Mavic Mini drifting

[Rhys_Cavill]

Good evening guys!
I just received my DJI Mavic Mini the other day, and I charged it, and today was my first time using it. I didn’t get to use it till the very end of the day, because I was working, I also live in an authorisation zone, so I had to wait even longer to download the update to be able to take off the ground. I finally took off, but there was very minimal light to the point I couldn’t see to the bottom of my average sized garden. The drone was only hovering, but seemed to drift to the left (about half a meter every second). I have had a look on other forums & a few people mentioned a lack of GPS could affect this, but I didn’t notice any signs with the lack of GPS, but as I said it was pretty dark (half hour before pitch black), and I was a few metres from the house, so could being close to structures affect this?
sorry, I know I’ve waffled on, but long story short, I want to know if the dark may have affected the drones ability to hover in one spot, or possibly me being close to a building?
If a problem lies with something else, what would you suggest I do to fix this?
Thank you for taking your time to read this

 

[Thomas B]

At low altitudes like 30 feet and less the drone uses visual sensors.

 

[steve_lyt]

did you get something like entering atti mode, this happens with magnetic interference or no gps, and they struggle in low light

 

[Rhys_Cavill]

At low altitudes like 30 feet and less the drone uses visual sensors.

Oh yeah, it was very low. I have a screenshot of the amount of light the camera was receiving. I’ll attach it
Thank you for your reply too!

 

[Thomas B]

If that’s the screenshot inserted at the bottom the drone was likely blind.

 

[Rhys_Cavill]

did you get something like entering atti mode, this happens with magnetic interference or no gps, and they struggle in low light

Not that I can remember, but I’ll try it again tomorrow when there’s better light & see if there’s any difference, but I’ll keep an eye out to see if it does say that!
Thanks for your reply & hell

 

[Rhys_Cavill]

If that’s the screenshot inserted at the bottom the drone was likely blind.

Oh okay, so the darkness is most likely the reason then?

 

[Thomas B]

Oh okay, so the darkness is most likely the reason then?

Likely, only logs would say for sure. Try it when there’s enough light to get an image.

 

[Meta4]

I want to know if the dark may have affected the drones ability to hover in one spot, or possibly me being close to a building?

The app has a black box data recorder.
Rather than guessing with no-one knowing what really happened, why don't you look at the recorded flight data to find actual answers?

Go to DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help
Follow the instructions there to upload your flight record from your phone or tablet.
That will give you a detailed report of the flight.
Come back and post a link to the report it gives you.

 

[EyesWideShut]

Oh okay, so the darkness is most likely the reason then?

Yes. In addition to using the GPS to give a rough position, the downward camera sensor fine tunes the mini's position but needs adequate light. This info is in the downloadable pdf manual along with a wealth of other good stuff. Enjoy!

 

[Dave Maine]

Light, or lack there of should only make a minimal difference. Position accuracy is a gps function and is completely independent of light. Any vision sensor inputs are used mostly to avoid hitting things.

 

[EyesWideShut]

Light, or lack there of should only make a minimal difference. Position accuracy is a gps function and is completely independent of light. Any vision sensor inputs are used mostly to avoid hitting things.

Hi Dave, the OP is talking about a Mavic Mini. Here's a screen shot of the mini's manual, page 15. The downward camera is used along with the sensing system when gps is not available so the mini's downward camera needs sufficient light. Without gps and light it goes int ATTI mode.

 

[Dave Maine]

Yes, that is exactly my point. GPS, when available is used. Troubleshooting when position is not properly maintained should start by verifying the functionality of the GPS system