M2ED acting very strange indoors today

[JoeDimwit]

I fly indoors and out at work for visual inspections. Today, I wanted to go look at a drain pipe they believe is leaking, no big deal. Put the flood light on for extra light, and took off in tripod mode to go take a look. I needed to go up about 65 feet, and forward of my position by about 100 feet, with clear sight lines. Got the drone up about 20 feet, with about 50 feet of open space still above it, and it refused to climb. When I took my hands off the control sticks to look and see if I wasn’t seeing an obstruction, it started wandering all over the place, and hopped into normal mode. Mind you, the physical switch on the controller was in T. I managed to regain control and land safely, rebooted everything (controller, drone, and iPad we use as a viewfinder) and tried again. Same result. I landed again and put it away, the drone program is too new to sustain a crash just yet.

The thing I’m having trouble with is that I’ve flown this drone indoors before, so I know it works, but this part of the building is very dark, I’m wondering if that was messing with the drone.

 

[brett8883]

I fly indoors and out at work for visual inspections. Today, I wanted to go look at a drain pipe they believe is leaking, no big deal. Put the flood light on for extra light, and took off in tripod mode to go take a look. I needed to go up about 65 feet, and forward of my position by about 100 feet, with clear sight lines. Got the drone up about 20 feet, with about 50 feet of open space still above it, and it refused to climb. When I took my hands off the control sticks to look and see if I wasn’t seeing an obstruction, it started wandering all over the place, and hopped into normal mode. Mind you, the physical switch on the controller was in T. I managed to regain control and land safely, rebooted everything (controller, drone, and iPad we use as a viewfinder) and tried again. Same result. I landed again and put it away, the drone program is too new to sustain a crash just yet.

The thing I’m having trouble with is that I’ve flown this drone indoors before, so I know it works, but this part of the building is very dark, I’m wondering if that was messing with the drone.

Yea when inside and sketchy GPS the drone relies primarily on the vision positioning system. Even with full GPS GPS is only accurate to +/- 1.5 meters and vertically +/- 3 meters so at slow speeds it relies heavily on VPS.

Also if it’s too dark the Obstacle avoidance system won’t work.

You could post a fight log if you want to get the definitive answer. What is kinda strange is it booting you from tripod mode and putting you in normal mode. I would have guessed it might go into Atti mode and then back the tripod but maybe if the vision positioning isn’t working it’s a failsafe since you’d need more power then tripod mode provides possibly to keep it positioned outside. That’s speculation however.

 

[Meta4]

Got the drone up about 20 feet, with about 50 feet of open space still above it, and it refused to climb. When I took my hands off the control sticks to look and see if I wasn’t seeing an obstruction, it started wandering all over the place, and hopped into normal mode. Mind you, the physical switch on the controller was in T. I managed to regain control and land safely, rebooted everything (controller, drone, and iPad we use as a viewfinder) and tried again. Same result. I landed again and put it away, the drone program is too new to sustain a crash just yet.

The thing I’m having trouble with is that I’ve flown this drone indoors before, so I know it works, but this part of the building is very dark, I’m wondering if that was messing with the drone.

You'll find the explanation on p55 of your manual: https://dl.djicdn.com/downloads/Mav.../Mavic_2_Enterprise_Series_User_Manual_EN.pdf
Height is restricted to 16 ft (5 m) when the GPS signal is weak and Downward Vision System is activated.
Height is restricted to 98 ft (30 m) when the GPS signal is weak and Downward Vision System is inactivated.

 

[brett8883]

You'll find the explanation on p55 of your manual: https://dl.djicdn.com/downloads/Mav.../Mavic_2_Enterprise_Series_User_Manual_EN.pdf
Height is restricted to 16 ft (5 m) when the GPS signal is weak and Downward Vision System is activated.
Height is restricted to 98 ft (30 m) when the GPS signal is weak and Downward Vision System is inactivated.

Do you know why it switched to p mode though? I thought it would switch to Opti mode in that situation

 

[JoeDimwit]

Do you know why it switched to p mode though? I thought it would switch to Opti mode in that situation

To be honest, I am not sure what mode it switched to. I was too busy trying to regain control and adjust to an unexpected increase in speed.

 

[JoeDimwit]

Yea when inside and sketchy GPS the drone relies primarily on the vision positioning system. Even with full GPS GPS is only accurate to +/- 1.5 meters and vertically +/- 3 meters so at slow speeds it relies heavily on VPS.

Also if it’s too dark the Obstacle avoidance system won’t work.

You could post a fight log if you want to get the definitive answer. What is kinda strange is it booting you from tripod mode and putting you in normal mode. I would have guessed it might go into Atti mode and then back the tripod but maybe if the vision positioning isn’t working it’s a failsafe since you’d need more power then tripod mode provides possibly to keep it positioned outside. That’s speculation however.

Thanks. Now that I have an understanding for what happened, I can be ready for it if it happens again.