Odd Yaw Response with Phantom 3S When Using Litchi

[Billie Nelson]

I just made the switch over from using DJI GO to Litchi, and my preference definitely is now for Litchi, not in the least because the Litchi Mission Hub is so versatile for preparing flight plans even when the drone is on a shelf at home. I haven't yet gathered the courage to launch the Phantom 3S on any of the ten-minute autonomous flight paths I have saved and ready to go, but I did test the smart RTH feature which works as expected, so my first beyond visual range mission will definitely take place soon.

One thing I did notice when flying with Litchi, is that the drone's yaw response seemed a little less measured, and a little more erratic, than is the yaw response when DJI Go is in control. Specifically, I noticed that when I applied a yaw turning input, the craft seemed inclined to yaw to the right, and required frequent corrections to return yaw back to the left. This is not a major concern, since most of my future Litchi flights will be autonomous flights where I relegate myself to the "pilot monitoring" role, but I did get curious enough about this odd yaw response under Litchi, to post this observation here, in the hopes of hearing whether anyone else has experienced any similar hand-flying anomalies.

So, if any of you Phantom 3 Standard pilots out there have encountered this odd yaw response when using Litchi, I'd like to hear from you, and also to hear if there might be any setting adjustments that can be made within Litchi, to reduce that tendency for the craft to yaw to the right even when it is not being commanded to do so. Now that I switched from a generic Android device, whose camera view in Litchi remained a black screen, to an Apple iPad, which generates a spectacularly clear camera view, my first autonomous flight is imminent, yet, I still puzzle over this yaw behavior, and would like to hear if anyone else has observed anything similar.

 

[jwax]

Can't help with the yaw problem, but I also have a P3S that I would love to fly using Litchi for autonomous flights. My old iPad 4th gen won't do it. Could I ask what iPad generation are you using?

 

[Billie Nelson]

The iPad I'm using is a 7th generation, and it does work fine with Litchi, although for some reason it won't display the camera view on random occasions. Since the main purpose for my using Litchi is for autonomous missions to produce nice smooth flowing video footage, the yaw response glitch is not a deal breaker, but I was curious to find out if other Litchi users had encountered the behavior.

Having established that return to home works as expected with Litchi and this iPad, I am gathering up the nerve to send the drone out beyond signal range on its first fully autonomous flight, which I have set at a conservative ten minutes to allow a generous margin of error, in case the winds kick up on the return leg. It will take a leap of faith to take this next step, but to prepare for it, I will first launch a much shorter mission within visual range, to ensure that the turns occur where I expect to see them.

 

[David_Cambridge]

My P3 4K works fine with Litchi, both in pilot controlled mode and autonomously.

 

[Billie Nelson]

Thanks for this reassuring reply sir. It just occurred to me that winds aloft may have been the reason for the turning moment I was seeing. I'll wait till later and run another test to see if the behavior is repeatable under calmer conditions. My drone has never been crashed, and my landing touchdowns are always textbook smooth, so I am pretty sure there can't be any issues with the craft itself.