Almost Lost My Mavic:

[pure3d2]

Hope this isn't misconstrued as bashing the OP, but I read this as strong evidence against using RTH unless necessary. Whenever my MP begins to beep the low battery warning, I always immediately begin to follow a manual course back to myself and land.

I can't imagine any logical reason to use the RTH function if the bird was just overhead. What do other people think about this, and indeed, do when they get a low battery warning?

Cheers, jason

RTH needs to work whether it's 200 feet away or 10 feet away.

 

[jasonbrooks]

RTH needs to work whether it's 200 feet away or 10 feet away.

Care to elaborate on your cryptic statement of absolute fact? I.e. Why does it need to work 10ft away? -jason

 

[Ciawz]

Care to elaborate on your cryptic statement of absolute fact? I.e. Why does it need to work 10ft away? -jason

In the same analogy
Why does your car brake need to work if u drove 10ft/hr?

A certain function is design to do what they are designed for regardless of the circumstances

 

[jasonbrooks]

It doesn't. You could just as easily get out of the car, walk to the front, and stop it manually.

I'm asking a simple and genuine question, and yet you choose to answer in riddles. Do you really disagree with the general point that if you don't NEED to use RTH, then it's probably safer not to?

I'm not for a moment suggesting that in an ideal world RTH wouldn't work like a dream whenever it was invoked, but sadly we live in a far from perfect world, and so I think it makes sense to rely on this automation only when necessary. No?

Jason

 

[Ciawz]

In the same analogy
Your car brake wont work if u drove 10ft/hr?

It doesn't. You could just as easily get out of the car, walk to the front, and stop it manually.

I'm asking a simple and genuine question, and yet you choose to answer in riddles. Do you really disagree with the general point that if you don't NEED to use RTH, then it's probably safer not to?

I'm not for a moment suggesting that in an ideal world RTH wouldn't work like a dream whenever it was invoked, but sadly we live in a far from perfect world, and so I think it makes sense to rely on this automation only when necessary. No?

Jason

Coz u asked for the explanation why it should work
I do agree to fly it back home manually whenever feasible, but, yes RTH NEED to work regardless of distance

 

[Panhead55]

I agree as I'm the one this happened to. It does need to do what its functions are suppose to do. If it has an RTH function it should work. It should not head off in another direction. Many times I land it without RTH. Sometimes I use the RTH to make sure it is working properly. In this case after I hit RTH and it decided to head off I tried to land it manually but none of the controls worked. No up, no down, no forward, no reverse. It would do a rotate as shown on the last few seconds but would not manually or automatically RTH.

 

[pure3d2]

Care to elaborate on your cryptic statement of absolute fact? I.e. Why does it need to work 10ft away? -jason

You have a funny way of saying, "I agree with what you said--I just don't like it."

 

[Michael Ainsworth]

Not sure if this was addressed previously but when you took off was the home point correctly recorded or did you move from your initial takeoff point.
The other point is that if something like this happens quickly switch to Sport and back on the slider on the RC. This should give you control of MP.
It is best not to rely 100% on the App and have experience in flying only using the RC

 

[KloppKopp]

Knight Hawk thanks. The batteries are less than 5 months old. All are in good shape. All are discharged fully then recharged. They all (3) have not had any issues in the last 5 months. I don't think that is the issue. However, I will test that particular battery in a controlled environment to test it. Thanks for the input. I'm trying to download the flight data now to post for those who know how to review them to comment. Maybe I did something wrong? Who knows.

Do you mean you always discharge your batteries fully before charging them? If so, how do you do that and down to what level?

These are high voltage LiPo batteries. They have no memory effect like NiCd and fully discharging them regularly will shorten lifespan considerably. I know that some people in this forum tell you to fully discharge at least once in a while, but that's not needed.

I have flown model helicopters and airplanes for the last 20 years and did a lot of research on battery chemistry in my time. There are many research papers that clearly suggest to never fully discharge Lixx Batteries, but I have never come across a single one that says fully discharging is a good thing.

I usually land at around 30% and let the cell chemistry rest for a day before charging again.

