App crash sets new homepoint

[Tom M WI]

Took my P3A out for a flight yesterday. First flight was flawless but the second flight was different. Flew around the field once, then heard a train, and I was going to see if I could capture it, so I turned towards it and started flying forward until I noticed the view on screen was locked and no live feed.
I took my hands off the controls and let it hover while I worked on getting feed back, then the app crashed and I could not restart it. So, I unplugged the usb and plugged it back in and the app came alive video feed and all.
What I didn't notice was that it set a new homepoint where the app crashed in the middle of the field where it was hovering at 145 feet up.
So, word to the wise... if your app crashes, bring that bird home manually and land it to remake a homepoint where you are at. Don't hit the go to home, or it might just land right where it is.

 

[msinger]

If your mobile device has GPS, you can also reset the home point to your current location. That'll be easier than flying back.

 

[D4T_PoM]

I will check today but then again havent had the app crash in a while.

Also I tend to keep my phone GPS and Data on while connected so I can update homepoint on the go.

I tend to update everytime I remember homepoint.

I know if you have GPS enabled device were you stand you can select homepoint and it updates, so basically if I take off from one place and fly the P3 out to say about 100mters away and then I move with the controller/tx about 30meters away from initial home point and 'update homepoint' by selecting it on the app it makes your new standing point the home point.

Correct me if I'm wrong but that is the case rite?.

 

[Tom M WI]

I will check today but then again havent had the app crash in a while.

Also I tend to keep my phone GPS and Data on while connected so I can update homepoint on the go.

I tend to update everytime I remember homepoint.

I know if you have GPS enabled device were you stand you can select homepoint and it updates, so basically if I take off from one place and then I move about 30meters away and 'update homepoint' by selecting it on the app it makes your new standing point the home point.

Correct me if I'm wrong but that is the case rite?.

This is good to know, thanks!
I usually fly los so manually bringing it back was no problem, but if flying distant, someone might panic and hit the rth button and think it's comming back to them when it's not.

 

[D4T_PoM]

This is good to know, thanks!
I usually fly los so manually bringing it back was no problem, but if flying distant, someone might panic and hit the rth button and think it's comming back to them when it's not.

Tom, I see you have the 1.3.20 firmware on your P3A, how are you finding it?

 

[iquadtography]

What usb cord are you referring to? I am flying the P3S and we have no cords.

 

[Tom M WI]

Tom, I see you have the 1.3.20 firmware on your P3A, how are you finding it?

It seems to be doing good with the 1.3.20 FW and it flies great. The only problem I have been having is the app crashes on the Note 4. Tried in airplane mode, same thing.
I am going to set it to not cache video on phone and see if that helps. It's not like the note 4 is under powered. lol
Should be getting my hdmi board shortly so I don't have to worry about video loss if I am flying at a distance away.

 

[Tom M WI]

What usb cord are you referring to? I am flying the P3S and we have no cords.

The P3A and P3P uses lightbridge unlike the standard which uses wifi. The usb cord is the one going from the controller to the tablet.

 

[D4T_PoM]

It seems to be doing good with the 1.3.20 FW and it flies great. The only problem I have been having is the app crashes on the Note 4. Tried in airplane mode, same thing.
I am going to set it to not cache video on phone and see if that helps. It's not like the note 4 is under powered. lol
Should be getting my hdmi board shortly so I don't have to worry about video loss if I am flying at a distance away.

I have realised when video is set to not cache it works smooth and faultless.

Have not had a crash or bug out in 4 days and about 60-70mins flight time.

I leave the GPS and data on and make sure all RAM has been cleared as well as putting the phone off power saver mode.

Using Samsung Note 4.

I may just hang on for another firmware as dont feel too confident with the 1.3.20.

 

[envisionabove]

Took my P3A out for a flight yesterday. First flight was flawless but the second flight was different. Flew around the field once, then heard a train, and I was going to see if I could capture it, so I turned towards it and started flying forward until I noticed the view on screen was locked and no live feed.
I took my hands off the controls and let it hover while I worked on getting feed back, then the app crashed and I could not restart it. So, I unplugged the usb and plugged it back in and the app came alive video feed and all.
What I didn't notice was that it set a new homepoint where the app crashed in the middle of the field where it was hovering at 145 feet up.
So, word to the wise... if your app crashes, bring that bird home manually and land it to remake a homepoint where you are at. Don't hit the go to home, or it might just land right where it is.

