Litchi RTH and made it home safe !

Exciting, LOL, to me it was a nightmare for 3 minutes,
I'll take your advice and do the turn off RC on a short mission and see what happens, I'm going out to fly
Today, and I'll get back with results.
Thanks Bud
SteveP55
How did it go? [emoji4][emoji4]
 
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Hi LarBear360,
Thanks I got it from Airdata.com I checked all my files from the other day and today, Here is a short Log view in snap shot screen capture, you can see each section as I go through it.
See what you think? this is from the flight we've been talking about, whether It would've continued it's mission or was and I interrupted it when I lost connection
and tried to bring it home LOL.
Thanks LarBear360
 
How did it go? [emoji4][emoji4]
Hea Neon Euc,
Today I tested the mission and when it started I turned off the RC and it did just what you said it would... It completed the mission perfectly !
So I flew a couple longer missions but not the 3.0 mile mission yet. I did almost get in trouble today though, I was out about 4,348 ft. and got a little lost, the battery was dropping and I kicked in RTH and by the time I was ready to land batter level was down to 15 % and I could tell during the landing it was like the power was emptying fast. It was still a successful flight !, Oh yea my grand son was flying his XIRO Xplorer and it did a fly away and we thought he had lost it for good, so as we left the park we drove down the road a bit got out and started looking for it, and can you believe it, across the road in someone's front yard there it was standing on end, busted one of the motor areas on the body, but I had bought an extra body when I own the drone, so all still turned out fun today. Thanks Neon, PS you'll see the pics I uploaded of the Mission from the other day, it's the log file in pictures.
SteveP55
 
You lost connection at 2552 feet. Mission was still running as you can see from the timeline as the AC went out as far as 2887 feet where it appears to have made the turn (85% battery) and was headed for the next waypoint. Distance started to decrease as the AC was headed back. At 5 M 50 SEC mode changed to GPS ATTI after rejecting the previous attempts (Not supported) which I think paused your mission so it stopped in its tracks and hovered for a few minutes. At 9 minutes it accepted the Go Home. I wonder if that was the Litchi app or the left toggle switch? That could have been the fail-safe kicking in as it's designed to do when no signal is present.

The Litchi file may contain more details but I think it stalled out when you tried to bring it home. My guess is had you done nothing, regardless of signal, it would have continued on to complete it's mission.

You are a brave soul. I'm still testing 500 feet out and back, gradually building more trust in the app and the AC.

Happy flying!
 
Thanks LarBear360,
For taking a look at these files,
Yea I probably interrupted the mission
when I thought it was not moving through
On the mission. So next time I'll just let the mission run and not interfere with it.
Thanks Again
SteveP55
 
You lost connection at 2552 feet. Mission was still running as you can see from the timeline as the AC went out as far as 2887 feet where it appears to have made the turn (85% battery) and was headed for the next waypoint. Distance started to decrease as the AC was headed back. At 5 M 50 SEC mode changed to GPS ATTI after rejecting the previous attempts (Not supported) which I think paused your mission so it stopped in its tracks and hovered for a few minutes. At 9 minutes it accepted the Go Home. I wonder if that was the Litchi app or the left toggle switch? That could have been the fail-safe kicking in as it's designed to do when no signal is present.

The Litchi file may contain more details but I think it stalled out when you tried to bring it home. My guess is had you done nothing, regardless of signal, it would have continued on to complete it's mission.

You are a brave soul. I'm still testing 500 feet out and back, gradually building more trust in the app and the AC.

Happy flying!
Thanks Again LarBear360
It is kind of scary...that's why it is the P3adv. And not My P4 flying these first missions...LOL
 
