Mavic 2 Pro RTH not accurate

[DanB46526]

Hi Everyone, Received my mavic 2 pro drone a couple of days ago. Did all the pre flight stuff like doing the updates and such. I have flown it several times and all went well except the return to home is not very accurate. It usually lands 5 to 8 feet away from where it took off. I have calibrated both the IMU and the compass several times with the same result. I am familiar with RTH I also fly a mavic air and a phantom 4 pro both of which are very accurate. I did notice that on the m2p auto take off in the app there is no precision take off available like on my mavic air. I would appreciate any help anyone can give me

 

[GringoLoco]

Was you APAS or whatever it's called turned on? The vision system. Mine doesn't show up until later today but my impression was that the vision system should automatically do precision landing when it's turned on, and without it you would be landing with GPS only. You aren't the first one with this complaint, which makes me think it isn't selected by default in a menu somewhere.

 

[Joola]

Everyone is hopeful precision takeoff and landing will return in a future update. I don’t think DJI has made any official statement about that though.

I don’t think I’ve used RTH in a few years so I can’t compare my experience but it should be landing within half a meter or so based on the accuracy of the GPS module alone. Do you recall how many sattelites you were connected to during your flights?

 

[gnirtS]

DJI support confirmed on their forum.

For some reason, they've REMOVED precision landing from the mavic 2. Precision landing took downward sensor images of the ground on the way up to accurately return. It got to the rough area with GPS then switched to the far more accurate optical sensors. It no longer does this.

This seems like an utterly bizarre decision. Without that you're limited to the far less accurate GPS only which is 10ft or more error.

The can easily be the difference between the actual landing location and a rock/wall/cliff/water etc.

 

[Kilrah]

5-8ft is very accurate actually for GPS... hard to understand people's expectations sometimes.

 

[gnirtS]

5-8ft is very accurate actually for GPS... hard to understand people's expectations sometimes.

Yes but 5-8ft is far less accurate than the 2-3 inches the precision landing (optical guidance) got on all the previous model drones.

 

[electricblue]

This has always been my experience with RTH though I never had the precision landing thing, usually it's close enough that it's not a problem, I never use it in dense areas
Maybe if we ever get that Phantom RTK drone it can get us within a foot

 

[droidekas]

5-8ft is very accurate actually for GPS... hard to understand people's expectations sometimes.

But it was accurate within inches with the original, now two year old, Mavic Pro using precision landing so having the same expectations on the new model (which they in their presentation states they made better in every way) is normal, don't you think?

 

[gnirtS]

Precision landing is very useful. These drones are tiny, they're very low profile. Even a tiny incline, bit of long grass, small rock can cause it to hit and/or smack a propeller. There aren't THAT many clear surfaces even on what looks like a nice area to take off from.

Previously you could accept hitting RTH and its going to find that nice little clear spot to within inches. You could also rely on if you lost signal and were unable to reconnect to the drone (broken RC, locked up software etc) it would make a safe landing.
Now it'll come back to "nearish" then try to land and have a fair chance hitting something or damaging itself if you're unable to take over and manually land.

 

[Kilrah]

When it was enabled and worked yes - but no, since I document myself and didn't read about it I don't expect it.

 

[gnirtS]

"enabled" just meant a climb to 6m before flying off. Not hard. And then it nailed it to within inches every time in good light.

Which is the difference between a safe landing and hitting a rock, building, water, power wire or anything else in some areas.

I've had one flight with my MP where the RC would not reconnect to the drone at all despite restarting. The drone came home and landed exactly where it took off from to within about an inch.
The "new" system if that same happens the drone is going to crash. 3m+ or so radius is a lot of obstacles even on what looks like a flat, clear area.

 

[DanB46526]

Was you APAS or whatever it's called turned on? The vision system. Mine doesn't show up until later today but my impression was that the vision system should automatically do precision landing when it's turned on, and without it you would be landing with GPS only. You aren't the first one with this complaint, which makes me think it isn't selected by default in a menu somewhere.

Hi Everyone, Received my mavic 2 pro drone a couple of days ago. Did all the pre flight stuff like doing the updates and such. I have flown it several times and all went well except the return to home is not very accurate. It usually lands 5 to 8 feet away from where it took off. I have calibrated both the IMU and the compass several times with the same result. I am familiar with RTH I also fly a mavic air and a phantom 4 pro both of which are very accurate. I did notice that on the m2p auto take off in the app there is no precision take off available like on my mavic air. I would appreciate any help anyone can give me

 

[gnirtS]

Someone lucky enough to have a new mavic could test to see its "always on".

Just do a flight off a landing pad or good contrast surface, startup and climb slowly, directly up to about 30ft without moving laterally or rotating. Fly it away and then try RTH to see how accurate the landing is.
If its off by a few feet then for certain there is no precision landing.

 

[DanB46526]

Thanks everyone for the import. I'm almost sure APAS was turned off. I'm going back into my vision settings and make sure everything is set correctly. Also I wanted to tell anyone that is sitting on the fence as wether to but the pro model or not That camera is AMAZING better than my mavic air or P4P both of which I thought were great

 

[GringoLoco]

I thought the whole point of the landing light LEDs was to help it land accurately? I can't imagine them doing away with it, I'd be willing to bet it was just replaced with APAS, which people might be leaving off thinking it's just for autopilot modes. DJI probably meant that precision landing was removed because APAS took over.

 

[gnirtS]

Its easy for someone to test (as i put above) and rule it in/out once and for all.

I;m having a really hard time believing they removed a useful feature that even the Spark has. Im more inclined to think its now just implemented automatically rather than a specific option.
In which case, sensors all on, climb to 30ft slowly without moving and then test should prove one way or another.

 

[mcsenerd]

Well, as stated in another thread here, DJI Support on their forums confirms that it was "removed"...and they say they don't know why.

 

[gnirtS]

They removed the specific option of a precision takeoff/landing. That doesn't mean it isnt the new default behaviour which is why those options got removed.
Given the lack of English comprehension by support on there i wouldn't rule it out.

 

[mcsenerd]

Here's hoping you're right! I haven't received my new drone yet, but it's one of the things that I'll for sure be testing out shortly upon arrival.

 

[GringoLoco]

They removed the specific option of a precision takeoff/landing. That doesn't mean it isnt the new default behaviour which is why those options got removed.
Given the lack of English comprehension by support on there i wouldn't rule it out.

My thoughts exactly. Mine doesn't arrive until later today, but purely based on common sense, I'm assuming APAS took over precision landing duties and DJI just didn't communicate that very well. I've even seen many YouTube videos where it comes back and lands on the bullseye and the reviewer doesn't even mention it like it was expected. I fully expect that people are flying with APAS off, contrary to what the manual says to do, and as a result people are landing by GPS only.