Using Inspire 2 for industrial inspections inside and out. Using the X5S with the panasonic14-42 zoom lens and its been working great outside. We've done several outside inspections and the other day i took the Inspire inside todo some inspections on running machinery in the mill. I put the inspire in tripod mode so it would move slowly. about 1 minute into the inspection (on new batteries) the inspire started to move left right into a metal beam. Any thoughts on why this would happen ? what i could've done wrong with setup ? What settings should i be using for indoor flight?
Inspire 2 Wreck Inside Industrial Building
- Thread starter chadunca
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Did you lose GPS or get compass errors? I'd think flying indoors and near metal structures would give you either or both of these problems.
Suggest to fly in ATTI mode indoors.
Suggest to fly in ATTI mode indoors.
I think ATTI is to be used indoors as it takes in out of the compass and GPS influence which is likely to happen indoors.
Aside, Creative Live had some online drone workshop and two pros were flying a multicopter inside the large building. The lesson went bad and it took off into the ceiling and crashed into bits on the floor. They said "It was some prop-wash vortex near the ceiling that pulled it up into it and caused the crash." Dunno, but it sounded good. The head instructor flipped his newly made home-built mulitcopter upside down right in front of the cameras into the street. Another talked about losing his $80K cinema rig into the San Francisco Bay. Was an interesting show, although costly for some.
Aside, Creative Live had some online drone workshop and two pros were flying a multicopter inside the large building. The lesson went bad and it took off into the ceiling and crashed into bits on the floor. They said "It was some prop-wash vortex near the ceiling that pulled it up into it and caused the crash." Dunno, but it sounded good. The head instructor flipped his newly made home-built mulitcopter upside down right in front of the cameras into the street. Another talked about losing his $80K cinema rig into the San Francisco Bay. Was an interesting show, although costly for some.
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@chadunca, sorry to hear about your incident. While we understand that looking back at what happened can be awfully frustrating, hopefully a few things can be learned moving forward.
As another member mentioned, ATTI mode is the best option for indoor flying where a reliable GPS signal is not available and where there may be metal interferences.
What kind of altitude where you at indoors? Did you see any error messages in the DJI GO App and have you reviewed flight log from within your flight records Depending on your altitude if your aircraft was in GPS mode it could have had the VPS engaged and with a little movement it clicked out of VPS and when moving to a GPS inside with a small number of satellites it could just lost its positioning accuracy, moving left into the beam.
Curious what further information you have or maybe experienced and we can help you get to the bottom of things and do everything possible to avoid a similar situation in the future.
As another member mentioned, ATTI mode is the best option for indoor flying where a reliable GPS signal is not available and where there may be metal interferences.
What kind of altitude where you at indoors? Did you see any error messages in the DJI GO App and have you reviewed flight log from within your flight records Depending on your altitude if your aircraft was in GPS mode it could have had the VPS engaged and with a little movement it clicked out of VPS and when moving to a GPS inside with a small number of satellites it could just lost its positioning accuracy, moving left into the beam.
Curious what further information you have or maybe experienced and we can help you get to the bottom of things and do everything possible to avoid a similar situation in the future.
The inspire was in gps mode. I'm not sure if there was any warnings. It all happened so quick. how do i review the flight data ?
Unfortunately it is often the last few moments of GPS mode that are the most risky, as mentioned above, as the lock degrades there is a brief period where the positional accuracy declines before it drops into ATTI mode...
Unfortunately we can't choose VPS as a 'mode', we are either in P-mode which will try to use both GPS and VPS, or we are in ATTI mode which will not try to use GPS or VPS.
If we start in P mode with a GPS lock and then loose that lock it will degrade to VPS only, if it determines VPS is useable...
VPS needs good lighting and enough of a pattern/contrast on the floor to maintain a position, so it is not always useable...
So if you use P mode inside and have no GPS lock so you depend on VPS you need to be very sure that you will not pick up a poor GPS lock during the flight as that will mess with positional stability, especially if there is a lot of metal around.
Usually you can't be sure of that so it is safer to start in ATTI mode, so you have to accurately fly the mission, taking special care with air currents (AC) proximity to overhead surfaces etc., but know that the aircraft is not going to start trying to use a weak GPS or a messed up compass at the wrong moment, but of course VPS is not available either in ATTI mode...
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Small note, I believe ATTI mode does use GPS & VPS as part of the control loop. It just does not use the GPS as a break. If GPS is not available then yr left with the IMU, VPS (close to the ground) compass & stick to control the bird. The IMU & compass can get interference from metal objects.
