Hover or RTH upon RC signal loss?

[Lon Denard]

I set mine to hover. These drones rarely lose connection and when they do, it's usually easily recovered. I also disagree that its a problem to let it return on once the battery gets low if you can't regain connection. These drones have awesome OA so it's a lot safer than one of my older drones to allow it to RTH .

 

[Simmo]

There is a really good reason that DJI have made Hover the default option for Loss of Signal.
In almost all flying, it's the only option that makes sense.
It's pointless to leave your drone hovering and out of contact when the ability to come back is built-in.
Only change it if you have a particular reason to because of the flying environment.

Is this a typo @Meta4 ?

 

[Meta4]

Is this a typo @Meta4 ?

Thanks ... yes.
Obviously I meant RTH

If your drone goes too far and runs out of signal, why wouldn't you want it to come back closer?
If you fly behind an obstacle, why wouldn't you want it to retrace its path and reconnect?
Leaving it out somewhere waiting for you doesn't make any sense at all when it is programmed to come back on it's own.
It's like leaving the spare tyre at home on purpose - and in this case the "spare tyre" takes up no room.
The day you need RTH, you won't care about whether it lands 6 inches away from the launch spot or whatever other objections have been suggested.

 

[gnirtS]

If there's a typo there, I can't see it.

If your drone goes too far and runs out of signal, why wouldn't you want it to come back closer?

You said hover as a default. I guess its a typo

The day you need RTH, you won't care about whether it lands 6 inches away from the launch spot or whatever other objections have been suggested.

You will if it lands what is now half a mile or a few hundred metres from where the safe landing area is located.

 

[Meta4]

You said hover as a default. I guess its a typo

Oops <embarrassed>
Obviously I meant RTH

You will if it lands what is now half a mile or a few hundred metres from where the safe landing area is located.

The only way that should happen is if you flew the battery past the safe return point, either because of distance or wind.

 

[kilomikebravo]

Rob: You would have made a great LSO on a carrier! <smiling>

But I hear ya on thousands of "pattern days" and the old Mk 8 eyeball. I expect it's easier than most people think. I, however, have never thought to have a go so I'mma gonna give it a try next time.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

The only place I would set loss of connection to hover in under a canopy situation or indoors etc, basically anywhere going up to X height could be an issue.
Eg. in dense bushland, loss of signal due to a bit of scrub would see it hover, and I'd aim to quickly move closer or better LOS to enable reconnection.
That sort of loss could easily lead to loss of GPS strength too, so you have to be aware the drone could drift sideways too.

 

[Former Member]

Rob: You would have made a great LSO on a carrier! <smiling>

But I hear ya on thousands of "pattern days" and the old Mk 8 eyeball. I expect it's easier than most people think. I, however, have never thought to have a go so I'mma gonna give it a try next time.

It adds a little fun for me to try to get the approach angle right. Call the ball!

 

[Former Member]

The only place I would set loss of connection to hover in under a canopy situation or indoors etc, basically anywhere going up to X height could be an issue.
Eg. in dense bushland, loss of signal due to a bit of scrub would see it hover, and I'd aim to quickly move closer or better LOS to enable reconnection.
That sort of loss could easily lead to loss of GPS strength too, so you have to be aware the drone could drift sideways too.

Good points.

 

[Former Member]

You can’t actually set it (unless there is some special backdoor way to programme it).
I do this sometimes when I let RTH function do its thing (or part thing).
If the terrain is suitable and whatever RTH height you had set is too high, simply lowering the drone with some left stick down will gradually bring it down more directly to home point, not on a perfect 45 degree angle, but think that was just a figurative indication given.

Yes, 45° was just figurative, but that would be the shortest distance between 2 points. That left stick down could make the difference between critical and a non-critical landing, depending on what your battery level is.

 

[Lon Denard]

Hey to each their own. I can see merit in both camps. I personally have seen far too many RTH crashes to fully trust it, yet. I lost signal flying downtown, moved 20 feet and regained control. Besides, with the M2P, I find it difficult to lose signal flying LOS. Seriously, the thing is maybe 1000 feet away before you can't see it anymore. As far as lost GPS, I've personally never lost GPS with a Mavic.

