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Precision landing

gnuPilot

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Jul 24, 2017
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I watched a couple videos on YouTube where they were talking about “precision landing” - they fly the Spark straight up to about 30 feet, camera pointed down before flying it anywhere else. They said that doing this allows Spark to actually get a get Home setting. Can anyone explain this or confirm it’s actually true?
 
Here some information about the Precision Landing feature from the Spark manual:

Manual.jpg
 
I did this today twice. I was sitting there and I saw some chalk. I drew a circle. It wasn't a big one. I drew an x in the middle, placed the Spark on it, I set the home point before even taking off. When I took off, I went up to 20 feet or so. Sat there for a minute and then went and did what I wanted to do. When I was ready to come back I hit return to home and watched it come back, hover over head, and on the way down I noticed the precision landing message on the screen. When it did this, I watched the Spark move a little toward the circle. As it came closer and closer I noticed that it was pretty much right on the money. If there was no wind, it would have touched down dead center. When it touched down with the wind, it was 4 inches off the 1st battery, 2 on the 2nd battery. Yesterday I got 1 battery in before a storm blew in but when it came down, it was half an inch off.

Sent from my LG-M430 using SparkPilots Spark Forum mobile app
 
I watched a couple videos on YouTube where they were talking about “precision landing” - they fly the Spark straight up to about 30 feet, camera pointed down before flying it anywhere else. They said that doing this allows Spark to actually get a get Home setting. Can anyone explain this or confirm it’s actually true?
There is no need to point the camera down, there is another camera bellow the Spark for that purpose. It is based on an image taken at take-off and it tries to match it when it is about to land. This come to increase the accuracy of landing point from the GPS home point location, having a picture of where it took-off, it tries to retrieve that picture at landing. If the pattern bellow is uniform, b.e. all grass or just concrete with no marking, it cannot define the take-off point in the picture. If the light condition changes a lot, there could be also some issue.
It is not a must to use it. If you have weak GPS (in city with tall building), narrow place where to land or other specific need, then it is really a nice improvement over normal GPS RTH.
I am not sure if it can also use it during normal landing, not only in RTH cases.
 
I am not sure if it can also use it during normal landing, not only in RTH cases.
It can only be used during RTH. When landing manually, precision landing does not take over since you're manually controlling the sticks the entire time.
 
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I've not had much luck with precision landing. Most of the time, it does not appear to be enabled, even though I have done the vertical take-off to 30ft. It would be nice if there was some confirmation that conditions for precision landing have been satisfied. Currently, you only find out when you actually do RTH, and even then, you can easily miss the temporary pop-up alert that tends to come and go while you are watching RTH progress. Any pointers on sure-fire way to make sure precision landing requirements have been met?
 
I've not had much luck with precision landing. Most of the time, it does not appear to be enabled, even though I have done the vertical take-off to 30ft. It would be nice if there was some confirmation that conditions for precision landing have been satisfied. Currently, you only find out when you actually do RTH, and even then, you can easily miss the temporary pop-up alert that tends to come and go while you are watching RTH progress. Any pointers on sure-fire way to make sure precision landing requirements have been met?

It sounds as if the possible downward "picture" that the drone is taking is too nondescript, nothing sticks out. I suggest taking a piece of red , yellow or a contrasting color to the take off surface and putting a big black X on it if you don't want to buy a landing pad. Once it has a good picture , it will come down slowly, and juke right or left slowly, to land right on the construction paper X.
 
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It sounds as if the possible picture that the drone is taking is nondescript, nothing sticks out. I suggest taking a piece of red , yellow or a contrasting color to the take off surface and putting a big black X on it if you don't want to buy a landing pad. Once it has a good picture , it will come down slowly, and juke right or left slowly, to land right on the construction paper X.
Yeah, I know about that, and DO use a makeshift cardboard landing pad. It's just not reliable. But thanks for the advice!
 
Then Talk to DJI, mine lands within 2-3 inches of the X.
 
I just did the precision landing twice again. I drew a small circle on the ground and drew an H in it and before taking off, I set my home point, launch to 20 feet, hover for a few seconds, and then off I go. When I hit return to home, it comes back, starts coming down, and while on it's way down, I see on the screen, precision landing rectifying position and the Spark moves a little. When it's about4 feet off the ground, it actually stops for a few seconds, and it adjusts it position again and then starts to land slowly. It usually lands within an inch of the middle of the circle if not dead center. And a few times I did it, it was fighting a wind while landing.

Sent from my LG-M430 using SparkPilots Spark Forum mobile app
 
Exactly, minte usually makes 2 corrections in the last 15 or 20 feet of altitude.
 
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For mine it just all depends on conditions. That's what I've noticed. On a calm day, it might come down dead on and won't move at all. On a windy day, it will move just a bit. It all depends on where I set that home point and if it was done on the ground or in the air. If I set it in the air, I get no precision landing. But it's still pretty good. Always within about 5 feet of the set spot. Even on a total disconnect.

Sent from my LG-M430 using SparkPilots Spark Forum mobile app
 

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