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Mavic Mini non precision landings (RTH)

Frankeh

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I'm new to drones and have not gotten my Mavic Mini to do a precision landing when I press the RTH button. It has always landed within 15 feet of the home location and normally within 4 but never in the same exact location, so today I did some testing. I setup my 30 inch orange target on grass and did a number of RTH tests. I always launched less than a meter high and waited for the message that a new home has been setup. Then I flew about 100 feet away and pressed the RTH button. I have read that nothing near the landing spot should be changed so I stepped away about 30 feet before taking off. That didn't help. The drone normally lands away from the take off spot in the direction the drone is facing when it takes off. That is not 100% consistent, however I have never had it land behind the location the drone was facing when it took off. The direction I'm stand from the drone does not make any difference. Flying straight up after take off doesn't make any difference. Hovering at 25 feet straight up doesn't make any difference. I moved the launch location to another spot and that didn't make any difference. I put the landing spot on top of a table instead of the grass and that didn't make any difference, Some on this forum say they can do a precision with a Mavic Mini and others say the Mavic Mini doesn't have that feature. Mine will not do a precision landing when I initiate a RTH.
It is close enough that I easily land it manually but it is not precision. My cameras facing down are working and I sometimes get a message that the surface below in not suitable for landing. The drone also rises a little when I put my hand below it. If others are getting a precision landing on a Mavic Minnie could it be that I fly with a Motorola X4 phone.
This isn't a problem especially since I normally launch and land it from my hand but I'm trying to understand what is happening.
 
I'm new to drones and have not gotten my Mavic Mini to do a precision landing when I press the RTH button. It has always landed within 15 feet of the home location and normally within 4 but never in the same exact location, so today I did some testing. I setup my 30 inch orange target on grass and did a number of RTH tests. I always launched less than a meter high and waited for the message that a new home has been setup. Then I flew about 100 feet away and pressed the RTH button. I have read that nothing near the landing spot should be changed so I stepped away about 30 feet before taking off. That didn't help. The drone normally lands away from the take off spot in the direction the drone is facing when it takes off. That is not 100% consistent, however I have never had it land behind the location the drone was facing when it took off. The direction I'm stand from the drone does not make any difference. Flying straight up after take off doesn't make any difference. Hovering at 25 feet straight up doesn't make any difference. I moved the launch location to another spot and that didn't make any difference. I put the landing spot on top of a table instead of the grass and that didn't make any difference, Some on this forum say they can do a precision with a Mavic Mini and others say the Mavic Mini doesn't have that feature. Mine will not do a precision landing when I initiate a RTH.
It is close enough that I easily land it manually but it is not precision. My cameras facing down are working and I sometimes get a message that the surface below in not suitable for landing. The drone also rises a little when I put my hand below it. If others are getting a precision landing on a Mavic Minnie could it be that I fly with a Motorola X4 phone.
This isn't a problem especially since I normally launch and land it from my hand but I'm trying to understand what is happening.
the MM does not have a precision RTH feature so you do need to take over the landing yourself once it gets close
 
If you’re new to drones then I’d recommend getting used to flying your Mini back to you manually. It’s best practice, and important for your flying skills.
 
How did you take of, manually or with the take off icon. The last option is supposed to initiate precision landing if this is supported by the mini.
 
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even if you use the takeoff icon on the screen,the MM only goes up a few feet then hovers,unlike the MPP or M2P that go up to 20-25ft so they can capture a view of their surroundings
 
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How did you take of, manually or with the take off icon. The last option is supposed to initiate precision landing if this is supported by the mini.
I tried both auto take off and manual. Did not make any difference in the precision landing. As the next person said automatic take off only goes up a couple of feet then establishes a new return to home. I even took it up 20 feet and established a new return to home from there. Still missed. I normally fly back and land it manually but thought it would be a good idea to understand this automatic feature when I was under trees and auto return was initiated because of low battery. Fortunately I had the propeller guards on while practicing. Between that experience and reminders from this group that pressing the RTH button will stop it if the drone is already returning I will carefully think about what I'm doing if a real emergency occurs. I will also plan on landing manually once the drone is close.
 
