Waypoint Mission with altitude change

[hionbusa]

I have a question to the experienced pilots with waypoints missions.


Suppose I start a way point mission at the top of a mountain 1000ft above sea level (frame reference)

Phantom shows 0ft altitude at start of the mission . I instruct the phantom to do the following :

Elevate to 150ft at Waypoint 1 to clear any obstacle
Descent to waypoint 2 which is 60ft above sea level.
Head to waypoint 3 which is at 40ft above sea level
Elevate back to 150ft at way point 4 then return home through way point 5.

In order for the phantom to travel back to the home location , will it know that it has to keep on climbing back ?
Obviously, the same question would be asked from waypoint 1 to 2 . Will it proceed with a nose dive or a vertical decent ?

I'm told that the average battery consumption of the phantom vision + on a mission is 15% of battery for every mile travel forward. I would guesstimate vertical climbs to be in the 25% of battery per mile. ..

 

[lsteigerwalt]

The phantom doesn't do sea level altitudes. It measure ground based on 0 movement on startup. You can put it on top of a4 story building and it still show 0 feet. I'm not sure you can do negative with ground station. However to successfully make the accent I would draw out the path up on googlke earth then right click the path in the side bar and show elevation to ensure you won't come anywhere close to crashing and remember to leave room for tree growth...

 

[hionbusa]

The phantom doesn't do sea level altitudes. It measure ground based on 0 movement on startup. You can put it on top of a4 story building and it still show 0 feet. I'm not sure you can do negative with ground station. However to successfully make the accent I would draw out the path up on googlke earth then right click the path in the side bar and show elevation to ensure you won't come anywhere close to crashing and remember to leave room for tree growth...

This scenario would be similar to starting at the top of a 10 story building descending down 30ft above ground level to way point 2 regardless If the city is at sea level above or below..

 

[rbhamilton]

So the reason for a way point mission is because of the distance from the starting point I'm guessing? I guess you could fly it once using the RC and record the reported altitude at each point then program the flight from there. Hover, run/drive up under it, get the reported altitude, zoom it on to the next point, hover, run and catch up, repeat.

Personally I wouldn't do it. The altitude reported by the drone is usually only approximate. When the terrain is so uneven there are a lot of chances for your drone to end up smacking into something unpleasant. I tried a way station flight around my cottage development, screwed it up and bumped into a tree. Yes it was my fault. Yes with enough planning I could have done it. But it would have been a million times easier if I just controlled the flight with the RC.

I'd reserve your way point flights for flat, level and unobstructed flights with lots of clearance between your bird and the ground.

 

[Jstic]

The phantom doesn't do sea level altitudes. It measure ground based on 0 movement on startup. You can put it on top of a4 story building and it still show 0 feet. I'm not sure you can do negative with ground station. However to successfully make the accent I would draw out the path up on googlke earth then right click the path in the side bar and show elevation to ensure you won't come anywhere close to crashing and remember to leave room for tree growth...

Exactly. Every altitude in a waypoint mission, is in relation to your home point altitude. Unfortunately, you can't drop down to negative numbers on the waypoint setting, so the waypoint altitudes are limited to your take off/home point elevation and above. ilovecoffe looked for a solution in his modifed app, but I think it was a firmware limitation that prevented him from being able to change waypoint altitudes to reflect a negative number. Good question though.

 

[lsteigerwalt]

This scenario would be similar to starting at the top of a 10 story building descending down 30ft above ground level to way point 2 regardless If the city is at sea level above or below..

Ya, it doesn't matter what sea level is...the bird doesn't know that info...gonna have to start from the lowest point and fly up bro...sryman.

 

[hionbusa]

Bummer.. I was at the Los Angeles Drone expo today and kept asking several questions at the dji booth. Suprisingly the staff preferred to answer the neophyte 'How long does the battery last " type questions.