LoSBoL
First Officer
Flight distance : 666483 ft
Netherlands
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AndrewUK Posted at 2018-6-15 01:10
I think JAH9 has a good point about the last 10%. The way it is currently implemented is VERY misleading to users, new and experienced. We have ascertained that the last 10% is absolutely inaccessible because the MA uncontrollably lands itself between 10% - 13%. What is going on under the covers of ACTUAL battery life left is a) somewhat subjective and b) completely irrelevant to the user if they cannot use it. So the user interface should show 0% at the point the drone forcibly lands itself. As far as the user is concerned, that is the point at which they can continue no more, not when it says 10% or 13%!
Feedback for DJI: The current implementation actually encourages the user to make bad calculations, as in this case. The difference of flying away then turning around at 54%, but actually 54% - (10% unusable) = 44% is hugely significant and meant this guy lost his drone in water. A far better UI design would be to recalibrate the battery percentage scale so the drone force lands when the UI shows 0%. This would be completely idiomatic and stamp out these nasty surprises. I can continue using my mobile phone until it reaches 0% so why not the same with this? The more I think about it, using 10% to mean 0% in a critical application such as this is absolutely crazy!
I think your post has merrit, although I don't really agee with the stance you should be able to fly untill 0% before a critical batterylanding is initiated and have a hidden reserve for a couple of reasons;
*Even when critical landing is initiated, I would like to know when my drone would drop out of the sky, I don't when it simply says 0%
*The by DJI chosen 10%, or better said 'red bar' (because its dynamic, and with very high elevations, it will change to a higher percentage) is a safety margin because DJI does not want to be responsible for drones dropping out of the sky at terminal velocity. At 120 meters high, and with a descent rate of 1,5m/s in P-mode, it will take 80 seconds to come down.
*If the critical battery landing would be dynamicly alter to lower values then 10%, it will cut down your own ability to fly to a good landing spot.
*If DJI used 0% instead of 10%, you could still get surprised if you fly your drone to high altitudes, because it could drop from 10% left to 0% left instantly due to cirtical batterylevel needed is a dynamic range.
*The critical landing procedure, the red bar and the flight control procedures you still have when a critical landing initiates are very well discribed in the manual.
You could however argue that the 'flight time left' displayed in the app should be 'time left' untill the red bar (critical landing) instead of including the red bar, and that it resets to whatever time left till depleted when you hit citical battery landing. I think that could help in estimating 'viable' flight time during your whole flight. But maybe that would just be an invitation to fly irresponsibly for some people.
Maybe it is like Hallmark suggests, whatever procedure DJI would chose, there are going to be problems. |
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