Failsafe / run home to mama mode?

[jokerone]

Hi,

I got p4 as a present last week. I've used it a few times with my crappy cell phone. At about 1/4 mile out the phone gets purple lines on the screen and I end up either flying blind, or get spotting screen updates. So I aborted the flights and returned to home. (getting a Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1)

My question is :

If the P4 loses complete contact with the remote, what happens? Is there a Fail Safe mode that has it return home, does it just hover until it dies, does it follow the last command and keep going until it dies?

Just wondering what sort of safety features if any are encoded into the firmware.

thanks!

 

[msinger]

If the P4 loses complete contact with the remote, what happens?

By default, it will RTH after the remote controller connection has been lost for 3 seconds. There is a setting in DJI GO that allows the Phantom to be configured to hover in place or land at its current location if you'd rather it not RTH.

 

[jokerone]

By default, it will RTH after the remote controller connection has been lost for 3 seconds. There is a setting in DJI GO that allows the Phantom to be configured to hover in place or land at its current location if you'd rather it not RTH.

Ok, cool. makes me feel better. ;-)

 

[phlyer]

Ok, cool. makes me feel better. ;-)

When flying in Sport mode I find it runs out of distance quite quickly and returns home much sooner than in P mode. It's a great feeling the first time it happens and really boosts your trust in the P4. Just make sure you have it set up to return home .

 

[jokerone]

When flying in Sport mode I find it runs out of distance quite quickly and returns home much sooner than in P mode. It's a great feeling the first time it happens and really boosts your trust in the P4. Just make sure you have it set up to return home .

Cool. Thanks. Haven't tried it in anything other than P-Mode. I've flown it about 4 times total. Waiting for my tablet before venturing more. the cell phone operation just doesn't cut it for me. ;-)

 

[WilsonFlyer]

I don't believe anyone's mentioned this, but just because our video goes out doesn't necessarily mean that the TX has lost contact with the RX in the quad. There's no way you should be losing contact or Lightbridge at 1/4 mile out. Something else is going on here, I think.

Anyway, my point is this. The only way to be sure it comes home if you can't see it anymore is to hit the Return to Home button, and to be absolutely sure, you would have to turn the TX OFF. That should always be a last-ditch attempt when all else has totally failed and even then, I'd tend to trust the failed link to take care of this rather than a power off. I don't know. I'd be more worried about signal loss at 1/4 mile than anything else. Maybe I fly in a Utopian world most of the time but I've never even come close to losing signal that close to me, not even with my foamie park flyers.

 

[Helihover]

I went my furthest ever Sunday morning. I got to 3,300 feet and things started getting fuzzy. I lost signal and then the screen froze. Heart beating like a hummingbird, my screen soon came back up and I was watching my p4 head back home with the option to stop. Was pretty cool.

 

[Great_Lakes]

I agree with Wilson. I have lost "image transmission signal" many times without losing the "controller signal" Even if you can't see where you're at on your FPV from the camera, you can release the controls and press RTH.

 

[Great_Lakes]

I went my furthest ever Sunday morning. I got to 3,300 feet and things started getting fuzzy. I lost signal and then the screen froze. Heart beating like a hummingbird, my screen soon came back up and I was watching my p4 head back home with the option to stop. Was pretty cool.

Done that before too! Heart in the throat for sure. But It sure is a nice feeling when you hear the buzzing sound of a drone returning home after a few minutes, ain't it?!

 

[jokerone]

I don't believe anyone's mentioned this, but just because our video goes out doesn't necessarily mean that the TX has lost contact with the RX in the quad. There's no way you should be losing contact or Lightbridge at 1/4 mile out. Something else is going on here, I think.

Anyway, my point is this. The only way to be sure it comes home if you can't see it anymore is to hit the Return to Home button, and to be absolutely sure, you would have to turn the TX OFF. That should always be a last-ditch attempt when all else has totally failed and even then, I'd tend to trust the failed link to take care of this rather than a power off. I don't know. I'd be more worried about signal loss at 1/4 mile than anything else. Maybe I fly in a Utopian world most of the time but I've never even come close to losing signal that close to me, not even with my foamie park flyers.

thanks. I think it was my cell phone. Its crappy and I think the video buffer got overwhelmed. Could have been doing it the entire time, but at 1/4 mile or so (more like an 1/8 of a mile) is where I looked at the screen for the first time since launch.

thanks.

 

[jokerone]

I agree with Wilson. I have lost "image transmission signal" many times without losing the "controller signal" Even if you can't see where you're at on your FPV from the camera, you can release the controls and press RTH.

