Labroides Posted at 3-8 16:45
My previous post
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I read of someone else's trouble of having RTH altitude set lower than their current altitude at time of initiating RTH and the drone did not descend, it continued at the higher altitude which resulted in it impacting a bridge that he wanted to go under .  To which someone replied that maybe the programmed strategy was ' higher is better ' ...
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Labroides previous reply
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That's no mystery .. it's the way DJI drones have always been programmed to work.
And except in specific and uncommon situations, higher is usually safer.
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Higher may be safer in general, but not always .
Such as when a drone encounters the boundary of a lower ceiling and many people discover that there is not sufficient intelligence coded in the flight programming to facilitate a successful RTH .

There should be a near-fail-safe method employed in such scenarios .

Since the lower ceiling is most always an altitude restriction to protect other aircraft then it is fairly safe to assume the ceiling is an area that may commonly be populated with other aircraft and decent to that ceiling would ordinarily be safe .
I suppose that maybe 1 percent of any such ceiling area would have a hazard ( potential collision point ) .
Could you imagine that an area near an airport which would have a ceiling of 196 feet and there being a building or tree or tower or hill in that area that went from the ground up to that height ?
In my mind, auto descending to a published ceiling would be absolutely safe .
Maybe I am missing something ? ? ?

Hello all, I've got the exact same behavior and problem as described by OP. I will open a ticket with DJI later today. This must be firmware related as everything was fine 2 firmware release ago. I will extra data too and post it later on.

djiuser_XMtI3qjx5AjV Posted at 2021-12-26 13:49
Forgot to add, It actually comes to a stop when it rises, then moves forward probably about 100 feet or so, then rises again (probably in about 50 foot increments)

Same exact problem. I
Is DJI following this thread?

JD05 Posted at 3-14 10:50
Same exact problem. I
Is DJI following this thread?

They were. Not sure if they still are. If so, they apparently have no solution.

Freetime Posted at 3-9 17:36
When you are in RTH mode you do not have to touch the stick at all.

I know that. You shouldn't have to do anything. But with the way it is now, the only choice I have is to cancel the RTH. It's the only way to get it to stop ascending to the preset altitude limit.
Now imagine if I were to be disconnected from the remote and it preformed an auto RTH and the max altitude somehow got set to 1200 feet or so accidentally? That could be dangerous, and most likely would lead to loss of the drone.
I've given up flying it at all for now. I'm going to hang on to it for a few more weeks to see if DJI might come up with a firmware update that corrects it, and if not, I'll send it in. Then I'm most likely going to sell it.

pagan65 Posted at 3-14 11:53
I know that. You shouldn't have to do anything. But with the way it is now, the only choice I have is to cancel the RTH. It's the only way to get it to stop ascending to the preset altitude limit.
Now imagine if I were to be disconnected from the remote and it preformed an auto RTH and the max altitude somehow got set to 1200 feet or so accidentally? That could be dangerous, and most likely would lead to loss of the drone.
I've given up flying it at all for now. I'm going to hang on to it for a few more weeks to see if DJI might come up with a firmware update that corrects it, and if not, I'll send it in. Then I'm most likely going to sell it.

Weird thing have just happened to me. Flew the first battery, messing around with the broken RTH, screen recording the things. Then continue the regular flight. Battery drains out, swap it and took off, also screen recording the things... Guess what? Flawless RTH.!!!! Got the serial number of the battery in case it is related. I will post flight logs and video if I have time this evening. Crazy stuff.

JD05 Posted at 3-15 09:05
Weird thing have just happened to me. Flew the first battery, messing around with the broken RTH, screen recording the things. Then continue the regular flight. Battery drains out, swap it and took off, also screen recording the things... Guess what? Flawless RTH.!!!! Got the serial number of the battery in case it is related. I will post flight logs and video if I have time this evening. Crazy stuff.

Interesting. I never thought about the battery or battery firmware having anything to do with it. I might experiment later today and see if I can get mine to work on a different battery. I have 3 others from a different MA2 that works fine.Let me know what you find.

JD05 Posted at 3-15 09:05
Weird thing have just happened to me. Flew the first battery, messing around with the broken RTH, screen recording the things. Then continue the regular flight. Battery drains out, swap it and took off, also screen recording the things... Guess what? Flawless RTH.!!!! Got the serial number of the battery in case it is related. I will post flight logs and video if I have time this evening. Crazy stuff.

BINGO!
I tried one of the batteries from my other MA2, and the RTH preformed normally!
Finally, after hours of messing with it, lol. It has to have something to do with battery firmware.
I only had time for one flight. It's getting dark, and I don't want to mess around with the other batteries until it's daylight. Just have to figure out if there's any way to get the three original batteries to function with it correctly again.
You're a genius lol.

pagan65 Posted at 3-16 15:49
BINGO!
I tried one of the batteries from my other MA2, and the RTH preformed normally!
Finally, after hours of messing with it, lol. It has to have something to do with battery firmware.

Glad that it worked. Battery firmware seems to be a good candidate for the problem.  Will try all of mine and keep you informed of the outcome.

Guess that asking DJI a reason for that weird discovery is wasted time.

