RTH kicks in after moving phone away from controller

[erkme73]

Today I decided to film myself mowing the lawn - boring, yes, but still something I thought would look neat. So, I took the P2V+ up to about 150' to get the entire property within the frame, and the put down the controller. Since I was listening to a podcast (locally stored on my Android Galaxy Note 2), I took the phone from the mount, and started to mow. Everything seemed to go great for about 8 minutes. Then, suddenly the quad moved back over the home location, and started to descend. I saw it coming down and took control back before it landed. Battery was at 65%, sats were 11, and the video screen was black. I could still start/stop the recording, and change settings on the camera, but the video feed was black.

In any case, I landed it, shut it down, and finished mowing the lawn.

So I have a few questions:

1) When hovering for extended periods of time (i.e. >10 min) without any control input, will the firmware see that as a loss of control signal, and initiate a RTH?

2) If the wifi-repeater loses contact with the phone, does that initiate a RTH? While I was in the back yard mowing, I was within 30' of the controller. It was only after moving to the front yard that the RTH initiated. Coincidence, or does the loss of Vision App communication trigger that?

3) Several times now I have tried to fly the quad, and when I bring up the app, I get all the telemetry data, and can change camera settings, make waypoints, etc - but the video feed is completely black. A power cycle of the quad and repeater usually fixes that. Is this a known issue? EDIT TO ADD: Ok, I'm the guilty noob who didn't search first. Clearly this is an issue. You can ignore this question. Sorry...

 

[Geoelectro]

I believe I read that there is a RTH if there is no stick input after a certain amount of time. I don't remember the amount of time.

Geo

 

[flyNfrank]

Your only time limit will be how long your battery last. How is the batteries in the controller itself? I noticed when those batteries reach 1.40v an alarm will sound from the controller. Btw, I have also replaced batteries when at 1.40v after just doing a 2700ft max altitude flight, and new AA batteries which are most always 1.65v and flew a 3400ft flight.

As for the Range Extender, it probably wouldn't hurt to change the name and bind it again. Just curious, did you happen to have any message on your screen about lost connection or no signal?

 

[erkme73]

Your only time limit will be how long your battery last. How is the batteries in the controller itself? I noticed when those batteries reach 1.40v an alarm will sound from the controller. Btw, I have also replaced batteries when at 1.40v after just doing a 2700ft max altitude flight, and new AA batteries which are most always 1.65v and flew a 3400ft flight.

As for the Range Extender, it probably wouldn't hurt to change the name and bind it again. Just curious, did you happen to have any message on your screen about lost connection or no signal?

The controller batteries are new (probably less than an hour of flight time on them). I didn't see any errors - but keep in mind that the phone was in my pocket, with the vision app in the background. The screen was off, and I was listening to my podcast. I figured when the battery in the quad hit 30%, I'd hear the warning siren, and would take over.

The repeater battery showed 100%. I'm still operating with the default SSID on the repeater - I have not changed its name. Will try replacing the batteries in the controller to be certain they're at the 1.65v level with the next attempt (about 3 days from now).

 

[cahutch]

I read that if you're using groundstation to execute a flight plan it will RTH if it looses connection to the app.
But I don't think that will happen whey flying manually.

Must be a failsafe for lack of control input.

 

[erkme73]

There was no stick input for 7 minutes. If I correctly remember Colin's explanation in his infamous "how to avoid fly-aways" video, I think he said if the RX doesn't see a change in input for 10 seconds, it'll stop movement, and wait for X amount of time. If it then doesn't get additional input, it executes RTH.

I would think if that firmware 'safety' exists in the latest P2V+, it would have triggered the RTH well before the 7 min mark. But just guessing.

Still, does anyone conclusively know whether the flight control (TX/RX) is dependent on the Vision app device (in this case my Note 2) being within range of the wifi repeater? Seems to me the repeater and the app are exclusive to the FPV/recording functionality, and not the controls.

In other words, if one was to fly manually (i.e. no GS programming) in GPS mode, and then turn off the repeater (or in my case, move the phone outside of the range of the repeater) would that signal for the quad to RTH?

