Litchi RTH and made it home safe !

[Russ43Phantom]

You live in the USA. As a recreational flyer, you are not bound by FAA rules. BUT ... if your drone is out of VLOS, as is the airspace you are flying in, how do you avoid manned aircraft like small aircraft, helicopters, or ultralights. So ... the issue is not what software you are using, the issue is to respect the safety guildlines that clearly require VLOS.

 

[Russ43Phantom]

You live in the USA. As a recreational flyer, you are not bound by FAA rules. BUT ... if your drone is out of VLOS, as is the airspace you are flying in, how do you avoid manned aircraft like small aircraft, helicopters, or ultralights. So ... the issue is not what software you are using, the issue is to respect the safety guildlines that clearly require VLOS.

 

[Joe Glenn]

As long as your mission uploaded I don't believe the aircraft would have stopped to hover. On my last mission I lost connection and had a similar situation, the flight was at a relatively low altitude and heavy tree cover. I got sporadic verbal updates that all indicated the same position, but this was NOT the case; The app was simply reporting the same information that was on the screen when it lost contact. It also indicated zero percent battery. I was not too concerned, as my last way-point was next to my first, so I simply waited for the mission to complete and brought it down as usual. I think that if you had just waited it out the mission would have completed correctly. Also, since you did not have radio contact to initiate RTH, then you couldn't possibly know that it was hovering (unless you could see or hear it), because Litchi would not show where the aircraft was until you regained contact. It would be interesting to see flight logs if you can post them.

I've used Litchi many times. Once you upload the flight the quad will run the mission even if you turn the controller off. I just make sure my first and last way points are at my location. I agrree it should not have stopped and hovered, it was probably finishing the mission and on the way back.

 

[SteveP55]

You lost connection at 2552 feet. Mission was still running as you can see from the timeline as the AC went out as far as 2887 feet where it appears to have made the turn (85% battery) and was headed for the next waypoint. Distance started to decrease as the AC was headed back. At 5 M 50 SEC mode changed to GPS ATTI after rejecting the previous attempts (Not supported) which I think paused your mission so it stopped in its tracks and hovered for a few minutes. At 9 minutes it accepted the Go Home. I wonder if that was the Litchi app or the left toggle switch? That could have been the fail-safe kicking in as it's designed to do when no signal is present.

The Litchi file may contain more details but I think it stalled out when you tried to bring it home. My guess is had you done nothing, regardless of signal, it would have continued on to complete it's mission.

You are a brave soul. I'm still testing 500 feet out and back, gradually building more trust in the app and the AC.

Happy flying!

Hi LarBear,
I finally have log files from that day when the Phantom 4 locked up at 44 feet above my head and had no control, then when the battery level reached critical level it descended , When you get time could you look at it for me and tell me what you see, I'm uploading it here.
Thanks Buddy
SteveP55

 

[Melvoid]

I've not had it happen yet, but I set mine to go up to 160 feet so it would clear most anything on its way back. Is this a good idea?

 

[SteveP55]

Hi Melvoid,,
Always make sure of anything that might be higher then you are flying, I was at an altitude of 200 to 206 ft. 160 ft. should be fine as long as nothing is that high. If you read my other posts about the problem I had my P4 after completing it's mission and I started to take control it ascended to about 44 ft. moved forward near a tree and hovered until the battery drained to critical levels then descended and I had my arms up in the air to catch it, at that point the battery was at 1%,,, scary real scary , I had no control to do anything about it.
Be safe and have fun !
SteveP55

 

[LarBear360]

I've not had it happen yet, but I set mine to go up to 160 feet so it would clear most anything on its way back. Is this a good idea?

Melvoid, yes. You never know where your next mission takes you. All you need is a tall tree just a foot taller than your RTH altitude setting and you're in a tree. Keep the setting as high as you think is necessary based on where you fly. I'm ocassionally near trees so I keep it set to 50M (164 feet). That's about as tall as a 14 story office tower.

