Boat Mode?

Joined
Sep 27, 2016
Messages
6
Reaction score
0
Age
54
Does anyone know if Mavic will support "boat mode"? This is when the drone can be initialized and take off from a moving surface like a dock or boat. I understand that metal makes this tricky, but I am assuming a wooden floating dock or a fiberglass boat.
 
If your phone is GPS enabled, I believe it can RTH to that somehow.
 
The Inspire, P3 and P4 all work so there's no reason the Mavic wouldn't.
 
The Inspire, P3 and P4 all work so there's no reason the Mavic wouldn't.

My Solo would let me fly from the front of my boat just fine too, but when it had an EKF error when the gps/compass failed, 3DR denied responsibility because I flew from a moving surface (wooden floating dock). Many other Solo owners had received new units for the same error but I was told to take a hike. Mea Culpa.

I would love to know if DJI officially support the ability to take off from a moving surface, not whether it actually works. Once bitten, as they say!

My good friend with the P4p would like to know also!
 
Well, I believe DJI's warranty covers neither unrecoverable nor water-damaged machines, so in essence if your machine ended up in the water you couldn't prove it failed before ending there and thus would be SOL.

No manufacturer wants to cover such risky scenarios. You can take off from a boat and fly over water (we do so regularly), but that's your choice and if things go wrong (has happened to us too) it's on you. If you can't afford the loss don't do it, easy.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Topherchris
Well, I believe DJI's warranty covers neither unrecoverable nor water-damaged machines, so in essence if your machine ended up in the water you couldn't prove it failed before ending there and thus would be SOL.

No manufacturer wants to cover such risky scenarios. You can take off from a boat and fly over water (we do so regularly), but that's your choice and if things go wrong (has happened to us too) it's on you. If you can't afford the loss don't do it, easy.

Thanks for your response.

Interesting insomuch as 3DR actually were providing replacements for water damaged units (and sending new GoPros) as the telemetry logs are saved in the controller, and therefore software and gps failures were obvious and detectable. I was denied warrantee because I took off from the dock and not the land 50' away. Not due to water crash.

Now I am looking for a drone that actually supports initialisation of the drone with a moving surface. Apparently this is something that the open source diy software guys (arducopter) are actively working on and may have implemented. The Karma promo shows them taking off from a kayak but I have a feeling that GoPro would also deny responsibility per 3DR.

I will keep watching the boards and see how well the new entrants work, my buddy's p3p sometimes works and sometimes fails to fly from his boat, so it will be interesting.
 
Last edited:

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
143,054
Messages
1,467,297
Members
104,919
Latest member
BobDan