be carefull where HOME point is set

[SeaHag]

I just returned from a flight with my Pro, flying at a farm. When ready to land I hit Go Home on the controller, the drone flew directly above me for a normal landing but then started raising up instead of down. It went to 1000 feet!!!! I tried canceling GO HOME but it would not respond. The controller was beeping and I was starting to freak out. After several seconds (seemed like minutes), I could land the drone using very little down stick. If I used full down stick it would not respond and kept going up. Did I mention 1000 feet and the battery was starting to get low. Perhaps I got stuck in an up draft.
What could have caused this?

I've had altitude issues before . I live at 400 sea level. When I went to Colorado (8000 sea level) my drone would only lift off to 30-40 feet before it said max altitude reached. I landed, restarted the controller and drone and then it was OK. Seems the altitude is not getting reset correctly.

 

[THE CYBORG]

Are you referring to the direction relative to the controller, or relative to north? The former depends on the compass in the mobile device, which is often wrong when attached to the RC, while the latter, which is the important one, depends on the compass in the aircraft.

Direction relative to controller.

I can calibrate the compass on all 3 tablets & the drones but the direction indicator / radar still hardly ever point in the direction the drone is facing.

Lets say the drone is flying directly away from me 12 o'clock the indicator can show up to 12.15 – 90˚ in the wrong direction rendering this handy feature useless.

Once the drone is some distance away but still in LOS it can be difficult to judge the orientation so I should be able to look at the display rotate the drone to point the arrow towards me & press forward to bring it home, unfortunately this is so unreliable no-matter what I use I get very frustrated.?

 

[sar104]

Direction relative to controller.

I can calibrate the compass on all 3 tablets & the drones but the direction indicator / radar still hardly ever point in the direction the drone is facing.

Lets say the drone is flying directly away from me 12 o'clock the indicator can show up to 12.15 – 90˚ in the wrong direction rendering this handy feature useless.

Once the drone is some distance away but still in LOS it can be difficult to judge the orientation so I should be able to look at the display rotate the drone to point the arrow towards me & press forward to bring it home, unfortunately this is so unreliable no-matter what I use I get very frustrated.?

That's not how it works. The compass display has a large red arrow indicating the direction that the aircraft is facing, and a small north marker on the edge of the circle. The red arrow, relative to the north marker, indicates the direction that the aircraft is facing relative to north. That depends only on the aircraft compass, and if it is significantly wrong then the aircraft won't fly. This is what needs to be checked as correct before taking off, but it is easier to do that on the map since north is locked as up in that display, and you just check the aircraft orientation arrow relative to the map.

The orientation the compass on the screen indicates the direction that the controller is facing, That depends only on the mobile device compass. If that is wrong then it won't affect the flight of the aircraft, but it will confuse you as to which direction you are looking.

 

[slup]

Direction relative to controller.

I can calibrate the compass on all 3 tablets & the drones but the direction indicator / radar still hardly ever point in the direction the drone is facing.

Lets say the drone is flying directly away from me 12 o'clock the indicator can show up to 12.15 – 90˚ in the wrong direction rendering this handy feature useless.

Once the drone is some distance away but still in LOS it can be difficult to judge the orientation so I should be able to look at the display rotate the drone to point the arrow towards me & press forward to bring it home, unfortunately this is so unreliable no-matter what I use I get very frustrated.?

Perhaps it's easier to see someone demonstrating it (in GO4)... see below YT clip. Then it's also important to calibrate your device compass while it is attached to the RC, this due to that it's pretty common that the RC interfere with the device magnetometer ... If not calibrating in this way the north mark will not be correct leading you to point your RC in the wrong direction.

 

[old man mavic]

i still to this day use my method of aircraft orientation it works on the MPP and the MM
i have a small hand held compass which i use to set the N on my home made landing pad ,
it also doubles as a method of determining if there is any hidden ferrous material at the take off point
to do this i hold the compass at chest height then slowly lower it towards the ground if there is metal present it will change the needle position as it gets lower
if all is well i am then ready to fly ,i place the drone on the pad facing the N mark on the pad then after starting the drone look at the screen to see if it is pointing towards the small N that sar 104 mentioned at the edge of the radar like circle i then know that once the GPS is locked with enough sats then the IMU will be correctly configured
with my MPP i use the small tick box for precision landing before i swipe to take off, the drone then goes up approx 25 ft records it position and will land on the take off point with uncanny accuracy it can be off a little bit if its windy, i think that the few moments it takes to do this,is worth it and i have so far avoided issues with my drones flying off out of control

 

[Citizen Flier]

Q: I hover & wait after takeoff for Home Pt update confirmation alert. Sometimes it does not occur. I have then aborted flight, restarted M2P & SC. What other options are there if Home Pt Update does not occur in timely way?

 

[Polo48]

How can I use the flight data on my DJI mini? What app I need to download and how it work ?

 

[charliej]

Q: I hover & wait after takeoff for Home Pt update confirmation alert. Sometimes it does not occur. I have then aborted flight, restarted M2P & SC. What other options are there if Home Pt Update does not occur in timely way?

If I don't get the confirming method I go into settings and tap the RTH option. This normally works, check it on map. If not then start all over again!

 

[sar104]

How can I use the flight data on my DJI mini? What app I need to download and how it work ?

Mavic Flight Log Retrieval and Analysis Guide

With the introduction of the Mavic Mini there has been a noticeable uptick in the number of posts requesting help with lost or crashed aircraft. While there is plenty of help and advice available on this forum, and detailed guidance and options on several other websites, I thought that perhaps a...

mavicpilots.com

 

[silverdragon]

If you know all that but still don't do it then that's your choice. You also are not checking the navHealth indicator, obviously. It doesn't appear to common practice however - relatively few of the flight issues posted here arise from not checking the home point. Not checking the orientation arrow is a much more common problem.

