Hi all,
DJI, I would like to put forward another option for RTH, more specifically low battery RTH. Currently on low battery RTH kicks in and the aircraft will rise to RTH altitude then RTH. If any of you, like myself, fly using active track, this can be a scary time. As an example, if you are flying using active track through an area such as a woods where there are objects overhead. If your battery hits RTH level the mavic will fly up into the trees. When this happens you have to get your controller out of your bag and cancel it before it happens.

My request is: Can we have an option to change RTH on low battery alert. Give us the option to RTH, Hover or Land on low battery. This will greatly reduce the risks of a crash on low battery RTH.

This option would be great on the Mavic Air too, i use my mavic air for autonomous flight and tracking (no controller) and to be able to set it to hover on low battery would take so much stress out of flying this way too.

Thanks

Dirty Bird Posted at 8-27 04:16
All you need to do to stop the auto-climb to RTH altitude is momentarily pull down on the left stick (Mode 2).

(Sorry I missed the part about your controller in your bag)

lol no worries
I hope this doesn't fall on deaf ears though. This would make active track and autonomous flight so much safer.

Malakai_UK Posted at 8-27 04:31
lol no worries  
I hope this doesn't fall on deaf ears though. This would make active track and autonomous flight so much safer.

This would make active track and autonomous flight so much safer.
Of course there is another way to ensure safe active track and autonomous flights.
But it involves choosing a safe area to fly.

What you're requesting is much like the Signal Lost options in Advanced Safety settings.  It would be a simple software change to add those options for Low Battery alert.  The other solution is for you to monitor your battery levels and don't press flying an Active Track when you fully know your power level is low.  You could even see on the Fly App how long it is to RTH and set your mobile device alarm accordingly.  That would take all of 20 seconds.

I think controller is supposed to be in control when using AT IE be able to react if their is a problem. So dji would most likely say once your in control you are responsible for craft not going straight up into the trees.

Does the drone land where it is when RTH is activated and the drone is within 5m of the RC or HP? You can also set RTH to hover instead of fly back to the HP - not sure if this includes low battery RTH - definitely does for failsafe.

A J Posted at 8-27 07:37
Does the drone land where it is when RTH is activated and the drone is within 5m of the RC or HP? You can also set RTH to hover instead of fly back to the HP - not sure if this includes low battery RTH - definitely does for failsafe.

You can also set RTH to hover instead of fly back to the HP
... definitely does for failsafe.
You have a choice of options for your Loss of Signal action (Failsafe)
There are no options for RTH except the RTH height.

Labroides Posted at 8-27 07:43
You can also set RTH to hover instead of fly back to the HP
... definitely does for failsafe.
You have a choice of options for your Loss of Signal action (Failsafe)

Thanks for clarifying. Just as well I only ever fly with the RC in hand.  

Labroides Posted at 8-27 05:50
This would make active track and autonomous flight so much safer.
Of course there is another way to ensure safe active track and autonomous flights.
But it involves choosing a safe area to fly.

When i said safer, i meant less likelyhood to crash the drone when flying in areas where there are objects above, like through trees.

Dirty Bird Posted at 8-27 10:40
Hate to say it, but if you're using Activetrack to fly through the trees it is ultimately going to crash regardless of the RTH setting.

The Active Track on the MA2 is amazing,  I've had no issues at all flying through some pretty tough environments, ones i wouldn't even attempt to manually fly through.
The issue is the RTH kicking in on low battery and the drone flying straight up into trees if they are there.

Dirty Bird Posted at 8-27 12:10
The simple solution is just set the RTH altitude as low as possible.   If the bird is already higher than the set height, it will head for home at the current altitude.

And run into a tree trying to return to the home point unless the Active Track has been a straight line.

Malakai_UK Posted at 8-27 11:20
The Active Track on the MA2 is amazing,  I've had no issues at all flying through some pretty tough environments, ones i wouldn't even attempt to manually fly through.
The issue is the RTH kicking in on low battery and the drone flying straight up into trees if they are there.

The issue is the RTH kicking in on low battery.
The pilot of any flying machine needs to be aware of the limitations of his aircraft and fly within those limitations to prevent potential risks becoming actual problems.
I don't know ... perhaps you could plan ahead and if you cannot avoid flying your drone in hazardous environments, maybe avoid flying down to low battery level in hazardous environments ?
You don't have to fly down to the last % of battery.
Pilots of real aircraft always land with a comfortable safety reserve still in their fuel tanks.

