We are using a DJI M300 drone and are on the latest firmware update. We fly a predefined flight mission very regularly at 50 m AGL. It is above any obstacles and the takeoff location is in an open field. This problem does not occur every time, most times the flight proceeds normally. We have not found this problem to occur in manual flight mode, although we use this feature rarely.

When taking off (on a predefined mission path, not manual mode), the drone pauses the flight and displays the error message: "Flight Obstacle Detected, Flight Mission Paused.". This happens right after takeoff at approximately 1.5 meters AGL (like chest height). Most of the time pressing play will resume the flight mission and it will continue normally, however sometimes it will not resume the flight and I have to stop the flight mission and manually ground the drone. Occasionally (more rare than the previous) the drone will continue to detect obstacles and display this error message in the middle of the flight mission at random points; most of the time pressing play resumes the flight like normal however on two occasions the drone has refused to continue (seemed to brake as if to avoid a wall or obstacle) and needed to be grounded.

Any help preventing this problem is appreciated.

Thank you,
Thomas

Hi Thomas, just to verify, is it the case that the drone was facing the direct sunlight while the issue happened? Strong light may initiate the obstacle detecting, if it is possible, please adjust the direction of the aircraft, or fly the drone manually. We will also forward the case to the engineers to optimize this kind of scenario.
Please let us know if this is not the case, thank you.

Hu Susan, we typically fly between the hours of 10 and 5, so the sun is decently high in the sky and on uncloudy days it can get pretty sunny. We fly in a grid pattern, so the drone faces in pretty much all directions during the course of the flight. We need to complete these flights in a timely manner, and waiting for it not to be cloudy (FAA SUAS rules) or raining is already a significant portion of the time, if we cannot fly during sunny, perfect  weather this severely decreases our ability to conduct our business.

Is there a way to disable this feature so that this pausing of flights does not happen and we can perform our flights during sunny weather? I imagine putting something over the sensor to block the sunlight would still trip the sensor as it is being covered.

How can we fix this issue or stop the obstacle blocking sensor from pausing the flight mission?

Thanks,
Thomas

DJI Susan Posted at 6-30 04:08
Hi Thomas, just to verify, is it the case that the drone was facing the direct sunlight while the issue happened? Strong light may initiate the obstacle detecting, if it is possible, please adjust the direction of the aircraft, or fly the drone manually. We will also forward the case to the engineers to optimize this kind of scenario.
Please let us know if this is not the case, thank you.

Hi Susan, we are experiencing flight missions being paused in both bright and not-as-bright weather conditions and it is causing a serious problem in our ability to gather the data that we need. Is there any way that we can remove the detect obstacles feature from the drone, or turn it off, or put some sort of shade (like sunglasses) on the sensor so that we stop having this problem?

inertiallabs_tk Posted at 7-6 10:21
Hi Susan, we are experiencing flight missions being paused in both bright and not-as-bright weather conditions and it is causing a serious problem in our ability to gather the data that we need. Is there any way that we can remove the detect obstacles feature from the drone, or turn it off, or put some sort of shade (like sunglasses) on the sensor so that we stop having this problem?

Hi, sorry for the issue. Could you please help to export the flight log from the drone via DJI Assistant 2, upload it to Dropbox or Google Drive and provide me with the link? We will confirm the issue first.
At the same time, you can try to clean the sensors with a glasses cloth, and calibrate the vision system via DJI Assistant 2.

inertiallabs_tk Posted at 7-6 10:21
Hi Susan, we are experiencing flight missions being paused in both bright and not-as-bright weather conditions and it is causing a serious problem in our ability to gather the data that we need. Is there any way that we can remove the detect obstacles feature from the drone, or turn it off, or put some sort of shade (like sunglasses) on the sensor so that we stop having this problem?

You can turn all the object avoidance system off if you wish. It's not recommended but to do this you tap the icon at the top of the screen (next to the GPS signal strength icon) and then you can disable upward, downward, front and back, left and right obstacle avoidance sensors.

experienced this exact problem today. I was working on a Mapping mission next to a river whilst the sun was out and the drone would just stop and say it's detected an obstacle. Whenever I try and resume it wouldn't go anywhere. I changed the course alignment and had better luck but the same thing happened again whenever it got close to the river. This is a huge problem that needs to be looked at

Bright sun at certain angles has always been an issue for DJI obstacle avoidance sensors. Sometimes it causes only a warning or momentary annoying short delay, and sometimes it keeps recurring and pausing the mission to the point that it must be turned off, or one must wait until the sun's position in the sky changes enough to reduce or eliminate the issue.

But I'm not so sure that the OP's issue isn't due to a hardware or other problem. That sounds worse than I've ever seen.

Agree that it sounds like a hardware problem

I have flown hundreds of missions in South Texas, all sun conditions, all times of the day, all angles, and have never once had an unexpected obstacle problem.

Some days the sun is so bright it heats the top of the M300 after a 45-minute mission that when it returns home, it's almost too hot to touch.

There is a way to disable the obstacle avoidance on the pre-flight screen.

We have to remember to do this before flying from a boat or the M300 will be resistant to landing because of poles and railings mounted on the boat.

Always lands fine with the avoidance turned off, always hesitates if it turned on.

Never any unexpected warnings or pauses.

Hi, today I just woke up and trying to fly my Matrice 300, and suddenly got stuck with an error: all obstacle avoidance sensor giving me errors.

Any idea how to fix this?

Hi, today I just woke up and trying to fly my Matrice 300, and suddenly got stuck with an error: all obstacle avoidance sensor giving me errors.

Any idea how to fix this?

fansd58a6940 Posted at 7-24 12:19
Hi, today I just woke up and trying to fly my Matrice 300, and suddenly got stuck with an error: all obstacle avoidance sensor giving me errors.

Any idea how to fix this?

I have the same thing not long ago. Error messages sometimes appeared, before the flight, during the flight, after... Until the day I launched a mapping mission. 200m from the starting point the drone lost the radio link. It went into auto RTH. It came back about ten meters from its starting point and collided with the trees. I sent it for repair, DJI took it under warranty, confirmed that there was a problem with the anti-collision sensor and the RC but without giving further details.

You can try to upgrade/refresh the firmware. But depending on your operations the saffest option is to send it in for repair.

Then Open a ticket on DJI Support.

I have the same problem. I am forced to fly with obstacle turned off. I know it is dangerous, but I have no choice. I fly with a Greenvalley Lidar V70. The cost of a collision would be devastating. Please provide som sort of relief…Pete

DJI Susan Posted at 2021-6-30 04:08
Hi Thomas, just to verify, is it the case that the drone was facing the direct sunlight while the issue happened? Strong light may initiate the obstacle detecting, if it is possible, please adjust the direction of the aircraft, or fly the drone manually. We will also forward the case to the engineers to optimize this kind of scenario.
Please let us know if this is not the case, thank you.

I have the same problem. I am forced to fly with obstacle turned off. I know it is dangerous, but I have no choice. I fly with a Greenvalley Lidar V70. The cost of a collision would be devastating. Please provide som sort of relief…Pete

I have the same problem lately. I will get (obstacle detected or aircraft approaching geo zone). If I turn off the obstacle avoidance, I don't have a problem. I went back on the firmware and tried it. Now I get (Emergency Brake Triggered.) I am curious if the vision sensors need calibrated.