JD05 Posted at 3-16 16:29
Glad that it worked. Battery firmware seems to be a good candidate for the problem.  Will try all of mine and keep you informed of the outcome.

Guess that asking DJI a reason for that weird discovery is wasted time.

I can't remember when the last time was when I got a message about updating battery firmware. it has been a long time. I'm thinking that tomorrow, I'll try one of the problem batteries in the other MA2 and see if it might update. Worth a try.
I'd hate to have to replace the 3 batteries from this one. Surely there's got to be a way to refresh the battery firmware. it would be nice if someone from DJI would look over this thread

JD05 Posted at 3-16 16:29
Glad that it worked. Battery firmware seems to be a good candidate for the problem.  Will try all of mine and keep you informed of the outcome.

Guess that asking DJI a reason for that weird discovery is wasted time.

OK. Here's what I found.I tried all 3 batteries from the MA2 that has RTH problems in my other MA2 that has never had problems, and all 3 batteries worked fine and RTH was normal.
I then recharged them, and flew all 3 in the MA2 that's had the malfunctioning RTH, and...It flew great and the RTH is back to normal.
I don't know if putting the batteries in the other drone fixed them, or putting the battery from the newer drone on the one with problems fixed it, but it's fixed.
I had forgotten to mention I was also having problems with the gimbal getting out of level. I could only level it manually. Auto wouldn't work. That seems to have been corrected also. So...It definitely had something to do with the batteries. Very strange.
But I'm glad I didn't send it in to DJI, & glad it's fixed. It was driving me crazy lol

Sorry to dig up an old thread but I recently updated my firmware etc after not having flown for a year and now my RTH is acting just like this.  It will fly 50', stop, go up in elevation about50', try going forward again, stop, go up another 50' in elevation, over and over till it hits max elevation reached.  Then it just kind of lingers until the battery dies.   Like I said, I hadn't flown in a long time but I also hadn't changed any of my procedures.  I just confirmed RTH altitude before takeoff and flew around my neighborhood.  Has anything changed in the last year+ that may have created this sort of behavior?  Is there a setting that may have changed in the updates I have done?  The above user tried other batteries to remedy his issue but I only have available the 3 packs that came with my drone.  Thanks for any advice or ideas.

Chris Kaye Posted at 2022-11-14 07:46
Sorry to dig up an old thread but I recently updated my firmware etc after not having flown for a year and now my RTH is acting just like this.  It will fly 50', stop, go up in elevation about50', try going forward again, stop, go up another 50' in elevation, over and over till it hits max elevation reached.  Then it just kind of lingers until the battery dies.   Like I said, I hadn't flown in a long time but I also hadn't changed any of my procedures.  I just confirmed RTH altitude before takeoff and flew around my neighborhood.  Has anything changed in the last year+ that may have created this sort of behavior?  Is there a setting that may have changed in the updates I have done?  The above user tried other batteries to remedy his issue but I only have available the 3 packs that came with my drone.  Thanks for any advice or ideas.

This has become an issue that is becoming more prevalent by the day. In the last couple of days we’ve experienced it on 4 different Mavic Air 2. DJI support suggested we send one in for them to evaluate. It doesn’t seem to be a hardware issue, but more of a firmware issue from our experience. Experiencing this with using both iOS and android devices.  

spacecowboy_headcount Posted at 1-5 09:07
This has become an issue that is becoming more prevalent by the day. In the last couple of days we’ve experienced it on 4 different Mavic Air 2. DJI support suggested we send one in for them to evaluate. It doesn’t seem to be a hardware issue, but more of a firmware issue from our experience. Experiencing this with using both iOS and android devices.

It sounds like OA problems, where you RTH'ing into the sun?
Are the sensors clean? H
Have you tried an advanced calibration of the sensors?
If possible, have you tried rolling the firmware back?
Perhaps posting the log for each troubled flight might show something?

I was able to get it to work finally. I use Dronelink as my normal flight app. I adjusted my RTH altitude setting in Dronelink, which caused the RTH to adjust in the background in DJI.  All of my flights have been successful once I made that change. I had to set RTH higher than what I was flying for this to work.  

spacecowboy_headcount Posted at 1-5 11:14
I was able to get it to work finally. I use Dronelink as my normal flight app. I adjusted my RTH altitude setting in Dronelink, which caused the RTH to adjust in the background in DJI.  All of my flights have been successful once I made that change. I had to set RTH higher than what I was flying for this to work.

That's good to hear.  I still haven't been able to fix mine.  I set RTH altitude at 200 feet and max altitude at 400feet.  Mine will rise go RTH altitude then attempt the RTH, it will then proceed to rise again, go forward a foot or 2, rise again.... over and over.  It then hits max altitude and runs the battery dead.  I have cleaned the sensors, recalibrated about 5 times, reloaded the firmware.  It is absolutely firmware related, it flew perfect, never gave me any issues.....I update the firmware to 01.01.0820 and then 01.01.0920 in the same sitting.........now I have problems.  The Drone flew and functioned perfectly for days leading up to these "upgrades"  If I could back up the firmware to something earlier my drone would be great again.  Till then, I'm stuck and don't feel comfortable flying it.  I don't want it to crash or end up hurting someone or damaging some ones property.   I also tried turning off the OA sensors but no joy there either.  They were programmed via firmware, Its almost like they don't ever shut off completely.