Labroides Posted at 8-27 15:47
The issue is the RTH kicking in on low battery.
The pilot of any flying machine needs to be aware of the limitations of his aircraft and fly within those limitations to prevent potential risks becoming actual problems.
I don't know ... perhaps you could plan ahead and if you cannot avoid flying your drone in hazardous environments, maybe avoid flying down to low battery level in hazardous environments ?

I said much the same things in my Reply #5...I agree the pilot should be aware of battery status at all times...but all the OP is asking is that DJI give us the option of what happens at Low Battery RTH.   He states in the opening post:

My request is: Can we have an option to change RTH on low battery alert. Give us the option to RTH, Hover or Land on low battery. This will greatly reduce the risks of a crash on low battery RTH.

I, for one, think this is an excellent request for software upgrade.  This is a menu option I would like to have. How many times have you gotten the Low Battery RTH alert..."the aircraft will return to the home point in 10 seconds"... and cancelled it because you knew you just needed one more photo...and you knew you could easily get the drone back home without running out of battery.  With you hand flying the RTH it would make a direct, descending flight path directly to you versus climbing to RTH altitude, flying directly over the top of the home point, and then descending in it's own prop wash to landing...a maneuver requiring much more battery power than hand flying.  I would much rather get the aural message only and have it hover...maybe even a phone vibration... than have it arbitrarily go into RTH when I don't want it to.  

We newer members want more options obviously. The older members balk at that. I frequently wrote software in my former life (pre-retirement ;-) and always welcomed suggestions from the users. This is not a bad suggestion and sounds much like ones I have heard in my career. I say...go for it.

amazing, am i the only one that remembers DJI used to have a feature called dynamic home point that pretty much invented to prevent stupid thing like this from happening...why was that killed off from new drones for last few years and why hasn't it come back?   

Would the solution be to have a user selectable low battery alarm as in the Go 4 app?  I know the low battery RTH is a dynamic setting  (where the system sets the trigger level by the energy it thinks it needs to get back to the home point) but having a warning that you're approaching that point would be useful.

Smashey1 Posted at 8-27 23:20
Would the solution be to have a user selectable low battery alarm as in the Go 4 app?  I know the low battery RTH is a dynamic setting  (where the system sets the trigger level by the energy it thinks it needs to get back to the home point) but having a warning that you're approaching that point would be useful.

The issue isnt the alarm, its that on low battery RTH the aircraft will stop and rise to its preset return to alt before returning to home point. If you are under a canopy or possibly wires of some kind this could cause a crash. By being able to choose RTH, Hover or Land on low battery would give greater control in different environments.
If i know I'm going to be flying further than 50m away in an open area i would want LB/RTH to RTH.
If I'm flying within 50m i would want LB/RTH to either just hover in place until critical battery then land or have the option to just land.
If I'm flying autonomously (MA/Spark) or active track (MA2) in an area where there could be obstacles above, I would want LB/RTH to hover. This would also benefit because the subject is moving the homepoint would be getting further away (no dynamic homepoint) thus increasing the chance of the drone initiating RTH due to the flight time to the home point. With hover it wouldnt need to rely on a home point other than for reference as the pilot should be near by.

Malakai_UK Posted at 8-28 01:36
The issue isnt the alarm, its that on low battery RTH the aircraft will stop and rise to its preset return to alt before returning to home point. If you are under a canopy or possibly wires of some kind this could cause a crash. By being able to choose RTH, Hover or Land on low battery would give greater control in different environments.
If i know I'm going to be flying further than 50m away in an open area i would want LB/RTH to RTH.
If I'm flying within 50m i would want LB/RTH to either just hover in place until critical battery then land or have the option to just land.

The issue is that on low battery RTH the aircraft will stop and rise to its preset return to alt before returning to home point. If you are under a canopy or possibly wires of some kind this could cause a crash.
I know it's complicated and hard to understand but the real issue is that if you fly in a risky environment and continue into low battery territory, you could end up in trouble.
If only there was some way to avoid getting into this situation.
I guess it's just not possible.

