AVATA 2 Return To Home Testing - Follow up video
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 เม.ย. 2024
- After coming across an issue during RTH I went out to do some more testing and I discovered some interesting quirks about RTH and the new DJI Avata 2.
If DJI would like the flight log to be reviewed for issues. Please email me at justinb.creator@gmail.com
I hope this is just a one-off or maybe an issue with my aircraft. Either way it's concerning.
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*Update* I have done more testing and need to make some corrections to things stated in the video.
The low battery RTH behaviour is the same between the 2 controllers if you are using normal or sport mode. If you are flying in Manual mode then the low battery sequence is as described for the DJI FPV#3 controller, but if you are in normal or sport mode, it responds the same as the motion controller where you will get a 15 second countdown at 26% in my case. Hope this clears some things up 😃
Hi Justin, same problem here, I did a video , th-cam.com/video/SGxwuuyz8lo/w-d-xo.html
I did some tests with a friend of mine with another Avata2, so we tried both in manual and in N/Sport mode, the RTH low battery with the use of the RC3 never works!!
With motion controller 2 works fine, battery at 25% "low battery RTH" starts and workd fine.
With DJI FPV RC2 no...
it doesn't work either in "N" or in "S" or in "MANUAL"
We have the 1st low battery warning at 25% but the RTH procedure does not start...
in fact when the battery reached 5% the drone auto landed alone, (failsafe RTH set at 50 meters altitude) we did a further test , by turning off the RC3 the RTH works, by turning off the glasses the RTH works, by Motion controller works, but with RC2 only warnings, the RTH never starts...
I am VERY glad I came across your video. I thought I had a drone with a mind of its own. Twice now my Avata 2 has done exactly what you described while performing an auto-return to home from a low battery condition while using the motion controller. The first time, it descended from only 20 feet or so and nearly hit a tree trunk. When it did this, I was only roughly 50 yards away. At no point did it ever ascend to my RTH altitude of 150 feet. The second time it did an auto RTTH, it was only 100 feet off the ground and made a perfect direct line back towards the home point (descending as it flew). This time, it did impact a tree top. Thankfully it did not crash, but only gave a collision alert. The drone stopped the RTH at that point however, and attempted to do a land in place. I had to stop the drone and fly it back manually. So in short, you are correct that "something" is going on with the RTH behavior. This is a situation that will or could cause a loss of an aircraft under certain conditions. This is definitely NOT the RTH behavior that I see in my Air 3 or other DJI drones. Hopefully others will find your video and we can collectively let DJI know there is an issue so they can fix in in firmware or something. Again, thanks for sharing your experience and for attempting to recreate the issue.
The reason why it doesn’t activate with the FPV remote is because it’s for advanced operators who’ve flown manually. The return to home on the motion controller is basically for beginners who are not accustomed to watching their battery voltages/levels. The motion controller in normal or sports modes, is very easy to fly with, very intuitive. Easier if you’re a beginner.
Rice 😀 very interesting and thorough. Thanks for sharing this! 👍👏🐾🐈⬛
what a save! you are a pro!
Haha thank you!
Rice haha nice review of RTH, keeps up the faith in my AVT2
Hi there... It's a great test you did. I am glad to see your video.
Can I also request you to please do another test of rocking motion of avata 2 while it flies in the normal / sports mode.
I and many more people reported that the Avata 2 keeps this rocking motion left to right throughout the GPS AIDED flights and is much more apparent during the RTH mode. This is a strange behaviour as none of the other DJI drones do it. Could be a bug. This is visible only in the live view in the goggles and will be recorded in the dvr as well. However, the drone footage may not have this if any stabilization is turned on.
Kindly report this if you can.
Hey! I've noticed this but in all honesty this doesnt concern me. It's just the drone reacting to the wind and its movement. It's all in the tune on the flight cotroller and DJI may update that as time goes on. It appears that there needs to be some tweaking in the PID's but my other cinewhoop also exibits similar behaviour where it twitches a little. It's never bothered me and it's just part of the flying experience. My 5 inch doesn't move around as much unless i stick a go pro on the top then it also tends to twitch a little. But I don't think this is of major concern. I think the reason you dont see it on other DJI drones is because they have a 3 axis gimbal wihch takes out all of these twitches before you see them. The Avata gives you a much more raw experience with the single axis gimbal. 😃
Very well thought out and conducted! I guess one expected insight which didn't materialise was replaced with another unexpected one. Either way, that's a result.
