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Precision Landing and GPS Drift Issues with the Mavic 3

I’ve tried that multiple times to no avail. Precision landing is not precision landing.
You got that last sentence right.
If the drone is landing that far away, Precision Landing isn't doing the landing, GPS is.
Precision Landing will consistently put the drone within inches, GPS cannot.

Are you launching and climbing vertically for at least 7 metres before flying away from the home point?
Does the area surrounding the launch point have a recognisable pattern or texture so Precision Landing can function properly?
Or is it featureless like, grass or asphalt ?
 
You got that last sentence right.
If the drone is landing that far away, Precision Landing isn't doing the landing, GPS is.
Precision Landing will consistently put the drone within inches, GPS cannot.

Are you launching and climbing vertically for at least 7 metres before flying away from the home point?
Does the area surrounding the launch point have a recognisable pattern or texture so Precision Landing can function properly?
Or is it featureless like, grass or asphalt ?
Yes, I did it per the manual. Yesterday I used a white line on a parking space by flathead lake. Got the landing position updated message. Hovered at 21 ft. then flew for 5 minutes. I hit the automatic return home button and the landing was at least 3 feet off of the zone. It’s not a big deal to me, but my platinum pro is spot on. The mavic 3 is not.
 
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Yes, I did it per the manual. Yesterday I used a white line on a parking space by flathead lake. Got the landing position updated message. Hovered at 21 ft. then flew for 5 minutes. I hit the automatic return home button and the landing was at least 3 feet off of the zone.
Then it wasn't using Precision Landing at all.
 
How do you know that? What step did I miss? I have been flying dji drones since they first came out with the phantom 1. I even have a 900 in addition to the mavic platinum pro and mavic 3. The mavic 3 is the only one that will not precision land.
 
How do you know that? What step did I miss? I have been flying dji drones since they first came out with the phantom 1. I even have a 900 in addition to the mavic platinum pro and mavic 3. The mavic 3 is the only one that will not precision land.
Because the landing was off by 3ft.
That means that it was GPS doing the positioning, not the Precision Landing Feature.
You didn't have Precision Landing giving poor precision, you didn't have Precision Landing working.
 
Even I klnew precision landing was not working. Can you tell me what step I left out? Good light, white line, all censors on, got landing zone updated message, hovered at 21 ft for over 30 seconds, got a second landing zone updated message, and then no precision landing. Manual instructions followed to a T. If I am doing something incorrectly I would like to know what it is.
 
Even I klnew precision landing was not working. Can you tell me what step I left out? Good light, white line, all censors on, got landing zone updated message, hovered at 21 ft for over 30 seconds, got a second landing zone updated message, and then no precision landing. Manual instructions followed to a T. If I am doing something incorrectly I would like to know what it is.
No ... I have no idea what the problem is at your end.
 
Thank you. A lot of other folks seem to have the same problem. Hopefully DJI will figure it out.
 
The "hovered at 21 feet" is completely unnecessary and not why precision landing is not working. I'm not sure if early DJI products required a hover but I get weary of hearing it, and not sure where hovering became urban legend.

Specifically you need only to RISE 7 meters before flying horizontally and while I completely accept that people are doing the steps and still having issues I have never, not once had precision landing not work on Mavic 3, Mavic Air 2, Mini 2.

The Precision Landing performance is subject to the following conditions:
a. The Home Point must be recorded upon takeoff and must not be changed during flight.
Otherwise, the aircraft will have no record of the Home Point terrain features.
b. During takeoff, the aircraft must ascend at least 7 m before flying horizontally.


There is not, and never has been ANY mention of a need to "hover" for x seconds, minutes or any other period of time. I am not saying hovering is causing issues. Simply that it adds nothing. It may potentially cause issues, but this would be conjecture and I seriously doubt it. For grins I would try just rising, light throttle at least 7 meters, or 22 feet 11.591 (23 feet by the way, NOT 21 FEET) then immediately just fly away any way you like without sticking around 😉 As Biff said in Back to the Future: "Make like a tree and get outta here"

Getting a solid satellite fix is best practices. It does not affect PL.

I have seen so much discussion on this I am going to test ascending to 21 feet -which is 6.4 meters. Just shy of the required 7 meters - where I assume the imagery of the takeoff area is captured- and see if I lose my precision landing's uh... precision. I might even HOVER at just shy of the 7 meters. This is all for grins as I agree with Meta that it's mostly gimmick. I wouldn't use the word gimmick but it has limited value if you must still monitor the landing - and you absolutely must monitor and be prepared to manage the landing. PL can be a good assist, when, for example, you want to land on the dock. Not next to it or within 5 feet of the dock. Which would be in the water. Ask any old school pilot. Learn to fly with precision. Then all your landings will be precision landings!
 
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The "hovered at 21 feet" is completely unnecessary and not why precision landing is not working. I'm not sure if early DJI products required a hover but I get weary of hearing it, and not sure where hovering became urban legend.

Specifically you need only to RISE 7 meters before flying horizontally and while I completely accept that people are doing the steps and still having issues I have never, not once had precision landing not work on Mavic 3, Mavic Air 2, Mini 2.

The Precision Landing performance is subject to the following conditions:
a. The Home Point must be recorded upon takeoff and must not be changed during flight.
Otherwise, the aircraft will have no record of the Home Point terrain features.
b. During takeoff, the aircraft must ascend at least 7 m before flying horizontally.


There is not, and never has been ANY mention of a need to "hover" for x seconds, minutes or any other period of time. I am not saying hovering is causing issues. Simply that it adds nothing. It may potentially cause issues, but this would be conjecture and I seriously doubt it. For grins I would try just rising, light throttle at least 7 meters, or 22 feet 11.591 (23 feet by the way, NOT 21 FEET) then immediately just fly away any way you like without sticking around 😉 As Biff said in Back to the Future: "Make like a tree and get outta here"

Getting a solid satellite fix is best practices. It does not affect PL.

I have seen so much discussion on this I am going to test ascending to 21 feet -which is 6.4 meters. Just shy of the required 7 meters - where I assume the imagery of the takeoff area is captured- and see if I lose my precision landing's uh... precision. I might even HOVER at just shy of the 7 meters. This is all for grins as I agree with Meta that it's mostly gimmick. I wouldn't use the word gimmick but it has limited value if you must still monitor the landing - and you absolutely must monitor and be prepared to manage the landing. PL can be a good assist, when, for example, you want to land on the dock. Not next to it or within 5 feet of the dock. Which would be in the water. Ask any old school pilot. Learn to fly with precision. Then all your landings will be precision landings!
I don’t use meters, I use imperial numbers. 21 ft is an estimate and I have varied the vertical distance. No matter what I do precision landing is not as accurate as the platinum pro. The manual does not say to hover at 7 meters, but I thought giving it more time to figure out where in the heck it is could not hurt. I tried it your way and was still not able to precision land using a big orange X landing pad. Precision landing is simply not as good as the older magic’s. Sorry but that is the way it is. I always have to take over and land manually. Obtaining satellites takes up to 3% of battery life in the mavic 3 so I suspect that the “new” satellite system is inferior to the ones they used to use. I don’t really care about perfect precision landing, but I do care about an inferior satellite system that takes a long, long time to achieve lock and announce homepoint has been achieved.
 
Because the landing was off by 3ft.
That means that it was GPS doing the positioning, not the Precision Landing Feature.
You didn't have Precision Landing giving poor precision, you didn't have Precision Landing working.
That is exactly the problem. Precision landing is not working. Not a big deal since it gets close enough for me to land manually, but it should be as least as accurate as the platinum pro and it should work.
 
but it should be as least as accurate as the platinum pro and it should work.
It's not a case of Precision Landing not being as accurate for you.
You haven't had Precision Landing working at all.
 
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It's not a case of Precision Landing not being as accurate for you.
You haven't had Precision Landing working at all.
I know that it is not working but I don’t know why. I reread the manual, followed directions precisely, and still no precision landing. I use a big orange landing pad with a white cross on it. I think there is a flaw in either the programming or the sensors. The platinum pro works perfectly. I am hopeful that dji will figure it out, but it isn’t all that important, except for the promise broken by dji. As long is it returns closely I can land manually. DJI should figure it out if only for pride. They should not want their name associated with a subpar product.
 
