Accuracy of RTH…shoreline example…

[Better Than A Balloon]

Hello. This is my first post, I’m very new to all this but recently began flying my new Mini 2 gradually more often and father distances after getting over the uneasiness and trusting its abilities. I recently went near my home to a small lake/ park area that’s perfect for flying over, however when RTH is set, it shows the RTH marker to be a few feet out OVER the water, however I’m standing and launching the drone roughly 8-12 on shore. Does this mean RTH would land the drone on the water a few feet off shore? Or should I trust where I’m actually located? Im thinking the former situation applies…..

 

[BSauce955]

Hello. This is my first post, I’m very new to all this but recently began flying my new Mini 2 gradually more often and father distances after getting over the uneasiness and trusting its abilities. I recently went near my home to a small lake/ park area that’s perfect for flying over, however when RTH is set, it shows the RTH marker to be a few feet out OVER the water, however I’m standing and launching the drone roughly 8-12 on shore. Does this mean RTH would land the drone on the water a few feet off shore? Or should I trust where I’m actually located? Im thinking the former situation applies…..

When you launch, do you wait until the drone says, "Home point has been updated"? If not, then it might be updating the home point AFTER you've started flying out. Otherwise, it might be some inaccuracy in the map placement.

 

[akdrone]

Even with home point updated you can't trust any drone to land exactly where you launched. GPS distance can vary quite a bit. If you watch your position on a GPS monitor while you are standing still it will show you moving around constantly as GPS is not perfect. If you have excellent coverage you should be good to within 5 or 10 feet but it's not shocking to be off by 20 feet. Watch a map of you walking out a mile and back...you'll see the lines will vary from each other but quite a bit so I would personally try to launch 20 feet or more from any body of water.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

I fly out a short distance, maybe to 200ft away, then trigger an RTH and let it come back 'over head' or rather until it starts to hover and or descend. If the position is not to my liking I halt the descent, move the drone overhead and reset the home point to the drone's position.
At home I generally have to take off to get sufficient satellites to establish a homepoint, hence my homepoint need not be very close to the take off point.
That said I rarely let it land automatically and cancel any RTH once the Mini/Mini2 is over head and land manually, there are too many trees waiting to jump out and grab it if it is in an automated descent.

A or close to the shoreline, DO NOT trigger an RTH with the Mini 2 within 20m of the homepoint UNTIL you know how it will behave and learn how to cancel the RTH in needs be.

 

[sar104]

Hello. This is my first post, I’m very new to all this but recently began flying my new Mini 2 gradually more often and father distances after getting over the uneasiness and trusting its abilities. I recently went near my home to a small lake/ park area that’s perfect for flying over, however when RTH is set, it shows the RTH marker to be a few feet out OVER the water, however I’m standing and launching the drone roughly 8-12 on shore. Does this mean RTH would land the drone on the water a few feet off shore? Or should I trust where I’m actually located? Im thinking the former situation applies…..

Are you sure that the shoreline is accurately depicted on the map?

 

[Airheadbit]

I thought my new Mini 2 was broken since it refused to come home, always ended up a few feet away from where it took off. I recalibrated everything, replace my huge landing pad with a small one, changed the color of the pad (flipped it over), moved my setup to the middle of a field hundreds of yards from any signal but no, the Mini 2 would not land where it took off from. My Mavic 2 Zoom hits the same point even in a high wind. I checked the DJI forum and found out the Mavic Mini 2 RTH is called non-accurate RTH. To add insult to this they don't allow you to set a pause before landing on RTH so you can position the Mini 2 on the pad instead of letting it crash into weeds, water or rocks.

Salutation: Place two landing pad 10 feet (3m) apart, take off from one, move to the other, land, repeat for three batteries worth of flight time.
Never use RTH around water and learn how to catch the Mini 2 in midair.
Too bad they didn't add the Tello launch and land tricks.

 

[Meta4]

I thought my new Mini 2 was broken since it refused to come home, always ended up a few feet away from where it took off. I recalibrated everything, replace my huge landing pad with a small one, changed the color of the pad (flipped it over), moved my setup to the middle of a field hundreds of yards from any signal but no, the Mini 2 would not land where it took off from.

All of that was because your Mini 2 uses GPS alone for returning to home and consumer GPS is not pinpoint accurate.
Messing with the landing pad couldn't make a difference because the Mini 2 doesn't have the sensors necessary for Precision Landing.

Salutation: Place two landing pad 10 feet (3m) apart, take off from one, move to the other, land, repeat for three batteries worth of flight time.

