I may be missing something, but it doesn't look like there's a way to disable the downward Obstacle Avoidance without disabling the Vision Positioning System. There are times when we may want to keep VPS on, but disable the downward OA. For example, when flying indoors or tight spaces, the VPS is extremely helpful for keeping stability, but I may not want OA to send the Mavic upwards as I fly it over an object. It could ascend into a low hanging branch, ceiling, etc.

VPS is a hindrance indoors too. Only way it would be better indoors is if your able to adjust distances and ask to confirm if you want the craft to increase altitude over obsticle detected.

Sorry Jason, that's not available. Please be more careful when flying indoors.

DJI Mindy Posted at 2016-12-13 15:16
Sorry Jason, that's not available. Please be more careful when flying indoors.

I am careful when flying indoors :-) I haven't had an incident while indoors. I'm just suggesting that I think it would be nice to be able to disable downwards OA separately from VPS.

Jason Lane Posted at 2016-12-13 08:36
I am careful when flying indoors :-) I haven't had an incident while indoors. I'm just suggesting that I think it would be nice to be able to disable downwards OA separately from VPS.

Are you sure you can't? They look like 2 separate settings to me. I don't have it connected to test, just looking at the app settings.

trance728- Posted at 2016-12-13 22:51
Are you sure you can't? They look like 2 separate settings to me. I don't have it connected to test, just looking at the app settings.

Are you referring to the first setting? That's forward obstacle avoidance. I'm referring to downward obstacle avoidance, which is bundled in with the VPS setting.

Jason Lane Posted at 2016-12-13 10:15
Are you referring to the first setting? That's forward obstacle avoidance. I'm referring to downward obstacle avoidance, which is bundled in with the VPS setting.

No, look at the bottom, it's a separate downward sensor option.

trance728- Posted at 2016-12-13 23:46
No, look at the bottom, it's a separate downward sensor option.

The option at the bottom is for downward vision positioning, not specifically downward obstacle avoidance.

Jason Lane Posted at 2016-12-13 10:54
The option at the bottom is for downward vision positioning, not specifically downward obstacle avoidance.

Ahh, that's a bit confusing. I wonder what would happen if you covered the oa cameras with tape before starting?

trance728- Posted at 2016-12-13 10:14
Ahh, that's a bit confusing. I wonder what would happen if you covered the oa cameras with tape before starting?

The bottom sensors/cameras are one system, and the cameras should not be covered with tape.

DJI-Ken Posted at 2016-12-13 11:30
The bottom sensors/cameras are one system, and the cameras should not be covered with tape.

So Ken, would shutting off the downward positioning in the app shut off any downward obstacle avoidance like the OP is trying to achieve?

trance728- Posted at 2016-12-13 11:11
So Ken, would shutting off the downward positioning in the app shut off any downward obstacle avoidance like the OP is trying to achieve?

Yes it would but he downward sensors are pretty much only used for landing (which is in front of you) so it's not a big deal. The downward sensors are more of a positioning system.

If anybody else is interested in being able to disable downward OA without disabling VPS, I accidentally discovered a way to do this today:

I found that disabling the "Landing Protection" option actually disables the Mavic's downward obstacle avoidance, while still keeping VPS enabled for enhanced flight stability. With Landing Protection disabled, I was able to fly my Mavic extremely close to the ground without it ascending or pausing. Literally an inch or two above the ground.

I also tested letting the Mavic hover, and then placing my hand directly underneath it. The Mavic didn't budge. Normally this would result in the Mavic shooting upwards, as many people have discovered while trying to hand catch it.

Also, with this option disabled, the Mavic no longer pauses at 0.5m when you tell it to descend. It will continue to descend until you stop the input, or until it hits the ground.

So it looks like I accidentally discovered how to do exactly what I was looking for, which should be great for anybody wanting to fly indoors and/or underneath branches, overhangs, etc.

ps. DJI, perhaps you could come up with a better name for the "Landing Proection" option? Perhaps "Downward Obstacle Avoidance" or "Terrain Avoidance" or "Maintain Ground Clearance" would be a better term for it.

Jason Lane Posted at 2017-1-4 04:14
If anybody else is interested in being able to disable downward OA without disabling VPS, I accidentally discovered a way to do this today:

I found that disabling the "Landing Protection" option actually disables the Mavic's downward obstacle avoidance, while still keeping VPS enabled for enhanced flight stability. With Landing Protection disabled, I was able to fly my Mavic extremely close to the ground without it ascending or pausing. Literally an inch or two above the ground.

