An interesting solution to flyaways...

I am sure many of us have heard about "fly away" horror stories coming from people who own(ed) a DJI phantom... today I found this video which explains the companies solution to one of the supposed causes of the problem... starting at 5:07:

 

 

The premise is that 'flyaways' are caused by a stronger interference signal that overrides the transmitter, jerking the craft in one direction and away from the pilot.

What the code does is detect whether that signal is unchanged for 10 seconds - if it is unchanged the code flags it as possible interference and puts the craft into a hover.

This is because actual pilots don't hold the sticks in one exact position for long periods of time, that is unnatural.

I wonder if it is worth implementing something similar in the Ardupilot code...

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  • I think DJI has been irresponsible in a number of levels with this product in particular... you can see the level of experience that many owners have on "Phantom Pilots" for your self here: http://www.phantompilots.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4355

  • Developer

    I think I understand the problem now. It took me  while since Colin didn't explain it correctly. 

    The receiver signal strength is used to sense failsafe, not the integrity of the data. When the radio is overwhelmed with a noisy signal, it simply outputs the last known RC input. The signal strength will look good, while the receiver fails to operate properly. 

    None of my RX do this. I guess this is what happens when you try and roll your own. 

    Jason

  • Not my saying but fits here 'DJI has 3 modes - we call them atti and GPS and rth, better known as dumb, dumber and Return to N00B.'

  • This is great . They have an idiot explaining was is wrong to inexperienced people try to operate a cheaply produced product correctly.

  • DJI made very quality and usefull worx. And very populare.
    Congrat em, and do not be stupid lazy flamers SEE ALL VIDEO plz. =)

  • I think the issues people are having with DJI basically boil down to the fact that they are, at their core, a glorified cheap Chinese "whitewashed" manufacturing outfit. They try very hard with advertising and PR, but in the end they are pumping stuff out as cheaply as possible and relying on their cloud of 'distributors' as a buffer zone.

  • Definitely blowing smoke out his ass, but that's why they're #1 in sales.

  • Well, instead of fixing apparent symptoms, they should invest in fixing the cause.

    I wasn't aware of the large number of flyaways provoked by Naza. I fly Naza V2 without GPS and never had any problems, but a google search is rife with people subjected to this issue.I found one interesting video though, apparently you can provoke a flyaway by figure 8's?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=iW0hqzixwsk

    and then a page full of "me too's" over here.

    http://www.photographybay.com/2013/07/23/some-dji-phantom-users-are...

    So I bet it's the compass and some serious issue in the construction of these modules or issues with the way the controller reboots and reads the values. It's remarkable that in most videos I see the multirotors behave fine until it yaws to a new direction which provokes the failure.

    The issue comes up either in Atti or GPS mode (which uses the compass). Full manual mode only uses IMU.

  • MR60

    It is also said some ghostbusters are scarring the hell out of DJI Phantoms and causes them to fly away.

    Conclusion to avoid FlyAway's: just teach the ghostbusters to destroy definitively all phantoms they encounter❕❕❗

  • The DJI Phantom flyaways are caused by magnetic beams emanating from the sun reflecting off of the apple-white surfaces and thus pushing the craft off course, as any student of the 17th century naturalist/mathematician priest A. Kircher would know. Solution is to paint them black.

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