Every time I do a Return To Home, (set to 25m), the Mavic 2 Pro gets to my 5 ft fence, then doesn't want to go over it to land on pad about 15 ft away, which makes me have to take over the controls and land manually. 1/2 the time I miss hitting the pad in the center. I tried Sport mode, which went over the fence, but then it landed in the grass. What am I doing wrong here?
Hesitancy to Return To Home over my home's aluminum fencing?
- Thread starter Goodwood
- Start date
Are you taking off before it has sufficient GPS satellites to establish its position?
If so and assuming it subsequently gets sufficient satellites that would mean that a home point will be set whilst it is in flight and possibly some distance from the home point.
Where I take off at home I often need to get it into the air to give it a clear view of the sky (trees around my take off point). If I have moved it horizontally before it gets a lock I then bring it back overhead and reset the homepoint. Then I fly it out a short distance and RTH it just to see where it goes.
If so and assuming it subsequently gets sufficient satellites that would mean that a home point will be set whilst it is in flight and possibly some distance from the home point.
Where I take off at home I often need to get it into the air to give it a clear view of the sky (trees around my take off point). If I have moved it horizontally before it gets a lock I then bring it back overhead and reset the homepoint. Then I fly it out a short distance and RTH it just to see where it goes.
ok, complete newbie here. I haven't checked if I have sufficient satellites before launching, but will in the future. Need to learn how to reset home point too.
Ahhh ok.
I am deaf so do not hear any messages pronounced by the controller or phone but, aside from a message appearing on the screen about the home point being set, the drone's LED's generally flash in a specific sequence to indicate that the home point was just, or is being, set.
You will need to read the manual for your drone to see if it mentions the sequence.
Reading the manual is always a good bet.
I am deaf so do not hear any messages pronounced by the controller or phone but, aside from a message appearing on the screen about the home point being set, the drone's LED's generally flash in a specific sequence to indicate that the home point was just, or is being, set.
You will need to read the manual for your drone to see if it mentions the sequence.
Reading the manual is always a good bet.
@Goodwood ,its important that you only take off when you have enough Sats locked when all is good you will hear a confirmation,message and also the screen top strip will tell you that its ok to take off with the drone you have just go straight up to around 20ft hover for a few seconds and then begin your flight ,make sure you set the RTH height to take into consideration any tall structures around where you are intending to fly if you follow these simple steps you will find that your drone will land very near to your take off pad and as @PhiliusFoggg said please read the online manual to help you better understand how your drone flies and is controlled
On my Mavic Air 2 I have a switch in safety settings for what the drone should do when encountering am obstacle: BRAKE and BYPASS. If set to BRAKE (the default), the drone just stops and hovers at the obstacle. Pretty dumb thing to do if the battery is getting low. So I ensure my app is set to BYPASS at all times.
tlswift58
Well-Known Member
While he is in FL and pretty flat and should get GPS relatively easy - I'd not fly very much where I do if I depend on getting GPS to fly at all. Esp if I only went up 10-20 ft from ground level. Many times I do go straight up to the max 98 ft level to hopefully gain GPS, but if not - then I go about my flight knowing I don't have it and the drone can wonk out at any time.
I will agree as a newbie - getting GPS is pretty critical - before even thinking of taking on ATTI flight; but it will eventually happen one day. We do see on many posts here that many newbies do not wait for GPS / Homepoint activation and then wonder why RTH does not work well, if at all. Why they have RTH set at 25 m / 75 ft is pretty low to me. I'm sure setting it to say 150 ft would probably have zero issues and be much safer esp if flying in and around any trees or other obstacles that reach up to the 75 ft level.
I would suggest getting used to not using / depending on RTH, simply to become a better pilot and maybe not miss some good photo ops you would miss using RTH. Not to mention zooming off before homepoint is set and then not having a good RTH setting. But, it is a learning curve we all have to go thru.
The explanation for your incident might be in the recorded flight data.
Go to DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help
Follow the instructions there to upload your flight record from your phone or tablet.
That will give you a detailed report on the flight data.
Come back and post a link to the report it provides and someone might be able to analyse it and give you an understanding of the cause of the incident.
@tlswift58 going up to 20ft above the home point is not about getting a sat lock ,its about the drone getting a good look at the surroundings at the home point so it can use that information to come back for a precision landing in the event of a RTH situation for whatever reason
normal GPS is going to give a landing anywhere in an up to 8 foot radius of the home point,
also if you take off without having sufficient sats locked, then move up and away the point at which the drone then acquires that lock will be the place it returns to , in the event of a RTH not where it took off from
normal GPS is going to give a landing anywhere in an up to 8 foot radius of the home point,
also if you take off without having sufficient sats locked, then move up and away the point at which the drone then acquires that lock will be the place it returns to , in the event of a RTH not where it took off from
I have a few stories about taking off without a GPS lock - they all have a stage of full on panic trying to control the drone before it wildly tries to crash into something (like me standing there 5 feet away from a swirling fan of razor blades), and one windy day had a very fortunate ending where I was able to hike around and find the drone that set home at 80 feet or so wild drifting aimlessly downwind until it lost radio contact.
