DJI-Ken Posted at 2016-5-14 23:46
The home point is moving because the users are resetting the home point.

sorry, i didn't reset the home point. the craft found itself a new home point without telling me!

hihi_shrek Posted at 2016-5-15 01:18
sorry, i didn't reset the home point. the craft found itself a new home point without telling me!

It looks like you initiated a auto landing at 4:51 into the flight when you were 310ft away, when it got down to 26ft you cancelled landing and went into P-GPS mode at 5:30. Then at 5:38 it shows you reset the home point and you also have max distance enabled and either you or it initiated a RTH to the spot over to the trees. Did you recover the aircraft? If not I can give you the GPS coordinates where it landed (in the trees I think. But you should be able to see where it went down by reviewing your flight records.
Have you started a ticket, I suggest you send it in if you recovered it.

DJI-Ken Posted at 2016-5-15 02:20
It looks like you initiated a auto landing at 4:51 into the flight when you were 310ft away, when  ...

DJI Ken, you said:
"It looks like you initiated a auto landing at 4:51 into the flight when you were 310ft away, when it got down to 26ft you cancelled landing and went into P-GPS mode at 5:30."
That's all correct. Then you continued to say,
"Then at 5:38 it shows you reset the home point"
That's absolutely not true. As I had emphasized many times before. I did not reset the home point. More to the point, how am I going to set a home point thousand feet away, where I did not fly there, take off from there prior to the incident? You should be able to see the home point jump. If you can investigate how this can be done, then you are heading to the right direction of your investigation!

I cannot believe you guys always (including DJI customer service of China, Ms Vivi) assume me is the party who set this new home point, when even your engineer cannot answer me how this new home point can be set (Remember this is a new home point where I've never flown to, never took off from) while the craft was still in air.

I retrieved the aircraft, no problem on that. However, your products functionality is hanging in the balance here which guinea pigs like me is giving your engineering team all the heads up.

I believe when you manually set the current position, the position is being set fromthe drones cerrent position. I discovered this while using the simulator. Question, why are you resetting the drones position after take off?

rob32trk Posted at 2016-5-15 10:43
I believe when you manually set the current position, the position is being set fromthe drones cerre ...

Thanks. I will try your experiment via simulator tonight.
OK, even though I had reset the home point, as you said, it would be the drones current position, right? that's what you said. But the fact was the new home point was set thousand feet away to where the drone was, DJI failed to answer this so far.

Having said all the above, I did not reset the drone position. Please take a look of the flight record in previous pages. I think that's also the case with Ryanlam.

rob32trk Posted at 2016-5-14 22:43
I believe when you manually set the current position, the position is being set fromthe drones cerre ...

I found the simulator is not a good indicator for my case. In the simulator, it records aircraft current position. And everything is just great. But in real life, it sets a random location at least 500m away from the current position of the aircraft.

This random jump of home point has made me very un-confident in Dji products. Based on
Experience. I actually chose dji over yuneec or xiro , because i thought dji products and services would be much better. But i guess i misjugded Dji in this aspect. Again, im saying this based on how my aircraft responded. Other than the exceptional responses and online support of Ken.

I am holding off on my rma because i enjoy my phantom. But i am scared it may have the possibility of jumping home points. I approach my aircraft with fear now, rather than confidence.

I want to say still, my friends here on forum, please be mindful of our words to one another. I dont wish to use my thread to create discomfort, although, for those that this incident HAS happened , we are for sure deeply affected,and may feel emotional , especially when we trust it is not our pilot error. But please, lets use our words in constructive ways.

