Looking at the posts re RTH having problems in windy situations, just wondering what the thoughts were to maybe have an option to set the RTH speed in the DJI Go 4 App settings ?

I know sports mode can be used , but what about giving the ability to adjust/set default speed on the RTH option if above a safe height ?
this could be set per enviroment and height and might reduce the number of crafts not making it back if at distance or over water facing stronger than normal wind situation etc.........

it might also give people new to this a little bit more peace of mind, knowing that at that height it wont hit anything and has enough speed to make its way back.

Am all for taking control of my drones!

I don't think setting the return speed will make any difference if the wind is strong; the Mavic is probably at its max output in GPS and full sensor mode. I can't see automatic RTH working in Sports mode as the sensors would be disabled. It's the responsibility of the person flying to decide what works for them.

If the controller is connected you can increase the speed using the stick to over 30 mph

only if there's a option vs it being something set in the software fix.

Id rather RTH just came out at the most efficient power setting for distance whatever speed that translates to.  Would make sense, especially for smart RTH.
I do wish it wouldnt come against P-GPS speed limits meaning it cant go into wind though.

Having to set each flights' RTH speed might add more detail to pre-flight checks than most people (me) would be able to properly check.

I suppose it might be difficult to plan and set RTH for every flight, so a RTH in sports mode what if you haven't set correct values, would mean a lot more trouble if crashed,
I suppose you could set minimum height but this would obviously a lot higher more wind higher up, and then you have the problem of landing speed, much faster, with auto control could be problems.
From what I read around here many use RTH most of the time because they can't be bothered or they feel it will do a better job than them.
If you are supposed to fly VLOS then there should be no situation where you can't get home manually or auto.

gnirtS Posted at 2017-7-20 18:05
Id rather RTH just came out at the most efficient power setting for distance whatever speed that translates to.  Would make sense, especially for smart RTH.
I do wish it wouldnt come against P-GPS speed limits meaning it cant go into wind though.

That's the part that is puzzling; against wind, the ground speed would not be that high, so it shouldn't hit the limit. I suspect in GPS mode, there is a power limit rather than a speed limit.

I think anything that will help the novice (like me) pilot bring the drone home in one piece is a good thing.  Yes i am all for pilot control, but  If a situation comes up that is unexpected get the thing home and land it. Learn from it and fly again.  Where is the bad side ?

George

I think options are good, as long as the default action is set to what folks have typically understood before the new option is in place.  That said, it's important to keep in mind that wind speed varies by elevation and ground surface roughness, so if you have your RTH elevation set too high (which we generally don't think of as a bad thing), you may be creating a problem by forcing the unit further up into the higher wind speed to get home.  Just recently, I attempted to use the return to home function in some higher winds, and I watched the unit start to drift further away, even in sport mode.  Manually taking over, which was fortunately an option for me on this flight, I was able to bring the unit closer to the tops of the trees and get it home.

It's a good idea that you mention here, it just needs to be well thought out if/when implemented.

RTH speed is 10km/h - not enough to beat a 12km/h head wind. Push sticks forward would elevate speed to 30km/m - not enough to beat a 32km/h wind. RTH in sport mode would achieve quickest possible return time - the fact that sensors are off is a moot point as sensors on during rth is hardly ever gonna make a differance.

Jeff7577 Posted at 2017-7-20 15:51
If the controller is connected you can increase the speed using the stick to over 30 mph

30mph speed will not make headway into a 32mph wind

gnirtS Posted at 2017-7-20 18:05
Id rather RTH just came out at the most efficient power setting for distance whatever speed that translates to.  Would make sense, especially for smart RTH.
I do wish it wouldnt come against P-GPS speed limits meaning it cant go into wind though.

It seems this is where the problem lies.
Dji has set RTH speed at (2nd) most efficient power setting = 10m/s - it is a good balance between speed and efficiency (of battery power use)
RTH in sport mode has less efficient battery power usage.

If i must choose between using a less efficient mode (and getting my drone back safely) or using an efficient setting (which has less performance, increasing my risk of the drone not making it home) - i will certainly go for higher performance and happily sacrafice efficiency

Bekaru Tree Posted at 2017-8-3 08:11
It seems this is where the problem lies.
Dji has set RTH speed at (2nd) most efficient power setting = 10m/s - it is a good balance between speed and efficiency (of battery power use)
RTH in sport mode has less efficient battery power usage.

