Help Diagnosing Flyaway P3A

[UKwinchestermike]

Just purchased P3A. On 2nd flight in Beginner mode I had frightening experience.
At limit of beginner range (30m) I decided to try RTH. Instead of coming back to me, it immediately
flew off in opposite direction. I realise now that I should have cancelled RTH to restore control.
In the panic I tried to bring it back with the controls, but without success. It disappeared from sight over the golf course !!
I got in my car with the controller and headed after it. I could see the aircraft icon on the map view and
noted it wasn't moving any more. Eventually I found it in a field sitting pretty. I am very, very lucky that it had landed okay.
Back at home I examined the flight log to try and find out what had caused the flyaway. I found an entry with
appmessage "HOME POINT UPDATED"; and home distance changed from 17m to 1300m !!!
Later entries state "Returning Home" and then "auto landing".
I can't understand why the home point should change so much.
However I recall that when I pressed the RTH button a message popped up in the DJIGO app asking whether
to return to original home point or "Current Position". I think I may have touched "current position" instead of original position. I thought that "current position" meant controller's current position. Is this correct??
How does RC know its current position ? I don't think it has an internal GPS ??
Does RC current position come from mobile/tablet? I use a Samsung tablet with GPS for DGIGO app.
It is fairly accurate, and never 1.3km out !! I was in wide open space with no obstacles, and the aircraft was seeing 18 satellites at time of incident.
Does anyone know what was going on to cause this problem. Is it a GO app problem? Or tablet issue ?
I'm nervous about testing RTH again. Advice would be appreciated, as I am a novice with drones.

 

[msinger]

I recall that when I pressed the RTH button a message popped up in the DJIGO app asking whether to return to original home point or "Current Position". I think I may have touched "current position" instead of original position.

The home point can only be reset in the following section of DJI GO:

Is that what you actually did?

How does RC know its current position ? I don't think it has an internal GPS ?

You can only set the home point to your current location if your mobile device has an internal GPS receiver or if you have some type of external GPS receiver connected to your mobile device.

Does anyone know what was going on to cause this problem

It sounds like you reset the home point to the mobile device's current location, the GPS location was inaccurate, you initiated RTH, and your Phantom returned to that new bogus home point. I can confirm if you upload your TXT flight log here and post a link back here.

 

[PaulSouthport]

Hi, sounds like a happy ending to a scary situation.
Can you upload your flight log to phantomhelp.com and post the link here? It will make diagnosis easier

 

[UKwinchestermike]

Many thanks for your response.
Here's the log link: Phantom Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

I certainly did not use the MC settings page to reset the home point.
A RTH pop-up on the home page of GO app gave the choice of original or current home point. I have v3.1.1 of android GO app.

 

[PaulSouthport]

serious problem at 12m 37.9s

 

[msinger]

Your home point was updated at 12m 37.9s. You initiated RTH at 15m 6.7s. The two events seem to be completely unrelated.

Your flight log is showing your mobile device's location was near the home point, so it appears the GPS data was good. Even though it seems you didn't reset the home point to your mobile device's current location when you initiated RTH, it should have worked if you and/or DJI GO did that.

Check out this thread in the DJI forum. It appears to be similar to your case. I think you should contact DJI support for help.

 

[UKwinchestermike]

Many thanks for your reply.
I have read the thread you refer to, and it does seem almost identical.
I just checked the "location" setting on my tablet and it is set to "GPS and Wifi", which seems to be the default.
However I think that I had switched off the WiFi because I had read somewhere that it may interfere with the RC. Is this correct ?
So I may have been relying on the GPS setting alone ??
The thread refers to a DJIGO user manual but I have not found one yet, even on DJI website !!
There are some tutorials on Youtube, but they seem out of date with the current app.
I must say that leaves a novice like me in a vulnerable position to potential problems.
I will take your advice and refer this to DJI support.

 

[normr]

Sounds like it's a serious problem when using an Android device and beginner mode that DJI really needs to look at and correct.


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots

 

[msinger]

The thread refers to a DJIGO user manual but I have not found one yet, even on DJI website

You can download the Phantom manual on the P3A downloads page.

 

[RodPad]

Did anybody else notice at the end of the log there is a shadow of a of high voltage tower?

Rod