I'm attempting to get indoor footage inside a huge arena for a promoter. The drone is not getting a GPS signal inside this structure, which is fine. I don't need GPS related flight function.

However, the drone elevation is fixed. Once I ascend about 20 feet up I get a warning that maximum altitude is 98 feet. First off, the drone is not even 1/4 of that distance off the floor. Second my maximum altitude setting is ignored.

This happened on multiple flights / attempts even when shutting off the drone between flights. Same limit of about 20' actual elevation limit.

How can this be disabled? And why is DJI's estimated Non-gps attitude off by 400% (20' vs 98')?

Since there isn’t any gps it won’t allow you to go higher because it doesn’t have much control without it.

wa.jesse07 Posted at 3-2 13:47
Since there isn’t any gps it won’t allow you to go higher because it doesn’t have much control without it.

Yes so how does it know the elevation without GPS? I believe the ground sensors only work within a few feet of the ground. It says "98 feet" limit, but again, it's only allowing around 1/4 that height.

And regardless, if I choose to fly without GPS then I should be able to fly it as high as I'd like. FAA laws have nothing to do with whether or not the drone has GPS. I'm bound by visual flight in all cases, so it should be my choice how I want to fly the drone if there is no GPS signal.  I don't even have DJI's insurance / warranty add-on, so again, my drone, I'm piloting it.

Surely there is a way to disable this?

This is explained on page 40 of your manual.
   Height is restricted to 16 ft (5 m) when the GPS signal is weak and Infrared Sensing System is operating.
   Height is restricted to 98 ft (30 m) when the GPS signal is weak and Infrared Sensing System is not operating.

But there is no way to disable the VPS sensors on the Mini 2.
To do what you want, you would need a drone that allows this, like the Mavic 2 pro.

daneast Posted at 3-2 14:15
Yes so how does it know the elevation without GPS? I believe the ground sensors only work within a few feet of the ground. It says "98 feet" limit, but again, it's only allowing around 1/4 that height.

And regardless, if I choose to fly without GPS then I should be able to fly it as high as I'd like. FAA laws have nothing to do with whether or not the drone has GPS. I'm bound by visual flight in all cases, so it should be my choice how I want to fly the drone if there is no GPS signal.  I don't even have DJI's insurance / warranty add-on, so again, my drone, I'm piloting it.

Yes so how does it know the elevation without GPS?
GPS only provides horizontal position information.
Height data is provided by a barometric sensor, just as it is in a real plane.

I believe the ground sensors only work within a few feet of the ground.
Supplementary height data is provided by the VPS sensors, but they only work at heights up to 10 metres.

You -can- disable the downward sensors.

Hello there daneast. I am sorry for the trouble this has caused and thank you for reaching out. Just a reminder to please be careful while flying indoors as the DJI Mini 2 stabilization feature may experience interference and might affect the said drone. If you really need to fly indoors kindly please use a DJI Mini 2 Propeller Guard and activate the Payload mode on the DJI Fly application. The DJI Mini 2 Propeller Guard protects the propellers and other objects from damage. In addition, when the said drone's GPS is weak, the safety feature of the DJI Mini 2 will trigger and limits the height to 5 meters for safety purposes. Interference from other sources might have triggered the drone to move uncontrollably.  The Vision System of the DJI Mini 2 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 had an issue to land and take off from metallic surface, just found from drone hack the parameter to allow take off without compass, Litchi did not even give me and error message from compass error after enabling flight without compass, need to see if it uses to compass at all and if I can operate the gadget with this parameter enabled.

There is one similar setting for GPS as well, I think that it will enable flight with out GPS, have not tried that though.  

ScoutC03 Posted at 3-3 09:58
I had an issue to land and take off from metallic surface, just found from drone hack the parameter to allow take off without compass, Litchi did not even give me and error message from compass error after enabling flight without compass, need to see if it uses to compass at all and if I can operate the gadget woth this parameter enabled.

There is one similar setting for GPS as well, I think that it will enable flight with out GPS, have not tried that though.  

Was just thinking, if you don't have GPS and fly above the vision sensors, is there anything to keep you steady enough to be able to fly? Interesting.

Maybe you can put a piece of tape on the vision sensors to disable it.

