You are fast becoming one of my favourite youtubers buddy. You answer all the questions many of us subscribers ask,in a clear and informative way. Keep them coming 👍👍
Hey, just here to say that this type of content is insanely helpful. I get asked a lot of the questions you make videos about by customers as part of my job, and having these is a godsend. Thank you!
Lost mine over water. Gps dropped to about 10 or 11. It was over water and then drifted and nose dived. I suspected exactly what you've proven. But just an fyi, I have a log. And yeah, the numbers dropped randomly. Some limitations here. DJI replaced my drone with no insurance claim. Said it was a "flight control issue". But the whole thing is exactly what you reproduced here. So good on them.... But I'll be watching sat numbers very carefully now.
@@OnlineLuc from the flight log - what sort of number for sats did you have to start with? Just to gauge how severe the drop was?. Great that dji replaced it though.
@dronewilder5234 I started with 24. It fluctuated throughput the 8 min flight. When I lost control, I had about 17 reported. I'll post another comment with a link to my flight log video. I kept it. In case the comment is blocked. Note that it reported wind at the end. But there was zero wind. It's when it nose dived. It registered that event as high wind.
@@dronewilder5234 I tried various ways to share the link. RUclips just doesn't allow it. I even tried writing in words a link and it knew. Lol I could upload it to my RUclips "channel" if you're keen. Let me know if you'd like to have that for research purposes. I presume you could find it there easily.
@dronewilder5234 I used to live in Martin Mill for 3 years and go to the bay swimming or camping .. also loved in Deal as being a Coastguard at Dover for 19 years finally moving on to my boat back in April after retirement.. I fly my NEO off the back of my narrowboat most days as well as the 4 pro ... keep up the good work and I have subscribed .
I was stupid to make a rotate on a boat dock and the drone stops 1 meter from the dock over the water. As trying to catch I dunked my DJI Neo in the lake of Garda. So I had do dive and picked it up from the lake ground. After separating the battery and drying for a week, the Neo works still perfect. All videos are downloadable. No problem with the battery. Good work from DJI
Thats lucky! - it seems in fresh water it’s a lot more likely to survive. Bare in mind though that the battery may have some long term damage so I’d be careful.
Good video demystifying the whole "can't fly over water" thing with Neo. I would add, possibly don't get too close to flowing water (such as a rocky stream) as the visual positioning sensors seem to want to follow the water if you inadvertently pause over that. And don't hover too low over water as the VPS can trigger an auto land thinking the surface is closer than it is. I will say neither of those have happened to me, but I have seen a few videos of that behaviour. And also worth noting the VPS ceases to factor in the drone's stability calculation over about 20m, after which it relies solely on GPS. I think if you always make sure you have a good gps lock, and remain physically controlling the aircraft and not letting it do it's own thing while over water, you aren't ever going to have any issues.
I almost feel that flying over water it would be better to have no visual positioning at all. It’s a shame that isn’t an option (other than using tape like I did - which I wouldn’t recommend). Defiantly agree it’s best to not fly close over water especially on sunny glarey days or like you say over rocks where reflections can cause issues)
Great Neo video my friend👍I fly it over water without problems and changing anything on the drone, just using the RC 2 controller having enough sattelites. This can be seen in my YT video's flying the Neo. Greetings from a new subscriber 🇳🇱
That is such an interesting video, thank you for the education lesson. Very well put together and makes perfect sense. I know now why it went skittts in our dining room one evening. LOL. Cheers Simon
Great video, you answered my questions about water. My biggest issue is if I fly using my phones WiFi and the virtual controller, it does random things. E.g wouldnt fly forward, only sideways and reverse and then lost connection at about 20ft so I had to walk nearer and re-establish a signal. Definitely wouldn't feel comfortable using my phone over water.
From my testing, it behaves really weird when low near water, it's almost trying to land, but also I remember trying to fly under bridge with RC and there is a weird behaviour in up down motion. Got really useful info here with satellite and avoiding weird hovering.
That is very useful information, thanks again! @DroneWilder We are running out of potential water hazards here in Saskatchewan. Took Neo over snow and ice for the first time today. Neo actually loves the snow and doesn't even slip on the ice lol ALSO, I know it says the low operating temperature is -10C but we have potential for some of the coldest temperatures on Earth here. I froze my Motorola phone at -40C a few years ago, stupidly, but it eventually came back to life. Moto rated the phone to operate at -5C or something silly like that, How cold do you think we can fly Neo?
Yes additionally it’s also worth making sure you’re not too close to the water surface- especially if you have sunny glary conditions- just incase this upsets the visual positioning - hopefully a strong GPS signal will prioritise positioning though
Always check the KP or K index before flying. This is the level of GPS interference in the area. In my country: I can check it on the government flight registration app. If this index is above 5, pack the drone back up and go home.
Creative idea and great video, thank you! Neo GPS is worse than DJI Spark I think… maybe I should test it 😅 Please also keep on creating Avata 2 videos!!
