Anyone know these "Going Home" technical answers??

[race3]

I have a new Phantom Vision and trying to understand the path it will take during the "going home" procedure.

Can anyone explain the following examples?

1) If the home point is up on a hill at 200 feet high and I'm flying from that point and actually fly lower, say down the hill 100 feet... and if "going home" is activated, will the Phantom fly all the way back up to the correct height?

2) When landing at the home point, is it a soft landing? Does it stop based on altitude or it can tell when it touches down?

3) If you take control during a "going home" procedure by moving the right switch to the middle position... I understand you are now off of GPS?? If you move the middle switch back up to the top position, is GPS reactivated and will it "go home" again if needed" ?

On my first flight today, after landing and then shutting off the remote control, I accidentally activated "going home" and the Phantom too off from having already landed... which really surprised me. I would have thought that if it landed it would at least stay there since it was safely on the ground. Anyhow, I guess I won't turn off the controller until after the Phantom is off.

That's all for now. Appreciate any replies to above questions.

thanks...

 

[Dave Pitman]

I have a new Phantom Vision and trying to understand the path it will take during the "going home" procedure.

Can anyone explain the following examples?

1) If the home point is up on a hill at 200 feet high and I'm flying from that point and actually fly lower, say down the hill 100 feet... and if "going home" is activated, will the Phantom fly all the way back up to the correct height?

If the Phantom is at least 20 meters higher than it was at takeoff, it will fly directly home. If it is less than 20 meters, it will first climb to 20 meters, and then go home. It won't climb 200'.

2) When landing at the home point, is it a soft landing? Does it stop based on altitude or it can tell when it touches down?

Yes, it is usually a pretty good landing.

3) If you take control during a "going home" procedure by moving the right switch to the middle position... I understand you are now off of GPS?? If you move the middle switch back up to the top position, is GPS reactivated and will it "go home" again if needed" ?

Yes.

On my first flight today, after landing and then shutting off the remote control, I accidentally activated "going home" and the Phantom too off from having already landed... which really surprised me. I would have thought that if it landed it would at least stay there since it was safely on the ground. Anyhow, I guess I won't turn off the controller until after the Phantom is off.

It is advised not to power the craft with the transmitter off for the very reason you found out.

That's all for now. Appreciate any replies to above questions.

thanks...

The manual is your friend!!

 

[Gizmo3000]

When you let the Phantom warm up and then it records home position, it records both GPS and Altitude. so

1- on RTH (return to home), no matter how low in altitude, the Phantom will climb up to HomeLocationAltitutude + 10m (60ft), fly to the home location, hover a bit and then try to land itself.

2- it is something of a "controlled" landing, as it will basically descend at a fairly safe/slow speed, and kind of smart enough to know when it's hit ground and no longer moving. If say, you took off from the top of a ladder and then moved the ladder, it should just continue to descent gradually until it hit ground, regardless of the fact that it's home altitude was a bit higher than where it's landing.

3 - if you regain control by switching to ATTI, it's effectively terminated failsafe, so when you flip back to GPS, it will just act like it normally does when you fly in GPS mode (or ATTI), and the only way to enable failsafe again is to kill the Tx or switch to failsafe mode.

you always want to keep the Tx on if possible.

 

[race3]

thank you both for your replies. I did read the manual but for some reason this part wasn't clear to me. I appreciate your answers.

 

[Gizmo3000]

thank you both for your replies. I did read the manual but for some reason this part wasn't clear to me. I appreciate your answers.

anytime.
the manual can indeed be a bit confusing.

Some people are also initially confused as to weather RTH would work if you were flying in ATTi mode only (or manual)
but RTH will initiate no matter what mode you're flying in if signal is lost (or Tx is turned off)