Just wonder if this story is true, just complaining not asking for help, using meters and feet in sentence, in beginner mode at 50 feet out and RTH was triggered the aircraft would land where it was per page #13 of user manual, in beginners mode it will only fly about 98 feet away and up, how could it fly 200 meters (650 feet) away, just my thought.   

Tom24nh Posted at 2017-12-26 15:11
Just wonder if this story is true, just complaining not asking for help, using meters and feet in sentence, in beginner mode at 50 feet out and RTH was triggered the aircraft would land where it was per page #13 of user manual, in beginners mode it will only fly about 98 feet away and up, how could it fly 200 meters (650 feet) away, just my thought.

The thought did cross my mind but you have to give people the benefit of the doubt unless proven otherwise.

Sounds to me that this is 100% user error. Reading and understanding the manual and knowing how the special features work is paramount to successfully flying these drones. Using Return-to-Home on your first flight was your fault not DJI. A typical RTH command will have the drone automatically ascend to 30 M (100 ft) from your starting point and then fly to the recorded position and land. Did you calibrate your drones compasses before flying it? Did the GPS have a lock on your location? Compass calibration is essential in having a successful RTH.

Don't go blaming DJI. You, and only you, is responsible for what happened.

Now, I hope you were safely able to retrieve your drone and you only broke a propeller or two. Read the manual(s), watch YouTube videos, and learn the GO4 app inside out.

Good luck getting out of the dog house.

PowellSkier Posted at 2017-12-26 15:56
Sounds to me that this is 100% user error. Reading and understanding the manual and knowing how the special features work is paramount to successfully flying these drones. Using Return-to-Home on your first flight was your fault not DJI. A typical RTH command will have the drone automatically ascend to 30 M (100 ft) from your starting point and then fly to the recorded position and land. Did you calibrate your drones compasses before flying it? Did the GPS have a lock on your location? Compass calibration is essential in having a successful RTH.

Don't go blaming DJI. You, and only you, is responsible for what happened.

Totally agree with your comments. Hate to hear about bad experiences, but too many don't take the time to really understand what they have in their hands. I hope the drone was salvageable and not torn up too bad. Good lesson, but hard way t o learn.

Tom24nh Posted at 2017-12-26 15:11
Just wonder if this story is true, just complaining not asking for help, using meters and feet in sentence, in beginner mode at 50 feet out and RTH was triggered the aircraft would land where it was per page #13 of user manual, in beginners mode it will only fly about 98 feet away and up, how could it fly 200 meters (650 feet) away, just my thought.

Those questions are the reason we are asking for the flight log to be posted here.  So we can all see what the error was and maybe learn something from it.  You don't need the drone to do that, just the log from the device.
As for the drone, chainsaws have been know to work wonders on persuading trees to do what you want.

PowellSkier Posted at 2017-12-26 15:56
Sounds to me that this is 100% user error. Reading and understanding the manual and knowing how the special features work is paramount to successfully flying these drones. Using Return-to-Home on your first flight was your fault not DJI. A typical RTH command will have the drone automatically ascend to 30 M (100 ft) from your starting point and then fly to the recorded position and land. Did you calibrate your drones compasses before flying it? Did the GPS have a lock on your location? Compass calibration is essential in having a successful RTH.

Don't go blaming DJI. You, and only you, is responsible for what happened.

Did you calibrate your drones compasses before flying it? Did the GPS have a lock on your location? Compass calibration is essential in having a successful RTH.
The manual makes no mention of having to calibrate the compass and in normal flying situations you should never have to calibrate your compass.
The incident described has nothing to do with any compass problem anyway.

Labroides Posted at 2017-12-26 16:17
Did you calibrate your drones compasses before flying it? Did the GPS have a lock on your location? Compass calibration is essential in having a successful RTH.
The manual makes no mention of having to calibrate the compass and in normal flying situations you should never have to calibrate your compass.
The incident described has nothing to do with any compass problem anyway.

The manual may not mention this, however it is awfully funny that in DJI Support's forum post of "5 Ways to Prevent Flyaways", the 2nd step to prevent flyaways specifically discusses compass calibration/interference as well as gps interference. Half this forum provides fixes and suggestions based off of information NOT found in the manual.

