Remaining battery for RTH

[nyknba]

I was flying and keeping it very close to me, no more than 70 feet. I had 16% Battery left and received the message “warning, the remaining Battery is only enough for RTH. Return home now” I got nervous thinking it was going to fly up 30m and return home which would
Not have been good. But my question is, why am I receiving this message if I still had 16% Battery and I was so close to the Home point? Was it going to return to Home on its own at that point if i didn’t manually land it right away?

 

[msinger]

why am I receiving this message if I still had 16% Battery and I was so close to the Home point?

You won't be able to fly the Mavic until the battery reaches 0%. It'll reach the critical low battery level before that point and auto land at its current location.

Using the default DJI GO settings, your Mavic will attempt to auto return back to the home point when it determines it only has enough battery power left to make it back to the home point. That feature is of course not foolproof since the Mavic is not smart enough to consider things like flying back to the home point in heavy winds.

Play it safe and make sure you pilot the Mavic back to the home point before the battery reaches the critically low level (the red area of the bar at the top of DJI GO). At the critically low level, the Mavic will auto land at its current location.

Was it going to return to Home on its own at that point if i didn’t manually land it right away?

DJI GO will give you 10 seconds to cancel that action. If you do nothing, your Mavic will start returning home.

 

[nyknba]

I’m still a little confused though. I understand that the mavic will return to Home when it determines its distance and how much battery power that will take to return to home but I was flying 70 feet away from the Home point still with 16% Battery. Even if I was at 2% that should have been enough to get me to return to Home only being 70 feet away. I’m just not understanding if I was that close to the home point why it’s triggering a return to Home still with 16% Battery and being extremely close to the Home point.

 

[msinger]

DJI does not have a document that explains how that feature determines when it's time to return home. However, I can tell you it's not designed to use every last second of battery power. If that's your goal, then you should disable the "Smart Return-to-Home" feature in the following section of DJI GO:

 

[nyknba]

Got it. I’ve never really taken it far away from me yet but leaving smart return to Home enabled makes me think that when I’m at 40% Battery and a decent distance away that it’s going to fly back home if it’s doing this at 16% and pretty much at the Home point.

 

[beachcombing]

Got it. I’ve never really taken it far away from me yet but leaving smart return to Home enabled makes me think that when I’m at 40% Battery and a decent distance away that it’s going to fly back home if it’s doing this at 16% and pretty much at the Home point.

Also, don't think of the battery usage and the amount of battery left as linear. It's not linear.

You should be thinking about landing at 30%. Keep that in your mind and you won't have to worry about not having enough battery life to return home.

 

[nyknba]

Ok thanks. One other related question, does the low battery and critical Battery settings do anything besides notify me when I reach the percentage set? Or does the aircraft perform a forced landing or some other function when it reaches whatever I set the percentages to?

 

[beachcombing]

Ok thanks. One other related question, does the low battery and critical Battery settings do anything besides notify me when I reach the percentage set? Or does the aircraft perform a forced landing or some other function when it reaches whatever I set the percentages to?

As shown above in the screenshot of the DJI Go 4 app, if you have "Smart Return to Home" enabled, the Mavic will return home when the remaining battery life is only enough to RTH. And also as noted by msinger above, "At the critically low level, the Mavic will auto land at its current location."

 

[beachcombing]

It might be helpful to read through the Mavic Pro User Manual. Be sure to download the latest version from the DJI website.

 

[wytnyt]

Ok thanks. One other related question, does the low battery and critical Battery settings do anything besides notify me when I reach the percentage set? Or does the aircraft perform a forced landing or some other function when it reaches whatever I set the percentages to?

PLEASE read the manual,theres tons of things in it that will insure your bird comes back every time.

 

[msinger]

does the low battery and critical Battery settings do anything besides notify me when I reach the percentage set?

The DJI GO app will alert you when the battery reaches those set levels. Those settings aren't used for anything other than displaying those alerts.

does the aircraft perform a forced landing or some other function when it reaches whatever I set the percentages to?

No. The battery percentages where the Mavic determines the battery is low (for triggering the auto RTH) and critically low (for triggering the auto landing) are constantly changing as you fly. The point when those levels are reached depends largely on the height and distance your Mavic is from the home point.