What Is Headless Mode On A Drone
In this article, I will be telling you guys about what the headless mode on a drone is, what it does and what are its pros and cons. So, without wasting much more time, let us tackle the question.
What is headless mode on a drone?
The “headless mode” is a useful trick when you use FPV Goggles for flying drone and this mode present on almost all drones that you can get. It may be called something different; that part varies from drone to drone. Unlike in a normal, ordinary vehicle that most of us are familiar with, like a bike or a car, the orientation of them is very easy to determine.
Where the headlights face, that part is the front. With drones though, it can be a bit tough to determine. That is why the creators have put in this “headless mode” which eliminates the need for always keeping in mind the orientation of your drone. Awesome, right? Indeed. That brings the question though, how does it work?
How does it work?
Manufacturers have tried many creative ways of helping us determine the orientation of our drones. One of the ways that works decently well is via LED lights. There are different colored LEDs located on different parts of your drones; different colored lights indicate different parts.
A workable solution, as long as the drone is within reasonable viewing angles and is in your line of sight. Unless you have the best vision, over a distance, these lights do not work well. That is where the headless mode comes in.
Headless mode helps the drone to remember its orientation from the moment it takes off. This way, it will change its position relative to your point of view and not it’s own. Let me give you an example:
Image if a drone takes off and does not have the headless mode on. Well, if you spin it towards you, its orientation changes. Now, if it started off facing the opposite sides, the movements instructions you give it will be mirrored. So, if you press left, it will go right.
Headless drone mode fixes this issue. This built-in technology remembers its initial orientation, so when it takes off, you can spin it right-round-right-round and if you ask it to go left, it will go left only. It corrects the initial problem. In very simple terms, the drone will move in relation to your point of view. If you ask it to go left, it will go left.
This is a fantastic ease-of-life feature, not only for those that are new to flying drones but also for professional. Sometimes, you just want to focus on shooting videos and capturing pictures, not worrying about the orientation of your drone or accidentally hitting something because of inverted controls. Seriously, no one even uses inverted controls in video games, why would anyone want that in real life while flying an expensive piece of technology?
How to activate headless mode?
Okay. so, unfortunately, there is no universal answer to this question. Activating the headless mode is different for most drones, varying from one manufacturer to another. However, for the most part, there is going to be a button there in order to activate it. If pressing it did not work, try a long press. If that does not do the trick either, you might want to go through the manual.
Conclusion
Now you know what is headless mode on a drone. It is quite a useful technology which is thankfully inbuilt so you do not have to pay extra for it. Purists call it cheating and “flying on easy mode” but well, sometimes you do want to fly on easy mode.
Sometimes, you just want to focus on having some fun, flying your drone around and getting some beautiful looking shots without having to manoeuvre it like you are competing in a race somewhere. Do not listen to people, enjoy your experience and keep in mind the EMI(lol) Thank you for reading.
