RETURN HOME WORKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[KirkVoclain]

I have a Mavic Pro 2, and I have had it for a few years now. I use it to do mostly real estate photography. Yesterday I was photographing a property for a guy who has 2000+ Acres for sale. I was right at the edge of his property...well over 2 miles away from me. When I hit the button to take a photo, I got the dreaded "Lost Connection" message.

I waited and waited.....finally, I decided to drive around to go look for it.....hoping.......just as I started to pull away, I heard the buzz.....and it came back right where it left off.......I WAS SO HAPPY!!!!!!

This is the kind of thing you never really "TEST"......but now that I know it works.....I'm super happy and feel even more secure about flying it.

I just wanted to share my experience.

Kirk Voclain

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

This is the kind of thing you never really "TEST"......but now that I know it works.....I'm super happy and feel even more secure about flying it.

(emphasis mine)

I'm glad you had a happy ending there, but for other readers of this post, I would like to say that you can indeed test this feature and I very highly recommend that you do.

Try these things:

• Fly out several hundred yards and press the RTH button. (And do this after trying different "RTH Height" values in Settings.)
• Do the above, but instead of hitting the RTH button, just turn the power to your remote off. It will duplicate the conditions of Kirk's experience above (loss of signal). See the first note below.

Notes

• For loss of signal, the actions are configurable. If Kirk had his set to "hover", he would have found it where he was driving to, if he knows where that is. In such a case, it will hover until it gets to low power, then land where it is. Obviously, his loss of signal action was set to RTH.
• For "RTH Height" values, remember that it doesn't do the "elevate to RTH Height before returning" thing if you are within a certain close radius to the HP. See your owners manual.

Chris

 

[EsaT]

That's why it's always best to wait for recording of home point before taking off.
(+plus check from map that it's on right location)

While "rebooting" remote might have restored connection, you always need backup already in case of remote failure/possible interference blocking data link.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

I would suggest deliberately working your way through ALL the RTH behaviours is a wise thing to do. It helps reduce panic when the drone RTH's for real.

 

[Eddyville Guy]

Glad to hear it worked. I've never tested mine, but after reading the suggestions, that's what I'll be doing this weekend.

 

[Starz]

you can indeed test this feature and I very highly recommend that you do.

Spot on.

 

[Squidinc]

How do you maintain VLOS at over 2 miles away from you?

 

[DavidT_ NZ]

(emphasis mine)

I'm glad you had a happy ending there, but for other readers of this post, I would like to say that you can indeed test this feature and I very highly recommend that you do.

Try these things:

• Fly out several hundred yards and press the RTH button. (And do this after trying different "RTH Height" values in Settings.)
• Do the above, but instead of hitting the RTH button, just turn the power to your remote off. It will duplicate the conditions of Kirk's experience above (loss of signal). See the first note below.

Notes

• For loss of signal, the actions are configurable. If Kirk had his set to "hover", he would have found it where he was driving to, if he knows where that is. In such a case, it will hover until it gets to low power, then land where it is. Obviously, his loss of signal action was set to RTH.
• For "RTH Height" values, remember that it doesn't do the "elevate to RTH Height before returning" thing if you are within a certain close radius to the HP. See your owners manual.

Chris

Turning off the RC and deliberately disassociating a flying drone is not really recommended ………

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

Turning off the RC and deliberately disassociating a flying drone is not really recommended ………

Why? Under controlled circumstances (making sure your RTH settings are known and set correctly) is entirely safe.

Please list the risks you think I might be missing.

Chris

 

[Starz]

How do you maintain VLOS at over 2 miles away from you?

The obvious answer here would be that you don’t.
The OP certainly isn’t the Lone Ranger in regards to those aspects of the capabilities of DJI products.

 

[Zbip57]

Turning off the RC and deliberately disassociating a flying drone is not really recommended ………

It is possible to lose only the video signal, or maybe your device running the App dies, and you do not realize that you actually do still have full control signal to the drone. Or it's also possible that you have lost all control signal and the drone has automatically started to come Home, only to regain signal along the way, while you are unknowingly fumbling with the control sticks or cancel RTH.

If you truly don't know what's going on, rather than blindly pushing buttons and risk doing something stupid, sometimes the safest thing to do is to shut the controller off altogether. Now the drone can automatically do its FailSafe routine without risk of you inadvertently interfering in the process.

This is the kind of thing you never really "TEST"......but now that I know it works.....I'm super happy and feel even more secure about flying it.

