Hi there

With the new firmware release I noticed when the battery is only on one bar it will automatically return to home. Is there a way to disable this? Before it continued to fly before settling down.

FIXED: Discovered this was a setting in the Phantom 2 assistant. Here's where ()

Yes you can disable funktion in Assistant unger "battery"

It looks like this...

Why would you want to turn it off ?

It is a matter of preference.
Many of us would rather manage our remaining battery capacity and power consumption over the settings predetermined by DJI.
The choice to complete what we're flying and perhaps land somewhere safe, but not Home Point, becomes ours.

I have noticed that flight time was reading 4 min's left  but i still had 33% battery level  !

Ye ok. I'm usually out there in wonderland hoping that I will have enough to get back home. LOL

this happened to me today.  I got the alert on the phone saying I had 5 seconds before it would auto return home.  I hit cancel because I didn't want it climbing, then flying back a whopping 10 yards then landing where I was.  BUT...when I hit cancel, the message immediately reappeared and only gave me 5 seconds again.  I just landed where it was to avoid the high flight.  I spent about 10 seconds just to read the message and cancel twice.   Annoying!!

bahamasboy@aol. Posted at 2014-12-3 10:17
this happened to me today.  I got the alert on the phone saying I had 5 seconds before it would auto ...

You can always toggle S1 to over ride RTH.

<SMACKS SELF IN HEAD!  Thanks Tony  

Ok.. follow up question... I don't have the option to change the low battery thresholds in my vision assistant (latest version).  Is this because I'm in Naza M mode?  All I can do is turn on/off the return to home option.  If I change it back to Phantom mode will I have the option to change the thresholds?  Just wondering!
Thanks all!

bahamasboy@aol. Posted at 2014-12-6 11:59
Ok.. follow up question... I don't have the option to change the low battery thresholds in my vision ...

I read somewhere that the new mode will calculate the battery power need to RTH depending on height and distance. (provided of course you have enabled auto return home.)
If it actually works I think this is great as you might be some distance and altitude and a fixed % RTH battery reserve might not make it.

Ohhh that's a thought! I read that somewhere too.  I'll have to find it and will post a link if I find it!

bahamasboy@aol. Posted at 2014-12-6 21:48
Ohhh that's a thought! I read that somewhere too.  I'll have to find it and will post a link if I fi ...

Hey Rod and Bahamasboy,

I was wondering the same today (I am still new to the Phantom). I have ticked the box low battery go home and now wondering, does the phantom come home earlier if it is far away? Like, is he calculating the time he needs to travel the distance it will take to come home and land?
Or will the phantom always come home at the same point (low battery) regardless of the distance and then just lands if he can't make it to the homepoint because of the dead battery?

I am too afraid to test it though - Thanks Guys

T J Gilbert Posted at 2014-9-30 02:12
It looks like this...

Mine was off in the app but it still attempted it!

I have to assume it may be a double setting - that it is in the Assistant as well as in the app.

Frustrating - I think this should be 100% off by default, especially for those who have switched to IOC mode.

The 10 second warning is bogus also - since we are often not looking at the screen every second.

Bad decision on DJI's part, IMHO.

In my case the RTH gave me a good scare twice before I switched it off. The situation was that my batt was running low and so I decided to land before the alarm went off. I got it on the ground with 21% remaining and about 50 feet from home position. As I was walking towards the Phantom the battery has dropped to 20% and the alarm came on. I didn't pay attention to that as the bird was already on the ground and the motors were off. Then, they started up on their own and my Phantom just took off without any warning. When I looked at the screen (P2V+) it said "Returning to home". Now, THAT is a major bad decision on DJI's part.
I understand that it wants to return home when in flight and the battery is low but being on the ground with motors off it should NEVER take off on it's own! That was on Fv 3.08. I've upgraded to 3.12 now but didn't have a chance to see if this major bug is still present.

dmctom@gmail.co Posted at 2015-3-20 10:12
In my case the RTH gave me a good scare twice before I switched it off. The situation was that my ba ...

