Mini 2 has the pitch angle limited when the camera is pointing straight down

boblui · Jan 26, 2021

Just wondering if any owners of the craft has experienced it.

This problem has been reported by two local pilots and this log is provided by one of them. Near the end of the flight the camera was pointing straight down and the drone was unable to counter the moderate wind and the speed was abnormally low under full-forward stick input. The log indicates that the drone was in normal mode and it did not tilt beyond 10 degrees for most of the time despite the fact that it could tilt up to 25 degrees according to the spec.

One of the pilots has done a very brief test and he was convinced that the limit on the tilt angle of the craft is meant to prevent the gimbal from hitting the limit of travel when the camera is pointing straight down. Doesn't make much sense to me but who know what's in the mind of DJI's engineers ....

Deleted member 103366 · Jan 26, 2021

Was he flying forwards or backwards during the test, forwards i.e. nose down would surely cause a downward looking camera to move towards the "at rest" horizontal.
Could it be an allowance for braking?
Could the pilot repeat the test with the camera at 45deg of depression?

Saladshooter · Jan 26, 2021

Speed of the Mini 2 is limited and reduced when the gimbal is pointed at the ground.... this is documented in the manual under the addendum for flight modes. The manual also mentions that the drone can override this limitation when fighting heavy winds..... I suspect that the pitch limitation is linked to all of this as well. The effects are documented in the youtube video below.

Mavic Mini vs Mini 2 WIND TEST - Surprising Results

teeroy · Jan 26, 2021

Hey @slup remember when my mini 2 tried to fly away on me...I had the camera pointed straight down, the craft was facing east and pushed away by a westerly wind but didn't try to pitch back enough to counter the wind, even with full throttle in "reverse"...could this have been the cause?

thread I posted...

Mini 2 tried to fly away on me.

A friend had bought some sea cans for storage units and asked if I could fly up above his yard and take a few photos to check that they were set up nice and straight in relation to his property lines and house. There was some wind but I didn't think it was severe. I started the Mini 2 and let...

mavicpilots.com

teeroy · Jan 26, 2021

the more I look at the similarities I'm convinced this is exactly what happened to me. What are they thinking...sacrifice the AC for smooth footage??

Note to self.

Saladshooter · Jan 27, 2021

teeroy said:
the more I look at the similarities I'm convinced this is exactly what happened to me. What are they thinking...sacrifice the AC for smooth footage??

Note to self.

I looked at your post and the Youtube footage of the Mini 2 and it all seems like it is part of the same issue

DJI obviously didn't intend this consequence as the manual says it will override to save itself but there has to be something in the software that isn't working right and will have to be addressed in firmware. I can imagine quite a few flyaways will happen when someone tries to get downward footage in high winds if this issue persists.

Here is a second video the Dragon7 guys did showing the effects.

teeroy · Jan 27, 2021

Saladshooter said:
I looked at your post and the Youtube footage of the Mini 2 and it all seems like it is part of the same issue

DJI obviously didn't intend this consequence as the manual says it will override to save itself but there has to be something in the software that isn't working right and will have to be addressed in firmware. I can imagine quite a few flyaways will happen when someone tries to get downward footage in high winds if this issue persists.

Here is a second video the Dragon7 guys did showing the effects.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

I'm not impressed with the situation, but at the same time relieved to know it was a specific set of circumstances that caused my problem and not a glitch as was originally hypothesized (absolutely no disrespect intended toward those that helped). I didn't mention in my flyaway thread that the camera was pointed straight down, I never thought for a second it could have been part of the issue. At least it can be avoided in the future, hopefully it is addressed in a future firmware update.

boblui · Jan 27, 2021

teeroy said:
...I had the camera pointed straight down, the craft was facing east and pushed away by a westerly wind but didn't try to pitch back enough to counter the wind, even with full throttle in "reverse"...could this have been the cause?

Now your case can be fully explained - the craft is designed to behave like that. I cannot understand what's in the mind of DJI, keeping the framing of the picture stable is more important than keeping the craft under control ?

boblui · Jan 27, 2021

Saladshooter said:
... The manual also mentions that the drone can override this limitation when fighting heavy winds.....

