Trustworthiness of "home" feature

[denemante]

Hi all - recently purchased a Phantom 3 standard. It has the single antenna remote and connects via wifi to my Galaxy S8+. It's awesome - I'm having a blast. But I'm nervous about pushing the limits and have a few questions.

I've gotten a few red warnings related to remote/signal. I never pushed it farther - unsure if that is the wifi-view/control or the remote control? I feel like this happens at perhaps 350 feet high and maybe 600 feet away.

But if I really push the boundaries and just fly up to maybe 300 feet and shoot off indefinitely into the distance, what will happen? Some people report they've gone like 4500 feet away? At some point, either the remote or wi-fi will go out or lose connection, I presume.

But will the home feature take over, so I'll have no problem? It will just come home, or back into range?

There is a park 2000 feet from my front door. I'd love to fly over my neighborhood using FPV and over the park, then come back. I'm just afraid the signal will get lost, or that somehow, the drone will be on its own.

What have you all experienced?

 

[Meta4]

But if I really push the boundaries and just fly up to maybe 300 feet and shoot off indefinitely into the distance, what will happen? Some people report they've gone like 4500 feet away? At some point, either the remote or wi-fi will go out or lose connection, I presume.

But will the home feature take over, so I'll have no problem? It will just come home, or back into range?

The manual has three pages about RTH.
It's probably the most important section for pilots to understand.
RTH is quite reliable but you need to understand what it does and how it does it.

I would recommend reading the RTH section of the manual and then going to the park and experimenting with RTH to learn how to activate RTH and how to cancel it and resume control.
Make sure you are in a large open area.
You will have to fly >60 feet away for RTH to work - closer than 60 feet and it will just land where it is.
You can test to see what would happen if you lose signal by flying 100 feet out and switching the controller off.
You can switch it back on to reconnect when you want to.

 

[LarBear360]

Hi all - recently purchased a Phantom 3 standard. It has the single antenna remote and connects via wifi to my Galaxy S8+. It's awesome - I'm having a blast. But I'm nervous about pushing the limits and have a few questions.

I've gotten a few red warnings related to remote/signal. I never pushed it farther - unsure if that is the wifi-view/control or the remote control? I feel like this happens at perhaps 350 feet high and maybe 600 feet away.

But if I really push the boundaries and just fly up to maybe 300 feet and shoot off indefinitely into the distance, what will happen? Some people report they've gone like 4500 feet away? At some point, either the remote or wi-fi will go out or lose connection, I presume.

But will the home feature take over, so I'll have no problem? It will just come home, or back into range?

There is a park 2000 feet from my front door. I'd love to fly over my neighborhood using FPV and over the park, then come back. I'm just afraid the signal will get lost, or that somehow, the drone will be on its own.

What have you all experienced?

It's reliable. Testing it out was one of my first flights. It's important to be able to trust the AC. But you need to understand how it works and how to take back control if you want to or need to. This has helped me immensely lately with a few unexplained RTH at just 350 feet.

Just know that the actual point of landing may be up to 15 feet apart from your point of takeoff, so always be sure your home point is set away from any potential obstacles, especially trees.

 

[GrammatonxXXxCleric]

One very important thing about RTH is the altitude it will be set at as it does it. It will fly in a straight line back home and not avoid trees, buildings ect. Be sure to set it higher than any object in the area.

 

[Mark The Droner]

RTH is rock solid. The weakness is the pilot.

 

[NYroadside]

Your apprehension is understandable. The suggestions mentioned above are all excellent recommendations. In addition to the RTH height setting, the most crucial thing about RTH is that the home point is actually set before you take off. Unless I hear that confirmation after I fire up the motors, I don't send it up. Doing that, I've managed to get distance well beyond the advertised range, lose control signal, and my P3S has always returned home and landed.

 

[Bobscott]

I fly a lot more conservative....i Don't fly my bird out of my site and have found everything to be very fun and very affordable.....

 

[Bobscott]

Will say being hooked to the S8 is awesome....flew yesterday and found all my footage saved to the phone without pulling the SD card...now that's sweet

 

[LarBear360]

Will say being hooked to the S8 is awesome....flew yesterday and found all my footage saved to the phone without pulling the SD card...now that's sweet

The quality on the SD card will be much higher should you decide to save it.

 

[Bobscott]

Thank You!...pretty surprised at the phone quality...bought the S8+ specifically for the Pjantom....surprises me every day what it does...had a HTC 9

 

[RodPad]

@denemante
Welcome to the forum!
All good stuff!

A few of my favorites.
Best Method to RTH?
Lesson learned from crash by RTH because flying with a low battery
Lost signal (but not really)

Rod

 

[iflyp3s]

I have found the RTH to be very reliable on my P3S, which kicks in just seconds after it loses signal.

My only critique of the RTH system is the slight drift or "inaccuracy" of the recorded home point (probably due to low satellite count) in my experience. A 0.5m difference can quickly change what surface you are landing on, but then again this is by you should take off in open spaces. I have noticed after doing the MagicPower mod that the RC takes a longer time to reconnect to the drone even if it is close by.

Practice makes perfect anyway - keep slowly building confidence in it by slowly increasing its limits.

 

[LarBear360]

I try to push mine an extra 50 - 100 feet every time. I would recommend any new pilot practice RTH and master the procedure to ensure a safe landing. The AC CAN land up to 15 feet from the home point.

 

[Meta4]

My only critique of the RTH system is the slight drift or "inaccuracy" of the recorded home point (probably due to low satellite count) in my experience.

