Brown trouser moment, What just hapend?

[lukeglazebrook]

I have just completed my second ever Phantom 2 Vision + flight flown RC helicopters for years incidentally. I accidentally few a little too far away and near some Power lines which were round the corner (I wasn't aware of them). The signal was lost and my iPhone said "Phantom returning to base" or words to that effect. I knew this was a feature but what I wasn't aware of was that I would not regain control when back in range?

I was literally at the mercy of this thing, and being a bit of a control freak felt uneasy. For future reference how can I regain control? I was clearly back in range upon the return flight.

 

[panhygrous pantler]

For future reference how can I regain control? I was clearly back in range upon the return flight.

Reading and understanding the manual before flying your new toy is highly recommended.

The answer to your question is right there in the manual.

 

[CarlJ]

I agree that reading the manual will tell you that switching to atti mode will regain control during RTH.

 

[Gizmo3000]

yah,. gotta read up and educate yourself prior to flying a $1,000 device.
- especially if you plan to fly so far away that you might lose orientation/signal!

 

[FlyingFox]

Toggle right switch down to atti then flick back to gps , as above +1

 

[Phantom_Menace66]

When it is close to you again, flick the R/H toggle switch to middle or bottom position and control will be returned to you. As soon as you can see it is now responding to your controller, flick the switch back up to the top position...

 

[evilfurryone]

if I am not mistaken make sure you first turned on the Naza-M mode via software assistant. By default the drone is in Phantom mode, only GPS mode works, no course lock or home lock. After you turned on you Naza-M (and I suggest disabling manual mode by replacing it with failsafe option) you can take over the drone that is returning home.

I'm saying this because on my first flight ever I tested the RTH option and did not get it to work because of reasons stated above.

 

[QYV]

if I am not mistaken make sure you first turned on the Naza-M mode via software assistant. By default the drone is in Phantom mode, only GPS mode works, no course lock or home lock. After you turned on you Naza-M (and I suggest disabling manual mode by replacing it with failsafe option) you can take over the drone that is returning home.

I'm saying this because on my first flight ever I tested the RTH option and did not get it to work because of reasons stated above.

quick FYI you don't HAVE to switch to Naza mode and enable IOC just re-gain control in an automatic Failsafe / RTH situation. In Phantom mode (default) the right switch actually does do something: The default setting when toggled down is "normal fly"... essentially re-take control from the autopilot... like, up = normal fly and down = normal fly so if something triggered failsafe (like loss of control with the RC) whenever it could get signal from the remote again if you toggle the right switch you're basically sending the command to re-take manual control from your RC.

In the Phantom Assistant software (again, talking about Phantom mode only) you can change the right switch function. As mentioned above the default is "normal" but you can set the down position on right toggle to manually trigger failsafe, and re-gain control by toggling back up. I use this feature all the time like an autopilot, when I'm 150-200m up in the air sometimes descending can be a bit boring so I let the autopilot do some of the work for me, then just flip the switch and take control back whenever I feel like it

 

[CarlJ]

In the Phantom Assistant software (again, talking about Phantom mode only) you can change the right switch function. As mentioned above the default is "normal" but you can set the down position on right toggle to manually trigger failsafe, and re-gain control by toggling back up. I use this feature all the time like an autopilot, when I'm 150-200m up in the air sometimes descending can be a bit boring so I let the autopilot do some of the work for me, then just flip the switch and take control back whenever I feel like it

You lazy lump of oatmeal...that's brilliant! I'm flying today and totally doing this! TY!

 

[QYV]

You lazy lump of oatmeal...that's brilliant! I'm flying today and totally doing this! TY!

precisely my reason for utilizing the feature it's just plain boring doing a descent from 200m at 2m/s.

naturally I would verify it's all working as expected at short range before getting aggressive with it. I did both below and above 20m Failsafe tests at a very short distance until I was confident that Failsafe had proper GPS home lock (that it would fly overhead and stop lateral movement) , and that I could regain control at will (by toggling the switches and watching the indicator LEDs.. blinking yellow = failsafe green = normalfly).

after I was confident, I tested it at long range, the Phantom was at least 2 or 300m away, and high. I triggered failsafe, looked away for a moment and totally lost track of the Phantom, had no idea where it was. I'll admit my pulse raised for a few seconds but then suddenly you hear that sound and look up and it's hovering directly overhead descending.