 

[Panhead55]

Batteries are not fully discharged to 0 but most times when flying I have the battery notification set to 30% and then fly close by until the battery is at about 15% prior to landing. Batteries are normally recharged at 15% or slightly less depending on the flight. This particular flight the batter discharge was rapid after the 30% notification.

 

[Panhead55]

Controller indicated home point recorded. The only time I moved was when it decided to take off after the RTH signal and it even indicated in the log RTH but then went another direction. I did try to control it manually and it would not respond. Battery discharged from 30% to 15% or less and started auto land sequence. The MP was not far from me. Still in LOS. I was able to find it with the find my drone but I see on the log the battery hit critical temp most likely from sitting in the sun in a field in TX at the peak of the heat. Battery subsequently charged fine and tests fine and no errors found on the battery log data.

 

[Panhead55]

You have a funny way of saying, "I agree with what you said--I just don't like it."

You don't have to like it.

 

[Bergumbira]

I was flying my Mavic Pro this AM in a very large soccer park (legal fly zone). At the normal low battery setting of 30%, the controller notified me as always. I set the low battery warning at 30% to give me plenty of time to RTH should I be out further than 1500 ft. However, at the 30% warning I was directly overhead. When I confirmed RTH it asked me if I wanted to return to HOME POINT or CURRENT LOCATION. Never did that before. It normally would beep and do it's return to home sequence. I hit RTH and the Mavic began to move away from me. I did not panic. I canceled the RTH. It then warned me CRITICAL BATTERY although it had 27% remaining. It began to land. I could not exit, I could not go forward or backward, up or down. Lucky for me the Mavic landed in an open field about 400 feet away. I search via the map and luckily I was able to find it with no damage. I ended my flying for the day and retuned home to check it all out. As an added note: I always do a preflight check of all settings and the aircraft to be sure there are no issues including any and all updates to firmware. It flew one full battery with no issues then on the second battery the issue happened as described. Any idea's?

Why did you titled Lost Mavic ???

 

[Panhead55]

Because it was lost until it was found.

 

[benjaminkan]

It could be that you didn't fly high enough when you first launched your drone. Usually the home point gets recorded when you ascend to 30-40m

 

[Panhead55]

Mine always records the home point on takeoff. Not when it is 30 to 40m high. But thanks for the input.

 

[msinger]

Here's what happened:

12m 28.6s: You reset the home point (from the yellow pin below) to your current location (which your mobile device incorrectly reported was 6.4 miles away from your actual location)
12m 29.4s: Your Mavic started returning to the new home point (the green pin on the map below)
12m 42.4s: You cancelled RTH
14m 51.9s: The battery reached the critically low level and your Mavic auto landed at its current location (as designed)

 

[Michael Ainsworth]

That's what I thought in my previous post.
Even though you get the confirmation "Home point has been recorded, please check it on the map." How many actually get the map up and make sure it is where you are.

 

[Owen Manderfield]

Here's what happened:

12m 28.6s: You reset the home point (from the yellow pin below) to your current location (which your mobile device incorrectly reported was 6.4 miles away from your actual location)
12m 29.4s: Your Mavic started returning to the new home point (the green pin on the map below)
12m 42.4s: You cancelled RTH
14m 51.9s: The battery reached the critically low level and your Mavic auto landed at its current location (as designed)

View attachment 18701


View attachment 18702

Very usefull post.

Makes total sence - we've all seen phone GPS give the occasional way-off locations which normally correct within seconds - but if you happen to set the home point during that time....

Quote: Even though you get the confirmation "Home point has been recorded, please check it on the map." How many actually get the map up and make sure it is where you are.

Another good point - I will from now on just check the map while waiting for the mavic to assend.

Thanks guys

 

[Panhead55]

Msinger: Thank you so much for your analysis of the flight. I must have reset the home point when it did not respond to my RTH and started taking off toward the second home point (which is my actual home address). That would have been fine but obviously the MP did not have the battery power to go 6.4 miles away to my home address. Also I rest because it was not responding to my home point just below me. When I was attempting to RTH the MP would not respond so I shut down the app and restarted. Thinking that would solve the problem but it only made it worse obviously. At least I know the MP did what it was programed to do and not a malfunction. It was my error. Good to know. Thanks again for your help. PS I lived in Harrisburg for long time. Miss the trout fishing!