Prop Guards

[Ed H]

I was testing these guards out today.I wanted to fly slow through the woods. What I found out is I could only go about 100ft. and reached my max.
distance. That sucked. I was trying to make some cool videos through the woods if you go slow with these prop guards on you kind of bounce off of trees without hurting the drone. Anyway to turn off this geo fence for this??

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

From what I’ve read, the props are mainly for use indoors with the mini, but if windless conditions you’d probably be ok outdoors for such a flight.
Personally feel that flying low forest you’re far better walking right behind your drone (if possible ) anyway.
VLOS is very important, but more so keeping shaky wifi signal connection to the drone, all the interference you’d get with the vegetation etc.
what did you have failsafe (loss of signal) RTH set to ?
Should be set to hover in those circumstances, as having the drone set to auto land or RTH have the obvious dangers in forest environment, very likely your drone would crash onto scrubbers landing, or rise into the forest canopy.
When failsafe set to hover, you need to be able to move closer to re establish wifi connection and control.
Probably why this limit is set by DJI.
Not sure deliberately bouncing off trees would be wise, but good to know how it handles in controlled (with you very close) conditions.
Slow flights through low forest does make good cinematic video though.

 

[old man mavic]

the trick with the prop guards on is to walk behind the MM,as you fly,stay inside the 60 ft distance from the drone and if it does lose signal then it will just land when RTH kicks in ,once you reach the distance from your original home point land,and then when you take off again that will be your new home point,that way you can go more than the 100 ft limit,yes the guards are good for flying in woodland and i used them when i first had my MM,after a while as your flying skills advance you will find that you will be able to remove them take off and just walk behind the MM videoing as you go for a lot longer without having to land, in C mode the MM is very controllable

 

[EyesWideShut]

I agree with the previous posts that leaving the guards on and walking behind when flying through the trees is the best also less chance of losing the signal, video and data plus getting smoother video by watching the screen and the mini to maneuver.

the trick with the prop guards on is to walk behind the MM,as you fly,stay inside the 60 ft distance from the drone and if it does lose signal then it will just land when RTH kicks in ,once you reach the distance from your original home point land,and then when you take off again that will be your new home point,that way you can go more than the 100 ft limit

@OMM : I probably am misunderstanding you. Are you saying the AutoLand RTH within the 20m/60ft zone will move as you walk and is from the Flight Controller to the drone? I understood it being measured from the AC to the takeoff/HP.

 

[old man mavic]

I agree with the previous posts that leaving the guards on and walking behind when flying through the trees is the best also less chance of losing the signal, video and data plus getting smoother video by watching the screen and the mini to maneuver.



@OMM : I probably am misunderstanding you. Are you saying the AutoLand RTH within the 20m/60ft zone will move as you walk and is from the Flight Controller to the drone? I understood it being measured from the AC to the takeoff/HP.

no what i meant was after you reach the 100 ft distance from the original home point the drone will refuse to go any further ,then you land ,and then when you restart that will become the home point ,the reason i mentioned keeping the drone at less than 60 ft from you is because if you were at the 100 ft distance from the last home point then if an error started a RTH then it would rise up to the height you had set for RTH and fly back home, but that would not be a good idea if you were under trees ,but if the drone was close to you it would just land when RTH kicked in hope that makes sense

 

[raymacke]

Anyway to turn off this geo fence for this??

Not sure this was answered -

NO, payload mode is automatically activated when the extra weight is sensed and you can't shut it off. At least I could figure out how to do it.....

 

[EyesWideShut]

Not sure this was answered -

NO, payload mode is automatically activated when the extra weight is sensed and you can't shut it off. At least I could figure out how to do it.....

As you can reset the HomePoint during a flight, I wonder if while flying with the guards on and walking behind, would the 100' Payload distance limit be reset if you reset the HP. You might reset it to where you are now to get some further distance or as a sort of a waypoint, set it ahead of the mini.

For video shooting I have been planning to try re-positioning the HP as a new waypoint, say at 500' away and setting the RTH altitude to the basic height I want. As the mini does the RTH to the "new" HP I can yaw the camera for a smooth sideways pan and also adjust (override) the speed and altitude during the straight line vector towards the HP. Of course you can cancel anytime.

And thanks to OMM for the clarification.

 

[Ed H]

OMM Thanks that gives me something to try. And by the way I was not bouncing off trees. I was just saying if you are going slow
you would just bounce off them

 

[old man mavic]

@Ed H i didn't think you were but you are right, the prop guards do work very well at protecting the drone from damage ,and are really for indoor use ,because there are no collision sensors

 

[raymacke]

Prop Guards definitely work. (And a lot of luck helped too.) My first flight in the woods exposed a definite lack of piloting skills allowing myself to be distracted by activity behind me at exactly the wrong time. -

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies