Wow bro. Don't be a dick. Someone like yourself is most definitely useless to this forum.
NEVER FLY IN FOG
- Thread starter maumau
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It is in the manual to not fly in fog, because it interferes with sensors.
The bottom VPS sensors, as stated, lose reference to ground. The fog is well documented to affect this. Some have reported the drone *refuses* to land.
Yes, a barometer is used , as well as GPS. However when the bottom sensors believe there is an object below it, it will slow down the descent, to I believe 0.5m/s. So, if you are at 100m altitude, it will take 200s to land. Hope you have battery left.
That is incorrect.
The Spark will not slow at all and can smack into the ground if the pilot does not respond properly.
See post #14
i'm not an expert but still wanna add something to discussion.
Spark really use barometric sensor to measure height above launch position (not the altitude above sea level). The main problem with the fog (besides the moisture) is fact that the bottom sensors on spark will take over the height measurement control when the aircraft is lower than 5.5 meters (or if they detect an obstacle) and since the fog may be detected as a solid ground, the telemetry height will drop to the 0 and Spark will kick in the autolanding with very slow descend speed. this might be a problem because with very slow descent you can easily run out of the battery before you get to the ground safely (this happened to one guy from our Czech Spark group - during the descent through the fog, the telemetry dropped from 150 meters to zero and the Spark started to autoland and slowed down to 1kph vertical speed. Results - the battery ran out mid flight about 60 meters above ground completely. Autolanding couldn't be canceled all the time for some reason). The solution to descend in the fog freely is to disconnect the bottom sensors mechanically (warranty void instantly).
Spark really use barometric sensor to measure height above launch position (not the altitude above sea level). The main problem with the fog (besides the moisture) is fact that the bottom sensors on spark will take over the height measurement control when the aircraft is lower than 5.5 meters (or if they detect an obstacle) and since the fog may be detected as a solid ground, the telemetry height will drop to the 0 and Spark will kick in the autolanding with very slow descend speed. this might be a problem because with very slow descent you can easily run out of the battery before you get to the ground safely (this happened to one guy from our Czech Spark group - during the descent through the fog, the telemetry dropped from 150 meters to zero and the Spark started to autoland and slowed down to 1kph vertical speed. Results - the battery ran out mid flight about 60 meters above ground completely. Autolanding couldn't be canceled all the time for some reason). The solution to descend in the fog freely is to disconnect the bottom sensors mechanically (warranty void instantly).
Results may vary I guess. I had zero problem with auto landing kicking in over 12 or so sucessful fog bank flights.
Guess it depends on fog density, light conditions and other factors. I've accidentally flown to the fog couple days ago and the downward sensors error popped up pretty quickly. Let's say I'm not brave enough to try flying through even with possibility of great pictures.
Rocco Germani
Well-Known Member
I flew in a situation the other day where there was a low cloud, but not low enough to be considered fog. It was a snow cloud and the bottom part was about 370 feet high. I went for it and got a nice video of me going up backwards into the cloud. Seconds later my drone started to try to land and it was stuck. I tried sports mode and everything I could to get it out of there, but it was stuck just decending. I put the throttle stick all the way down and it took a full minute and a half to decend out of the cloud. I'm sure the conditions could be different based upon your spark but this is what happened to me.
Not nice situation though. This id is probably the same thing that happened to one of CZ Spark group as I mentioned couple comments above. Unfortunately in his case he was probably deeper in the cloud and didn't make it before the battery ran out.
Don’t get me wrong, the bottom sensors go out but I still fly because I learned how to fly with non GPS drones. Easy Peasy
Rocco Germani
Well-Known Member
No, I just expect the unexpected when I fly like that. Like the landings I describe
been talking about this once more with an experienced guy from our group. quoting his words: "there's no way to disable bottom facing sensors on Spark like it's possible with Mavic Air or others. For example - you're flying in the clouds 400ft above the ground and you decide to go down. Bottom sensors will report an obstacle and the Spark will stop. If you push the throttle down for 3 more seconds, the drone will determine that it's above solid surface like ground or hand, resets altimeter to zero and begins to autoland with fixed vertical speed of 1 ft/s. You can cancel it and go back up but when you try to go down again, the situation repeats. Let's say you have like 25% of battery (equals 4 minutes of flight roughly) and the descent with 1 ft/s will take no less than 6 minutes. Drone will still come down to you but in freefall. The second thing that can happen is that the drone will descend in standard speed of 10 ft/s but instead of braking at 60-65 feet above ground, it will smash the ground without braking."
rich777
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I would have thought that if all these sensor problems happen when you come down vertically to land then why not just have a spark moving forward as you descend like in a spiral. We can all crash our Sparks flying across a field and slam them into the ground if we put the sticks down without ever having the downward looking sensors warning us that we are near the ground or slowing us down.
I've flown in cloud and had the sensor fail warning to land immediately and just ignore it and keep on flying forward and downwards with no problem at all. Just my experience of this issue.
