As Mini2 has it no reason to think they would drop it.

DAFlys Posted at 3-23 00:41
As Mini2 has it no reason to think they would drop it.

The mini 2 doesnt have precision landing, well, most certainly nothing like the P4P has

DAFlys Posted at 3-23 00:41
As Mini2 has it no reason to think they would drop it.

For the record, the Mini 2 does NOT have a precision landing. The way you know this feature is not representative is based on when the drone hovers over the home point with the voice saying "Landing" the Mini 2 does not regain and revert to its take-off orientation at the time it begins landing.

I suspect the reason the Mini 2 is absent of precision landing is that that feature likely requires, not hardware, but software that interrelates the hardware. For example, when DJI enables this feature it usually is tied to some type of software algorithm that only obstacle avoidance drones have?

Therefore, I expect if DJI releases the Mini 3 with some type of obstacle avoidance then the precision landing feature are added as a software feature that relies on software that accommodates the obstacle avoidance sensors?

Who claimed the Mini 2 has "Precision landing"? It cannot have! Not enough sensors!

DAFlys Posted at 3-23 00:41
As Mini2 has it no reason to think they would drop it.

It doesn’t have Precision landing, but it precisely lands where it took off. Ive seen you tube video with Air2s and Mini 2 one with and one without The mini2 faired better than the drone with precision landing. Both are bound by GPS tolerance.

hallmark007 Posted at 3-23 08:26
It doesn’t have Precision landing, but it precisely lands where it took off. Ive seen you tube video with Air2s and Mini 2 one with and one without The mini2 faired better than the drone with precision landing. Both are bound by GPS tolerance.

For the Mini2 you are right.
The MA2 and Air2S do have pricision landing. Both use GPS on return and approach.
If they have decreased down to approx. 5m they start to use the downward vision system and
will correct them self by recognizing / comparing the picture during take off.
Today i had this behavior with my MA2 with a extrem GPS drift of around 2m off the homepoint and
i was prepared to cancle the RTH procedure.
At approx. 5m hight it corrected it self and landed with a precision between 2 to 5 cm.
But the precision landing is only as good as the lighting conditions and the contrast on the ground are.

hallmark007 Posted at 3-23 08:26
It doesn’t have Precision landing, but it precisely lands where it took off. Ive seen you tube video with Air2s and Mini 2 one with and one without The mini2 faired better than the drone with precision landing. Both are bound by GPS tolerance.

Then there must have been an issue with the Air 2s, If you put this up against my P4P, it woud knock the Mini 2 right out of the ballpark,

The system used is totally different, i forget now if its the main camera in use etc, but my P4P can land back on the mat, the Mini 2 is lucky if its gets within 2ft

Hello there David Martin Graff. Good day and thank you for posting. As of the moment, we do not have any information with DJI's future updates for the DJI Mavic 3 and with regard to this matter. Kindly please stay tuned to the latest updates by subscribing to DJI official website at www.dji.com or following us on social media ( Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DJI , Twitter: https://twitter.com/djiglobal , YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/djiinnovations ). Thank you.

David Martin Graff Posted at 3-23 07:41
For the record, the Mini 2 does NOT have a precision landing. The way you know this feature is not representative is based on when the drone hovers over the home point with the voice saying "Landing" the Mini 2 does not regain and revert to its take-off orientation at the time it begins landing.

I suspect the reason the Mini 2 is absent of precision landing is that that feature likely requires, not hardware, but software that interrelates the hardware. For example, when DJI enables this feature it usually is tied to some type of software algorithm that only obstacle avoidance drones have?

Mine will always land within a couple of inches of the take off point,   its no worse than my Mavic 2 Pro so they obviously have implemented something else to get the performance right.

hallmark007 Posted at 3-23 08:26
It doesn’t have Precision landing, but it precisely lands where it took off. Ive seen you tube video with Air2s and Mini 2 one with and one without The mini2 faired better than the drone with precision landing. Both are bound by GPS tolerance.

My Mini2 lands as accurately as the Mavic 2 Pro so how ever they've done it, to me it doesn't need any improvement,  especially when 99% of the time I land manually anyway.

Bashy Posted at 3-23 01:33
The mini 2 doesnt have precision landing, well, most certainly nothing like the P4P has

My Mini2 lands as accurately as the Mavic 2 Pro so how ever they've done it, to me it doesn't need any improvement,  especially when 99% of the time I land manually anyway.

DAFlys Posted at 3-23 23:45
My Mini2 lands as accurately as the Mavic 2 Pro so how ever they've done it, to me it doesn't need any improvement,  especially when 99% of the time I land manually anyway.

