Mid-flight Home Point change.. lucky to have no damage

[El Principio]

I was flying my Mini for the first few times today. On the last flight, somehow the Home Point updated without me trying to do it, and the Mini wouldn't come all the way home. Kept saying it was at 50m max distance, even though I was trying to get it closer to me. Even worse, wherever this new home point was, I couldn't even get the Mini to hover over any part of my 500 foot long driveway. I had to run out and lower it into the trees on the side and get lucky.

How the heck does this happen? I live on a wooded lot, with a nice high deck so I have amazing line of sight, but I can't guarantee an empty spot for landing except the deck, or maybe the driveway.

 

[slup]

I was flying my Mini for the first few times today. On the last flight, somehow the Home Point updated without me trying to do it, and the Mini wouldn't come all the way home. Kept saying it was at 50m max distance, even though I was trying to get it closer to me. Even worse, wherever this new home point was, I couldn't even get the Mini to hover over any part of my 500 foot long driveway. I had to run out and lower it into the trees on the side and get lucky.

How the heck does this happen? I live on a wooded lot, with a nice high deck so I have amazing line of sight, but I can't guarantee an empty spot for landing except the deck, or maybe the driveway.

Hi there, welcome to the forum ?

The HP will be automatically recorded after power on, usually when 8-10 satellites is locked... it will then refresh it just at takeoff (provided that the reception is of good quality). If you're impatient and takeoff before the "lady voice" say -The Home point have been recorded, please check it on the map ... the HP can be recorded elsewhere when the sat reception is good enough, most probably what happened here. (The true facts regarding what happened is recorded in the mobile device .TXT log, share it & we can have a look. How to retrieve --> Mavic Flight Log Retrieval and Analysis Guide , read under section 3. attach it then in a new post here)

Usually you don't set the HP manually ...

 

[El Principio]

I got the log data, and I see now that the Mini didn't acquire GPS sats until 30+ seconds into flight. That explains the home point change. But why did it suddenly adopt a 50m max distance from home? It had been several hundred meters away.

 

[Meta4]

I got the log data, and I see now that the Mini didn't acquire GPS sats until 30+ seconds into flight. That explains the home point change. But why did it suddenly adopt a 50m max distance from home? It had been several hundred meters away.

If you put the data back, someone might be able to answer that.

 

[El Principio]

If you put the data back, someone might be able to answer that.

The flight was launched from my home, when I plugged it into Phantom Help it's basically a map to my house. I don't usually post that in forums.. my wife definitely wouldn't appreciate it.

 

[Meta4]

The flight was launched from my home, when I plugged it into Phantom Help it's basically a map to my house. I don't usually post that in forums.. my wife definitely wouldn't appreciate it.

Without seeing the data, it's hard to give you anything but a guess.
If I had to guess, I'd say that it didn't suddenly adopt a 50m max distance from home.
The home point is where the drone was when it acquired GPS location data, not where you launched from.

 

[El Principio]

Without seeing the data, it's hard to give you anything but a guess.
If I had to guess, I'd say that it didn't suddenly adopt a 50m max distance from home.
The home point is where the drone was when it acquired GPS location data, not where you launched from.

I can see the home point it adopted on the map. Interestingly, it is nowhere along the actual flight path. My guess is that I had flown so far before the GPS oriented that the spot it picked for home was over 50m away from the onset, which then "captured" the drone into that 50m ring when i flew into it on the way to real home. I have my propeller guards in place since I'm on day 1 of flying, so it probable engaged the flight limits for overweight flight.

 

[Starz]

Question. Is this a tree cover/proximity issue?

 

[Deleted member 114292]

Pilot error don’t takeoff until you have GPS lock.

 

[El Principio]

Question. Is this a tree cover/proximity issue?

Having reviewed the flight path, and the data points, the Mini definitely took off and flew in P-GPS mode with zero satellites until the 33.6 second mark, when it acquired 8 satellites.

The GPS waypoint designated as Home on the map is between my house and the road, and it was definitely a 50m flight distance limit preventing it from getting all the way back to me. I am extra sure of this because I spent at least 10 minutes trying to find where the limit of that 50m circle crossed my driveway, to land the drone in the clear. I ended up running down the driveway and manually controlling what I'm gonna call a hard landing, since the drone "walked away," so to speak.

I'm still a bit unclear as to when that 50m rule applies. I thought it was due to the overweight condition of the aircraft, but I just reviewed the manual (ctrl-F for "50") and it only mentions when the DJI Fly app is not used. Maybe a brief loss of contact with the remote initiated that mode, then even once contact was restored it stayed in effect?

I am still unclear on the reason, sadly, but the effect I am pretty sure was a virtual "capture" of the drone by the Home point and a 50m radius flight zone, as the Mini passed through that zone on the way back to me.

My post-accident process improvement is simply to ensure good GPS connection before launching. Which it sounds like other people generally recommend, so duh. I'm a newbie. Today is day 2