 

[LarBear360]

Hi LarBear,
I finally have log files from that day when the Phantom 4 locked up at 44 feet above my head and had no control, then when the battery level reached critical level it descended , When you get time could you look at it for me and tell me what you see, I'm uploading it here.
Thanks Buddy
SteveP55

Hmmm. For whatever reason your log begins 14 minutes in to your flight at which point it was auto landing. And it was just 3 feet from home.

Something I noticed but do not entirely understand is VPS (Visual Positioning System) was reading only 7.5 feet altitude vs. 44 feet by the IMU. That's quite a discrepancy in altitude. I don't have this on my P3S but from what I understand, VPS is primarily used when GPS is not available. Some claim a VPS error can cause erratic behavior. Maybe try turning it off unless you're flying indoors.

There are also several :Command Timeout" errors though it doesn't say what the command was.

At 21 minutes your motors began to overheat and the AC went from "Auto-Landing" into a "Forced Landing".

So it could be a couple of things. The P4 has obstacle avoidance which I hear can be fooled by the sun. Is it possible it thought it was going to hit something? I thought those sensors only looked ahead and sideways.

The other question is the "Auto Landing" sequence. Can't tell if that was initiated by you or was the app set to land at less than 30% battery? Mine is set to warn me at 30% but will not land on it's own unless I'm less than 10%,

 

[SteveP55]

Hi larBear360,
Thanks for checking the logs out for me, Strange isn't it, I'll try turning off the visual sensors, The auto landing might have been initiated by me trying to get it to land, possibly several times, but nothing happened until the battery reached critical levels then it started to descend, which at the time I was happy and that it was right above me LOL, I have flown it since that episode and flew fine, but I didn't do any out of sight missions.... a little shaky over this one LOL Mine is set to warn me at 30%, but beyond that I don't know what the settings is for it to bring its self to land. Thanks For Your Help LarBear360, We'll see what happens next time I get out to fly, today is D Day, going to the VA hospital for surgery at 12:45PM hopefully I'll live to FLY Again LOL
Talk to You Soon
Take Care
SteveP55

 

[LarBear360]

Hi larBear360,
Thanks for checking the logs out for me, Strange isn't it, I'll try turning off the visual sensors, The auto landing might have been initiated by me trying to get it to land, possibly several times, but nothing happened until the battery reached critical levels then it started to descend, which at the time I was happy and that it was right above me LOL, I have flown it since that episode and flew fine, but I didn't do any out of sight missions.... a little shaky over this one LOL Mine is set to warn me at 30%, but beyond that I don't know what the settings is for it to bring its self to land. Thanks For Your Help LarBear360, We'll see what happens next time I get out to fly, today is D Day, going to the VA hospital for surgery at 12:45PM hopefully I'll live to FLY Again LOL
Talk to You Soon
Take Care
SteveP55

Yea, I could see the command time outs so it was trying! The critical battery setting is just below the warning setting. I think those VPS altitude sensors may have had some impact. They're mostly for indoor flying so maybe leave them turned off unless you're flying around your living room.

I don't know if they are separate from the obstacle avoidance. I'm referring to just the VPS altitude sensor.

All the best at the VA. We'll say a little prayer for you!

 

[SteveP55]

Yea, I could see the command time outs so it was trying! The critical battery setting is just below the warning setting. I think those VPS altitude sensors may have had some impact. They're mostly for indoor flying so maybe leave them turned off unless you're flying around your living room.

I don't know if they are separate from the obstacle avoidance. I'm referring to just the VPS altitude sensor.

All the best at the VA. We'll say a little prayer for you!

Thanks for the prayers! LarBear360,
I got home about 8:30 last night, everything went well, had triple hernia surgery,
I didn't think I'd have this amout of pain, hard to sit, walk, and getting up from sitting, might be a few days before I can fly, I hate that too.
Anyway thanks for being such good people!
Take Care
SteveP55

 

[LarBear360]

Great news! I'm sure you will be up and back in the air in no time.

