No stick override in smart capture mode?

[hkRyan]

As I mentioned in another thread, I had my first accident that resulted in some pretty significant drone damage. I was using Smart Capture to follow my friend running on the beach as he finished his run and started walking up to me, the drone continued in a slow circle around him. When I saw it heading for a tree, I grabbed the sticks in order to stop the drone... but they didn't. The drone continued into the tree and fell into the sand which ended in a replacement of all 4 motors, the gimbal, and the fan.

I haven't flown since the repair, but I saw in some reviews that this has been the cause of a few crashes. It seems you have to look at your phone and click the "x" to stop your drone... but this is pretty counter intuitive when you are watching your drone heading for a tree.

Has anyone else faced this problem? Does anyone else think its a pretty big oversight for a drone to have so many sideways automated flight programs without side facing sensors or an easy way to stop the drone?

 

[AnzacJack]

Situational awareness is key

 

[Rob C]

Flight Pause button doesn't work?

 

[hkRyan]

Situational awareness is key

Ugh, a bit condescending. I was purposely on a vacant beach with only the smallest amount of obstacles. I was quite "situationally aware" of the small palm my drone was heading towards. As I said, I saw it and tried to take action but, this being a test flight with "quickshot" I was unfamiliar with how the bird should respond. By the time I realized the sticks wouldn't stop the drone, it was already in the palm. The point of the day's exercise was to sort out those issues before taking any real flights. Unfortunately, my instinct to take control of the drone was overridden by the drone's program.
The point of my post was to see if others agree that the sticks should immediately disable pre-programmed modes.

 

[hkRyan]

Flight Pause button doesn't work?

That is what I have learned. The flight/pause button will be a life saver. That's new for me since I have been flying the Phantom 3 without this button.

 

[Kilrah]

The point of my post was to see if others agree that the sticks should immediately disable pre-programmed modes.

No, because the point of these modes is not to be actively using the controller, which means you'd likely put it aside or in a bag to hide it and if any stick bump cancelled it it would be really annoying.

 

[hkRyan]

No, because the point of these modes is not to be actively using the controller, which means you'd likely put it aside or in a bag to hide it and if any stick bump cancelled it it would be really annoying.

Fair enough!

 

[AnzacJack]

Ugh, a bit condescending. I was purposely on a vacant beach with only the smallest amount of obstacles. I was quite "situationally aware" of the small palm my drone was heading towards. As I said, I saw it and tried to take action but, this being a test flight with "quickshot" I was unfamiliar with how the bird should respond. By the time I realized the sticks wouldn't stop the drone, it was already in the palm. The point of the day's exercise was to sort out those issues before taking any real flights. Unfortunately, my instinct to take control of the drone was overridden by the drone's program.
The point of my post was to see if others agree that the sticks should immediately disable pre-programmed modes.

Apologies if you think I was being condescending, but 90% of aviation incidents are caused by lack of situational awareness. I’m not just talking about drones and toys.
So I was just making a point that good situational awareness, which includes having contingency plans in your head, will prevent most crashes. We have all learned lessons in our time. I myself lost a drone to a dam about 5 years ago, simply because I wasn’t fully aware of what all my controls did in different circumstances. No one is immune.

 

[hkRyan]

Apologies if you think I was being condescending, but 90% of aviation incidents are caused by lack of situational awareness. I’m not just talking about drones and toys.
So I was just making a point that good situational awareness, which includes having contingency plans in your head, will prevent most crashes. We have all learned lessons in our time. I myself lost a drone to a dam about 5 years ago, simply because I wasn’t fully aware of what all my controls did in different circumstances. No one is immune.

Ah fair enough. Yeah, that was definitely the issue here.. not knowing what all the controls do. It was, in fact, the point of that flight, to discover what the controls would do in different situations.

 

[topcat]

I too had an issue. I used the smart capture starting it without the remote. The gestures seemed to work and it landed without incident. I was carrying it back into my garage and it started up again. Luckily my hand was underneath but I had to hold on for dear life as I disengaged the battery. So was that me or an issue with the software?

 

[JTardif]

If you put it into sport mode, the sensors are deactivated and you get complete stick control . I don't know if this would work because I have no experience . Can anyone confirm if this would work ?

 

[synaesthesia]

I too had an issue. I used the smart capture starting it without the remote. The gestures seemed to work and it landed without incident. I was carrying it back into my garage and it started up again. Luckily my hand was underneath but I had to hold on for dear life as I disengaged the battery. So was that me or an issue with the software?

Well the software would have detected some condition that caused it to engage the motors but ultimately... you had finished flying and were transporting the drone powered?

 

[Lake_Flyer]

Most of these automated mode are still far from reliable. Obstacle avoidance is a nice gimmick but I would never count on it, in fact I switch it off. I don't want my drone to make decisions on its own. Waypoints and mapping, those are very reliable and always have been. I have been flying waypoints since my Phantom2. But real time distance and situation sensing not (still). Even something as common as the sun can mess up the sensors instantly, at this moment. But reliability will come, and fast. We are all contributing to that.

We are all lab rats for DJI, while risking our precious birds doing all the so called new smart modes, we feed valuable information back to DJI, helping them to keep the lead in this technology/business.

Unfortunately many people (who never thought of flying anything) only get drawn to drones purely because of these automated modes, they suffer the most from this.

But it's a great development, I do admit I try those modes every once in while and am amazed what they can do. But I never trust them enough to give full control to the bird or app. Always ready to hit the button or throw the switch. And never without full sight on the drone and the surroundings.

 

[JTardif]

OK so it is obvious that the intelligent modes don't detect all obstacles in all situations . If you suspect that your craft is about to crash into an obstacle (as happened to hkRyan above) can you simply flip the sport mode switch on the controller to regain control - then fly in manually ?