But until DJI grant your wish (as if that's ever going to happen !!), I guess you'll just have to keep crashing into branches every time your battery runs down.

Labroides Posted at 8-28 01:59
The issue is that on low battery RTH the aircraft will stop and rise to its preset return to alt before returning to home point. If you are under a canopy or possibly wires of some kind this could cause a crash.
I know it's complicated and hard to understand but the real issue is that if you fly in a risky environment and continue into low battery territory, you could end up in trouble.
If only there was some way to avoid getting into this situation.

No crashes so far just stressful flights wondering if RTH is going to kick in at any time the battery is low or I'm too far from its original home point (because of no dynamic home point)

In regards to the MA2 there is an 'Update Home Point' option in the safety section of the Fly app main options menu (three dots). The option is directly below the RTH height setting. When the drone is airborne selecting that option brings up a map of the flight area and you can physically drag the home point to a new area during flight and before starting the active track. This won't prevent the drone ascending into the trees and it won't auto update like the previous dynamic HP feature but if you plan it at least the drone will land at your planned end location rather than where you took off and with that location being closer to the drone as the flight continues it will be less likely to initiate LB RTH sooner than leaving the HP from where you started.

You can also look into buying a bracket to fix on your bike to put the RC in so you can at least monitor the FPV when on the go.

Malakai_UK Posted at 8-28 02:36
No crashes so far just stressful flights wondering if RTH is going to kick in at any time the battery is low or I'm too far from its original home point (because of no dynamic home point)

Having read this thread I’ve come to the conclusion, this is a simple matter of using common sense, I’m also realizing that common sense is not very common around here. ;+)....

hallmark007 Posted at 8-28 04:37
Having read this thread I’ve come to the conclusion, this is a simple matter of using common sense, I’m also realizing that common sense is not very common around here. ;+)....

Lol I fly with common sense. I also like to capture our activities and sometimes that includes flying in wooded areas. Just a simple option of hover on low battery is all I’m asking to reduce the risk of losing my drone when it’s under cover.

Dirty Bird Posted at 8-28 04:45
You can already accomplish what you are requesting.  Set the RTH altitude as low as possible & the RTH action to Hover.  Just don't forget to set it appropriately for your next flight situation.

This doesn’t stop low battery RTH kicking in and automatically ascending to RTH.

Dirty Bird Posted at 8-28 04:45
You can already accomplish what you are requesting.  Set the RTH altitude as low as possible & the RTH action to Hover.  Just don't forget to set it appropriately for your next flight situation.

That RTH hover option is only available for loss of signal, commonly called Failsafe RTH.  It's not available for Low Battery RTH.   That is what the OP is asking DJI to do...give the hover option for Low Battery RTH.

hallmark007 Posted at 8-28 04:37
Having read this thread I’ve come to the conclusion, this is a simple matter of using common sense, I’m also realizing that common sense is not very common around here. ;+)....

Common sense is if DJI gives selectable options for loss of signal (Failsafe RTH), it ought to provide the same options for Low Battery RTH.

Malakai_UK Posted at 8-28 04:39
Lol I fly with common sense. I also like to capture our activities and sometimes that includes flying in wooded areas. Just a simple option of hover on low battery is all I’m asking to reduce the risk of losing my drone when it’s under cover.

You can guarantee that you won’t lose your drone, but you need to commit to a simple plan of completing mission before your craft reaches low battery.

I can just see some user set his craft to land and then forget to reset, next day he’s flying over water and craft lands, in fact I see this as a much bigger problem if Rth was changed.

I think it’s important that users are allowed accept responsibility now and then for their craft.

Rustic17 Posted at 8-28 07:02
Common sense is if DJI gives selectable options for loss of signal (Failsafe RTH), it ought to provide the same options for Low Battery RTH.

Again I’ll repeat what I already said, what happens if you forget to reset and next day your flying over water. I don’t believe dji are going to change their manual, they issue plenty of warnings around controller being in control of their drone and once you are you won’t run into these problems.

If you think people wouldn’t complain because their craft landed in water or was left hovering over a deep ravine, you’d be wrong, I’m certain dji would be vociferously attacked if this were to happen to any drone.