This is kind of thing you absolutely do need to test, for precisely the reason you've given. Once you know how it works, and have tested the various modes to confirm they actually do work, you will feel more secure about flying it.

It is important to experiment with all the functions of the various features of your drone. The vast majority of reported "flyaways" are totally preventable. The biggest danger is not understanding what's going on during an unexpected crisis. People insist their drone just took off and flew away all by itself, when in fact it behaved exactly as it's programmed to do and reacted to control inputs exactly as described in the User Manual.

If you haven't practised using the various features of your system, you will be more prone to panic and doing the wrong thing at the wrong time when anything unexpected happens.

Make a checklist of things you want to test out, and find yourself a safe empty field to do your own experiments. But don't get overconfident either. still happens if you push the limits too far on what's smart versus stupid.

When I got my new Phantom-3-Pro I tried a bunch of different things to test out how Return-to-Home works, and how it can be cancelled once activated. It behaved differently in several aspects compared to my older Phantom-1. My Mavic Mini behaves differently again. It's important to understand those differences.

Here's my video testing various RTH features on my P3P. You should do similar tests with your own drone.

 

[WimStang]

On my very first flight of the Mini, over water, the sun blinded me and I could not relocate the Mini. My battery was getting low and after about 10 min, I thought it dumped into the water. Hit the RTH button, although must admit, I didn't know what I was doing...yeah I know read the manual...anyway after some of the "well that was a fun way to blow 400 bucks" I heard it and finally saw it coming down about 5 yds away. I went out to retrieve it and thanked my lucky stars. Yup I did read the manual and was thankful for such cool feature.

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

RTH is such a useful feature, even when not having an emergency or even needing to return to home.

Lose VLOS? Hit the RTH while look at your screen and it will help you get your orientation, know better where the AC is in the sky. As soon as you reacquired VLOS, hit the RTH button again to cancel.

You can also look at the screen to reorient without hitting RTH, but the RTH causes it to immediately point in your direction. Of course, you can also look at the direction icon to turn the craft towards you, but the RTH does all of that automatically, which is sometimes nice in a pinch.

Chris

 

[twickers14]

One last thing. I have only needed RTH twice (with my Spark-have a MA2 too) first time it came back perfectly but because I had launched from under a tree (it was very hot for the U.K.) it reurned and landed perfectly in the branches above DOH! And the second time (like Kirk) it took ages before I heard that wonderful sound of my aircraft returning.

 

[Zbip57]

I had launched from under a tree [...] it returned and landed perfectly in the branches above DOH!

Knowing that RTH works is one thing. Knowing how to cancel RTH and resume manual control to prevent it landing in trees also sometimes is useful.

I tried a bunch of different things to test out how Return-to-Home works, and how it can be cancelled once activated.

 

[twickers14]

Knowing that RTH works is one thing. Knowing how to cancel RTH and resume manual control to prevent it landing in trees also sometimes is useful.

You are so right!

 

[KirkVoclain]

That's why it's always best to wait for recording of home point before taking off.
(+plus check from map that it's on right location)

While "rebooting" remote might have restored connection, you always need backup already in case of remote failure/possible interference blocking data link.

This brings up an interesting question....should I have done that??? Because, while it did come home....it never did re-connect...until I turned it off and then back on......should I have tried that? While waiting....and waiting....should I have turned OFF my remote and then back on to see it it would connect?????

I never thought of that?????

LET ME KNOW if that is something you would have done???

Kirk

 

[guzewski]

If you truly don't know what's going on, rather than blindly pushing buttons and risk doing something stupid

NASA has a saying: "If you don't know what to do, don't do anything". That served me well when when my Mini 2 got stuck way up in a tree. The motors were still running (even though the thing was hanging at a crazy angle), and my first thought was to shut it down. But after a moment's reflection, I decided against doing anything until I calmed down. As it turns out, I actually powered the Mini 2 out of the branches with a couple of maneuvers, but it did clip other branches and finally crashed to the ground. No damage except to the props. Whew! The event was recorded:

 

[DavidT_ NZ]

Why? Under controlled circumstances (making sure your RTH settings are known and set correctly) is entirely safe.

Please list the risks you think I might be missing.

Chris

Because when you place a drone in shared airspace it is supposed to remain under your FULL control, not reliant on an automated system unless an operational emergency occurs. Common sense. Please don’t come and fly in my home city.

 

[McLiew]

If you want to test this, do in an open field, have the drone further than 20m from home so it will not just land vertically. I’d advise to test both within 20m and outside of it. No harm to test as long as it’s safe to do so. My 2 cents.