But lets say if you are in a moving car and you lose the connect, you dont want your drone to land where it took off because you are not there anymore? Maybe you are 1km away from the took off location or maybe more.
Minimum satellite signals for Mavic Air??
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But lets say if you are in a moving car and you lose the connect, you dont want your drone to land where it took off because you are not there anymore? Maybe you are 1km away from the took off location or maybe more.
That is not true - the minimum number of satellites is extremely important. You need at least 3 for a fix, and at least 4 if you also want three dimensional height data - but those are theoretical minimums. The drone won't even record a home point until it has over 6 satellites, and it won't give you the "ready to fly" status without 7 satellites. At 6 or fewer I believe the GPS 'health' falls right off and you would be flying in ATTI mode, and trying to fly with the minimum runs the risk of dropping below the minimum mid-flight. Of the approximately 48 satellites (GPS & GLONASS), up to 20 will be visible at any given time to the drone. Best practice is not to fly without 11 or 12, and this will often increase to 16+ during flight if there are no obstructions.
There very much is a 'magic' number of satellites (whether you're talking about theoretical minimums or the minimum necessary to fly) and it's important to be keeping an eye on it.
To answer your original question, 6 - 8 satellites is not sufficient. The FC requires at least 7 to stay in P-GPS mode - if it drops below that then the GPS health value will go to zero and the aircraft will switch to ATTI mode.
vanderzyde0
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I had that app for almost a year and not once has it ever matched with the conditions I was experiencing (and measuring) myself. I tested it in 4 different countries during my travels in an effort to fly as responsibly as possible. And once you're off the ground, there is no way it can accurately tell you wind speed hundreds of feet in the air even though it tries. I got rid of it personally - totally useless in my experience. It would always report the opposite - either "good to fly" or "not good to fly" when the conditions clearly say otherwise.
swooshdave
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Mossiback
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If you are moving in a car or a boat, have the homepoint set to your location, and you lose connection, it will not know where you are so it couldn't return to you. I have not tested this but hopefully your location is updated and stored on the Mavic often enough to come close. Even then, wherever that spot is needs to have a suitable landing area below it.
These scenarios are about the RTH setting in case of a lost connection. In a worse case scenario, the connection will not be restored (this is what you have to plan for) and you better hope you set RTH correctly to get your Mavic back. This means that if the homepoint is anything but the original takeoff spot you have to make sure the new homepoint is suitable for landing in an area you can retrieve it. As I mentioned earlier, if I am moving while flying I will fly over a suitable landing area where I am walking to and reset the homepoint there. The current altitude does not matter as it will fly to the spot and descend until it detects the ground and then land.
MadMaqx
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As I mentioned earlier, if I am moving while flying I will fly over a suitable landing area where I am walking to and reset the homepoint there. The current altitude does not matter as it will fly to the spot and descend until it detects the ground and then land.
Have to try that ,being your hitting second option correct
Have to try that ,being your hitting second option correct
Of all the things there, KP and Cloud Cover are the least important.
Neither has any effect at all on drone flying.
The whole KP=index thing relating to drones is a myth.
The next drone that is affected by the KP index will be the first one.
Where are you only getting 6-8 satellites?
Indoors or somewhere where the drone does not have a good clear view of most of the sky?
There are always enough sats in the sky, wherever you are on earth.
If your drone isn't getting good numbers because of your launch point, it will always have plenty when you get up away from whatever is blocking its skyview.
I was flying in my backyard. close to my house and there are trees around the backyard. I think you have a point. Maybe this might be the reason.
So basically, you have to keep an eye on satellites in this case. If it drops to ATTI mode thn I have to quickly find a spot to land and be safe.
To get a lot of satelites, your drone has to have an unobstructed view of a lot of sky.
Less sky = less satellites.
Not necessarily.
If you are in a large open area where there's nothing to hit, you could keep flying.
But if you were in a large, open area, you'd always have lots more satelittes than you need.
It might be a good idea to find a better place to fly?
vanderzyde0
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Maybe it’s just me but why is it NECESSARY to have GPS lock? ATTI should be fine in LOS. I don’t use GPS when flying RC airplanes. If your drone just goes out of control and slams a wall it isn’t because it lost GPS it’s because something is wrong with it.
Can someone explain why GPS is necessary with drones but not with RC airplanes?
Can someone explain why GPS is necessary with drones but not with RC airplanes?
ATTI is perfectly fine as long as you know how to fly in ATTI (completely different flight characteristics), especially in the wind. Many Mavic pilots can't do that. That's the only difference.
You might be fine then if you know what to expect, but the vast majority of drone pilots are used to having the drone basically fly itself, and not move at all even in wind. ALL that goes away without GPS. GPS is what is preventing the drone from drifting around, allows for RTH, etc. I think a lot of people probably don't realize how much the drone is helping you fly.
Can you just let go of your RC airplane controls and ignore it without worry of anything happening to it?
That's the difference.One thing I suggest is buying a cheap, full manual drone off Amazon and learning how to fly that - that is what it's like in ATTI mode and it takes quite a lot more skill.
Let's get this homepoint straight.
You can set the homepoint to the AC's GPS position (default at launch), during flight update homepoint to then current AC or RC location (RC dependent on GPS of mobile), or set it to dynamic where it periodically updates homepoint to RC's position. If something goes wrong with app or RC, it will still RTH normally, but will return to the last set homepoint.
You can set the homepoint to the AC's GPS position (default at launch), during flight update homepoint to then current AC or RC location (RC dependent on GPS of mobile), or set it to dynamic where it periodically updates homepoint to RC's position. If something goes wrong with app or RC, it will still RTH normally, but will return to the last set homepoint.
vanderzyde0
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Can you just let go of your RC airplane controls and ignore it without worry of anything happening to it?
No and that's my point - GPS is the automation for drone flying. If you really only want pictures and videos then all the automation is good - but to fly the drone GPS is not necessary.
I am perplexed by all the comments about losing GPS causing a drone to fly into a wall. If you lose GPS then the drone is harder to fly but shouldn't go off on its own and crash.
All the automation is designed to focus on stability, flight aid and image quality. I like to turn off the Visual aids and just fly my MA around to get a feel for flying it.
