Mini 2 jumps into "Atti mode" by itself- Not fun

[Crouching Leopard]

All practice exercise is best carried out outdoors ... there you have plenty of space & mostly full view of the sky which usually means no problem to have sufficient satellites locked in. Navigating in tight spaces around delicate things indoors + without proper understanding of how things work usually means disaster.

1: You probably were in opti mode, meaning the VPS sensors could lock to the ground pattern & by that stabilize the drone.

2: The drone goes into Atti mode when both the VPS sensors can't get a proper lock on the ground (either due to not enough light or to far from ground) ... together with not enough satellites locked. This isn't a mode you can chose by yourself ... it's a consequence of that the flight controller consider the GPS position (or lack of...) unreliable and no VPS sensor lock. When it happens the drone is only stabilized in height but not horizontally ... it will not hold position, drift with the wind or earlier momentum until you break it by giving carefully reverting stick commands.

3: Most probably it was to dark ... or the ground was without a proper pattern ... or to reflective, this lead to that you lost the only thing that stabilized your drone horizontally --> Atti mode. It is equal controllable as all other modes ... but if you never have experienced this unaided mode it can feel like it's uncontrollable.

4: Yes ... as described in point 2, careful stick commands & you have to break yourself, it's not enough to just center the sticks.

5: The Mini 2 can't be put in Atti mode manually without in some way shielding the GPS unit in the drone & blocking the VPS sensors ... it isn't a button for it.

The above is correct. If no GPS then the drone relies on visual positioning. However, if the room is dark or the floor covering is of one solid colour, ie all brown all grey with no patterning in it, the drone cannot differentiate between one patch of floor and another so goes into atti mode. This can also happen outside in a sports field (all green) in low light (dusk) + low GPS lock. Take the advice from my local DJI store which I have tried and works.

1. Fit prop protectors

2. Put down something which will help the drone identify where it is. The store uses electrical tape on the floor in random patterns, However, they advised me when flying indoors to put down DVD cases, CD cases, or anything that the drone can make out against the rest of the floor, in a line and in a random pattern. When practicing indoors, I lay a trail of these and photo frame magazines etc about a metre apart around the house. Works a treat as long as there is sufficient light.

3. If not using protectors, make sure no one else is around to get whacked should it still go loose. It really hurts and can draw blood!!, and be prepared to do some wall filling and redecorating.

Stick with it. Drones are great but you need to work with them and gain experience through practice, practice, practice.

 

[RobW01]

I always change one of the switch positions of my DJI aircraft to be ATTI mode and find it very stupid that hasn't been a normally accessible feature in DJI aircraft since the Mavic.

It should be accessible so that people can train flying in ATTI and know how that works before the day their aircraft falls back to it unexpectedly and they have no idea how to continue flying it.

And it's a safety feature as it's a way out of "flyaways" caused by navigation errors. Plus it's even useful for some shots, and it's convenient to measure wind speed and direction at various heights

ATTI is great for smooth video—providing you’ve had some practice or training. In Australia, you can‘t get a commercial licence without demonstrating during the flight test that you can handle ATTI. There should be a manual switch on Mavics and Evos, as there is on the Phantom.

 

[colorado kid]

I always change one of the switch positions of my DJI aircraft to be ATTI mode and find it very stupid that hasn't been a normally accessible feature in DJI aircraft since the Mavic.

It should be accessible so that people can train flying in ATTI and know how that works before the day their aircraft falls back to it unexpectedly and they have no idea how to continue flying it.

And it's a safety feature as it's a way out of "flyaways" caused by navigation errors. Plus it's even useful for some shots, and it's convenient to measure wind speed and direction at various heights

can you explain the below points? thanks, am curious.

"And it's a safety feature as it's a way out of "flyaways" caused by navigation errors....and it's convenient to measure wind speed and direction at various heights"

 

[colorado kid]

Interesting. If there is only GPS and Atti, and I had no GPS signals before, what kept is relatively stable and under control before the "announcment"? I though I was already IN atti mode????!!!! But you're right. It's like driving on ice with no brakes. I actually have experienced that in the DJI simulator which I can access with my M2 controller. GENTLE joy stick commands is an understatement. I mean, if I just breathe on them I get far more response than I want. Better outdoors for sure, but there seems to be little reason to fly atti outside.

though, i still got the ATTI prompt when i went outside yesterday. not sure why that is. i also did notice that there were only 8-10 satellites available. before updating the fly app last week, i was getting 18-20, without fail. what could be causing that?

 

[Meta4]

though, i still got the ATTI prompt when i went outside yesterday. not sure why that is.

It's because under app version 1.2.2 it's giving a false warning of atti mode even though the drone is not in atti mode.

i also did notice that there were only 8-10 satellites available. before updating the fly app last week, i was getting 18-20, without fail. what could be causing that?

It will have nothing to do with your update and everything to do with how many satellites are visible to the drone.
The number of sats varies all thetime and can be significantly reduced if you have buildings, mountains, tree cover ets blocking some of the sky.

 

[spsphotos]

can you explain the below points? thanks, am curious.

"And it's a safety feature as it's a way out of "flyaways" caused by navigation errors....and it's convenient to measure wind speed and direction at various heights"

Under GPS, you are relying on the computer and GPS coords for all flight functions. So if something goes wonky with the nav system or GPS off goes your drone to do what it wants. In ATTI it won't do squat without you telling it to (including obstacle avoidance and RTH). So if the drone starts to go on its merry way you can try to switch to ATTI and it should just stop and wait...might drift with the wind but it won't just fly off. You can then fly it back and land it.

 

[colorado kid]

Under GPS, you are relying on the computer and GPS coords for all flight functions. So if something goes wonky with the nav system or GPS off goes your drone to do what it wants. In ATTI it won't do squat without you telling it to (including obstacle avoidance and RTH). So if the drone starts to go on its merry way you can try to switch to ATTI and it should just stop and wait...might drift with the wind but it won't just fly off. You can then fly it back and land it.

yes i can then see the benefit to having that option of ATTI mode. but, how might one switch to, or out of, that mode? thanks.

 

[Janset]

Yes, I would be interested in an answer also please.
cheers Janset

 

[Kilrah]

You need to use an app like DroneHacks to change the switch position to mode mapping parameters.

howto:parameterhacks [dji.retroroms.info]

dji.retroroms.info