Problem flying in waterfalls (GPS signal)

[hugomez]

Hi,

Yesterday I was trying to get some shots in several deep down waterfalls (in Bali), however the MM didn't get GPS signal in any of them. The result is that I could only fly a few meters away of me, reaching soon the maximum high or maximum distance from me. Not good because I need it to get farther away to get those nice shots I wanted.

I wonder if there is the option in the app to get the drone flying in the same way even if there is not GPS signal. Is that possible?

Once I was outside of the waterfalls the MM could get GPS signal without problem and fly it as usual.
Thanks in advance.

 

[Roy Rogers]

Hi,

Yesterday I was trying to get some shots in several deep down waterfalls (in Bali), however the MM didn't get GPS signal in any of them. The result is that I could only fly a few meters away of me, reaching soon the maximum high or maximum distance from me. Not good because I need it to get farther away to get those nice shots I wanted.

I wonder if there is the option in the app to get the drone flying in the same way even if there is not GPS signal. Is that possible?

Once I was outside of the waterfalls the MM could get GPS signal without problem and fly it as usual.
Thanks in advance.

Flying around hills , mountains , in valleys and even a lot of buildings can block the satellites . You could take off in an open area then fly to the Falls and it should be fine . I film in mountains a lot and run into this from time to time too

 

[hugomez]

Flying around hills , mountains , in valleys and even a lot of buildings can block the satellites . You could take off in an open area then fly to the Falls and it should be fine . I film in mountains a lot and run into this from time to time too

Thanks for your reply. Pity that there is no way to fly "normally" while the GPS signal is not reached.

 

[Camino Ken]

This is interesting because I thought the mini was supposed to handle loss of GPS signal fairly well based on numerous accounts of flying indoors without problems. I remember several stories of the Mavic 2 flying indoors and sporadically picking up and loosing GPS and creating very uncontrolled flights with crashes into walls. I was hoping the mini handled it better because I was thinking about adding it to my fleet of one specifically to fly in more limited areas.

Is the limited range on loss of GPS a “feature”?

 

[Meta4]

I wonder if there is the option in the app to get the drone flying in the same way even if there is not GPS signal. Is that possible?

You have the wrong drone for doing that.
With larger DJI drones you can disable the VPS sensors and fly to 30 metres without GPS.
Those other drones will only fly to 5m without GPS and with VPS enabled

 

[Olav van Gerven]

And, by my own experience, be warned: If you take of in this restricted mode and get to an altitude or position where the drone suddenly recognizes GPS-Signals, this might cause a problem. It happened to me as I started in the GPS-Shade of high trees. After all, I was lucky to be able to regain control and land safely, but it was a close call, as the drone almost got crashed in the trees.

 

[new2mavic]

...The result is that I could only fly a few meters away of me, reaching soon the maximum high or maximum distance from me....

I don't have a clear understanding of the environment. The "maximum high" part makes sense because the software will probably prohibit ascending once the sensing range of VPS is exceeded. In the early version of M1P firmware, the drone would actually descend until the height limit of VPS is reached.

However, the "maximum distance" part does not make sense because without GPS, how does the drone / RC know the distance between them ?

 

[new2mavic]

And, by my own experience, be warned: If you take of in this restricted mode and get to an altitude or position where the drone suddenly recognizes GPS-Signals, this might cause a problem. It happened to me as I started in the GPS-Shade of high trees. After all, I was lucky to be able to regain control and land safely, but it was a close call, as the drone almost got crashed in the trees.

Same experience here. The other day I was flying my M2P between tall buildings. The GPS signal was not good, just 7 ~ 8 satellites could be seen compared with 17 ~ 18 normally. The drone was hovering OK at the beginning and all of a sudden, it flew backward by itself. Fortunately it was still under control and I managed to bring it back safely before it hit the buildings. Examination of the flight record shows that the GPS location of the drone was hopping around. As the drone couldn't have flown like that the GPS location must be erroneous. I concluded that the unexpected movement must be the result of the drone chasing erroneous GPS coordinates.

 

[FoxhallGH]

One thing you have to be careful with ... You tend to feel safe if your GPS satellite count is high. However, there are two factors needed to get a decent GPS location for the drone. One is - of course, the number of sat's - but the second is their spread across the sky. If you take the Mavic e.g. down into a canyon, the number of sat's it sees may seem sufficient to get a positional fix, but it will only see those sat's in a small arc of sky directly above - and the arc of sky will decrease even more the further down into the canyon you go. The effect of this is that while the Mavic might know where it is on the Earth, but its ability to get a full 3D fix in space will decrease the further you descend into the 'funnel'.

 

[Dave Maine]

Note that DJI has nothing to do with the GPS signal loss. It is the physical landscape, and there is basically nothing that anyone can do about it. Flying in ATTI mode is the only option. Note that it has it’s own set of dangers.

 

[hugomez]

Thanks for all your replies. Now is clear for me that is not possible to fly properly without the GPS signal. It switched automatically to ATTI mode, not allowing me to get the shots I want. So now I see one of the main limitations of this drone. Still happy with it, keeping in mind the price and result I am getting so far.
Thanks

 

[Saigondroner]

Thanks for all your replies. Now is clear for me that is not possible to fly properly without the GPS signal. It switched automatically to ATTI mode, not allowing me to get the shots I want. So now I see one of the main limitations of this drone. Still happy with it, keeping in mind the price and result I am getting so far.
Thanks

I highly suggest you learn to fly in ATTI mode, and practice regularly. I do...and ATTI mode drones are cheap