I use the Mavic 2 to take footage of my hiking adventures, occasionally I fly the drone in deep gorges where there is no GPS reception.

When the drone GPS is not locked the drone altitude is limited to no more than few meters above ground level, and that, adversely affect my ability to shoot quality footage..  On the image bellow I couldn't get higher then around 4 meters above ground... and that... misses the point of using a drone...

Is there any way to disable the GPS lock all together ?



Check my youtube channel at this link:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC099PLE03HsNB8yc-DZkk7Q

Nicely done.    

When the drone GPS is not locked the drone altitude is limited to no more than few meters above ground level
Is there any way to disable the GPS lock all together ?
The Mavic 2 can be modified to give you selectable Atti Mode to replace Sport Mode, but that wouldn't solve your issue.
Neither would using aluminium foil to block GPS reception.

GPS is not the problem.
On p57 of the manual, you'll find the solution you are looking for.
   Height is restricted to 16 ft (5 m) when the GPS signal is weak and Downward Vision System is activated.

   Height is restricted to 98 ft (30 m) when the GPS signal is weak and Downward Vision System is inactivated.

Disable your VPS sensors in your app settings and you get 30 metres.

. . . . . . . . . .

Labroides Posted at 6-16 01:04
When the drone GPS is not locked the drone altitude is limited to no more than few meters above ground level
Is there any way to disable the GPS lock all together ?
The Mavic 2 can be modified to give you selectable Atti Mode to replace Sport Mode, but that wouldn't solve your issue.

Thanks for the reply, collision detection is of the utmost importance when flying in such gorges, wouldn't disabling the VPS sensors adversely affect collision detection?

Is there any way to manually set Height restriction when the GPS signal is wean ( or non existing ) ??

fansdfbe21cc Posted at 6-16 01:12
Thanks for the reply, collision detection is of the utmost importance when flying in such gorges, wouldn't disabling the VPS sensors adversely affect collision detection?

Is there any way to manually set Height restriction when the GPS signal is wean ( or non existing ) ??

collision detection is of the utmost importance when flying in such gorges, wouldn't disabling the VPS sensors adversely affect collision detection?
Two points:
1.  VPS is the downward facing sensors only, not the obstacle avoidance sensors
2.  GPS is essential for obstacle avoidance to work
Without GPS, there is no horizontal position holding and no "brakes".
Flying close to obstacles without GPS is risky.
Prop guards might be useful in those situations.

Is there any way to manually set Height restriction when the GPS signal is weak ( or non existing ) ??
No, there isn't

btw .. there is no such thing as weak GPS signal.
It's DJI's clumsy way of saying no GPS signal.

btw 2   The Phantom 4 pro has a 50 metre limit in Atti mode if the extra height would help.

Hi. I am sorry for the trouble this has caused. With regards to this inquiry. It is recommended to fly the drone in an area with strong GPS to ensure all the safety features of the said drone are working. Thank you for your understanding and support.

DJI Paladin Posted at 6-22 00:01
Hi. I am sorry for the trouble this has caused. With regards to this inquiry. It is recommended to fly the drone in an area with strong GPS to ensure all the safety features of the said drone are working. Thank you for your understanding and support.

Is there any specific drone I should buy that is able to operate in such conditions ?

As above, disable downward vision sensors, consider prop guards.
You can via DJI assistant modify the M2 to have ATTI mode meaning no GPS position holding which is very useful in areas of weak/intermittent GPS to stop it jumping around.
And there is "weak gps".  Accuracy is determined by the number of visible satellites and their geometry.  If you can only see a small number and they cover a small area of sky (such as in canyons) accuracy will be a lot lower than an even spread all around for example.  
DJIs signal meter is best thought of as GPS quality.

gnirtS Posted at 6-22 01:58
As above, disable downward vision sensors, consider prop guards.
You can via DJI assistant modify the M2 to have ATTI mode meaning no GPS position holding which is very useful in areas of weak/intermittent GPS to stop it jumping around.
And there is "weak gps".  Accuracy is determined by the number of visible satellites and their geometry.  If you can only see a small number and they cover a small area of sky (such as in canyons) accuracy will be a lot lower than an even spread all around for example.  

