1. All models of DJI drones of the Mavic family fly only in GPS navigation mode. If you do not give control commands, the drone weighs in one place resisting wear and tear from the wind. ATTI mode (ATTITUDE), is a flight mode that does not use the drone's navigation system based on GPS. All security sensors are also ignored. Only height maintenance works on the drone. In ATTI mode, the drone does not hold position. From the side it may seem that the control of the drone has been intercepted and taken away from you, but this is not so, the drone is simply taken away by the wind. Its navigation system continues to work in the background, and if communication with the remote control is lost, the drone will switch to RTF mode as expected, and will automatically return to the starting place. On older models of DJI drones, switching to ATTI mode is performed normally, by switching flight modes (FGPS — ATTI — PGPS).
2. Unfortunately, switching to ATTI mode on the DJI Mavic 3 drone is not provided by the manufacturer. Conventional radio-controlled models fly in an ATTI-like mode only without altitude maintenance. For them, this is often the only mode of flight. The first DJI drones initially had an ATTI mode, starting with the Phantom 1. You could switch to ATTI using the flight mode switch on the remote control. This mode is also present on both generations of DJI Inspire drones. With the advent of the Mavic family, DJI has removed the ability to include ATTI. Instead, Normal, Sport, Tripod or Cinematic Mode were introduced. In all these modes, the navigation system does not turn off. Obviously this was done by increasing the safety of drones in the hands of inexperienced pilots.
3. Although it is more difficult to control a drone in ATTI mode than in GPS modes, such a skill is still necessary, since any drone itself switches to ATTI when the navigation system fails due to compass errors or jamming of satellites (REB systems against drones). In addition, the ability to control a drone in ATTI mode is useful for indoor flights where GPS work is not available. In some cases, it is better to switch to this mode yourself, for example, with a weak signal or a small number of satellites used for navigation, since the drone at the same time begins to move chaotically due to a decrease in the accuracy of psioning. By the way, to obtain a commercial drone pilot license, one of the tests in the exam is to fly in ATTI mode.
4. To enable ATTI mode on the Mavic 3, you will need the following:
- Computer running Windows, best 10 version.
- Installed version of DJI Assistant 2 (Consumer Drones Series), from DJI website, Downloads tab, section dedicated to DJI Mavic 3
- The DroneHack program, which is actually needed to hack a drone, is downloaded for free from the site of the same name.
- USB Type C cable to connect the drone to the computer. It is better to take a high-quality cable with a ferrite ring to eliminate high-frequency leads from the drone's radio path to the computer input.
5. We start Assistant 2 on the computer, turn on the drone, and after a few seconds we connect it with a cable to the computer. After a while, you should see the drone icon that appears in the application window. If so, the drivers have become correct. Then be sure to exit the program Acssistant, this is important! Without disconnecting the drone from the computer, launch the DroneHack program. If everything happens normally, after a few seconds the data exchange between the drone and the DroneHack program will begin. Unfortunately, the procedure for opening the ATTI mode can develop according to different scenarios. In some cases everything goes from the first time and smoothly, sometimes it is necessary to reconnect the drone to the computer and restart the DroneHack program several times until the connection between the drone and the program is established and the data exchange between them begins
In my opinion, it is important that the computer is connected to the Internet during these manipulations. Repeat the steps described until the drone and the program begin to exchange data with each other. When the data exchange takes place, you will have the Hack Parameters tab active. Go to this tab and click the “Advanced Parameters” button. Now in the search bar you need to enter the first letters of the name of the registry key of the drone that you want to change. In our case it will be fsw, we find three keys called fswitch_selection. You need a key with the parameter “12", change its value to “3", click the Save Parameters button, the search screen closes, and on the first screen click Write Parameters To Drone. If everything worked out, you replaced the Cinematic Mode flight mode with the ATTI mode on the drone.
6. If you have already managed to enable the ATTI flight mode, on the DJI Mavic 3, you may want to change some more flight characteristics of the drone. You have the option to increase the horizontal speed, altitude gain speed and drop speed of the drone separately in Normal and Sport modes. These settings can be performed by moving the appropriate sliders on the Advanced Parameters screen. Changing the speed and speed parameters of the drone are critical and dangerous. It is best to change these parameters little by little, controlling the result with test flights.
7. It is necessary to note one important point. The DJI FLY application interface displays flight modes depending on the position of the flight mode switch. After unlocking the ATTI mode, our DJI Mavic 3, although it will turn on instead of the “Cinematic Mode” mode, the name of the “ATTI” mode will not appear in your interface, it will still be marked “C”, but at the same time the drone will fly in “ATTI” mode.
8. Turning off the running lights, front and rear LEDs on the DJI Mavic 3, must be done to reduce the visibility of the drone in the dark. To do this, it is not necessary to dig out the LEDs on the beams of the drone, or to stick/paint the lanterns. Can be done programmatically. There are two ways to turn off the LEDs on the Mavic 3. In the first method, we look for a key with the text 'led', there are several such keys, most of them contain “0" as a parameter, one of the keys has a parameter in the form of a three-digit number, this parameter is changed to “0", we save, we write the changes to the drone. In the second case, we look for the “lamp” key, and also change its parameter to “0", save, record the changes in the drone, the lights turn off.
9. Turning off the car landing at the second level of battery discharge. This will be useful for extremely long flights, when you return on the last percent of the battery and the drone automatically goes down. Disabling auto landing can give you much-needed seconds when returning the drone. As practice shows, even with a battery level of 0%, the drone can be in the air for some time. Automatic landing is one of the safety contours of the drone, and it should only be disabled when you have a good understanding of the consequences of your actions.
We look for the key “dji_bat_level_1|g_config.voltage2.level_1_voltage” and change the parameter to the value “10", save the parameter.
- We look for the key “bat_level_2_action|g_config.voltage.level_2_protect_type” and change the parameter to the value “0", save the parameter.
- We look for the key “level1_smart_battert_gohome|g_config.voltage2.level2_smart_battert_gohome” and change the parameter to the value “0", save the parameter.
- We look for the key “level2_smart_battert_land|g_config.voltage2.level2_smart_battert_land” and change the parameter to the value “0", save the parameter.
- We look for the key “bat_enable_smart_bat_landing_protect” and change the parameter to the value “0", save the parameter.
- We record changes to the drone.
I cite below to check the screenshots with all the changes.
10 Everyone who planted the Mavic 3 in their hand remembers how the drone tends to jump if you don't grab it fast enough, and even bursts upward while you turn off the engines. Precission Landing mode is responsible for this behavior, which, according to the developers, should facilitate and automate a neat landing on the ground. For those who more often catch a drone with their hands than plant on the ground, you can disable this mode. In addition, it will be useful if you are attaching something under the drone, or flying in fog and clouds.
To disable Precission Landing mode, look for the key g_config.flying_limit.avoid_ground_and_smart_landing_enable and change its value to 0
11 In the event of a compass error, which happens often, DJI drones restart the GPS module, which slows down the process of restoring the navigation system. We can disable this algorithm, it will be especially useful when flying in REB conditions. This is done like this: we look for the key “g_config.fdi_switch.gps.with_fdi” and set the value of the parameter “0". Do not forget to save the changes and write them to the drone.
