Auto return to home

[speedbird1984]

Hi all

Question about auto return to home when battery is low, does the return to home kick in earlier if the bird is further away from home (therefore requiring more battery to get home) or is it not that clever? I guess if it doesn’t adjust like this and won’t make it home I can land it manually.

Ta

 

[msinger]

Yes, the Phantom is pretty clever and will attempt to return home sooner when it's further away from the home point. It doesn't take weather into consideration, so you'll want to manually turn back sooner if you know your Phantom will be flying into strong winds on the way back to the home point.

 

[speedbird1984]

Ah amazing, thanks! Why did I ever doubt her lol

 

[Sea Pilot]

Ah amazing, thanks! Why did I ever doubt her lol

Just a quick note, if you are flying in the wind, be sure to launch into the wind and travel in that direction if at all possible because if you do lose signal, it will require much more battery to get back home and it may run out before it gets all the way back. Also, don't forget to set your return altitude as well so as to not hit anything that could be in the way of the return path.

 

[blomdido]

And just as a side note. Got RTH altitude. The tallest thing You may run into are pylons. I have checked. They’re usually 164 ft high. A few are slightly higher. So 220 ft will cover You for anything.

 

[Loz]

^ 200ft will cover you for anything lower than that height from takeoff only - not buildings or hills for example that may be higher, just saying preflight check every time to be sure..

 

[Meta4]

Hi all

Question about auto return to home when battery is low, does the return to home kick in earlier if the bird is further away from home (therefore requiring more battery to get home) or is it not that clever? I guess if it doesn’t adjust like this and won’t make it home I can land it manually.

Ta

Keep an eye on your lifeline across the top of the screen.
The little H is for home.
When the yellow line gets close to H you are at bingo fuel (time to go home).
The H slides along the line with your battery level and distance from home.

 

[RodPad]

"When the yellow line gets close to H you are at bingo fuel (time to go home)."
Is bingo a new phrase?

Rod

 

[Meta4]

"When the yellow line gets close to H you are at bingo fuel (time to go home)."
Is bingo a new phrase?

It's an aviation term I borrowed

 

[RodPad]

Got it, a Gamble.

Rod

 

[speedbird1984]

Hi all, quick question on this topic. Does auto return to home also factor in the auto return height? Had a rather scary moment earlier where I thought the battery didn’t have enough time to descend in auto mode (like 44 secs from pretty high up!) so quit that & got it down myself as quickly as possible. Could’ve also been due to trying rotor guards which add weight.

 

[msinger]

Does auto return to home also factor in the auto return height?

Yes, but the Phantom assumes the ground at the Phantom's current location is at the same level as the ground at the home point location. So, if you take off from a mountain side, fly over a valley, and reset the home point to the Phantom's current location (for example), the Phantom might not make it back to the ground in time.

Also, it's not able to factor in the wind.

 

[speedbird1984]

Thanks. You mean if you fly down into the valley? Still don’t fully understand why I only had seconds left to land. Either because of the prop guards maybe or I did have compass issues before moving to a different take off location.
Think I maybe need to increase my low battery warning signal % as well.

 

[msinger]

You mean if you fly down into the valley?

No. I mean if you fly over a valley without decreasing the altitude. At that point, the distance to the ground would be greater.

Still don’t fully understand why I only had seconds left to land.

Check out your TXT flight log to see if it explains what happened. You can upload and view it online here. If you'd like other people to review and comment on your flight log, then please post a link back here after you upload it.

Think I maybe need to increase my low battery warning signal %.

That will only make DJI GO display the low battery warning sooner. It will not change when the low battery RTH and critical low battery auto landing are auto initiated. The triggers for those events is calculated based on a combination of the current battery level and the current distance and altitude of your Phantom.

 

[speedbird1984]

Sorry yes I understand now.
Cheers, may upload this weekend.
Does it calculate it so there is like a minute or so safety margin left over when it lands?
Yeah, just meant as a warning to me really. Don't want to be that close to it dropping out the sky again!

 

[msinger]

Does it calculate it so there is like a minute or so safety margin left over when it lands?

I'm not sure how much padding is added in its calculations. I know it definitely won't attempt to use every last second of available battery power though. It'll err on the side of caution.