Boat Mode

[erikgraham]

They are working on boat mode to allow launching from a boat, but not the other features we need to make it more useful and safe on a boat, and in other cases.

It wouldn't be hard to have them add a few tunable options under the advanced features.

Right. So with RTM activated in Tower, plus fs_gcs_enable set to 0, then that should cover the scenario @MikeyM described.

For pre arm checks, I'm hoping the OP will try -17 instead of 0. 0 isn't working for him. Next week I'll be home and can see what we did with the iris, but it's coming back a little. I'm pretty sure it we used -17 which only bypasses the IMU. Also, we were launching from a lake where it's relatively calm. Seems like the OP wants to go out into the open ocean with bigger waves.

 

[Bigskyflyer]

I am very glad this "boat mode" is being discussed. There are some very tall waterfalls up in British Columbia only accessible by boat, and they are the whole reason that I originally decided to purchase the Solo. I envisioned the "Dronie" shot with our boat getting smaller and smaller down on the water as the Solo climbed up along the waterfall, as the bay was also gradually revealed. I had this uneducated assumption that it would work from our boat when I first heard about the launch of Solo. After all this time and all of my gradual learning curve, this subject is coming into sharp focus. I have been planning and gearing up for this next summer thinking I could or would learn to fly from the deck of the boat. With all the intricate controlling parameters that keep Solo safe and able to fly I realize this is a bad idea now, especially for me, unless I get a lot smarter, or unless you guys all figure this out.

Last summer we were out on Puget Sound doing some amateur filming of the four different size models of our type of boat. We were running together along side each other at about 10 knots, with the "white" camera drone flying out ahead looking back (The plant manager owned the quad and was flying it from the boat I was piloting.). After a while he thought he should get out of the view of the shot since we were one of the four boats. Signal was lost when he came into the cabin and the white bird turned around and headed back for the launch point about 3 or 4 miles back, all over open water. He yelled at me to turn the boat around, and I had to make a 180 and chase it until we got it back within signal range. These boats are trawlers and only go about 15 knots at full speed. Once we caught up we had very little time as the battery was about gone. The "white bird" pilot had to control it along side the bow while I steered under it and he had to grab a leg with one hand while running the controller with the other hand. It is now scary to think about it after the fact. I had slowed down to just a few knots, but he could not seem to get exactly under it so he motioned for me to turn to starboard a few feet until he could reach out and grab it. He only had one hand running the altitude. It was totally stupid. That was his first time of flying over the water. And that was my first experience up close with a quad.

I can only hope the the "boat mode" will enable me to take off and land from the upper open deck area and that the RTM will be possible.

Otherwise I will need a waterproof housing or a memorial at sea for my Solo and Go Pro.

Sorry for the side story....but this is one important subject for me.

I don't know if the pilot of the white one didn't know what he was doing but all you have to do is go into the pilot app and make the controller your home point and it will return to where ever the controller is. It was made to do that so you can fly from a moving platform. Actually a pretty simple concept.

 

[erikgraham]

I don't know if the pilot of the white one didn't know what he was doing but all you have to do is go into the pilot app and make the controller your home point and it will return to where ever the controller is. It was made to do that so you can fly from a moving platform. Actually a pretty simple concept.

Yeah, but if you you read the story, he lost connection with the phantom.

That's why for a Solo I was suggesting enabling RTM - so you can call it to you with the Home button, but also disable RTH on loss of connection - so it just hovers in place if you lose connection. That way you don't have to chase it.

 

[Bigskyflyer]

Yeah, but if you you read the story, he lost connection with the phantom.

That's why for a Solo I was suggesting enabling RTM - so you can call it to you with the Home button, but also disable RTH on loss of connection - so it just hovers in place if you lose connection. That way you don't have to chase it.

Yeah, but if you you read the story, he lost connection with the phantom.

That's why for a Solo I was suggesting enabling RTM - so you can call it to you with the Home button, but also disable RTH on loss of connection - so it just hovers in place if you lose connection. That way you don't have to chase it.

Yes, he lost signal when he walked into the cabin but if he would have had it set to return to controller it would have returned to the last recorded GPS coordinates that the controller was at when he lost signal, therefore he would not have had to chase it down.

 

[erikgraham]

Yes, he lost signal when he walked into the cabin but if he would have had it set to return to controller it would have returned to the last recorded GPS coordinates that the controller was at when he lost signal, therefore he would not have had to chase it down.

Not nessisarily. If are in open water it would be fine. But if they are tooling around and circling,!especially between islands (like an archipelago or the lake I often goto in the summer) that RTM could take it right into trees (or hills/mountains) on an island. I'd rather just have it stay in place and I can circle back to it.