 

[Neon Euc]

Good to hear your surgery was a success steveP55. Just a week of discomfort but you will soon be up and flying again [emoji4]

 

[SteveP55]

Thanks Neon Euc,
Boy the pain is tremendous, I have never felt this before.
Thanks for your kindness brother, Yes I will Fly again hopefully soon !
Take Care
SteveP55

 

[SteveP55]

Hi Guy's,
Well I am healing pretty good, of course I'm not one to sit around and complain, I have to be doing something LOL
I took the P3adv. out the other day to the back yard to try a little experiment, A friend of mine lost his Racing drone on top of an unfinished church edition, it's about 3 stories high, he has been unable to retrieve it, so I thought, I'll buy a Mantis Claw and do a little practicing in the back yard, I built a wooden race drone mockup and see how hard this recovery might turn out to be, Well I think the hardest part is keeping the Claw from spinning around do to the Prop down wash coming from the P3adv. So I still have a few more ideas, I used a para-shoot nylon cord as the main drop line, then used shrink tubing over the cord to stiffen it, tried that, helped some but still a lot of unneeded movement, so I put a 1.5 Oz sinker just above the claw to give it some weight, thinking gravity may help some, it did a little, So Now my idea is to put a circle with connection holes in it just above the claw as so I can attach 4 stabilizing lines running from each corner of the Landing skids? haven't done that part yet. Anyway as I practiced grabbing this drone mock up I found it is not an easy task LOL took me one full battery to get the feel of the claw and how it works, by the second battery I finally got it to work.
So here is a little video of my P3adv. picking up the drone to carry it away. This project will be fun and challenging at the least.
Thanks Everyone for your support !
SteveP55

 

[Neon Euc]

Lol love it. How did you get the claw to open and shut? Really enjoyed watching that and glad to hear your on the mend to

 

[SteveP55]

Hi Neon Euc,
It is a very cool tool, when you lower it down over the object you want to grab, the jaws open naturally, then when you start to lift the jaws close tight, the heavier the object the tighter the jaws grip. This was a pain in the you know what though, the down draft from the props move the claw all around, but I'm working to eliminate all the drifting around by anchoring the top of the claw at 4 points to the landing pads on the drone, I haven't attached it this way yet and tried it but maybe tomorrow if the weathers nice. Glad you liked it LOL it was a little frustrating and took several tries to finally get it on the object, but once it's on it, just lift it away..... Also thanks for the words of encouragement , I am on the mend my friend. Thanks and Take Care
SteveP55

 

[CharlieU]

I too use both apps. I have flown several waypoint missions of over 6,000' in length. Yes, vlos was maintained, but my horse got pretty tired. Never had the bird stop and hover on its own. I tend to plan my missions at 200' altitude AGL at most waypoints. With Litchi I can set any, or all, waypoints to be a given altitude RELATIVE TO GROUND.

My only issue with Litchi is that occasionally my mission won't upload on the first try. Litchi tech said this started after a DJI SDK update and has been reported to DJI. Solution is to keep attempting to upload and eventually it will succeed.

Keep trying and keep trying until you decide to run over with your truck!

 

[CharlieU]

Reading through the entire thread, no one mentioned the mission setting for the final waypoint, which must be chosen. Such as Return home, hover, etc. Or setting for the waypoints themselves such as stay for x amount of time. Check your settings for each waypoint, and action for final waypoint. THese could have been the issue.
The manual states to stop mission if in tx range, switch from F to P. It doesn't mention hitting RTH as you and others have mentioned in this tread. ???

I set my last waypoint altitude at about 40 ft and close to home point. Last waypoint might be higher depending on terrain between the last two. I also set the speed at the last waypoint to about 3 mph. I then just cancel the mission and manually land.

 

[flashoser]

Do you have to have DJI Go4 running in order to use Litchi?