microcyb Posted at 2016-4-27 04:11
Well I did a little test to check out my theory.
Set my home point on a very cloudy day to get 7 b ...

Set my home point on a very cloudy day to get 7 bars.  ...
Better fly only on a clear sunny day with no interference.

What's your theory regarding sunny/cloudy weather ?
Sunny or cloudy shouldn't make any difference.

When/if GPS  is ever lost, the Phantom shouldn't lose the stored home point in its memory.
It should only lose the ability to find the way to it's home point.
Restoring GPS and the Phantom can now find its way to the  home point that is still stored

The Phantom shouldn't go making up new home points, whether at random or by some formula.
And of the half million or so P3s out there, almost all of them are keeping their home point and don't lose them or make up new ones.

TJ10 Posted at 2016-4-21 21:45
This happened recently to another guy with a P3S. Don't think dji ever responded. It must be some so ...

Or when you do an RTH, make sure that the home point is in the correct location and if it's not, make a dynamic home point by hitting the RC homepoint button and then RTH.

Is it possible you set a home point at the bird which is possible? It's not as easy to remove or set home points anymore since they buried the set home point button in the settings rather than the app which I don't personally like but yeah, always check your home point before RTH and always see what's happening and if it doesn't look right, reset it. It may have been a glitch but the fix was easy, but you learn with experience.

Also, this is a good case as to why you should always have a tab or phone with GPS, for setting dynamic home points.

hihi_shrek Posted at 2016-4-26 21:02
DJI replied but I am very surprised of their investigation result. I attached below is their reply ...

That's BS! Unless your flight report shows you actually pressing the change homepoint button (which by the way is the three dots or whatever, maybe the "STF" menu and then there is a pin next to a person and next to the bird, the one that you would have had to change is the one at the bird as if you pressed the RC one, it still would have come to you. In fact, that's the one you wanted to press.

My only problem here is that the flight data would have shown that you pressed it or not and if you did not, DJI owes you a Standard I would say.

OK guys, today DJI replied me. They explained the fact that due to the GPS signal was weak when take off, at 12m51s (11 satellites), thus the home point was not recorded successfully. As the craft gained altitude all the way to max of 163ft, with 13 satellites at most, the home point still not recorded yet. Then, at 18m25s, the home point first recorded, at 29.5ft, with 12 satellites.

Having said the above, I do remember the robotic female voice from DJI GO app did announced "take off, home point recorded" when took off. I thought that's a confirmation but apparently it was not. DJI then pointed me to the manual, page 11, that I have to be sure the aircraft status indicator must blink green rapidly also.

Here is the flight record link for your easy reference.
http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/U3WARW5VPEQZQLPMBBDE/#

As you can see at this point, 12m51s, there was really no message as "Home point recorded". So, I guess their explanation is plausible.

So, next time when you guys take off, be sure that home point is really the home point, by also making sure the green light blinks rapidly. Otherwise, when you push RTH, you will be surprised which direction the drone heads.

Having said that, I still not understand why the drone decided that would finally be my home point, when my drone never flown to there, never took off there.

Guys, what do you think?

But the problem i see is the home point it set was not where the drone was....so it set a point somewhere random...or somewhere the drone thought it was, it still doesnt make sense. The home point can only be set at the drone position or the phone/tablet on the controller position...not somewhere random.

This doesn't make sense.  If the aircraft hasn't set a home point at takeoff, it should just continue with no home point!  I would imagine it should use your controller's position as a home point by default.  Surely 11 satellites is enough to get a lock.  Their explanation that it set the home point at 18:25 because it finally got a strong signal is poor at best, but assuming that is the case, why would it go and set it again at 22:22 if it had a strong, recorded home point?  That is indicating a problem in my view.  Also, is there any explanation for all the random "Maximum Flight Distance Reached. Adjust it in MC Settings if needed." messages?  That is indicating yet another problem.  Did you have the app set to beginner mode at all?  I recall one of the other P3S flights with random home points posted here also had "maximum flight distance" issues.  There was reference to another recent post with similar circmstances but I don't know the specifics, and if it had flight distance issues too.

Are you able to upload a video of the DJI Go screen playing back the entire flight from the flight record page?

Do not accept DJI's explanation, keep fighting on this one.  If you didn't fly there or your controller wasn't standing there, there is NO excuse for that to be set as a home point.

Well.. guys if you are still following this post.
DJI chose not to directly answer me why the drone set to a home point when its still in the air. This new home was where my drone never flown to, never took off from.
This is what they replied.
"For your inquiry please note due to the Phantom 3 Standard is useing WIFI to connecting RC and aircraft so that the signal strength is essential for both aircraft and your device. When next tiem you setting the home point please read the User Manual first and then ensure the strong signal appers in both devices and aircraft."
So, they blamed signal issues, interference so on.
Well.... I don't know what to say. All I know now is the drone is not as reliable as I think. (If you see your drone flyaway to a NEW home point, all within 200m, then you know what I mean) From now on, I will be very careful to choose where I take off. Making sure whenever I push the RTH, I will be sure where the home point is first. Also, I will not use RTH unless absolute necessary.

hihi_shrek Posted at 2016-5-10 03:41
Well.. guys if you are still following this post.
DJI chose not to directly answer me why the drone  ...