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Yes, I'm interested in the theory behind that statement as well.
@Ralph thompson - How does a MEMS gyro unit using solid state accelerometers suffer interference from metal objects?
Also someone mentioned "prop wash" or VRS (Vortex Ring State) as a possible culprit. I was under the impression that this is an occurrence that happens when descending as opposed to climbing. If anything there would be less wind/air (I guess) for the blades to bite into and would actually cause it to fall/stall rather than climb. I am sure some of the pilots here can better explain it than I can.
Haven't flown the I2 indoors yet, but here are a few lessons learned with the I1:
- GPS is unreliable indoors- yes, we know that but tried it thinking it would auto switch to ATTI. It does, but will get erratic as it switches back & forth. Response may lag during the decision matrix.
- Don't depend on sensing of any sort. As texture around you changes, sensing may lag or be unreliable.
- Non-GPS modes will drift vertically & horizontally even under ideal conditions. It's not difficult, just fly it. Very close proximity LOS work often requires an dedicated camera operator.
- Vortex ring ground effect is interesting the first time the first time you encounter an asymmetric version of it. Think about hovering over 6" wide wall or beam to position the camera. Ground effect slowly shows up under one or two prop discs. Handling continually changes with minor maneuvering and wind current changes. Again, know how to fly in non-GPS modes.
- Wind current indoors? You betcha! You will induce some and the building produces the rest. Air conditioning ducts and loading dock/large doors are the worst offenders. A loading door opening on the far side of the factory created enough difficulty for us to require their closure during very close proximity flying.
- Electro & ferromagnetic interference can happen at any time when factory flying, not just during start up self checks. Have been able to fly through it a couple of times to get to a cleaner environment. Fortunately the craft bobbled clear of the leaky RF source the first time. It would bobble every time in that area. We eventually worked our way around it to get the footage.
- Always have an immediate way out. If the flight goes bad, where do I go? Get clear in this direction and restart or make an emergency landing?
I don't remember the start up error msg, but our I1's & Phantom 3's were prevented from motor start up with a magnetic interference msg. We were attempting a interior inspection of the flame chamber of an oil-fired power generation steam unit. DJI doesn't allow you to disable the "magnetometer" and press on manually like some higher end equipment. I ended up purchasing a $100 toy drone w/camera just to see if flying was possible. It is and captured enough footage of the duct in question.
My suggestion is to always change the actions the bird will take when GPS or other connection issues happen when flying around or in obstruction like a building. Set it to hover in place if signal is lost. If you are flying with the GPS on and the action is set to RTH then you may have issues. The lost of GPS doesn't automatically mean the aircraft will RTH but the loss inside a building does mean there are issue, most likely magnetic which mean other sensors on the bird will be affected. Someone said their bird suddenly gained altitude and hit the ceiling. Sounds like the bird got confused and started the RTH sequence. Same thing would apply if you were flying around a house outside that had allot obstructions like trees or power lines. You don't want the aircraft to RTH.
Can anyone confirm that ATTI mode indeed does not use the compass?
I had one flight on my Inspire 1 (sorry I know this is the Inspire 2 section) where I started in GPS, flew up and away and got the compass error and the drones started to flip out (wobble violently back and forth and drifting out of control). I switched to ATTI, which didn't make much difference and still displayed a compass error. I was able to wrestle it down for a hard landing but that was the one time where switching to ATTI didn't really give me full control.
I had one flight on my Inspire 1 (sorry I know this is the Inspire 2 section) where I started in GPS, flew up and away and got the compass error and the drones started to flip out (wobble violently back and forth and drifting out of control). I switched to ATTI, which didn't make much difference and still displayed a compass error. I was able to wrestle it down for a hard landing but that was the one time where switching to ATTI didn't really give me full control.
Sounds like you had more going on than just compass problems.
ATTI mode does not require or use the compass, and if the aircraft was wobbling violently it would suggest you had IMU issues rather than just a compass problem.
ATTI mode does not require or use the compass, and if the aircraft was wobbling violently it would suggest you had IMU issues rather than just a compass problem.
That's what I figured but it's never happened again and I have never recalibrated the IMU since that incident. I thought it was just the compass because I had taken off and was flying near a lot of metal fencing and railings, but it was also fine for the first 30 seconds or so until I got up about 20m in the air (and actually farther away from metal objects). Does the Inspire not use the compass to determine its heading (for example, to display on the map)? Either way, just wanted to share my weird experience since it was my only flight where I was near a bunch of metal which could be similar to flying indoors.
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