Night time drifting issue

[thang_bom94]

Hi, i am brand new to this forum and just got my first drone a few days ago.

I am using Dji Mavic Pro with quieter propeller.

I have a few questions in mind, i tried searching the forum but didn’t find any clear answer.

Hope that i can get them by making this post.


So my first fly was yesterday evening, i tried flying in my garden. (A small garden). Note that the sky was a bit dark however i did have the garden light turned on. I did IMU calibration before i fly. When i take off and tried to hover the drone about 1m from the ground. It drifted a lot to the sides. Fortunately, i got it to land before it almost crashed to the fence.


Is it because i fly too low? If so, how high is the minimum limit? I was scare it will drift off to other place so I didn’t take it to higher altitude.

Do i need to turn off both VPS and OA for it to stable hover?

Are there any other reason that may lead to the drone drifting like that?

Will the RTH function working at nighttime?

Do i need a clear mark (eg. a cross mark) on the floor so that the drone will recognize the home point or if the normal grass land will be fine?

Many thanks

 

[sishu]

Read the manual!

 

[thang_bom94]

Read the manual!

Hi, i did read the manual. However i am still confused. Sorry

 

[wytnyt]

Hi, i did read the manual. However i am still confused. Sorry

do like i did,study the part you want to know and learn it BEFORE going to something else
sounds like no home point was set and you also was in atti mode and yes RTH works at night by using gps
how many sattelites did you have?

 

[MadValley]

If you're in a confined space make sure you've got enough satellites for accurate positioning. The Forward vision sensors can be confused by bright lights so that may have contributed to the problem. If you're flying close to or over metal it can mess up your compass which will also add to the problems. Best bet is to fly exclusively during the daytime until you know what the screen is telling you and how it behaves in the particular area you want to fly in at night. Also have a look at this thread. It seems to describe an issue similar to yours.

 

[lightbg]

If your garden is very small the mavic might be affected by its own rotor down wash, which would make it difficult to hold position since the sensors are compromised by the low light. My suggestion would be to wait until you can fly in a much bigger area during daylight to get familiar with the normal flight characteristics. Once you have some stick time you can go back and anticipate what will happen and be able to compensate without fear.

Jake

 

[wytnyt]

If you're in a confined space make sure you've got enough satellites for accurate positioning. The Forward vision sensors can be confused by bright lights so that may have contributed to the problem. If you're flying close to or over metal it can mess up your compass which will also add to the problems. Best bet is to fly exclusively during the daytime until you know what the screen is telling you and how it behaves in the particular area you want to fly in at night. Also have a look at this thread. It seems to describe an issue similar to yours.

what thread?

 

[thang_bom94]

do like i did,study the part you want to know and learn it BEFORE going to something else
sounds like no home point was set and you also was in atti mode and yes RTH works at night by using gps
how many sattelites did you have?

Hi, i read some articles about night fly but I don’t understand much.

i was in atti mode. Not sure why there are no gps signal as my garden doesn’t have any roof and it is right next to the sea side .

 

[Simmo]

OP, dont rush or you will ruin a good thing!!
There's two things you can do in the dark...one of them is read the manual...
Then in daylight, in a larger open space, practice flying in beginner mode, say 3 or 4 meters off the ground.
Hover, fly out, fly back, fly left, fly right...
Yaw around and have the AC look at you, then fly left, fly right....
Once you can fly a nose first total figure 8, you are ready to turn beginner mode off.....
Overall, have fun!

 

[wytnyt]

Hi, i read some articles about night fly but I don’t understand much.

i was in atti mode. Not sure why there are no gps signal as my garden doesn’t have any roof and it is right next to the sea side .

atti mode is why it drifted everywhere,i figured as much by how you described it,one of these days ill have my maiden flight.

 

[thang_bom94]

OP, dont rush or you will ruin a good thing!!
There's two things you can do in the dark...one of them is read the manual...
Then in daylight, in a larger open space, practice flying in beginner mode, say 3 or 4 meters off the ground.
Hover, fly out, fly back, fly left, fly right...
Yaw around and have the AC look at you, then fly left, fly right....
Once you can fly a nose first total figure 8, you are ready to turn beginner mode off.....
Overall, have fun!