Sorry you have a very similar situation as me. Thanks for finding my thread! I am also a standard.

And I am surprised at Dji response...
I have the same question. Why did our aircrafts set a conpletely new home point?

You have crashed before?

Mine has never crashed. It flipped in my video but because home point jumped and i was able to bring it back to the ground. I do not believe a soft grass landing will change or affect the aircraft.

Hope we both get resolve and an explaination!

hihi_shrek Posted at 2016-5-10 03:41
Well.. guys if you are still following this post.
DJI chose not to directly answer me why the drone  ...

I have not updated yet.
And same, i do not have a lot of confidence in dji product for now, unless they respond to me and do something about what happened!
I am waiting.

ryanlam115@gmai Posted at 2016-5-13 05:29
Sorry you have a very similar situation as me. Thanks for finding my thread! I am also a standard. ...

No never crashed before the saga.

labroides@yahoo Posted at 2016-4-26 07:15
G'day hihi ... It appears that whoever "investigated" did a pretty poor job and missed the point e ...

Yep, the data speaks for itself. The craft was at 22.36271169, 113.9994362 when the new home point was set, however the new home point was reset to, 22.3656543, 113.9992484, which is completely arbitrary. Also it appears the new home point may be inside a building to the north. I would take a handheld GPS unit to that building and se if those co-ords are actually inside that building. If they are you should have all the proof you need for an appeal. However, it may not do you any good, but worth a try.

soundbyte58 Posted at 2016-6-10 07:10
Yep, the data speaks for itself. The craft was at 22.36271169, 113.9994362 when the new home point  ...

Kinda odd that DJI hasn't made an appearance on the thread yet! Usually they at least offer condolences.

Yeah I had the same problem, my DJI Phantom 3 was up in the air, the app asked me to turn on my GPS, it told me I have a new Home Point, lost range, headed for the new home point, and crashed bad...

midwesternpilot Posted at 2016-7-1 07:49
Yeah I had the same problem, my DJI Phantom 3 was up in the air, the app asked me to turn on my GPS, ...

Hello guys from Greece !
Same thing happened to me,when i took my P3S to my vacations and flied it (only had 4-5 smaller flights in my hometown before)...

Checkout the logs :
http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/5ZR72SZT1AKX1HJKM78B/#

my Homepoint changed for a new one about  1000m  far ! i remember tha when i pushed the icon for RTH the app asked a question original or new Homepoint,i answered new and my drone started to drift away,I panicke ,made some errors and finally it lost connection and Returned Home (I was lucky it landed perfectly in a field of olive trees ! )

Check 5m 13.2s ,where max distance alert was popup and new homepoint reset (as you see my drone was 10-15 meters from me,noway max distance )
CHECK ALSO THE IMAGE:

Happend to me

That happened to me as well. Reported back to DJI and after chaser for responds, the answer - "Pilot fault" for the change of Home Point.

Join the club buddy, it happen to me on a brand new p3 advance and am still awaiting please  ceck my post.   I am getting old  by the day awaiting DJI response  {:4_142:}

This is they last email 3 day ago

Thank you for contacting DJI Support.

I am hereby happy to inform you about the result of the analysis: As described by the pilot, his home point was jumped to a place which is about 1.2km far away from the original home point.The drone fly to the wrong point after
pilot required go home in the app.
Warranty is suggested.

If you are willing to proceed please let us know, we would then like to create a pick up ticket in order to send back all you have left from the craft we can then send out a complete new one.

Thank you for choosing DJI

How much longer is this going to take {:4_142:}

Hey there... continuing this discussion:  January 2017:

I recently bought a Phantom 3 Advanced  and have been absolutely loving it! I've read and watched a lot of the tutorials and have flown it successfully around 10 times and I am getting hooked on the fun of drone flying.

A couple of days ago I had a major problem with the my Phantom. I was flying it as normal but when I pressed the return to home button on the DJI app it suddenly changed its home position to a totally random location about 1800m away from where I was flying it. As this meant the drone now thought it was outside of the 400m flight limit zone I had set it started heading to the new home point it had recorded.

There was nothing I could do to stop it from making its way there as it would not respond to any commands from the controller other than to ascend and descend so I put it higher in the sky to stop it from hitting anything on the journey it had decided to take.  It lost transmission signal at some point after which point all I could do was hope and pray that it was still in one piece and that I would get it back. I was very lucky as I was able to find and drive to the location that it had selected as its home point on the map and by some miracle it had landed safely in a field.