Labroides Posted at 2017-12-26 16:17
Did you calibrate your drones compasses before flying it? Did the GPS have a lock on your location? Compass calibration is essential in having a successful RTH.
The manual makes no mention of having to calibrate the compass and in normal flying situations you should never have to calibrate your compass.
The incident described has nothing to do with any compass problem anyway.

The 5 drones I bought ALWAYS made me calibrate the compasses out of the box.
Page 13 of the Phantom 4 (and Mavic) manuals says a normally functioning compass is needed for a successful RTH. (Failsafe)
On page 56 of the Phantom 4 manual (vs 1.6) under Calibrating the Compass, item 2 of the 'When to Calibrate' section says to re-calibrate the compass "When flying in a new location that is different from the most recent flight"     
Since this was his 1st flight, I would say the compass definitely needed to be calibrated, 'Captain'.

PowellSkier Posted at 2017-12-26 16:55
The 5 drones I bought ALWAYS made me calibrate the compasses out of the box.
Page 13 of the Phantom 4 (and Mavic) manuals says a normally functioning compass is needed for a successful RTH. (Failsafe)
On page 56 of the Phantom 4 manual (vs 1.6) under Calibrating the Compass, item 2 of the 'When to Calibrate' section says to re-calibrate the compass "When flying in a new location that is different from the most recent flight"     

You are correct in what you say, but over time DJI have realised that there is no real need to calibrate the compass every flight (could it have started as an urban myth ? Or an easy disclaimer). But in practice Labroids is correct in what he says. One good calibration will last until advised by application, or at least that's what would be expected in the P4 series running DJI Go 4. I expect it is similar for DJI Go on the P3 series.

Any compass error before taking off can be cured by moving a few feet in another direction.  Provided you aren't surrounded by metals.

MrPinaColada Posted at 2017-12-26 16:41
The manual may not mention this, however it is awfully funny that in DJI Support's forum post of "5 Ways to Prevent Flyaways", the 2nd step to prevent flyaways specifically discusses compass calibration/interference as well as gps interference. Half this forum provides fixes and suggestions based off of information NOT found in the manual.

I wouldn't put any faith in their 5 ways.
There are many inaccuracies in it.

Look at a current P4 pro manual .... there's nothing to suggest you need to calibrate any time.
I've flown mine for a year without ever calibrating anything.
There is no need to calibrate your compass under normal circumstances.

PowellSkier Posted at 2017-12-26 16:55
The 5 drones I bought ALWAYS made me calibrate the compasses out of the box.
Page 13 of the Phantom 4 (and Mavic) manuals says a normally functioning compass is needed for a successful RTH. (Failsafe)
On page 56 of the Phantom 4 manual (vs 1.6) under Calibrating the Compass, item 2 of the 'When to Calibrate' section says to re-calibrate the compass "When flying in a new location that is different from the most recent flight"     

I would say the compass definitely needed to be calibrated, 'Captain'.
You might say it and DJI may still have some poorly worded manuals and the forum is full of people suggesting compass calibration to solve all and any problems.
But there is no need to calibrate your compass in normal situations.
And there's nothing at all about the OP's post that suggests the compass was at fault.
A problem compass might make a Phantom slowly spiral or fly big curves rather than straight lines but nothing like what he described.

I had to calibrate my compass before 1st flight, the heading/s in the app did not correspond to the direction my anemometer is to set to and thats magnetic North

Well, i think that was the case, i put the craft in the middle of the garden pointing (camera)  forward toward North, the  app should have said 360 or 0 or there abouts, yet it was 30º+ out North East
The app also said the compass was ok too, but once calibrated it was back within the margin i would expect and pointing north

So, had i not had my weather station or compass or even clued up on these things it could have left me with some issues im sure, but  because it does say in the manual about moving locations
i thought i was prudent to check and hence the need to calibrate it.

Bashy Posted at 2017-12-27 00:28
I had to calibrate my compass before 1st flight, the heading/s in the app did not correspond to the direction my anemometer is to set to and thats magnetic North

Well, i think that was the case, i put the craft in the middle of the garden pointing (camera)  forward toward North, the  app should have said 360 or 0 or there abouts, yet it was 30º+ out North East

because it does say in the manual about moving locations
Old manuals had poor wording or incorrect information but DJI have finally improved things.
Look at the P4 pro manual and they have finally dropped the reference to new locations.

