Altitude Lock

[DarkDrone 1]

Is it just me, or does anyone else think that this would be a nice feature?

I would love to be able to lock in an altitude that I know is safe from the tallest obstacles (trees in my case), and just focus on taking nice, fluent videos without having to worry about accidentally descending / ascending.

Just throwing this out there...

 

[Sprtbkryder]

I think it would be a great feature.

 

[Meta4]

Is it just me, or does anyone else think that this would be a nice feature?

Doesn't your Phantom already hold altitude without any extra features?

 

[DarkDrone 1]

While hovering yes, it's great.

I'm talking about being able to lock into an altitude to let's say 30m, so I then could just cruise along the treetops while filming straight down without the risk of accidentally descending into those trees while turning.

Basically the lock would disable my left toggles up/down function thus I would only be able to rotate my bird left/right with that toggle. My bird would stay at roughly 30m while locked in.

Of course return home would override the lock feature.

I have decreased the sensitivity of my left toggle which certainly helps in those accidental descents/ascents. But a lock would be fool proof.

 

[bluesgeek]

It is possible for errors to cause the bird to change altitude. You would want to be able to quickly overide that lock. And knowing that errors can lead to altitude changes, I wouldn't want to over-trust such a feature.

 

[DingleBerry]

DarkDrone1, did you ever figure this out? It would be very useful, and totally reduce the chance of crash.

Couple of ideas off the top of my head:
- reduce the up-down joystick sensitivity in settings (your idea, actually).
- 3dprinted plastic slot thingy to physically limit joystick to left/right movement only (or maybe limit to left/right/UP only).
- open the remote and hack in a toggle switch to disable/thwart the up/down pot (it looks like a pot, see pic).

 

[DarkDrone 1]

DarkDrone1, did you ever figure this out? It would be very useful, and totally reduce the chance of crash.

Couple of ideas off the top of my head:
- reduce the up-down joystick sensitivity in settings (your idea, actually).
- 3dprinted plastic slot thingy to physically limit joystick to left/right movement only (or maybe limit to left/right/UP only).
- open the remote and hack in a toggle switch to disable/thwart the up/down pot (it looks like a pot, see pic).

Unfortunately no.

 

[Erised]

The problem with holding an altitude is that it would have to depend on the barometer. Mine is usually off from take off to landing around 5 feet, this week I was about 10 feet off the ground and my altitude reading was at 48 feet! if the craft is depending on that data to maintain a cruising altitude that 38 feet difference from actual could cause a fatal situation. Also the terrain changes and I think it's better and safer if I keep tabs on all the variables.

 

[skyacramer]

Wouldn’t this be on the models with VPS?

 

[Erised]

If you have the option of terrain follow witch I don't on my P4 it may be not to bad if your in a field that rises or drops and I would never depend on it. If you are flying over tree canopy the variance is quite a lot at times and I don't think VPS could handle it. If you come up on that one tall tree...well.