I don’t believe dji will change Rth and I don’t believe they should unless they can make it better, and setting to hover or land would likely cause more problems.

hallmark007 Posted at 8-28 07:16
Again I’ll repeat what I already said, what happens if you forget to reset and next day your flying over water. I don’t believe dji are going to change their manual, they issue plenty of warnings around controller being in control of their drone and once you are you won’t run into these problems.

If you think people wouldn’t complain because their craft landed in water or was left hovering over a deep ravine, you’d be wrong, I’m certain dji would be vociferously attacked if this were to happen to any drone.

So why did they add the options of RTH, hover and descend for loss of signal??  If anything, loss of signal means you can't control the drone, yet they're giving you the option of RTH, hover or descend...that to me doesn't make a lot of sense.  Why would you want it to hover or descend if you have no control over it???  Unless you think you might get signal back...and that's a big gamble.    And hovering after a Low Battery RTH over water or a ravine just gives you time to take over manually...I don't think many people would select the descend option.  It's going to land anyway at the Critical Battery alert.

Dirty Bird Posted at 8-28 04:45
You can already accomplish what you are requesting.  Set the RTH altitude as low as possible & the RTH action to Hover.  Just don't forget to set it appropriately for your next flight situation.

Set the RTH altitude as low as possible & the RTH action to Hover.
How do you set the RTH action to Hover (or anything else)?

hallmark007 Posted at 8-28 07:08
You can guarantee that you won’t lose your drone, but you need to commit to a simple plan of completing mission before your craft reaches low battery.

I can just see some user set his craft to land and then forget to reset, next day he’s flying over water and craft lands, in fact I see this as a much bigger problem if Rth was changed.

I agree - also consider the scenario. You have your RC and FPV in a bag, you are cycling along a path in the middle of a public woodland with a quiet drone tracking you from behind whilst it's dodging branches. You set the LB RTH to hover, it initiates that setting but unbeknown to the pilot he/she carries on down the track then suddenly looks back and the drone is nowhere to be seen... The drone is hovering back down the path on a low battery in a public woodland where other cyclists may be not too far behind or worse case, children may be walking with their parents and suddenly the drone begins to land with no interception from the person legally responsible for the flight...

Failsafe is different as the pilot has effectively lost control of the drone but with low battery, the pilot is suppose to remain in full control. Such a feature request would encourage flying without VLOS and in confined space using automated flight not to mention all the noobs rushing out and losing their drone after forgetting to change the settings. Lets be honest - I've seen one noob on here forget to put the props on before taking off... The MA2 is an amazing camera drone but ain't a Skydio and I've seen nightmarish videos of that drone malfunctioning many times!

Labroides Posted at 8-28 07:43
Set the RTH altitude as low as possible & the RTH action to Hover.
How do you set the RTH action to Hover (or anything else)?

It's only for loss of signal (Failsafe RTH) and it's in the Safety menu, Advanced Safety Settings.

Dirty Bird Posted at 8-28 08:10
This is the problem with requests to accommodate every bizarre & conceivable situation.  In most cases, the controller is in the pilot's hand when the low battery "RTH in 10 seconds" pop-up appears.  One simply clicks cancel if  RTH is not wanted, & there is no issue to be resolved.

Here we have a request for a special Low Battery RTH setting for the extremely rare case where someone is flying without access to the RC.  I cannot say if DJI will create a special low battery RTH setting, but I am confident in saying 99%+ of the time, the pilot will want the aircraft to return to home.

I agree...it's just seems to be a new option DJI is giving for loss of signal (Failsafe RTH) so why not have it for Low Battery RTH, too.  I've also been out in direct sunlight and at times found it hard to even see where to tap to cancel the RTH.  In that case, I have to wait for the RTH to initiate and then press the RTH/Pause button to cancel.  All this can be done, if like you say the controller is readily available...which I agree it should always be.

Rustic17 Posted at 8-28 07:27
So why did they add the options of RTH, hover and descend for loss of signal??  If anything, loss of signal means you can't control the drone, yet they're giving you the option of RTH, hover or descend...that to me doesn't make a lot of sense.  Why would you want it to hover or descend if you have no control over it???  Unless you think you might get signal back...and that's a big gamble.    And hovering after a Low Battery RTH over water or a ravine just gives you time to take over manually...I don't think many people would select the descend option.  It's going to land anyway at the Critical Battery alert.

