Low battery landings.

[Kilboar]

How do you guys have your drones defaulted to for low battery warming and back to home?

I’ve got my Mavic pro to warn me at 20% and I’ll start wrapping it up and getting it landed but the it’ll start beeping at you and just before I get it landed It’ll try to take over and fly up to RTH altitude and then come back down to land itself. Get a little sketchy if you brought it in under a tree for shade to land it and Then it try’s to go back up to 50 feet

I cancel it and will continue to land it but it’s kind of messed up IMO.

How do you guys treat this?

 

[neggy]

warning at 30, RTH at 20.

I rarely fly to the point of getting a warning as I tend to keep it close to me when I am flying.

I am checking battery status as I fly, as I am using almost 4 year old Mavic Pro batteries so they could be problematic at any moment

 

[WJbdB]

Why not set the low batt. warning to a higher value, giving you some more time before RTH? Panicking in the final phase of flight is to be avoided.

 

[MA2 317]

Get a little sketchy if you brought it in under a tree for shade to land it and Then it try’s to go back up to 50 feet

Ha Ha, I just crashed my Spark last week in my backyard.

I was doing low level flights around stuff in my yard and I guess I didn't mash the cancel button fast enough and up into the tree it went where it got stuck.

I laughed and went to get a ladder, when I got back, the wind blown it out of the tree and to the ground. That's when it got damaged.

Busted 1 prop guard and popped the camera apart.

The little Spark still fly's fine and the camera works, but the gimbal is broke so I'll try my repairs soon on replacing the gimbal.

PLUS ONE FOR THE PROP GUARDS ! ?

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

The setting for low and critical battery are only warnings.
You only really get use from them when close, failsafe RTH happens when the drones little computer says when it thinks it’s time.
As an example, if you are at distance, that might be at 40% or even higher.
You can set those purely to allow you to land with say the generally recommended 20-25% battery to keep those in good health long term.

 

[hiflyer201]

MA2 317" data-source="post: 1260392" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch">

Ha Ha, I just crashed my Spark last week in my backyard.

Darn! sorry to hear that. You're the man! keep us advised on your self repair.

 

[Kilboar]

MA2 317" data-source="post: 1260392" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch">

Ha Ha, I just crashed my Spark last week in my backyard.

I was doing low level flights around stuff in my yard and I guess I didn't mash the cancel button fast enough and up into the tree it went where it got stuck.

I laughed and went to get a ladder, when I got back, the wind blown it out of the tree and to the ground. That's when it got damaged.

Busted 1 prop guard and popped the camera apart.

The little Spark still fly's fine and the camera works, but the gimbal is broke so I'll try my repairs soon on replacing the gimbal.

PLUS ONE FOR THE PROP GUARDS ! [emoji106]

That sucks. So it can happen.

 

[old man mavic]

@Kilboar first warning at 40% so have plenty of time to get down for a safe landing,in case there is something or someone preventing the drone from landing straight away

 

[Kilboar]

I understand the fail safes on the drone. I was just in a little park playing with some of the intelligent flight modes with a new battery so I was ok with running it low. I was just concerned if it had enough battery left to fly up to RTH altitude and get back down.

With that said I notice it gives you a flight time for the drones battery rather than a %. Is that new from an update or did I hit something on the controller to change it?

 

[Kilboar]

@Kilboar first warning at 40% so have plenty of time to get down for a safe landing,in case there is something or someone preventing the drone from landing straight away

I had it at 20% so maybe that’s why it quickly caught me out.

 

[old man mavic]

@Kilboar just remember the low battery warning is just that ,it has no bearing on the drone doing a return to home when it thinks that there is only enough battery to make it back ,its very easy when you are having a great flight and getting some good video, and just enjoying the flying regardless of how far from the home point you happen to be, to get caught up in the moment, and then its great when the first battery warning kicks in, and you have time to react and come home safely

 

[Kilboar]

@Kilboar just remember the low battery warning is just that ,it has no bearing on the drone doing a return to home when it thinks that there is only enough battery to make it back ,its very easy when you are having a great flight and getting some good video, and just enjoying the flying regardless of how far from the home point you happen to be, to get caught up in the moment, and then its great when the first battery warning kicks in, and you have time to react and come home safely

Yeah. I’m going to move the warning back up to 30%.

Thank you much.

 

[cgmaxed]

I lower my warning levels to their minimum, because I don't use the warnings. I look at the battery values myself and have tested what battery levels will get me to what distance depending on the wind conditions around my drones. This way I am able to determine when and where it needs to be, for a safe return and landing.. I never fly under trees or anything for that matter, if I think the RTH may kick in, which it has on occasion, but I'm always ready to press the cancel button or pilot the drone out from underneath something at low bat levels. I've also flown several drones for up to 3 minutes at 0% battery while they are trying to force land themselves. I pull the altitude stick to up, even though it may not go up, but at least it won't descend any further. I always try to land in open areas near myself when this happens. Never had one run out of power totally and crash land. Most of these events occurred when I wasn't as experienced. Now I just make sure I fly home with plenty of power so these types of situations do not occur. I always consider wind direction before I take off when calculating how much battery power I can expend , coming and or going. I determine the amount of power needed relative to wind direction by seeing how fast the drone goes away from me as compared to how fast it goes coming toward me. I actually do a fly forward and fly backward maneuver before leaving my home point area. I can determine how much headwind I will have versus tailwind in either direction. Keep you drone and ground areas safe, just make sure you have more than enough power to land without an automated function being initiated. I'm not perfect, I still mess up sometimes, but I try my best.

