Bad Flying Morning

General Drone Discussion
21

Different materials have different reflective coefficients, this value obviously changes based on the frequency being used and the transition from one medium to another.

Eg. Ultrasonic travelling through air to solid concrete and reflecting back to air will result in a high percentage of the original wave being reflected. However that same ultrasonic wave now travelling through air and to the surface of water, water having a low reflective coefficient at ultrasonic frequencies, will result in a very low percentage, if any, of the original wave returning to the source, or receiver. If you consider the ultrasound of a gestating foetus, the image of the foetus appears due to the dense tissue but the amniotic fluid returns little if any of the original ultrasonic signal.

(I really need to get out more).

Nidge.

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22

Thank you again @Nidge and @McSteamy2010.

I have spent a few frankly uncomfortable minutes watching the Edd Ricker video, seeing the MP and Phantom dropping towards the water did, as my kids would say “give me anxiety”!

Maybe a therapeutic beer tonight after work might help :beer:

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23

Well deserved :beer: whilst shopping? :helicopter: :shopping::wink:

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24

And afterwards, with your inhabitions lowered, some guilt free retail therapy :wink:

Nidge

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25

Really sorry to hear about your loss. All I can offer is sympathy and understanding, having dumped an aircraft in the sea myself.

Like you I was uninsured and spent several days grieving before aching acceptance kicked in. I still kick myself for the combination of physical factors and my errors that caused the loss

I had batteries and controllers and other accessories and the aircraft on its own was relatively cheap on eBay so I bought another. Bare MPs seem to be available so it might be worthwhile calculating what one would cost against the money (less postage, PayPal and eBay fees) that you would get from selling the controller and batteries .

Once again, sorry you have had this experience :frowning:

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26

Sorry for your loss.

Lost my first drone in water too. Had my number on the drone. Got a call a week later from nice chap to say he found it washed up, a mile away from where I lost it. Unfortunately it wasn’t in a repairable condition. Drone wasn’t expensive so was easy to replace/upgrade.

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27

macspiteAdvanced Member

28m

Really sorry to hear about your loss. All I can offer is sympathy and understanding, having dumped an aircraft in the sea myself.

Like you I was uninsured and spent several days grieving before aching acceptance kicked in. I still kick myself for the combination of physical factors and my errors that caused the loss

I had batteries and controllers and other accessories and the aircraft on its own was relatively cheap on eBay so I bought another. Bare MPs seem to be available so it might be worthwhile calculating what one would cost against the money (less postage, PayPal and eBay fees) that you would get from selling the controller and batteries .

Once again, sorry you have had this experience :frowning:

TassyWass

(Bad Flying Morning - #26 by TassyWass)

Sorry for your loss.

Lost my first drone in water too. Had my number on the drone. Got a call a week later from nice chap to say he found it washed up, a mile away from where I lost it. Unfortunately it wasn’t in a repairable condition. Drone wasn’t expensive so was easy to replace/upgrade.

Thanks fellas, I had hoped to find the remains, but by the time I got back in the evening, the tide had risen and fallen again, meaning it could have moved from where it landed.

The visibility wasn’t great either in 2m of water, with a lot of sand in suspension. I did feel with my feet, and hoped that I could recover the SD card. Could have been some interesting footage! :rofl:

If nothing else, I’m glad I went back and searched, as I know that I couldn’t have done any more .

@macspite, that inexpensive Inspire 1 is still there without any bids… :crazy_face:
I’m conflicted, as it would take great images, but I think it is intimidating to use recreationally!
That said, a Typhoon H is no smaller by the look of it.

The MP size is a good trade off, and maybe my original plan of an M2P as & when makes sense, and get a replacement affordable MP to carry on learning with.

28

@Tidepool Any chance of claiming on your house insurance for “articles away from home”?

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29

Good thought, thanks. Sadly the policy specifically excludes UAVs from cover :frowning_face:

30

And a claim on your house insurance could result in increased premiums for ALL insurances in subsequent years. Or, if you don’t disclose that you have made a claim when renewal time comes round your insurers could refuse to pay out if you need to claim for another incident.

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31

Gutted you lost it…

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32

Omg I also have a MP and almost ditched it twice and I know how I felt and I didn’t lose it so my heart felt sympathy goes straight to big friendly social distancing hug mate.
We all hope you get back in the air soon​:thinking::scream::rage::cry:

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33

So how close is “too close” ? - The original poster I have so much sympathy for as it could have been me. Back home I have no water to fly over, so all this has come as a huge surprise. Since being in the UK and buying a quad out of sheer boredom so my MP2 remains at home, here I fly regularly over sea water, but at altitude ( minimum 100 feet ). Now, my obvious question is how come the sensors “behave” at higher altitude ? The water below remains consistent, so is it as simple as the altitude gives more reference points for the sensors ? I was about to do some much lower coastal flying to film local erosion, with the quad maybe 30 feet up - is that “too close” ? Perhaps I should add I never leave it just hovering above sea water, its always moving.

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34

Any chance you could have accidently performed a CSC shutdown by accident?

Both sticks up or down and inwards for a second or two.

Edit - forget that. Its only down. No chance you’d have pulled the stick down over water.

35

Or would he? :wink: in the market for an upgrade :shopping:

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36

My understanding, limited and likely to be corrected by those more knowledgeable, is that there are vision sensors which operate in ground to not very high area and a barometric sensor (or sensors) in the IMU to cover several feet off the deck to max altitude. The vision (or sonic) sensors are accurate for short distances, the barometric data is coarser but no-one is too bothered if the reported 50m is actually 50.7 or 49.3

From the Inspire manual

Selection_026
Selection_0261244×268 32 KB

From the Mavic Air manual:

image
image1182×265 31.6 KB

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37

So does this imply that so long as the drone is at a “reasonable” height, in movement and not hovering over “still” water there is a whole lot less chance of it suddenly ditching due to sensors being confused ?
See, when I’m home i do often fly low, skimming over paddy fields etc - these tend to be high contrast visual areas so Im guessing the sensors don’t get confused - or am I totally wrong or on the wrong track ?
Quite important for me while I’m here in the UK really and I don’t want to cock it up due to misunderstanding.
Maybe a mod can move this to Q&A perhaps so it doesn’t misdirect the thread.

38

VPS is different to the sensors used for altitude control. Think it uses an optical flow sensor for vps.

DJI drones calculates altitude with a combination of data from barometer and IMU.

At lower altitudes when ground is within range it also uses ultrasonic sensors on MP and TOF on M2.

39

Owww - sorry for your loss :sleepy:. I’ve had both my previous P3SE and my current MA1 go down a couple of times (user error - not paying attention to batt-life, duh​:man_facepalming:) but luckily it was in the heather around our place. Accordingly no damage to either, but still a bu##er to find even with ‘find my drone’ activated. Hope you recoved soon & get sorted out with a replacement :+1:

40

Any flight data to share @Tidepool ?

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