I’m having the same issue flying it in a school gym for some videos they want for a project. It constantly searches for GPS signal and triggers the max altitude warning and payload (prop guards) which throws off the hover hold. It’s a smooth gym floor so no 3d references for VPS. I get it the B4UF need GPS to stay compliant but it’s absolutely useless and actually dangerous to fly it inside even with the guards. Add this to the usual ground effect, ceiling effect and prop currents and it’s hard enough to maintain a hover without the system trying to toss warnings all the time

Labroides Posted at 2022-3-2 14:23
Yes so how does it know the elevation without GPS?
GPS only provides horizontal position information.
Height data is provided by a barometric sensor, just as it is in a real plane.

As usual, said with such authority but not quite correct.

In a 'real plane' that has a GPS receiver, but horizontal and vertical position are derived from the GPS signals and are displayed on the GPS unit.

Primary navigation, and SSR altitude reporting are derived from the barometric sensor, as you say, but it is incorrect to say that GPS altitude is not used in a real plane.

In fact, as barometric altitude is dependent on the pilot setting the local pressure (which is only provided to the granularity of the FIR or local airfield that you are operating from/to) then it has been argued that GPS altitude is actually more reliable for maintaining vertical separation - there are cases of collisions being caused by incorrect altimeter pressure settings that could have been avoided by use of GPS altitude.

Also, airspace infringement warnings in a real plane are derived from GPS position and altitude - GPS units (not FMS) do not receive any input from the barometric sensors.

No Original Thought Posted at 2-24 15:03
As usual, said with such authority but not quite correct.

In a 'real plane' that has a GPS receiver, but horizontal and vertical position are derived from the GPS signals and are displayed on the GPS unit.

As usual, said with such authority but not quite correct.
As usual the unnecessarily snide attack you've made your trademark.
You've gone out of your way to comment on a trivial aspect to something I posted a year ago?
A bit of inconsequential fluff.
It doesn't negate what I said a year ago.
Your drone gets it's height data from a barometric sensor, not GPS

Primary navigation, and SSR altitude reporting are derived from the  barometric sensor, as you say, but it is incorrect to say that GPS  altitude is not used in a real plane.
But I didn't say that GPS  altitude is not used in a real plane, so why come all snarky on this?
Get back to refining your checklist ... maybe you'll fly your drone sometime and need to refer to it.

Labroides Posted at 2-24 15:32
As usual, said with such authority but not quite correct.
As usual the unnecessarily snide attack you've made your trademark.
You've gone out of your way to comment on a trivial aspect to something I posted a year ago?

You: 'GPS only provides horizontal position... Just as in a real plane".

So by exclusion you did say vertical position is not used.

And also interesting that you didn't pick up on the actual error in my post!

Local pressure is set by ASR, not by FIR. For example in the UK over the two FIRs there are approx 20 ASRs. Trying to cut my answer down to fit the 1000 chars the app allows meant I cut out the ref to ASRs.

And regarding picking up on trivial points - I guess that's equivalent to denying the use of a general flight safety tip because you believe that tip would be ineffective for one bird species in one part of the world.

Maybe because you are so picky about everyone else's answers it just encourages people to bait you for a bit 9f sport. If I spot any other inaccuracies in your posts, however minor, I'll consider them fair game for pointing out if I can be bothered.

No Original Thought Posted at 2-25 02:41
You: 'GPS only provides horizontal position... Just as in a real plane".

So by exclusion you did say vertical position is not used.

So by exclusion you did say vertical position is not used.
What I said was a simple and succint statement.: Your drone gets it's height data from a barometric sensor, not GPS.
The meaning should be clear to just about everyone.
I can't understand what the point is that you are trying to make.

Why do you try "pushing buttons" with such trivial nitpicking?
It's tedious and just shows up your character deficiencies.

Labroides Posted at 2-25 03:07
So by exclusion you did say vertical position is not used.
What I said was a simple and succint statement.: Your drone gets it's height data from a barometric sensor, not GPS.
The meaning should be clear to just about everyone.

What you said was "just as it is in a real plane".

If you were being succinct you wouldn't have included that line which is misleading.

Why do I do it? Because you do it, and I like to think that it makes you feel the same way as others feel when you do it to them. Your reactions would suggest that I am right to think that - it's annoying, isn't it?