I guess I know what I'm trying tomorrow...

 

[flyNfrank]

My experience is that RTH only comes when the signal is lost with the controller. The range extender is really video streaming, and it wouldn't pose a threat if you lost connection to it. Which may explain why when you lose a connection to the range extender it give the message display "Lost Connection".

Btw, when I'm ready for fly back, I most always power down my controller to force RTH and let it fly the quad back. This helps from using up the batteries in the controller as well. So then when it reaches near the 60ft point above Home base, I then power on the controller and flip the S1 switch to ATTI and back to GPS and manually land.

Anyway, I suppose it is possible that they have changed firmware on how long the vision can hover?

 

[Dirty Bird]

Losing video or Wi-Fi does NOT trigger RTH. The controller itself times out after 10 minutes without input. The controller begins beeping and the power light flashes. Unsure if it stops transmitting at that point, which would trigger an RTH? I have never allowed my Phantom to hover without stick input for an extended period. There is a 3 second delay on loss of control signal designed into the Phantom before engaging RTH. Unsure if there is a timeout in the Phantom itself for a period of time without stick input?

 

[DCGOO]

There was no stick input for 7 minutes. If I correctly remember Colin's explanation in his infamous "how to avoid fly-aways" video, I think he said if the RX doesn't see a change in input for 10 seconds, it'll stop movement, and wait for X amount of time. If it then doesn't get additional input, it executes RTH.
I would think if that firmware 'safety' exists in the latest P2V+, it would have triggered the RTH well before the 7 min mark. But just guessing.

The no stick input timer only applies if the bird is not hovering. IOW, if the sticks are centered, control will not time out. But if you are moving it around, it times out if there is no change in a short time period. 10 seconds may be right, but I do not remember.

Still, does anyone conclusively know whether the flight control (TX/RX) is dependent on the Vision app device (in this case my Note 2) being within range of the wifi repeater? Seems to me the repeater and the app are exclusive to the FPV/recording functionality, and not the controls.

In other words, if one was to fly manually (i.e. no GS programming) in GPS mode, and then turn off the repeater (or in my case, move the phone outside of the range of the repeater) would that signal for the quad to RTH?

The repeater (Range extender) is not in the control path. It is only used for the video and telemetry down link. So its presence (or not) has no effect at all on the 5.8 GHz control link up to the aircraft.

 

[erkme73]

Thanks for the additional comments. That's what I figured about the wifi signal/repeater. So removing my phone from the range of the repeater should have had nothing to do with it, and was just coincidence that the quad started to drop when I was at the furthest point from the remote (more like Murphy's Law... as I had to run as fast as I could to get the controller back in my hands).

I think Dirty Bird is probably on to something with the controller timing out. I've had the TX start beeping after putting it away and forgetting to turn it off. I just wonder if that timer goes into effect if it's paired with the RX. Is the link between the two bi-directional? Does the TX know if it's in range of the RX?

Either way, when I raced back to the controller to keep it from landing, it was still on. I distinctly remember having only to switch from GPS to ATTI and back again to regain control. I didn't have to power it back up.

So, unless the time out feature kills transmission before it actually powers down, I have my doubts if this is it. I'll do some more testing later today or tomorrow and will report what I find.

On an aside, one of the intriguing things about the longer flight times of the P2Vs is the ability to become part of the action. For example, set her up to hover and film a few rounds of beach volley ball - and actually be part of the game.

 

[D_Tshudy]

Today I decided to film myself mowing the lawn

Hahah. The ultimate selfie.

Sorry. I couldn't resist.

 

[DBS]

There is a timer in the controller for no stick input as well... if you don't touch it for a period of time (don't know what that time limit is) it starts sounding an audible alarm from the controller to remind you it has been left on... probly just a feature to save battery life for people who forgot to turn it off... Anyway.... maybe this feature also kills the control signal? Just speculating... it's happened to me several times while programming or calibrating via the assistant software but I've never tried it while in the air... should be easy enough to test...

Was your controller beeping when you got off the mower?