The drone doesn't set the orientation that it took off with. While the landing point is usually within 6 feet of the home point, make no mistake about it, the DJI Mini 2 does NOT have a precision landing, and if it's recording its landing points consistent, or improved upon, from the Mavic 2, chances are you have a faulty Mavic 2. My Mavic 2 will fly out 22,000 feet, automatically return to home, and land pin-point precise to its original home point.

The DJI Mini, as I said, lands particularly close to the home point, orientation lacking. One improvement I hope to implement, especially if this drone is going to be selling at quite a higher selling point, DJI must include precision landing. If my DJI Spark had precision landing and that drone actually was released 5 years ago (Spark also has obstacle avoidance) surely we should find the new drone to yield at least the same, if not better, features than a 5 year old drone?

David Martin Graff Posted at 3-24 02:14
The drone doesn't set the orientation that it took off with. While the landing point is usually within 6 feet of the home point, make no mistake about it, the DJI Mini 2 does NOT have a precision landing, and if it's recording its landing points consistent, or improved upon, from the Mavic 2, chances are you have a faulty Mavic 2. My Mavic 2 will fly out 22,000 feet, automatically return to home, and land pin-point precise to its original home point.

The DJI Mini, as I said, lands particularly close to the home point, orientation lacking. One improvement I hope to implement, especially if this drone is going to be selling at quite a higher selling point, DJI must include precision landing. If my DJI Spark had precision landing and that drone actually was released 5 years ago (Spark also has obstacle avoidance) surely we should find the new drone to yield at least the same, if not better, features than a 5 year old drone?

That’s absolute rubbish. Precision landing has the same gps tolerance as drone with no precision , so it has nothing to do with a problem of precision landing being a problem with M2. In fact drones with precision are more likely not to land on landing spot warning that landing ground is not safe so forcing the operator to force the landing , something that rarely happens with drones without precision landing. Testing by many will verify that drones with or without precision landing are likely to as accurate or inaccurate as each other. Precision landing yes will face the craft the same way it took off and that’s the only consistent difference between having it or not having it on modern DJI drones.

Precision landing does not compensate for GPS tolerance and nowhere in your manual does it say it does.

DAFlys Posted at 3-23 23:39
Mine will always land within a couple of inches of the take off point,   its no worse than my Mavic 2 Pro so they obviously have implemented something else to get the performance right.

My Mini 2 never lands inches away from the take-off point. DJI confirmed that the Mini 2 does not have obstacle avoidance, the only other drone that I've seen struggle with is obstacle avoidance is found on my DJI FPV. The FPV actually does have a precision landing capability, but it's spotty at times as it sometimes lands exactly at the home point, other times it lands several feet from the take-off location. My original Mavic Pro by far has the best precision landing featured, and the Mavic 2 Pro I would say is third best, behind the Spark!

My mini 2 cant even land on the mat yet my P4P can quite easily, also, precision landing is an option you have to choose when you manually set it to auto land

Reading this discussion reminds me of a few questions I've had for a while, and raises a couple of new ones.

The new questions based on the discussion above:
1) If Precision landing does not result in improved landing precision of teh aircraft, what is the point in it?
2) Why would landing with the same orientation as take off require precision landing? T/O orientation can be recorded from the compass heading and the aircraft can turn to that heading before/during landing, surely.

The old questions:
1) The Mini 2 does not have precision landing, but it does have a downward vision system to determine height above the 'ground' belwo a certain height. How does this work? Is it simply looking at a reflected IR beam (two 'eyes' on the underside of the drone suggest a transmit and receive 'eye'), or some other kind of proximity technology. Or is the 'vision' system a low res camera of some sort - the manual refers to a reliance on patterned surfaces etc which implies that it may be more than just an IR / proximity sensor.
2) What does the precision landing system on other drones consist of? Is this image matching between a take off image taken looking at the take off surface and the one on approach to landing (as has been implied in other things I have read) or something different.

Obviously GPS is used in both cases to get the aircraft somewhere close to the take-off / home point, but GPS accuracy is variable and almost never precise enough to get the aircraft back in teh centre of yoru landing pad. That said, most of my RTH landings (not many, admitedly, as I'm new to the Mini 2) have actually been on the pad and pretty close to the centre where it took off from. This implies that something on the Mini 2 is helping to improve the accuracy of the landing point, though it could just be by fluke. (Incidentally, when the aircraft has not landed accurately it has always been out by a few feet - so it's always been either very accurate to with an inch or two or its a few feet out - never in between!)

No Original Thought Posted at 3-24 05:45
Reading this discussion reminds me of a few questions I've had for a while, and raises a couple of new ones.