 

[Bigskyflyer]

Not nessisarily. If are in open water it would be fine. But if they are tooling around and circling,!especially between islands (like an archipelago or the lake I often goto in the summer) that RTM could take it right into trees (or hills/mountains) on an island. I'd rather just have it stay in place and I can circle back to it.

Yes, that can happen if the pilot does not do his part and set his return height high enough to clear obstacles. The phantom will hover for 3 seconds after losing signal then it will ascend to the user set rth height before heading back to home or controller therefore avoiding obstacles while coming back to the last gps coordinates. And yes Erik, I have tested this several times and it does work as designed. It is one of a few features of the p3 that I really like.

 

[erikgraham]

Yes, that can happen if the pilot does not do his part and set his return height high enough to clear obstacles. The phantom will hover for 3 seconds after losing signal then it will ascend to the user set rth height before heading back to home or controller therefore avoiding obstacles while coming back to the last gps coordinates. And yes Erik, I have tested this several times and it does work as designed. It is one of a few features of the p3 that I really like.

Doesn't help if the island plus trees is over 400 feet above the lake/ocean, which in many places around the world is exactly the case.

Besides, what's the big deal about having the drone stop and hover in place when the connection is lost? What's the big objection? Frankly, I prefer it for all sorts of reasons, even in open areas on water and land where I'm not even worried about mountainsides, tall trees, etc. For example, once you re-acquire the connection, you can resume the shot from where it left off. That is much easier to edit around in post than if the drone heads off on RTH or RTM. And that's just one example.

Look, I'm not saying your approach is wrong, but by the same token, don't be so quick to assume your way is the best or only way. You have to really think through a lot of edge cases - and maybe at last consider the advice of someone with experience.

 

[Bigskyflyer]

Doesn't help if the island plus trees is over 400 feet above the lake/ocean, which in many places around the world is exactly the case.

Besides, what's the big deal about having the drone stop and hover in place when the connection is lost? What's the big objection? Frankly, I prefer it for all sorts of reasons, even in open areas on water and land where I'm not even worried about mountainsides, tall trees, etc. For example, once you re-acquire the connection, you can resume the shot from where it left off. That is much easier to edit around in post than if the drone heads off on RTH or RTM. And that's just one example.

Look, I'm not saying your approach is wrong, but by the same token, don't be so quick to assume your way is the best or only way. You have to really think through a lot of edge cases - and maybe at last consider the advice of someone with experience.

I wasn't originally replying to you, I was replying to the OP's comment about how they had to chase down the phantom because it lost signal. Sounded like they were in open water and the pilot didn't know his bird and the op was blaming the phantom for it's behaviour when it was pilot error. So I wasn't suggesting that my way was better than yours, just different. It doesn't sound like they were even able to launch the solo so I wasn't giving any input on how to operate it under the same circumstances.

 

[Captain J.D.]

Great discussion since I logged on last. Well back to the original issue of "launching" this damn thing...... FYI -17 does not work, tried it yesterday just off the beach in only 1 foot gentle swells in terms of the surface conditions. Just like always the solo froze and never got past 4 green lights, mostly "waiting on solo" on the controller but I did notice some sort of compass heading message at one point. I thought about using tower to change whatever compass value in the arming checks (akin to the -17 for the INS), but while the solo is in 4 green lights, Tower will not connect which essentially means each time I try something it's a one-shot deal, checking whatever parameter setting I changed back on land. Better said when it won't initialize to begin with on the water, Tower won't connect with it to make further changes so one can continue to trouble shoot and experiment.

 

[Captain J.D.]

Hey can you try something? See what happens if you set it to -17 instead of 0

No dice.

 

[erikgraham]

No dice.

Interesting that the problem your having (a couple posts up) is getting Tower to connect. That's is unexpected. It should have no problem connecting whether prearm checks fail or not. Is the Solo app able to connect? (You can change params in tower, but then still use the Solo app. The params won't change back - unless you change certain settings, like performance).

 

[Captain J.D.]

Interesting that the problem your having (a couple posts up) is getting Tower to connect. That's is unexpected. It should have no problem connecting whether prearm checks fail or not. Is the Solo app able to connect? (You can change params in tower, but then still use the Solo app. The params won't change back - unless you change certain settings, like performance).

