Mavic Snow drifting problem

[amandataylorart]

I live in Michigan and I love the footage my drone gets in the winter BUT I have had many problems with the sonars and GPS(at 17 satellites) with my drones movements becoming unpredictable. Its decent when its 50ft up but anything close to the ground and it freaks out. I can stabilize it somewhat when its having a spa but it makes it impossible for getting the shots that I need. I do a lot of forest shots so turning off obstacle avoidance is not an option. It's not me as a pilot because I have over 150 hours of flight time. Is there any fix for this?

 

[Kilrah]

Disable bottom sensors.

 

[Qoncussion]

Disable bottom sensors.

^This^ - the downward VPS sensors need patterns and contrast to work. Snow lacks both of these features.

 

[The Moment Thinker]

I live in Michigan and I love the footage my drone gets in the winter BUT I have had many problems with the sonars and GPS(at 17 satellites) with my drones movements becoming unpredictable. Its decent when its 50ft up but anything close to the ground and it freaks out. I can stabilize it somewhat when its having a spa but it makes it impossible for getting the shots that I need. I do a lot of forest shots so turning off obstacle avoidance is not an option. It's not me as a pilot because I have over 150 hours of flight time. Is there any fix for this?

Try recalibrate the compass everyone you fly. And use precision take off.

 

[Qoncussion]

Try recalibrate the compass everyone you fly. And use precision take off.

Recalibration at each new location is not necessary with the newer tech, and Precision Landing (not takeoff) won't work with just a blank snowy canvas.

 

[The Moment Thinker]

Recalibration at each new location is not necessary with the newer tech, and Precision Landing (not takeoff) won't work with just a blank snowy canvas.

Just by having a “newer tech” doesn’t mean it won’t have problem. When you do auto take off the Mavic takes picture of the ground so when it auto lands it uses the images to land roughly in that take off area. If the take off position have no texture on the ground, every “blank snowy canvas” will be the same to the Mavic.

 

[Qoncussion]

Just by having a “newer tech” doesn’t mean it won’t have problem. When you do auto take off the Mavic takes picture of the ground so when it auto lands it uses the images to land roughly in that take off area. If the take off position have no texture on the ground, every “blank snowy canvas” will be the same to the Mavic.

Yes, and no. Compass calibration is not necessary, but I take your point - as even DJI went back to suggesting that you should always do it. Wouldn't Precision Landing be absolutely useless over snow...? (that's not actually a question)

 

[Dragonfly]

The OPs question has nothing to do with precision landing, it has to do with stable flight as low level.
Above 15meters (30feet) Mavic relys on GPS and barametric altitude to matain height and stability (point in space), but 15 meters and below it also uses its VPS to map mono colour patterns on the ground to matain a spot position along with altimeter and GPS combined. Problem is on snow VPS cannot see any patterns so only GPS is available and being secondary is not accurate or stable so Mavic moves around by some considerable amount while VPS is looking for visual patterns to lock onto.

It may help by turning off the bottom VPS cameras in settings giving GPS precidence and more stability. You can still use forward VPS for collision.

 

[Dronetrasher]

I have a problem with my Mavic drifting at 30ft and below. It was completely stable before I downloaded the latest firmware. Now it will not stabilize itself at lower altitudes.