Thanks Jason,

This is exactly what I'm looking for. But... How to turn of the 'landing protection' in the settings is a puzzle to me. can't find the setting in the DJI app..

Thanks,
Erik

Jason Lane Posted at 2017-1-4 04:14
If anybody else is interested in being able to disable downward OA without disabling VPS, I accidentally discovered a way to do this today:

I found that disabling the "Landing Protection" option actually disables the Mavic's downward obstacle avoidance, while still keeping VPS enabled for enhanced flight stability. With Landing Protection disabled, I was able to fly my Mavic extremely close to the ground without it ascending or pausing. Literally an inch or two above the ground.

Thanks Jason,

This is exactly what I'm looking for. But... How to turn of the 'landing protection' in the settings is a puzzle to me. can't find the setting in the DJI app..

Thanks,
Erik

theBear Posted at 2017-1-28 04:09
Thanks Jason,

This is exactly what I'm looking for. But... How to turn of the 'landing protection' in the settings is a puzzle to me. can't find the setting in the DJI app..

Hi Erik. I've since been told that the Landing Protection option is currently only available on Android, not on IOS. Which do you use?

Jason Lane Posted at 2017-1-28 04:35
Hi Erik. I've since been told that the Landing Protection option is currently only available on Android, not on IOS. Which do you use?

ouch, I'm using IOS... strange that there are differences between the settings anyway

theBear Posted at 2017-1-28 11:25
ouch, I'm using IOS... strange that there are differences between the settings anyway

Indeed. And it's strange that it seems like IOS gets some features first, but then Android gets other features first. No consistency... :-(

Jason Lane Posted at 2017-1-4 04:14
If anybody else is interested in being able to disable downward OA without disabling VPS, I accidentally discovered a way to do this today:

I found that disabling the "Landing Protection" option actually disables the Mavic's downward obstacle avoidance, while still keeping VPS enabled for enhanced flight stability. With Landing Protection disabled, I was able to fly my Mavic extremely close to the ground without it ascending or pausing. Literally an inch or two above the ground.

Hey Jason would this enable me to fly my drone through a smallish space without something below the mavic forcing it upwards.

I wanted to fly it through an wide object but with a low overhang. Probably about 50cm high. I want to try and test everything before even attempting this and even then would do it in tripod mode to try and get the shot I want. My worry was that I would fly it between the floor and roof of the 50cm object the bottom sensor would go nuts and make it climb into the roof.

Figure I may try changing the landing protection option and just play around with with the drone hovering and put my hand underneath to see how it handles it.

Pinoclean Posted at 2017-4-13 05:39
Hey Jason would this enable me to fly my drone through a smallish space without something below the mavic forcing it upwards.

I wanted to fly it through an wide object but with a low overhang. Probably about 50cm high. I want to try and test everything before even attempting this and even then would do it in tripod mode to try and get the shot I want. My worry was that I would fly it between the floor and roof of the 50cm object the bottom sensor would go nuts and make it climb into the roof.

You need also to remember when flying under low hanging branches that forward OA will send your aircraft upwards, while turning off OA indoors may stop the AC ascending badly lit rooms and or drastic changes of light will also have a very negative effect on your A C,

If conditions are right for flying indoors i.e. Good lighting and proper textured flooring there is no need to switch downward OA off.

I'm a bit miffed as to why people want to fly so low indoors when you can get much better footage from a handheld gimbal camera, the Mavic as an indoor camera is not very good, in fact it's really bad unless lighting is really good and I mean really good, if it's not for footage then you can buy much cheaper AC for flying indoors which will cause minimal damage.

Pinoclean Posted at 2017-4-13 05:39
Hey Jason would this enable me to fly my drone through a smallish space without something below the mavic forcing it upwards.

I wanted to fly it through an wide object but with a low overhang. Probably about 50cm high. I want to try and test everything before even attempting this and even then would do it in tripod mode to try and get the shot I want. My worry was that I would fly it between the floor and roof of the 50cm object the bottom sensor would go nuts and make it climb into the roof.

