Establishing the home point

[JeffreyS]

I believe the Home point, which is essential for RTH and safe landings, is established automatically when you take off. The manual states:

Precision Landing performance is subject to the following conditions:
a) Home point is recorded upon take off, and cannot not be refreshed during flight.
b) Aircraft must take off vertically. Take off altitude must be greater than 7 meters.

Recently I had serious trouble with the vertical control of my AC. I kind of remember my takeoff was short and I hovered around 2-4 meters testing other functions before I ascended and practiced maneuvers. Perhaps it never registered a home point or an incorrect one? Will the craft fly if a home point was not properly created? Shouldn't there be a failsafe for that important step?

 

[Meta4]

I believe the Home point, which is essential for RTH and safe landings, is established automatically when you take off. The manual states:
Precision Landing performance is subject to the following conditions:
a) Home point is recorded upon take off, and cannot not be refreshed during flight.
b) Aircraft must take off vertically. Take off altitude must be greater than 7 meters.

Recently I had serious trouble with the vertical control of my AC. I kind of remember my takeoff was short and I hovered around 2-4 meters testing other functions before I ascended and practiced maneuvers. Perhaps it never registered a home point or an incorrect one? Will the craft fly if a home point was not properly created? Shouldn't there be a failsafe for that important step?

You are confusing the recording of a home point with the recording of precision landing data.

The homepoint is recorded when your Phantom gets a good GPS position fix.
That's usually before takeoff, but could be afterwards if you are impatient or launch from a spot where the sky is blocked.
The homepoint can be reset during a flight (but that would nix any chance of a precision landing later).

To use the precision landing feature, the Phantom has to hover something like 7-10 metres up after launching and photograph the launch spot to match when it returns.

 

[JeffreyS]

Interesting. There's nothing about precision landing data or a picture of any kind in the manual. Would be nice if there was a nice big message on the screen saying the homeport has been established to let me know before I take off. It's possible I wasn't waiting long enough but didn't know it.

 

[Meta4]

Interesting. There's nothing about precision landing data or a picture of any kind in the manual. Would be nice if there was a nice big message on the screen saying the homeport has been established to let me know before I take off. It's possible I wasn't waiting long enough but didn't know it.

Next time you go to fly, watch the indicated distance at the bottom of the screen.
You'll see it change from N/A to a number when your Phantom gets GPS and that number is the distance from your home point.
No number = no home point. A number = a home point.

 

[Meta4]

Interesting. There's nothing about precision landing data or a picture of any kind in the manual. Would be nice if there was a nice big message on the screen saying the homeport has been established to let me know before I take off. It's possible I wasn't waiting long enough but didn't know it.

Recording the home point with GPS is basic and baked into the Phantom's firmware.
It will do that automatically every flight.
Here's all the manual says about it.

Precision Landing is an additional feature that was introduced with the P4 pro.
It's an option that you can turn on/off and is mostly just an impressive gimmick rather than something important.

The home point referred to in the Precision Landing section above, is the photo of the home point which is used for precision landing.
This is supplementary to the GPS home point which is recorded whenever your Phantom gets good GPS position data.
DJI's wording could have been less confusing.

 

[msinger]

Would be nice if there was a nice big message on the screen saying the homeport has been established to let me know before I take off

DJI GO usually announces when the home point has been marked (if the volume is turned up on your mobile device). You'll see an "H" marker on the map in DJI GO when the home point has been marked. It's always a good idea to check the map to ensure the home point has been marked in the correct location.

 

[JeffreyS]

Thanks Meta4 and singer. I'll be sure to do that when I get my craft back from DJI. Sending it off today for repair or replacement.

 

[wa5tef]

Precision landing question please? I assume the camera must be looking down at the landing point but I’ve not seen this mentioned. Does anyone know if the camera automatically moves downward or if I have to manually move it. Mine dies not on V 2.0 and Litchi.
Thanks
Jim
WA5TEF

 

[Loz]

Precision landing question please? I assume the camera must be looking down at the landing point but I’ve not seen this mentioned. Does anyone know if the camera automatically moves downward or if I have to manually move it. Mine dies not on V 2.0 and Litchi.
Thanks
Jim
WA5TEF

Hi no, the user camera is not the camera used for precision landing, the Drone uses the two built in, downward facing, separate optical sensors on the bottom, so no pilot camera action required.

On takeoff, throttle up, no lateral movement, causing slow rise up to above 7m - then precision image should be recorded correctly.

