Security Mission

[RustyBonz]

In acres half wooded, my real estate property abuts another lot. The second lot supports a house currently vacant and under periodic fits and starts of construction (I’m trying to finish a project house). Currently, I have to hop in my truck, drive over using a right of way driveway possibly disturbing my neighbors unnecessarily, to check on the construction site.

Drone tie-in:
I want to be able to send my drone, Icarus, up and over trees, then down thru a narrow-ish window in the tree canopy next door. Once there I want to loiter and “look around”.

My plan would be to set a pre-planned mission to take off from my back yard to the safe center of the yard next door. Mind you, both of these lots are wooded with lined with tall mature trees.

I’m looking for suggestions on how to do this, and return to home given that the position of Icarus could vary prior to RTH possibly encountering trees if not lined up with original point of vertical entry. I would initiate a second mission back if that is possible. The horizontal distance is only several hundred feet. Thanx for commentary.

 

[Repaid1]

I will assume "Icarus" , Is a M2P? If so a very simple mission to accomplish with Litchi. You would test fly the mission high over trees, and then adjust altitude down once your sure the waypoints are correct, adding in points of Interests as you see fit. After you have it adjusted and correctly programmed in and saved you can fly it multiple times a day if needed and every flight will be the same as the last...that way if so inclined you can do a time lapse of the house construction to finish.

 

[RustyBonz]

Yes to M2P. I have Litchi, but haven’t used it a bunch. I will have to learn as I go just to safely get over. I want to go under pilot control once over there. I assumed hitting RTH would be the way to get back- unless I could cause a second mission to get back. Could I interrupt one mission and go manual, then continue. If so I would plan a over and back mission- thanks

 

[Phantomrain.org]

Yes to M2P. I have Litchi, but haven’t used it a bunch. I will have to learn as I go just to safely get over. I want to go under pilot control once over there. I assumed hitting RTH would be the way to get back- unless I could cause a second mission to get back. Could I interrupt one mission and go manual, then continue. If so I would plan a over and back mission- thanks

Icarus is a Great name .

So here is what i would suggest :

You should do a manual flight as suggested above where you are in control at all times of the flight,

This will keep you much more focused on the flight and than once you understand what needs to be negotiated than set your mission.

Your Risk is loss of signal at this point in your mission:
" then down thru a narrow-ish window in the tree canopy next door."


Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your Mavic in the Rain.

 

[RustyBonz]

Icarus is a Great name .

So here is what i would suggest :

You should do a manual flight as suggested above where you are in control at all times of the flight,

This will keep you much more focused on the flight and than once you understand what needs to be negotiated than set your mission.

Your Risk is loss of signal at this point in your mission:
" then down thru a narrow-ish window in the tree canopy next door."


Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your Mavic in the Rain.

Thanks for reply phantom. I am interested in your floatation gear in case of a deal over water. Plan to do some shooting over a lake soon. Anyways regarding my aerial watchdog mission: the DJI waypoints 2.0 video on YouTube by Drone 51 helped me to understand how to set stored waypoints while PIC flight. This, of course, uses the C1 button on controller while in “waypoints mode”.

The plan is to establish a clean takeoff path mark WP1, then run the bird halfway over to intended down shaft thru the hole in tree canopy. While at the halfway point, I will loiter in hover. Grabbing my gear and controller, hop in my truck and quickly drive over to the project house.

Re-establishing VLOS, plan to center up a a clean descent path down to a good altitude to move about marking waypoints as I go.

Alternatively, does anyone know if I could interrupt the stored mission to FPV around and then restart the first mission, or would it be possible to command the start of a second mission? Either way I see that the return leg will also need to be created on the fly- once again up and halfway home. Jumping in truck and marking waypoints on the return to start point . I plan on doing this today. I will update this thread- hopefully by surviving successfully and including some shots to better explain what I’m trying to do. Cheers!

 

[Deleted member 103366]

ignore I think I misunderstood the original post

If no one responds to what I had originally asked I will delete this post in an hour or so

 

[RustyBonz]

ignore I think I misunderstood the original post

If no one responds to what I had originally asked I will delete this post in an hour or so

Understandable since my explanation wasn’t as clear as it might have been. Both properties are mine, tho a shared right-of-way driveway and another neighbor is involved. Moreover, there is a steam between properties so walking over gets a bit dodgey. So I have to drive out to main road and then down the Right of way drive to access construction site buried in the woods. No problem

 

[Meta4]

I want to be able to send my drone, Icarus, up and over trees, then down thru a narrow-ish window in the tree canopy next door. Once there I want to loiter and “look around”.

One point that might be an issue is the amount of vegetation between you and the drone.
A few trees here or there don't make much difference,
But if there are too many trees, the water in their trunks, leaves and branches will block your signal.
Too many trees = no signal.

Whether or not it will have an effect on what you propose to do will depend on how many trees there are.
It should be easy to test to see if it's going to be an issue.
Just something to consider in planning.

 

[RustyBonz]

Thanks for jumping in here. It’s only about 300’ horizontally b/t houses. My basic question at this point is about stop, FPV break, and restart of mission 1. Or, can a second mission be initiated.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

Thanks for jumping in here. It’s only about 300’ horizontally b/t houses. My basic question at this point is about stop, FPV break, and restart of mission 1. Or, can a second mission be initiated.

Looking forward to the lessons learned, talk soon.

 

[MavicAir2Marc]

I honestly have no idea what I'm talking about with Litchi but I thought I read somewhere at one time that you could have the mission fly in reverse once you have it mapped in one direction? If that's the case, couldn't you just map it in the first direction, then reverse it back?

