My first RTH and first close call

[Rynocity]

I launched today to test out my new Evolite kit today. I have a small yard about 20x25 feet, so I usually go straight up to about 125 feet to climb over some trees so I can avoid peoples backyards.

Well, I forgot to turn on my amp battery. At about 100 feet I lose controller signal. Since I had lost LOS due to my deck I stepped down into the yard and regained control, and cancelled RTH. I push it out to about 200 feet and lose signal and immediately RTH's. It went over my head and hovered over my house for a brief second, I tried to cancel rth again, but knew I wasn't going to make it. Somehow I knew which way it was facing and pulled back and just clear the edge of my roof. Sorry no video, was only a test run.

I guess the home point was off, it's on my checklist but of course I skipped it because I was just going to make sure the drone was working after the mod. Might also be gps inacuracy as I rarely get more than 10 satellites until I climb up a bit(mostly my area is to blame for this).

The lesson to be learned is know how to cancel rth and how to control the AC during RTH. Also make sure the home point is right!

I'm also wondering if there's something wrong with my setup, I would think that even with the amps off I should get reception as good as before. Anyone have any input?

 

[alokbhargava]

Good you could save your AC. Best wishes. I never fly in a narrow area and always avoid trees unless needed to go for video shooting.

 

[Mark The Droner]

Your signal won't broadcast correctly with the amps off. The signal will come out of the controller and run along the cable until it gets to your dead amp. Then it will have nowhere to go but out, so your cable is in effect the antenna, and not a good one. So your range will suffer.

Yes, always launch from a clear area with the assumption that your aircraft will RTH to that area.

 

[MasterBlaster]

If your bird has not exceeded 20 meter (65feet) distance and return to home is initiated, it will just start to land. You have to be outside of 20 meters for it to travel back to the exact home point location. I almost did the same as you at night above a tree in my front yard. I still don't know how I was lucky enough to avoid it but I did. It was a good lesson and I learned the 20 meter rule.


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[With The Birds]

If you took off ftom your deck that will be where your home point was recorded and where it was trying to land (20m rule wouodnt have operated as you were 200ft away when rth kicked in).

 

[Wibble]

Remind me someone please is it possible to have a RTH - Return to Hover? ie. Can you get it come back home but NOT land?

 

[msinger]

Remind me someone please is it possible to have a RTH - Return to Hover? ie. Can you get it come back home but NOT land?

This is not possible.

 

[With The Birds]

Remind me someone please is it possible to have a RTH - Return to Hover? ie. Can you get it come back home but NOT land?

Not to my knowledge. You can set RTH to hover on lost connection.

Best workaroind would be to.manually cancel the RTH after she is back and descending.

What i like about and find most useful witj RTH is I usually regain signal during the ascent to RTH height at which point I cancel out and continue.

 

[Wibble]

Not to my knowledge. You can set RTH to hover on lost connection.

Best workaroind would be to.manually cancel the RTH after she is back and descending.

What i like about and find most useful witj RTH is I usually regain signal during the ascent to RTH height at which point I cancel out and continue.

Yes that is what I always do. I take off from concrete under my powerlines so I fly to 10' then have to go sideways. I would NOT want RTH to try and land at the home point.

It is just that if the controller isn't connecting then you would have more time to try and fix it before it auto lands.

 

[alokbhargava]

Remind me someone please is it possible to have a RTH - Return to Hover? ie. Can you get it come back home but NOT land?

You can definitely set "hover" for lost connection, if that helps.

You have 3 choices for Lost Connection:
1. RTH
2. Hover
3. Auto land

 

[whichAntenna]

Your signal won't broadcast correctly with the amps off. The signal will come out of the controller and run along the cable until it gets to your dead amp. Then it will have nowhere to go but out, so your cable is in effect the antenna, and not a good one. So your range will suffer.

Excellent info! I once read something from someone claiming 40yrs experience, they recommend flying with amps off to at least 200+ meters. This seemed unsafe and unnecessary to me but I'm no expert Thanks for clearing this up!

 

[Mark The Droner]

Yes, I saw that post, it was fairly recent. That makes sense to me if the AC wasn't responding correctly in the first few minutes of launch and flight.

My post was to the OP's closing question...

 

[foxtrot101]

If you want it to return to home and hover... couldn't you just set that as your default command when you lose connection, and power down the rc to effectively "lose" your rc connection??

... maybe I'm just being silly?

In theory I think it might work but I'd never be willing to volunteer as the guinea pig

 

[msinger]

If you want it to return to home and hover... couldn't you just set that as your default command when you lose connection, and power down the rc to effectively "lose" your rc connection?

No. That setting will only cause the Phantom to hover at its current location if the remote controller signal is lost. At that point, it will continue to hover until it auto lands due to a critical low battery level or until the remote controller connection is reestablished.

 

[WetDog]

Rule #1 of test flights: Assume it will go wrong.** Plan accordingly.

Testing a new antenna configuration in a small backyard bracketed by trees violates that rule rather nicely.

And yes - no power to amp = rather crappy lump-of-metal antenna. Bypass the amp with the cables if you want to run with power off. And before you ask, you can rig a switch but microwave class RF switches are non trivial.

** Murphy was an optimist

 

[Zuzua]

I guess the home point was off, it's on my checklist but of course I skipped it because I was just going to make sure the drone was working after the mod. Might also be gps inacuracy as I rarely get more than 10 satellites until I climb up a bit(mostly my area is to blame for this).

?

Your home point was probably fine. It was what you said "gps inaccuracy". Not that it is inaccurate, consumer GPS is accurate to + or - 30feet. You are never going to get it too come back to the exact position it took off from. I'm glad you handled the problem without panicking and losing your bird



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