Now to the behaviour of the FPV3 RTH. Just an off the cuff theory; could it be that when flying with the FPV (and in Manual mode perhaps even more so), the software is geared more towards the experienced user, perhaps someone who would be more annoyed than a beginner might be, at the drone taking away control from the pilot? Oh well, it's just a thought...
Congrats on this very well made video, bravo 👍👍👍
Thank you! Yep, sometimes you set out to figure 1 thing out and learn a whole lot more along the way. Yep, I agree with you. The FPV radio is definitely geared more towards more experienced pilots. I know I would find it annoying if it just stopped and returned to home, but I'd just get used to it and fly around it. Either way, it's a good outcome, and I'm looking forward to moving forwards and doing the more fun videos I have planned 👌
@@JustinBainbridgeYT Ok so what I found in reference to this is inconclusive. The dji FPV RC3 user manual, on page 13, has this to say:
"When using Normal or Sport mode, press the Start/Stop button once to cancel Low Battery RTH countdown when the prompt appears in the goggles, and the aircraft will not enter the low
battery RTH."
That's all I could find. Note that this paragraph omits mentioning Manual mode...?
What if you tested again, with the FPV RC3, but in S mode instead...? It might provide even more insight 🤷♂️😊
@olabergvall3154 Yeah, I did think about testing in normal and sport mode, but I thought that the drone would just flick from manual to normal and bring it back. I'll test this out when I fly again tomorrow. But I would imagine the manual is correct😃
@@olabergvall3154 Hey I did some more testing and found this to be the case. The low battery RTH behaviour is the same between the 2 controllers if you are using normal or sport mode. If you are flying in Manual mode then the low battery sequence is as described for the DJI FPV3 controller, but if you are in normal or sport mode, it responds the same as the motion controller where you will get a 15 second countdown at 26% in my case.
@@JustinBainbridgeYT Well, that makes sense I guess. Thanks for the update, fly safe! 👍😊
Really enjoying your content mate. 👍
That was a scary situation you had on the previous vid.
I hope that was a one off glitch! 🤞
I noticed in this video that your low battery fail-safe RTH triggered to auto land.
I believe you can change a setting in the goggles for the FPV remote 3 to fail-safe into either (auto land) or (RTH).
on page 13 of the FPV Remote-3 I saw this choice relating to the pause/RTH button:
When the aircraft is performing RTH or auto landing, press the button once to cancel RTH or landing.
That's what makes me think there is a setting between those 2 choices for RTH while using the FPV remote-3?
Yeah at 7% it went into auto land. I don't think this is something you can change as it's a battery protection measure. I did have a look through the menus but couldnt see any options related to low battery conditions, only loss of signal failsafe options. It's a good laugh getting used to all these features. My other FPV drones are just fully manual and i'm so used to just monitoring my batery levels constantly and landing when needed. This just make it confusing haha. Yeah the pause button cancels the function. You can't cancel a low battery auto landing though, you have to just fly it to a suitable landing spot whilst it's constantly trying to land. Lot's of little things to figure out but it's all part of the fun.
@@JustinBainbridgeYT Thanks for looking into that and explaining it Justin. 👍
I'll be flying the avata 2 very soon for the first time and all this info is going to help me a lot.
It'll be my first drone and should be a lot of fun.
Cheers mate.
Was a firmware refresh a variable in your study (despite determining this was a manual vs. normal/sport modes)?
Nope, I left the firmware untouched. I have now discovered the issue - check the latest video- th-cam.com/video/1wO4RSiU4pE/w-d-xo.htmlsi=v2yzijXTMVs9hUIy
It has a feature where it tries to return via your flight path. This is important in the instance you flew into a cave or under a bridge it will try to simulate the path you took till it regains signal. You wouldnt want it to climb to return to home height if there is somthing above you. Someone did a video clip on this failsafe i forgot who
Yep, I've seen this, and the drone did this. When it looses signal it stops and then flies back to the last point it had signal then it ascends ro the RTH altitude. The drone had already done this part of the manoeuvre. Can be seen in full in my last video detailing the initial event 😃
Majority if this land is flat. So to create an even closer replica to the first issue the land below has to have a slope as how in the initial incident the land below was sloping inward
Exactly! ALL the tests he did were obsolete as soon as I saw the difference I'm landscape. He should do it in the exact same spot.