 

[wa5tef]

Loz, thanks! I never thought of those. Guess they would make more sense. Appreciate your post.
Thanks,
Jim
WA5TEF

 

[Fat Albert]

Next time you go to fly, watch the indicated distance at the bottom of the screen.
You'll see it change from N/A to a number when your Phantom gets GPS and that number is the distance from your home point.
No number = no home point. A number = a home point.

I like this [emoji106][emoji106]

 

[jephoto]

Meta4- since getting the P4p-v2 I’ve not ever been able to reset my Homepoint to my (the controller) position. Using a 2018 iPad 9.7” that is cellular capable, but didn’t get another account for it. I always use my phone’s Hotspot to connect and get maps.
I read somewhere that the iPad’s internal GPS is only accurate to 30’, and therefore not precise enough for the Phantom to use it for resetting the homepoint to where I am.
Do you have any Info on this or suggestions on how I could improve things to get this function?

I often walk about when flying and sometimes I end up far enough away that changing my homepoint would be really helpful.

 

[Meta4]

Meta4- since getting the P4p-v2 I’ve not ever been able to reset my Homepoint to my (the controller) position. Using a 2018 iPad 9.7” that is cellular capable, but didn’t get another account for it. I always use my phone’s Hotspot to connect and get maps.
I read somewhere that the iPad’s internal GPS is only accurate to 30’, and therefore not precise enough for the Phantom to use it for resetting the homepoint to where I am.
Do you have any Info on this or suggestions on how I could improve things to get this function?

I often walk about when flying and sometimes I end up far enough away that changing my homepoint would be Healy helpful.

I've recently read several accounts of iPad users not being able to reset the home point even though all the appropriate conditions are met.
It seems there's an issue with recent firmware and/or the latest iOS update that's preventing it.

 

[jephoto]

Which iOS update?
Mine probably isn’t absolute latest. But I’ve had this issue since getting both the P4pv2 and new iPad last May (2018)

 

[MapMaker53]

I recently had a similar situation. Took my P4P (with iPad) out onto my back patio for a short test flight. Upon startup, I noticed that the Home Point indicated it was INSIDE my house (or on the roof) -- even though I was about 18 feet from my house. I shut it down, moved it over another 3 ft, started it back up, and the HomePoint was then correctly indicated. btw.. there is no rebar under my patio of concrete pavers. Taught me to look super carefully at the established Home Point if launching near any obstruction.

 

[jephoto]

I recently had a similar situation. Took my P4P (with iPad) out onto my back patio for a short test flight. Upon startup, I noticed that the Home Point indicated it was INSIDE my house (or on the roof) -- even though I was about 18 feet from my house. I shut it down, moved it over another 3 ft, started it back up, and the HomePoint was then correctly indicated. btw.. there is no rebar under my patio of concrete pavers. Taught me to look super carefully at the established Home Point if launching near any obstruction.

Not exactly similar. You are establishing a HomePoint for the drone- which it gets from the onboard GPS module on the P4P.

What I want to do- and should be able to- is change my HomePoint after I’ve been up and away, walked to another location, and reset it to MY position- where the controller is.
And to do that you need a GPS enabled device- your phone or tablet.
I paid the extra bucks for my Cellular capable iPad to have this capability. Don’t have a separate cellular account for the iPad, but I do use my phone’s personal hotspot to get online or load my maps when flying.
It should still work. But does not.

Has anyone out there successfully been able to reset the HomePoint to the conyroller’s locstion with an Apple device? Phone or iPad?
If so, I’d like to hear from you about settings, which device, iOS version etc.

 

[jephoto]

Which iOS update?
Mine probably isn’t absolute latest. But I’ve had this issue since getting both the P4pv2 and new iPad last May (2018)

Just checked. I’m still on iOS 11.4.1
Been leery of updating to v12

 

[Loz]

I’ll try check this as I’ve got the iOS / iPad config and are all up to date. I too don’t use sim (just gps) so let’s try..

 

[jephoto]

I’ll try check this as I’ve got the iOS / iPad config and are all up to date. I too don’t use sim (just gps) so let’s try..

Cool. Appreciated.
Just want to know if it’s possible with iOS devices.
It’s definitely SUPPOSED to work...

 

[Loz]

Tried it in back garden and confirm I could NOT get the takeoff recorded homepoint to update to where I had walked to - away from aircraft. I didn’t go very far (in case that is relevant) but got zero (confirmation) response from app when I actioned homepoint update to my current position. Humm that’s annoying, and as Meta indicated earlier. Of note I had adequate GPS signal on both AC and separately on iPad mini 4 cellular, IOS 12, firmware on P4P uptodate as is DJI4Go.

Edit FYI this is not something I use, but pretty sure I tried it about a year ago just to see how it worked, and pretty sure it did.