Chris Kaye Posted at 1-6 05:07
That's good to hear.  I still haven't been able to fix mine.  I set RTH altitude at 200 feet and max altitude at 400feet.  Mine will rise go RTH altitude then attempt the RTH, it will then proceed to rise again, go forward a foot or 2, rise again.... over and over.  It then hits max altitude and runs the battery dead.  I have cleaned the sensors, recalibrated about 5 times, reloaded the firmware.  It is absolutely firmware related, it flew perfect, never gave me any issues.....I update the firmware to 01.01.0820 and then 01.01.0920 in the same sitting.........now I have problems.  The Drone flew and functioned perfectly for days leading up to these "upgrades"  If I could back up the firmware to something earlier my drone would be great again.  Till then, I'm stuck and don't feel comfortable flying it.  I don't want it to crash or end up hurting someone or damaging some ones property.   I also tried turning off the OA sensors but no joy there either.  They were programmed via firmware, Its almost like they don't ever shut off completely.

I went back out today and tested. My fix was not a fix. I started having RTH issues and tracked it down to the angle of which it started to return home. I’m in Texas and with the sun in the Southern Hemisphere at noon, I can fly south and have it RTH where it flies straight North. No issues. When I fly North and have it RTH to the south. Immediately has issues. I was able to repeat this several times and even flew at a few different angles to have the sun hit the sensors differently. My experience today tells me it’s an OA issue.

spacecowboy_headcount Posted at 1-6 11:37
I went back out today and tested. My fix was not a fix. I started having RTH issues and tracked it down to the angle of which it started to return home. I’m in Texas and with the sun in the Southern Hemisphere at noon, I can fly south and have it RTH where it flies straight North. No issues. When I fly North and have it RTH to the south. Immediately has issues. I was able to repeat this several times and even flew at a few different angles to have the sun hit the sensors differently. My experience today tells me it’s an OA issue.

Try again with OA disabled.

spacecowboy_headcount Posted at 1-6 11:37
I went back out today and tested. My fix was not a fix. I started having RTH issues and tracked it down to the angle of which it started to return home. I’m in Texas and with the sun in the Southern Hemisphere at noon, I can fly south and have it RTH where it flies straight North. No issues. When I fly North and have it RTH to the south. Immediately has issues. I was able to repeat this several times and even flew at a few different angles to have the sun hit the sensors differently. My experience today tells me it’s an OA issue.

Something they did to OA makes the drone think its at risk of flying into the sun.  The problem I have is the same.  When using the RTH function it automatically uses the OA sensors so there is no way to disable it.  Sport mode RTH, automatically uses sensors as well.  I would pay allot of money to roll the firmware back thats for sure.

Mobilehomer Posted at 1-6 11:40
Try again with OA disabled.

I had the same issue with my MA2 so i sent it in and was replaced but for a different issue. The RTH not working was not acknowledged in the repair process at all. The replacement works just fine so i am happy. Turning off OA made no difference.

Chris Kaye Posted at 1-6 11:57
Something they did to OA makes the drone think its at risk of flying into the sun.  The problem I have is the same.  When using the RTH function it automatically uses the OA sensors so there is no way to disable it.  Sport mode RTH, automatically uses sensors as well.  I would pay allot of money to roll the firmware back thats for sure.

Try switching your units from imperial to metric. Fly a couple RTH missions and see if that makes a difference. I was able to do that today and had it work perfectly on a couple different units. I’m able to fly in imperial and metric and no RTH issues.

spacecowboy_headcount Posted at 1-9 12:46
Try switching your units from imperial to metric. Fly a couple RTH missions and see if that makes a difference. I was able to do that today and had it work perfectly on a couple different units. I’m able to fly in imperial and metric and no RTH issues.

I will try it today if the snow / sleet stops.  Havent even wanted to look at the drone in the last few weeks with the weather were having here....winter showed up big time.  Thank you for the suggestion.  I will definitely try it

Chris Kaye Posted at 1-10 06:08
I will try it today if the snow / sleet stops.  Havent even wanted to look at the drone in the last few weeks with the weather were having here....winter showed up big time.  Thank you for the suggestion.  I will definitely try it

My fix wasn't permanent...  I have 4 different Mavic Air 2 units that starting having RTH issues again.  One just came back from DJI as a care refresh replacement.

Flew my first long term flight since the last round of firmware updates and I'm having the exact same issue.  Flew after sunset to rule out sun glare as a cause.  Seems to have no effect on the problem.  Verified all my RTH and max altitude settings.   OA manually turned off has no effect as others have stated.  Had no issues before the firmware updates.  I think DJI needs to revisit this issue.  

Update:  Connected to DJI Assistant 2 and flashed firmware with same/current version, then calibrated the vision sensors.  Took two short flights this morning and performed several RTH events.  The drone returned to home normally.  Fingers crossed the issue is resolved for me.