N/A Distance From Home

With respect sir, you are not correct. The P3 sets its homepoint at take off, and then transmits its distance from the homepoint via lightbridge. That is one of the two distances seen on the app.

If there is no GPS at the controller, there is no way for the P3 to know where the controller is located, so functionalities such as follow me and showing distance from controller will not work.

Distance from the homepoint will of course still work without GPS enabled on your mobile device, and that allows RTH to work.

Did that clear it up for you?
Agreed....I made the mistake of saying controller instead of home point. What I was trying to explain to the OP was that his distance from home was in fact showing, and the N/A showing has nothing to do with anything when you're flying at a distance.
 
Sir, maybe these photos will help you to understand so can stop insisting that those who do understand should read the manual.

In these photos, notice that the distance from homepoint is not changing as the controller moves away from the Phantom because the Phantom is not moving. The distance from the controller however is changing (2.5M to 17.6M) as the controller moves away from the Phantom. This works when the mobile device attached to the controller has GPS. Note of course that in this particular case, VPS is disabled or it would be showing the VPS data instead.

Credit to @Meta4 for the photos from the Saturday thread on this same topic.

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Thank you for that. Having always flown with a non cellular pad, I hadn't realised that the N/A area showed anything other than VPS information.....I stand corrected.
 
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The N/A area is total distance traveled. The other one is distance from home point.
So help us to understand then why that number decreases when you return and get closer to the RC and increases/decreases in small amounts when follow me is engaged and the P3 is following the controller?

If it is the total distance traveled as you contend, wouldn't the expected behavior be that the number always increases during a flight?

For example, if you flew out 1000 feet and then back 1000 feet it should show 2000 feet based on your explanation. The thing is, once you turn around and come back the number decreases which to me indicates that it is not tracking total distance traveled.
 
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One is the correct distance of the home point to the P3. The n/a in this case is a VPS reading that is irrelevant until the P3 is less then 10 feet or so off the ground. Many times when the P3 is higher then 10 feet the user will see some crazy number for VPS. It's simply an incorrect reading. It does not change to another reading. Look at videos showing device screen shots as flying and you will see that this is correct. It appears the iOS app is more correct as it shows n/a. The Android app just shows some crazy numbers all of the time.
 
One is the correct distance of the home point to the P3. The n/a in this case is a VPS reading that is irrelevant until the P3 is less then 10 feet or so off the ground. Many times when the P3 is higher then 10 feet the user will see some crazy number for VPS. It's simply an incorrect reading. It does not change to another reading. Look at videos showing device screen shots as flying and you will see that this is correct. It appears the iOS app is more correct as it shows n/a. The Android app just shows some crazy numbers all of the time.
For me, when out of VPS range the symbol shows a person standing next to the triangle (symbol for P3) and shows me the distance from my RC which is of course not the same as distance from the set homepoint. The symbol of a person standing next to the P3 makes sense in that case since it is assuming the person is holding his RC. This is what I see most of the time because like most I am normally higher than the range of VPS. You can see this demonstrated in photos here.

Once I get low enough to engage the VPS, the symbol switches to the VPS symbol and it then it shows me the altitude as measured by the VPS system. Switching to the VPS symbol makes sense in that case since the VPS has been engaged.
 
For me, when out of VPS range the symbol shows a person standing next to the triangle (symbol for P3) and shows me the distance from my RC which is of course not the same as distance from the set homepoint. The symbol of a person standing next to the P3 makes sense in that case since it shows that distance assuming the person is holding his RC. This is what I see most of the time because like most I am normally higher than the range of VPS. You can see this demonstrated in photos here.

Once I get low enough to engage the VPS, the symbol switches to the VPS symbol and it then it shows me the altitude as measured by the VPS system. Switching to the VPS symbol makes sense in that case since the VPS has been engaged.
Do this... fly out 50 feet and 20 up. Do this several times and see if it always reports about 60 feet. It won't. You will see crazy numbers like 100 feet.
 
Do this... fly out 50 feet and 20 up. Do this several times and see if it always reports about 60 feet. It won't. You will see crazy numbers like 100 feet.
I'm sorry sir that you get crazy numbers. I normally get close to what I would expect, and when it switches to VPS data it normally does so exactly when I expect it will.

I sometimes enjoy low altitude flying and watching the P3 adjust it's altitude automatically based on the terrain as seen by VPS. I actually demonstrated it to a friend on Thanksgiving. It was very impressive to see that reading and the symbols switch from distance to RC, to VPS altitude, back to distance to RC as I went up and down in and out of VPS range. I'm one of what seems to be the few people who always have VPS enabled.

To say that the P3 is impressive is a real understatement for sure!
 

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