Lost faith I'm RTH function

LeeLaw · Jan 3, 2017

Sent my p4p to capture some wildlife a couple f hundred meters away.
Was using Samsung S4at the time as my device.
The video feed started to glitch and the drone was small enough for me not to see in which direction it was facing so I decided to bring her home.
After pressing the RTH button she dutifully started ascending... and didn't stop until "maximum height reached" (120m)

At this point I had no idea where she was as she had disappeared into the sky. Long story short I got her home. Does anyone have any idea why this would happen?? I'm scared of pressing that button again. [emoji85]

Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots

ElCid79 · Jan 3, 2017

Lee,

If you are above the set RTH height, and signal a return to home, in some cases it will continue climbing. There are a bunch of threads about this floating around. We are all hoping the next firmware update will resolve it.

Ricrabt · Jan 3, 2017

I have a p3 standard and it lost signal and said "landing " instead of RTH. Luckily I got control back before it landed. RTH worked before, but not that time. I'm seeing quite a few issues with RTH function.

Meta4 · Jan 3, 2017

LeeLaw said:
Sent my p4p to capture some wildlife a couple f hundred meters away.
Was using Samsung S4at the time as my device.
The video feed started to glitch and the drone was small enough for me not to see in which direction it was facing so I decided to bring her home.
After pressing the RTH button she dutifully started ascending... and didn't stop until "maximum height reached" (120m)

At this point I had no idea where she was as she had disappeared into the sky. Long story short I got her home. Does anyone have any idea why this would happen?? I'm scared of pressing that button again.

The problem was probably a simple misunderstanding of settings etc.
The best way to solve this mystery is to look at the actual flight data.
Go to https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/
Follow the instructions to upload your flight record.
Come back and post a link to the report it provides and someone here might be able to analyse it and give you an understanding of the cause of the incident.

RTH is quite reliable but you have to experiment with it to understand what it does and how it does it.
That your Phantom came home despite your disorientation, shows that things were working well.

Meta4 · Jan 3, 2017

Ricrabt said:
I have a p3 standard and it lost signal and said "landing " instead of RTH. Luckily I got control back before it landed. RTH worked before, but not that time. I'm seeing quite a few issues with RTH function.

The Go app has settings for Loss of Signal behaviour.
By default this is set at RTH.
Yours must have been changed to Land in place.
It's easy to check the settings, but you can only do it with the Phantom connected.

With The Birds · Jan 3, 2017

It might be that the AC perform d exactly as should be expected (subject to what your RTH height setting was). If it was just video that was glitchy and you still had control you could have used the heading indicator in the app to help your fly home (the orientation is not a mystery if you have a connection). You could have increased altitude and would likely have had improved signal. At only a few hundreds meters out with poor signal it might be that you need to learn how to best position your antennas and aim your remote for best connection quality.

Ricrabt · Jan 3, 2017

With The Birds said:
It might be that the AC perform d exactly as should be expected (subject to what your RTH height setting was). If it was just video that was glitchy and you still had control you could have used the heading indicator in the app to help your fly home (the orientation is not a mystery if you have a connection). You could have increased altitude and would likely have had improved signal. At only a few hundreds meters out with poor signal it might be that you need to learn how to best position your antennas and aim your remote for best connection quality.

I am pretty new to flying, but I do know the remote/antenna was pointed in the right direction. I tried to increase altitude and also tried manual RTH which said failed. Video was still working but it said lost signal and then said landing. At that point I began to move towards the direction it was at, figuring if it landed it could be lost. I regained control and got it back. I was under the impression that if the signal Wes lost it would RTH. The home point was definitely set. I'll check to see if it's still set to RTH in settings. It just kind of freaked me out when it said landing because of trees and who knows what. I hope it was just an error on my part and not what I've seen other people having issues with. Any advice is welcome...