But hey the guy asked where we set ours. I set mine to hover because I don't trust RTH or Precision Landing or any autonomous flight modes to be honest. I don't use any of them.

 

[Meta4]

I personally have seen far too many RTH crashes to fully trust it, yet.

I haven't seen an RTH crash that wasn't due to the operator not understanding what RTH does and how it works.
RTH is extremely reliable.

I don't trust RTH or Precision Landing or any autonomous flight modes.

Testing for myself and looking at the data from lots of other's flights, gives me the confidence to trust RTH will do just what it should.

Most problems with RTH are due to operators not having practised and not being familiar with RTH.
The day you need it is the worst day to start learning.

 

[Bruce Lythe]

I have a comment about the descending glide path. Why doesn't DJI open up its software so we can have our own set of special flight patterns relative to poi or home to pick at will? I have yet to play with litchi but does this enable you to set up "from wherever drone is now, fly home descending X m per second until 16m then return to home point and then drop to hover at 2m and wait to be caught"

 

[Macabre]

I always set RTH on signal loss at 100m+ (depending on where I am and if there are any hills nearby, but never lower). Never really had any issues with that.
The only time I crashed my drone was when I was curious and tried to fly it indoors, lol. Not doing that again.

 

[Thomas B]

I use RTH on signal loss with an appropriate altitude. One advantage is that the drone may reacquire controller signal as distance decreases.

 

[Mossiback]

...set up "from wherever drone is now, fly home descending X m per second until 16m then return to home point and then drop to hover at 2m and wait to be caught"

The problem with an autonomous descending flight path is the Mavic may not see an obstacle below it to avoid it in time. I think that is why they originally made the follow-me modes able to rise with the target but not descend.

 

[Techinthecar]

I just got a MA2 a few days ago and I am planning on using it to record cars for my YouTube channel - you know those tracking shots - but I had a concerning issue testing this out yesterday and I wanted to know what everyone here who is more experienced thinks.

I decided to get it to track my car - I think that I put it into trace mode - and it pretty much immediately lost me. The problem was I was driving down a narrow road with two way traffic and no space to turn around.

QUESTION 1: If it loses tracking of me will it just hover and wait for me to back?

I had to drive about a mile and turn around to come back - I then lost signal - I am guessing it was due to the fact the controller was in my car a mile away.

It told me it was RTH which was fine; except I was concerned someone would steal it or possibly drive into it and I wouldn’t be able to do anything about it! I did pick a spot where it was away from other cars and should be able to land safely (And it did) but I didn’t like the idea of it being out of my control and subject to anyone who found it before I got back.

I LOVE the idea of it hovering if it loses signal because in this particularly scenario I can turn around come back and either restart the tracking or land it and know it is within my view at all times BUT there seems to be lots of hate towards the hovering.

QUESTION 2: In my particular scenario does it make sense to have it hover and not RTH?

 

[Thomas B]

Unles the TO/landing area is water or a roadway, etc, I use RTH.... saved my drone more than once.

 

[Cymru]

I am not going to ask how you know all this but ask how you set a linear glide path descent of 45º.

Easiest way on a drone is rotate the gimbal to the desired angle, keep the centre point on where you want to land, usually use full down (because its slower) and keep the aiming point centred adjusting the forward/back sticks.

The gimbal control shows the angle from 0 to-90 degrees on the display.

 

[Mossiback]

The following answers are based on my experience with Go 4 and the MP. Your experience may vary.

...QUESTION 1: If it loses tracking of me will it just hover and wait for me to back?

It will hover until low battery initiates RTH.

...QUESTION 2: In my particular scenario does it make sense to have it hover and not RTH?

No. The main reason is that you may not know where it is when it loses connection so you may have a hard time re-establishing connection. If it hovers until low battery forces RTH and it has to fight a headwind coming back, it may not make it.

A high contrast between subject and its surroundings will improve your chances of maintaining a lock. A black car on a dark road will be harder to track than a white car on a dark road.