@@dronewilder5234 that would be awesome, avata 2 is not dead (even by DJI) - will receive a "power loop" function with next update soon! Looking forward to even more creative content!
I am still waiting for my Neo to ship. I live around water and was wondering about flying over it so this video helps a lot! I was thinking about attaching ping pong balls or Styrofoam fishing bobbers to the bottom in case it locked up and decided to land on water or other similar emergency on the water.
@@Tarzan0123 tbh suddenly landing attempt should be unlikely (not saying they are impossible) but fly aways and uncontrollable behaviour due to GPS loss can be heavily avoided this way 🙂
Hey You mist the real test !!! 😞 Were you let it hower 1 to 3 meters over the wather. Its here I and many others have seen the Neo go toltaly out of control. And remember also to test the fly white the mobile app. I stil think you are the best Neo youtuber.🤩
@@finnpilegaard8557 good point - I’ll look into that. I did fly around 1-3m over the water a few times during these tests but I didn’t hover in one point for long as such. Perhaps in those instances some tape over the bottom sensors would actually be benificial 🤷🏻♂️
I’d avoid using autonomous tracking or flights over water because those modes will allow flight with no GPS at all and give no indication of how strong the link is (if there’s any link at all!). Using a mobile would be better as you can check the GPS strength. I’d love to know from DJI how much priority the downward positioning has over the GPS position if there’s a setpoint discrepancy but strong GPS- I’d hope it prioritises GPS
Please can you address the issue of the palm landing facility and how that unique Neo ability might affect flying over water when the downwards sensors might get confused and cause the drops to occur. This would be distinct from addressing the GPS issues.
The thing with the palm take off (presume you mean AI track features) is that it gives no indication of GPS link and also will take off regardless even if there is no GPS, just using visual sensors. This is fine over textured environments but if flying at night or over water, I would strongly recommend using a smartphone connection and ensuring you have GPS lock first. This may take a few minutes as shown in my video but can avoid a fly away or the drone going out of control
@dronewilder5234 I was trying to explore whether the unique propensity for palm landing might cause the Neo to land inappropriately over featureless but reflective surfaces like water. Can you address that aspect please?
Great video! Is it important to always keep the drone moving when flying over water, or is it ok to let it hover for a bit (at a reasonable altitude) so long as the satellites are strong?
Im going to test this a bit as the question was asked already in the comments. I’d say at a reasonable altitude visual positioning shouldn’t interfere too much and a strong GPS link should be fine to hover. Bare in mind also that on very sunny days, sun glare/reflection can play havoc with the positioning sensor
@ great thanks! I’ll keep my out for when your results on this are out! Appreciate the work you put in to making the videos and responding to comments 🙌
im wondering about low light flying indoors outdoors , i was thinking putting reflective tape or paint around the bottom sensor to capture absorbed light , or light weight headlights. what can you come up with.
@@killiansred40 not sure that would work- the bottom sensors are basically just cameras which look at the ground and lock onto pixels/features - just like a human eye would in order to orientate yourself. Hopefully DJI will implement a more effective GPS sensor on the next iterations of this drone though!
@@cesarnino im not sure as I don’t get sent free stuff and owning a pair of Goggles3, I can’t see the goggles n3 providing me any advantage. However I will be looking to create more FPV specific content which will be relevant to new Goggles N3 users
Yeah, one of fav RUclipsr uploaded a video...... Hahah Great vieeo.... So if we fly Neo in dark or night , (other than we can't see anything at all to fly it ) It cannot even fly/stabilize itself ???? Is it so ???? ( Because of downward sensor not because GPS thing)
@@BhupenderSingh-mm2rk hey! Thanks for the support! In dark conditions treat it just like flying over water - wait for a good strong GPS signal and ensure clear unobstructed skies and it will do fine even in the dark
Upon getting a Air 2 in... 2020, I think.. I saw fog on the water. Ran home for the Air 2, and flew, maybe a foot over the surface for an hour or more. Only later did I realize how risky that was! I wonder if Air 3S Flipped on Lidar when the Downward sensors were inhibited.
Seems from your tests that it's all about the GPS Sats? Does the downward sensor have any effect on flying over the water, eg., flying low height with poor GPS Sats?
@@lexikona I’d probably avoid flying low over water as there have been reports of reflections causing issues. I’d like to think that a strong GPS fix would take priority in the positioning control but without knowing it I’d keep some distance from the surface. It seemed fine in my tests but it wasn’t sunny and I was minimum 3m above the surface
I have a Neo and when filming indoors over people, it wants to follow the people as they move around. So I put BluTak over the underneath cameras. I flew indoors expecting to have zero ability to maintain position. I was wrong. It held position for at least a couple of minutes before it switched to Attitude mode. In Attitude mode it drifted according to the movement of the air. I don’t know how to explain the Neo maintaining position indoors with the two cameras covered. Something to test?
So we're still stuck if we're flying without the remote controller? Because then it's not using satellites right? That is still the scenario I was hoping to use it for, e.g., a dronie shot on the beach, flying away over the sea.