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I'm new to drones and have not gotten my Mavic Mini to do a precision landing when I press the RTH button. It has always landed within 15 feet of the home location and normally within 4 but never in the same exact location, so today I did some testing. I setup my 30 inch orange target on grass and did a number of RTH tests. I always launched less than a meter high and waited for the message that a new home has been setup. Then I flew about 100 feet away and pressed the RTH button. I have read that nothing near the landing spot should be changed so I stepped away about 30 feet before taking off. That didn't help. The drone normally lands away from the take off spot in the direction the drone is facing when it takes off. That is not 100% consistent, however I have never had it land behind the location the drone was facing when it took off. The direction I'm stand from the drone does not make any difference. Flying straight up after take off doesn't make any difference. Hovering at 25 feet straight up doesn't make any difference. I moved the launch location to another spot and that didn't make any difference. I put the landing spot on top of a table instead of the grass and that didn't make any difference, Some on this forum say they can do a precision with a Mavic Mini and others say the Mavic Mini doesn't have that feature. Mine will not do a precision landing when I initiate a RTH.
It is close enough that I easily land it manually but it is not precision. My cameras facing down are working and I sometimes get a message that the surface below in not suitable for landing. The drone also rises a little when I put my hand below it. If others are getting a precision landing on a Mavic Minnie could it be that I fly with a Motorola X4 phone.
This isn't a problem especially since I normally launch and land it from my hand but I'm trying to understand what is happening.
According to the Mavic Mini manual (when all else fails - RTFM!) - RTH brings the Mavic Mini back to the last recorded home point. The manual describes (pg 13) the 'Home Point' as follows ... "The default Home Point is the first location where your aircraft received strong GNSS signals (the white GNSS icon has at least four white bars). The aircraft status indicator blinks green quickly after the Home Point has been recorded.

The Mavic Mini manual (v1.0) has ZERO references to precision landing or take-off. The one use of the word precision is on page 23 and refers to 'Precision elements in the gimbal ...'

The Mavic Mini has a downward vision system, but this appears to be used only to assist in landing, e.g. if the landing point is not seen to be suitable ... Unlike the big brother Mavic's, the MM doesn't use its downward vision system to 'record a picture' of the take-off point to use for precision landing.

With all that in mind, you can see that the MM must exclusively use GNSS (GPS) to fix its point for a RTH and landing. The US Government quotes a figure of 7.8 metres 95% Confidence Interval - horizontal accuracy for civilian (SPS) GPS. So a landing within 15 ft of the takeoff point is actually quite good considering ...
 
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I tried both auto take off and manual. Did not make any difference in the precision landing. As the next person said automatic take off only goes up a couple of feet then establishes a new return to home. I even took it up 20 feet and established a new return to home from there. Still missed. I normally fly back and land it manually but thought it would be a good idea to understand this automatic feature when I was under trees and auto return was initiated because of low battery. Fortunately I had the propeller guards on while practicing. Between that experience and reminders from this group that pressing the RTH button will stop it if the drone is already returning I will carefully think about what I'm doing if a real emergency occurs. I will also plan on landing manually once the drone is close.
I have had better luck than you. On RTH my MM usually did land within a few feet and sometimes nearly spot on. With that said it has had a few misses so I usually set my RTH somewhere completely clear off trees even if that's not near where I am standing (on the off chance it goes to low battery RTH on me).
 
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I was out about 150 feet away and 50-75 feet high when I initiated the RTH. The RTH elevation was set to 150 feet and it rose to that elevation on every flight back.
ok then, as stated by others then it's simply that the MM doesn't support precision landing and is limited by GPS accuracy.
 
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Have you tried this in drastically different locations. I know you said you moved the HP around, but are you in the same general area? I am wondering how many satellites you locked. The more satellites the better the GPS precision. I would be curious if more satellites made a difference.
 
Have you tried this in drastically different locations. I know you said you moved the HP around, but are you in the same general area? I am wondering how many satellites you locked. The more satellites the better the GPS precision. I would be curious if more satellites made a difference.
Where the sat's are in the sky will make the difference rather than the number of ... The ideal satellite configuration for the best 3C GPS location is to have one directly above, and 4 or more in LOS above the horizon in a circle around you. That will reduce what's called the ‘Dilution of Precision’ (DOP) ... In other words, the best place to get a GPS location fix is in a very wide, flat & open space.
 
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Where the sat's are in the sky will make the difference rather than the number of ... The ideal satellite configuration for the best 3C GPS location is to have one directly above, and 4 or more in LOS above the horizon in a circle around you. That will reduce what's called the ‘Dilution of Precision’ (DOP) ... In other words, the best place to get a GPS location fix is in a very wide, flat & open space.
Thanks! Is there a way to tell where they are?
 
Going to chime in here..been flying mavics and phantoms for years. 90% of the time I manually land. Bought the MM, and have yet to have it land closer than 8ft from the launch pad. Always ensure 8 or more satellites are available. I just upgraded to the latest FW, calibrated the IMU and GPS. I’m going to try again once the weather clears up.
My other thought is, should I open a case with DJI? Other than that issue, I haven’t had any issues with the MM. and I really don’t have a problem continuing to manually land the Mm. It’s a fun little drone to fly. I fly my M2P for more serious adventures.
 
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