Confusion between Home Lock/Course Lock (not me!)

[MrJoshua]

Hi guys

Just took the P2 out for it's first proper open ground flight to try it slightly further away than a few yards. Behaved perfectly except that there was a period where it almost seemed to be confused about what mode it was in while in Home Lock.
I mostly had it in Home Lock mode (so I wouldn't have to worry about orientation of it once it got a way away), and all was absolutely fine - such a solid hover on it! - but then when I brought it back towards me and flew it past (then flying it in the area originally behind me), it seemed like the home/away stick function was reversed (ie not in Home Lock mode). Double checked and it was in HL mode, but the down stick was flying it away and up stick brought it nearer.

Now it wasn't a huge distance away when this happened, and when I went back to the original area in front of me, then repeated the process it seemed ok second time.

Is there something I did wrong to cause this? It was fine as I could see exactly what it was doing, and the moment I realised it wasn't flying in a home lock behaviour I just let it hover, moved closer to see it better, and brought it back.
What concerns me slightly though is whether or not I can rely on HL to function as it should.

I've a suspicion that I might have caused this by flying it back towards me (only about 30 ft up) and overhead before I took it behind me and encountered this issue, so is it possible that it's come too close to me and therefore got confused about which way relative to home it was facing?

Just want to make sure this doesn't happen in future when it might be further out etc, although I should have FPV on by then hopefully!

Thanks

 

[N017RW]

Consider this...

When flying in Home Lock, once you fly within a 10 meter radius of the current or stored Home Point the a/c reverts to Course Lock.

http://wiki.dji.com/en/index.php/Naza-M ... on_Control

 

[Pacific Barbarian]

I had this happen to me, about 200 meters away. My FPV monitor battery went dead, lost feedback. I switched to homelock, pulled back on the stick, and after about a minute, heard the phantom, but not coming closer. So I hit failsafe and it cam back.

Watching the gopro footage, it was clear that when I hit homelock and pulled back, it went in the course lock direction. I have checked all my switch settings for S2 in the software, but all was set correctly. And i did hit homelock, not courselock.

This has left me confused, never tried it again, but will do so when I get home in December.

That is why I responded to this thread, it happened to me too.

 

[N017RW]

As you have discovered it does not matter what altitude you are at, it is the horizontal distance from the Home Point.

 

[MrJoshua]

Consider this...

When flying in Home Lock, once you fly within a 10 meter radius of the current or stored Home Point the a/c reverts to Course Lock.

http://wiki.dji.com/en/index.php/Naza-M ... on_Control

Thanks for this, that seems to explain it perfectly. I'd assume from this that the second time I tried going 'behind' me that it must have remained over 10m away, and therefore remained in homelock mode.

Makes perfect sense now I know that. I kind of thought it must be a normal behaviour somehow as it behaved exactly as intended aside from this, but I just didn't quite understand why it did it. Now I do.

Thanks for the explanation.

 

[N017RW]

Cool.

Glad I could help.

I have a bare-bones P2 and fly mainly for sport and teaching others at our local Maker-place or Hacklab and Maker Faires in S. Florida so I have never really tried experimenting with IOC. Teachinf and sharing is very rewarding.

The information in that link mentions that if you iniate HL within the 10 meters it will enter HL mode upon leaving the 10 meter limit but does not mention if it will resume HL once you exit it again. I'm prettysure I've read that it doesn't here before so maybe you have proven this as well.

 

[MrJoshua]

I love helping people learn as well when it comes to photography, my main hobby, like you say, it's very rewarding when you know you can help someone get a lot of enjoyment out of something that they otherwise might have struggled with or whatever.

Re' resuming HL mode, it did resume it again after the 'blip', I'm almost certain of that. I carried on flying back in the original area again and it was fine, so I think it does revert back.
That said, when the home lock behaviour wasn't happening, I would have said that I had gone more than 10m away behind me and it was not doing home lock during that time. It only reverted after I brought it back over me to the area where I began, so it's possible that it was a second pass nearby that it then reverted back to home lock again. I can't be absolutely certain sorry, but I do know that I was flying it in HL after that point and I'm certain I wasn't meddling with the switch. So I'd say it does revert, but it'd be worth specifically testing.