In theory, the terrain should have no impact on the results. The drone uses GPS data for latitude and longitude positioning and then barometer data for altitude. If it was going to decrease altitude, it would have done it anywhere. I also wanted to conduct the testing in a controlled environment so that I could easily recover the drone if something went wrong. I could test in the same spot, but in reality, it shouldn't make a difference. The drone is measuring air pressure for altitude, not its distance from the ground below it. Plus, it was flying along the crest of the ridge, which was mostly flat with little elevation change, plus it didn't have to cross either of the valleys. Either way. I didn't want to lose the drone, so I tested somewhere I saw fit. I will return to the ridge again soon, and I'll do a test and see what happens. 😃
@JustinBainbridgeYT barometer.... that is sus in landscape. What ever the case.. hope you head out to the se spot. This issue is concerning. Thanks for digging into this!
I understand. I await the video when you go back to the terrain and do a most close replica. I was watching the simple drop from 50 to 49 as well. Ofc you can try having a spotter at the location as well
Sticky rice lol great viedo very happy you show everything in the video also where did you download your flight logs to? I like to see my flight logs in that much detail
I like to know that too
Hi guys!
To download the flight logs. Refer to this DJI article. it tells you how to get the logs from different devices.
Here's the link - support.dji.com/help/content?customId=en-us03400006894&spaceId=34&re=US&lang=en&documentType=artical&paperDocType=paper
Then if you want to see it how I did you just create a free account on AirData -
Here's the link - airdata.com/
Then just drag and drop the log file into Airdata and voila!
At least you can fly yours got mine last Fri and it's stuck on country code not updated tried everything even what DJI said to do so I have a 1300 dollar drone I can only fly 20 ft away and it stops real bummer nice area to fly stay safe thanks for the info had no idea about the difference ✌️
Mine was stuck as well. Until I took it outside and then powered everything up with the goggles plugged into my phone, go fly app open and logged in. It needed satellites. It updated location just fine and I was good to go after that.
@@Amberdogproductions thanks for the info gonna try it today (Tuesday) ✌️🤙🤙
The drone and the goggles need to be outside to update the country gps the first time
@@johnnysouth4982 hope that works for ya. It did for me. I tried to walk outside with it powered on, but that didn't work. So power it all up outside with goggles plugged into phone with open fly app.
@@Amberdogproductions your a genius it worked thanks surprised no one has touched on that on any of the forums any way thanks to you I'M FLYING STAY SAFE ✌️🤙🤙🤙🤙🤙🤟🤟🤟🤟🤟🤟
Oh yes, I was just about to write by using two controllers for the same test and also manual vs. normal vs. sport :-) It looks like it switches the mode correctly though.
Yeh, I'm going to test normal and sport to see if it's any different. The manual says normal and sport should activate low battery RTH. I fly predominantly in manual though hence why I didn't test this in this video. Also the RTH issue I experienced was in Manual mode too. 😃
what radio does this drone operate with. what region are you in, im assuming not europe so not ce and not usa so not fcc but what is it equivalent too, only because your range looks very good, 500m at 20 high is great
Hey! I'm In Bali, so yep it's an FCC region. Using the FPV3 Radio. The area I was in also has a fair bit of signal congestion. I notice when I go into the mountains the signal is much much better. 😃
Got a question here, which software is needed to see these flight data as you’ve just shown. And also where to access these files (and its extension). Thank you !
Hey, just sign up for Airdata. The free plan is enough to see everything that I did.
Here's the link - airdata.com/
To download the flight logs. Refer to this DJI article. it tells you how to get the logs from different devices.
Here's the link - support.dji.com/help/content?customId=en-us03400006894&spaceId=34&re=US&lang=en&documentType=artical&paperDocType=paper
Then just drag and drop the log file into Airdata and voila! 😃
Just a thought, did you do your testing with the same battery?
Yeah, long shot i know, but..still.
Hey, Yep the same battery was used for the tests as was used when the issue happened 😃
Sadly yes this seems like a fluke that it will be hard to recreate. It sure AF makes for a good DJI Care refresh commercial.
Good call on setting RTH altitude in excess. I would be doing the exact same thing. Just set it as sensibly high as you can. You can't really use maths to figure how high to compensate, because it may not drop at the same rate when/if it happens again.
Yep, Hopefully that's the case! Always better to be on the safe side! haha it would make a funny commercial 😂
I forgot to say in my other comment, the batteries only take 45 minutes to charge. You need to be using a 65 W charger or at least 60.
Yep, I'm using a 65w charger, but it still takes a long time 😂 just something to get used to. I can charge 6 x lipo batteries for my other FPV drones in 90 mins but they do only last around 8 mins. Just something to get used to 😀
@@JustinBainbridgeYT Ahh I see, haha you meant they collectively take a long time too I guess, if you add them all up. My hobby chargers just gathering dust now for a while but maybe it’ll get used again for a freestyle quad at some point. 😅
@LowryDroneography-Steve yeah haha collectively it takes a long time. I am very happy with the flight time though. It's impressive. Flies for a bit longer than my long range setup, which also seems to fly forever 😅 yeah do it! I always find it so refreshing jumping back to a free style quad. They fly so well!
@@JustinBainbridgeYT Yeah flight time is pretty crazy! I expect it to have about 30% left and when in reality its about 60 or something 😅
Yeah I’ll probably get a Nazgul or something in the future just for ripping but also keen to see if/when an O4 air unit comes out, as it’ll be pretty game changing if it’s the Avata2 camera, which logically it probably will be.
Great review and testing. Just a thought, when RTH is activated automatically, does it use satellites to fly back home? Possible drop in satellite signal at that specific time.
Yep, it uses satalites to make it back. The flight log shows a stable 32 satellites throughout the whole event, (can be seen in the left hand columns) so that doesn't explain it either. Very strange.
@JustinBainbridgeYT yeah, that's a fair number of satellites. I guess these things happen from time to time. Possibly why Dji give the care package.. 😂
@@Rob_Francis Yeah haha I can't get care refresh here in Bali, plus I move to a different country on average every 3 months so it's tricky haha
In your original RTH, the airdata view showed your left stick slightly down. I know you tested this, but it may have been the reason it dropped altitude. Also, is there some sort of "optimized RTH" mode turned on? I don't believe in one time glitches. (Oh....rice...lol)
@DonJoyce that's the stick position it was in when the RTH was triggered, but I don't think this had anything to do with it, it was decreasing at a rate much faster than the slightly lowered stick would case. I did try flying in normal mode with different stick positions, and it'd have to be almost all the way down to descend at the rate it was. Nope, the optimal RTH is not featured on drones without any front facing obstacle avoidance. I think it just wanted to inspect the ground 😂 hopefully I'm taking it to a volcano (dormant) tomorrow, so if it could end badly, if it tries to do the same haha it's a long way down from there 😅
Raised on Rice!
✌️😎
Rice for life ✌️🌾
The terrain passed when the drone returned to home was uneven, so the drone changed its flight altitude, it is possible
Hey how can i find avata2 flight logs? Thanks in advance!
To download the flight logs. Refer to this DJI article. it tells you how to get the logs from different devices.
Here's the link - support.dji.com/help/content?customId=en-us03400006894&spaceId=34&re=US&lang=en&documentType=artical&paperDocType=paper
Then if you want to see it how i did you just create a free account on AirData -
Here's the link - airdata.com/
Then just drag and drop the log file into Airdata and voila! 😃
@@JustinBainbridgeYT Thanks!
Something I noticed. Your test were not conducted in the same type environment. You were in a clear line of sight during your tests. Try recreating the test by flying the same route you took over the area where the error was first detected.