The new questions based on the discussion above:

The precision landing system on the mavic 2 pro uses the two downward pointing cameras that are also used for obstacle avoidance.

I think the main camera plays a part in it on the P4P as it points down on the landing, i think it must take a photo of the take off point and it does work very well, maybe inches off center of the helipad,

DAFlys Posted at 3-24 07:21
The precision landing system on the mavic 2 pro uses the two downward pointing cameras that are also used for obstacle avoidance.

Are these actual cameras - as in imaging devices - or are they more like proximity sensors?

I guess this begs the bigger question, does obstacke avoidance use image recognition rather than just proximity detection?

The Mini 2 doesn't have PRECISION LANDING. The Mavic2pro was first released without Precision landing enabled, a software update a few months later enabled it to carry out a precision landing. My Mini 2 lands on or near the landing pad, I normally have to "nudge" it at the last metre. My Mavic2pro lands within an inch in the same orientation as it took off, a Precision Landing. It has two downward facing cameras to enable it to carryout a precision landing.

The Mini 2 has n't the stereo camera hardware to be able to have precision landing, I would be surprised if the Mini 3 would have precision landing capabilities.

David Martin Graff Posted at 3-24 02:14
The drone doesn't set the orientation that it took off with. While the landing point is usually within 6 feet of the home point, make no mistake about it, the DJI Mini 2 does NOT have a precision landing, and if it's recording its landing points consistent, or improved upon, from the Mavic 2, chances are you have a faulty Mavic 2. My Mavic 2 will fly out 22,000 feet, automatically return to home, and land pin-point precise to its original home point.

The DJI Mini, as I said, lands particularly close to the home point, orientation lacking. One improvement I hope to implement, especially if this drone is going to be selling at quite a higher selling point, DJI must include precision landing. If my DJI Spark had precision landing and that drone actually was released 5 years ago (Spark also has obstacle avoidance) surely we should find the new drone to yield at least the same, if not better, features than a 5 year old drone?

Both of mine will land within a couple of inches of the take off point,   I just dont understand why any more accuracy is really needed or orientation,   I must just have difference use cases.

Bodkins Best Photography Posted at 3-24 23:35
Mine rarely lands less than 3' away from the launch platform.

Same here,    and if it was a little off you can still control the drone with the sticks.

No Original Thought Posted at 3-24 10:17
Are these actual cameras - as in imaging devices - or are they more like proximity sensors?

I guess this begs the bigger question, does obstacke avoidance use image recognition rather than just proximity detection?

They are cameras.  when you do the calibration on them you can see what the camera is seeing as you guide it around a grid.

No Original Thought Posted at 3-24 10:17
Are these actual cameras - as in imaging devices - or are they more like proximity sensors?

I guess this begs the bigger question, does obstacke avoidance use image recognition rather than just proximity detection?

You can just make out in this video what the obstacle cameras can see.

DAFlys Posted at 3-24 23:20
Both of mine will land within a couple of inches of the take off point,   I just dont understand why any more accuracy is really needed or orientation,   I must just have difference use cases.

I would love to see your Mini 2 do this within the couple of inches, please?

Mine would lose the competition every time and thats with using the helipad, in the end i gave up using it and i just hand launch and catch now.

Could it be that you're not actually noticing that its actually more than a couple of inches out because you're not using a specific target point such as a helipad?

Im not sure of the use for precision landing in most uses but with my P4P i didn't have to watch it land and to make sure it didn't miss the pad a little and then topple, I used the precision landing every time with the P4P, with this Mini 2, as i said, i gave up landing it, it was always at best, half on the pad, at worst a few feet out, that's not good for the Mini 2 when you take the delicate gimbal into consideration as you always need a smooth area to land it so a stone, or clump of grass or other foreign body in the away couldn't cause any damage. So in that respect, precision landing would have been a benefit to the Mini series

Here's mine, the 1st 2 tries I had to intervene else it would have hit my mast guy lines, and stupidly I kept forgetting to start record on the phone even though it was in my hand thinking I was recording lol

DAFlys Posted at 3-24 23:42
You can just make out in this video what the obstacle cameras can see.

Thanks for that... really interesting to see. It really helps you to understand how the obstacle avoidance works (and why so much more processing power is needed to run the image analysis and comparison from three pairs of actual cameras).

I'm sure there are easier ways that this could be done with simple proximity sensors, but you can see how this type of avoidance system could be very very clever.

My P4p would have hit that pad with no issues, might not have been center every time but it would have been on it, that's the difference between precision landing and none precision landing

Info: I just explained the real reason for the Mini 2 not being able to do precision landings. And immediately that post is under moderation.