Hea Neon Euc,
Today I tested the mission and when it started I turned off the RC and it did just what you said it would... It completed the mission perfectly !
So I flew a couple longer missions but not the 3.0 mile mission yet. I did almost get in trouble today though, I was out about 4,348 ft. and got a little lost, the battery was dropping and I kicked in RTH and by the time I was ready to land batter level was down to 15 % and I could tell during the landing it was like the power was emptying fast. It was still a successful flight !, Oh yea my grand son was flying his XIRO Xplorer and it did a fly away and we thought he had lost it for good, so as we left the park we drove down the road a bit got out and started looking for it, and can you believe it, across the road in someone's front yard there it was standing on end, busted one of the motor areas on the body, but I had bought an extra body when I own the drone, so all still turned out fun today. Thanks Neon, PS you'll see the pics I uploaded of the Mission from the other day, it's the log file in pictures.
SteveP55
If I am not mistaken, "smart" return to home (activated automatically when the aircraft computes that it must return due to low battery) is still activated and functional in Litchi if turned on in the DJIgo app, and it works regardless of whether or not you have radio contact. On longer litchi missions that push the limits of battery capacity, this feature must be turned off in DJIgo, or the mission will not fully complete. So, as long as you have smart RTH turned on you were probably not in any real trouble.
 
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If I am not mistaken, "smart" return to home (activated automatically when the aircraft computes that it must return due to low battery) is still activated and functional in Litchi if turned on in the DJIgo app, and it works regardless of whether or not you have radio contact. On longer litchi missions that push the limits of battery capacity, this feature must be turned off in DJIgo, or the mission will not fully complete. So, as long as you have smart RTH turned on you were probably not in any real trouble.
Thanks 53-63-6f-74-74
Yesterday it did activate the RTH as it was getting low battery, the voice said requesting to return home... Of course I clicked YES,
and it began it's trip home, I was still nervous though, because I was getting the battery read out every 20 seconds... But it made it back on a wing and a prayer LOL.
Thanks Man for the response, Take Care and Many Happy Flights !
SteveP55
 
Steve, your app will synch with the site. Nothing to upload. View everything on-line.

Litchi will also produce a flight log saved in the Litchi app folder on your device. You can upload that here:

DJI Flight Log Viewer

Loads of information you can view that should explain exactly wha happun.

Beautiful scenery by the way. I miss the midwest. My parents lived in Marengo,

Hi Again LarBear360,
Your parents lived just around the corner from me here in Rockford, I can't wait for the Fall to really set in,
the trees get so beautiful with every color you can imagine, I know you remember the falls in Marengo,
Where do you live now? LarBear360
SteveP55
 
Hi Again LarBear360,
Your parents lived just around the corner from me here in Rockford, I can't wait for the Fall to really set in,
the trees get so beautiful with every color you can imagine, I know you remember the falls in Marengo,
Where do you live now? LarBear360
SteveP55
My father was a salesman for Rockford Map. About 5 years ago they sold the house and moved to Indiana to be closer to my brother. My job transferred me in 1983 to Orange County/Southern California.
 
Hi LarBear360,
Ok, I lived in SanDiego Cal. back in the 70s when I was serving in the Navy on the USS Stein FF 1065, home ported there, for the time I spent there it was fun and beautiful, but to be honest I have to live where the seasons are like they are here. I missed the fall and winters.
To be honest Illinois is going straight down the tubes here, and Rockford has turned into a Chicago shooting fest, people being shot just standing in their own yards doing nothing.... Sad place any more.
Take Care
SteveP55
 
View attachment 88223I fly long distance Litchi Missions with Phantom 3 Std, 4 and 4 Pro all the time and have never lost a bird. Watching 'Dirty Bird' videos on YouTube gave me the confidence to fly these out of range missions. He has never lost a bird in over 2,000 multi-rotor flights. He loves Litchi. I love Litchi. You can fly those long distance missions with a Phantom 3 Std. This mission was planned with Litchi Relative to Ground feature. I will change the over water altitude to 30 ft. Gives you more of a feeling of cruising in a boat.
Actually, Dirty Bird has lost one when it hit a sail mast and went into the deep!
 
