the day after where I flew well above 25 metres. Lesson learned if it happens again.

How did you arrive at the conclusion that you somehow accidentally changed the height limit ..... twice ?
Once I can understand but I find twice to be difficult to believe, especially if the height was returned to an older setting, that would be too big a coincidence in my book.

If you are going by values in the logs, then I suspect the house is under an air corridor. An air corridor over the take off point will, in the log, cause the user set maximum height to appear as being reduced, once beyond the wall of the corridor the user set max height will revert to the real value.
Was the set RTH height higher than the maximum height ?
This has been seen in the logs of a troubled flight and is impossible IF the user has changed the Max height setting but does happen when an air corridor reduces the max height.

Have a look at RTH altitude above max - nearly lost my quad. unfortunately the the logs in that thread are no longer 'alive' so I can not show them but it is a good read although possib;y a bit heavy going.

 

[UAV Ernst]

That is one of the problems with these slider button that are used in the fly app, the other is the resolution with which you can set the desired height, they adjust incrementally, not continuously.

How did you arrive at the conclusion that you somehow accidentally changed the height limit ..... twice ?
Once I can understand but I find twice to be difficult to believe, especially if the height was returned to an older setting, that would be too big a coincidence in my book.

If you are going by values in the logs, then I suspect the house is under an air corridor. An air corridor over the take off point will, in the log, cause the user set maximum height to appear as being reduced, once beyond the wall of the corridor the user set max height will revert to the real value.
Was the set RTH height higher than the maximum height ?
This has been seen in the logs of a troubled flight and is impossible IF the user has changed the Max height setting but does happen when an air corridor reduces the max height.

Have a look at RTH altitude above max - nearly lost my quad. unfortunately the the logs in that thread are no longer 'alive' so I can not show them but it is a good read although possib;y a bit heavy going.

Thanks, Yorkshire Pud, I did not change any settings. I flew successfully the day before the 24 metre limit popped up, and then again two days later, both times at higher altitudes. I only checked my Max Altitude and RTH settings this morning. Yes, max altitude was set at 25 metres which I then reset to 120.

Yes, that thread that you pointed out can show how dangerous it is to set RTH higher than max altitude, thanks for that link!

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Yes, that thread that you pointed out can show how dangerous it is to set RTH higher than max altitude, thanks for that link!

Sorry but I think you are misunderstanding both my post and more importantly that thread.

With regards to the thread, the drone launched under an air corridor. The floor of that air corridor was at 196.9ft, 60m, AGL.
This is the height shown at the start of the log of that flight, in the "HOME.heightLimit [ft]" column.
The pilot had previously set a height limit of 213.3ft, 65m, in the app.
As soon as the drone flew out from underneath that corridor the log switched from showing the height limit as 196.9ft to 213.3ft, why? Because the latter was the height that the pilot had set.
It was the presence of the air corridor that reduced the max height shown in the log, that reduced height was also applied to the drone, and in so doing this prevented the drone from climbing through the floor of the air corridor.

An aside.
RTH height CAN NOT be set higher than the user set maximum height, the app simply will not allow that.
I wrote about that in post 2 of that thread.
I had previously experimented with sending the drone up to 'height' with the RTH height being set to near the maximum height setting. I then reduced the maximum height setting in the app, to below the drone's current height, and the drone was forced downwards to comply with the new setting. The RTH height was also reduced such that it was equal to the new maximum height setting.

Getting back to that thread.
The RTH height shown in the log, in the column HOME.goHomeHeight [ft], was constant the whole way through the log, at 213.3ft.
The drone was flown out to sea, beyond the air corridor, and eventually an RTH was triggered whilst the drone, a mini 3 pro, was still well away from the air corridor. The drone climbed to the set RTH height of 213.3ft and flew towards home.
It ran into the side wall of the corridor and got 'stuck' there (pilot error ?).
It ran out of battery and entered a forced landing but once the drone was below the floor of the corridor the pilot was able to move it towards the home point and safety.

Since it is impossible to set the RTH height higher than the user set maximum height setting, the fact that the RTH height was shown, at the start of that log, as higher than the user set maximum height showed the presence of an air corridor.

With regards to your flight.
If you did not change the height settings then something else did, the only thing that I know of that can do that is the floor of a restriction-zone/air-corridor but others might know of other things that can.

If you happened to have had the RTH height set to more than 24m then I am suggesting you should check the values shown in the columns "HOME.goHomeHeight [ft]" & "HOME.heightLimit [ft]" in the Phantomhelp CSV of the flight log and, at the start of the log, see whether or not the former is higher than the latter.
If so then I think there is some form of restriction zone above the house.

Alternatively you might be able to PM the .txt flight log to me and I will have a look.

Oh, forgot, Suren's flight and log in that thread demonstrates that some drones now have programming that makes them descend to fly under an air corridor if that corridor would otherwise block the RTH path.