What you've observed is due to the variable accuracy of consumer GPS.
Most of the time the accuracy of a GPS fix will be within 2 metres but it can sometimes be even more even with lots of satelites.
It only takes 4 sats to provide a GPS fix but DJI won't accept any as valid unless they have a minimum of 6 sats to ensure reliability of GPS fixes.

The P4 and P4 pro use optical technology to provide precision landing within an inch every time.
But whether it's +/- 2 metres with GPS or 2 cm optical, you don't need to let RTH land your Phantom.
It's easy to cancel RTH and land wherever you like.

 

[solentlife]

RTH is good ... and the main thing as others say - Learn how to initiate it and how to CANCEL it.

S1 and S2 switches are your lifeline. Your S8 may be great - but the Controller Toggle switches S1 and S2 are the real ones you must learn about.

If you lose connection / tablet shuts down - which does happen occasionally .... S1 and S2 !!

OK - GPS ..... anyone with a GPS plotter can show you how much position wanders ... as another says - it should be averaging 2m or less variable - BUT in fact you can have odd spots 10m or more away. Second GPS Rx's do not calculate all Sats rec'd simultaneously, they sequence them, discard those outside of limits etc. In some such as Car Nav displays - they have "Jump to Road' so the car icon stays on the NEAREST road to the calculated position and tries to stay on road it is directing you to ... note when going along slip roads / exits etc. - how the car icon jumps lanes if you make wrong turn etc.

Your Home point landing .... I never allow the RTH to complete the landing ... as soon as I eyeball the AC and can control - I cancel the RTH and do manual return and land. That way - I control the spot it lands and no 'tip-overs' .... Once landed - Its left stick all way down and hold till motors stop.

Nigel

 

[JamesT1950]

I have found the RTH to be very reliable on my P3S, which kicks in just seconds after it loses signal.

My only critique of the RTH system is the slight drift or "inaccuracy" of the recorded home point (probably due to low satellite count) in my experience. A 0.5m difference can quickly change what surface you are landing on, but then again this is by you should take off in open spaces. I have noticed after doing the MagicPower mod that the RC takes a longer time to reconnect to the drone even if it is close by.

Practice makes perfect anyway - keep slowly building confidence in it by slowly increasing its limits.

The United States government currently claims 4 meter RMS (7.8 meter 95% Confidence Interval) horizontal accuracy for civilian (SPS) GPS. Vertical accuracy is worse. Mind you, that's the minimum. Some devices/locations reliably (95% of the time or better) can get 3 meter accuracy

 

[FliteDoc]

If you look at GPS accuracy BETWEEN TWO RECEIVERS at the same location, or between what the drone detects as the home position, and returning to that GPS location ... the difference is measured in millimeters. The 4 meter RMS is between a map lat/long and what the GPS measures and calculates ... two completely different things. Some aircraft manufacturers put multiple GPS receivers on the wing of an aircraft and measure flexing by the difference between the receiver's GPS calculations ...

 

[Paul Sw]

The United States government currently claims 4 meter RMS (7.8 meter 95% Confidence Interval) horizontal accuracy for civilian (SPS) GPS. Vertical accuracy is worse. Mind you, that's the minimum. Some devices/locations reliably (95% of the time or better) can get 3 meter accuracy

With selective availability off (it is probably off permanently) and no Wide Area Augmentation (WAAS) the actual position of an object will be within a circle with a 30 meter diameter centered on the calculated GPS position 95 % of the time. WAAS is a system developed by the US Federal Aviation Administration for aircraft navigation and landing. Most new GPS receivers use WAAS signals. It is available everywhere in the US. I don’t know about worldwide. With WASS the accuracy improves to a 10-meter diameter circle (4.8 meter radius) again 95% of the time. So when you launch your drone and it does not return to exactly the same spot you should not be surprised. It should be within 4.8 meters of the launch site 95% of the time but don't expect inches.

Appreciate what a miracle this is. It is an absolute position on the earth. You could launch your drone from London and have it return home in Melbourne within 5 meters, if you had sufficient battery power! Celestial navigation could get you a little better than 1000 meters. You might miss Melbourne all together.

 

[Meta4]

If you look at GPS accuracy BETWEEN TWO RECEIVERS at the same location, or between what the drone detects as the home position, and returning to that GPS location ... the difference is measured in millimeters. The 4 meter RMS is between a map lat/long and what the GPS measures and calculates ... two completely different things.

If you put a GPS unti on the ground and watch it closely, you'll see that the position it shows will wander around constantly.
Most of the time it will be within 1-2 metres and sometimes a little more.
If you put multiple GPS units close together this is what you get:

Using the UTM grid format to display position, a difference of 1 = 1 metre.
These three GPS units are al showing a position 1-2 metres around the same point but not the same position.
All three are also wandering randomly.
Consumer GPS is not pinpoint accurate.
The position it gives changes every few seconds but is mostly within 1-2 metres and sometimes a little more.

 

[FliteDoc]

My point was there is a big difference between the "accuracy" of GPS computed lat/long vs. map lat/long ... and the difference between what two GPS receivers at the same place compute re. each other's position ... The first is measured in feet ... the latter is in millimeters. It is all digital ... very similar to GPS computing a takeoff lat/long .. and then returning to it. May not agree closely to the map, but will be +/1 millimeters from where it took off to where it returns. But if you measured the lat/long on a map, and then plugged it into the drone, it might wind up many feet from where you wanted it to go ...