And there is "weak gps"
It's just a matter of semantics.
When DJI say weak GPS, it means not enough satellites for the drone to enter P-GPS Mode.
Although the drone may receive a small number of sats (or none) the drone won't "have" GPS.

Labroides Posted at 6-22 02:44
And there is "weak gps"
It's just a matter of semantics.
When DJI say weak GPS, it means not enough satellites for the drone to enter P-GPS Mode.

Nope there is a difference.  Number isnt useful if they're all clustered in the same part of the sky.
The HDOP will be huge, the drone will bounce around all over as that changes (and likely fly into cliffs).
The bar is a guide to signal quality.  This includes enough geometry to get a usefully low HDOP.

On the DJI drones, unless they're in ATTI mode, a low quality GPS lock is worse than no GPS lock in terms of stability.

gnirtS Posted at 6-22 04:05
Nope there is a difference.  Number isnt useful if they're all clustered in the same part of the sky.
The HDOP will be huge, the drone will bounce around all over as that changes (and likely fly into cliffs).
The bar is a guide to signal quality.  This includes enough geometry to get a usefully low HDOP.

Except that when the flight controller identifies the HDOP issue, it assigns a GPS health of 0 or 1 and the drone is effectively in Atti mode because the Flight controller won't use the GPS data until the GPS health is >4.
So I still say you are arguing about semantics.

Besides .. how often is anyone flying their drone in a location to create such a contrived scenario as you describe?
It would never happen flying out in the open.

Labroides Posted at 6-22 04:14
Except that when the flight controller identifies the HDOP issue, it assigns a GPS health of 0 or 1 and the drone is effectively in Atti mode because the Flight controller won't use the GPS data until the GPS health is >4.
So I still say you are arguing about semantics.

Quite often if you fly in canyons, near waterfalls, anywhere near cliffs or forests.  Quite a lot of places that actually make good images.
Its far from rare.

The mavic will give you a "working" gps lock even with a terrible and ever changing HDOP caused by poor geometry.  Just because you have p-gps and good to fly doesnt mean its going to be great to fly or in fact stable.

gnirtS Posted at 6-22 11:19
Quite often if you fly in canyons, near waterfalls, anywhere near cliffs or forests.  Quite a lot of places that actually make good images.
Its far from rare.

So if you fly where your drone has a very restricted skyview, you are likely to have GPS problems.
That's hardly a revelation.
Are you finished with being pedantic now?

You call it pedantic but i'm more inclined to call it correcting misinformation.

btw .. there is no such thing as weak GPS signal.

is factually and technically incorrect so needed addressing.

Besides .. how often is anyone flying their drone in a location to create such a contrived scenario as you describe?

Except that when the flight controller identifies the HDOP issue, it assigns a GPS health of 0 or 1 and the drone is effectively in Atti mode because the Flight controller won't use the GPS data until the GPS health is >4.

And even in Q4 it can wander around significantly with a high HDOP error (or drop in and out of GPS which is even worse)..

Quite a lot.

gnirtS Posted at 6-22 14:40
You call it pedantic but i'm more inclined to call it correcting misinformation.

is factually and technically incorrect so needed addressing.

You call it pedantic but i'm more inclined to call it correcting misinformation.
Then I guess that was a no.

ps ... the only time most users will ever see Weak GPS Signal, is if they try to reset their homepoint to the controller's location or do Follow-Me flight with an Apple device.
In that situation the message means no GPS signal(even if the device has full GPS signal).

I use a DJI Mavic 2 Drone to take footage of my hikes, flying in gorges, and even sometimes in caves is not something out of the ordinary for me...
I hope that DJI will come-up w/ some sort of a solution for this... It has 6 black and while cameras located all around the drone and it can easily resolve the 3D scene around it ( using SFM,  ) and derive it's relative position w/o any GPS dependency...

Anyhow, here is the video resulting of the rappelling experience: