Changes to Low Battery Return to Home in the new Firmware v1.3.0

[lovetofly]

Hi mate.
After update to 1.3 the advice given in the app was to discharge the battery to below 5% and then charge to at least 50% again.
Have I done the wrong thing here.

Thanks
Paul

 

[tassieflyer]

Hi mate.
After update to 1.3 the advice given in the app was to discharge the battery to below 5% and then charge to at least 50% again.
Have I done the wrong thing here.

Thanks
Paul

Hi Lovetofly
DJI instruction is to fly a fully charged battery down below 5% then recharge it back up to 100%

 

[lovetofly]

Hi Lovetofly
DJI instruction is to fly a fully charged battery down below 5% then recharge it back up to 100%

Hi tassieflyer
Thanks for your help.
I performed this on Sunday, do you think it would be ok to just complete the charge, or do I need to start again.
Again thank you.
P.S. Cold down there in tassie?

 

[tassieflyer]

Hi tassieflyer
Thanks for your help.
I performed this on Sunday, do you think it would be ok to just complete the charge, or do I need to start again.
Again thank you.
P.S. Cold down there in tassie?

That's a good question. If it was me, I would charge up to 100% & fly it down again only this time recharge up to the full 100%.
It's a bugger to do it all over again but these batteries are too temperamental to fart around with
The air temperature in Hobart was cool but the sun was warm today. Not bad really...cold is what you feel in Canada lol

 

[m00se]

Anyone flying a pack down to 12% of a system that uses a hypothetical capacity to estimate percentage is looking for trouble.
Keep an eye on the voltage of the pack, and land according to that and common sense,
I set my first warning at 35% and have normally landed well before that is reached. The last few % only get a small flight time anyway.

Do yourself a favour and buy another battery, then you can fly longer without hurting your batteries and crashign the inspire

 

[Pottertown]

Also hovering low over the ground to drain batteries is a ludicrous way to get batteries below or to 5%. DJI should have a clearly defined procedure for this, unless I missed it, which is entirely possible!

I completely agree!! This is absurd, especially given the fact that these % readouts of battery power are estimates. I'm totally blown away the craft doesn't have an auto battery drain feature.

 

[lovetofly]

That's a good question. If it was me, I would charge up to 100% & fly it down again only this time recharge up to the full 100%.
It's a bugger to do it all over again but these batteries are too temperamental to fart around with
The air temperature in Hobart was cool but the sun was warm today. Not bad really...cold is what you feel in Canada lol

Hi mate.
Just to be on the safe side I think I will go through the exercise again.
Just out of interest, can you tell me if the compass is built in to the ncor board or is it a separate entity hiding somewhere.

 

[Peter Wilder]

Its also possible to cancel the RTH function by switching back and forth between P-Atti and Atti mode a few times meaning that you wont have to take your hands off the controller to use the touch screen. it might have helped in your situation above to maintain some control over the bird.

 

[tassieflyer]

Hi mate.
Just to be on the safe side I think I will go through the exercise again.
Just out of interest, can you tell me if the compass is built in to the ncor board or is it a separate entity hiding somewhere.

The compass is located on board the aircraft.

 

[fab72]

Hi Fab72, How high were you when you were doing your battery run down? I was about 6in off the ground on my last 30%!
just in case, I not sure about the 10 second warning, I cancelled mine straight away and carried on flying.
Dave

I was at about 3 or 4 feet, which raises a good point. Maybe the behavior is different if the craft can sense the ground?

. . .Flying low is probably safer, but generates a lot of dust on many surfaces.

 

[fab72]

I flew down 4 batteries on Friday & every 10 second warning I got had the bird stable. It did NOT start flying home. It was about the 5 sec mark I would cancel RTH. One point to remember though, I noticed the countdown had started at the moment the first words of the warning were uttered. In other words, I had 7 sec left to react at the end of the audible warning.

Tassie: this is helpful. How low were you flying? We're you above 3 feet on any attempts?

Thanks.

 

[m00se]

just leave the I1 turned on in the room and let it run the battery down. I did that for 8 packs last month. I am making a discharge cable (lightbulb on the right connector) for the next time the discharge is needed.....

Imagine how much wear you put on the motors from just cycling the packs, in thoery up to 10% of flight time will be down to cycling.

 

[fab72]

just leave the I1 turned on in the room and let it run the battery down. I did that for 8 packs last month. I am making a discharge cable (lightbulb on the right connector) for the next time the discharge is needed.....

Imagine how much wear you put on the motors from just cycling the packs, in thoery up to 10% of flight time will be down to cycling.

I've been tempted to try that myself. Anyone foresee an issue with burning the last bit of power off of these intelligent batteries with another load such as a bulb or spare motor?

Putting that extra wear and tear on the Inspire just to discharge batteries seems stupid if another simpler solution would get the job done with no risk or wear to the craft. I'm glad I only have 4 batteries. 10 would take a ridiculous amount of time!

Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk

 

[m00se]

Up until now I have just left it on in the office while I do other things, but it took a day per battery pack to discharge. And that was mainly thanks to the camera using a lot of power, but I also think that putting excessive wear on the fan in the camera is a bad idea, not to mention the component damage from thermal stress, that thing gets seriously hot. It can't be good for the longrun of the camera.

As for problems, think about it, the I1 uses 5amps in around 15 mins, so call that a nice round 20 amp average consumption, if you run the pack down low flying, then it stresses the pack more than say a 10A 24v bulb........

