Mavic 3 not landing accurately in RTH

[fheineman]

I was impressed by the accuracy of the RTH landings of my Mavic 3 purchase a few months ago. However, recently the RTH landings are often off by several feet, to the extent that I cannot trust them and mostly land manually now. I know GPS can only get it close, but I thought the M3 uses visual reference for final approach. Any suggestions on how and/or why my M3 lost its RTH landing accuracy?

 

[msinger]

What type of surface are you landing on? Is this during the day, night, etc.?

 

[fheineman]

What type of surface are you landing on? Is this during the day, night, etc.?

I have tried various surfaces, including several failed landings on a 3 ft. diameter bright orange landing pad that has a black circle and H in the center. I try to always use a takeoff spot with a high contrast compared to the surrounding surface.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Are you correctly following the initial take off and climb requirements to satisfy the needs of precision landing - at a guess a pure vertical climb to 7m+ ?

 

[Red_Pyro]

As mentioned If you take off very fast and fly away your RTH won't be precise

 

[msinger]

Here are some other helpful tips from the Mavic 3 manual:



FWIW, auto landings are best for when there is sufficient room for any error that might occur when landing. I don't recommend using that feature if landing several feet from the takeoff spot could result in a crash, landing in water, etc. Like all of the automated features, manually piloting the drone is always going to be the best choice (when possible).

 

[old man mavic]

personally i think to much attention is placed on whether or not ,in any sort of RTH scenario ,the drone lands perfectly on the spot it took off from
ok so this could be an issue, if for some reason you had wandered off from the home point,and perhaps forgotten to update the home point to your current position, but the drone still thought the home point was where it had taken off from in the first place
use RTH to get the drone back to you ,but then its a simple matter to cancel the landing as the drone is near to the ground and land it yourself ,as wonderful as all these autonomous flight scenarios are ,they are not fool proof
this are just my thoughts on the subject ,and not meant to cause offence

 

[msinger]

its a simple matter to cancel the landing as the drone is near to the ground and land it yourself

I think this is the best use of RTH. Get the drone close to the landing spot and then take over to ensure a safe landing.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

personally i think to much attention is placed on whether or not ,in any sort of RTH scenario ,the drone lands perfectly on the spot it took off from

I too rarely let a drone land under automatic control but it is a bit 'thrilling' at times to test precision landing. With the Mavic 2, my only applicable drone, it is impressive to staggering. The one that stands out is the drone taking off with the camera over a 2 bob bit sized mark on the concrete and then landing with the camera over that same mark on the concrete.

 

[3rdof5]

Precision landing with my Mavic 3 Classic works perfectly for me every time so long as I ensure the following steps:
1. Takeoff in normal daylight.
2. Takeoff from a recognizable location such as a landing pad.
3. Fly straight up at least 20 feet or so before moving in any direction.
This allows the aircraft to record a good visual refence point to return to and allows it to lock onto it from different heights.
I usually RTH and then land manually so I don't always follow those steps on take off, however, each and everytime I have actually used precise landing deliberately, my Classic has landed exactly dead center of my landing pad every single time. It's interesting to watch it descending and seeing that it notices it's not exactly above it's actual take off point and correcting itself for a perfect landing every time.

 

[Droning on and on...]

From the

Precision landing with my Mavic 3 Classic works perfectly for me every time so long as I ensure the following steps:
1. Takeoff in normal daylight.
2. Takeoff from a recognizable location such as a landing pad.

That's a good move, but any visually distinct scenario will work well too.

I've had good success by tossing a couple sticks a few feet away from the drone when taking off from a uniform asphalt surface, and too lazy to pull out, or forgot, the landing pad.

Now if they'd just turn PL on on the Mini3P... DJI, if you truly think this is a meaningful "differentiator" from its bigger cousins, you're smokin' something real good. Truth is, it's simply, and only annoying to your customers.

 

[Droning on and on...]

The scenario where PL may be critical is launching from a small area and experiencing a disconnect failure that can't be resolved before the drone returns and lands.