I did not experience this with home point, when I even set a home point manually using my phone's gps, it did confirm that the home point was x feet from current home point, and accepted it only after I confirmed it's ok. Now, when I was playing with my phone as follow me, It did, at one point, revert to a cell tower, and the drone actually started going in that direction, at low altitude, and would have crashed into something, have I not aborted it by cancelling follow me mode. Now, tou did say you did not even attempt to reset a home point, so that is not the case, but if for some reason the aircraft got reset, it it possible that he reset location to either a cell tower, or some arbitrary location he got from WiFi? Tablet and phone GPS will often get overwritten by WiFi or cell tower, if you enabled "use wifi and cell for added accuracy to GPS location"... which clearly is not added accuracy...
Anyhow, just a thought.... Now, going all the way to China? Well.. maybe there's some hacker around that does have an open wifi that is somehow linked to a Chinese owned IP address...  totally a shot in the dark, but....

ryanlam115@gmai Posted at 2016-5-15 14:10
I found the simulator is not a good indicator for my case. In the simulator, it records aircraft c ...

'This random jump of home point has made me very un-confident in Dji products. '

You keep saying this, and I, and others keep asking you why you want to reset the home point? It is like saying you get a headache every time you bash your head into a brick wall, the standard reply of which is, don't keep bashing your head into the wall.

Is there a particular reason for re-setting the home point? The Phantom sets its home point as the point of take-off automatically, what reason do you have for wanting to change that?

Geebax Posted at 2016-5-15 12:32
'This random jump of home point has made me very un-confident in Dji products. '

You keep saying  ...

Hi Geebax,

That's what I thought too. Home point is set as the point of take off automatically. But in my case, it was not. My craft still in the air, not landed, set its own new home point. You can take a look of my flight log below, (again....)

http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/U3WARW5VPEQZQLPMBBDE/#

Not sure about Ryanlam's case. But mine was like that. I still hope DJI can sort this out and the result may  benefit us all in the future.

I still like my craft, because I retrieved it from the bush! haha...

hihi_shrek Posted at 2016-5-15 14:56
Hi Geebax,

That's what I thought too. Home point is set as the point of take off automatically. B ...

Yes, but in the case of the OP here, this was in his first posting:

'When I select : "SET CURRENT POSITION AS HOME"
the drone sets a NEW HOME 500 M away from where it is CURRENTLY. and initiates RTH.'

That is why I am asking the question.

Geebax Posted at 2016-5-15 00:32
'This random jump of home point has made me very un-confident in Dji products. '

You keep saying  ...

It could be the case that the initial take off point is no longer where the home should be.
Someone mentioned for example, if you took off from a boat that was moving. Then the possibility of being able to change home point based on the aircrafts location would come in handy.

You keep repeating the question why have the want to change home point?
I think i responded somewhere that i was testing the aircraft.
This is because i tested it in the same way back in October 2015. I wanted to make sure that it recorded its current position Correctly and by doing so, that it would also treat the new home point as the place it would go to in rth.

Now! This was the intention. I was not trying to bang my head against the wall (harm my aircraft). I had no idea the aircraft would bring about this headache (setting its own home point and begin drifting towards it when the only command given was for it to record its current position.)

In your question, are you saying that, when  the "set aircraft's current position as home" - function, as available and accessible on the DJI App, that, this is to be expected? That, by selecting that option, the aircraft would randomly jump home point totally and completely not even close to where the aircraft itself is and start to drift away. Rather than doing what the description of it says? Namely, set the aircraft's CURRENT position? Is this what you are trying to say?

I think i have already explained.
1. I selected set aircraft current position.
2. Initial home point does not record aircraft's position but sets a random positon far away.
3. Aircraft drifts towards the new random home. The only option was slide to rth (to the new home).
4. Atti mode is switched, cancelling the rth, but the aircraft continues to drift towards the new home with no response of the right stick even though flight log records the movements.

... On 4, Ken said the record shows it was responding to the sticks, but i played it slow x1.5 speed and the controls and the direction of the aircraft do not match. At the same time, the aircraft continues to move towards the home point. ( Ken at this point proposes it may have been the wind because of the 30 seconds in atti mode, however, that was early morning. Wind speeds were not more than 10mph, i was 15m up, not a lot of wind. Today, i flew in atti mode and it was welm above 15 mph winds but the aircraft had a steady hold in Atti mode.)

Have a good day, and thanks for your care towards my thread.

Geebax Posted at 2016-5-15 01:25
Yes, but in the case of the OP here, this was in his first posting:

'When I select : "SET CURRENT  ...

