Hello people.
I've read on the manual that the critical distance from the home point, in order the MA2 to ascend or not, is 20 metres.
Is this right or not?

Why would you employ RTH at such distance? Generally speaking it's an emergency feature, although convenient in some non-emergency situations. Automatic ascend and landing in this mode is always a risky scenario ...

If you initiate RTH within 20m of home the drone is likely to just land.  At Distance, it will rise to a pre=set altitude (programmable by you) before coming home.  That's the safety feature .

Hello there. Thank you for reaching out and for these information you have posted. In addition this post. If the Home Point was successfully recorded and the compass is functioning normally, Failsafe RTH automatically activates after the remote controller signal is lost for more than 11 seconds. The aircraft will fly backwards for 50 m on its flight route, and then enter Straight Line RTH. The aircraft enterers Straight Line RTH if the remote controller signal is restored during Failsafe RTH.
After flying for 50
1. If the aircraft is less than 20 m from the Home Point, it flies back to the Home Point at the current altitude.
2. If the aircraft is further than 20 m from the Home Point and the current altitude is higher than the preset RTH altitude, it flies back to the Home Point at the current altitude.
3. If the aircraft is further than 20 m from the Home Point and the current altitude is lower than the preset RTH altitude, it ascends to the preset RTH altitude and then flies back to the Home Point.
Thank you.

DJI Stephen Posted at 12-8 20:35
Hello there. Thank you for reaching out and for these information you have posted. In addition this post. If the Home Point was successfully recorded and the compass is functioning normally, Failsafe RTH automatically activates after the remote controller signal is lost for more than 11 seconds. The aircraft will fly backwards for 50 m on its flight route, and then enter Straight Line RTH. The aircraft enterers Straight Line RTH if the remote controller signal is restored during Failsafe RTH.
After flying for 50
1. If the aircraft is less than 20 m from the Home Point, it flies back to the Home Point at the current altitude.

DJI Stephen thank you for your reply,

I am testing the quadcopter behaviour fot 3rd case. Over 20m distance it has to ascend to RTH altitude that has been set by user..
but,
in my case, as you can see on screenshots seems the critical distance to be 50m and not 20m.
On the screenshots you see 2 attempts.

On both I've set the RTH alt 80m.

1st: Y-c
current altitude 49.4m
current distance 49m
I press RTH and the quad returns without reach 80m alt, straight line.

2nd: f-k
current altitude 17.7m
current distance 53m
I press RTH and the quad ascends 80m altitude and then it's landing.

The behaviour is different when the distance is higher or lower than 50m, not 20m.

PS1: The pre-flight check was succeed (sats etc).
PS2: I've made several tests at different places.

Is this normal?

Hi,

Interesting, but without flightlogs it is difficult to analyze....


If flying below pre set RTH heigt, and initiate a RTH and move the Up/Down stick,  craft will fly at current height back to home.

So only flightlogs can explain what happend.

cheers
JJB

Check the app as well, in Go4 it has an option to RTH at current altitude, maybe the fly app has the same and it is enabled, if it is there turn it off then the drone will ascend every time it is lower than the RTH height set in the app.

Matthew Dobrski Posted at 12-8 16:04
Why would you employ RTH at such distance? Generally speaking it's an emergency feature, although convenient in some non-emergency situations. Automatic ascend and landing in this mode is always a risky scenario ...

testing all the features...safety first!

JJB* Posted at 12-8 23:38
Hi,

Interesting, but without flightlogs it is difficult to analyze....

The logs:

https://app.airdata.com/flight/bb684be0d6172ae5ca9fe786162f2d3b/GENERALNotifications

cm11783 Posted at 12-8 23:56
The logs:

https://app.airdata.com/flight/bb684be0d6172ae5ca9fe786162f2d3b/GENERALNotifications

Hi cm11783,

Indeed, your toggle point is 50 meters and not 20 meters.

The info from DJI stephen is for the Mini2, not for your MA2.
Or DJI changed this as well for the MA2, but did not update their manual.

But this new RTH behaviour is for the FailSafe RTH, and not for the user initiated RTH. (if i read the manual correct...)

cheers
JJB

DJI Stephen Posted at 12-8 20:35
Hello there. Thank you for reaching out and for these information you have posted. In addition this post. If the Home Point was successfully recorded and the compass is functioning normally, Failsafe RTH automatically activates after the remote controller signal is lost for more than 11 seconds. The aircraft will fly backwards for 50 m on its flight route, and then enter Straight Line RTH. The aircraft enterers Straight Line RTH if the remote controller signal is restored during Failsafe RTH.
After flying for 50
1. If the aircraft is less than 20 m from the Home Point, it flies back to the Home Point at the current altitude.

Hi Stephen,

Your copy paste text is from the Mini2 manual.

Is this RTH behaviour changed for the MA2 as well,  and DJI did not yet update the MA2 manual?

cheers
JJB

JJB* Posted at 12-9 00:15
Hi cm11783,

Indeed, your toggle point is 50 meters and not 20 meters.

It shouldn't be triggered the Failsafe RTH as the battery was over 80%
Also, on Failsafe RTH the quad is coming back and descending at same time.
In my case it came back at straight line.

cm11783 Posted at 12-9 00:40
It shouldn't be triggered the Failsafe RTH as the battery was over 80%
Also, on Failsafe RTH the quad is coming back and descending at same time.
In my case it came back at straight line.

yes, so the DJI reply wasn`t that good.....  wrong craft and wrong RTH mode....

