Ok guys so this past weekend I took the Phantom out to shoot some aerial photography of river lots along the river. Each day I grow with more confidence and really enjoying flying now that hunting season is over.  So on this particular day I noticed it was taking a long time to get 6 satellites so I decided to just go ahead and fly in Atti mode knowing I would probably get GPS signal once I got above the trees.  After I got above the trees I flipped back to GPS and was able to grab 7 satellites plus before I took off from my destination. So I was having a great flight when I noticed my black pearl began to flash saying battery was low. Well boys so here I am flying in FPV with the Black Pearl and I am out about 1200 meters knowing I need to get back before my Black Pearl Monitor goes dead.  

Well here the real test!  So I get to about 800 meters coming home at an angle and bam my monitor goes black and at this point im flying back in Atti mode.  I quickly get disoriented due to knowing I have a crosswind on my phantom and I make the decision to throw the phantom in home lock and pray! 2 minutes later which seemed like an eternity the phantom 2 comes back to its home point!  

So this being a great lesson to learn for newbies alike, always try to get a gps lock before you take off.  If I hadn't waited to get satellite connections where I was standing and just took off and flew, my phantom would either be in the TN river or in a wheat field somewhere.  I had almost considered throwing the phantom in GPS mode so it would hover and to hop in the jeep to drive around looking for it hovering in the air.  Don't put your self in the same shoes that I was in.

Now here's a question for the novice and experienced guys.  Say in the same scenario that I had just hit fail safe mode rather than trying to rely on home lock, since I grabbed 7 satellites once I was 30 feet in the air and 40 feet from me what would of happened?  Would it have gone to the location where it originally finally obtained the 7 satellites?

   

I believe it would have....if that's where you got the flashing green leds. Supposedly though in HL it will come back to within so many meters of the homepoint, then go into CL......I'm planning on taking my Phantom to the deer lease and doing some scouting around soon. Haven't been back since the season ended in Jan.

No in fail safe RTH the quad returns to the point recorded by its system when it powered on.

RTH will cause the quad to rise to a preset height and fly straight back to the home point.

IMHO home lock is just for when your not sure of orientation but for disaster recovery switch to fail safe mode as there is no need to keep the stick down

Lastly remember home lock will bring it back at the height it was at before you switch to home lock and if there are obstructions you will hit them

I use Home Lock too.  I prefer it to RTH because I get nervous turning off my RC.  I know the turning off the power will cause it to come back but I can not do it, never have.  Home Lock as mentioned above is an altitude issue and since I am usually going up higher as I go out I am usually above the RTH altitude anyway.

Interesting this I accidentally learned is HL works in GPS mode too.  I was under the impression the switch had to be in ATTI mode BUT it does not.

On RTH I have the altitude set to 60 meters just be safe about obstructions from taller objects unless Im unfortunate to be near some higher towers or buildings.  

The reason why I didn't hit Fail Safe mode is because I was amongst some trees and even though I got up and over the trees into a field as I grabbed satellites, I was afraid to see where the phantom would try to land  So my question is even though I may only have 4 satellites showing up it still knows its home position from the time of turning on the battery?

Home lock only works if you have sat lock.  That's the only way it knows where home is.

crash1sttime Posted at 2015-4-10 01:58
No in fail safe RTH the quad returns to the point recorded by its system when it powered on.

RTH w ...

Gotcha...confusing HL with RTH...

Usually the further out I go the higher I will go to continue getting signal to the monitor.  So of course when I switched to HL I knew I was good altitude wise.  

So say for example I keep the GPS lock off on the phantom, and then fly 100 yards and hover.  Once I turn on the GPS switch while I maintain a pretty stable hover and lock onto 6 plus satellites, does that mean that is where it will mark as home position?  Here's the reason why im curious about this.  Say I am on a hiking trail in the woods and I know theres a field 200 yards from me that is wide open.  I think to myself if my battery was to get low and I lose signal then I would hate for RTH to cause my phantom to try to land through the forest canopy of where I am.  Rather I would like to fly it to the field, and then turn on GPS Switch and mark that has a RTH location.  Would this work?

No home position is recorded when the quad first powers up, it flashes rapid green lights when it has locked its position on the earth.

GPS is only used to keep the quad in a position when hovering and switching it on then off does not move the home point.

As said if when you want to set a new home point flick the S2 switch up and down 5 times and watch the quad flash it's rapid green lights to confirm the instruction to set a new home point
If you don't have enough sats to lock a home point then just wait until you have and then flick the S2 switch as above, if this means hovering 60ft above you that is fine, oh and don't think that the home point will be set 60ft in the air, it doesn't.

crash1sttime Posted at 2015-4-10 03:09
No home position is recorded when the quad first powers up, it flashes rapid green lights when it ha ...

partly right unless I read wrong

when you power up the compass will do course lock at about 30 seconds  = compass heading

you need to get a SECOND set (naza mode) to confirm gps home lock, the time for this varies from quick to minutes

Correct in phantom mode you only get 1 set Of rapid greens, In Naza mode you get 2 sets, 1 set is course lock as you stated and the other home lock.