 

[tassieflyer]

Tassie: this is helpful. How low were you flying? We're you above 3 feet on any attempts?

Thanks.

Hi fab72,
All my flights were above 3ft. Mostly about 3m or 10ft. From time to time I got bored and went for a limited flight over the neighborhood. I live on the beachfront & at one stage was hovering about 25m up when a flock of seagulls attacked the Inspire. It must have been perceived as a bird of prey as there are often sea hawks about. Anyhow, I came back to 3m very quickly lol.

 

[DrSeuss]

The only comical thing about that thread was you asking to close it. There was lots of good advice in there and at times good discussion too. If you ask to close a thread because the argument was not going your way then that says a lot. As does your shout 'I told you so' earlier.

I suggest a step back. Battery warnings are given at different levels in order to for the operator to take action as there is danger approaching. That's why they are are called warnings. If 1st warning is ignored its the operators decision along with the consequence. 2nd warning causes an auto land because the operator did not take action. It keeps coming down to the the operators decision and consequences for ignoring warnings.

Like while driving a car and a red light comes on on the dash and the driver ignores it. Soon after it flashes fast, driver ignores it, soon after the car grinds to a halt, possibly in a location you do not want to be in. Driver jumps out of the car and beats the car with a branch. An episode of Fawlty Towers comes to mind. Lesson here is, heed warnings.

However, There are always improvements that can be made., which is what DJI have done. As reported 7 seconds is not long enough I feel. Also hovering low over the ground to drain batteries is a ludicrous way to get batteries below or to 5%. DJI should have a clearly defined procedure for this, unless I missed it, which is entirely possible!

Bottom line here is heed the warnings otherwise don't blame the hardware or logic. If one flys to the edge you will most likely fall over the edge.

Hello IrishSights, you stated "Battery warnings are given at different levels in order to for the operator to take action as there is danger approaching. That's why they are are called warnings. If 1st warning is ignored its the operator's decision along with the consequence. 2nd warning causes an auto land because the operator did not take action. It keeps coming down to the the operators decision and consequences for ignoring warnings."
Are you referring to "Low Battery Warning" and "Critical Battery Warning"? I am a bit confused how the RTH, Safe Go Home, Low Battery Warning and Critical Battery Warning work.

1. How is the RTH calculated?
2. Is the Low Battery Warning" and "Critical Battery Warning" only a notification warning or are these warnings part of the calculation to return to home when battery is low? Example I set the Low Battery Warning to 15%, but the RTH feature took over before 15%?
3. Does the Safe Go Home feature only hide user interface buttons to override the RTH and does this feature only work with low battery ,or does Safe Go Home totally disable RTH when battery is low or signal is lost?

Please help me understand all these features, thanks.

 

[IrishSights]

No idea as to the algorithm they use, however by experience it calculates it it independently of of the actual warnings. I'm sure others are more knowledgeable than me and could reply better.

I'm actually on Skellig Micheal, 8 miles off the west coast of Ireland where scenes from The Force Awakens will be filmed next week. Cool place, scariest boat journey ever. No drones allowed.

 

[Scotflieger]

Hello IrishSights, you stated "Battery warnings are given at different levels in order to for the operator to take action as there is danger approaching. That's why they are are called warnings. If 1st warning is ignored its the operator's decision along with the consequence. 2nd warning causes an auto land because the operator did not take action. It keeps coming down to the the operators decision and consequences for ignoring warnings."
Are you referring to "Low Battery Warning" and "Critical Battery Warning"? I am a bit confused how the RTH, Safe Go Home, Low Battery Warning and Critical Battery Warning work.

1. How is the RTH calculated?
2. Is the Low Battery Warning" and "Critical Battery Warning" only a notification warning or are these warnings part of the calculation to return to home when battery is low? Example I set the Low Battery Warning to 15%, but the RTH feature took over before 15%?
3. Does the Safe Go Home feature only hide user interface buttons to override the RTH and does this feature only work with low battery ,or does Safe Go Home totally disable RTH when battery is low or signal is lost?

Please help me understand all these features, thanks.

I'll try to answer you questions.

1. The Smart RTH is calculated as the power required to get from the current aircraft position, climb to the Failsafe Height (user set), return to the HP and land. It is indicated by the Yellow Dot with the H on the power line. It will move to the right the further you are away from the HP and to the left as you return to the HP.

2. The Low Battery Warning and Critical Battery Warning are set my the user in the Battery panel. They default to 30% and 10% respectively: the lowest you want to set these is 25% and 10%. When the LBW is triggered you get a red flashing status panel and a verbal warning. The battery percentage also turns red. You need to plan to return to your landing site when you get this warning. If you are a long way from the HP the Smart RTH can activate before you get the warning. When the CBW triggers you will get the announcement and warning that the aircraft will land in 10 secs. You can cancel this if you are about to land but you don't have much flying time left.

3. I am not sure I fully understand your question. When the Smart RTH activates you will see the red circle and white cross bouncing on the left side. You can cancel the RTH by tapping this button. Alternatively, you can cancel any RTH by pressing the RC RTH button (properly the easiest way) or by flicking the RC PAF switch to ATTI and back to P-GPS.

I hope this helps your understanding.

 

[The Editor]

Also please bear in mind - these calculations are not absolute!
If there is a strong headwind on the way back to home point the Inspire cannot calculate or sense this so of is possible it will not make it back to your home point.
In that instance, it would make it part way, then invoke auto land.

 

[m00se]

Inspire cannot calculate or sense this

only because they havent made it yet, it could do if the firmware was a little more intelligent