Is there any way that either an individual or better still a pressure group with a number of people, the more the better I guess, requesting a modification to the Drones performance / software. I was thinking allong the lines of the disussion I had with A CW in the " how high can this drone fly" thread and really see no reason for the conflict between maximum hight allowed at 500M AGL and the abillity to follow terrain whilst still being within that limit as opposed to the current situation where the maximum hight is determined by reference to the take off point. This is quite restrictive and denies the opportunity to fly perfictly legal missions.

I cant see you getting anywhere to be honest, beside the drone has no way of knowing its height above ground level, the only reference it has is the height above the take off point.

AlanHd Posted at 2018-1-1 04:27
I cant see you getting anywhere to be honest, beside the drone has no way of knowing its height above ground level, the only reference it has is the height above the take off point.

Going back to the discussion with A CW the drone could use GPS hight which is accurate enough and use Google Maps for terrain hight with the user allowing for obstacles etc. Combine that with barometric pressure and you have a very good back up system. It's not rocket science.

PeteHB Posted at 2018-1-1 04:35
Going back to the discussion with A CW the drone could use GPS hight which is accurate enough and use Google Maps for terrain hight with the user allowing for obstacles etc. Combine that with barometric pressure and you have a very good back up system. It's not rocket science.

I fly without a data connection and don't use offline maps so how is the drone supposed to use the GPS data with nothing to reference.

AlanHd Posted at 2018-1-1 04:40
I fly without a data connection and don't use offline maps so how is the drone supposed to use the GPS data with nothing to reference.

You would need to use a map if you wished to avail yourself of the facility but as you are content to fly within the current restricted format it shouldn't concern you.

I'm in the Uk so I would fall foul of the drone laws of keeping the drone in VLOS  long before I got anywhere near the max height of the drone of 500m.

AlanHd Posted at 2018-1-1 04:56
I'm in the Uk so I would fall foul of the drone laws of keeping the drone in VLOS  long before I got anywhere near the max height of the drone of 500m.

The 500M is a DJI limitation you, I and every other drone user has the responsibility to fly within local laws so yo could simply fly at whatever legal hight was available above the terrain. For example you could start at the bottom of Snowdon and track the ground below the drone at say 20M above AGL and arrive at the summit being 20M AGL and perfectly legal, something you can't do at the moment as you would be restricted to flying to 500 M above your start point say Capel Curig, I know the UK quite well
I can certainly see my Drone at 500M and more as well.

PeteHB Posted at 2018-1-1 05:02
The 500M is a DJI limitation you, I and every other drone user has the responsibility to fly within local laws so yo could simply fly at whatever legal hight was available above the terrain. For example you could start at the bottom of Snowdon and track the ground below the drone at say 20M above AGL and arrive at the summit being 20M AGL and perfectly legal, something you can't do at the moment as you would be restricted to flying to 500 M above your start point say Capel Curig, I know the UK quite well
I can certainly see my Drone at 500M and more as well.

I can see your point if local laws allowed you to fly that far legally but I think the implementation is something that's not going to happen, I personally would like them to put more resources into fixing the bugs in the firmware.

AlanHd Posted at 2018-1-1 05:13
I can see your point if local laws allowed you to fly that far legally but I think the implementation is something that's not going to happen, I personally would like them to put more resources into fixing the bugs in the firmware.

Resource or not the fiasco that has prevailed for several months is just downright bad management by DJI and incompetence on the part of their software developers and their internal management to allow the distribution of effectively untested software that disables expensive machinery and deprives their owners of its use. They need to say STOP think where they are, what they want to achieve, correct and produce a stable platform then establish the protocols needed to introduce future advances and modifications. I get the feeling that at the moment they are overwhelmed having pursued technological advance without thinking it through and are now fire fighting.

Just tell DJI that they already have a working TFR (Terrain Following Radar) on their own AGRAS MG-1S  https://www.dji.com/mg-1s/info#specs  All they have to do is to expand a tiny bit its working range and fit it in a P4 series shell...

Antonio76 Posted at 2018-1-1 09:09
Just tell DJI that they already have a working TFR (Terrain Following Radar) on their own AGRAS MG-1S  https://www.dji.com/mg-1s/info#specs  All they have to do is to expand a tiny bit its working range and fit it in a P4 series shell...

Retain following radar is a little more hardware than I was proposing but it would be nice if they could retro fit at no cost to deserving cases and posters.

PeteHB Posted at 2018-1-1 09:24
Retain following radar is a little more hardware than I was proposing but it would be nice if they could retro fit at no cost to deserving cases and posters.

At your Charenton address, right?

Antonio76 Posted at 2018-1-1 09:53
At your Charenton address, right?

Yes first chateaux on the left as you go down the river.

PeteHB Posted at 2018-1-1 10:43
Yes first chateaux on the left as you go down the river.

you mean to the right, right?
About 700 meters before the confluence of Marne and Seine, over Charenton Bridge, then straight until Avenue de Verdun, turn right, straight ahead ...

Yes you got it I was facing the other way, call in for a glass sometime.