A person that has info on the beta testers, is saying the 2.0.2 App mite be the issue. And he is waiting for 2.0.3 and currently he went back to 2.01. I know confusing as heck, seeing you were in line of site and that's how you fly do you think the RTH in Hover would have been better for you? It would have waited in that state until you had everything reset. At that point you could then reset the RTH to the Controller and continued. Well hope it would have waited in that state lets say. As for caching anything I really feel the devices are not ready for that intense amount of activity always off for me.

Glad you recovered and good INFO thanks.
I think Hover in place mite become a new fail safe I'm going to experiment with it more.

 

[Meta4]

Also I tend to keep my phone GPS and Data on while connected so I can update homepoint on the go.

Data on has no effect on your flying. It doesn't help you to update.
There's nothing in the Phantom or the app that uses data except for loading maps in the app.

 

[D4T_PoM]

Data on has no effect on your flying. It doesn't help you to update.
There's nothing in the Phantom or the app that uses data except for loading maps in the app.

On the Android I'm pretty sure the phone uses data and gps to work together for better positioning (I might be wrong, only saying that because when you use google maps for navigation on the phone you need both turned on for it to work).

I leave the data on so the map is updated and just leave it on just in case I need it.

 

[Dmacken1]

Took my P3A out for a flight yesterday. First flight was flawless but the second flight was different. Flew around the field once, then heard a train, and I was going to see if I could capture it, so I turned towards it and started flying forward until I noticed the view on screen was locked and no live feed.
I took my hands off the controls and let it hover while I worked on getting feed back, then the app crashed and I could not restart it. So, I unplugged the usb and plugged it back in and the app came alive video feed and all.
What I didn't notice was that it set a new homepoint where the app crashed in the middle of the field where it was hovering at 145 feet up.
So, word to the wise... if your app crashes, bring that bird home manually and land it to remake a homepoint where you are at. Don't hit the go to home, or it might just land right where it is.

WOW thanks for posting this. This is the first time I have heard this and it sure makes perfect sense. Anyone having problems with the app crashing should probably use the return to the location of the transmitter option. Things brings up a whole lot of questions. What if you have signal loss then where does it go? Man this is scary.

 

[wotblake]

I had the same issue. Home point updated mid flight. Not good.

 

[leekiya]

I think it's this latest go app cos I have had a few disconnects but not in flight so never noticed if my home point has ever changed. 1 or 2 k out tho and you loose connection and your home point resets your pretty much screwed.

 

[jephoto]

Question- if you don't have GPS enabled device- iPad Mini WiFi only- you can't update the Homepoint on the fly?
And if I say connect the iPad i via Mobile Hotspot from a phone i could?
How exactly do you update the Homepoint if GPS enabled? What's the procedure?

 

[JohnK]

This is good to know, thanks!
I usually fly los so manually bringing it back was no problem, but if flying distant, someone might panic and hit the rth button and think it's comming back to them when it's not.

Hmmm ... does mean that if someone DOES lose the video and no longer can see the copter (not the same as "line of sight", btw, but that's a different story), rather than restart the app, he should just do an RTH to come back to the "remembered" home point? Or are you saying that the homepoint is completely lost when the app crashes?

 

[Tom M WI]

Hmmm ... does mean that if someone DOES lose the video and no longer can see the copter (not the same as "line of sight", btw, but that's a different story), rather than restart the app, he should just do an RTH to come back to the "remembered" home point? Or are you saying that the homepoint is completely lost when the app crashes?

I think if you were to do nothing and just hit the RTH button on the controller, it would have came back to me.
But I knew where it was in the sky so I just wanted video feed back, so I unplugged the usb from the controller and then plugged it back in, which gave it a new homepoint in the field and 145ft up. lol
I didn't know it made a new homepoint til I viewed the flight logs. BTW, the app crashed and was nothing but a black screen on my Galaxy Note 4, and the app wouldn't restart until I unplugged the usb.

 

[JohnK]

Wow that seems VERY strange. The homepoint is recorded in the app and not in the controller/copter itself? Not sure how that's possible, since I have an ipad mini wifi only with no gps, and my homepoint records fine each time.

Curiouser and curiouser.

 

[SENC]

It does seem counterintuitive as the rth point is stored in the copter (so it can rth if disconnected from the rc), but perhaps restarting the app and replugging the usb forces an rth point reset in the copter. When I've had app crashes I have not seen rth point resets.

This brings up a question, though. Does the rth point include altitude data, or just lat/lon? In the OP's case, had he hit rth would it have gone to the new point, descended to 145 feet and hovered there? Or would it have gone to the point and descended until on the ground? I suspect the latter, but does anyone know for sure?