Hi,

I was biking yetserday while my Mavic Air 2 was actively tracking and filming me. Suddenly I heard RTH warning (battery level low) and Mavic started to go up to its RTH altitude.
I pressed cancel before it went away.

What is the RTH behaviour during active tracking? Mavic Air 2 manual does not say anything about it.

With my Spark and DJI Go 4 app active tracking was dynamically updating my home location to where the remote controller was (which was usually in my bag while biking :-).
I could also choose if home should follow my remote controller or not.

With DJI Fly I cannot find such option. Yes - I can update home point location but it is buried very inconveniently in the menus. Also, it does not say what this updated home location is - location of RC or location of AC? When I push update will home be where I am or where Mavic is?

Anyways, it would be quite ridiculous if Mavic Air 2, after following me for few kilometres suddenly decided to go home to its starting location.

Do you know how it really works? Where are the settings? What can I expect?

Mirek

Have you considered having it hover rather RTH during active track.I Don't own
the MA2 so I not sure if the update location option is there. I was just thinking this
may be a work around.

Woe Posted at 5-25 17:22
Have you considered having it hover rather RTH during active track.I Don't own
the MA2 so I not sure if the update location option is there. I was just thinking this
may be a work around.

This is what I would try as well.

Vlas Posted at 5-25 17:54
This is what I would try as well.

I thought it made sense.

Yes - in this situation it is a good workaround.

I hope DJI will reconsider their decision to remove option of Home following RC location. This was  very good and logical function available in DJI Go 4. It should be default for tracking.

Home following RC is also very convenient when one is on a moving object such as in the car or on a boat. I do miss this functionality.

Mirek

I don’t think you can have it hover. That setting is just for transmission loss, not for low battery

There is another risk with return to home while active tracking. What if it was under an obstacle such as a bridge or under trees?

The updated location is where the RC is at the time of updating, low battery will return to last updated homepoint, loss of signal is highly unlikely using AT so hover is really not an option.

It’s very easy to know where update is particularly if you precheck before take off.

Ice_2k Posted at 5-25 22:53
I don’t think you can have it hover. That setting is just for transmission loss, not for low battery

Ice_2k,

True. Here goes our workaround :-(.

Mirek

lee82gx Posted at 5-26 00:56
There is another risk with return to home while active tracking. What if it was under an obstacle such as a bridge or under trees?

lee82gx,

Good point.
This is why for active tracking low battery RTH default should be "hover" with possibility of the pilot to change it to current RC location or current AC location (just land) or simply leaving original start home point.

Right now it is both awkward and, as you pointed out, can be dangerous.

Mirek

hallmark007 Posted at 5-26 00:58
The updated location is where the RC is at the time of updating, low battery will return to last updated homepoint, loss of signal is highly unlikely using AT so hover is really not an option.

It’s very easy to know where update is particularly if you precheck before take off.

hallmark007,

Yes - all true yet still the functionality of setting different low-battery RTH mode for AT is missing. In most cases it does not make much sense to RTH to start point when in active tracking mode. Hover option would be better in many situations. Or setting home to where RC is with real-time updates of RC and home location (as was the case with old DJI Go 4 app and older drones such as Spark).

I just tested low-battery RTH during AT and confirmed that AC will return to its original home point if the user does not cancel or update home point manually (which may be pain in the butt when you are biking and controller is in your bag).

I hope DJI sees this conversation and takes our feedback into consideration.

Mirek  

Mirek6 Posted at 5-26 06:17
hallmark007,

Yes - all true yet still the functionality of setting different low-battery RTH mode for AT is missing. In most cases it does not make much sense to RTH to start point when in active tracking mode. Hover option would be better in many situations. Or setting home to where RC is with real-time updates of RC and home location (as was the case with old DJI Go 4 app and older drones such as Spark).

I see where your coming from, I just think hover yes that’s fine, but you still have to stop the bike and reclaim your drone, so not to dissimilar from canceling RTH, I mean it’s not like your going to leave craft hovering while you cycle on.

I think what’s missing is dynamic homepoint so preset it will return to where RC is, so you dont need reset HP, but this can also be a problem if gps on device is not working as was the problem with many devices.
I think if you treat AT like a 15/20 minute program before changing battery might be best.

hallmark007 Posted at 5-26 07:45
I see where your coming from, I just think hover yes that’s fine, but you still have to stop the bike and reclaim your drone, so not to dissimilar from canceling RTH, I mean it’s not like your going to leave craft hovering while you cycle on.

I think what’s missing is dynamic homepoint so preset it will return to where RC is, so you dont need reset HP, but this can also be a problem if gps on device is not working as was the problem with many devices.

Yes - of course with knowing all this we can figure out some workarounds and manage.

With the Cancel it is just a matter of time before I am able to stop, get my controller from the bag and hit Cancel. If it takes more than 10 seconds my drone may have already started climb towards RTH altitude (and crashed into overhanging trees).

