Home lock and GPS

[marzipana]

Have searched the forum and can't really find an answer to this...if one switches to F mode and uses the Home lock to bring their Phantom back, what happens if GPS drops out along the way? Will it still continue to come back to you, or what will it do? I saw in another thread that HL only works with GPS...?


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[Meta4]

Have searched the forum and can't really find an answer to this...if one switches to F mode and uses the Home lock to bring their Phantom back, what happens if GPS drops out along the way? Will it still continue to come back to you, or what will it do? I saw in another thread that HL only works with GPS...?

Obviously it needs GPS to come home ... but losing GPS isn't something you'll normally encounter with a properly functioning P3 unless you fly in narrow canyons, under tree canopies etc.

 

[msinger]

Home Lock will not work without GPS. I haven't experienced this myself, but I'm assuming Home Lock will be cancelled as soon as you lose the GPS connection. At that point, your Phantom should fly according to the stick input.

 

[marzipana]

Obviously it needs GPS to come home ... but losing GPS isn't something you'll normally encounter with a properly functioning P3 unless you fly in narrow canyons, under tree canopies etc.

Thanks Meta4...I'm just paranoid now because I lost GPS on my 2nd day with the Advanced and of course being so new to it all didn't know how to respond accordingly. The replacement unit should be here tomorrow, I do hope I fare better with that one!


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[DCB]

What is the difference between home lock and return to home?

 

[msinger]

Return to home makes your Phantom automatically fly home and land. Home Lock allows you to manually fly back to the home point by pulling down on the right stick (no matter which direction your Phantom is facing). Once back, you can manually descend and land.

 

[marzipana]

RTH will work without GPS, is that right?


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[msinger]

Nope. Your Phantom will hover in place for 10 seconds and then auto land at its current location. There is some good RTH info in the Phantom manual.

 

[DCB]

Thanks

 

[marzipana]

So really the failsafes are only of value if you have GPS...so in my situation where the P3 went into P-OPTI mode, pressing the RTH would have made it land while it was drifting quickly towards the trees. It still would have crashed I'm guessing...

If someone flies far enough that they can't see their AC, and say they lose orientation, how would they deal with this? I've been reading the manual but it doesn't really cover all scenarios.


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[impilot51]

You would need to observe the small map/radar, not the aircraft orientation and rotate it back toward home, and fly the quad back in P-opti mode. GPS is wonderful, but it's occasions like this why it is important to be able to fly the quad in P-opti, be able to land without GPS, etc. Unfortunately, these things are not fool proof.


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[Sagebrush]

Thanks Meta4...I'm just paranoid now because I lost GPS on my 2nd day with the Advanced and of course being so new to it all didn't know how to respond accordingly. The replacement unit should be here tomorrow, I do hope I fare better with that one!


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Why do you think you lost GPS? Did you get a warning? What environment were you flying in?

T

 

[marzipana]

You would need to observe the small map/radar, not the aircraft orientation and rotate it back toward home, and fly the quad back in P-opti mode. GPS is wonderful, but it's occasions like this why it is important to be able to fly the quad in P-opti, be able to land without GPS, etc. Unfortunately, these things are not foolproof.

Right...thank you for your reply. And apparently you also have to calibrate the compass in your tablet or phone to make sure when you're looking at that red arrow that the orientation is in fact equal to the AC's orientation.



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[marzipana]

Why do you think you lost GPS? Did you get a warning? What environment were you flying in?

T

I honestly have no idea...I posted my flight log here and no one was really able to gauge what happened - I had good satellite coverage according to the app, I had the Safe to fly...I didn't even realise it had switched over to the P-OPTI mode until I got home and looked at the flight record. It was brand new, had it two days. I wasn't flying near anything that might disrupt signal, to my knowledge.


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[Sinisalo]

I honestly have no idea...I posted my flight log here and no one was really able to gauge what happened - I had good satellite coverage according to the app, I had the Safe to fly...I didn't even realise it had switched over to the P-OPTI mode until I got home and looked at the flight record. It was brand new, had it two days. I wasn't flying near anything that might disrupt signal, to my knowledge.


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It says "Mode changed to GPS_Atti" right before you initiate an auto takeoff. It looks like you had signal but manually changed the controller switch to atti mode. I don't know for sure but I think GPS_Atti is when you switch to Atti mode but have GPS signal, then Atti mode is when you have no gps signal and the Phantom switches into this mode automatically when you lose GPS connection. You didn't lose GPS connection, you switched into Atti mode. In Atti mode GPS is not used for stabilization but it can still return to home if you have satellite connection. Also in atti mode the Phantom does not use air brakes so after you stop it will drift in the direction it was traveling until you correct it yourself. It is a good idea to practice flying it atti mode higher than any obstacles so you can see how it drifts and what you need to do to correct it when it does drift.

 

[impilot51]

Right...thank you for your reply. And apparently you also have to calibrate the compass in your tablet or phone to make sure when you're looking at that red arrow that the orientation is in fact equal to the AC's orientation.



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Part of your flight check before taking off for the wild blue yonder should be to confirm that the radar representation is accurately showing the correct representation. This should be while initial hovering right after take off.


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[msinger]

So really the failsafes are only of value if you have GPS

Right. And, in most cases, you should have GPS. It's important to understand how to fly by in ATTI if you don't though.

If someone flies far enough that they can't see their AC, and say they lose orientation, how would they deal with this?

As impilot51 mentioned above, you should use the radar if you're unsure of your Phantom's current orientation. Point the tip of the arrow toward the center of the radar and fly forward in that direction. The center of the radar is the home point.

 

[msinger]

It says "Mode changed to GPS_Atti" right before you initiate an auto takeoff. It looks like you had signal but manually changed the controller switch to atti mode.

The log will show "Atti" when in ATTI mode. If you check out your logs, you'll see it also shows "GPS_Atti" when you were flying in P-GPS.

 

[Sinisalo]

The log will show "Atti" when in ATTI mode. If you check out your logs, you'll see it also shows "GPS_Atti" when you were flying in P-GPS.

I do see that you are right, so what does it show when you are in P-GPS and you lose GPS connection and you are too high off the ground for VPS to stabilize so it changes you to P-Atti, what would healthydrones flight log say then?

 

[msinger]

Sinisalo, that's a great question, but I'm not sure. It would be nice if someone would post all possible values for that column in the flight log.