Mavic pro 2 learning curve

[Chris Sailor]

Good afternoon, first of all thank you all for your support yesterday. I have been flying today from the boat while underway and I was under the impression that having the drone near the boat "controller" it was all ok but the drone is set to go to it's max distance setting from take off point so I just went to home point settings to enable the drone to carry on following the boat by setting current aircraft position as a home point which is a pain, so I tried to set the other option that it must be the controller but apparently it is the screen in my case an iPhone 8 which gives an alarm "mobile device gps signal weak". I am now stuck trying to understand what should I do next or if I missing an accessory to enable the drone to follow me "controller" and enjoy sailing shots while underway. I am used to do a lot of cool stuff while at anchor but underway just starting ;-.) looking for any advise tanks in advance. attached two screen shots.

 

[apeel]

This seems to be a common problem, at least with iOS devices. Not sure why DJI has not fixed it. Not sure if this is also an issue with Android devices.

 

[Chris Sailor]

I believe that I need to keep setting current aircraft position as RTH not cool ;-(

 

[cuge]

I also tried to use that with my Iphone 7 Plus and got the message "mobile device gps signal weak".

DJI GO 4 v 4.3.32
iOS v 13.3.1

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Can't you open up the maximum flight distance to infinity in settings ?
Like the M1P.

It might be set default to max 5000m or whatever, you can usually turn max distance off at least and it won't have a boundary in distance.
In beginners mode it will, but that should obviously be turned off too.

It would be good to have an option for home point to continuously be the controller, unfortunately due to the aircraft GPS being the home point locator, you can only update it manually where the aircraft is at that time.

The GPS signal thing is strange, you should have really good signal out on the water, and I don't think it'll be the case.
My old Lifeproof case had no bearing on GPS signal, and I imagine other plastic cases wouldn't.

To be honest I would turn off RTH option (set it to hover) if you are going to be far from the coast . . . off a ship RTH is going to be over water anyway.
You are going to lose it if things get that bad anyway, might as well have it close so you can try and get to it, or keep it close so you can reconnect in that circumstance, and then fly to you.
You won't be able to control failsafe RTH, but I'd be aiming to land at sea with at least 30 - 40% battery, keep it within say 400m or so, fly LOW, and only when wind will not interfere with good flight capability.

Looking at your screen shot, I would activate the attitude indicator display, and learn how that shows you wind problems.

 

[Meta4]

I believe that I need to keep setting current aircraft position as RTH not cool ;-(

It really makes no difference if you are flying from a moving boat anyway.
If you could reset the home point to the controller's location, that is just the current location of the controller - not any future location.
It does not continually update to follow the controller.
Since the boat is moving, any updated homepoint would be almost immediately out of date so you may as well use the aircraft's current location.
I do fly from moving boats and use either because it makes no practical difference.

You aren't resetting the home point to somewhere you want the drone to land, you are resetting it to prevent the drone returning to the launch point when it calculates it has only enough battery left for that return flight.
By updating a few times during the flight, the drone is not going to think it is miles away from home and needs to return.

Can't you open up the maximum flight distance to infinity in settings ?

See above.
The problem is the distance from home point and the drone wanting to RTH when it calculates battery is only enough for that return flight.
Changing or removing the limit won't stop that.

The GPS signal thing is strange, you should have really good signal out on the water, and I don't think it'll be the case.

"Weak GPS Signal" is DJI-speak for No GPS Signal.
There's no problem with GPS out at sea.
There is a problem using this feature with Apple devices.

 

[old man mavic]

the biggest issue is the fact that as a moving boat you are never going to be able to set up a home point, as you will always be somewhere different you could go out to the side of the boat and with the camera pointing at the boat fly sideways with the boat and the wind it is always going to be difficult to keep the camera pointing at the boat and then there is the issue of landing ,good luck trying to work it out and please don't loose your mav in the ocean

 

[Dbracela]

The only way I’ve been able to get past the “gps signal weak” warning on my iOS devices is to exit the DJI app (leave it running in the background) and open Apple maps then quickly re-enter the DJI app without shutting down Apple maps. Weird, but it works for me 90% of the time.

 

[Meta4]

with the camera pointing at the boat fly sideways with the boat and the wind it is always going to be difficult to keep the camera pointing at the boat.

That's a bit confused.
There's never any problem pointing the camera wherever you want to.
But you are correct that landing on a moving boat can be tricky.
Until you've tried it, you can't imagine how much more difficult it is than what you are used to on land.
Having an assistant can be very helpful.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

The problem is the distance from home point and the drone wanting to RTH when it calculates battery is only enough for that return flight.
Changing or removing the limit won't stop that.

Set RTH option to hover then is the best the OP can do ?
Failsafe low battery, I've never tried or had this happen, but would it also hover, or attempt RTH to original (or reset) home point ?

 

[Meta4]

Set RTH option to hover then is the best the OP can do ?
Failsafe low battery, I've never tried or had this happen, but would it also hover, or attempt RTH to original (or reset) home point ?

Failsafe RTH is what happens on loss of signal (unless you change the default loss of signal action)
Loss of signal is very unlikely at sea unless you fly far, far away.
It's Low Battery RTH that is a potential problem, unless the home point is reset a few times during the flight to keep the saved home point close enough that Low Battery RTH doesn't send the drone off into the distance.

Because of potential problems in retrieving the drone from a moving vessel, it's good practice to bring it in well before getting anywhere near low battery level.
It often takes a few attempts to bring it in correctly so you need a comfortable reserve.
Out there, it only takes one mistake to leave you with one less drone.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

It's Low Battery RTH that is a potential problem, unless the home point is reset a few times during the flight to keep the saved home point close enough that Low Battery RTH doesn't send the drone off into the distance.

True, what I was asking a bit more specifically . . .

If you have RTH option set to hover, would a failsafe RTH situation see the drone hover, or attempt RTH to a home point ?

Obviously both wouldn't be good at sea, and a RTH hover at critical battery levels would only give you a minimal time to get closer to land or catch your drone, but it would be far better than having it attempt a RTH to home point.

Agree !
Landing at sea would be an ideal place to aim to land with that 30 - 40% battery, to cover any issues that may crop up.
Wind would be the major thing to watch I would think, using far more battery if needing to fly into it on some legs.

 

[Meta4]

True, what I was asking a bit more specifically . . .
If you have RTH option set to hover, would a failsafe RTH situation see the drone hover, or attempt RTH to a home point ?
Obviously both wouldn't be good at sea, and a RTH hover at critical battery levels would only give you a minimal time to get closer to land or catch your drone, but it would be far better than having it attempt a RTH to home point.

There are no options that you can set for RTH except the RTH height.
It's actions for Loss of Signal that you can set and Low Battery RTH is not Loss of Signal.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

There are no options that you can set for RTH except the RTH height.
It's actions for Loss of Signal that you can set and Low Battery RTH is not Loss of Signal.

Ah, good to know.
I've never had battery critical warning, the first is enough for me to take some action to fly home.

 

[GadgetGuy]

You aren't resetting the home point to somewhere you want the drone to land, you are resetting it to prevent the drone returning to the launch point when it calculates it has only enough battery left for that return flight.
By updating a few times during the flight, the drone is not going to think it is miles away from home and needs to return.

Why not just turn off the Smart Return-to-Home feature, under battery settings, instead of repeatedly resetting the Home Point? Wouldn't that also solve the problem, since signal loss is not an issue?