Just found it. This is unique to the Mini 2. The user manual of the Air 2 does not have such paragraph.

slup · Jan 27, 2021

teeroy said:
...relieved to know it was a specific set of circumstances that caused my problem and not a glitch as was originally hypothesized...

Would say that this really is a glitch & nothing else ...

From the manual ...

The AC apparently not counter higher winds in the way DJI intended ... if this glitch is constant or intermittent is so far unproven.

slup · Jan 27, 2021

boblui said:
... the craft is designed to behave like that. ...

Wouldn't say that, the manual clearly states the circumstances regarding winds when it goes out of that behavior ... & the AC clearly don't do that.

boblui · Jan 27, 2021

slup said:
Wouldn't say that, the manual clearly states the circumstances regarding winds when it goes out of that behavior ... & the AC clearly don't do that.

This is from the flight log provided by @teeroy. The abnormal behavior ( elevator stick input went from none to full backward but the pitch maintained at about 10 degree ) stopped when the camer tilt was changed from -90 degree ( straight down ) to -0.8 degree at 64 sec into the flight. Later the camera was pointed downward again but it was switched to photo mode so the restriction did not apply. As far as I can see everythings are consistent with what the manual said.

slup · Jan 27, 2021

boblui said:
This is the flight log provided by @teeroy. The abnormal behavior ( elevator stick input went from none to full backward but the pitch maintained at about 10 degree ) stopped when the camer tilt was changed from -90 degree ( straight down ) to -0.8 degree at 64 sec into the flight. Later the camera was pointed downward again but it was switched to photo mode so the restriction did not apply. As far as I can see everythings are consistent with what the manual said.

View attachment 122594

What you describe is the behavior when the speed restriction (pitch restriction) is active ... it doesn't show that the restriction becomes disabled to withstand the wind ie. prevent the AC from blowing away... which actually happened there.

This is a new functionality that isn't well implemented as it doesn't properly disables (as the manual say it should) when the AC have started to drift with the wind.

boblui · Jan 27, 2021

slup said:
What you describe is the behavior when the speed restriction (pitch restriction) is active ... it doesn't show that the restriction becomes disabled to withstand the wind ie. prevent the AC from blowing away... which actually happened there.

This is a new functionality that isn't well implemented as it doesn't properly disables (as the manual say it should) when the AC have started to drift with the wind.

The manual says "strong wind". May be that refers to the wind speed that is high enough to trigger the strong wind warning.

slup · Jan 27, 2021

boblui said:
The manual says "strong wind". May be that refers to the wind speed that is high enough to trigger the strong wind warning.

The functionality needs to get disabled before a wind drift can occur otherwise we will for sure see a lot of Mini 2's blowing away ... if DJI have equaled the deactivation to the ordinary wind warning (which is based on a much higher AC speed/pitch) ... this functionality is badly thought through, it will do more harm than good.

Furthermore this function should only be used if the AC is going backwards ... going forward the gimbal have way enough room to move without hitting the end stop.

Seems that some photo nerd at DJI got to much influence on the SW development ...

boblui · Jan 27, 2021

slup said:
... this function should only be used if the AC is going backwards ... going forward the gimbal have way enough room to move without hitting the end stop...

Not so if the camera tilt is 0 degree at which the function will also be activated according to the manual.

slup · Jan 27, 2021

boblui said:
Not so if the camera tilt is 0 degree at which the function will also be activated according to the manual.

The difference between 0 & -90 degrees is that you in the former position have 20 degrees headroom while you don't have anything with the gimbal pointing -90 degrees & going backwards.

With this function active in forward flight with the gimbal in 0 degrees must be a real hazzle with it's forced lower speed ... myself, I would very much be turned off if the SW forced limit the speed ... I rather regulate that on my own.

boblui · Jan 27, 2021

slup said:
.... you don't have anything with the gimbal pointing -90 degrees & going backwards.

I think you still have a room of 20 degrees ....

slup · Jan 27, 2021

Still less in the downward position ... but never the less, this is a automated functionality that's included to limit the complaints about gimbal drops due to a movement limiting design with too great bias towards the filming aesthetics & too little consideration regarding the increased risk of a blow away.