I've flown in cloud and had the sensor fail warning to land immediately and just ignore it and keep on flying forward and downwards with no problem at all. Just my experience of this issue.
I haven't tried to fly in fog conditions, and everything you guys are talking about sensors can be true, but I think spark never sets altitude to zero, if it isn't at home position.
I have landed spark on a place above takeoff point, and altitude wasn't zero, and I have landed spark below takeoff point, and altitude was with a minus sign before it (negative number).
I have landed spark on a place above takeoff point, and altitude wasn't zero, and I have landed spark below takeoff point, and altitude was with a minus sign before it (negative number).
LKLM-Media
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This is 100% not BS - I concur with the other Posters mentioning the IR sensors.
I have just returned from a session where I wanted to get some shots of the Sunrise, which I realised over the whole valley would look spectacular. Everything seemed fine in the first few moments - it had 10 sats at launch, so GPS/Home point launch was possible. And where I was I was confident I could see light blue sky above me.
I ascended to around...Ummm well actually I don't even know how many metres up, because I was watching the Spark itself (keeping line of site.) - Then I heard the beeping and the voice saying "Landing"...WTF??!
Next thing I look down and on the screen I see the X to cancel the landing, and looking at the Height reference it said 0.5m - but also with No vision in the background - just grey - I looked back up, and the Drone was gone...But I could still hear it...and it didn't seem to be getting closer. The Fog had closed in around it (as some mentioned the Fog of course, does play havoc with audio as well...so the pitch and volume was changing...I was a bit worried it was still gaining altitude or drifting...) - something I noticed even before I looked at the phone screen was that it appear to be Yawing without my control...It was time to take immediate action.
So I cancelled the Landing process - still it showed 0.5m of the ground...I was pulling back on the Throttle, and thought I could hear it coming down - but I couldn't see it, and the alarm kicked in again and she said she was landing...But no drone...
This process I continued a few times, flicking back and forth from Sports mode and pulling back on the throttle. Then I could see it, it hadn't changed location which was good - just guessing a thicker bank of fog had rolled past. But still not descending...So kept pulling back and resetting the auto-land...I had to do this about 8-9 times, each time it came down a little further.
What I realise later on was how lucky the sensors did not get completely wet to the point where they considered ground level reached and switched off the engines. But contrary to the "BS" notion - I have strong faith in the evidence that as soon as I had reached a certain Saturation layer the onboard CPU ignores Barometer (which in cold and fog is likely a bit messed up anyway.) - and also any height it gets from GPS (not sure if these units rely on GPS height.) - subsequently the CPU says - I am 0.5m from the ground - which automatically puts it in Landing mode, I've seen this in normal flying conditions, just cruising around, go too low and it will perform a Landing cycle!
It has made me curious (but not enough to test potentially losing a drone or breaking laws.) - to see if I had have 1. kept ascending would it punch through and discover it's real height (but then how would I get it down?!?!) ...2. Would it have eventually landed as a part of a Constant "landing cycle" where it's 0.5m does not get achieved, but it descends very slowly from 20m - I fear in that time period the unit would likely get soaked from such a long period in the precipitate. Attached is an image of the drone from no more than 2-3 minutes in the Pea-soup.
***RESULTS MAY VARY***
That said, I have has zero flight characteristics while flying in fog.
Only issue I get is a warning "Ultrasound fail. Please land immediately" or something to that effect.
But I know what that is - it cannot "see" the ground.
So I have to be mindful of the landing and manually stop it from smacking the ground in auto land or remember it will not slow down above the ground flying manually.
That said, I have has zero flight characteristics while flying in fog.
Only issue I get is a warning "Ultrasound fail. Please land immediately" or something to that effect.
But I know what that is - it cannot "see" the ground.
So I have to be mindful of the landing and manually stop it from smacking the ground in auto land or remember it will not slow down above the ground flying manually.
LKLM-Media
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I believe you are sort of on track - IMHO it isn't that it "Can't see the ground" - in this situation I think the IR and bottom mount camera act in reverse and feel there IS a solid object already at close proximity - I have noted this in my post that sometimes when you get too close to ground even in normal flying it will initiate an autoland procedure. It's really just the CPU programming being a bit too smart for it's own good. But could also be a safety aspect for all we know - would have to ask DJI...
But for reference - try this:
In my Fog session I didn't notice the symbol change next to the Height - in fact it still showed H and 0.5m - But I plan to do a few sessions this week where I will hopefully be able to test various aspects.
***APPARENTLY*** - If you use LITCHI - there is an option to turn off the Bottom Sensors.
Turning off bottom sensors
I strapped a FliFli drop servo to my spark today - which is surprisingly light. However even though OA is turned off the blocked sensors cause the drone to continuously ascend into the air and it’s a PITA to lower back. I read somewhere someone put electrical tape over the sensors - but when I...
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