Yes, disabling Landing Protection will prevent it from rising up. Although I'd definitely recommend doing a test first with your hand, just in case anything has changed with more recent firmwares :-)

That being said, another thing to consider is how accurately the Mavic will be able to maintain it's altitude and position in that confined space. I don't know enough about what you want to attempt, so I can't say for sure. But just because it's not going to intentionally rise up, doesn't mean it won't rise up anyway (or drift sideways). eg. While it's under that overhang, is the GPS signal going to be adversely affected? Will the lighting be inadequate for the VPS to be effective?

hallmark007 Posted at 2017-4-13 07:07
You need also to remember when flying under low hanging branches that forward OA will send your aircraft upwards, while turning off OA indoors may stop the AC ascending badly lit rooms and or drastic changes of light will also have a very negative effect on your A C,

If conditions are right for flying indoors i.e. Good lighting and proper textured flooring there is no need to switch downward OA off.

"forward OA will send your aircraft upwards"

Unless this has changed in the newest firmware, forward OA doesn't cause the Mavic to ascend during manual flight. I'm pretty sure RTH is the only mode in which the Mavic will ascend to avoid an obstacle (if the option is enabled).

Jason Lane Posted at 2017-4-13 08:06
"forward OA will send your aircraft upwards"

Unless this has changed in the newest firmware, forward OA doesn't cause the Mavic to ascend during manual flight. I'm pretty sure RTH is the only mode in which the Mavic will ascend to avoid an obstacle (if the option is enabled).

P22/ manual 1.4

The Mavic pro is equipped with forward and downward vision system that constantly scans obstacles in front of it allowing it to avoid collisions by going around OVER or hovering.

hallmark007 Posted at 2017-4-13 08:53
P22/ manual 1.4

The Mavic pro is equipped with forward and downward vision system that constantly scans obstacles in front of it allowing it to avoid collisions by going around OVER or hovering.

Yes, it has the ability to go over, and it does in certain circumstances (ie. RTH), but it doesn't go over obstacles in manual flight. It's easy to test, and I've done it before with previous firmwares. Just point your Mavic at an obstacle and try to fly towards it. The Mavic will slow down and eventually stop. Once it had stopped, no matter how much I push the stick forward, it would not move. It never ascended, just waited until I backed it away, or rotated and flew another direction.

Jason Lane Posted at 2017-4-13 08:59
Yes, it has the ability to go over, and it does in certain circumstances (ie. RTH), but it doesn't go over obstacles in manual flight. It's easy to test, and I've done it before with previous firmwares. Just point your Mavic at an obstacle and try to fly towards it. The Mavic will slow down and eventually stop. Once it had stopped, no matter how much I push the stick forward, it would not move. It never ascended, just waited until I backed it away, or rotated and flew another direction.

If you read the Manual this is not in the RTH section, I haven't tried it and I don't know what modes it works in.
But the point your trying to get across in your thread is turning off downward vision sensors so you can fly under trees, makes little sense to me because the light under trees is drastically different which will invariably have a much worse effect on VPS and the likelihood of more crashes or accidents.

Also the removal of downward OA may also cause many more hard landings on an aircraft that wasn't built for hard landings, with such short legs

And lastly aircraft descending quickly can cause what's known as Vortex ring or Propwash causing an outcome of aircraft flipping on landing.

For me and considering so many new pilots turning of Downward OB will cause more problems both indoor and outdoor.

For the best indoor flights with the least amount of problems it's best to fly in a suitable environment, once you try to cut back on this as a given , then no matter what you do your taking a risk.

"If you read the Manual this is not in the RTH section"

I know it's not the RTH section. But it's the section that describes the capabilities and limitations of the Forward and Downward Vision System, which also can be used during RTH, as well as several other modes of flight not specifically mentioned in that section.

"I haven't tried it and I don't know what modes it works in."

I have tried it, and I'm happy to try it again tomorrow and post my results.

“But the point your trying to get across in your thread is turning off downward vision sensors so you can fly under trees”

That wasn’t really the main point of my thread at all. I just mentioned some of situations I could think of where I think disabling downward OA (not the downward vision sensors) would be beneficial. We saw the post in the past few days where the pilot’s Mavic rose up into the roof over a picnic table, apparently because the sensors mistakenly thought it was at or near 0ft from the ground. Had Landing Protection been disabled, that crash most likely would not have happened.