It may still use satellites but the concern is more when you don’t verify it. I think the mobile phone app control will at least tell you when the drone has gps fix although it doesn’t indicate the strength or number of satellites. There was an update today which dji claim improves position hold/stability but I’ve yet to test this
Hi, unless you're using a controller. Don't do it otherwise or you will lose it!! I was on holiday recently and I was doing one of the hand palm modes and it went slightly over the water and went mad! It went further and further out darting from side to side , eventually speeding towards the harbour defensible wall . As it hit the rocks the battery was ejected at great speed.luckey I eventually found the drone but not the battery. The only real damage was to the back of the drone around the usb c port was bent up and a crack.
Yeah one of the big problems with palm take off is that because it allows extremely fast take off after power up (no RC to power up, no link to drone to establish, no indication of GPS link), it will allow take off without any GPS link at all, thus making it 100% dependent on visual positioning sensors. I’d at the very least use a mobile phone connection flying over untextured surfaces. Glad you at least got the drone back - also good that the batteries don’t have the Mavic 3 battery price tag (about the same cost as en entire Neo kit!)
Having the same problem with GPS on the Neo. It will *usually* get not sats until I've been flying for half a pack and it will gradually build up to 10-12 finally. Everything else gets GPS in the exact same spot, easily. DJI told me to downgrade the firmware which did absolutely nothing. Thankfully, I only fly manual..
@@standeely one thing you may notice is that if you fly multiple packs in one place, subsequent power ups result in a faster GPS lock. This is because in new locations an almanac of satellites in that location at that time is created.
That would be nice if firmware can improve it. Even then there will be limits of how effective it can hold position over water as there is simply no set reference point to lock onto.
@@cinematic-travels yes but just to clarify there is no absolute guarantee with this drone unless you fly full manual mode with FPV setup but with the RC-N3 controller you can at least check for a strong GPS signal like I did in the video so yes it should be ok
@@dronewilder5234 Thanks bud! In this video you flew over sea at the same level. Do you think it could possible work over sea at a lower level than standing on - like a small cliff, perhaps a few m? or better keep it at the same level. Thanks for your experiments
@@cinematic-travels I can’t see any issues flying below your take off level if taking off from a cliff if you have a good GPS link. Main thing is avoid is flying too close to the water surface due to glare confusing the positioning sensor
@@samcarver5060 using phone I would treat it the same way - ensuring you have a really strong GPS signal. Like I said there are no guarantees but if you keep a strong gps link and don’t fly super close to the water, it should be fine.
Something is weird when covering the sensors with tape. I tried this on 2 different neos indoors without gps. They fly great in alti mode for 3 min after that it starts to shake and freak out. Using G3 and fpv controller
@@peteypufffpv659 not sure about the shaking behaviour but the freak out can happen when it locks onto a few satellites from having none at all. At this stage the GPS set point will fluctuate a lot and the drone hunts around unsure where it is. In such cases no GPS would be better than some GPS
@dronewilder5234 no this is not from gps. Go inside some place you don't get any sats. Tape up the sensors and fly it in altitude hold mode around. Report back how long you can fly it before it starts to shake out of control. Would love to see a video on this!!
Actually what I noticed is that when the sun is reflecting off the water that’s when it causes issues. So it more likely that the sensor gets blinded by reflection
@@Raygun84 yes reflective surfaces definitely cause real issues for vision positioning sensors even with other dji drones. For that reason it’s probably best to to fly too close to the water surface even with a good gps fix
No I definitely wouldn’t do that as those modes allow flight with just visual positioning and you would have no indication of GPS lock. If using these modes I’d then use a mobile phone controller at the very least (which still allows intelligent flight modes)
@@proyes6969 it should be able to - I’ll have to test it but sensors mainly just provide more accurate low altitude position hold and position hold when GPS is lost or unavailable
I would strongly advise not to fly autonomous over water as there’s no indication of GPS strength and most likely you will be completely reliant on visual positioning which is poor/ineffective over water. It would then be better to use a mobile phone.
Correct but you can just hand grab it like I did at about 2 mins into the video… even though the motors didn’t stop initially when I tried to tilt it (which normally stops them) - what’s why I looked so awkward when the horse went by and my Neo was still screaming trying to fly 😂
@@dronewilder5234 So it kinda works but kinda don't :D Im asking because sensors give an issue that you cant fit in a really tight space because it will detect ground and push the drone into the ceiling/obstacle.
@ might be better to switch into sport mode for those scenarios. I know that at least with other dji drones this makes the bottom sensors less influential
You are a Madman! A stone, cold... wait... madman don't cover Time of Flight sensors! In your case, we will permit it. Now let's see how close you get to the surface! Sorry to hear about the horse passing. I hope he lived a good life!