I am writing today as I am really worried that this might happen again and I am sure I wouldn't be as lucky next time and it may end up damaged or lost. I can see from this thread that this is not the first time this problem has come up with the Phantoms and I'm really eager to know what the solution to avoiding this scenario in future is.

Here's a link to my flight log for the flight where my Phantom 3 Advanced malfunctioned:  http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/ZAM7V3UTULGXUTEJFI3B/  I'm not sure how clear it is to see from this but I am flying the drone from Longrock Beach roughly just below a place called the Mexico Inn. This is also where the Phantom took off from and then I flew it East towards St Michael's Mount for a while. But then at 6m 23.4s (when I used the return to home function) the Phantom chose a new homepoint for itself (The most Westerly point on its track). This seems to be totally arbitrary and a long way from where I am flying it from.

I feel very lucky that my Phantom was not damaged and I really need to know why this happened and how to avoid it in the future. Would be very grateful if anyone has any information which could help get to the bottom of the problem   

Sam Cornwall Posted at 2017-1-25 04:44
Hey there... continuing this discussion:  January 2017:

I recently bought a Phantom 3 Advanced  and have been absolutely loving it! I've read and watched a lot of the tutorials and have flown it successfully around 10 times and I am getting hooked on the fun of drone flying.

This fault is getting more and more common, see also this thread:
http://forum.dji.com/forum.php?m ... D369%26typeid%3D369

Is anyone at DJI working on this? Can someone from DJI comment on what's going wrong?

Thanks for pointing us towards the current thread on this problem richmars. It definitely needs fixing ASAP...

I also had a fly away on my first ever flight with the P3S. Flight log clearly shows home point set and launched in P-GPS mode. Seconds later it switched to ATTI mode due to compass error. Drifted away over a tree line and wouldn't respond to my commands (yaw error). I initiated RTH because I had lost sight of drone, it had reset the home point location to 1500 meters further away from me and went out of range.

I had to return home in a panic, download the flight data and obtain the GPS coordinates to recover my drone.

This was my first flight with the Phantom 3 Standard, fully updated and calibrated prior to first flight.
DJI seem to ignore any personal comments and only respond with what seem to be generic messages. Do they read user reports to get the full story or just view the flight log? I say that but they couldn't even open and diagnose the raw flight data txt files I sent along with the excel file highlighting the change of home point coordinates and distance.



Almost 5 days now and I've not received any information back. Supplier refusing refund or replacement. I'm not happy at all! If I had flow and crashed the drone then I would hold my hands up, but, for the drone to reset home point and not indicate this on screen is dangerous. DJI should either remove this feature entirely and stop promoting it because it gives pilots a false sense of security when flying!!

http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/XQA7UJISS23WS92JEYRB/

Leeman240 Posted at 2017-1-27 07:15
I also had a fly away on my first ever flight with the P3S. Flight log clearly shows home point set and launched in P-GPS mode. Seconds later it switched to ATTI mode due to compass error. Drifted away over a tree line and wouldn't respond to my commands (yaw error). I initiated RTH because I had lost sight of drone, it had reset the home point location to 1500 meters further away from me and went out of range.

I had to return home in a panic, download the flight data and obtain the GPS coordinates to recover my drone.

It does seem that DJI are being very quiet about this problem. Maybe it's because they make a big thing about how safe their products are with the RTH function. To admit it has a very serious fault will be a bit embarrassing for them.

richmars Posted at 2017-1-27 13:04
It does seem that DJI are being very quiet about this problem. Maybe it's because they make a big thing about how safe their products are with the RTH function. To admit it has a very serious fault will be a bit embarrassing for them.

I experimented the exact same misadventure with my P3S today...
At a moment it decided to enter in RTH mode because of remote signal lost and started to flew away.
I was not able to take over this automatic RTH feature and saw my drone disappear.


I than started walking in the bush heading at where I last saw my drone and i was lucky enough to find it after a 35 minutes walk amongst the trees...

I used the map view to help figure out where it was last seen compared to the blue dot = my position.

I just tried to upload/convert the corresponding flight log to http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload but with no success.
I constantly have a ERR_CONNECTION_RESET after hiting "Upload Log". Is this service still working?

Can I ask you these two questions please?
1) what's the best method to find such an escaped drone?
2) have you thought about attaching a 3rd party GPS device that would send (via gprs for instance) the drone position when lost?
Something to recommend?

Thanks in advance for your comments.
Jacques

I'm still waiting for some kind of reply from DJI to the email I sent them about this issue too. For such a big player in this field I think it's really lame that their communication is so non-existent. If it wasn't for these forums we would still be totally in the dark about why our phantoms are malfunctioning. Frustrating experience after spending lots of money with them

I've had no reply. Coming up to 2 weeks now.

I have downgraded my app but as yet not had the weather to go out flying again.

DJI must respond to this problem and act swiftly because it is even hitting news websites now.