It comes and goes. If I'm experimenting just holding the thing in my hand (at home) either app will connect sometimes, but on the actual boat when the solo is more unstable I can't get either app to connect, most of the time. In all these instances I still have 4 green lights. ANYtime I can get past that and get 2 red/2 white, I can at least get into Fly-Manual and make something happen, but 4 green only is a curse. Again the only luck I've had at all is in the lagoon where the water is like a bathtub, flat. It's the pitch/yaw out in the swells that seem to freak it out, I don't have that issue in the lagoon obviously. As far as drift goes, even in the lagoon I get that to some degree but that aspect only seems to affect the GPS lock, which comes in eventually if I hover the boat in position long enough. Other times I just took off in manual and hovered a few seconds, GPS lock came in, went back into normal flight mode and no problems.

In a nutshell..... Whatever is happening, whatever it's doing, during those first few seconds of a normal power-up when you have 4 green lights, I need to turn that stuff off if possible, bypass it. Or at least that's my way of thinking on the whole thing, granted I'm a newbie/idiot with all this stuff. But I do have some pretty good stick-n-rudder with this crazy thing when I can at least get it in the air.

 

[Captain J.D.]

.......and if there is some combination of changing individual parameter settings to make that happen, I'd damn sure try it even with the risk of the thing falling into the abyss. At this point I'm about ready toss it overboard anyways, waiting on this official Boat Mode is bs, if they've got it they need to release it.

 

[erikgraham]

It comes and goes. If I'm experimenting just holding the thing in my hand (at home) either app will connect sometimes, but on the actual boat when the solo is more unstable I can't get either app to connect, most of the time. In all these instances I still have 4 green lights. ANYtime I can get past that and get 2 red/2 white, I can at least get into Fly-Manual and make something happen, but 4 green only is a curse. Again the only luck I've had at all is in the lagoon where the water is like a bathtub, flat. It's the pitch/yaw out in the swells that seem to freak it out, I don't have that issue in the lagoon obviously. As far as drift goes, even in the lagoon I get that to some degree but that aspect only seems to affect the GPS lock, which comes in eventually if I hover the boat in position long enough. Other times I just took off in manual and hovered a few seconds, GPS lock came in, went back into normal flight mode and no problems.

In a nutshell..... Whatever is happening, whatever it's doing, during those first few seconds of a normal power-up when you have 4 green lights, I need to turn that stuff off if possible, bypass it. Or at least that's my way of thinking on the whole thing, granted I'm a newbie/idiot with all this stuff. But I do have some pretty good stick-n-rudder with this crazy thing when I can at least get it in the air.

Well I lost my Solo to the abys yesterday. But that's another story.

Everything your doing is what I would do. I'm starting to think there must be something different in the initial boot up procedure on the Solo vs my Iris.

My last idea is this. Since you're able to boot up past 4 green in some cases, and then take off in manual, maybe you could try to hold the solo in your hands during boot up, and counter the swells. If you can get it past 4 green, then you should be able to take off in manual if you are skipping ins with -17 (that's the IMU that checks to make sure the solo is level).

 

[Captain J.D.]

Well I lost my Solo to the abys yesterday. But that's another story.

Everything your doing is what I would do. I'm starting to think there must be something different in the initial boot up procedure on the Solo vs my Iris.

My last idea is this. Since you're able to boot up past 4 green in some cases, and then take off in manual, maybe you could try to hold the solo in your hands during boot up, and counter the swells. If you can get it past 4 green, then you should be able to take off in manual if you are skipping ins with -17 (that's the IMU that checks to make sure the solo is level).

I have tried ALL of that to no avail.

 

[Rich]

Yes, we need boat mode, plus the Return To Me with the option of setting a Hover And Wait that has programmable altitude and distance offset.

Simple really, and it will help us with a lot of scenarios, not only boat mode.

And all this needs to be in the Solo app, not just Tower.

Boat mode solves the initializing issues while on a moving boat.

I found that I could get the Solo to initialize while at the dock if things were calm, but once away from the dock, it rarely worked, if at all.

 

[erikgraham]

I have tried ALL of that to no avail.

Try arming by pushing the left stick down and to the right. Don't use the FLY button.

 

[hershal]

what does that do?

 

[erikgraham]

what does that do?

Probably nothing. But then again his Solo should be skipping the pre-arm checks. Could it be that arming with the FLY button is doing some different kind of check? Could it be that you can arm the Solo the same way as other pixhawk 3DR drones? If you did, would it do a standard preArm check, or would it do the same thing as hitting the FLY button?

Personally, I have no idea. I kinda doubt it. I doubt you can even arm a Solo with the sticks (should have tried today when I was flying). But it's fairly easy for @Captain J.D. to try and it won't hurt.

 

[hershal]

Does nothing on my machine????