I will also add, i was twsting the aircraft based on what i have witnessed in the past (october 2015), the aircraft would do what the app described for the function of recording its current position, whereever it maybe flying.

I was not relying on rth or relying on being able to change home points. I was wanting the test the aircraft in a locatio. That i thought was safe and well known to me. Rather than take it out on a hike or travel somewhere far only to find out a certain function doesnt work the way it was described to work.

Imagine not knowing your own drone's descend control had issues for example. And you take it out to some traveling destination. And then you need to descend, but you soon find out the control stick does not work and the aircraft could only go upwards. Wouldnt you have wanted to know about this behaviour BEFORE going on your trip?

ryanlam115@gmai Posted at 2016-5-15 15:44
It could be the case that the initial take off point is no longer where the home should be.
Someo ...

OK, I understand now you were testing out the function. But if you don't use that function, then you should not be afraid it is going to go off to a new home point. When you take off, the aircraft sets the starting point as home, and it will return to that home point. This issue is only happening because you choose to set a new home point. I am not saying this is to be expected, only that as long as you stay away from that function you should be able to fly OK.

It also seems to be the case that if you disable beginner's mode and do not set height and distance maximums, you can also avoid it happening.

Geebax Posted at 2016-5-15 13:57
OK, I understand now you were testing out the function. But if you don't use that function, then yo ...

"It also seems to be the case that if you disable beginner's mode and do not set height and distance maximums, you can also avoid it happening."

I think and hope so too.

Geebax Posted at 2016-5-15 06:57
OK, I understand now you were testing out the function. But if you don't use that function, then yo ...

hihi_shrek posted his log, and it's worth looking at.

17:37 Auto landing started, while 309 feet from the home point (was this commanded by hihi_shrek?)
18:18 Speed recorded as NaN mph. NaN is 'Not a Number', and is usually a sign that the software is doing something it shouldn't. (like adding a number to a string). I don't think we should see things like this in released software.
18:25 Home point recorded, now 1074 ft to the home point. This happened in less than 1 second. My understanding is you can set the home point to the current quad position or the current remote position (if it has GPS).Neither should result in the distance to the home point jumping from 308 feet to 1075 feet.
18:26 Go Home And the quad starts to go climb (to the RTH height?)
18:44 Maximum flight distance reached. Why now? It hasn't moved since 18:26, only gone up. Now starting to go 'home', at 5mph, but not in RTH mode.
19:5, downlink lost, now RTH again, but moving very slowly
19:8 Another NaN speed
19:21 Switch back to P-GPS but still flying towards 'home' at about 20mph
19:22 Max flight distance reached Odd! Its, been reducing for a while.
21:18 Downlink lost so RTH But only 7 satellites so it just hovers?
22:22 Home Point recorded Because it now has 8 satellites? Signal lost again, Home point updated. Now only 0 feet from home (so it used its current position) Auto land due to battery level? But altitude stays the same, so maybe it has landed, but higher than take off point.

Looking back, I think it landed at 21:18, which explains why the distance to home wasn't changing after 21:18, it was in a bush!

I may have missed/got thongs wrong, but I still don't understand everything.

richmars Posted at 2016-5-15 15:20
hihi_shrek posted his log, and it's worth looking at.

17:37 Auto landing started, while 309 feet  ...

Thanks Richmars taking the time to review. I am going to answer the following one by one.....