Solution
You don't have to rely on blind programming and consumer GPS to land your drone.
You can land the drone anywhere you choose all by yourself.
Just cancel your RTH and take over controlling the drone.

 

[akdrone]

All of that was because your Mini 2 uses GPS alone for returning to home and consumer GPS is not pinpoint accurate.
Messing with the landing pad couldn't make a difference because the Mini 2 doesn't have the sensors necessary for Precision Landing.

Solution
You don't have to rely on blind programming and consumer GPS to land your drone.
You can land the drone anywhere you choose all by yourself.
Just cancel your RTH and take over controlling the drone.

What Meta4 said. I'm new to this too but I don't think I have ever used the RTH function. I've turned it OFF a few times when it thought I should go back before I thought I should ... but I've never engaged it or allowed it to land for me. How could I land on the sky roof and open it to grab my drone if I let it do RTH ? LOL

 

[cgmaxed]

I thought my new Mini 2 was broken since it refused to come home, always ended up a few feet away from where it took off. I recalibrated everything, replace my huge landing pad with a small one, changed the color of the pad (flipped it over), moved my setup to the middle of a field hundreds of yards from any signal but no, the Mini 2 would not land where it took off from. My Mavic 2 Zoom hits the same point even in a high wind. I checked the DJI forum and found out the Mavic Mini 2 RTH is called non-accurate RTH. To add insult to this they don't allow you to set a pause before landing on RTH so you can position the Mini 2 on the pad instead of letting it crash into weeds, water or rocks.

Salutation: Place two landing pad 10 feet (3m) apart, take off from one, move to the other, land, repeat for three batteries worth of flight time.
Never use RTH around water and learn how to catch the Mini 2 in midair.
Too bad they didn't add the Tello launch and land tricks.

I don't know why drones can't use their main camera to take a photo of the launch point at several deferent distance intervals as it goes up and use those pics to match the landing pattern to the take off pattern.

 

[akdrone]

I don't know why drones can't use their main camera to take a photo of the launch point at several deferent distance intervals as it goes up and use those pics to match the landing pattern to the take off pattern.

easy answer: Cause DJI hasn't paid programmers to make that happen. While not impossible, it would be relatively complex to research and carry out.

 

[sar104]

easy answer: Cause DJI hasn't paid programmers to make that happen. While not impossible, it would be relatively complex to research and carry out.

The Mavic, Mavic 2, and Air series have precision landing, which is exactly that except that they don't use the main camera to image the launch point - they use the downward optical sensors. The Mini and Mini 2 do not have that capability, but it's not because DJI hasn't developed it.

 

[Gagey52]

Never trust the software to do the right thing. Always keep it, the drone, in sight and be ready to take over for a manual RTH.
Regards

 

[Gagey52]

And welcome to the forum, look forward to your input.
Regards

 

[bmcelya]

After about sixty flights so far, the Mini 2 has landed within five feet of its home point takeoff spot. Well, about half of those I brought it in manually, so for 30 flights it landed on its own pretty close to where it took off. I’m pretty happy about that. I always wait until the home point is updated before taking off, as recommended above.

 

[SpitFire]

Welcome to the forum from Chicago the Windy City.
Its always good to have VLOS, in case of issues.

 

[Artemis]

When coming in for a landing during rth, do you have to hit the cancel button or can you just start manipulating joysticks to guide it to your landing pad?

 

[Meta4]

When coming in for a landing during rth, do you have to hit the cancel button or can you just start manipulating joysticks to guide it to your landing pad?

If you want to resume control, you should cancel RTH.
Leaving it active and trying to wrestle against it while it tries to do what it wants to do, can often end badly.

 

[Artemis]

If you want to resume control, you should cancel RTH.
Leaving it active and trying to wrestle against it while it tries to do what it wants to do, can often end badly.

Thanks… I’ve watched so many videos it becomes more confusing instead of less…. It seem like one you hit rth you might be better off to set the remote down and back away lol

 

[akdrone]

Thanks… I’ve watched so many videos it becomes more confusing instead of less…. It seem like one you hit rth you might be better off to set the remote down and back away lol

Definitely not always. I have learned with our blanket of white snow in front of our house RTH does not work. The drone gets about 15feet above the landing pad and tells me it can't land. I think it is just too white/plain in spite of there being a circular landing pad in place but I may not have been holding at 20feet long enough or something. I read I should get two "home base updated" responses but I've never gotten more than one....

 

[RC_Adik]

If we're speaking of the Mini 2, it does not have precision landing, but it does look for suitable landing area. When wet, it will not land on my deck. Otherwise it lands there without issue.