There is no need to ever calibrate your compass under normal flying circumstances.
If you crash and rebuild or add or remove equipment from the Phantom, recalibration is advised.

Tom R Posted at 2017-12-25 14:49
My wife just chewed my tail for ruining Christmas.   Thanks a lot for ruining Christmas.  

Yes, it is about a tree two hundred meters away, on someone else's property about 60 feet up in the air.  

You cant just jump into a brand new bmw without first learning how to drive the same goes for these drones im sorry for what has happened but you cant blame the product without first learning how to fly it

Labroides Posted at 2017-12-27 00:42
because it does say in the manual about moving locations
Old manuals had poor wording or incorrect information but DJI have finally improved things.
Look at the P4 pro manual and they have finally dropped the reference to new locations.

Understood but if you was in my position and noticed that it was actually 30º out, would you have calibrated or left it alone, its  serious question, not  a dig or anything, just want to know if i did the right thing or not, although im not so sure calibrating it in the correct environment (away from interfering objects) can be a bad thing?

Bashy Posted at 2017-12-27 00:57
Understood but if you was in my position and noticed that it was actually 30º out, would you have calibrated or left it alone, its  serious question, not  a dig or anything, just want to know if i did the right thing or not, although im not so sure calibrating it in the correct environment (away from interfering objects) can be a bad thing?

If you were directly out of the box and not yet flown or operated your craft otherwise then it is understandable that the compass may have some small drift.  In the instance you describe if you had just taken off and flown around in a roughly a 360 degree range over the flight period the compass would have self oriented to a closer North.  Look up performing an aircraft compass swing and declination.  Just declination alone could put you off by nearly 30 degrees depending on your point on the globe, however once the aircraft had flown and established its position and compass relation it would have self compensated.  IF it had not or could not then you might have received a warning to perform a recalibration, in this case you will never know.  
What Labroides is trying to get across is unless the system says to perform a recalibration and you perform one when not needed or too frequently YOU are increasing the possibility of introducing error into the system that was not there, if that happens then it is on YOU.

There's a good reason why DJI tossed in a flight simulator when they developed the DJI GO app. It's certain they did not include the sim just for entertainment purposes. Taking a few flights with the sim will help acquaint a new owner with the flight characteristics  and controls in real time. Heck, at age 19, I laid down my first motorcycle on the very first day because I thought bicycling since age 5 would make riding a Honda CB 500 a piece of cake.  Wish I had read the manual first or at least spent a couple days riding in the back yard. My mom was p'd off for years.

Im so over this compass calibration talk so many people keep saying thats its the main cause of most flyaways crashes etc etc.
Ive only ever calibrated mine once when the app asked to do so and in 115 flights with the p4p never had any issues concerning the compass.
Yes with my old drones it was necessary to do so but they had no where near the level of tech build into them as the p4p has.
So can we please stop blaming the compass calibration for all these faults.
It seems clear to me that something has gone wrong here and im suspecting simple human error is the main cause.
You cant expect someone whom has never flown before to take a p4p out of the box not read anything or have prior flight experience to be able to just jump in and fly around without some form of risk of crashing into something.
Some things in this instance cant be explained without the flight log so untill and if we get to see that i suggest we stop jumping to conclusions

Yep. I agree with Hellsgate. For a year, I constantly had minor toilet bowl until I changed my procedure and left the RC, my Lone Star belt and my 9mm  20 feet away when doing  compass calibration.  Haven't calibrated it since the last FW upgrade. But I do the IMU  cal occasionally.

Genghis9 Posted at 2017-12-27 02:45
If you were directly out of the box and not yet flown or operated your craft otherwise then it is understandable that the compass may have some small drift.  In the instance you describe if you had just taken off and flown around in a roughly a 360 degree range over the flight period the compass would have self oriented to a closer North.  Look up performing an aircraft compass swing and declination.  Just declination alone could put you off by nearly 30 degrees depending on your point on the globe, however once the aircraft had flown and established its position and compass relation it would have self compensated.  IF it had not or could not then you might have received a warning to perform a recalibration, in this case you will never know.  
What Labroides is trying to get across is unless the system says to perform a recalibration and you perform one when not needed or too frequently YOU are increasing the possibility of introducing error into the system that was not there, if that happens then it is on YOU.

