What’s it like without them… a lot of fun!!
2 Likes
I see you’ve met the wife then 
2 Likes
Youve jogged my memory of a slightly drunken conversation I had with my neighbour a couple of weeks ago. He’s got a Phantom 4 but also races a FPV drone and he was saying that you have give constant input to the the racing drone otheriwse you’re a gonna! Having all of these self levelling - self flying features would simply hamper it as racing unit.
Speaking of which, I have been watching more and more of DRL! mind is blownn each time I watch it and just how fast and how ruddy tight the spaces are that theyre having to squeeze into!. Move over F1!! 
Very true. If you let go of the sticks it keeps going in the attitude you left it until it hits something or drops out the sky.
Isn’t that more ATTI than manual. Manual? (…which I thought racing drones were) where you need to maintain throttle pressure for them to stay in the air … I know that’s the case with my P2 in full manual.
Zero throttle pressure is just idling … once you’ve started them.
1 Like
Atti, maintains altitude automatically and applies thrust accordingly as you change flight state (roll, pitch, yaw) to maintain height. On DJI quads you have all sticks sprung loaded to centre. When throttle is at centre, altitude is maintained. When throttle is up, the craft goes up and when down the craft moves down. Also rate of altitude change is limited in for movements both up and down to avoid issues such as prop turbulence (dropping fast into your own props turbulent air flow).
With Acro or rate mode on a racing quad, altitude is not maintained. Your throttle throw on the remote is ratcheted and not sprung loaded. The bottom of your throttle is very low power (props always spin or you have no control of the craft at all) and the top of the throw is full power.
You have to compensate for both vectored thrust and changes in prop speed as you alter the state of the craft (props are slowed and sped up in a coordinated fashion to make the quad turn, roll etc…) If you don’t manually compensate, you end up loosing altitude while making turns or during acceleration/pitching forward or gaining altitude when slowing/pitching back.
1 Like
That’s as I thought … but on the DJI P2, when it’s in manual mode (the onboad brain is dead for everything), the mid-point (default sprung point) is zero throttle (idle) … as it is when on the deck after starting the motors in any mode with all the DJI drones (and other “intelligent” drones, I’d anticipate.)
My only issue with flying sprung sticks in manual mode is that they are fighting against you. Let go for a second and your in the ground.
Trust me, the flight controllers brain is not dead when in manual mode… it’s still making thousands of computations a second in a closed loop PID control sequence so that the motors are always at the correct speed. Each motor is independently doing its own thing very fast and usually very smoothly. If this was not the case, then you would have no control of the quad at all. Also the motors are sped up and slowed down to maintain horizontal flight and compensate for changes in air flow, turbulence etc. If you put your quad in manual mode, power the props and then try to tip the quad, you will hear the props change state to compensate and you will feel the craft trying to hold its horizontal state.
Throttle is not sprung so if your giving it throttle in any attitude and let go of the sticks it’s going to just keep going.
Not that you’d ever let go of the sticks.
Believe me! In manual mode this most definitely ISN’T happening!
You have to manually compensate for EVERYTHING!
MANUAL is not ATTI! Far from it! Can easily do flips and everything.
NOT IN MANUAL … I repeat again! Motors return to idle … it falls … it’s (effectivley) brain dead!
1 Like
I’m a few posts behind. Was replying to your reply, to my post which was talking about rate mode with racing drones.
1 Like
I see what you mean… With motors completely off assuming that what you mean by idle, yup, its a brick, the flight controller has noting to output to.
On an acro quad, the motors once armed are normally set to always spin. At the bottom of the throttle sticks throw, the motors are still idling over/ rotating just fast enough to allow control and to maintain attitude. Its usually called air mode. This allow you to drop the craft like brick, while still retaining control of the crafts orientation.
Even this doesn’t happen in manual mode on the P2 (and probably other Phantoms that allow total Manual mode.)
With no FPV on my P2/H33D/GoPro, I got bored … and for about 18 months I only flew it in manual mode for something to do that was rather challenging … and reminded me of my attempts to fly a (real) helicopter back in 1970 (when there were none of the stability aids that they can have today) … but without the potential for death. 
Stand on a chair next time, much easier
2 Likes
Get a shorter tree = easier AND cheaper …. AND safer than standing on a chair!
1 Like
Bored of stars or fairy,s on top of the Christmas tree?? Then how about a mavic on top of the tree?Now that would look good!!
Em… What’s the height of the tree and how much clearance with the ceiling?
Last year was the first without a Xmas tree. It was so good, that they’re will never be another tree in our house again.
So much less hassle !
3 Likes
Honestly, there nearly was a M2P sitting on the Angels lap! 
1 Like