@@gusravecca5751 thanks bud, to be on the safe side I’d stay above 5m so the downward sensor doesn’t start locking onto water textures causing issues although I’m not sure if it would still do this even with a very strong GPS signal - I’ll have to check that. In my test I flew a good solid 3 minutes over open water at 3-15m height and it was fine all the way
I'm very experienced at flying drones over water in calm and storm conditions. For it to be worth it, you need to have a drone that will give you good footage. The Neo is substandard for this exercise in regards to video quality. Keep it for what it is for and that is for personal blogging. Great b roll footage and that is all. Storm Babet Torquay South Devon ruclips.net/video/_Yx978T8hjo/видео.htmlsi=WJkaMdT4QJg9mjvw
True - it’s not great for this purpose but I feel because a lot of people are inclined to want to fly over water regardless, it would be best to offer some advice on how to minimise risks. I certainly wouldn’t do it regularly myself either
It’s not the number of satellites so much as the condition of the satellites on the indicator. If it’s white and you have 9 satellites, you’re good to go, but if it’s 15 and it’s red, you will smash into things. In your example, you have white and orange satellite connections when you remove the tape but when you had the tape on, it was all red. The neo TERRIBLE sat lock. And it loses it randomly even above tree tops.
I watched a strip down video of the neo when it was first released , he found it did not have a proper GPS chip like all the others but was using some kind of flat stick on patch antenna stuck to the top half of the shell to pick up sat signals to supply some chip that could decode what the patch was picking up , he said in the video he has not seen anything like it on any other drone and it would be crap at getting good gps locks . just remembered it was Mads Tech but can't remember which video (Ian) ttps://www.youtube.com/@MadRC
He’s a very good reviewer- yeah I think everyone can agree the Neo does have a very poor GPS link - my initial test in the video confirmed that 😂. That’s kind of my point in that all drones will struggle with visual positioning over water, it’s the poor GPS which causes the issues more than anything.
You are fast becoming one of my favourite youtubers buddy. You answer all the questions many of us subscribers ask,in a clear and informative way. Keep them coming 👍👍
@@grossi46 thanks for such amazing support!
Hey, just here to say that this type of content is insanely helpful. I get asked a lot of the questions you make videos about by customers as part of my job, and having these is a godsend. Thank you!
I too was afraid of trying it over water. Invaluable. Thank you.
Thank you for this. I was so afraid to fly over water
Excellent video. Brought mine yesterday and was considering practice flights around the ghost town that is the port area of my city.
Once again drone wilder provides the content everyone wants 🤘
@@shaunjones9528 glad you’re enjoying it!
…as a subscriber…I always appreciate the extra mile you go to present an excellent explanation of the DJI products…your video’s are top notch…
I really appreciate that! Thanks
Lost mine over water. Gps dropped to about 10 or 11. It was over water and then drifted and nose dived. I suspected exactly what you've proven. But just an fyi, I have a log. And yeah, the numbers dropped randomly. Some limitations here. DJI replaced my drone with no insurance claim. Said it was a "flight control issue". But the whole thing is exactly what you reproduced here. So good on them.... But I'll be watching sat numbers very carefully now.
And yes, rc-n3 the whole time. Zero obstacles. I was above 50m in altitude.
@@OnlineLuc from the flight log - what sort of number for sats did you have to start with? Just to gauge how severe the drop was?. Great that dji replaced it though.
@dronewilder5234 I started with 24. It fluctuated throughput the 8 min flight. When I lost control, I had about 17 reported. I'll post another comment with a link to my flight log video. I kept it. In case the comment is blocked. Note that it reported wind at the end. But there was zero wind. It's when it nose dived. It registered that event as high wind.
@@dronewilder5234 I tried various ways to share the link. RUclips just doesn't allow it. I even tried writing in words a link and it knew. Lol I could upload it to my RUclips "channel" if you're keen. Let me know if you'd like to have that for research purposes. I presume you could find it there easily.
@ sounds good - I’ll check it out
Great Video, this drone is so fun to use. I was using it around water without knowing anything about satellites, now I know. Thank you.
@@tommasomauriello7921 glad to hear you found it useful- hopefully will prevent you from having any nasty surprises!
Me too bro, 😮😮😮
Thanks man for making this kind of video. 👍👍👍
I've got confidence to buy neo combo after watching your crash test video 😁👍
@@ZenthAScar that’s great to hear - have fun with it!
Your my one of my favourite drone blogger shout out here in southampton☺️
@@gieronuguid229 thanks so much for your support!
Brilliant one of the best drone reviewers on the channel.
Thanks! I’ve got the best subscribers 🙂
I do love flying and exploring St Margaret's Bay ... and the woods around Martin Mill .. all from my teens where I lived .. Thank you for the vlog .
Yeah it’s a nice area round there - well spotted!
@dronewilder5234 I used to live in Martin Mill for 3 years and go to the bay swimming or camping .. also loved in Deal as being a Coastguard at Dover for 19 years finally moving on to my boat back in April after retirement.. I fly my NEO off the back of my narrowboat most days as well as the 4 pro ... keep up the good work and I have subscribed .