I would love to have seen this in video, I have regularly shut off my Phantom motors at ie. 21% or 18% and never, ever seen the Phantom power up on its own!..are you sure you were not idling or thought you had shut the motors off and shut off the RC before the motors fully powered down...as that would likely have initiated an RTH which could make sense....AND NEVER EVER SHUT THE RC OFF BEFORE THE PHANTOM!...EVER!. Unless it is a user initiated Failsafe/RTH....in which case you have shut off the RC to initiate the RTH..If you have initiated RTH/Failsafe with S1 down in pos. 3 then wait for Phantom to land, shut off Phantom "completely" then shut off RC...
Not doubting you but very skeptical as I have run virtually every myriad of test I can think of with 3.12 and no issues what so ever....

Northofthe49th Posted at 2015-3-20 10:21
I would love to have seen this in video, I have regularly shut off my Phantom motors at ie. 21% or  ...

I had landed last summer when I was still learning.  I had the Phantom motors shut off and as I was walking up to it, I shut off the tx before powering down the Phantom battery.  I was just about to lean over it to shut off the battery and it started and shot straight up when it went into RTH mode.  I almost ate the props in the face, a learning experience.  I never did that again.

Gerry1124 Posted at 2015-3-20 10:29
I had landed last summer when I was still learning.  I had the Phantom motors shut off and as I wa ...

WOW!
I would still love to see it (not the eating a face full of props thing), either way, I think it needs to be voiced loud and clear then, DO NOT SHUT YOUR RC OFF BEFORE TURNING OFF YOUR PHANTOM after you land your Phantom...Saying all of that, I have regularly shut off my RC before the Phantom with no ill effects...I will heed all your advice henceforth!

Actually I do have that video... somewhere. I'll look for it over the weekend and I will post it... if I don't forget.
I am 100% sure that the motors were off and not idling, I did not turn the RC off. I never turn the RC off if the Phantom is on and actually I was just going to replace the flight battery so there was no need to turn it off.
I did catch a glimpse of the countdown on the screen but I thought it was irrelevant as the Phantom was already on the ground with the motors off.
It was on 3.08 and it might have been fixed now but you can do a test and see what happens. Make sure the RTH with low battery is on and then take of and fly normally until your battery is just above 20% mark. Then land the Phantom just before the RTH countdown comes on. Make sure to land away from the home point. Then shut down the motors but leave the Phantom on and just let it sit there without touching anything. Oh, and make sure the throttle is centered. Wait until the low batt alarm comes on and see what happens.
When I think about it now  it is possible that I actually landed AFTER the RTH countdown has started. I wasn't really looking at the screen but it is possible. Either way, it was on the ground and the motors were off when it suddenly came on and took off. I quickly flipped S1 cancelling the RTH. It was a bit scary I must say.

Northofthe49th Posted at 2015-3-20 10:38
WOW!
I would still love to see it (not the eating a face full of props thing), either way, I think ...

I was in Phantom mode and it sensed lost connection and just started up.  I had to check my shorts after that.

dmc,
Thanks for the detailed write up,
If the weather was good and I could I would try to mimick exactly with 3.12 firmware...still not doubting and certainly far less if not the least bit skeptical this happened based on your and Gerry's accounts...
Thanks for sharing....

Then I think we concur on the following:
NEVER EVER SHUT THE RC OFF BEFORE THE PHANTOM!...EVER!. Unless it is a user initiated Failsafe/RTH....in which case you have shut off the RC to initiate the RTH..However, If you have initiated RTH/Failsafe with S1 down in pos. 3 then wait for Phantom to land, shut off Phantom "completely" then shut off RC...

I have found the video which was recorded on March 3rd. Unfortunately there's nothing to see as I have apparently stopped the recording right after landing. You can only see a perfectly normal (gentle) landing, then the props stop and that is it. So, I don't have that on video after all.
One thing is to NEVER turn the RC off when the Phantom is ON and another is the strange behavior. In my opinion the bird should not take off even when you shut the RC off. Once it's on the ground it makes absolutely no sense for it to take off on its own. It is safer on the ground.
What I do now is that once I land and shut the props off I lock the throttle in the down position (my transmitter locks the throttle when I pull it all the way down) and only then I walk up to the Phantom to shut it off. I'm hoping that this intentional input will prevent any unintentional take-offs.
I sure do not want to taste those props...