It’s funny that you mention to check navhealth and the position/orientation. I’m 100% **** about those 2 points. But I’m also 100% **** checking the IMU and Accelerometer levels before takeoff. I’m not sure by doing all that pre-flight check has made it possible that I never had a fly away . That’s of course flying the MPP, M2Z, MA, Spark. I preflight all the same. Oh been flying 3 years now.

 

[MavicDelight]

words fail me,its amazing they still have a drone to return home with

I have been flying for about 2 years. The more I read, the less I know...I wonder if classes are available in Brisbane Australia on how to fly well and safety?

 

[sar104]

It’s funny that you mention to check navhealth and the position/orientation. I’m 100% **** about those 2 points. But I’m also 100% **** checking the IMU and Accelerometer levels before takeoff. I’m not sure by doing all that pre-flight check has made it possible that I never had a fly away . That’s of course flying the MPP, M2Z, MA, Spark. I preflight all the same. Oh been flying 3 years now.

I don't generally check the sensor readings before flying, but it's not a bad idea.

 

[Meta4]

the drone flew directly above me for a normal landing but then started raising up instead of down. It went to 1000 feet!!!! I tried canceling GO HOME but it would not respond. The controller was beeping and I was starting to freak out.

Flicking the flight mode switch to Sport Mode and back again is a quick and simple way of cancelling any automated flight mode.

After several seconds (seemed like minutes), I could land the drone using very little down stick. If I used full down stick it would not respond and kept going up. Did I mention 1000 feet and the battery was starting to get low. Perhaps I got stuck in an up draft.
What could have caused this?

The solution to your mystery is going to be found in the recorded flight data.
Post your data and someone can work it out.

I've had altitude issues before . I live at 400 sea level. When I went to Colorado (8000 sea level) my drone would only lift off to 30-40 feet before it said max altitude reached. I landed, restarted the controller and drone and then it was OK. Seems the altitude is not getting reset correctly.

This would not have been altitude not resetting.
The cause will be something else and probably quite simple.
I can think of one possibility but as usual, rather than guessing, you need to post the data which will show what happened.

Starting a separate thread would also be a good idea rather than adding to someone else's thread about a different issue.

 

[old man mavic]

no one can say that issues will never happen to them,when flying their drone,but being prepared,before you lift off,can mitigate a lot of problems
(1) having all batteries fully charged RC, AC, screen device
(2) checked all is well with the props and body of the drone
(3)made sure there are no flight restrictions and the area is suitable to fly in including the weather
(4) and finally do not take off till you have the green ok to fly and the voice message (the home point has been updated please check it on the map)
(5) if everything is ok then proceed with your flight

 

[braddenton]

i still to this day use my method of aircraft orientation it works on the MPP and the MM
i have a small hand held compass which i use to set the N on my home made landing pad ,
it also doubles as a method of determining if there is any hidden ferrous material at the take off point
to do this i hold the compass at chest height then slowly lower it towards the ground if there is metal present it will change the needle position as it gets lower
if all is well i am then ready to fly ,i place the drone on the pad facing the N mark on the pad then after starting the drone look at the screen to see if it is pointing towards the small N that sar 104 mentioned at the edge of the radar like circle i then know that once the GPS is locked with enough sats then the IMU will be correctly configured
with my MPP i use the small tick box for precision landing before i swipe to take off, the drone then goes up approx 25 ft records it position and will land on the take off point with uncanny accuracy it can be off a little bit if its windy, i think that the few moments it takes to do this,is worth it and i have so far avoided issues with my drones flying off out of control

Little bit of effort, sounds worth it

 

[Azarov]

This week, I did a short flight from home. No problems whatsoever.

However, after reviewing this flight, I saw that my HOME point was set 79 meters from where I started my MM. 79 meters = 260 feet
When I start my drone and when I hear 'home point recorded', I feel safe and fly away.
Who checks his Home point by looking at the map? I guess not many will do this.

So be warned !

Regards
Tino

indeed never took attention to the message - "Home point updated, please check it out on the map"!

 

[baddog]

I never use return to home manually, I always try and just fly back. My return to home setting is, climb to 150ft return to home point and hover. I have ever only had it kick in once, when I lost connection controller. The funny thing was, I could not get it to reconnect with the controller so I simply waited for the battery to discharge to 20% then it landed, about 5 ft from the original take off location. After it landed, I rebooted both the drone and controller and it connected just fine, weird though.

 

[Citizen Flier]

So what is the optimum altitude to hover until Home Point confirmation? And if you do NOT get Home Pt confirmation is the only option to land, reboot & try again?

I have not yet used RTH, and always land manually. But I consider the RTH option indispensable if needed.

Thanks for all the good feedback.

 

[slup]

So what is the optimum altitude to hover until Home Point confirmation? And if you do NOT get Home Pt confirmation is the only option to land, reboot & try again?

I have not yet used RTH, and always land manually. But I consider the RTH option indispensable if needed.

Thanks for all the good feedback.

I hug the ground until I have 8+ satellites & by then I also have got the HP confirmation ... never take off before that. Have never considered a take off spot so special that it's prioritized so much higher over navhealth so I feel a need to hover ... but that's me

 

[sar104]

So what is the optimum altitude to hover until Home Point confirmation? And if you do NOT get Home Pt confirmation is the only option to land, reboot & try again?

I have not yet used RTH, and always land manually. But I consider the RTH option indispensable if needed.

Thanks for all the good feedback.

If you don't get a home point confirmation then you don't have a home point, which means that the aircraft is flying without GPS positioning. That's likely to be a much more serious problem than simply the lack of a home point.