I was stupid to make a rotate on a boat dock and the drone stops 1 meter from the dock over the water. As trying to catch I dunked my DJI Neo in the lake of Garda. So I had do dive and picked it up from the lake ground. After separating the battery and drying for a week, the Neo works still perfect. All videos are downloadable. No problem with the battery. Good work from DJI
Thats lucky! - it seems in fresh water it’s a lot more likely to survive. Bare in mind though that the battery may have some long term damage so I’d be careful.
Good video demystifying the whole "can't fly over water" thing with Neo. I would add, possibly don't get too close to flowing water (such as a rocky stream) as the visual positioning sensors seem to want to follow the water if you inadvertently pause over that. And don't hover too low over water as the VPS can trigger an auto land thinking the surface is closer than it is. I will say neither of those have happened to me, but I have seen a few videos of that behaviour. And also worth noting the VPS ceases to factor in the drone's stability calculation over about 20m, after which it relies solely on GPS.
I think if you always make sure you have a good gps lock, and remain physically controlling the aircraft and not letting it do it's own thing while over water, you aren't ever going to have any issues.
I almost feel that flying over water it would be better to have no visual positioning at all. It’s a shame that isn’t an option (other than using tape like I did - which I wouldn’t recommend). Defiantly agree it’s best to not fly close over water especially on sunny glarey days or like you say over rocks where reflections can cause issues)
Great Neo video my friend👍I fly it over water without problems and changing anything on the drone, just using the RC 2 controller having enough sattelites. This can be seen in my YT video's flying the Neo. Greetings from a new subscriber 🇳🇱
Thanks for the sub and great to hear you are having good experiences flying over water!
Wow it can fly over water too, Stay amazing your doing amazing as a RUclipsr!
It’s can but it’s a bit more risky than other drones so you need to be careful 🙂
One more awesome video from you :-) ... you do these videos so perfectly ... Just the right amount of science, experience, bravery ... and fun :-)
@@djmrky75 thanks - it’s just me doing something I enjoy in a manner I enjoy - awesome that people enjoy joining me along the way with it!
That is such an interesting video, thank you for the education lesson. Very well put together and makes perfect sense. I know now why it went skittts in our dining room one evening. LOL. Cheers Simon
Glad it was helpful!
Again another informative and interesting video on this amazing little drone 😊
Great video, you answered my questions about water. My biggest issue is if I fly using my phones WiFi and the virtual controller, it does random things. E.g wouldnt fly forward, only sideways and reverse and then lost connection at about 20ft so I had to walk nearer and re-establish a signal. Definitely wouldn't feel comfortable using my phone over water.
I agree - the mobile phone connection is quite limited in use really - it does have its time and place though.
The risk taker! and I'm loving your vids!👌👊
@@paullawrence8572 thanks! More risky stuff to come soon
Great video, thank you!
Awesome video 👊😎 new subscriber😊 thanks for sharing 😊🙏
Thanks for the sub - welcome to the channel!
From my testing, it behaves really weird when low near water, it's almost trying to land, but also I remember trying to fly under bridge with RC and there is a weird behaviour in up down motion.
Got really useful info here with satellite and avoiding weird hovering.
That is very useful information, thanks again! @DroneWilder We are running out of potential water hazards here in Saskatchewan. Took Neo over snow and ice for the first time today. Neo actually loves the snow and doesn't even slip on the ice lol ALSO, I know it says the low operating temperature is -10C but we have potential for some of the coldest temperatures on Earth here. I froze my Motorola phone at -40C a few years ago, stupidly, but it eventually came back to life. Moto rated the phone to operate at -5C or something silly like that, How cold do you think we can fly Neo?
I second that, I enjoy your video, always interesting, and you got balls with some of the stuff you try, keep it up
@@andrehome2493 thanks - more ballsy stuff to come 😂
NICE, so if u are flying at water u need fill gps above 20 and sure stables. check it😊 thanks for sharing this 🙏
Yes additionally it’s also worth making sure you’re not too close to the water surface- especially if you have sunny glary conditions- just incase this upsets the visual positioning - hopefully a strong GPS signal will prioritise positioning though
Always check the KP or K index before flying. This is the level of GPS interference in the area. In my country: I can check it on the government flight registration app. If this index is above 5, pack the drone back up and go home.
@@Wujek_Dobra_Rada good point
So the lower the values are the better to fly the drone??? I'm right??? Thanks
@@gusravecca5751 low KP values are better yes
@@dronewilder5234 OK, so basically if the numbers of satellites dropped you need to manually bring the Neo back ASAP????
@ that would be my advice. The Neo isn’t perfect for flying over water but if you must then that would be the way to do it in my view.
I was wondering if this drone will fly blind folded and fly gps only and now there you have it. Thanks for sharing
Thank you , this really help me to understand the neo
Creative idea and great video, thank you! Neo GPS is worse than DJI Spark I think… maybe I should test it 😅
Please also keep on creating Avata 2 videos!!
@@tomseen5740 thanks yes I’ll be looking to make some avata 2 content too
@@dronewilder5234 that would be awesome, avata 2 is not dead (even by DJI) - will receive a "power loop" function with next update soon! Looking forward to even more creative content!
