Fail safe and flying below takeoff elevation

[Lasvegascfp]

I have a P2V+ but I believe this question is the same for all of them so I'll post it here.

If I take off from a mountain top - say 9,000 feet - and fly below into a canyon - say a drop of 500 feet - and I lose it, will fail safe bring the copter up to 9,060 feet and then return home OR will it just go up 60 feet from fail safe elevation (-440 feet from start) and gradually go home possibly causing a crash into the canyon/trees etc?

It would make sense for it to got to 9,060 feet first but I don't want to find out the hard way!

Thanks!

 

[ProfessorStein]

That's the way it's SUPPPOSED to operate, yes. It's supposed to raise to 20m above the set home point, not 20m above the drones current altitude. Though, full disclosure, I've never actually tried it. ;-)

 

[Lasvegascfp]

Thanks!

 

[ProfessorStein]

You can even fly to an altitude and RESET the home point there, and RTH is supposed to rise to 20m above THAT altitude. Within reason, I suppose.

 

[Lasvegascfp]

How do you reset the altitude?

 

[Lasvegascfp]

Now that I think of it, if it's coming hime in fail safe and I want to regain control for some reason (I.e. It's too close to a tree) how do I take it out of failsafe and regain controls? I would think cycling the power would do it.

For something so easy to fly I can think of a lot of situations where you'd need to think quick.

I read the manual but don't remember seeing it in there. I'll check again.

 

[Rizzo Media Factory]

You take control over the Phantom while it is in RTH mode by flipping the S1 down and back up. You reset it's home point by toggling the S2 switch a few times while it is in the air. The rear LEDs should confirm you have reset the home point, keep in mind it has to have 6 or more satellites to fly in GPS mode.

 

[Lasvegascfp]

Cool thanks!

This forum is great!

 

[ProfessorStein]

Resetting your home point: fly to wherever you want your new home point to be, and hover at the altitude you'd like to set (if you just want to reset the altitude, just fly straight up from the current home point) then quickly toggle the S2 switch 5 times between full up and full down. If a new point is successfully set, your green LEDs should blink rapidly for a bit (you must already have had a previous home point set, I believe... so you can't launch without that initial GPS lock). Now the Phantom should rise to 20 meters above this new altitude if/when RTH is activated.

Regaining control during RTH: if the Phantom is returning to home (usually indicated by the orange LEDs), and has re-entered control range, you can switch S1 to the middle or bottom position and then back to the topmost position to regain control. When I first tested RTH, I turned my RC off. The Phantom went into failsafe. I turned the RC back on and I never regained control... I think it just took too long to bind, or to warm up, so that the Phantom had already landed by that time. Or maybe something else was wrong. I don't know. Now that I've switched over to NAZA mode on the controller, I've gone into RTH manually while keeping the controller powered up, and I can regain control of the Phantom immediately with the S1 switch. Seems safer than powering off.

All this info is in the User Manual (page 33 in the 1.18 version of the manual... might be other places in different versions... but it's in the table of contents under "FLIGHT -> FAILSAFE FUNCTION -> Regaining Control During Failsafe Procedure").

 

[Lasvegascfp]

Thx!!!

I'm taking it to Cedar Breaks this weekend and want to have this dialed in! I really appreciate the help.

 

[ProfessorStein]

Just run it through it's paces *before* you go, so you get a feel for everything. If you find it doesn't work, you may need to break in with the Assistant app(s) to either check the switches or move over to NAZA mode. Probably more convenient to do while you're at home, rather than while you're away for the weekend.

 

[Lasvegascfp]

Yes I've flown a few times at home, works great and a lot of fun! I plan on several flights on the slopes first up there to test some of these things then out to Cedar breaks.

 

[ProfessorStein]

I meant use the RTH. It's useful to know how RTH reacts, and to test whether you can actually regain control in your current configuration, before you actually need it.

 

[Lasvegascfp]

Right! I'm going to do that a few times BEFORE I may need it