Twilight flight issues

[Volffas]

This evening was the second time I tried to fly right after sunset. This used to be my favorite time to fly with my Phantom 3 Pro, but both of my twilight flights have had issues. The mavic air drifts all over the place. I confirmed there was no interference before taking off and everything was calibrated properly. Any idea why this would only seem to happen when it's getting dark outside? During daylight hours the mavic air has no issues staying in a very small space while hovering.

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[Intuition44]

The MA relies heavily on its downward cameras. These take a picture of the ground as it rises and this becomes a "map" for the MA. It helps if there is lots of variation in colors and lots of different shapes. This makes for a more specific picture the MA can use to know how to hover in place.


If it can't see anything on the ground because it's dark, it has no map to tell it how to stay in place. In this cade it switches and relies in GPS to help locate itself. But that's only accurate to a few yards. So basically a 25 or 20 foot radius circle around the launch point is where the MA will hover. But will likely buzz around inside that circle as the built in error in gps continuously changed.

 

[Volffas]

That makes sense.

I don't understand how some people are posting night pictures from their Air. Mine is going up and down and left and right too much to even kind of get a shot without heavy blur.

 

[Surge]

I think you have to turn off the sensors. It should be stable based on its internal gyro.

 

[mapwd1702]

The MA relies heavily on its downward cameras. These take a picture of the ground as it rises and this becomes a "map" for the MA. It helps if there is lots of variation in colors and lots of different shapes. This makes for a more specific picture the MA can use to know how to hover in place.


If it can't see anything on the ground because it's dark, it has no map to tell it how to stay in place. In this cade it switches and relies in GPS to help locate itself. But that's only accurate to a few yards. So basically a 25 or 20 foot radius circle around the launch point is where the MA will hover. But will likely buzz around inside that circle as the built in error in gps continuously changed.

then how come my Phantom 3 or Spark never did that??? it was just relying on GPS and never wavered around. I haven’t taken the Air up at dusk yet to see what happens. I like shooting incoming thunderstorms at night though.

 

[dragonmuzz]

Complete bolloxs ....I fly my air in complete darkness with all sensors on and I get no drift whatsoever...I've flown all my DJI drones at night and the Air performs as good as the rest .....
Only time I've seen it drift a tiny bit was in very high winds which is to be expected.
Was it in GPS mode cos if it loses that which can happen for a few seconds at a time it will drift in the wind

 

[Volffas]

Complete bolloxs ....I fly my air in complete darkness with all sensors on and I get no drift whatsoever...I've flown all my DJI drones at night and the Air performs as good as the rest .....
Only time I've seen it drift a tiny bit was in very high winds which is to be expected.
Was it in GPS mode cos if it loses that which can happen for a few seconds at a time it will drift in the wind

There was absolutely no wind last night and that thing was all over the place. I'll have to try it again tonight without sensors on.

 

[mapwd1702]

try calibratiing the drone

 

[Volffas]

try calibratiing the drone

I'm going to try and fly today in the sunlight if this wind ever dies down to see if it's still drifting all over the place. If it is, I'll definitely calibrate. But at the start screen last night on the DJI Go app it said everything was normal.

 

[Volffas]

UPDATE:

Last night when I was done flying, I put the quad on the shelf and left it there. Just now, I took the quad off the shelf, with the same battery and set up completely, went out to the exact same spot I took off from last night, and even with 15mph winds, the Air stayed in a small space about 6 inches squared. The only difference between last night and now is that right now is broad daylight. This is 100% an issue that only occurs with this quadcopter when the sky starts to get dark.

This evening I will turn the sensors off and see if that helps at all.

Thanks for all of the good ideas and suggestions so far!

 

[Volffas]

2nd Update:


I flew the quadcopter again tonight. By the time we got home from dinner, the sun had completely set. I flew from my front porch where the full moon was shining down and the streetlamp was fairly bright. This thing still traveled like a door to door salesman. Then I turned off the sensors hoping that would help straighten things out and it still drifted just as bad.

Has anyone else had this experience???