I am still waiting for my Neo to ship. I live around water and was wondering about flying over it so this video helps a lot! I was thinking about attaching ping pong balls or Styrofoam fishing bobbers to the bottom in case it locked up and decided to land on water or other similar emergency on the water.
@@Tarzan0123 tbh suddenly landing attempt should be unlikely (not saying they are impossible) but fly aways and uncontrollable behaviour due to GPS loss can be heavily avoided this way 🙂
That was not a horse. It was a man with two coconut shells.
@@DonJoyce lol love the Monty python reference! 😂
Hey You mist the real test !!! 😞
Were you let it hower 1 to 3 meters over the wather.
Its here I and many others have seen the Neo go toltaly out of control. And remember also to test the fly white the mobile app.
I stil think you are the best Neo youtuber.🤩
@@finnpilegaard8557 good point - I’ll look into that. I did fly around 1-3m over the water a few times during these tests but I didn’t hover in one point for long as such. Perhaps in those instances some tape over the bottom sensors would actually be benificial 🤷🏻♂️
Best test ! Bravo
Great info! What about when flying autonomous or mobile? Does it rely on the downward visual positioning as well?
I’d avoid using autonomous tracking or flights over water because those modes will allow flight with no GPS at all and give no indication of how strong the link is (if there’s any link at all!). Using a mobile would be better as you can check the GPS strength. I’d love to know from DJI how much priority the downward positioning has over the GPS position if there’s a setpoint discrepancy but strong GPS- I’d hope it prioritises GPS
@@dronewilder5234 i see. Thank you. Maybe you can include these in your next tests. 😁
Great video once again!!
Please can you address the issue of the palm landing facility and how that unique Neo ability might affect flying over water when the downwards sensors might get confused and cause the drops to occur. This would be distinct from addressing the GPS issues.
The thing with the palm take off (presume you mean AI track features) is that it gives no indication of GPS link and also will take off regardless even if there is no GPS, just using visual sensors. This is fine over textured environments but if flying at night or over water, I would strongly recommend using a smartphone connection and ensuring you have GPS lock first. This may take a few minutes as shown in my video but can avoid a fly away or the drone going out of control
What I meant was whether the propensity for palm landing could cause it to land over a reflective surface like water. @dronewilder5234
@dronewilder5234 I was trying to explore whether the unique propensity for palm landing might cause the Neo to land inappropriately over featureless but reflective surfaces like water. Can you address that aspect please?
@ I’ll have a look at how things look with the new firmware from yesterday
Great video! Is it important to always keep the drone moving when flying over water, or is it ok to let it hover for a bit (at a reasonable altitude) so long as the satellites are strong?
Im going to test this a bit as the question was asked already in the comments. I’d say at a reasonable altitude visual positioning shouldn’t interfere too much and a strong GPS link should be fine to hover. Bare in mind also that on very sunny days, sun glare/reflection can play havoc with the positioning sensor
@ great thanks! I’ll keep my out for when your results on this are out! Appreciate the work you put in to making the videos and responding to comments 🙌
@@simonotero2434 I’ll either do a short follow up video or pin a comment on here
im wondering about low light flying indoors outdoors , i was thinking putting reflective tape or paint around the bottom sensor to capture absorbed light , or light weight headlights. what can you come up with.
@@killiansred40 not sure that would work- the bottom sensors are basically just cameras which look at the ground and lock onto pixels/features - just like a human eye would in order to orientate yourself. Hopefully DJI will implement a more effective GPS sensor on the next iterations of this drone though!
Will you review the new goggles n3? Hope you will compare it with goggles 3. Pros and cons.
@@cesarnino im not sure as I don’t get sent free stuff and owning a pair of Goggles3, I can’t see the goggles n3 providing me any advantage. However I will be looking to create more FPV specific content which will be relevant to new Goggles N3 users
got my sub , thanks for doing videos like this
Thanks for the sub and welcome to the channel!
Thank you, excellent video 👍
Yeah, one of fav RUclipsr uploaded a video...... Hahah Great vieeo....
So if we fly Neo in dark or night , (other than we can't see anything at all to fly it ) It cannot even fly/stabilize itself ???? Is it so ???? ( Because of downward sensor not because GPS thing)
@@BhupenderSingh-mm2rk hey! Thanks for the support! In dark conditions treat it just like flying over water - wait for a good strong GPS signal and ensure clear unobstructed skies and it will do fine even in the dark
Wow thank you for the great information!
Upon getting a Air 2 in... 2020, I think.. I saw fog on the water. Ran home for the Air 2, and flew, maybe a foot over the surface for an hour or more. Only later did I realize how risky that was! I wonder if Air 3S Flipped on Lidar when the Downward sensors were inhibited.
@@BlairAir bet it created some stunning footage though 👍
@@dronewilder5234Indeed - I was quite proud of it. Simultaneously proud, and feeling foolish! You of all people can relate! 😂
@ 😂
"Drone Wilder"? Is that a reference to Romancing the Stone?
