Took the P4 up by a lake tonight, though not wanting to risk going anywhere near that water (at least not yet!). So I'm showing my Son how it flies around, up and down, etc, flew up high, a little ahead of me, then decided fly it back over our heads. It looked (can be deceiving with clouds moving etc) as if it wasn't moving in our direction, so decided use the return to home. Current position or take off point - Well we'd walked across the field somewhat, so current position sounded good.
This is where it seemed to be getting even further away, feeling as if out of control, and drifting a little too close to the water for my liking. Thinking it was the wind (very slight breeze <5mph - UAV forecast reckoned even better than that!), and now jogging towards it, seeing it near water I took her up some so VPS didn't get thrown off by the aqua! Once it was away from the water I brought her in lower hoping less wind, less drift. Still continued getting further away and decided it was safer to bring it down ASAP, was also heading worryingly close to some trees - due to the fact it seemed to want to go South for it's holidays I didn't wanna take it UP above the trees.
Usually I land VERY smooth, this one was in longer grass and tipped over on landing, I'm guessing due to the long grass. DJI log shows it landed at 4.4M though, or at least that's where the app stops playing. I'd estimate I came down from maybe 8-12". All appears completely okay asides from a bit of chopped grass. DJI app says I had throttle at 44% at landing point. (I've just reviewed my other logs and one from other day with perfect landing says was at -0.2M so I'm guessing it is relative to takeoff point?)
Firstly, was the water affecting compass readings, GPS, it didn't want to return home. Old mining area, so maybe something else I don't know about could be under the ground. It wasn't above water as I know that can mess things up VPSwise.
Secondly, I'm now wary of the return to current location function (first time I tried that one), but reviewing the flight log it set it as a couple of miles South of me (off the map view in app).
Thirdly, why does the log stop at 4.4M, I'm assuming that the 4.4M is the height the VPS is picking up, or is this worked out based on height at take off point relatively?
During this time it honestly seemed like at times that it had a mind of it's own (and yeah that's the point I decided to bring her down). I've recently done IMU calibration, and flown well since, always make sure I do compass calibration, every other flight has went well but this has made me a little wary.
It seems the return to current location must use phones GPS and all I can assume was that that was off - I didn't notice on the screen as the 'new' landing point was off the screen. Something to be careful of, in fact probably something I will *never* rely on!
I'll probably not go back to that same location, in case it is something interfering there. I'll also not be flying within even a half mile of water, as drifting towards that water was rather worrying, at one point while 'drifting' it did cross a small tributary, but seeing it do that I raised altitude so it didn't get even more confused!
I (wrongly?) assumed that return to current location would have brought her down to my return to home altitude (set at 30M), I can see sense in the fact that it didn't, but since wind was the only thing I could think of that was pulling her away so I wanted go lower.
Thought I'd post this as to maybe get an idea of what was happening, and also maybe help someone else - That return to current location is nasty - from my experience!
I'll have to look into uploading the logs into a decent viewer, Will the DJI Go app show when I hit return to home in detail, like return to home, return to current?
Watching the Go log of it it was 100m away then suddenly it popped up saying it was 2126m away! (and popup saying max MC range reached.) My fear is that the drone now wanted to return to the *wrong* location, probably even more so since it thought it was beyond my set max range! It seemed at this point to only respond to up/down commands? I'm pretty darn sure I cancelled the previous return to current location request, but think the range thing kicked in and took away some control? felt that way!
Sorry to write a novel here, but trying to think/explain how things went. What *I* think happened was this:
I told it come home to current location.
It picked wrong location GPS (from phone?).
This (wrong) RC GPS was then sent to the bird.
Bird then thinks 'Oh heck I'm past the limit set in my max range - RUN HOME' - to the wrong location!
Lesson learned, but made me extra wary. Anyone else got a different view on what happened here?
One other thing I should mention is ESC errors, I saw one when first got P4, went away after restart but decided to calibrate IMU to be on the safe side. I did see one tonight too, but that was after the landing in long grass, again restart got it cleared - ESC errors are caused by what and could this be telling me that indeed something was throwing sensors into confusion?
