Obstacle avoidance

Reprofish · Oct 13, 2017

Got my mavic and love it. Still trying to learn all of the features, but I'm flying. I've been having an issue with obstacle avoidance. The drone will randomly sense an obstacle when there is no obstacle there. And do this repeatedly. Am I missing something here?

msinger · Oct 13, 2017

Reprofish said:
The drone will randomly sense an obstacle when there is no obstacle there. And do this repeatedly.

When exactly does this happen? Is it possible that you were flying toward the sun during those instances?

Reprofish · Oct 13, 2017

msinger said:
When exactly does this happen? Is it possible that you were flying toward the sun during those instances?

Yesterday I was flying filming a herd of Oryx and Zebra. I don't recall right off hand the exact altitude where it started, but I want to say somewhere around 80 ft. So then I lowered my altitude and it did it several times. The camera was pointed at the ground with the sun at it's 6. No obstacles whatsoever in its path.

msinger · Oct 13, 2017

Check out your TXT flight log to see if it explains what happened. You can upload and view it online here. If you'd like other people to review and comment on your flight log, then please post a link back here after you upload it.

Reprofish · Oct 13, 2017

Sorry, but I'm really new at this. I have no idea go to even find that flight log much less upload it anywhere. If you could walk me through this I will listen...

msinger · Oct 13, 2017

You can find instructions here.

lisadoc · Oct 13, 2017

Reprofish said:
Yesterday I was flying filming a herd of Oryx and Zebra.

Man... I don't see those flying through my neighborhood. What suburb are you flying in?

Pretty cool. We're all a little jealous of those types of opportunities.

Reprofish said:
I don't recall right off hand the exact altitude where it started, but I want to say somewhere around 80 ft. So then I lowered my altitude and it did it several times. The camera was pointed at the ground with the sun at it's 6. No obstacles whatsoever in its path.

Doesn't matter which way your camera is pointed. The Mavic has forward optical sensors (the two "eyes" facing forward on its "face"). If you were flying toward the sun, it will see the bright light and trigger the obstacle warning. It's a very common occurrence when flying with the Mavic when the sun is lower in the sky.

The answer is to either: 1) turn off the forward sensors while flying in that direction 2) switch to sport mode, 3) fly at an angle to the sun, tacking back and forth like a sailboat does into the wind, or 4) turn the craft around and fly "backwards" in your desired direction.