Lol no it’s a pun using my surname - Wilder
Seems from your tests that it's all about the GPS Sats? Does the downward sensor have any effect on flying over the water, eg., flying low height with poor GPS Sats?
@@lexikona I’d probably avoid flying low over water as there have been reports of reflections causing issues. I’d like to think that a strong GPS fix would take priority in the positioning control but without knowing it I’d keep some distance from the surface. It seemed fine in my tests but it wasn’t sunny and I was minimum 3m above the surface
I have a Neo and when filming indoors over people, it wants to follow the people as they move around. So I put BluTak over the underneath cameras. I flew indoors expecting to have zero ability to maintain position. I was wrong. It held position for at least a couple of minutes before it switched to Attitude mode. In Attitude mode it drifted according to the movement of the air. I don’t know how to explain the Neo maintaining position indoors with the two cameras covered. Something to test?
@@NZVideoGuy thats very surprising- is it not possible you had some GPS link indoors perhaps?
So we're still stuck if we're flying without the remote controller? Because then it's not using satellites right? That is still the scenario I was hoping to use it for, e.g., a dronie shot on the beach, flying away over the sea.
It may still use satellites but the concern is more when you don’t verify it. I think the mobile phone app control will at least tell you when the drone has gps fix although it doesn’t indicate the strength or number of satellites. There was an update today which dji claim improves position hold/stability but I’ve yet to test this
thanks 🙏
Can you do this test with the Mini 4 Pro?
Hi, unless you're using a controller. Don't do it otherwise or you will lose it!! I was on holiday recently and I was doing one of the hand palm modes and it went slightly over the water and went mad! It went further and further out darting from side to side , eventually speeding towards the harbour defensible wall .
As it hit the rocks the battery was ejected at great speed.luckey I eventually found the drone but not the battery.
The only real damage was to the back of the drone around the usb c port was bent up and a crack.
Yeah one of the big problems with palm take off is that because it allows extremely fast take off after power up (no RC to power up, no link to drone to establish, no indication of GPS link), it will allow take off without any GPS link at all, thus making it 100% dependent on visual positioning sensors. I’d at the very least use a mobile phone connection flying over untextured surfaces. Glad you at least got the drone back - also good that the batteries don’t have the Mavic 3 battery price tag (about the same cost as en entire Neo kit!)
Having the same problem with GPS on the Neo. It will *usually* get not sats until I've been flying for half a pack and it will gradually build up to 10-12 finally. Everything else gets GPS in the exact same spot, easily. DJI told me to downgrade the firmware which did absolutely nothing. Thankfully, I only fly manual..
@@standeely one thing you may notice is that if you fly multiple packs in one place, subsequent power ups result in a faster GPS lock. This is because in new locations an almanac of satellites in that location at that time is created.
@@dronewilder5234 Interesting! I figured it would start from zero with every power up. Good to know!
Was wondering about this.
I wonder what the Hoverair x1 Pro Max does differently with its OmnitTerrain to enable it to fly over water and uneven surfaces?
My guess is that it has a better GPS module and because of that flies better over water.
it's due because of reflection of the water and the waves so it doesn't know and it measured it but it can be fixed with an update
That would be nice if firmware can improve it. Even then there will be limits of how effective it can hold position over water as there is simply no set reference point to lock onto.
Hello Its more safer to fly the dji neo using rcn controler than palm mode above water?
Yes absolutely in my opinion, with the RC-N you can verify that you have a good GPS link
@ thank you so much mate for that🤩
Hi - can you clarify, so I have the RC-N3 controller is this the controller that is okay to fly manually over water?
@@cinematic-travels yes but just to clarify there is no absolute guarantee with this drone unless you fly full manual mode with FPV setup but with the RC-N3 controller you can at least check for a strong GPS signal like I did in the video so yes it should be ok
@@dronewilder5234 Thanks bud! In this video you flew over sea at the same level. Do you think it could possible work over sea at a lower level than standing on - like a small cliff, perhaps a few m? or better keep it at the same level. Thanks for your experiments
@@cinematic-travels I can’t see any issues flying below your take off level if taking off from a cliff if you have a good GPS link. Main thing is avoid is flying too close to the water surface due to glare confusing the positioning sensor
@@dronewilder5234 Perfect, thanks again
Question. I use my phone to fly the dji neo. Is it safe or not safe to do that over water?
@@samcarver5060 using phone I would treat it the same way - ensuring you have a really strong GPS signal. Like I said there are no guarantees but if you keep a strong gps link and don’t fly super close to the water, it should be fine.
@dronewilder5234 got it thanks. Strong gps signal golden rule.
Something is weird when covering the sensors with tape. I tried this on 2 different neos indoors without gps. They fly great in alti mode for 3 min after that it starts to shake and freak out. Using G3 and fpv controller
@@peteypufffpv659 not sure about the shaking behaviour but the freak out can happen when it locks onto a few satellites from having none at all. At this stage the GPS set point will fluctuate a lot and the drone hunts around unsure where it is. In such cases no GPS would be better than some GPS
@dronewilder5234 no this is not from gps. Go inside some place you don't get any sats. Tape up the sensors and fly it in altitude hold mode around. Report back how long you can fly it before it starts to shake out of control. Would love to see a video on this!!