I will test my MA2 when the weather is good enough here. Previous tests i did worked oke regarding to the 20 meters distance value, not like your MA2 behaviour

JJB* Posted at 12-9 00:49
yes, so the DJI reply wasn`t that good.....  wrong craft and wrong RTH mode....

I will test my MA2 when the weather is good enough here. Previous tests i did worked oke regarding to the 20 meters distance value, not like your MA2 behaviour

Thank you JJB*... more tests from other users except me would be really useful

In my experience RTH accent only works when the distance is out over 100ft.  

I agree with other posters that RTH is safety feature and not intended for close proximity or as a method for regularly landing the drone.  

DJI Stephen Posted at 12-8 20:35
Hello there. Thank you for reaching out and for these information you have posted. In addition this post. If the Home Point was successfully recorded and the compass is functioning normally, Failsafe RTH automatically activates after the remote controller signal is lost for more than 11 seconds. The aircraft will fly backwards for 50 m on its flight route, and then enter Straight Line RTH. The aircraft enterers Straight Line RTH if the remote controller signal is restored during Failsafe RTH.
After flying for 50
1. If the aircraft is less than 20 m from the Home Point, it flies back to the Home Point at the current altitude.

DJI Stephan, I am looking forward for your reply.

JJB* Posted at 12-9 00:15
Hi cm11783,

Indeed, your toggle point is 50 meters and not 20 meters.

The 1.2 version of MA2 manual states that MA2 will ascend to RTH height if it is greater than 20m from home point. Otherwise, it returns at its current altitude.

The 50m reverse is only in Failsafe RTH. I believe this is to take it out from under any overhanging objects.

After weeks of poor rainy weather, today we have had a cold but sunny day. Best chance to take some pictures as all the leafs have dropped finally and to do some RTH test.

Initially it was, if i am not wrong:

<5m distance to HP -> direct landing
< 5-20m distance to HP -> turning direction to HP, direct return to HP at current hight and landing
> 20m distance to HP -> ascend to 20m turning direction to HP, ascend to user set RTH altitude, direct return to HP and landing independend of the current altitude RTH was initiated

Today i noticed that my MA2 behaved a little strange on RTH because even up to 50m distance it returned directly at current altitude.
After another flight it behaved as it should. So after several starts and RTH landings. All my batteries were empty.
Due to lack of space on our property (max. distance 52m) i was not really able to test above 50m distance.

Back in my office i checked the manual and found out, that the MA2 will only ascend to the user set RTH altitude,  if it has exceeded 50m of flight distance, otherwise it will return at current altitude.
I totally forgot this point after nearly 1 month of poor weather where i could not fly.

All in all everything looks to be normal and DJI Stephen was correct with his post.

MySky Posted at 12-18 06:47
After weeks of poor rainy weather, today we have had a cold but sunny day. Best chance to take some pictures as all the leafs have dropped finally and to do some RTH test.

Initially it was, if i am not wrong:

Thank you for your reply.
Could you please share a pic from the manual where you see about the 50 m?
Also, could you confirm that you have v1.2 manual?

cm11783 Posted at 12-21 11:00
Thank you for your reply.
Could you please share a pic from the manual where you see about the 50 m?
Also, could you confirm that you have v1.2 manual?

It is in the manual v1.0 on page 15 which can be downloaded from the DJI webpage as PDF.
It is the same explanation as given by DJI Stephen in post #4.

The 50m are mentioned for failsafe in that section, but can be applied as well for manual initiated RTH.

BTW, where did you find manual v1.2 ?

MySky Posted at 12-21 11:45
It is in the manual v1.0 on page 15 which can be downloaded from the DJI webpage as PDF.
It is the same explanation as given by DJI Stephen in post #4.

please check the section "Smart RTH" and not failsafe RTH, cause this is the case the tests where made on.

On 3.a. says that if the aircraft is further than 20m from HP (in my case it was 49m) it ascends to the preset RTH altitude and flies to HP... but it didn't ascend if you check my logs.

The v1.2 is available on the official dji page as a pdf also.

cm11783 Posted at 12-21 13:12
please check the section "Smart RTH" and not failsafe RTH, cause this is the case the tests where made on.

On 3.a. says that if the aircraft is further than 20m from HP (in my case it was 49m) it ascends to the preset RTH altitude and flies to HP... but it didn't ascend if you check my logs.

This is strange, i will be only pushed to the German manual which is still the v 1.0.

There is no possibility to switch to another language. If i try to open the english DJI website i will be forced to see the German site only.

According to the RTH this might have been changed with one of the last FW updates.
Are you sure you did fly more than 50m before you initiated the RTH manually ?
BTW, DJI didn't update all changes in the manual, as English users already reported.

After an extensive search i found another download location for the English manual version 1.2. But this is from 06.2020.
Since then, we had 4 major FW updates and in Aircraft FW .0250 and .0460 DJI did some optimizations / changes.
All the changes and funtionalities that have been added to FW, have not been added or updated to the manual since v 1.2.

Finally, I feel justified...

5m-50m RTH at CURRENT altitude.

cm11783 Posted at 12-28 02:51
Finally, I feel justified...

5m-50m RTH at CURRENT altitude.

Looks like new fw. is comming with new app 1.2.2?

virtual Posted at 12-28 03:14
Looks like new fw. is comming with new app 1.2.2?

yeah      
DJI fly 1.2.2 is required.           

cm11783 Posted at 12-28 03:55
yeah      
DJI fly 1.2.2 is required.

Looking forward, but Android app was a bit delayed...