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Mavic "commuting" between two RCs: would this work?

Capra Vecinului

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Let's assume the following situation, as an example:

Friend A and friend B, living approx 8 km one from each other (so beyond the Mavic's standard 7 km RC range). They share the same Mavic, which is already paired to two RCs. One RC is at friend A's home; the other one at friend B.
Would it be possible for friend A to send a pack of cigarettes to friend B via the drone, so that when the signal of his RC is getting weaker, the one from friend B would take over, land, take the pack of cigarettes, exchange/recharge the battery and send the drone back to friend A with a chocolate bar?

Question: What would happen to the Mavic if, for example, the connection of the main RC ( let's assume the friend A has it) will get interrupted (either due to distance, interference etc); but the secondary RC (at friend B) is still reachable, as it is within the Mavic's range? Will the Mavic try to return home, or will it continue the flight?

Has anyone with two RCs tried a situation like the above?
 
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Are you somewhat a undocumented pharmacist? JK ;)
This is very interesting to find out, I'm sure there's someone out there w/ 2 RC and will try this, so let's standby.


In case it's possible, I know exactly the best soundtrack for it....
 
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I think it's possible. According to the manual, as long as the master is not providing any control stick inputs, the slave controller will be able to fly it. One question I would have is if both controllers need to be linked before the flight begins, and recognized as slave master. Friend "B" will not be linked to the A/C until it gets in range of his controller, but if the master has lost signal, Im not sure if the slave would be able to control it.

If both A and B were together at startup, then both A and B would be linked to the drone. If B were to drive away until his signal starts dropping off, then A launched the A/C, B would have control input as soon as A released the sticks. If B were in range, he could control it.

If A lost his signal, I think it would trigger a RTH, so my guess would be that both controllers would need to be in range of the A/C at all times.

Reminds me of the old "buddy box" days in RC where 2 transmitters were tethered together with a buddy cord, and the master had to hold down a switch to let the slave fly it. These days, its all 2.4ghz, no more buddy boxes.
 
But I thought that once paired, you do not have to re-pair them every time you decide to fly with two RCs (or every time you turn on the drone); isn't this so?

Later edit, from the latest manual, page 38:"In dual remote controller mode, the slave remote controller must be relinked to the aircraft when the master remote controller has been relinked to the aircraft"
 
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Assuming, the 1st RC already paired w/ the MP w/c should consider to be the Master.
Then, w/ out turning ON the 1st RC, you paired (if possible) a 2nd RC to MP.
Technically you gonna have 2 master RC (again,if possible).
If this is all possible the the OP scenario would probably be possible.
Definitely Maybe?
 
Well, maybe someone did; but he just doesn't know that we have a topic about it and curiously waiting for an answer :)
 
This works...have tested
 
Both controllers need to be connected at the same time in the beginning....then you can distance the remotes.. i did this test not for distance but rather to contr the mavic around a rock ledge where i would have lost signal. It created continous shot. My partner then sent the mavic back to me and I took over
 
So, according to the test done by wetalkUAV here, the pairing stays after drone shutdown and the remotes do not need to be re-paired or re-defined (as primary & secondary); which brings us one step further to this being possible.
 
I have now tested all scenarios.
Locally there are virtually no limits other than the secondary cannot change to sport mode while the primary is connected.
When the primary is turned off the secondary act just like primary.
Where it gets odd is at range.
When you go miles away the remote location cannot gain connection while the other remote still has connection but if the home location looses connection or is turned off the remote location can connect and take over. I think the controllers cannot simultaneously connect if they cannot directly communicate with each other but i dont know for sure what the factor is that stops them from connecting at the same time at distance. But the handoff does work if you turn off the controller. This did not even trigger a RTH.
 
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Wow, thanks a lot for testing this for me/us! This helps me a lot in deciding whether to buy a second remote or not.
The only thing that worries me is that handover only with turing off the main RC; doesn'n sound like I would dare to do it on a regular basis, so to speak.
 
Interesting, maybe you could even go out of range of the main RC using waypoint mode, and have the other catch it back?

One thing to be careful of is that I'd expect any findings done here to be suspect to change at anytime with firmware upgrades. DJI most likely isn't considering those scenarios, so when doing other changes they won't test or care if the behavior in these scenarios has changed as a side effect of other changes in logic, I.e. you should verify it yourself after each upgrade.
 
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I'm betting DJI has ongoing conversations with Gov. entities about very such things. Drones are not new and this scenario is certainly not either. I suspect limited weight carrying capacity has kept this aspect as a non issue but things are changing sooo quickly.
 
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Wow, thanks a lot for testing this for me/us! This helps me a lot in deciding whether to buy a second remote or not.
The only thing that worries me is that handover only with turing off the main RC; doesn'n sound like I would dare to do it on a regular basis, so to speak.

I think the handoff is about as safe as a out of range connection loss RTH and regaining it after returning part way home. I wouldn't recommend doing it further than its ability to return to its original landing.
Although due mainly to wind reasons and hover time learning that the takeoff controller has to be shut down, it would not have made the trip back in my case.
 
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Interesting, maybe you could even go out of range of the main RC using waypoint mode, and have the other catch it back?

One thing to be careful of is that I'd expect any findings done here to be suspect to change at anytime with firmware upgrades. DJI most likely isn't considering those scenarios, so when doing other changes they won't test or care if the behavior in these scenarios has changed as a side effect of other changes in logic, I.e. you should verify it yourself after each upgrade.

I think this will be my next test, but I have not even done a waypoint mission yet.
 
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