I will be interested to see DJI reply.
Perhaps they can re-add the same capabilities we used to have in DJI Go 4 app to DJI Fly. Stop and hover when in AT mode and when low-battery RTH is triggered would be a welcome addition. As would be dynamic changing of Home location to point to current RC location.

Mirek

hallmark007 Posted at 5-26 00:58
The updated location is where the RC is at the time of updating, low battery will return to last updated homepoint, loss of signal is highly unlikely using AT so hover is really not an option.

It’s very easy to know where update is particularly if you precheck before take off.

Are you sure about this? I’m sure the test I did for updating the Home Point recorded the new Home Point where the MA2 was hovering, not where I was stood with the RC

InvisibleName 7 Posted at 5-26 08:56
Are you sure about this? I’m sure the test I did for updating the Home Point recorded the new Home Point where the MA2 was hovering, not where I was stood with the RC

It’s designed to return to where RC is, or was when updated,  it’s often used by people flying off moving boats.

hallmark007 Posted at 5-26 09:02
It’s designed to return to where RC is, or was when updated,  it’s often used by people flying off moving boats.

Ok, I’m not disputing this,  but do you know where it is documented? Can’t find it in the manual and I’ve been involved in a similar discussion in another forum

InvisibleName 7 Posted at 5-26 09:15
Ok, I’m not disputing this,  but do you know where it is documented? Can’t find it in the manual and I’ve been involved in a similar discussion in another forum

I’m afraid I don’t . But maybe someone who uses it often can weigh in.

InvisibleName 7 Posted at 5-26 08:56
Are you sure about this? I’m sure the test I did for updating the Home Point recorded the new Home Point where the MA2 was hovering, not where I was stood with the RC

Yep, my experience as well   if you update the HP (DJI Fly app, not the GoApp) without moving the craft on the map to a new position the update HP is where the craft is at that moment.

Guess i am 80% sure, will fly tomorrow and test it out to get 100%.

cheers
JJB

JJB* Posted at 5-26 10:19
Yep, my experience as well   if you update the HP (DJI Fly app, not the GoApp) without moving the craft on the map to a new position the update HP is where the craft is at that moment.

Guess i am 80% sure, will fly tomorrow and test it out to get 100%.

This is what happened for me when I tested today.  Makes sense to at least have the option to choose to return to controller.  This could catch some people out.  

JJB* Posted at 5-26 10:19
Yep, my experience as well   if you update the HP (DJI Fly app, not the GoApp) without moving the craft on the map to a new position the update HP is where the craft is at that moment.

Guess i am 80% sure, will fly tomorrow and test it out to get 100%.

JJB,

I just tested it and here are my findings of what happens when you try to update Mavic Air 2 home point using DJI Fly app:

• Default, as you correctly suspected, is a current position of the AC (not RC).
• On the upper right hand side of a display there is a small two choice menu where you can switch between AC and RC as your home point.
• You can also drag an image of the AC on the map to show where the new Home point should be.
  

All in all this design is not bad. But lack of description of this in DJI Mavic Air 2 manual is simply sloppy.

I have only one problem with this design. The capability of dynamic home point updates according to the location of RC is missing.
This is something which should be available when you are moving (on the bike, car or in the boat).

And, of course, as discussed above, capability to choose "hover" as a low batter RTH option for active tracking.

Mirek

Speak of the devil, I just had a crash on active track. I poorly chose the parallel tracking and my target went too close to a tree. Now then the aircraft chose to go under it to have a side view. I pressed the home button to pause it, but I may have pressed it twice and it rises. Needless to say, painful experience.

Mirek L Posted at 5-26 17:45
JJB,

I just tested it and here are my findings of what happens when you try to update Mavic Air 2 home point using DJI Fly app:

Hi Mirek,  nice to see you back on this forum.

So my memory is still in good order :-).   I tested more ; when you MM/MA2 is in RTH mode and you update the HP (dragging om the map) than instantly the drone changes heading to the new HP setting.

Go4 app needs the position of the mobile device for setting new HP, while the FlyApp uses just the GPS data from the MM/MA2.
cheers
JJB

Mirek L Posted at 5-26 17:45
JJB,

I just tested it and here are my findings of what happens when you try to update Mavic Air 2 home point using DJI Fly app:

Guess its peanuts for DJI to implement a auto-home-point update during track mode.

If i can update the HP simple by pressing OK in the APP (as default is drone location as new HP),

DJI can make it to update each 5 seconds or so....just an option in the app.

cheers
JJB

Mirek L Posted at 5-26 17:45
JJB,

I just tested it and here are my findings of what happens when you try to update Mavic Air 2 home point using DJI Fly app:

I have also tested and can confirm, it is indeed different than go4 and while the system looks good it’s so much easier to know the ground under the drone when working off RC also it renders this feature useless on the water. Dynamic homepoint was good in principle but heavily depended on what device you used, for instance on iOS it was almost useless, so I think until GPS improves on devices we may see this been left off some platforms.