 

[Phantomrain.org]

I honestly have no idea what I'm talking about with Litchi but I thought I read somewhere at one time that you could have the mission fly in reverse once you have it mapped in one direction? If that's the case, couldn't you just map it in the first direction, then reverse it back?

No you do have the right idea you can Reverse in Litchi:

mission settings' and chose reverse for finish action

http://mission settings and chose reverse for finish action
Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your Mavic in the Rain

 

[RustyBonz]

A few mistakes
Well, after watching a few YouTube videos about DJI Waypoints 2.0, I went outside to experiment. I wound up just sending the bird over.
Mistake Number 1: I thought I was recording video on the way over but was in photo mode.

Found an open spot in canopy and just descended using the view on screen to navigate after fixing recording problem. Carefully, since there is an overhead electric line to house in addition to big trees, I dropped to about 25' and panned about without changing anything but yaw and gimbal. The video here is of the trip up over and home to my yard. Just going over with video to guide me there and back. Once back I tried to set up a simple straight line low mission.

Which led to...

Mistake Number 2: Trying to stop a loaded waypoint mission. Hastily created, saved, and started, the mission was headed right into a tree. I panicked and pressed the pause button, then the red X. I couldn't understand why pressing the red X didn't stop the process. There is an odd DJI second window that I wasn't aware of until after... I tried to hand land after I thought I had pilot control. I had some control but believe the bird was still trying to accomplish the simple waypoint mission. The second window asks if the operator really wants to exit (ah....yeah) throws up a yellow triangle and white and blue letters- all very small. I could not see the request for confirmation while I was in panic mode. Finally, I grasped it

The aircraft did not want to be grabbed. It resisted mightily. Which led me to
Mistake Number 3:
What not to do. The resistance was causing undue motor strain and of course I was worried. Foolishly, I tried to press the ?? OFF ?? button on controller- of course that only simulates lost uplink. So with the rotor blades whizzing at full speed I tried to slide my hand in to press the battery button. The outcome might have been predicted.
Went away to find a band aid and to conduct an out briefing.

I will try Litchi and reverse after I regain my head and proper respect for the tiny beast.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

A few mistakes
Well, after watching a few YouTube videos about DJI Waypoints 2.0, I went outside to experiment. I wound up just sending the bird over.
Mistake Number 1: I thought I was recording video on the way over but was in photo mode.

Found an open spot in canopy and just descended using the view on screen to navigate after fixing recording problem. Carefully, since there is an overhead electric line to house in addition to big trees, I dropped to about 25' and panned about without changing anything but yaw and gimbal. The video here is of the trip up over and home to my yard. Just going over with video to guide me there and back. Once back I tried to set up a simple straight line low mission.

Which led to...

Mistake Number 2: Trying to stop a loaded waypoint mission. Hastily created, saved, and started, the mission was headed right into a tree. I panicked and pressed the pause button, then the red X. I couldn't understand why pressing the red X didn't stop the process. There is an odd DJI second window that I wasn't aware of until after... I tried to hand land after I thought I had pilot control. I had some control but believe the bird was still trying to accomplish the simple waypoint mission. The second window asks if the operator really wants to exit (ah....yeah) throws up a yellow triangle and white and blue letters- all very small. I could not see the request for confirmation while I was in panic mode. Finally, I grasped it

The aircraft did not want to be grabbed. It resisted mightily. Which led me to
Mistake Number 3:
What not to do. The resistance was causing undue motor strain and of course I was worried. Foolishly, I tried to press the ?? OFF ?? button on controller- of course that only simulates lost uplink. So with the rotor blades whizzing at full speed I tried to slide my hand in to press the battery button. The outcome might have been predicted.
Went away to find a band aid and to conduct an out briefing.

I will try Litchi and reverse after I regain my head and proper respect for the tiny beast.

Commending you for the bravity of your post and your mistakes.
Panic mode is real and many of the pilot errors we see on this forum are Panic mode. This is a great example of that.

With that said getting all the mistakes out in 1 flight might not have been to bad of a flight after all. You wont make them twice .

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly you mavic in the rain

 

[Camino Ken]

I fly in the exact same environment all the time. I live in the forest surrounded by very tall trees and have attempted something a bit similar. There are a few things to be aware of and use caution. First, the GPS accuracy is not perfect and the errors increase with less satellites which are partially blocked by the trees. I have seen errors up to 10-15 feet or so on occasion. The second issue is that Litchi seems to use the obstacle avoidance on the M2 more aggressively and if it gets too close to a tree it will stop the mission. Bottom line is that with both of these errors combined you need to have at least a 30 ft buffer on all sides to be safe and successful.

BTW, you can just hold the left stick (assuming mode 2) all the way down for a second or so to stop the motors when it is in your hand. I hand launch and land all the time.

 

[Meta4]

Mistake Number 2: Trying to stop a loaded waypoint mission.

The quick and simple way to cancel a Litchi mission (or any automated flight process) is to flick the Flight Mode switch out of P-GPS and back.
That leaves you with normal manual control.

 

[RustyBonz]

Certainly appreciate the comments and info. I have Litchi but since I’m still learning the basic DJI waypoints 2.0, I have only studied the software.

When in panic mode, with limited vision and a handful of quad copter ‘giving it all it’s got’ to take off, it was all I could do to hit the red X on my hard to see iPhone. Twice. The down joystick hand catch wasn’t working. Up and down allowed while flying waypoints apparently. But not land and shut down. I got ahold of it and held on. It started fighting to get loose; that was the scary part.

I hardly ever use the sensors, opting for tripod mode- no sensors. So later having used sensors in waypoint mode- during my debrief, I examined the screen capture. I finally saw the logic of the radar bars. Of course I can barely see such detail in real time. Learning to trust. This is my issue along with learning to work with the technology- not to fight it.