aborting a mission (for safety)

Greg Roberts

Hello,

I'm writing to understand the best way to abort a mission in DroneLink for safety.  During several flights, I have needed to abort a mission to take manual control of the drone and results have been inconsistent.  The three methods that I have used have been 1. the mission pause button on the upper left of the screen, 2. the Pause/RTH button on the controller, and 3. the Normal/Sport Mode switch.  1 and 2 have behaved inconsistently in past flights -- sometimes, the response is fast and the mission aborts, sometimes there is a long delay before I can regain manual control.  If the drone is hovering, it's not a problem, but if the drone is on its way to a checkpoint, it seems to continue along its flight path.  Unable to regain control, the situation poses a danger to anyone in the flight path.  3 seems the most reliable, but I don't necessarily want to switch to Sport mode when flying with people nearby.  I would think, each of the methods to abort a flight would be high priority and the drone immediately comes to a stop and hovers.   Please advise -- thanks.

 

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Comments

5 comments

  • Comment author
    Mike (Arizona Wyldwest) Dronelink Expert Dronelink Expert

    Hi Greg. Any of those three ways to pause the mission should take about a second or two. What do you consider a long delay ? Switching out of Normal position to either of the two modes will do the same thing which is immediately stop the mission. So even switching into sport mode will not make it go faster or change the speed in any way. Curious what device and controller you’re using ?

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  • Comment author
    Greg Roberts

    Hi Mike,  I guess anything longer than a half a second, I had considered a long delay.  I usually keep my thumb on the Pause/RTH button on the controller (Mavic Pro) or on the Cinema/Normal/Sport mode switch (DJI RC-N1 - mini 3 Pro) during a mission to immediately take control if necessary.  The Normal/Sport mode switch on the Mavic Pro controller is harder to find compared to the Cinema/Normal/Sport mode switch on the DJI RC-N1. Today, the Mavic Pro drifted past a tree before I could force it down -- there were also people around and could have posed a danger for them.   I was flying in a tight space (60 ft x 60 ft) and trying to get the exact locations of the waypoints/checkpoints is not trivial as the overlay maps are often shifted or not updated.  It would be easier (and safer), if the mission could be conducted relative to a 'home' location, but I guess that I would need to upgrade to a different version for that feature.  ;-)

    Thanks again,

    - Greg

     

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  • Comment author
    stéphane GARNIER

    My prefered solution :
    I remove the cable between the controller and the phone.
    Drone is then directly controlled by the RC.

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  • Comment author
    Mike (Arizona Wyldwest) Dronelink Expert Dronelink Expert

    In a tight spot like that you may want to try some of the On the Fly functions. Waypoints, photo component, checkpoint etc. This way you can fly it manually at the altitude you need and mark each location with good accuracy. Once you set it up you can then run as a normal mission and even edit it in the Web app to tweak it anytime. Something to consider.

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  • Comment author
    Philippe (France)
    • Edited
    Greg Roberts 
    ... Les trois méthodes que j'ai utilisées ont été :
    1. le bouton de pause de mission en haut à gauche de l'écran,
    2. le bouton Pause/RTH sur le contrôleur
    3. le commutateur de mode Normal/ Sport. …

    Dans l’ordre décroissant de mes préférences pour un DJI Mini 3 avec RC-N1 + Smartphone Android :

    • bouton Pause/RTH sur le contrôleur. Attention ! Cela ne semble pas fonctionner en présence du bug du « drone fou ». Si le Drone est à plus de 20m du point de décollage, un deuxième appui engendre un RTH. Bien paramétrer la hauteur du RTH avant qu’il ne soit déclenché…
    • commutateur de mode Cine/Normal/Sport. Cela fonctionne à tous les coups. Ce n’est pas grave si le commutateur est sur Sport tant que l’on ne touche pas aux manches. Par contre, il faut rapidement ramener cet interrupteur sur Ciné (Tripode) ou Normal (P-GPS) pour bénéficier de la stabilisation par GPS et de la détection de proximité (s’il y en a une).
    • bouton de pause de mission en haut à gauche de l'écran. Attention ! Cela ne semble pas fonctionner en présence du bug du « drone fou »
    • débrancher le cordon entre le smartphone et le contrôleur. Il est recommandé de préalablement mettre l’interrupteur sur Cine (Tripod) avant de commencer la mission, afin de bénéficier du positionnement GPS lors du passage en mode manuel.

    Bons vols,

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