Understood, thanks

On the p4pro you can’t calibrate the compass unless the app prompts it

50ft away ? DJI state RTH only activates when 20m or more away from Home Point. That is approx 60ft. It is supposed to land where it is if within that 20m. Buts lest assume your 50ft is a guess ... and really it was on the limit of the 60ft and RTH kicked in.
If the AC rose to about 100ft .... then I assume you had a RTH altitude set at about 30m ? sorry lets use ft !! about 100ft ?

It would rise first to the set altitude - then fly horizontally to the home point and then vertically descend to land.

It really sounds like a bad Home Point setting .... I know its not nice - but if you could elaborate a little more on what settings you put into GO before flying ... what warnings / screen info you had at start, during and after hitting tree - that would help us.

mmmmmmm sad tale and I assume from your later post that its still up in that tree ?

Nigel

RedHotPoker Posted at 2017-12-25 21:00
I'm one of the soul archers on this forum. It was my suggestion to use stick and string.
The idea is to shoot an arrow through the branches, with a fishing line attached. Just like bow fishing.
But you will have a rope or strong cord tied to the lighter line. Once you have the rope over the branches you should be able to pull and shake the drone loose. Have a couple of people i with a blanket and do a firemans catch.

Actually I have been advocating the bow and arrow trick for many years .... and posted it on forums like this many times ..

I even on one forum described a modification to fit a fixed spool fishing reel to a bow !!

Nigel

sorry to see that but this is why you need to learn how to fly it manually before anything. In my 3 years of flying DJI drones I never used RTH once.

RTH is not the issue though, watching a simple youtube video on it before using it would have saved this drone.

ny300z Posted at 2017-12-27 10:33
sorry to see that but this is why you need to learn how to fly it manually before anything. In my 3 years of flying DJI drones I never used RTH once.

RTH is not the issue though, watching a simple youtube video on it before using it would have saved this drone.

Bit harsh ... but I understand your intent.

The OP if he had just used the sticks to fly back to his HP - all the grief would have been avoided.

But on the subject of RTH - I use it a lot ... even though I can fly manually as owner of quite a number of non GPS multi-rotors (I used to test fly and review for a few brands and they let me keep them !) ...

RTH is a good tool... especially if out at distance and orientation may be a bit iffy. Click RTH and you know AC is pointed at Home Point ... let if fly back a ways and then cancel ... land out manually etc.

Nigel

solentlife Posted at 2017-12-27 10:40
Bit harsh ... but I understand your intent.

The OP if he had just used the sticks to fly back to his HP - all the grief would have been avoided.

I dont think i was being harsh just truthful but I sure didn't mean it that way.

It's very true though, you cant just open the box, fly it and press RTH without knowing exactly what it does. Maybe its just me but i read up on every feature before trying them.

I have been an advocate of the Manual in the Box ever since seeing DJI ..... I think it ridiculous that there isn't any OBVIOUS recc'd to even download the manual. Given that a $50 9x radio can include a comprehensive manual in the box - you'd think a much more expensive item such as a P3 could at least throw one in ? That Quick Guide is as much use as ******* paper in my view.

Nigel

solentlife Posted at 2017-12-27 11:06
I have been an advocate of the Manual in the Box ever since seeing DJI ..... I think it ridiculous that there isn't any OBVIOUS recc'd to even download the manual. Given that a $50 9x radio can include a comprehensive manual in the box - you'd think a much more expensive item such as a P3 could at least throw one in ? That Quick Guide is as much use as ******* paper in my view.

Nigel

Completely agree, my brother got his P4S for Christmas and I told him to read the manual twice.  He calls me and says well I read it once but all it said was a bunch of warnings etc.  I asked what he was reading and he says the Quick Start Guide, that is all he got and no clue about a manual.  I had to send him the link to get.  At the absolute very least there either should be a flyer or on page one of the QSG something should explain exactly where you can get the full User's Manual.  DJI will expend a lot of energy on GEO Fencing and quizzes but can't do this, it is not that it doesn't make sense if is beneath their status as a premier UAV manufacturer...Very Subpar!