Yes, from watching the video, it seemed to be responding to my commands, even if I couldn't tell that while on the ground.

Question : When you hit the RTH, and hear the beeping. Does that mean that the RTH command has been given, or that the unit acknowledged the RTH command? thanks.

 

[jokerone]

I went my furthest ever Sunday morning. I got to 3,300 feet and things started getting fuzzy. I lost signal and then the screen froze. Heart beating like a hummingbird, my screen soon came back up and I was watching my p4 head back home with the option to stop. Was pretty cool.

I understand. That is my problem. That little cell phone, I can't even see the map. Should have my Samsung tablet by the weekend.

thanks.

 

[WWK888]

Make sure you set your RTH altitude high enough to avoid obstacles on the way back.


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots

 

[jokerone]

Make sure you set your RTH altitude high enough to avoid obstacles on the way back.


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots

Ok, thanks. I really need to go though all the settings before flying again.

 

[Great_Lakes]

Yes, from watching the video, it seemed to be responding to my commands, even if I couldn't tell that while on the ground.

Question : When you hit the RTH, and hear the beeping. Does that mean that the RTH command has been given, or that the unit acknowledged the RTH command? thanks.

You know, I'm not really sure about that. Hopefully someone here will be able to answer it. "Does the beeping when you hit RTH only mean that the remote sent the RTH command, or that the aircraft received it, or both? Every time I've pressed RTH, the GO app will audibly say that the aircraft is returning home. I just don't know if that is a status message coming from the aircraft or just something the GO app says automatically just because you pressed the RTH button.

Of course you should set your settings in the GO app to automatically return to home when the controller signal is lost, (not hover or land), but if you were to lose video, but not controller signal, your bird would be just hovering out there somewhere out of your sight! So if that happens, pressing the RTH button should bring it home. In either case, signal lost or press RTH, the bird should come home.

 

[jokerone]

You know, I'm not really sure about that. Hopefully someone here will be able to answer it. "Does the beeping when you hit RTH only mean that the remote sent the RTH command, or that the aircraft received it, or both? Every time I've pressed RTH, the GO app will audibly say that the aircraft is returning home. I just don't know if that is a status message coming from the aircraft or just something the GO app says automatically just because you pressed the RTH button.

Of course you should set your settings in the GO app to automatically return to home when the controller signal is lost, (not hover or land), but if you were to lose video, but not controller signal, your bird would be just hovering out there somewhere out of your sight! So if that happens, pressing the RTH button should bring it home. In either case, signal lost or press RTH, the bird should come home.

thanks. Is their a low battery RTH threshold too?

 

[Pharm]

According to the manual (which you should read several times), it will RTH upon signal loss. Also, make sure you're antennas are positioned correctly (parallel to the legs of the phantom, not pointing at it). If you have a P4, you should get a lot further out than 1/4 mile before losing video feed IF the antennas are positioned the way they're described in the manual. I could be wrong but I don't think the problem is your phone unless your phone was getting too hot.

 

[jokerone]

According to the manual (which you should read several times), it will RTH upon signal loss. Also, make sure you're antennas are positioned correctly (parallel to the legs of the phantom, not pointing at it). If you have a P4, you should get a lot further out than 1/4 mile before losing video feed IF the antennas are positioned the way they're described in the manual. I could be wrong but I don't think the problem is your phone unless your phone was getting too hot.

I agree. the phone is low end. had it set to airplane mode so no calls during flight. I'll see how it handles after I get the tablet.

thanks.

 

[Great_Lakes]

According to the manual (which you should read several times), it will RTH upon signal loss.

Don't mean to split hairs here, but that is not entirely true. Upon signal loss it will do whatever you have set in the GO app under "Remote control signal loss" in the Advanced settings. The setting choices are Return to home, Land or Hover. I only mention it because that setting is very important. If you have the bird so far out that you can't see it and you lose controller signal, the bird will do whatever is in that setting. Hovering or landing could have way different results than it actually flying home. Just sayin.

 

[Pharm]

Don't mean to split hairs here, but that is not entirely true. Upon signal loss it will do whatever you have set in the GO app under "Remote control signal loss" in the Advanced settings. The setting choices are Return to home, Land or Hover. I only mention it because that setting is very important. If you have the bird so far out that you can't see it and you lose controller signal, the bird will do whatever is in that setting. Hovering or landing could have way different results than it actually flying home. Just sayin.

Correct but I think the default setting is RTH (in case a newbie runs out of range without setting it).