Will drone shut off while flying when I put throttle all the way down for a quick descent?

K9VXV · Apr 8, 2017

Biffer said:
I think I read in one of these discussions talk about how some "sport pilots" would turn off their drones let them drop and then start them back up? More fun than I want to have....

Here is one with a P4P:

Vexed · Apr 8, 2017

Yes it will.

sar104 · Apr 8, 2017

Vexed said:
Yes it will.

Or, to rephrase that more correctly, no, it won't.

cuckoo's nest · Apr 9, 2017

I have done it but I don't practice it ..I always handcatch and shutdown

blackcrusader · Apr 9, 2017

Vexed said:
Yes it will.

No way a full throttle left stick down shuts off the drones motors while in flight.

kewald · Apr 9, 2017

chrismartin3391 said:
Good question. I caught mine the other day while out on my boat. While in hand and hovering. I held in down to shut the motors off and they stopped. Copter was not on the ground. So guy above says no but from what I experienced while flying they will and do.. guess you could do what I did to test it.

since you caught it, it had landed and will shut down.

K9VXV · Apr 9, 2017

Yeah I am thinking it is trying to detect that it can not continue decent. I have noticed when I am hand catching that little fight it does for a second when it's trying to realize that it actually has something to push against it's like if you sorta of push your land against the landing gear upward it shuts down better. It would nice if the app just had a button we can press to put it into hand catch mode and maybe kill the motors after a few seconds.

gsreinke · Apr 9, 2017

DanMan32 said:
Earlier firmware had concerns of CSC shutting down mid-air. DJI has since added a 3 second response delay to CSC.
Using CSC to shut down after landing is not advisable since before the CSC is interpreted, it's stick command could cause the AC to flop over. You are after all signalling yaw left/right, pitch backward and roll right/left all at the same time. I skipped the decend command component since I am talking about after having landed.

One of the methods for shutdown in the MANUAL is the CSC stick command. That is the one I have been using. After landing there is not enough thrust to yaw, pitch or roll to upset the aircraft using the CSC command. The motors are in idle. Have not had any stability issues

sar104 · Apr 9, 2017

gsreinke said:
One of the methods for shutdown in the MANUAL is the CSC stick command. That is the one I have been using. After landing there is not enough thrust to yaw, pitch or roll to upset the aircraft using the CSC command. The motors are in idle. Have not had any stability issues

It apparently works better if you pull the left stick down, and then right.

CCrew · Apr 9, 2017

blackcrusader said:
No way a full throttle left stick down shuts off the drones motors while in flight.

There have been documented cases of gimbal guards tricking the bird into thinking it had landed on a descent so no such thing as "no way"

sar104 · Apr 9, 2017

CCrew said:
There have been documented cases of gimbal guards tricking the bird into thinking it had landed on a descent so no such thing as "no way"

Reference?

blackcrusader · Apr 10, 2017

sar104 said:
Reference?

Who flies without removing the gimbal guards?

tevek · Apr 10, 2017

blackcrusader said:
Who flies without removing the gimbal guards?

I think they're referring to the guards not the locks. Incorrectly positioned guards can upset the VPS.

Waylander · Apr 10, 2017

sar104 said:
That advice is from the bad old days of vortex ring state (VRS) issues with earlier Phantoms, such as the P2. It's not a problem with modern versions.

Sorry sar104, but I think you are wrong, Vortex Ring State (VRS) holds true for all Quads and full sized helicopters alike, search on line for accidents that occurred with the V 22 Osprey for example, here is a link which describes the very real occurrence of this phenomena.
VRS is not advice from the bad old days, it is a physical phenomena associated with aerodynamics.

Vortex ring state - Wikipedia

Regards

Waylander

ranajee82 · Apr 10, 2017

miogpsrocks said:
Will drone shut off while flying when I put the throttle all the way down for a quick descent?

Let's say drone is up very high taking some pictures and I notice the battery is getting low and I wanted to bring it back quickly.

When I put throttle down for the drone to descent, could this accidentally shut the drone completely off in midair leading to a catastrophic crash or does the drone recognize that its still in the air and not shut off when you put the throttle all the way down like it does on the ground?

I have both the FC 40( Phantom 1 drone with camera) and the Phantom 3 standard.

Thanks.

yes motors will shut off, never try this, try it in DJI GO simulator and see what happened

ranajee82 · Apr 10, 2017

chrismartin3391 said:
I've read about it being a flaw in the design. I don't wanna be the one to test it.

Do it in the DJI GO Simulator and see what happened

N017RW · Apr 10, 2017

Waylander said:
Sorry sar104, but I think you are wrong, Vortex Ring State (VRS) holds true for all Quads and full sized helicopters alike, search on line for accidents that occurred with the V 22 Osprey for example, here is a link which describes the very real occurrence of this phenomena.
VRS is not advice from the bad old days, it is a physical phenomena associated with aerodynamics.

Vortex ring state - Wikipedia

Regards Waylander

Not disputing it's existence. It's also important to understand the context of posts.
The Phantom design and f/w have been adjusted to prevent a pilot from entering the VRS state.
Motors are now tilted and descent rate limited thus VRS prevention in nearly all flights.

N017RW · Apr 10, 2017

ranajee82 said:
yes motors will shut off, never try this, try it in DJI GO simulator and see what happened

Amazing how something so easily explained continues to live on in 'web lore'.

Left stick, full down, in and of itself will not shut off motors inflight.

Period.

Maybe you are referring to a different situation, aircraft, or possible language differences???

sar104 · Apr 10, 2017

Waylander said:
Sorry sar104, but I think you are wrong, Vortex Ring State (VRS) holds true for all Quads and full sized helicopters alike, search on line for accidents that occurred with the V 22 Osprey for example, here is a link which describes the very real occurrence of this phenomena.
VRS is not advice from the bad old days, it is a physical phenomena associated with aerodynamics.

Vortex ring state - Wikipedia

Regards Waylander

As @N017RW noted, I was not trying to imply that VRS was solely a phenomenon afflicting P2s. However, the combination of motor design and descent rate limitation on the more recent Phantoms has essentially cured the problem for those aircraft. So while my P2s will readily go into VRS, even at less than minimum throttle, the P4 will not, even with the stick fully down and no lateral motion.

That's the reason that, if you look back a few years, the forums were full of reports of VRS incidents but now you rarely see them. Most newer pilots don't even know what it is these days.