There is 0 difference in RTH between sport or regular modes.

Jeff7577 Posted at 2017-8-3 14:50
There is 0 difference in RTH between sport or regular modes.

There does not exist a RTH Sport mode and that is the point we are on about in this thread.

Some of us are saying that we wish there was a RTH Sport mode Option.
Normal RTH speed is 10m/s (mine only does 9m/s - checked it out today)
Sport mode has potential for 15m/s - why not make it come home quicker if it can?
Reason is because 10m/s is more efficient on battery usage - but if you are flying back home into a greater than 10m/s headwind then your efficient battery usage is going to cost you your drone (if you are over water or mountains etc)

The current alternative is to actively switch to sport mode which i think deactivates RTH and manually fly home - sounds simple right?
But its not so simple when the wind has picked up, your pulse rate is beating you to death, you notice yr battery is running out, the relentless beeping from the controler and you cant find a safe place to land and if you do then the sport mode reflexes makes landing on a particular spot even more difficult.

I conceive RTH as what it is: An emergency measure to make your drone get closer to you when you lose connection so you can regain control. Therefore I'd be happy if it would just jump it's own max power boundaries when it detects the drone is not moving fast enough due to front wind. With such thing enabled it might not be able to make it back home in some situations, but at least it would increase the chances of at least regaining control. It's better to get it back to a place where you could actually get signal and find a safe spot to land rather than having it ending up on autoland because it was stuck in the same place as it could not move faster, while it could actually be moving faster.

This should not be a super big issue anyway...  if you're flying in a windy place you should always make sure you fly into the wind, so you get tailwind on the way back. Monitoring your speed and getting some idea on how the wind is affecting your drone is necessary. I see so many people trying to fly long distance while not knowing how to react in case of an emergency...

CuaC Posted at 2017-8-4 05:39
I conceive RTH as what it is: An emergency measure to make your drone get closer to you when you lose connection so you can regain control. Therefore I'd be happy if it would just jump it's own max power boundaries when it detects the drone is not moving fast enough due to front wind. With such thing enabled it might not be able to make it back home in some situations, but at least it would increase the chances of at least regaining control. It's better to get it back to a place where you could actually get signal and find a safe spot to land rather than having it ending up on autoland because it was stuck in the same place as it could not move faster, while it could actually be moving faster.

This should not be a super big issue anyway...  if you're flying in a windy place you should always make sure you fly into the wind, so you get tailwind on the way back. Monitoring your speed and getting some idea on how the wind is affecting your drone is necessary. I see so many people trying to fly long distance while not knowing how to react in case of an emergency...

I do wish that, like my Phantom, Mavic came with an ATT mode, most issues I;ve read about with drone problems, begin with Mavic went into ATT mode & flew away----
I;ve had times when I;ve hit RTH on my Phantom & she just sits there or very slowly trys to head home,  fighting the head wind. I simply flip to ATT mode & power her back home
To me, an ATT mode on the Mavic would help a lot of these "headwind" issues, especially on RTH.
Plus, with an ATT mode at least a guy could practice flying with no GPS, instead of trying to learn ATT suddenly!

I think you will find if you do some keyword searching, it is possible to increase the RTH Speed, along with "other options".  It doesn'ta really take too much effort to confirm these facts, and I agree, in certain conditions I would like the option of being able to increase the speed in which I am coming back to the home point.

Likewise the ATT option being discussed, its built into the Mavic, and its fairly easy to setup switching between GPS Mode and ATT Mode same as the Phantom.  ATT mode should of been an option from day 1, its easy to fly with GPS and all the other wizardry, but there will come a time when you will wish you had better control when all that drops out......heaven forbid!!!

In reference to the above poll. Faster speed means more battery draw, it's all relevant.

Having a problem with my MP. The speed is very slow, the video is delayed as I accelerate the drone speed. Any ideas?

faster speed is not good when you have between 10-20% battery .. means more battery draw

here is how i think return to home should work.. first of all we all know that the drone is fairly self aware of forces acting upon it.  i think dji could infact have like 3 settings for RTH..