The flip side, without GPS but in full sun, the panic isn't as bad while the down vision stabilizes, but lacking excellent lighting even the Mavic drone is 100% entirely lost and will scoot around with the lightest breeze. Even the Air 2 down lamp takes too long to respond to auto-illuminate and will stumble.
Moral of the story: I now wait a little extra time to verify I have at least 8, but I really want 10 or more sats locked before pressing Take-Off. Indoors, where gps is sketchy, I make sure the landing light is ON before takeoff.
The flip side, without GPS but in full sun, the panic isn't as bad while the down vision stabilizes, but lacking excellent lighting even the Mavic drone is 100% entirely lost and will scoot around with the lightest breeze. Even the Air 2 down lamp takes too long to respond to auto-illuminate and will stumble.
Moral of the story: I now wait a little extra time to verify I have at least 8, but I really want 10 or more sats locked before pressing Take-Off. Indoors, where gps is sketchy, I make sure the landing light is ON before takeoff.
The number of satellites is no guarantee that the flight controller is satisfied with the GPS data and has gone into P-GPS mode.
Wait until you have confirmation that the home point has been recorded.
It's been my recent experience the drone / controller doesn't set the home point until after take off - your drone must be different than mine. And from what I can tell by the 29 different viewpoints of just about every DJI feature, even same model drones with version difference are no guaranty the operation of both will be similar.
Despite your "experience" your drone and all other DJI drones will record a homepoint as soon as it gets good GPS location data.
It can do that on the ground if you wait for it (and the drone has a good unobstructed skyview).
You need to wait for the app to tell you that it has recorded a homepoint.
The reason that your drone doesn't record a homepoint until after takeoff is that you have been consistently launching before the drone records its homepoint.
And the controller does not record the homepoint ... it's the drone that does that.
If you are confused about updating the homepoint, that's something quite different.
It's something you can do, but not until after the drone has recorded it's homepoint first.
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Good information. Only had 5 flight sessions so far. Lots to learn. Will give it time to set Home Point and get several Sats prior to flying off. So, do you recommend pointing the Mavic towards or away from you on takeoff, or doesn't it make a difference?
It makes no difference which way the drone is facing
But we're no closer to solving the mystery from your initial post.
If you want to find out, the recorded flight data is the key.
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In terms of the drone establishing GPS and the like, as Meta4 says, it makes no difference .......BUT........ it does make a difference in that the move left and move right commands APPARENTLY get reversed during take off.
The drone interprets a go left or right as with respect to the direction it is facing.
Thus, with the drone facing away from you, you commanding "go left" moves the drone to your left. With the drone facing TOWARDS you, you commanding "go left" moves the drone to you RIGHT.
The latter may cause confusion at take off, I almost always have the drone facing away from me at take off. For the same reason I almost always land the drone with it facing away from me.
I know that the response apparently gets reversed but in 'stressful' situations, such as take off and landing, I fear 'forgetting' and giving wrong command.
@Goodwood it doesn't matter which way the drone is facing in relation to you
but its good practice to have the front facing away from you on initial take off
it is just to do with the way the drone reacts to the stick inputs if its facing away then the drone goes left if you put in left stick and so on when its facing you then the movement is reversed
also a good idea upon take off is to hover the drone a few feet in front of you ,at eye level and perform a 360% yaw to check all is well,before you fly off you can also tell if the drone is hovering smoothly and the props are tracking evenly these things only take a few moments ,and are well worth the small effort required
but its good practice to have the front facing away from you on initial take off
it is just to do with the way the drone reacts to the stick inputs if its facing away then the drone goes left if you put in left stick and so on when its facing you then the movement is reversed
also a good idea upon take off is to hover the drone a few feet in front of you ,at eye level and perform a 360% yaw to check all is well,before you fly off you can also tell if the drone is hovering smoothly and the props are tracking evenly these things only take a few moments ,and are well worth the small effort required
ninja'd yep was just thinking the same.
It is worth the OP noting that if the precision landing feature is used, the M2s, if RTH'd, will, on arriving over the homepoint, turn to face in the direction they had at take off. I sometime use that as a test to see whether or not it did establish a precision landing point at take off.
I do not normally watch the screen to see messages and, being deaf, will not hear any 'spoken' messages concerning it establishing a precision landing point, (are there any?).
It is worth the OP noting that if the precision landing feature is used, the M2s, if RTH'd, will, on arriving over the homepoint, turn to face in the direction they had at take off. I sometime use that as a test to see whether or not it did establish a precision landing point at take off.
I do not normally watch the screen to see messages and, being deaf, will not hear any 'spoken' messages concerning it establishing a precision landing point, (are there any?).
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The advantage of taking it away from you is that forward/backward/left/right are exactly what you expect, which can be handy if you are flying looking at the drone not the controller.
I find it more useful when landing: I face the drone away from me with the camera straight down, then fiddle until it is right above my chosen landing point and slowly lower it.
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