Meta4 · Jan 3, 2017

Ricrabt said:
I am pretty new to flying, but I do know the remote/antenna was pointed in the right direction. I tried to increase altitude and also tried manual RTH which said failed. Video was still working but it said lost signal and then said landing. At that point I began to move towards the direction it was at, figuring if it landed it could be lost. I regained control and got it back. I was under the impression that if the signal Wes lost it would RTH. The home point was definitely set. I'll check to see if it's still set to RTH in settings. It just kind of freaked me out when it said landing because of trees and who knows what. I hope it was just an error on my part and not what I've seen other people having issues with. Any advice is welcome...

If you tried to set RTH from the screen, you may have hit the land now button above it instead?

To find out for sure ...
Go to https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/
Follow the instructions to upload your flight record.
Come back and post a link to the report it provides and someone here might be able to analyse it andfind an explanation.

DRONE KING · Jan 3, 2017

Just to bring back a bit of faith in those who have lost theirs in the RTH button.. I've been flying for a couple of years now, started of with a husband x4, bought myself a racing walkera, then recently bought a P4.. I wanted to see the limits of what this thing could do, although many of you will disagree what I'm about to tell you i just had to see how far this thing could travel without any range extenders or accessories what so ever.. I live in a city, took the P4 at 1000ft (much ,much higher than any surrounding buildings and well out of view from any pedestrians)and flew it a couple of miles out into the city.. The drone was completely out of sight and i was sorely using my iPad to control the drone.. the wind was around 20mph going out towards the city then all of a sudden i had a weak signal warning next thing my aircraft disconnected.. Although i know the city like the back of my hand there's no worse feeling than having a completely blank screen saying aircraft disconnected in the top left corner.. After around a minute of loosing signal it it gracefully ascended 30m and started to battle its journey home automatically against the high winds.. after around 15 minutes of charging through the wind at a staggering 3ft per second at times i managed to land the P4 at my doorstep within 19% battery life.. Close call, but fulfilled me with complete confidence on how good this system works.. would i do this again, probably not, does technology let you down sometimes, yes definitely.. I would speak to DJI themselves and see what they have to say with the issue you're having..

Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots

With The Birds · Jan 3, 2017

Ricrabt said:
I am pretty new to flying, but I do know the remote/antenna was pointed in the right direction. I tried to increase altitude and also tried manual RTH which said failed. Video was still working but it said lost signal and then said landing. At that point I began to move towards the direction it was at, figuring if it landed it could be lost. I regained control and got it back. I was under the impression that if the signal Wes lost it would RTH. The home point was definitely set. I'll check to see if it's still set to RTH in settings. It just kind of freaked me out when it said landing because of trees and who knows what. I hope it was just an error on my part and not what I've seen other people having issues with. Any advice is welcome...

Maybe you should start your own thread with your circumstances outlined. This thread is concerned with P4P issues.

DJI_PilotIndy · Jan 30, 2017

LeeLaw said:
Sent my p4p to capture some wildlife a couple f hundred meters away.
Was using Samsung S4at the time as my device.
The video feed started to glitch and the drone was small enough for me not to see in which direction it was facing so I decided to bring her home.
After pressing the RTH button she dutifully started ascending... and didn't stop until "maximum height reached" (120m)

At this point I had no idea where she was as she had disappeared into the sky. Long story short I got her home. Does anyone have any idea why this would happen?? I'm scared of pressing that button again. [emoji85]

Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots

"Land Now" and "Return to Home" behave differently. Almost crashed my Mavic Pro with "Land Now" thinking I had tapped on RTH. It began to descend straight down towards a canal. Tried to cancel but the cancel command failed! Had to force the Mavic to ascend, while fighting the descent, and then fly it to safe landing area.

Surfshop · Jan 30, 2017

Could be the DJI Go app, version 3.1.2 is a bit dodge and it has RTH issues in my experience

Sent from my SM-G920F using PhantomPilots mobile app

qtonic · Jan 30, 2017

ElCid79 said:
Lee,

If you are above the set RTH height, and signal a return to home, in some cases it will continue climbing. There are a bunch of threads about this floating around. We are all hoping the next firmware update will resolve it.

I remember reading a thread somewhere that seemed to pinpoint the exact circumstances where this would occur, but now I can't remember exactly what the scenario is that causes it. Does anyone know or have a link?