Eco mode: for calm flights back, nothing to battle other then maybe signal issues and maybe a gentle breeze of 2 mph.. maybe disable stuff that isn't as needed in effort to further extend battery.. this can be idea if your flying back from like 3 miles away or something and have limited battery left.. wont be able to fight higher winds and zero user override for speed while engaged..

Normal mode: as name implies it's designed to fly back normally, designed for parks and around your normal distances and normal conditions, basically the default.. as it is now you can push forward to make it go faster, etc etc..

dynamic mode: basically unlocks sport mode and can fight wind even more, it is capable of sipping power but is mostly designed to fight the blowy winds off a beach and an approaching storm.. isn't as efficient as other modes just designed to race back against winds or get back before they pick up.. allows user override of speed up to 40mph if it isn't already fighting at max speed....

ImHereToCrash Posted at 2017-8-27 13:43
here is how i think return to home should work.. first of all we all know that the drone is fairly self aware of forces acting upon it.  i think dji could infact have like 3 settings for RTH..

Eco mode: for calm flights back, nothing to battle other then maybe signal issues and maybe a gentle breeze of 2 mph.. maybe disable stuff that isn't as needed in effort to further extend battery.. this can be idea if your flying back from like 3 miles away or something and have limited battery left.. wont be able to fight higher winds and zero user override for speed while engaged..

Only problem with over riding max speed of 40 mph is if you are in RTH mode you no longer have AC in your control.

If you've pushed RTH it's because you don't know where your AC is or have lost control, and if that's the case hitting something at over 40mph is not going to be good for anyone.

hallmark007 Posted at 2017-9-6 11:36
Only problem with over riding max speed of 40 mph is if you are in RTH mode you no longer have AC in your control.

If you've pushed RTH it's because you don't know where your AC is or have lost control, and if that's the case hitting something at over 40mph is not going to be good for anyone.

worth it though.

What difference do you consider between choices 2 and 3?

If flying in strong wind it would make sense to increase the critical battery warning level so there is more power available for the return.  Once close to critical battery level activate the RTH and then once the drone is pointing in the correct direction manually fly it at a higher speed to penetrate into wind.  Obviously the sensible thing in strong winds is to fly up wind and not down wind!

Never flies in strong wind guys!!!

"... you notice yr battery is running out, the relentless beeping from the controler and you cant find a safe place to land and if you do then the sport mode reflexes makes landing on a particular spot even more difficult."

Could you start RTH.  Wait a minute for drone to reach preset altitude and orient to correct return vector.
Then take control in Sport mode, cranking speed to max without changing direction.
When drone gets near, return to normal mode, and reactivate RTH.
??????

Jos A Posted at 2018-3-15 09:47
Never flies in strong wind guys!!!

Good rule.  
Only one itsy bitsy problem.  Mother nature.
On several occasions I have witnessed wind go from 1-2 mph to 10-20 mph in a matter of 10-minutes.

How about a feature where if it finds itself in a headwind on RTH, say traveling under <5mph, it could tack like a ship does? Except it would also be capable of adjusting altitude above the set floor to a fixed or adjustable setting.

change your RTH to 13 m/s by setting in assistant 2 : g_config_go_home_gohome_idle_vel = 13 (10 is stock)

Hey, if the wind is THAT bad, I ain't flying in it.  I like my bird..

Jos A Posted at 2018-4-24 10:00
change your RTH to 13 m/s by setting in assistant 2 : g_config_go_home_gohome_idle_vel = 13 (10 is stock)

Just turn off vision sensors you can fly 30mph in RTH .

I have the same speed with sensors on

Jos A Posted at 2018-4-24 23:09
I have the same speed with sensors on

Yes but will they work at 30mph ?

I hope so, I also adjust the speed of normal gps mode(gps+) and they worked fine. but assuming in the mother of all fck-upps.

PHL Posted at 2017-7-20 15:16
I don't think setting the return speed will make any difference if the wind is strong; the Mavic is probably at its max output in GPS and full sensor mode. I can't see automatic RTH working in Sports mode as the sensors would be disabled. It's the responsibility of the person flying to decide what works for them.

the reason I voted not needed PHL

U always can increase your speed pushing forward stick in RTH.

someone already said it, but I also use the stick/sport mode to increase my RTH speed.  If the drone automatically RTH and is out of controller range, then at some point it will be back in and you can then control the speed.