Home Lock Question

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I have been flying my phantom now for about 6 weeks and just came across an interesting situation that maybe someone in the forum can shed some light on. I flew my phantom early in the day with all systems go (11-12 sats). I used home lock to bring my chopper back close to its takeoff point without an issue. After running 2 batteries down, I went home for a recharge. later that day I went back out to a location about 3oo yards away from my original flying area. I received 6 satellites and got home lock. I took off and flew the chopper about 1600 feet from home base. I issued a yaw command and rotated 360 degrees at which time I received a momentary message saying the phantom connection was lost. After about 10 seconds, I was back in control. At this time it was only a dot in the sky so I switched to home lock again and slid the control into reverse. It should have come directly back to my home base but instead it took a completely different course. Eventually I switched off home lock and worked it back to my flying area. After analyzing the film, I am pretty sure the phantom was heading back to my early morning home point. I was recording voice over the film so I knew I was requesting reverse. When I plotted some points on the sat map, it looks like if I continued to keep it in home lock and the reverse command, it would have been back at that early morning landing area.

Two questions: Why would I have lost my connection, and why did it not come to its proper home point? Thanks in advance for any help in this matter.
 
H/L just like RTH is dependant on having enough satellites to properly triangulate. You might have dropped too low on satellites which forces the Phantom to go into ATTI mode. (5 or less satellites)

H/L does not work in this mode. Thus down on right stick just goes backwards not back to home point.
 
If going out a good distance it's best to check it has set homelock at your latest launch site.
Either do a quick homelock test by flicking S2, or check it has the spot in find my phantom before taking off.
Sudden satellite loss would explain it, but unlikely if there were more than ten on the ground. (how many did the app show while it was being naughty?)
 
Thanks for the comments. I am not sure how many sats I had at the time of the situation. The message I got was "Phantom Connection Broken". But it was only for 10 seconds or less. Doesn't that message mean I lost my wifi signal? Not my connection to the aircraft? Also, if I loose my GPS, and were to request fail safe, what would have happened? Would it have landed at that distant location?

Either way, your suggestion to testing home lock before a distant flight is a good one.
 
" Phantom Connection Broken" means you lost Wifi for your FPV, loss of TX control signal would show up as " Control Signal lost" .
As far as I know the unit would autoland at the spot it is after a wait if it doesn't have 6+ GPS while at a Control signal loss or with RTH active.
 
My 2 cents is if you lift the bird off the ground and hover and wait and only get 6 satellites then you need to be prepared to fly in ATTI mode with no return feature.

Sounds like what happened to you.

And Panamom Creel I think what would happen is its going to drift with the wind until it gets to critical battery and then autoland assuming you have no control. Now there is a chance it could drift enough to find more satellites and be out of your control range and RTH at that point
 
rrmccabe said:
My 2 cents is if you lift the bird off the ground and hover and wait and only get 6 satellites then you need to be prepared to fly in ATTI mode with no return feature.

Sounds like what happened to you.

And Panamom Creel I think what would happen is its going to drift with the wind until it gets to critical battery and then autoland assuming you have no control. Now there is a chance it could drift enough to find more satellites and be out of your control range and RTH at that point

The manual states on Page 27 that when it goes into Failsafe in Ready to Fly (non-GPS) mode, that the Flight Control System will keep the aircraft level during descent and landing. It may drift during the descent and landing process.
There is no reference on it waiting until you get a low battery. It lands right away.
 
rrmccabe said:
....
And Panamom Creel I think what would happen is its going to drift with the wind until it gets to critical battery and then autoland assuming you have no control. Now there is a chance it could drift enough to find more satellites and be out of your control range and RTH at that point

Might be but I remember seeing a video where the P2V+ started to Autoland away from HomePoint with sufficient battery while the GPS was dropped below 6 for some time and kept on descending even after it got 6+ Sats back while app screen showed "returning Home" ( video showed both app and onboard footage). Oh and yes it will drift in the wind while in Atti only mode.
 
Well actually I guess that is possible because with the latest firmware you have the option under enchanced failsafe to change go home and land to autoland.

So now that you mention it the Phantom can be changed to just autoland.

I am not sure how many applications that would be beneficial in.
 
rrmccabe said:
Well actually I guess that is possible because with the latest firmware you have the option under enchanced failsafe to change go home and land to autoland.

So now that you mention it the Phantom can be changed to just autoland.

I am not sure how many applications that would be beneficial in.

but the thing is that it seems to just Autoland with insufficient Satellites even if the setting is at Go Home which was the case in the video I've seen since it was on a RTH course when it lost Satellites, drifted off while in Atti only and then just landed after a wait time.
 
Yea no experience with that to say :)
 

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