I had a incident last week while flying the phantom 2 at my apartment.  I decided I would catch the phantom in flight as I brought it down to land.  As I began to grab the phantom I not knowing decided to go ahead and turn off the transmitter.  Wasn't that a huge mistake! I have the RTH set to 60 meters to clear trees, buildings, and higher towers here in Huntsville, Al.  So it immediately went into fail safe mode and decided to try ascending to 60 meters all while I am struggling holding the phantom side ways!  Thankfully I managed to set down the transmitter in time while hitting the battery button and avoiding getting hit by the props all together.  It was a hell of a night for me for a learning curve experience haha

Marian Posted at 2015-3-20 03:59
Hey Rod and Bahamasboy,

I was wondering the same today (I am still new to the Phantom). I have ti ...

Evening Guys,

Anyone any thoughts on this? I don't really want to find it out the hard way. I am just curious since we have a  lot of open fields to test it, but I want to have my phantom back before its decide to just land wherever the battery goes dead

Cheers

I don't know how this is not common knowledge.  Everything I have read - by DJI (manual) or other source - every video I have watched as training/information/learning have all said clearly you turn the quad off then the TX and reverse for power up - Tx then quad.  The cal procedures clearly tell you to do this - Tx on then quad, quad off then Tx off.

atcosby@aol.com Posted at 2015-3-21 04:02
I had a incident last week while flying the phantom 2 at my apartment.  I decided I would catch the  ...

Atco,
Thanks for reminding us that we are all human and we are all quite capable of inducing some of our own problems and pain..some day I may have to share a similar incident about when BB was nearly fresh out of the egg/box and only a couple of days old and it was pouring rain...I really wanted to fly that day and my brother had warned me...don't try it indoors (he was also speaking from experience)..the welts (and fortunately only welts!) I endured on my left arm were enough for me to pay close attention, read everything I could, watch everything I could and have since been having a blast..and yes, always turn the quad off before the RC!

Marian Posted at 2015-3-21 06:45
Evening Guys,

Anyone any thoughts on this? I don't really want to find it out the hard way. I am  ...

Interesting thing I observed yesterday.  I was out about 1000 ft and up about 200.  I generally land with 3 min's to spare according to the battery meter  because I don't want to have to chance the RTH warning and press any "Cancel" buttons on the iphone, plus the "submarine warning sound scares the hell outta me every time. I flew in closer (FAST and into a headwind) to about 50 ft.  at 3 mins.  It took about 2 minutes and  once closer I still had 3 mins left and took my time landing.  It APPEARS to adjust based on the "smart battery" communication with the iphone app.   I'll pay more attention to adjustments on my next flight and let you know what I come up with.

bahamasboy@aol. Posted at 2015-3-21 23:17
Interesting thing I observed yesterday.  I was out about 1000 ft and up about 200.  I generally la ...

The battery will drain in accordance to how hard the motors are working and if you had video on and then video off and so on and yes the time will adjust based on that..I have yet to see time added to the battery life left but I know in several instances as flight conditions changed it was a long 3-4 minutes!
Flying with Prop guards will also reduce battery life I fugure about 20% depending on conditions as I have been flying without them for the past few weeks and i am getting about 3 min more on each flight.
= Flying with no prop guards and no video recording = longest flight times.
I used to start recording as soon as I took off, not anymore! I snap a picture just to make sure I did not forget my SD card and then go....

After a few days of good weather and some general pointless flights I have tested the issue that I have noticed with the RTH while on the ground. Here are the two situations where the drone would take off on it's own:
1. Land before the low battery RTH activates and leave the motors spinning on idle. Once the low battery alarm goes off the RTH is activated  and the the drone will take off on its own. It will fly up to the preset altitude and fly to the home point even if it is just 30 feet away.
2. Land right before the low battery alarm goes off but leave the motors spinning on idle. Once the alarm goes off a low batt RTH will start a count down from 10. Now, this doesn't always work but I did happen to see it a few times - turn the motors off during this countdown and wait. Once the countdown hits 0 a message pops up saying "Returning to home" and the motors will actually start up on their own, the drone will take off, climb to the preset alt and return to the preset home point. Again, this happens even when you're really close to the HP.
It's really strange and I believe that once the drone is on the ground it should never take off on it's own. Now when I land I just lock the throttle stick in the lowest position before I actually approach the drone. I don't want a face full of propeller pieces

Phantom 2V+ V. 3, firmware 3.12 (problem first noticed on 3.08)

I'm curious to know if anyone else can replicate the second scenario. Make sure your low batt alarm is set to RTH.

Wow!
Thanks for that,
No.1 I kinda get why
No. 2 is a big concern