Thank you!!

 

[msinger]

i was in atti mode. Not sure why there are no gps signal as my garden

That explains the issue then. When in ATTI mode, your Mavic will not be able to automatically hold its horizontal position using GPS data. And, since the lighting was poor, the downward sensors were most likely not being used to help hold the horizontal position.

Do i need to turn off both VPS and OA for it to stable hover?

In most cases, it's best to keep VPS enabled (to help with the stability when flying low). The OA features will not help the stability in any way, so it's okay to disable them if you need to turn them off for some reason.

Will the RTH function working at nighttime?

It'll work as long as the Mavic is able to use the GPS data. In this case, it would not have worked since your Mavic auto switched to ATTI mode.

Do i need a clear mark (eg. a cross mark) on the floor so that the drone will recognize the home point or if the normal grass land will be fine?

When using the Precision Landing feature, your Mavic will be able to land closer to the takeoff spot when it's able to recognize that spot on the ground. If the ground is not recognizable (e.g. an open field of nothing but grass), it will still usually land within several feet of the takeoff spot when using just GPS data.

 

[thang_bom94]

Thank you

 

[choo choo]

Hi, i am brand new to this forum and just got my first drone a few days ago.

I am using Dji Mavic Pro with quieter propeller.

I have a few questions in mind, i tried searching the forum but didn’t find any clear answer.

Hope that i can get them by making this post.


So my first fly was yesterday evening, i tried flying in my garden. (A small garden). Note that the sky was a bit dark however i did have the garden light turned on. I did IMU calibration before i fly. When i take off and tried to hover the drone about 1m from the ground. It drifted a lot to the sides. Fortunately, i got it to land before it almost crashed to the fence.


Is it because i fly too low? If so, how high is the minimum limit? I was scare it will drift off to other place so I didn’t take it to higher altitude.

Do i need to turn off both VPS and OA for it to stable hover?

Are there any other reason that may lead to the drone drifting like that?

Will the RTH function working at nighttime?

Do i need a clear mark (eg. a cross mark) on the floor so that the drone will recognize the home point or if the normal grass land will be fine?

Many thanks

And I presume you have the correct propellers on the correct motors?

 

[msinger]

And I presume you have the correct propellers on the correct motors?

It's not possible to install the props incorrectly.

 

[choo choo]

It's not possible to install the props incorrectly.

Thanks. I thought I’d read somewhere that it was important to put the props with the white circles on the motors with same, never gave it a thought that it’d not be possible to actually get it wrong. I presume the fixing is different for the rotation,

 

[msinger]

I thought I’d read somewhere that it was important to put the props with the white circles on the motors with same

Right. That's the only way the props can be installed.

Try installing the props on the wrong motors and you'll see they cannot be locked on.

 

[thang_bom94]

And I presume you have the correct propellers on the correct motors?

Yes. The circle with the circle

 

[geareye]

Hi, i am brand new to this forum and just got my first drone a few days ago.

I am using Dji Mavic Pro with quieter propeller.

I have a few questions in mind, i tried searching the forum but didn’t find any clear answer.

Hope that i can get them by making this post.


So my first fly was yesterday evening, i tried flying in my garden. (A small garden). Note that the sky was a bit dark however i did have the garden light turned on. I did IMU calibration before i fly. When i take off and tried to hover the drone about 1m from the ground. It drifted a lot to the sides. Fortunately, i got it to land before it almost crashed to the fence.


Is it because i fly too low? If so, how high is the minimum limit? I was scare it will drift off to other place so I didn’t take it to higher altitude.

Do i need to turn off both VPS and OA for it to stable hover?

Are there any other reason that may lead to the drone drifting like that?

Will the RTH function working at nighttime?

Do i need a clear mark (eg. a cross mark) on the floor so that the drone will recognize the home point or if the normal grass land will be fine?

Many thanks

I have same problem to my mavic air when flying @ night

 

[Mossiback]

I have same problem to my mavic air when flying @ night

The downward positioning sensors are actually cameras that need adequate light to see the ground and fix a location. They will not work in low light. It will still use GPS to fix its location but that will allow it to drift a bit.