It's Official: RTH Paranoia ....

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Reading the 18 page thread on p3p flyaway during the boat water tree rock thread has me pulling out my Hubsan 107s again. The manual's explanation of RTH is shoddy. Can this P3 community agree on a definitive source of thorough information on all aspects of RTH? I want to command absolute expertise in the concept so I can take complete advantage of its benefits or know when or if I should disable it.

Thanks for all you do for us ....
 
Watching this has some good points.
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RedHotPoker
 
The biggest rule is to set your altitude high for RTH and double check it as a part of your preflight procedures. Also, practice disability RTH by using the app and also the remote (through the RTH button and also the ATTI switch). Always cancel return to home if you are going to land the drone yourself.

Finally, know your surroundings.
 
I set my battery at 30%-20% critical, giving me battery time to fly back, rather than having it land in some odd location.

RedHotPoker
 
The biggest rule is to set your altitude high for RTH and double check it as a part of your preflight procedures. Also, practice disability RTH by using the app and also the remote (through the RTH button and also the ATTI switch). Always cancel return to home if you are going to land the drone yourself.

Finally, know your surroundings.
Several third party apps allow you to change RTH settings for different events, such as mission completed, signal lost, low battery etc. Ensure that you are familiar with those if you use those apps, and set the RTH parameters appropriately.
 
I want to command absolute expertise in the concept so I can take complete advantage of its benefits or know when or if I should disable it.
RTH isn't very complicated and it's quite reliable.
The main problem enountered with RTH is with flyers that have not experimented to get a good understanding of how RTH works and how to activate and cancel it.
The day you need RTH is not a good day to decide to learn how RTH works.
 
I set my battery at 30%-20% critical, giving me battery time to fly back, rather than having it land in some odd location.
When the battery reaches the critical low level, it's going to auto land. Wouldn't setting this to a higher value increase your chances of landing in some odd location? You would probably be better off by minding the battery voltage.
 
The other thing I'd suggest is just to fly your Phantom out of range and let RTH take over. You'll appreciate it and be able to trust it.

I also regularly practice canceling it using the app, the button, and switching to ATTI mode. I might have mentioned that already. Also, remember to cancel it if you are going to take over manually.
 
The other thing I'd suggest is just to fly your Phantom out of range and let RTH take over. You'll appreciate it and be able to trust it.
Flying out of range could mean flying 18000 feet away! Rather just switch off the RC while the quad is still within easy eyesight. Once RTH has been invoked and you see the quad returning, simply switch the RC back on.
 
One thing that's important to remember about return to home mode is to take your rubber band off your throttle before it actually reaches home point!![emoji41] otherwise it shoots past home point instead of stopping and landing it keeps going forward even though the return to home coordinates are trying to pull it back. It freaks you out when you see that happen, but some things you got a learn the hard way[emoji41]
 
Maybe he meant low battery warning. There's two you can set: critical and low battery
Yes that's exactly my meaning, if my wording was confusing. ;-)
The issue is whether we can still have control over the craft, or whether it is going to land, and good luck if it's in a convenient location. I had an instance once, where it was going to land in the top of some very tall spruce trees. It would have been a bloody nightmare to retrieve, unless you were a squirrel. Haha
But fortunately, I had enough battery juice left to bring it back, to a comfortable safe landing spot. Smiles abound... Eh, bartender, A Round for the house. Lucky for me, it was a party of one. ;-)

RedHotPoker
 
The issue is whether we can still have control over the craft, or whether it is going to land, and good luck if it's in a convenient location. I had an instance once, where it was going to land in the top of some very tall spruce trees. It would have been a bloody nightmare to retrieve, unless you were a squirrel. Haha
But fortunately, I had enough battery juice left to bring it back, to a comfortable safe landing spot.
Are you suggesting that changing the critical low battery level from 10% to 20% is a benefit since it'll give you more battery juice to guide the Phantom to a safe landing location when it starts to auto land? Sorry for the questions -- I'm just trying to understand what you're suggesting here.
 
I Had a very late night, and Yes, I think you got it. Awesome.
So, If Critical battery voltage is set to 10%, and it goes into Auto Land, you are going down. If voltage is set to 30% warning and 20% critical, you still have 'plenty' of juice to play with...
If I am mistaken, please correct me? Thanks.

RedHotPoker
 
If voltage is set to 30% warning and 20% critical, you still have 'plenty' of juice to play with
If you watch the battery voltage and be sure to land at or when the first battery cell is at 3.4V, the battery level should never be close to the default 10% critical low level. That means you'll never have to deal with a situation where your Phantom wants to auto land at its current location.

The problem with raising the critical low level is that it will make your Phantom auto land sooner. And, there is absolutely no way to prevent it from landing at that point. The best you can do is attempt to steer it to a better landing location by holding the throttle in the full up position while steering with the other stick. It's probably not the greatest situation for the average pilot to be in, but you could certainly pull it off if you understand what is happening and know how to counteract the auto landing procedure.
 
I have had that RTH situation happen once, and it was a frightening and memorable experience... Not something I wish to try and avert again. If the drone is in RTH mode, atleast I can turn it off and still have enough battery voltage to bring her home safe. ;-)

I wouldn't mind an auto landing, if it's on a safe dry surface.


RedHotPoker
 

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