Return to home for distance

[MasterOfPuppets]

Hey guys. I’ve had my new Mavic Pro out about 7 or 8 times this week, just flying around getting used to everything. I notice at 30% battery it gives me a warning to consider coming home. Which I’m normally never more than 300 meters away anyway so most of the time I just fly some more. I was wondering, i understand at critical battery the Mavic will auto land and u have no choice, but does the Mavic Pro know when u have just enough battery left to get home based on how far away u are?

Thanks guys

 

[vashon100]

Yes. Pg 14 in v2.0 manual. See the H below.

 

[Mad Mavic]

I had my low battery warning set at 50% during a flight just to have an idea of a theriotical half way point. However, my battery alarm began barking at around 60%. I squeezed 7.2 miles out of the flight with only13% left in cell 3.

I would have expected around 30% left. 40% out bucking a headwind while turning and climbing going out. Yet I had a tail wind and flew a bee line back while descending.

The Mavic is one intelegent peice of equipment. The battery is smart enough to keep those of us who like to take it to the limit, fro losing our drones.

Had I relied on distance, wind direction (a tail wind returning) I would have stayed out to 50% thus having to emergency land somewhere on the return home.

The best advise I can offer is fly different missions with objective that reveal the abilities of the system. Every flight leaves me amaized at the amount of technology packed in such a small footprint.

I did have one interesting event on my last flight testing the turrain following. Upon getting a low battery alarm. I was at about 30 feet AGL. manually flew to a clear LZ and pulled down on the stick but no response. I had to clear whatever mode I was in and then it landed.

Every flight is a new experience.

 

[Just_nick]

Hey guys. I’ve had my new Mavic Pro out about 7 or 8 times this week, just flying around getting used to everything. I notice at 30% battery it gives me a warning to consider coming home. Which I’m normally never more than 300 meters away anyway so most of the time I just fly some more. I was wondering, i understand at critical battery the Mavic will auto land and u have no choice, but does the Mavic Pro know when u have just enough battery left to get home based on how far away u are?

Thanks guys

The Smart RTH keeps track of that, however it returns with a margin of safety and overestimates the time to get back, such that you're not barely getting back. You will usually return with about 30% if you follow the smart RTH

 

[Huge Bama Fan]

Something I've started doing and it is helping me. I have a lot book and I keep the wind speed at different elevations (UAV Forcast) and battery levels Temp , time and distance and if i was satisfied with footage or not.

 

[gjmphoto]

Thanks for bringing this up...had the same question. The low battery warning comes on substantially before the rth will kick in-in most cases...does anyone change the lbw to avoid the annoying beeping before you really want to bring it home? At what do you set it?

 

[Marc0419]

please consider wind speed...

 

[Mad Mavic]

View media item 1674would definitely like to kill the beeping. Somewhere around here I have a disassembled controller. If I recall, the beeper unit inserts into a hole. I covered it with one layer of scotch tape, which made it much more tolerable, Surely there is a hack out there to opt out of the beep.

The low battery beep, is another story...I'm good with that one

 

[StanTGM]

I set the low battery warning to 20%, mainly because the beeping is so annoying.

Two crucial things to remember in this context:

1. ALWAYS be mindful of the battery charge level, no matter what setting for low battery alert you choose
2. ALWAYS head out against the wind, so you have tail wind on the return leg

 

[StanTGM]

...and I do have the habit of landing with 20% left. Keeping safety margins is always good when it comes to aviation...

 

[Flycaster]

I always try to start off with a headwind, and return with a tailwind.....if I can't, situation/goal doesn't fit that scenario, and I have to start with the tail wind, finishing/coming home with a headwind, I start to return @ 60 percent remaining as my tiny thumb rule.....

 

[MasterOfPuppets]

I appreciate the help guys. Me posting this thread jinxed the weather here. Was good flying weather, I posted the thread, then he snow and wind came and hasn’t left.

I’ll have to test out the battery warnings again and keep close just in case, then adjust settings if necessary.

 

[RayOZ]

I was testing how far I could go, with 30% low battery warning. When "Remaining flight time" indicator reaches "Power required to return home", the RTH is triggered. Cancelled RTH and flew back straight away manually (to stop the RTH beeping; not to continue flying like some have done and lost their drone), and when it returned home it has ~34% left, so there is some safety margin included.

 

[dbyantis]

Hey guys. I’ve had my new Mavic Pro out about 7 or 8 times this week, just flying around getting used to everything. I notice at 30% battery it gives me a warning to consider coming home. Which I’m normally never more than 300 meters away anyway so most of the time I just fly some more. I was wondering, i understand at critical battery the Mavic will auto land and u have no choice, but does the Mavic Pro know when u have just enough battery left to get home based on how far away u are?

Thanks guys

Be aware that running LiPo batteries to very low levels can damage them, so I avoid dropping into single digits.

 

[daisy-girl]

Yes. Pg 14 in v2.0 manual. See the H below.View attachment 32770

The manual is not clear re "Remaining Flight Time." Is that until the "H" location is reached, or some other point on the line?

 

[wxperson]

i am not convinced it really uses distance to home very well. I had a flight where I was at 19% and 6 feet from the takeoff point... getting ready to land. It decided to initiate RTH and started to climb... which I cancelled. Why would it do a RTH with 19% and being 6 feet from the home point... and btw near the ground so it really was 6-10' from home. Anyhow I try to be near home and land soon after the beeping starts at 30%.

 

[msinger]

Why would it do a RTH with 19% and being 6 feet from the home point... and btw near the ground so it really was 6-10' from home.

It should have landed at its current location. Maybe double check the flight log. It sounds like the Mavic was further than 10' from the home point.

 

[vashon100]

The manual is not clear re "Remaining Flight Time." Is that until the "H" location is reached, or some other point on the line?

The time remaining shown is until 10% batt. I've never run it that low, but did see some range test vids that did. At 10% the time had gone to 00:00. Below 10%, it showed time as --/-- .

 

[Evo1668]

View media item 1674would definitely like to kill the beeping. Somewhere around here I have a disassembled controller. If I recall, the beeper unit inserts into a hole. I covered it with one layer of scotch tape, which made it much more tolerable, Surely there is a hack out there to opt out of the beep.

The low battery beep, is another story...I'm good with that one

I did see a mod for being able to reduce the beeping volume, or even muting the output. But it does require you to drill into the outer rear cover of your controller. I did the mod as per the instruction in the attached link, but opted to use a tiny grub screw which I adjust with a small allen key. The grub screw sits flush, and does not affect the controller use. aesthetically it also looks better than a protruding screw head.
The buzzer volume can in fact be completely muted using this method, or you can set the volume to a much reduced level if you so wish.
Fix Controller Buzzer in 10 Minutes "Easy"