It's pretty easy to get unconsciously habitual about initializing PL on takeoff... to the point I do it uselessly with the Mini3P

 

[Kuiper Denizen]

Precision landing with my Mavic 3 Classic works perfectly for me every time so long as I ensure the following steps:
1. Takeoff in normal daylight.
2. Takeoff from a recognizable location such as a landing pad.
3. Fly straight up at least 20 feet or so before moving in any direction.
This allows the aircraft to record a good visual refence point to return to and allows it to lock onto it from different heights.
I usually RTH and then land manually so I don't always follow those steps on take off, however, each and everytime I have actually used precise landing deliberately, my Classic has landed exactly dead center of my landing pad every single time. It's interesting to watch it descending and seeing that it notices it's not exactly above it's actual take off point and correcting itself for a perfect landing every time.

The suggestions that rising 20 ft. (or 7 meters) and giving the drone a chance ”to recognize” the home point implies the drone is “seeing” the features of that site. If that is so, is that perception being done with the sensors (and which ones, the downward ones only or all sensors) or should the gimbal be down giving the drone a visual sighting?

I try to always include “gimbal down,“ which would be an unnecessary (but harmless) redundancy if the sensors are doing the landing.

 

[msinger]

is that perception being done with the sensors (and which ones, the downward ones only or all sensors) or should the gimbal be down giving the drone a visual sighting?

Pointing the gimbal downward will not help. The downward vision system is used for tracking/guiding the precision landing feature.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

The suggestions that rising 20 ft. (or 7 meters) and giving the drone a chance ”to recognize” the home point implies the drone is “seeing” the features of that site...............

The downward looking ones ONLY, I think.

 

[moldorf]

Precision landing with my Mavic 3 Classic works perfectly for me every time so long as I ensure the following steps:
1. Takeoff in normal daylight.
2. Takeoff from a recognizable location such as a landing pad.
3. Fly straight up at least 20 feet or so before moving in any direction.
This allows the aircraft to record a good visual refence point to return to and allows it to lock onto it from different heights.
I usually RTH and then land manually so I don't always follow those steps on take off, however, each and everytime I have actually used precise landing deliberately, my Classic has landed exactly dead center of my landing pad every single time. It's interesting to watch it descending and seeing that it notices it's not exactly above it's actual take off point and correcting itself for a perfect landing every time.

That has been my experience as well

after the Mini2 and Mini3 I got used to cancelling the RTH about 6-10 feet above the ground and landing manually. I did that for the first few flights of the Mavic3. But then I allowed the Mavic3 to complete RTH by itself and as far as I could tell, as long as I adhered to the suggested parameters for using precision landing, the drone would not only land within a 1 foot radius of the take-off point, it would land facing the same direction it started from. And this can happen after a 30 minute flight that ranges 5-7 miles over several different vectors

it's pretty amazing technology when you think about it

 

[mobilehomer]

The suggestions that rising 20 ft. (or 7 meters) and giving the drone a chance ”to recognize” the home point implies the drone is “seeing” the features of that site. If that is so, is that perception being done with the sensors (and which ones, the downward ones only or all sensors) or should the gimbal be down giving the drone a visual sighting?

I try to always include “gimbal down,“ which would be an unnecessary (but harmless) redundancy if the sensors are doing the landing.

They are not suggestions. That is the procedure straight from the manual.

 

[old man mavic]

the camera and downwards vision sensors all play a part in the RTH accuracy thats why it tells you to rise up to 20ft or so before flying off the image from the camera captures the scene wherever
it happens to be pointing at the time and stores that image which it uses when it comes back ,thats why it turns before starting the RTH to the same direction it was facing when it took off
as it lowers from its return height then as it approaches the Home Point the downwards sensors take over to bring it down onto the take off point ,thats why it needs a landing spot with contrasting colours ,such as a bright coloured landing pad to help guide it in

 

[moldorf]

They are not suggestions. That is the procedure straight from the manual.

lol...hairsplitting 101

 

[mobilehomer]

lol...hairsplitting 101

No. If you want Precision Landing, you MUST follow the procedures.