Mavic Air indoor flyaway

[Astro]

Hi guys,
I had a strange incident with my MA while getting in some practice flying and experimenting with settings on the drone in a school hall. Being indoors it was in visual mode only so no GPS and I couldn't even calibrate the compass (no surprise). I had great control and response until I had it slowly moving towards the front curtain on the stage. It suddenly seemed not to detect the obstacle and ignored me releasing both sticks. Fortunately, running into the curtains didn't cause any damage. I changed the battery and went back to my experiments. Everything returned to normal and then about 8 mins later it did the same thing, straight into the curtains. I've never seen it not stop when releasing the control sticks outside. Any thoughts? Thanks.

 

[darrrius]

Wondering why you were doing this testing indoors?

 

[DanMan32]

If you have the room, they do well with VPS. A potential problem though is with GPS cutting in and out.
Be sure you don't have magnetic interference, particularly on launch. That will mess up flight in VPS as well as GPS.

 

[PhantomFandom]

Hi guys,
I had a strange incident with my MA while getting in some practice flying and experimenting with settings on the drone in a school hall. Being indoors it was in visual mode only so no GPS and I couldn't even calibrate the compass (no surprise). I had great control and response until I had it slowly moving towards the front curtain on the stage. It suddenly seemed not to detect the obstacle and ignored me releasing both sticks. Fortunately, running into the curtains didn't cause any damage. I changed the battery and went back to my experiments. Everything returned to normal and then about 8 mins later it did the same thing, straight into the curtains. I've never seen it not stop when releasing the control sticks outside. Any thoughts? Thanks.

Your flight logs would probably help a great deal to figure out what is going on.

If the space is totally enclosed then it is true that you will not have GPS and that would need to fly carefully. The way you are describing it, perhaps the VPS is losing contact with the ground at some point? Are there steps? A stage? Very reflective surfaces?

Also just because you are flying indoors, it does not mean that you should be having compass issues. If the drone is telling you that there is magnetic interference then you should not be flying there.

 

[Deleted member 94047]

I've never seen it not stop when releasing the control sticks outside.

It wasn't outside. It has no position lock. You can't expect vision positioning to be as precise as GPS positioning. But your post brinhs to mind one question, how does the PAUSE button fare in such circumstances? Does it stop the AC dead on its tracks or does the AC keep its momentum even after one hits the pause button? Does anyone have experience with this?

 

[DanMan32]

Actually I've experienced my M2 work comparably in VPS than GPS. It's definitely better than my P3. Granted it can't do anything that requires absolute position such as RTH.

 

[Mossiback]

... I've never seen it not stop when releasing the control sticks outside. Any thoughts? Thanks.

While in Atti mode you need to provide the braking. Without GPS it does not know if it is moving. VPS may help if there is a recognizable pattern on the floor, but that depends on proper lighting and a unique floor to fix on.

... how does the PAUSE button fare in such circumstances? Does it stop the AC dead on its tracks or does the AC keep its momentum even after one hits the pause button? Does anyone have experience with this?

I have not tested it but without GPS the Mavic does not know if it is moving, so it would not know that it should stop.

 

[vail]

If I read that correctly, you flew it indoors toward the curtain and hoped that letting go of the sticks would cause it to brake and hold its position? I have never flown a DJI drone indoors, but I seem to remember that without GPS you'd need to manually reverse the drone to brake because without GPS it will not hold its position like it does outside.

 

[dawgpilot]

If I read that correctly, you flew it indoors toward the curtain and hoped that letting go of the sticks would cause it to brake and hold its position? I have never flown a DJI drone indoors, but I seem to remember that without GPS you'd need to manually reverse the drone to brake because without GPS it will not hold its position like it does outside.

If the visual sensors are working, it will hold position and there isn't a need to manually brake. Seems like OP's drone lost the visual lock and defaulted back to ATTI mode though.

 

[DanMan32]

That's a possibility, though VPS is pretty good on M2.

 

[Ralph thompson]

VPS needs texture to maintain position. A school hall floor may not provide sufficient contrast in which case the Mavic will just keep moving in the same direction until u apply opposite stick. It takes a lot of practice and attention to fly on confined indoor spaces.

 

[friocapital]

With low Light the vps dont work, AND you go to atti mode, thats the beavior you describe, some old school droners, calle the real way to fly!!. In Argentina un the Pilot exam, you must Performa an 8 un atti mode .

 

[hiflyer201]

Some of the stuff I'm reading is not true..I have large windows and my Spark locks on and off all the time. That has no effect on the way it fly's,(I use only my phone in the house) but according to the manual if the ground surface is very similar you will have a problem. The obstacle avoidance system is both a savior and a pain why flying in the house. It should have stopped approaching the curtains.
That being said..my Mavic Air has plowed into my house twice in the very same spot while landing under my semi open patio roof. I'm thinking the bottom sensors on the Air leave a little to be desired over the Spark.

 

[Astro]

Hi guys, you are all fantastic and I've learned a lot from the comments above. A few answers:
I was flying indoors out of convenience, it was at night and the building is in an airport no fly zone. The flight logs recorded little, but It was flying in Atti mode at times and got some warnings about low light levels. Also the floor is pretty featureless.

 

[hiflyer201]

I think you are right on about the light level. I had forgotten about what a big difference that makes. Still it's confusing about why it flew straight into the curtains. It didn't hit them sideways by chance did it? I'm sure the curtains are pretty featureless and a large area at that. It couldn't have been in sport mode could it? I've done that a time or two.

 

[DanMan32]

Low light would defeat VPS, but in two areas I flew in that were basically grey floors, it did well. It seems to pick up even subtle floor variations much like an optical mouse does.
My P3 was a different story.

 

[M8len]

We do a ton of flying Indoors for practice and during tactical missions. Your fly away was a very common problem back when we were using the spark for indoor work. It would literally fly full speed in a straight line until it came to a sudden stop (crashed). We finally figured out that it seems to happen for two reasons: First there is not enough ambient light for the VPS to work but it tries really hard and ends up sending you into a wall or when we were flying in a mall after hours we had the same problem but there was plenty if light. We figured maybe because the floor was very smooth and shiny with light reflecting off of them the VPS couldn't pick up any differences in terrain to lock onto.

So with the purchase of the mavic air it has definately improved ans we dont find that happening as much but if you are going to fly inside I would recomend putting 1 or 2 small lights facing the ground to assist the sensor (firehouse tech. Are my choice). The mavic air flies great indoors. Just takes a little pracrice....

Good luck!!!!

 

[WithTheBirds]

Assume you need to fly the drone with no smart assistance (if it manages to stop/hold position when you let go of the sticks its a bonus). You will develop better skills as a result. You could have easily managed to avoid flying into the curtain. There is no fault with the tech suggested here. It’s a known limitation.