RTH Problem

Billybanana75 · Dec 26, 2018

Hi,
I have been having a problem with my return to home feature. The last few times I tried the RTH it seems confused. It turns in the direction of the home point ascends to the proper altitude and starts heading home but then abruptly stops (like something is in its' way) increases altitude, starts returning, stops abruptly, increases altitude starts to head home, stops abruptly etc. etc. It has done this the last 3 times I have tried the feature and all flights were in different areas.
Has anyone else experienced this and if so how did you fix it?
I calibrate my compass each flight so I doubt that is the issue.
Any help would be appreciated, thanks for reading!

DanMan32 · Dec 26, 2018

Obstacle avoidance detecting sun as phantom obstacle.
I bet this was morning or evening?

You can turn off OV for the trip home. It's too bad you can't change attitude without affecting RTH.

Meta4 · Dec 26, 2018

Billybanana75 said:
I calibrate my compass each flight so I doubt that is the issue.

There's nothing about your compass that could possibly affect RTH like that.
And there's no reason to calibrate it each flight.
You won't make anything work any better by doing that.

Billybanana75 · Dec 26, 2018

Thanks Dan,
It was actually not too late in the day when it did it today but the sun was low (winter) and I though the OV and the sun could've been the problem so I did shut that off but it didn't help. The first time it did it it was partly cloudy at mid day and traveling North away from the sunlight

Meta4 · Dec 26, 2018

Billybanana75 said:
Thanks Dan,
It was actually not too late in the day when it did it today but the sun was low (winter) and I though the OV and the sun could've been the problem so I did shut that off but it didn't help. The first time it did it it was partly cloudy at mid day and traveling North away from the sunlight

If you had unexplained RT behaviour and the sun wasn't involved (it's the most common cause), post flight data and that might help solve the mystery.

dbyantis · Dec 26, 2018

Billybanana75 said:
Thanks Dan,
It was actually not too late in the day when it did it today but the sun was low (winter) and I though the OV and the sun could've been the problem so I did shut that off but it didn't help. The first time it did it it was partly cloudy at mid day and traveling North away from the sunlight

Mist or crud on the sensors? I agree, if the log can be analyzed, it will explain what the drone was "thinking".

DanMan32 · Dec 27, 2018

Response is classic OA. Obstacle detected, stop and try to go over. Repeat until max height reached.

Perhaps OA wasn't completely turned off? Might be separate setting for RTH OA from normal OA.
Don't go by turning off OA through sport mode. Once in RTH, you are no longer in sport mode during RTH.

Billybanana75 · Dec 27, 2018

Thanks everyone
Ok I checked the sensors and they are clean, no obstructions on lenses. I have attached the flight data here.
Please let me know if this is what you're looking for
thank you!

Meta4 · Dec 27, 2018

Billybanana75 said:
I have attached the flight data here.

Here's what that flight data looks like: DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

Skim through it and pay attention to the messages that show up in the far right column.

hingeman · Dec 27, 2018

Meta4 said:
Here's what that flight data looks like: DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

Skim through it and pay attention to the messages that show up in the far right column.

I gotta ask. how did you get your flight data info from his flight data? That's amazing! Scott

Meta4 · Dec 27, 2018

hingeman said:
I gotta ask. how did you get your flight data info from his flight data? That's amazing! Scott

That's what you get when you upload the flight record txt file to DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help
If you get it to give you the CSV file, there's much more information than what you see.

hingeman · Dec 27, 2018

Meta4 said:
That's what you get when you upload the flight record txt file to DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help
If you get it to give you the CSV file, there's much more information than what you see.

Does it work for Mavic Pro as well?

Meta4 · Dec 27, 2018

hingeman said:
Does it work for Mavic Pro as well?

It works for any drone that uses the DJI Go app

Billybanana75 · Dec 27, 2018

ok I checked out the messages to the far right and I see it lists what the craft was doing but I have no reason why. I definitely don't have anything taller than 164' around my house that needs to be avoided. I believe I even had the OA shut off too.
Anyone have any solutions as how to fix this? Maybe I should contact dpi? If I ever need to use the RTH in an emergency, it's never going to make it like this

thanks

Meta4 · Dec 27, 2018

Billybanana75 said:
ok I checked out the messages to the far right and I see it lists what the craft was doing but I have no reason why.

The reason why is that your obstacle avoidance sensed an obstacle and attempted to avoid it.

Billybanana75 said:
I definitely don't have anything taller than 164' around my house that needs to be avoided.

That would suggest that the obstacle was the sun, as has been found out by many other users.

Billybanana75 said:
I believe I even had the OA shut off too.

The data says you didn't.
There are two places to look in your settings to see this.
Note the second item here:

And the second item here:

Billybanana75 said:
Anyone have any solutions as how to fix this? Maybe I should contact dpi? If I ever need to use the RTH in an emergency, it's never going to make it like this

See above
If you want OA to work in RTH, you can have it.
Just be aware that if the RTH is in the direction of a low sun, it might be affected.
If you have no obstacles to worry about, it's a simple matter to disable it for RTH.

Billybanana75 · Dec 28, 2018

wow
thanks for the help. I hope it was in fact the sun and not my Mavic. Rain all day today, I will do another test tomorrow
thank you!

DanMan32 · Dec 31, 2018

I encountered the phantom obstacle today for the first time. Strange sensation. Only indication during RTH was the OA alarm. At 100ft up over water/savanna, no actual obstructions.
When I aborted RTH to tack around the phantom, then I got the brake messages.

Billybanana75 · Jan 23, 2019

hey y'all I finally figured out my problem... I needed to calibrate my OA sensors using the DJI assistant, pointing the drone at my computer screen and following the prompts. Very easy, just took a few minutes. Did a few RTH tests and she worked perfectly!
Glad that was all it was, thanks for your suggestions!