I use a big orange landing pad with a white cross on it.
That's fine, but what's the area around it?
Is it featureless or does it have a suitable texture for VPS?
Have you tried in other locations?
I am hopeful that dji will figure it out, but it isn’t all that important, except for the promise broken by dji. ... DJI should figure it out if only for pride. They should not want their name associated with a subpar product.
As others are not having a problem with PL on their M3, it probably isn't a problem that DJI have to "fix".
 
All surfaces are suitable for landing. Pavement, decking, black cover on hot tub on a brown surfaced deck, gravel road, concrete apron in front of garage. Why would the other drones I own not have a problem but only the mavic 3? Clearly the issue is limited to mavic 3.
 
The big orange landing pad is the only difference you have pointed out. For kicks, kick it to the curb (at least for testing purposes)

At home I generally launch from 2 places. From a particular square on the sidewalk, or near an outdoor exercise setup in the park behind my house - I have a gate that opens I to a 9 acre park behind me.

I get perfect precision landings every single flight - over 300 to date on the Mavic 3. I mean to within an inch or 2...

Do you get any notifications from Landing protection? That is definitely not perfect and occasionally I get "Landing area unsuitable" at these same spots. Lighting conditions are likely the cause.

As to why Precision Landing won't work for you, I dont know why DJI has no switch for Precision Landing or Landing Protection in the Fly app as they used to, I believe and definitely did in Go 4. Have you tried it without the pad? It's not a likely cause, I just like to match conditions of a known good operation.

Good luck. It would bother me too. I like when things operate as designed. Hate when they don't.
 
The big orange landing pad is the only difference you have pointed out. For kicks, kick it to the curb (at least for testing purposes)

At home I generally launch from 2 places. From a particular square on the sidewalk, or near an outdoor exercise setup in the park behind my house - I have a gate that opens I to a 9 acre park behind me.

I get perfect precision landings every single flight - over 300 to date on the Mavic 3. I mean to within an inch or 2...

Do you get any notifications from Landing protection? That is definitely not perfect and occasionally I get "Landing area unsuitable" at these same spots. Lighting conditions are likely the cause.

As to why Precision Landing won't work for you, I dont know why DJI has no switch for Precision Landing or Landing Protection in the Fly app as they used to, I believe and definitely did in Go 4. Have you tried it without the pad? It's not a likely cause, I just like to match conditions of a known good operation.

Good luck. It would bother me too. I like when things operate as designed. Hate when they don't.
The landing pad was a late addition to see if it helped. It did not. At home I generally launch from my deck. I also launched from the hot tub because it stands out from the deck. I generally get Landing area Unsuitable messages and will only use the landing pad when I am away from the house. Return Home gets me close enough to easily land manually, but it should work at least as well as the older platinum pro. It will either get fixed or it won’t. I like the cameras and can put up with inferior “precision” landing that isn’t precision. Thank you for your concern and trying to help. Have a great rest of day.
 
I like the cameras and can put up with inferior “precision” landing that isn’t precision.
You aren't experiencing an inferior precision landing system at all.
You just aren't experiencing the precision landing feature at all.
 
I stand corrected. I am not experiencing precision landing at all. Neither am I getting satellite lock in less that 3% battery life. This early adopter stuff is getting old. I need to learn to be more patient and wait until a product actually works as advertised. No more beta testing for dji for me.
 
Mine consistently. See the white sticker under it? I sat it over the sticker before take off and that's where rth landed it. Do you guys take off and go up a foot or two slowly before you zoom up? You should get two home point set messages. One on the ground and one right after you take off. I believe it takes an image right after it takes off and tries to land exactly where it took off.


View attachment 138789
You're right it's supposed to, but only happens about 50/50 with my over 400 flights now. It drifts bad, randomly even when there is zero electrical interference, clear day.
 
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