17:37 Auto landing started, while 309 feet from the home point (was this commanded by hihi_shrek?) Yes, I did. I was testing. What's wrong with pushing landing when its still in my eyesight 309ft? So, there's nothing wrong with that as it is a provided function.
18:18 Speed recorded as NaN mph. NaN is 'Not a Number', and is usually a sign that the software is doing something it shouldn't. (like adding a number to a string). I don't think we should see things like this in released software.
You need DJI to analysis this, I have no idea.
18:25 Home point recorded, now 1074 ft to the home point. This happened in less than 1 second. My understanding is you can set the home point to the current quad position or the current remote position (if it has GPS).Neither should result in the distance to the home point jumping from 308 feet to 1075 feet.
Exactly! That's the root of the problem. If I reset the home point to drone position, it should be zero. Not 1075ft to the north and somewhere I did not take off from, or flown to. Also, pay attention to the altitude, my drone was still in the air. Not landed.
18:26 Go Home And the quad starts to go climb (to the RTH height?)
I was still in the feeling the drone was behaving normal, as it rises to preset RTH altitude at this point. Then, nightmares.....
18:44 Maximum flight distance reached. Why now? It hasn't moved since 18:26, only gone up. Now starting to go 'home', at 5mph, but not in RTH mode.
I guess that's because I had set the maximum distance in the app, when new home was over 1000ft away, way over then the 20-30m I set, the message "maximum flight distance reach" popped up. Then it flew towards new home. I started to panick this time.
19:5, downlink lost, now RTH again, but moving very slowly
No idea about this. But the P3 standard always have this message anyway and it usually regain the link soon after. I was just 200m away max and I could see the drone at that time.
19:8 Another NaN speed
19:21 Switch back to P-GPS but still flying towards 'home' at about 20mph
The drone continued to scramble towards the new home, where I had no control except yaw action.
19:22 Max flight distance reached Odd! Its, been reducing for a while.
21:18 Downlink lost so RTH But only 7 satellites so it just hovers?
The drone already crashed towards a tree at this time. It's not hovering.
22:22 Home Point recorded Because it now has 8 satellites? Signal lost again, Home point updated. Now only 0 feet from home (so it used its current position) Auto land due to battery level? But altitude stays the same, so maybe it has landed, but higher than take off point.
You know what? I had already crashed at that moment. While locating the drone, I resorted to use CSC to fire up the motor and propeller, so I could listen to where the drone was. That's why its got a new home point (as the drone thought OK take off now, bugger vines and leaves all over me and stuck!!!). A big credit to richmars too, the tree was up in a slope. Well done!
Looking back, I think it landed at 21:18, which explains why the distance to home wasn't changing after 21:18, it was in a bush!
Sherlock Holmes here!

I may have missed/got thongs wrong, but I still don't understand everything.
You don't miss much. But same here, I still don't understand why unless DJI take this seriously.

THANK YOU RICHMARS!

hihi_shrek Posted at 2016-5-15 11:16
Thanks Richmars taking the time to review. I am going to answer the following one by one.....

17: ...

Good to hear you found that useful!
Nothing wrong with the landing at 17:37, just wasn't sure where the request came from.
Agree about the NaN. That shouldn't appear. It could be an error in the flight software, or the logging part. Clearly an error in the flight software is a bit more important than the logging software!
18:25 is the really unexplained, worrying bit.
I've flown up to the max distance, and it just stops, doesn't come home.
The other thing is when it crashed, were the props free to move? I'm surprised there wasn't a fault about a motor overload, which you would expect to happen if it had crashed into a tree. (maybe you had a bit of luck seeing your comment on finding it by starting the motors)
I realised it had landed but didn't delete the comments I had made after 21:18. Shows I need to look at every line!
Hope you get it sorted,

Geebax Posted at 2016-5-15 01:57
OK, I understand now you were testing out the function. But if you don't use that function, then yo ...

I was not using beginners mode.

Beginners mode allows for only a 30m radius.

I did indeed set a distance and altitude.

I may plan to do a final test, with phone gps on, max dist. And altitude off. And also set for aircrsft to hover when rc singal lost rather than rth (to try to prevent it from returning to a new home if it does happen. Maybe.

Or, i will just outright stay away from setting any home point function.

But it can not be denied that the jump of home points both in my case and hihi's, is not to be expected or normal behaviour of the aircraft.

ryanlam115@gmai Posted at 2016-5-16 03:06
I was not using beginners mode.

Beginners mode allows for only a 30m radius.

'But it can not be denied that the jump of home points both in my case and hihi's, is not to be expected or normal behaviour of the aircraft.'

