How do I stop this behavior? While the aircraft is in ATTI mode, it flies flawlessly, but the moment it picks up a handful of satellites through the wall, chaos ensues.


It starts trying to correct itself by veering to the right. When I attempt to stop it by holding the control stick left, it veers to the right even harder creating very large uncontrolled motions.

The first time it did this, it caught me completely by surprise, crashing itself into a wall. Fortunately I had the guard. I've flown smaller drones indoors many times, never had any problems.

No issues flying outdoors, so I'm going to attribute it to some kind of GPS-related automation kicking in and attempting to position the drone. Short of taping up the sensor on the bottom to force ATTI mode, is there any other means of getting it to stop trying to lock onto satellites? Not including an indoor mode seems like a big oversight.

Have you tried covering the bottom sensors to keep it in ATTI mode.  

Ufff I can only think of it, since inside the house it takes you satellites, wait until you have one and make the flight. I mean, don't take off without satellites. The truth is that I have never encountered a similar situation.

Hi. I am sorry for the trouble his has caused you. With regards to the said issue. When the said drone's GPS is weak, the safety feature of the DJI Mavic Mini will trigger and limits the height to 5 meters for safety purposes. In addition interference from other sources might have triggered the drone to move uncontrollably since the drone is being flown indoors.  In addition, the Vision System of the DJI Mavic Mini allows the aircraft to hover at low altitudes ( 0.5 to 10 m ), but the ground must have distinct textures, and there needs to be sufficient lighting. Thank you.

I've not had that happen, but I wonder if you could put some aluminum foil or aluminum duct tape (the real aluminum type) over the GPS antenna location to more thoroughly block the GPS signals.

The double tape mod!

It would be nice (and much safer) if DJI gave us two indoor modes:

Indoor with bottom sensors, and indoor without bottom sensors (full ATTI mode).  That would save needing to cover various sensors to trick the system.

People are going to want to fly these small drones indoors.  They're pretty well suited to it, so adding some special indoor modes to the firmware and app makes sense.

DJI Paladin Posted at 12-9 09:53
Hi. I am sorry for the trouble his has caused you. With regards to the said issue. When the said drone's GPS is weak, the safety feature of the DJI Mavic Mini will trigger and limits the height to 5 meters for safety purposes. In addition interference from other sources might have triggered the drone to move uncontrollably since the drone is being flown indoors.  In addition, the Vision System of the DJI Mavic Mini allows the aircraft to hover at low altitudes ( 0.5 to 10 m ), but the ground must have distinct textures, and there needs to be sufficient lighting. Thank you.

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Hi Paladin, thanks for the information.

My drone locks onto 12 satellites while indoors and it switches on GPS. Yes, I agree that there is interference/poor signal, causing the drone to falsely think it's drifting or being pushed by wind, so it attempts to correct itself. That correction is very aggressive (even in P-mode), causing the drone to fly out of control.

I should note that this doesn't always happen. In 24 minutes of flight, it might only happen 3 or so times.

I understand DJI is trying to make it easier for users by automating ATTI mode, but I think in cases like this, users know better when they are inside a house versus making the decision for us based on how many satellites it detects. I believe if a user understands the risks of using S-Mode, they should also understand the risks of using ATTI mode.

While I was lucky in the sense that I had the propeller guards installed, other users who bought the base model may not be so lucky. Many reviews online create an impression that this drone can fly safely indoors, however based on my experiences that does not seem to be the case.

I've had this happen a few times but I've always been able to correct it before it hit anything. Although last night I was flying inside and it started going full speed ahead down my (dimly lit) hallway.  I had to full stick back to gain control. If it was not in payload mode (flying with the prop guards) it would have probably gone even faster and I wouldn't have had time to stop it before it hit the wall.

Haruyuki Posted at 12-9 15:07
Hi Paladin, thanks for the information.

My drone locks onto 12 satellites while indoors and it switches on GPS. Yes, I agree that there is interference/poor signal, causing the drone to falsely think it's drifting or being pushed by wind, so it attempts to correct itself. That correction is very aggressive (even in P-mode), causing the drone to fly out of control.

Hi. Thank you for the additional information and for sharing your experience in flying your drone indoors.
This thread will be a very big help to all our DJI co pilots. Have a safe and happy flight always.

What are the conditions of lighting inside the house?
Is the floor somethhing that the downward vision system cannot lock on to it?
Mine indoors doesnt pick up GPS, but hoover very stable thanks to the downwards vision system.