Hey, yeah, I changed the location to have a better chance at conducting the tests. I needed to be able to reach the same distances without having the signal drop out so I could test various theories. I also wanted to be able to recover the drone should anything go wrong, something that would've been much more difficult in the other place. Maybe the location played a part, some kind of local anomaly or something it should make any difference in theory as the drone is only using GPS for lat/long and the barometer for altitude. But who knows. I'll be heading back to the same location again soon, so I'll see what happens, but I'm focusing on enjoying the drone now and making some of the more fun and educational content I had in mind initially 😅
Hopefully, that's the last of the ghost in the machine...
Fingers crossed, time to get onto more fun things 🤞😅
people are complaining about the RTH avata 2
Yeah why not? It's a $1000+ drone. Do you own one
@@robsilv148 i said this, because alot of people are having the same issue. (to confirm that Justin is not alone).
you have ghost... LOL :)
Haha haunted drone, It needs an exorcism 😂
Rice, Rice, Baby
Rice!!!!
Hi Mate. None of the tests you performed replicated the issue you had. The Avata 2 is different from the Avata 1 in that the controllers, both Motion and Controller 3 do not talk to the drone. They communicate locally with the goggles and the goggles pass the remote controller signals to the drone. Your incident was flying out of range so it was actually the goggles that lost connection, thus including the controller.
To do the simulation correctly you need to switch off the goggles not the controller..
On the RTH situation with the 2 controllers, in settings you can change the Safety Behaviour settings. Like Land, Hover or RTH.
I suspect that changing from one controller to another you would need to set the Safety Behaviour for each individual controller.
Cheers
Hi mate, yep I'm aware the communication is passed through the goggles to the drone but when signal is lost the screen recording stops and I wouldn't be able to show what was happening. Plus, if I switched off the goggles and something went wrong, I wouldn't be able to see and would lose the drone. The only safe way to trigger the failsafe RTH was to switch off the controller and trigger it that wasy. Yep, I'm aware you can change the behaviour of the signal loss action, but in this situation I was wanting to test the RTH, so I left it the same. You aren't able to change any low battery conditions, though, which is what I was showcasing, being the difference between the 2 controllers. Thanks for the input mate 👌
@@JustinBainbridgeYT Yes, I understand the difficulty. But the tests are not valid and don't prove anything. You need to either turn off the goggles or fly the drone past the point where the goggles disconnect as was the case in your original incident. Anyhow I think I will wait for an update before I fly my Avata II beyond reception range. Cheers. p.s. Did yo look and see how to change the Safety setting so that they (Controllers) behave the same. You gave the impression that there was different fixed behaviour, its just doing what the settings are set to. Each controller has its own setting in the settings list.
Hi there, we have confirmed with our engineers that if the battery level reaches the level required for forced landing, the drone will return and lower its altitude simultaneously. In addition, the return trigger logic of the drone has nothing to do with the remote control used. Should you have any further inquiries, please let us know.
Hi there! The initial issue was observed before the drone reached forced landing battery levels at 7%. The drone was still above 20% after the incident. It seems that the low battery behaviour is different between the remotes from my testing. Maybe I missed something in testing, but I experienced different behaviours when using different controllers and different flight modes. Can you tell me the trigger logic sequence for this aircraft? When in manual mode with the FPV 3 controller I had no triggering until forced landing at 7%. But with the motion controller, I had auto RTH come up at 25%
@djisupportglobal you must solve this problem in the next FW
Probably it didn’t trigger the RTH again because you cancelled it the first time 🤔
I triggered a manual rth the first time. I tried twice with the fpv3 and both times there was no auto low battery rth in manual mode. I haven't tried normal/sports mode yet, but the manual says it should trigger in those modes
Some of this is outlined in the manual. Especially, the drone's behavior in Manual Mode. Some of the commenters are also non manual readers. If the drone is less than a certain distance away, it will fly back at it's current height. I also want to point out that there's a "difference between operations" in regards to being in Normal, Sport or Manual Modes that aren't related to which controller you are using. I know that it's every TH-camr's dream to find a major problem with a product that makes their video go viral, Think iPhone 6 Bendgate. This isn't that.
Hey! Yep I posted an updated comment a couple of dys ago saying the same thing. Just like you said, it's to do with the mode you're in rather than the controller. It just so happens that i fly predominantly in manual so hadn't noticed. I'm not looking for Virality, just looking to bring awareness to a potential issue so that other are aware of what could happen and how to avoid it.