I agree completely, it should not happen.

ryanlam115@gmai Posted at 2016-5-16 01:06
I was not using beginners mode.

Beginners mode allows for only a 30m radius.

i think we all agree here possible culprit of the problem could be the enabling of maximum travel distance setting. also home point setting after take off.
so we stay away from these 2 provided function. fingers cross.

hihi_shrek Posted at 2016-5-16 10:57
i think we all agree here possible culprit of the problem could be the enabling of maximum travel  ...

but i tell you what, if DJI not get this sorted, there will be more accident report and lost of drones in the future. i will keep an eye on it. possible law suit due to selling products with known flaws?

hihi_shrek Posted at 2016-5-15 23:01
but i tell you what, if DJI not get this sorted, there will be more accident report and lost of dr ...

Have you got an rma?
Will you send yours in?

I am still under warranty but i dont want to send mine in.

I think it would be hard to sue dji at this point.

ryanlam115@gmai Posted at 2016-5-16 11:27
Have you got an rma?
Will you send yours in?

what is rma?
nah.. the drone is fine. i am thinking it's a software issue, more than hardware. not sending it in.
no of course not law suit at the moment. im just guessing if anyone in the US file against them, and the prosecutor saw obviously this home point jumping issue had been raised many times before, it could be a strong case.
see we all trying to help DJI to solve this, surprise there still not much involvement from their technical team. DJI Ken may possibly a customer service or a blogger. he may find it hard to escalate these case to the company.

hihi_shrek Posted at 2016-5-16 12:16
what is rma?
nah.. the drone is fine. i am thinking it's a software issue, more than hardware. no ...

An RMA number is what DJI uses to label your case. You send in the aircraft to be looked at and you are issued an RMA number.
I am a full time technical support employee with DJI, I do not work in customer service or repair. That's why I've been telling you that you need to contact DJI  support and they will take it form there.
But it seems neither of you want to send the aircraft in.

DJI-Ken Posted at 2016-5-16 06:07
An RMA number is what DJI uses to label your case. You send in the aircraft to be looked at and yo ...

DJI Ken,
I'm sure everyone here appreciates your help, but I'm concerned that it seems DJI are not investigating these faults until the owners send in their quads. The published logs show some odd, unexplained events. Surely the technical people at DJI can at least start by looking at these. Maybe the faults are caused by a hardware problem on these two quads, maybe it's a software problem, but it seems nothing is being done to explain what caused these errors.

richmars Posted at 2016-5-16 15:12
DJI Ken,
I'm sure everyone here appreciates your help, but I'm concerned that it seems DJI are not ...

well said.
returning the drone poses all kinds of logistics issues as your repair office is china, across the border. it can also be damaged on the way then the issue of responsibility.
the flight record itself should give you guys lots of information already. i can also send you the video of that particular flight. still not enough? get someone contact me so your team can instruct me what to do to access more data from the hardware itself.
don't get me wrong, i do appreciate all the replies from ken. i just feel there maybe a better way of doing things and weird that no investigation being done until people send the craft in.
thanks ken.

quickpoint Posted at 2016-5-7 12:27
Something is seriously wrong with your p3.   second time this happened!   i would not fly it untill  ...

"Something is seriously wrong with your p3."

No. Something is seriously wrong with this guy operating the drone as well.

He already had an issue with his drone in the past. Happened in a public place. Flew illegally within distance of aerodomes. Had a flyaway incident that lead to police response and affecting members of the public in densly populated areas. Indicated he will illegally fly again at the same location. Now he has another incident. This guy should have his drone taken away and even get citations from law enforcement.

ryanlam115@gmai Posted at 2016-5-11 22:11
here is my video of the flight from my hat cam and the aircraft.

Please refer to the description  ...

lol at this guy.

Tards never learn.

And the video shows a tonne of blatant traffic violations too.

Shakes my head.

quaddron3 Posted at 2016-5-29 21:49
lol at this guy.

Tards never learn.

You know what else is blatant?
That it is not user error that this took place.

