DJI Go : Smart Go Home option

lawman0210 · Oct 22, 2015

I believe I saw a video where a guy ascended to something like 3,000 feet and the unit just stopped an hovered. He was out of range and was unable to regain control. The unit just stayed there unit it ran out of battery and fell out of the sky. Is that possible if you set the unit to "hover" when signal is lost?

Meta4 · Oct 22, 2015

lawman0210 said:
I believe I saw a video where a guy ascended to something like 3,000 feet and the unit just stopped an hovered. He was out of range and was unable to regain control. The unit just stayed there unit it ran out of battery and fell out of the sky. Is that possible if you set the unit to "hover" when signal is lost?

Not with a Phantom 3. They have a height limit of 500m above home point.
I haven't tested to find out but Low Battery RTH might also make this scenario impossible for a P3.

bobmyers · Oct 22, 2015

lawman0210 said:
I believe I saw a video where a guy ascended to something like 3,000 feet and the unit just stopped an hovered. He was out of range and was unable to regain control. The unit just stayed there unit it ran out of battery and fell out of the sky. Is that possible if you set the unit to "hover" when signal is lost?

It is possible-- if he could reach 3000 feet-- when he reached critical battery, the Phantom would start to land but would run out of battery before it could descend 3000 feet.

granvillelee · Oct 22, 2015

First of all, it's not possible to go to 3000 ft. 1600 ft is max for Phantom 3

bobmyers · Oct 22, 2015

granvillelee said:
First of all, it's not possible to go to 3000 ft. 1600 ft is max for Phantom 3

True

flyNfrank · Oct 22, 2015

lawman0210 said:
I believe I saw a video where a guy ascended to something like 3,000 feet and the unit just stopped an hovered. He was out of range and was unable to regain control. The unit just stayed there unit it ran out of battery and fell out of the sky. Is that possible if you set the unit to "hover" when signal is lost?

I never did a video but I actually experienced this very same situation a little over a year ago. Once the battery reached the point of descending after hovering which I believe was around 2 or 3% remaining. When it reached 1 or 2% (these are guesses on the percent amount remaining) it stopped descending and went into a controlled drop. Only one light on one arm blinked every 3 seconds, and then also at every 3 seconds all 4 motors would turn on and spin high speed briefly and shot off. This process repeated as it fell until hitting the ground where ever that was. I was around a 1/4 mile away at the time it was falling and I thought I knew exactly where it came down at, but after searching 8 acres I never found it.

EPT160 · Oct 22, 2015

Return to home and hover would be a useful option if over water. In case you have moved, it will at least give time to regain control.

eBird · Oct 23, 2015

granvillelee said:
First of all, it's not possible to go to 3000 ft. 1600 ft is max for Phantom 3

Uh actually...... Nah lets not go there. [emoji56]

phantom13flyer · Oct 23, 2015

granvillelee said:
First of all, it's not possible to go to 3000 ft. 1600 ft is max for Phantom 3

3rd party apps have much higher limits . If someone wanted to go over 3000 ft they could with a 3rd party app or with "trick" to bypass the height limit with the go app. Unfortunately there are people who take their p3 to extreme heights.

eBird · Oct 23, 2015

Guilty as charged.

B- Scene Films · Oct 23, 2015

Dont let the FAA see that pic, eBird

D4T_PoM · Oct 23, 2015

eBird said:
Guilty as charged.
View attachment 34077

I see the tilted horizon issue you have there looool

eBird · Oct 23, 2015

Yeah, I was really unhappy to have climbed 19 miles high into the stratosphere, only to see that tilted horizon.

eBird · Oct 23, 2015

B- Scene Films said:
Dont let the FAA see that pic, eBird

I'll just have to hope the FAA doesn't google "high altitude views of Earth" like I did.

Larry56 · Feb 13, 2016

RedHotPoker said:
No, not sure but I turned mine to On.
I'm dieing to try it, and other features as well.
I see you can now set the Phantom to Return to Home, Land or Hover...
That should be interesting, to try out, as well.

RedHotPoker

I have a 3 Pro and was wondering where you saw the option to "Land" or "Hover" on RTH? I don't see that option anywhere. Does it appear once you've initiated the RTH? Or is it in the settings somewhere? Thanks in advance for your answer.

msinger · Feb 13, 2016

Larry Stalmah said:
was wondering where you saw the option to "Land" or "Hover" on RTH?

Larry56 · Feb 13, 2016

msinger said:
View attachment 43764

Thanks for the quick reply.

Larry56 · Feb 13, 2016

I'm back with a followup question. It occurred to me that this doesn't say the Phantom will Return To Home, THEN Hover or Land. It only offers Return-To-Home as one of the three choices, implying the bird will just stay and hover (or land) wherever the RC signal is lost. I would prefer if my Phantom would return to home first, then hover. If I'm reading this correctly and it's not possible in this setting, is there another way to get the Phantom to do what I want? RTH and hover?

Thanks,
~ Larry

msinger · Feb 13, 2016

Larry56 said:
I would prefer if my Phantom would return to home first, then hover.

That's not possible.

Larry56 · Feb 13, 2016

msinger said:
That's not possible.

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. It's a little disappointing but I guess we have to live with what they give us. Like most people, I'd prefer it didn't attempt to land in a nearby tree or some other obstacle. I know, I shouldn't be taking off and landing near trees...LOL!

Thanks again.