I think loss of signal and Rth are two very different things. Loss of signal controller has no control . Rth low battery the controller is still in control. It’s expected and advised that during AT that user remains in control of craft and once he/she is in control then he determines what happens to craft, so he can avoid such situations. So no need to change anything for AT. AT is an Automatic mode not Autonomous and this is by design.
My personal thoughts are if craft runs out of battery during a mission where running out of battery is going to cause him problems, then he’s being  totally irresponsible as I said above, what’s wrong with a little common sense.

Dirty Bird Posted at 8-28 08:17
I believe Hover & Land were added to accommodate indoor flyers.  Both options are disasters waiting to happen if used in most outdoor flying situations.

Yeah..I worded that wrong...it's Descend, not Land....which I don't really know what Descend means. And I definitely would never select that option.   I don't see how Hover is a disaster waiting to happen.  If you're in a boat, hiking or Active Tracking you might just want it to Hover (which would keep the drone closer to you) versus it returning to a place you left minutes ago.  Then, manually fly the drone to where you are.  And if it returns to the home point and you're a distance away because you were Active Tracking,  you run into the same problems (disaster waiting to happen) previously noted of it landing potentially near or into people (for example, your takeoff was in a park).  I still agree that having immediate accessibility to the RC is mandatory.

Dirty Bird Posted at 8-28 08:17
I believe Hover & Land were added to accommodate indoor flyers.  Both options are disasters waiting to happen if used in most outdoor flying situations.

hallmark007 Posted at 8-28 08:30
I think loss of signal and Rth are two very different things. Loss of signal controller has no control . Rth low battery the controller is still in control. It’s expected and advised that during AT that user remains in control of craft and once he/she is in control then he determines what happens to craft, so he can avoid such situations. So no need to change anything for AT. AT is an Automatic mode not Autonomous and this is by design.
My personal thoughts are if craft runs out of battery during a mission where running out of battery is going to cause him problems, then he’s being  totally irresponsible as I said above, what’s wrong with a little common sense.

I agree totally with the irresponsible pilot comment.

Hi. Thank you for reaching out to DJI Forum and thank you for sharing your personal insights. With regards to this matter. It is recommended that once the low battery warning notification appears. It is best to return the drone home to prevent any incident or crash due to low battery situations. For more information regarding this matter, please refer to the image posted below. Thank you.

DJI Paladin Posted at 8-28 09:47
Hi. Thank you for reaching out to DJI Forum and thank you for sharing your personal insights. With regards to this matter. It is recommended that once the low battery warning notification appears. It is best to return the drone home to prevent any incident or crash due to low battery situations. For more information regarding this matter, please refer to the image posted below. Thank you.

[view_image]

DJI, did you actually read my post? Your reply makes me think you didn’t. Such a shame.

A J Posted at 8-28 07:56
I agree - also consider the scenario. You have your RC and FPV in a bag, you are cycling along a path in the middle of a public woodland with a quiet drone tracking you from behind whilst it's dodging branches. You set the LB RTH to hover, it initiates that setting but unbeknown to the pilot he/she carries on down the track then suddenly looks back and the drone is nowhere to be seen... The drone is hovering back down the path on a low battery in a public woodland where other cyclists may be not too far behind or worse case, children may be walking with their parents and suddenly the drone begins to land with no interception from the person legally responsible for the flight...

Failsafe is different as the pilot has effectively lost control of the drone but with low battery, the pilot is suppose to remain in full control. Such a feature request would encourage flying without VLOS and in confined space using automated flight not to mention all the noobs rushing out and losing their drone after forgetting to change the settings. Lets be honest - I've seen one noob on here forget to put the props on before taking off... The MA2 is an amazing camera drone but ain't a Skydio and I've seen nightmarish videos of that drone malfunctioning many times!

Yeah I think because battery life is so good there shouldn’t be to much of a problem with Air 2. I certainly wouldn’t like to be constantly changing Rth or forgetting what I have set. Only thing I might change is height and as you said earlier you can set new HP .

Malakai_UK Posted at 8-28 10:00
DJI, did you actually read my post? Your reply makes me think you didn’t. Such a shame.

The pilot should know his status of his battery (so easy to see on the screen) when he is flying and take whatever action is needed.  It appears DJI would be making a change for one pilot.