User mannuals do not say to keep GPS on mobile device.
The app doesnt say that if you chose to set drone's current position, that it will set a new home point somewhere else away from where it currently is, and, if you set a max distance, it will RTH to enter within that set distance of the NEW home point that was not asked to be set so far away.
Thanks for your time and energy to comment on my post though, that is appreciated.

calls4u2 Posted at 2016-5-7 18:57
You were lucky in a way, it set my new home point to 2000m away! Disable distance limit and only res ...

thank you for commenting. appreciate it

Man, Ive read this entire thread, and just want to say how awful it must be. You have legitimately and simply put your issues on screen over and over. I'm proud of Ken for trying to keep up on this, and my recommendation would be to toss your drone, get it fixed, or avoid those buttons at all costs. I watched the video. I don't know of the regulations of where you live, but from where you took off i see no issues. Where the drone allegedly flew itself (I believe you, somethings up) may perhaps be illegal, but I didn't see you do anything wrong.

Dronin Adventur Posted at 2016-6-27 00:34
Man, Ive read this entire thread, and just want to say how awful it must be. You have legitimately a ...

Thanks for dropping by. And thanks also for your comment.
I also thank DJI Ken for his patience and hard work.

I decided not to send my phantom in because I don't wish to be without it for 3-4 weeks again (first time due to shell crack) .
I will keep from using that function.
I have not updated firmware because many people are reporting that they are losing signal at less than 30 meters distance.  loss of video signal transmission.

So for now, this is on hold.
The best solution people part of DJI have given, is for m to send in my phantom - only for a diagnosis, however. Should they find that it is not the product's defect or error, then I have to pay for shipping- which would probably be a lot of money I am in Canada, and I would have to ship it from USA.  I don't think it is justifiable for me to pay for something that is potentially not even my fault.  

As many have seen the video, I think I can say with 97% certainty that the drone flying away is not due to user error. I pressed the icon on the app to set the drones position as new home. and the drone sets a new position home far away.

the 3% - i would say is possibly because of me setting a max distance parameter and not having GPS enabled on my phone. However, I have tested the "set current position as new home" on a previous fimrware, BEFORE the shell crack repair, without GPS enabled, and with max distance set. And the phantom was able to set new home point over and over without having to set a new home so, this was changed or something was changed.  

ryanlam115@gmai Posted at 2016-6-27 10:11
Thanks for dropping by. And thanks also for your comment.
I also thank DJI Ken for his patience a ...

Well man, I wish you the best and keep trying!

Are you using litchi or DJI GO?
There has been reports of third party apps sometime causing the "fly away' issue when more then one app is running while you are flying so if you are using a different app, please note just having other apps in the background does not always stop the app for running.
So note: Close all other apps when flying.

Also, you might want to take your bird to a less dense populated area and perform some tests.
If you are able to locate a place to fly with less amount of people and homes, you can try out the different features and also check if the RTH is working correctly.  Interference is a huge factor when flying so insure you have the RTH fail safes turned on in the event of a loss signal.

Also, make sure to always keep an eye on where your home point is set. if you see your home point change, it might be due to GPS signal loss.

Now I will throw on a tin hat for a moment.  Someone might have a signal jamming device in your area.  Yes, you can order (illegal in the United States) and cause both WiFi and GPS signals to go crazy causing a bird to flake out (Hence why the RTH fail safe is so important).

And last, practice flying manually. This is a huge thing to insure you have a happy flying experience.

microcyb Posted at 2016-6-27 12:09
Are you using litchi or DJI GO?
There has been reports of third party apps sometime causing the "fly ...

sure thanks.

DJI GO APP. no litchi.

I have flown in the same area before and there have been no new home points set like this.

Thanks for your comment and dropping by!

Are you changing the home point while you're in the air?

rob32trk Posted at 2016-6-28 13:52
Are you changing the home point while you're in the air?

No, if it's that simple this posts would last four pages.

rob32trk Posted at 2016-6-28 01:52
Are you changing the home point while you're in the air?

Yes.
I have tested this function on an older firmware, with no GPS enabled on my device, and the drone records the position it is in without any problems.