[edit]: I can't say for sure it was ESC errors I saw, I've probably done too much reading and looking for a reason as to tonights episode! Logs don't show them, and I checked other flight logs from tonight too in case they showed anything up.[/edit]
Novel over, thanks in advance for the replies
This is where it seemed to be getting even further away, feeling as if out of control, and drifting a little too close to the water for my liking. Thinking it was the wind (very slight breeze <5mph - UAV forecast reckoned even better than that!), and now jogging towards it, seeing it near water I took her up some so VPS didn't get thrown off by the aqua! Once it was away from the water I brought her in lower hoping less wind, less drift. Still continued getting further away and decided it was safer to bring it down ASAP, was also heading worryingly close to some trees - due to the fact it seemed to want to go South for it's holidays I didn't wanna take it UP above the trees.
Usually I land VERY smooth, this one was in longer grass and tipped over on landing, I'm guessing due to the long grass. DJI log shows it landed at 4.4M though, or at least that's where the app stops playing. I'd estimate I came down from maybe 8-12". All appears completely okay asides from a bit of chopped grass. DJI app says I had throttle at 44% at landing point. (I've just reviewed my other logs and one from other day with perfect landing says was at -0.2M so I'm guessing it is relative to takeoff point?)
Firstly, was the water affecting compass readings, GPS, it didn't want to return home. Old mining area, so maybe something else I don't know about could be under the ground. It wasn't above water as I know that can mess things up VPSwise.
Secondly, I'm now wary of the return to current location function (first time I tried that one), but reviewing the flight log it set it as a couple of miles South of me (off the map view in app).
Thirdly, why does the log stop at 4.4M, I'm assuming that the 4.4M is the height the VPS is picking up, or is this worked out based on height at take off point relatively?
During this time it honestly seemed like at times that it had a mind of it's own (and yeah that's the point I decided to bring her down). I've recently done IMU calibration, and flown well since, always make sure I do compass calibration, every other flight has went well but this has made me a little wary.
It seems the return to current location must use phones GPS and all I can assume was that that was off - I didn't notice on the screen as the 'new' landing point was off the screen. Something to be careful of, in fact probably something I will *never* rely on!
I'll probably not go back to that same location, in case it is something interfering there. I'll also not be flying within even a half mile of water, as drifting towards that water was rather worrying, at one point while 'drifting' it did cross a small tributary, but seeing it do that I raised altitude so it didn't get even more confused!
I (wrongly?) assumed that return to current location would have brought her down to my return to home altitude (set at 30M), I can see sense in the fact that it didn't, but since wind was the only thing I could think of that was pulling her away so I wanted go lower.
Thought I'd post this as to maybe get an idea of what was happening, and also maybe help someone else - That return to current location is nasty - from my experience!
I'll have to look into uploading the logs into a decent viewer, Will the DJI Go app show when I hit return to home in detail, like return to home, return to current?
Watching the Go log of it it was 100m away then suddenly it popped up saying it was 2126m away! (and popup saying max MC range reached.) My fear is that the drone now wanted to return to the *wrong* location, probably even more so since it thought it was beyond my set max range! It seemed at this point to only respond to up/down commands? I'm pretty darn sure I cancelled the previous return to current location request, but think the range thing kicked in and took away some control? felt that way!
Sorry to write a novel here, but trying to think/explain how things went. What *I* think happened was this:
I told it come home to current location.
It picked wrong location GPS (from phone?).
This (wrong) RC GPS was then sent to the bird.
Bird then thinks 'Oh heck I'm past the limit set in my max range - RUN HOME' - to the wrong location!
Lesson learned, but made me extra wary. Anyone else got a different view on what happened here?
One other thing I should mention is ESC errors, I saw one when first got P4, went away after restart but decided to calibrate IMU to be on the safe side. I did see one tonight too, but that was after the landing in long grass, again restart got it cleared - ESC errors are caused by what and could this be telling me that indeed something was throwing sensors into confusion?
[edit]: I can't say for sure it was ESC errors I saw, I've probably done too much reading and looking for a reason as to tonights episode! Logs don't show them, and I checked other flight logs from tonight too in case they showed anything up.[/edit]
Novel over, thanks in advance for the replies
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