P3P squirrelly at low altitude

[theoneandonlybrooks]

Maybe this is normal, but this is my first DJI drone so I don't know. My used P3P is very squirrelly at low altitude, like a couple feet off the ground, it is not stable in ground effect. 10 feet off the ground, a little better, 20 feet up, pretty stable. I have a 24" landing pad, and it's rare I can land on it, because as soon as it gets about a foot from the ground it swerves hard one way or the other. It seemed to me like it could be gps, but isn't there a sensor on the bottom that tracks the ground for stability? Thinking it was gps, I tried switching to atti, but then it just drifted fast one direction.

My Autel Evo and 3DR Solo are much more stable close to the ground by comparison. Is this normal? Is there a setting I need to adjust? Could that ground sensor be out of whack?

 

[Meta4]

Is this normal?

It's not normal

Is there a setting I need to adjust? Could that ground sensor be out of whack?

The simple way to check is to disable the VPS sensors in the app settings and do a test flight.

 

[theoneandonlybrooks]

It's not normal

The simple way to check is to disable the VPS sensors in the app settings and do a test flight.

Ok, I will try that. Thanks

 

[Recoveryone]

From my experiences, and I have 2 P3P they are the most unreliable in RTH accuracy. I normally, manually land mine on the pad.

 

[theoneandonlybrooks]

From my experiences, and I have 2 P3P they are the most unreliable in RTH accuracy. I normally, manually land mine on the pad.

I don't think any of mine would hit the pad on rth, but I have no problem manually landing the others in that small of a circle (24"). I know the Evo is newer, but the Solo lands just as well as it. The P3P just shoots around when trying to manually land.
Your comment does remind me that I flew a drone deploy survey with the P3P, and it took off and landed itself, and it seemed to land fairly well, it was probably about a foot from the edge of the pad which I thought was pretty good for a rth.

 

[Recoveryone]

I don't think any of mine would hit the pad on rth, but I have no problem manually landing the others in that small of a circle (24"). I know the Evo is newer, but the Solo lands just as well as it. The P3P just shoots around when trying to manually land.
Your comment does remind me that I flew a drone deploy survey with the P3P, and it took off and landed itself, and it seemed to land fairly well, it was probably about a foot from the edge of the pad which I thought was pretty good for a rth.

I have used Drone Deploy also and the ending flight is just as much a gamble, I think it came back within 10-15 feet and that is about average for RTH with mine. My Phantom 4 and all Mavic's are dead on.

 

[Meta4]

From my experiences, and I have 2 P3P they are the most unreliable in RTH accuracy. I normally, manually land mine on the pad.

I don't think any of mine would hit the pad on rth,

I have used Drone Deploy also and the ending flight is just as much a gamble, I think it came back within 10-15 feet and that is about average for RTH with mine. My Phantom 4 and all Mavic's are dead on.

Complaints about RTH autolanding accuracy are always because it depends on GPS and can only be as accurate as GPS.
GPS is not pinpoint accurate.
Sometimes it will get you close, most of the time it will put you closer than 10 feet and sometimes it can be >10 feet.
If you use the Precision Landing feature which uses optical technology, RTH autolanding will be within inches but with GPS alone it will often be +/- several feet.

 

[theoneandonlybrooks]

Complaints about RTH autolanding accuracy are always because it depends on GPS and can only be as accurate as GPS.
GPS is not pinpoint accurate.
Sometimes it will get you close, most of the time it will put you closer than 10 feet and sometimes it can be >10 feet.
If you use the Precision Landing feature which uses optical technology, RTH autolanding will be within inches but with GPS alone it will often be +/- several feet.

I have no complaints with my rth landing accuracy. It's the manual landing that I'm struggling with on this drone.

 

[KachemakDiver]

That’s odd! I’ve flown a dozen or so P3P’s and I’ve always landed manually, easily. It shouldn’t drift around uncontrollably. Try doing what Meta4 says in post #2. If that doesn’t help then do a IMU calibration.

 

[theoneandonlybrooks]

Thanks for the feedback. Flew it today in windspeeds from upper teens to upper 20's. Turned off the vps, landed much better despite the wind. I was landing with some trees for a bit of a wind break, similar to where I was struggling the other day.

I was also testing out an NDVI camera on my Solo in the same conditions this weekend. It's still more stable than the P3P, including in the air, so maybe I do need to calibrate the imu.

Since the topic of rth landing accuracy came up in this thread, this pic is where the Solo landed on its rth today.

 

[KachemakDiver]

I’ve never auto landed. I have a lot of trees and other obstacles to make sure I miss. If I can manage to get to a larger open area to start from,I’ll try RTH to see how accurate, or inaccurate my P3P’s are.
Thanks all for the great topic ?