@@JustinBainbridgeYT Aha... Yea I see that now. Sorry, it just seems that people LIVE to find fault in products. I get that it can be helpful but we have people making videos complaining the Avata 2 won't allow you to use Easy Acro with the RC3 or that it doesn't have automated flight modes... How idiotic!!!
@@londenard Yeah it's a hard place to be in at the minute because if you talk about the good things people say you're trying to profit from it, and if you talk about the negative people will also jump on you for that haha. Yeah some people just don''t have any idea what this drone was intended to be used for, but hopefully they take the time to educate themselves. On the topic of the RTH issue that I though was over, I have actually now found out what was going on and will release a video on it shortly. Thanks for your comments and support 😃
@JustinBainbridgeYT If I were guessing, the problem was with the low battery situation and the drone trying to shorten the distance back to home. The algorithm wants the drone to land with over 10% battery for the sake of safety. Just for the record, I've had access to the Avata 2 for a couple of months.
I get what you mean... As far as I'm concerned, I respect legitimate complaints. I just get tired of nit picking. No product is perfect, but the Avata 2 is easily the best drone in its class, and no one makes a better one. There are better purely cinewhoops, but none of them have all of the Avata 2's features. You want to be backhanded in your reviews, but focusing on the negative isn't a good way to go either.
Anyway, thanks for the replies!
@@londenard Hey again, I've got to the bottom of it now. I've been in contact with dji and sent them what I found and the flight logs etc.
It only happens in M mode on the FPV 3 radio.
It appears that when reconnecting to the radio the drone accepts whatever value the throttle is at as an input. Considering manual flight requires less than 50% throttle to hover if you just leave the throttle where it is when the drone reconnects it will take this as an input. I think there should be a condition on reconnection to override any throttle value until additional inputs are made by the pilot. Otherwise anytime you lose connection in manual you have to push the throttle past 50% in order to not run into this bug. Hopefully DJI changes this as when you lose signal, generally you have a lot running through your mind, and if you don't know you have to push the throttle up. Things will just get worse.
I will update in due course depending on what the engineers at DJI say.
I hate focusing on the negative but I feel like this is something that could easily be fixed and would genuinely like to help so we have a more user friendly product, damn you've had it for 2 months! That's crazy haha, I agree with what you say I think it's the best cinewhoop on the market right now by a fair margin. If there's nothing that can be done then at least I can make people aware of the query and how to still have a successful flying experience. It's been nice to see everyone trying to help out and see what's going on, the community pulls together well to try and solve things like this 😀
in these tests you were in N mode but in your log you were in S mode
For all tests I was in M mode. In the log, I was in M mode until signal was lost then I switched to S mode after regaining signal to fly home quicker.
The problem is to set the home point to "aircraft" not your position as the phone GPS or goggles GPS / controller can change. On your device or goggles it can deviate. It has happened to my Mini 3 pro before Instead of rising to 50m it came down and go around objects till it reached it's landing home point.
Check in this video at the end 9:22
th-cam.com/video/Yjx5GvOK4AU/w-d-xo.htmlsi=cJtWIdbBEsnkMFoe
So when I take off after enough satellite I set it to aircraft. I never trust update home point to me. You could have trees or building around you that causes you GPS to change. I have this issue with Autel also.
End of your video it didn't auto return to home. This is software glitch. Lucky your not over the water
All-ricey then. Hmm, mysteries! I know some previous Mavic or Mini type models would allow decreasing altitude on RTH, but I agree it would have been unusual to include that in an FPV drone. Yeah I’m loving this drone too! 🙏🏼
Yeah I like the optimal RTH on the Mini's, but they have obstacle avoidance which makes this posssible. This should just climb, maintain altitude then land. That's awesome, glad you're enjoying it! For what it is it's exceptionally good. Indoor flying is also such a doddle with it! 😃
On the disconnect test it started dropping height as soon as you reconnected but you immediately cancelled RTH before it dropped far. It was already at 45m when you cancelled.
I just went back and checked the footage and you're right. I hadn't noticed that at the time. Very strange!
Just done some more testing, this appears to be the issue. A new video is coming shortly! Thanks for picking up on this!