Landey Posted at 3-26 01:18
Info: I just explained the real reason for the Mini 2 not being able to do precision landings. And immediately that post is under moderation.

What is the real reason, it might help be understand why my post was locked cause i am not entirely convinced it was cause of the mention of the Aeroscope and subject surrounding it, i also mentioned about I may not getting the new version etc im trying to be a little cryptic, i dont want another lockin lol

It's OK, I've read it now, I cannot see any reason for moderation. I think they must have a new moderator, abusing other members is fine though, go figure....

Bashy Posted at 3-26 01:41
What is the real reason, it might help be understand why my post was locked cause i am not entirely convinced it was cause of the mention of the Aeroscope and subject surrounding it, i also mentioned about I may not getting the new version etc im trying to be a little cryptic, i dont want another lockin lol

It's OK, I've read it now, I cannot see any reason for moderation. I think they must have a new moderator, abusing other members is fine though, go figure....

I'll send you the full text via personal message.
Done.
You see? Seems to be something DJI does not want to be publicly discussed.

Landey Posted at 3-26 02:16
I'll send you the full text via personal message.
Done.
You see? Seems to be something DJI does not want to be publicly discussed.

Yeah, it is very strange...

I only expect / want a better camera. Everything else can stay the same as Mini 2. Every additional feature such as precision landing, sensors, active track etc will just bump up the price and will be seldomly used in practice.

Tuxtard Posted at 3-28 02:07
I only expect / want a better camera. Everything else can stay the same as Mini 2. Every additional feature such as precision landing, sensors, active track etc will just bump up the price and will be seldomly used in practice.

Errrm ...
The Mini 2 CAN do precision landings, it CAN also do active tracking without any hardware changes.
It's just a software thing.

I'll explain - using the text of my still "moderated" (muted) post # 31 above, this time without the parts which obviously made DJI hide it in matter of seconds.
---
Let's clear things up a bit.

The Mini 2 IS CAPABLE of precision landing.

Before you burst into calling me an idiot, read on.
("No Original Thought" already pointed you into the right direction.)

GPS is for getting a course position, precise to a few meters or feet more or less. And that's it.
For precision landing, you also need a downfacing camera, taking a few photos of the ground while taking off.
After the drone returned home via coarse GPS positioning, it needs to compare the photos taken at takeoff with the actual view of the downfacing camera, then align it's position (and orientation) using present and stored visuals of the landing zone. This needs some computing power, thus it's done by the smartphone connected.
So we need: GPS, downfacing camera, some computing power.
We've got all of that. In fact, the Mini 2 has TWO downfacing cameras, the main camera which can be turned towards the ground, plus a tiny additional camera (between the two infrared transceivers). The latter is used for keeping the drone hovering very stable if the ground has enough contrast. I guess this tiny camera has a very low resolution, thus it's use for precision landing is quite restricted. But the main camera would do the job just perfectly.

You see? The Mini 2 has everything it needs for precision landing.

Landey Posted at 3-28 04:56
Errrm ...
The Mini 2 CAN do precision landings, it CAN also do active tracking without any hardware changes.
It's just a software thing.

Where have you seen that it's computed using the phone/tablet?

Bashy Posted at 3-28 19:36
Where have you seen that it's computed using the phone/tablet?

Is it okay if I answer in three days?
Looks like the right date for questions like this.

Erm, well depends if you want to defend your statement, the reason being, i dont think your statement is factually correct and if so totally scuppers the whole Mini 2 having the ability to precision land if it wasnt for the software.

For drones that already have this precision landing, I am 99.9% sure that the drone will still precision land even when communication is lost with the remote, if this is the case then it cannot be true that the smart device is the one that computes the data for landing. I believe that the drone is the one that computes the data, therefore i also surmise that the Mini 2 does not have the computing power nor the onboard cache to do this.

Bashy Posted at 3-28 21:58
Erm, well depends if you want to defend your statement, the reason being, i dont think your statement is factually correct and if so totally scuppers the whole Mini 2 having the ability to precision land if it wasnt for the software.

For drones that already have this precision landing, I am 99.9% sure that the drone will still precision land even when communication is lost with the remote, if this is the case then it cannot be true that the smart device is the one that computes the data for landing. I believe that the drone is the one that computes the data, therefore i also surmise that the Mini 2 does not have the computing power nor the onboard cache to do this.

I could be wrong, but I read it that Landey was suggesting that if the Mini 2 didn't have the on+board processing power to do the image analysis required for precision landing then that _could_ be off-loaded to the smart device.

In more powerful, higher spec's aircraft that wouldn't be needed, the processing could be done on board, but we don't know if the Mini 2 has the computing power or not so an alternative was proposed.