 

[Bootworks]

This time of year, every year, the goats return to the Arroyo Mocho in Livermore to perform some fire prevention. The shepherd moves them up the dry creek periodically, along with the electrified mesh fences and the 12v truck batteries that energize them.

It's a Kodak moment, many including myself flock to the event.

A week ago I was flying 'Hawk', my M A 2, when the dreaded 'Low Battery Emergency Landing' message announced Judgement Day had arrived: I would never admit having lost visual contact for a moment, panicking while attemting to regain control and return the bird home, only to watch in horror the image on my smart controller: A puff of dust kicked up by the props upon landing, a riverbed of rock Mavic-gray and a hundred goats bleating their mockery.

Then came the task of finding 'Hawk' in this sea of gray, first having to negotiate the electric fence

 

[cgmaxed]

This time of year, every year, the goats return to the Arroyo Mocho in Livermore to perform some fire prevention. The shepherd moves them up the dry creek periodically, along with the electrified mesh fences and the 12v truck batteries that energize them.

It's a Kodak moment, many including myself flock to the event.

A week ago I was flying 'Hawk', my M A 2, when the dreaded 'Low Battery Emergency Landing' message announced Judgement Day had arrived: I would never admit having lost visual contact for a moment, panicking while attemting to regain control and return the bird home, only to watch in horror the image on my smart controller: A puff of dust kicked up by the props upon landing, a riverbed of rock Mavic-gray and a hundred goats bleating their mockery.

Then came the task of finding 'Hawk' in this sea of gray, first having to negotiate the electric fence

bummer

 

[old man mavic]

@cgmaxed with regards to the low battery warning ,i was not advocating that you should just wait till it happens ,but its a good thing to have set ,for the one time it can save your drone, although mine is set at 40% i am usually on the ground before it is due to go off,because i cant predict when i might be able to fly again , after a days session ,mostly because of unpredictable weather here in the UK i like to have around 40% left in my batteries ,which saves me having to top them up even after several days of inactivity ,and then i can charge them before i go out to fly again,my multi chargers for both my drones ,will charge 4 batteries plus the RC in around an hour, so i can still be out nice and early for a full days flying with both my drones if conditions are right, this method has served me well for several years ,and its really up to individual flyers how they go about it

 

[Ken-Mav-Mtl]

I rarely allow my MM2 to reach a low battery level where the drone decides to land itself.

Before starting a flight, I generally check the failsafe procedure for loss of signal or low battery on the MM2.

Yesterday I faced a low battery warning, "Low battery. Return to home promptly".
I was within 35 meters at 3.0 meters height and 20% battery. So no need to panic.

Next warning is "Low battery. Aircraft will return to home after countdown."

Once the 10 second countdown is over, "Low battery. Returning to home". (still had 18%)

So the MM2 landed, no stress as all my flying was close and at low altitude.

One reason I got the MM2 was due to the fact that large cities usually have controlled class "C" airspace, and anything over 250g needs permission to fly.

So the MM2 gets a lot of use and the M2Z doesn't go up very often.

Which led me to fire up the M2Z once I cleared Class C airspace.

If others who own the MM2 as well as larger drones such as the M2Z, and find that they don't use the M2Z very often, it's a good idea to make a thorough review of all flight parameters before sending the M2Z up after a few weeks of not flying it.

This is especially important if an update to the firmware has taken place, as it may automatically reset some key parameters. such as RTH settings.

The MM2 and the M2Z have different menus for an event such as a loss of signal.

The MM2 allows the pilot to RTH, hover or land.

I looked on the M2Z and could not find a similar option.

Maybe I missed something, since I was looking for a menu where I could instruct the drone to RTH in case of loss of signal.

Is there a similar menu to make sure that lost signal defaults to automatic RTH?

I have read page 15 of the M2Z user manual and it seems as though the RTH will give the option to automatically RTH along its original flight path.

There is Smart RTH (Pilot taps "home" button)
There is Low Battery RTH (automatic RTH initiated by a/c when battery reaches set point)
There is Failsafe RTH (automatic RTH on loss of signal).

What is Emergency RTH and how it is different from Failsafe RTH?
(this term is only found in the tables on page 16-17).

 

[cgmaxed]

@cgmaxed with regards to the low battery warning ,i was not advocating that you should just wait till it happens ,but its a good thing to have set ,for the one time it can save your drone, although mine is set at 40% i am usually on the ground before it is due to go off,because i cant predict when i might be able to fly again , after a days session ,mostly because of unpredictable weather here in the UK i like to have around 40% left in my batteries ,which saves me having to top them up even after several days of inactivity ,and then i can charge them before i go out to fly again,my multi chargers for both my drones ,will charge 4 batteries plus the RC in around an hour, so i can still be out nice and early for a full days flying with both my drones if conditions are right, this method has served me well for several years ,and its really up to individual flyers how they go about it

Agreed. For me, I can't use warning settings, because they give me a false sense of security. So, I monitor things manually. Example: I actually got more car speeding tickets when I had a radar detector, than when I didn't.

 

[netfolks2000]

Low battery or not I am not going to fly under trees unless I'm really close to the drone. I've tried to fly down to check our pond level after a heavy rain a time or two and when I get low under the trees the signal gets bad. If I were to lose signal and RTH kick in it would go right into the canopy of a tree. It is just so much safer when not UNDER something, especially at longer distances.