I can think of another situation where disabling Landing Protection can can be useful, and it has nothing to do with overhangs or trees; You might want to get a shot where the Mavic flies towards and then over something, clearing it by just 0.5m or less. With Landing Protection enabled, the Mavic will rise and ruin the shot.

“Also the removal of downward OA may also cause many more hard landings on an aircraft that wasn't built for hard landings, with such short legs”

Thankfully, even with Landing Protection switched off, the Mavic slows its descent drastically as it gets closer to the ground. I was testing this just today in Sport mode. The normal max descent rate seems to be about 3m/s, but the Mavic starts to slow its descent from aout 10m above the ground. By the time it’s touching down, the descent rate is about 0.2m/s. To be honest, with Landing Protection disabled I can land the Mavic more gently than the Mavic lands itself in auto-landing.

“And lastly aircraft descending quickly can cause what's known as Vortex ring or Propwash causing an outcome of aircraft flipping on landing.”

My understanding is that DJI has limited the max descent speed to ensure there’s no possibility of this happening, and as mentioned above, it’s especially slow when close to the ground. I’ve also applied full down stick many times at various heights in both normal and Sport mode, and I’ve never seen a hint of instability.

“For me and considering so many new pilots turning of Downward OB will cause more problems both indoor and outdoor.

For the best indoor flights with the least amount of problems it's best to fly in a suitable environment, once you try to cut back on this as a given , then no matter what you do your taking a risk.”

Yes, we should always try to take all factors into account when planning a flight. Part of good planning is knowing what tools and features are available, and having a full understanding about how they work. That was the main point of my thread; having the ability to switch on or off downward OA (Landing Protection) gives me control over yet another one of those features.

[quote]Jason Lane Posted at 2017-4-13 10:19
"If you read the Manual this is not in the RTH section"


[/
Well I'm going through the whole lot again I will agree to disagree with you on most of what I've said.

But if you think about OA when flying up to an obstacle it slows the AC down , does it not make sense that it is downward OA that slows the speed of landing as you say from 10 meters although in my experience it's much nearer 5 meters.

hallmark007 Posted at 2017-4-13 11:14
[quote]Jason Lane Posted at 2017-4-13 10:19
"If you read the Manual this is not in the RTH section"

"does it not make sense that it is downward OA that slows the speed of landing"

Well the thing is, there isn't actually any option or feature that DJI calls "Downward Obstacle Avoidance." That was just the best description I could think of for the behavior I was referring to (ascending to avoid something below). I later discovered that the Landing Protection option does exactly what I was looking for, preventing the Mavic from rising. And I can assure you that the Mavic slows its descent even with Landing Protection disabled. You can try it yourself. I watched the flight playback carefully to see where it started to slow down, and in my testing that was at 10m.

hallmark007 Posted at 2017-4-13 07:07
You need also to remember when flying under low hanging branches that forward OA will send your aircraft upwards, while turning off OA indoors may stop the AC ascending badly lit rooms and or drastic changes of light will also have a very negative effect on your A C,

If conditions are right for flying indoors i.e. Good lighting and proper textured flooring there is no need to switch downward OA off.

I wanted to film a reveal shot outdoors where it flies through backwards (though I would probably fly through forwards in tripod mode and just reverse the footage) so the opening is revealed as it flies through backwards. It would have a reveal on all sides of the shot because it is a smallish space which I think would be quite a good shot. It is not for flying indoors the object is outdoors. Flying in tripod mode it is certainly possible to fly it through as the opening is probably about 100cm wide  x 50-60cm high which is actually quite large compared to the mavic, its more just my fear that the bottom sensor would make it auto rise up into the roof. If there was no sensor it would be a very easy flight in tripod mode as its super slow.

Pinoclean Posted at 2017-4-14 18:31
I wanted to film a reveal shot outdoors where it flies through backwards (though I would probably fly through forwards in tripod mode and just reverse the footage) so the opening is revealed as it flies through backwards. It would have a reveal on all sides of the shot because it is a smallish space which I think would be quite a good shot. It is not for flying indoors the object is outdoors. Flying in tripod mode it is certainly possible to fly it through as the opening is probably about 100cm wide  x 50-60cm high which is actually quite large compared to the mavic, its more just my fear that the bottom sensor would make it auto rise up into the roof. If there was no sensor it would be a very easy flight in tripod mode as its super slow.

Do you have prop guards? I'd probably use them for that shot, just in case.