Genghis9 Posted at 2017-12-27 14:43
Completely agree, my brother got his P4S for Christmas and I told him to read the manual twice.  He calls me and says well I read it once but all it said was a bunch of warnings etc.  I asked what he was reading and he says the Quick Start Guide, that is all he got and no clue about a manual.  I had to send him the link to get.  At the absolute very least there either should be a flyer or on page one of the QSG something should explain exactly where you can get the full User's Manual.  DJI will expend a lot of energy on GEO Fencing and quizzes but can't do this, it is not that it doesn't make sense if is beneath their status as a premier UAV manufacturer...Very Subpar!

The manuals are also hidden in the DJI Go App - on the initial home screen, click on the three bar icon on the top right hand corner beside the picture of the drone and click on Academy. On the next screen there's a "user manuals" option and it gives you various manuals (they may take some time to download).

There are some tutorials too.

Handy but rather hidden...

G Davidson Posted at 2017-12-27 14:59
The manuals are also hidden in the DJI Go App - on the initial home screen, click on the three bar icon on the top right hand corner beside the picture of the drone and click on Academy. On the next screen there's a "user manuals" option and it gives you various manuals (they may take some time to download).

There are some tutorials too.

True the app can lead you to the manuals although not prominent in seeing/finding them, however, there is nothing that tells customers/owners that they can go there to find a manual.  Additionally, most folks are not likely to think to look for their Owner's/User's Manual on an application, but hey, this is where I'm a dinosaur as maybe some would.

Genghis9 Posted at 2017-12-27 15:05
True the app can lead you to the manuals although not prominent in seeing/finding them, however, there is nothing that tells customers/owners that they can go there to find a manual.  Additionally, most folks are not likely to think to look for their Owner's/User's Manual on an application, but hey, this is where I'm a dinosaur as maybe some would.

I agree - it's far from obvious that the manuals are available in the app. I'm sure they could run a prominent toolbar across the top clearly showing some of the options this button gives.  

For any one who needs to read the manual, it's easily available in the Go App.

Or you can also acquire a PDF copy from the download section of your particular drone model.

Stay tuned, for more bulletins!! ;-)


RedHotPoker

RHP .... you seem to have missed the point that a manual would be a good idea to put in the box.

Or at least a prominent link to the manual download on the DJI site ....

Nigel

solentlife Posted at 2017-12-28 00:02
RHP .... you seem to have missed the point that a manual would be a good idea to put in the box.

Or at least a prominent link to the manual download on the DJI site ....

Yes, it would, but it is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. For Internet sales, you need to publish in a whole raft of languages, and then, which language version do you put in the box? It is not as simple as working out where it is being shipped to, because the buyer may noty understand the l;anguage of that country.

Geebax Posted at 2017-12-28 00:15
Yes, it would, but it is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. For Internet sales, you need to publish in a whole raft of languages, and then, which language version do you put in the box? It is not as simple as working out where it is being shipped to, because the buyer may noty understand the l;anguage of that country.

Then tell 99.9% of RC radio manufacturers and other items that have full true international markets .... and that's with CHEAP gear !!  

The P3 and its sisters are NOT cheap items ...... how much to put a decent card in with the Internet download link on into the box ON TOP where it will be seen ?

As I said - a decent CLEAR link prominent in the box would go a long way to maybe help prevent sad storys like this.

Nigel

Tom R Posted at 2017-12-25 14:49
My wife just chewed my tail for ruining Christmas.   Thanks a lot for ruining Christmas.  

Yes, it is about a tree two hundred meters away, on someone else's property about 60 feet up in the air.  

My iPhone, Samsung tablet have similar issues (freezes etc. ) but since they don't fly in the air, they won't damage themselves so easily.
A brand new BMW has a different price tag so is hard to compare to a drone.

Really sorry for what happened. Hope you are able to get it back.

solentlife Posted at 2017-12-28 05:12
Then tell 99.9% of RC radio manufacturers and other items that have full true international markets .... and that's with CHEAP gear !!  

The P3 and its sisters are NOT cheap items ...... how much to put a decent card in with the Internet download link on into the box ON TOP where it will be seen ?

I agree, not much trouble to put a card in with a link to the manual.

jonboy1983 Posted at 2017-12-27 08:45
On the p4pro you can’t calibrate the compass unless the app prompts it

Incorrect, i did.