I fly long distance Litchi Missions with Phantom 3 Std, 4 and 4 Pro all the time and have never lost a bird. Watching 'Dirty Bird' videos on YouTube gave me the confidence to fly these out of range missions. This is my favorite.
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Says he has never lost a bird in over 2,000 multi-rotor flights. He loves Litchi. I love Litchi. You can fly those long distance missions with a Phantom 3 Std. This mission was planned with Litchi Relative to Ground feature. I changed the over water altitude to 30 ft. Gives you more of a feeling of cruising in a boat. Also changed the first and last waypoint altitude. I always slow speed at the last three waypoints which I place fairly close together. Hate that thing coming in at over 30 mph to an abrupt stop.
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I fly Litchi missions all the time and very often lose the connection. My flights are typically 16000-17000 feet at 14mph and last about 12-14 minutes. After the first time losing the connection and having the bird return you will have the confidence to send it out again. One thing I noticed however, is that the flight data is not recorded while the connection is lost which would be nice to have. I log everything to Airdata directly out of Litchi.
 
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Reading through the entire thread, no one mentioned the mission setting for the final waypoint, which must be chosen. Such as Return home, hover, etc. Or setting for the waypoints themselves such as stay for x amount of time. Check your settings for each waypoint, and action for final waypoint. THese could have been the issue.
The manual states to stop mission if in tx range, switch from F to P. It doesn't mention hitting RTH as you and others have mentioned in this tread. ???
 
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Lots of comments here so this may have been answered already. Anyway, if the mission is uploaded, in Litchi, and you lose connection, the drone does not care. It executes the rest of the mission until the battery condition triggers RTH. Otherwise, you can upload the mission and take a break while it flies it and then runs the last command. On that, I always have RTH loaded. Never a problem with Litchi.
Jim
WA5TEF
 
Steveman, I'm using both. If I'm just flying around under my control I'm using GO. That way if something unexpected happens, DJI can't blame it on Litchi.

I have flown a few missions with Litchi using Orbit and waypoints. I had one my first waypoint mission running fine. As the bird was returning back to me, it turned around and headed off in another direction. I never did figure what happened there. Another day I set-up an orbit and it ran fine. The next day I set-up another orbit and the thing went in the opposite direction. Probably my error in setting up.

I have also used GO to oribit and it worked fine. Actually quite easy and you can focus on the camera. It will also allow you to adjust altitude and width of your orbit on the fly.

I'm gradually trying to trust Litchi but those long distance autonomous flights are not in my plans.

So to answer your question plainly, at the moment I prefer Go, but if I start to get video lag again, I'll go back to Litchi for everyday use.

I too use both apps. I have flown several waypoint missions of over 6,000' in length. Yes, vlos was maintained, but my horse got pretty tired. Never had the bird stop and hover on its own. I tend to plan my missions at 200' altitude AGL at most waypoints. With Litchi I can set any, or all, waypoints to be a given altitude RELATIVE TO GROUND.

My only issue with Litchi is that occasionally my mission won't upload on the first try. Litchi tech said this started after a DJI SDK update and has been reported to DJI. Solution is to keep attempting to upload and eventually it will succeed.
 
Just yesterday I was out flying park where I usually fly kind of out in the country, I had put together a way point mission with a round about flight of about 3.0 miles, everything was going fine then I started to lose control connection, I figured regardless it will complete it's mission and return, I was about a half of a mile or so in distance away and only flying an altitude of 196 ft. and a lot of trees between me and the P3 Adv. so I waited and every few seconds I got an update on the flight data and seems it was just hovering somewhere, Now I'm beginning to become nervous, so we started to walk in the last direction it showed on the map for it's location, I had already tried RTH on Litchi and nothing happened, we kept walking in that direction, finally after a 100 yards or so of walking I tried RTH again... battery at about 53 %... then like magic the app voice says Returning Home and starts giving me live data again and a speed of 22 mph, she's coming home, shortly we could hear that beautiful sound of the props overhead. This was my very first scary situation for sure, But she made it home and that's what counts. I think maybe if my Altitude would've been like 300' ft. or so I might not have lost connection, but since my altitude was only 193 ft. with all the trees it was not reaching the P3 adv.
The Moral of the story is DO NOT Panic, keep cool and use your head.. and more then likely everything will be fine !

I would assume that if you have set the mission to RTH in the event of Action Finished (se attached image) would activate the RTH function? But this I have not tested. I also have in my mind that Litchi can complete the mission even when the RC connection is lost. I use primarily Autopilot were you can set the lost connection to RTH on "mission completion"
 

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