Interference from Nearby Objects

When I took my first flight with my Mavic Mini the other day the controller briefly warned me about interference from nearby objects. I moved the drone a couple of inches to the left and it didn’t happen again. In all likelihood what it was most likely detecting was the mass of my nearby car (it was right next to us).

This raises the question of what would happen if I tried to use the roof of my card as a takeoff and landing pad. I know, I know, it sounds a bit daft. My reasoning is this, the area I was flying had been subject to days of rain and was covered in mud. It was also slightly inclined which led the drone to complain about not being a safe place to land.

I just got a landing pad (one of those pop-out things) and was going to try putting it on the roof of my car and launching from there.

Any reason that this might be a problem?

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First ever Ribblehead meet anyone ?

I’d look at learning to hand launch and hand catching.

Quite used to it with my Mavic Pro. Helps a lot in muddy, long grass and dusty situations.

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Erm, OK. Not sure how that helps?

That’s a good point, but I’ve only flown her once and want to get a little more experience before moving on to that technique. It’ll be fun though.

Can’t remember who it was but landing on roof went bad.

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The drone has a sensitive magnetometer which it uses as a compass.

The general consensus is that you should keep the drone away from ferrous material when calibrating or take off/landing.

Chances are it would complain about magnetic interference but if it did let you take off it could experience some TBE or drop into ATTI mode.

“TBE” is that “Total Bloody Explosion” ?

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Toilet Bowl Effect

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download (1)

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I’ve experienced this with my MP after taking off from the roof a building with lots of metal around. Was quite scary because of where I was. ‘Insurance Claim’ was being repeated in my head. To my surprise the MP sorted it self out after countering all of its movements and raising its altitude.

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OMG, I think I will put that idea aside, get better at ground take-off and landings, then progress to hand launching.

Thanks everyone, disaster avoided (for now)

:crossed_fingers:

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Use a landing pad is my advice and move away from the car and any metal objects unless you are wealthy and have a care free attitude to disasters.

If you do by any chance take off with magnetic interference it will affect the compass. (It has 2 of them)When the drone is away from whatever is causing the interference the compass will then show the correct heading etc but this won’t tally with where either compass thinks it is in time and space, it loses its point of reference and you could end up flying southwards and the compass telling the drone it is going northwards, or vice versa. This will also affect any return to home settings as you might record them correctly but the drone won’t know where it is once away from the interference.

Is that correct for the Mini @Brian?

They moved to single and vision compass with the Air and M2.

Not heard anything regarding the mini and not listed in the specs.

Confirmed, the Mavic Mini is also single-compass.

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This thread although specific to the Mavic Air is a salutary lesson on magnetic effects. Couldn’t get my Air in the air until I sussed the watch was the culprit. Leave the watch in the car now some way from landing mat or get someone else to calibrate it but it doesn’t ask me now I don’t wear it!

Definitely land NOT on a car roof or indeed any raised surface. If if doesn’t land spot on it can topple from a height and do damage to car and itself. Flat ground only. Also keep out of long grass if you can as Minis not good at mowing.

Also a possible gotcha is if using a pad make sure to hammer pegs flat to ground as if drone lands near a raised peg one of props may well get trashed. Nearly happened on my first ever go with a M2P which is a tad bigger than a Mini but noticed it was going to happen and managed to sort matters. Now use leg extensions which I keep on permanently on the M2P and use a mat.

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Big patches of concrete can also be a problem due to the rebar affecting compass.

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Yeah, I found that out today on my test flight in the garden: it took off ok from a wooden garden table but refused to land on it as it was deemed “unsafe”.

Teach yourself handcatching

It’s all I (and most folks I meet on here) ever do