Actually what I noticed is that when the sun is reflecting off the water that’s when it causes issues. So it more likely that the sensor gets blinded by reflection
@@Raygun84 yes reflective surfaces definitely cause real issues for vision positioning sensors even with other dji drones. For that reason it’s probably best to to fly too close to the water surface even with a good gps fix
Quick Q. Would it be safe to fly over over if i was just using the in built modes like dronie or helix?
No I definitely wouldn’t do that as those modes allow flight with just visual positioning and you would have no indication of GPS lock. If using these modes I’d then use a mobile phone controller at the very least (which still allows intelligent flight modes)
Can it still follow after you put tape on the sensors?
@@proyes6969 it should be able to - I’ll have to test it but sensors mainly just provide more accurate low altitude position hold and position hold when GPS is lost or unavailable
what if we are flying it autonomously ? ie, just using one of the preset mode ? does it have the same behaviour ?
I would strongly advise not to fly autonomous over water as there’s no indication of GPS strength and most likely you will be completely reliant on visual positioning which is poor/ineffective over water. It would then be better to use a mobile phone.
just wondering: how do you land a DJI drone if it's sensor is blocked, he can't see the ground, wont it run propellers indefinitely?
Correct but you can just hand grab it like I did at about 2 mins into the video… even though the motors didn’t stop initially when I tried to tilt it (which normally stops them) - what’s why I looked so awkward when the horse went by and my Neo was still screaming trying to fly 😂
@@dronewilder5234 So it kinda works but kinda don't :D Im asking because sensors give an issue that you cant fit in a really tight space because it will detect ground and push the drone into the ceiling/obstacle.
@ might be better to switch into sport mode for those scenarios. I know that at least with other dji drones this makes the bottom sensors less influential
@@dronewilder5234 will try that definitely, 🙏
You are a Madman! A stone, cold... wait... madman don't cover Time of Flight sensors! In your case, we will permit it. Now let's see how close you get to the surface! Sorry to hear about the horse passing. I hope he lived a good life!
@@BlairAir haha I do love a challenge
thank you!
Can we fly dji neo in the night?
Yes but needs the same precautions regarding GPS link as flying over water. I would also avoid flying close to reflective surfaces at night
great
Awesome videos you make mate, what height is the best to fly the Neo over water please??? Thanks in advance, Gus.
@@gusravecca5751 thanks bud, to be on the safe side I’d stay above 5m so the downward sensor doesn’t start locking onto water textures causing issues although I’m not sure if it would still do this even with a very strong GPS signal - I’ll have to check that. In my test I flew a good solid 3 minutes over open water at 3-15m height and it was fine all the way
6:23 - How to fly the DJI NEO over water and when it's not a good idea
I'm very experienced at flying drones over water in calm and storm conditions. For it to be worth it, you need to have a drone that will give you good footage. The Neo is substandard for this exercise in regards to video quality. Keep it for what it is for and that is for personal blogging. Great b roll footage and that is all. Storm Babet Torquay South Devon ruclips.net/video/_Yx978T8hjo/видео.htmlsi=WJkaMdT4QJg9mjvw
True - it’s not great for this purpose but I feel because a lot of people are inclined to want to fly over water regardless, it would be best to offer some advice on how to minimise risks. I certainly wouldn’t do it regularly myself either
Results is:? Cover the sensors with tape. Dont really need em anyways.
Liked. My daily dose of stupidity.
Awesome.
@@peter360adventures9 I should have it printed on a t shirt really 😂😂
rokid max ar glasses
Please sar water test 😅😅😅😅
I can't focus - all I see is Henry Cavill mumbling 😳
It’s not the number of satellites so much as the condition of the satellites on the indicator. If it’s white and you have 9 satellites, you’re good to go, but if it’s 15 and it’s red, you will smash into things. In your example, you have white and orange satellite connections when you remove the tape but when you had the tape on, it was all red.
The neo TERRIBLE sat lock. And it loses it randomly even above tree tops.
I watched a strip down video of the neo when it was first released , he found it did not have a proper GPS chip like all the others but was using some kind of flat stick on patch antenna stuck to the top half of the shell to pick up sat signals to supply some chip that could decode what the patch was picking up , he said in the video he has not seen anything like it on any other drone and it would be crap at getting good gps locks . just remembered it was Mads Tech but can't remember which video (Ian) ttps://www.youtube.com/@MadRC
He’s a very good reviewer- yeah I think everyone can agree the Neo does have a very poor GPS link - my initial test in the video confirmed that 😂. That’s kind of my point in that all drones will struggle with visual positioning over water, it’s the poor GPS which causes the issues more than anything.
3:36 Wholesome awkward facial expression HAHHAHAA
Was very awkward 😂
Great video once again!!
Thank you ❤