I realize the little "radar" icon is not really a radar, but I thought I knew how it actually worked. Apparently I was wrong!

The last couple of times out, I decided I would try to utilize it more. When my Phantom gets well away from me - which, now that I'm 71 years old probably means it's not really that far away! - it's very easy to lose track of the orientation. When it gets several hundred yards away from me, I typically use the YAW control to turn it, while still pushing forward on the right stick. As my Phantom moves from right to left (or left to right) and then "straightens out" as it heads back towards me, I end up compensating at least a little in one direction or the other becuase I didn't get it pointed straight at me to come back.

If I enlarge the radar icon, I assumed the direction in which the aircraft is pointing would be much more obvious. However, there have been many times when the orientation seemed exactly backwards. The radar icon shows the Phantom is pointing to the left, but when I push left on the right stick, the Phantom goes to the right - absolutely backwards from what I anticipated.

Is the radar icon showing the compass direction instead of a physical direction? Many times I'm facing north when I take off. It seems that maybe as long as I keep my Phantom north of the established home point, its orientation should show "true." But, if I get south of my home point, the point-to direction gets reversed?

Also, should the radar icon agree with the "pointer" on the map screen?

I think my bottom line is this: I'm looking for the easiest way, when my Phantom gets well away from me, to identify what direction I need to fly to bring my Phantom directly back to where I'm currently standing. of course, I'm looking to do this WITHOUT engaging RTH. Essentially, I'm trying to teach myself how to use the information I'm being provided by my mobile device, rather than ignore it and take the "bail out" option until the Phantom gets close enough for me to retake control.

Seems like many days are simply training/learning days!

Art - N4PJ
Leesburg, FL
da-di-dah

I don't use the radar much, I prefer the map.  Press the C2 on the back of the transmitter gives a full screen map view.  There is a red triangle, which represents the phantom, there is a colored glow on one corner of the triangle, this is the nose of the craft.  There also a dynamic green line from the phantom to the home point, or take-off point.  With this information it is easy to orientate the nose of the triangle along the green line and then fly along the line until you have better visual orientation.  There still is a small camera view in the corner of the screen.

I need to learn to use this too.

For me the easiest way to come back home if I've lost sight of the Phantom is the map view. The red arrow points to your direction the front of Phantom is pointing. I just turn it around facing the green line (direct heading back to you) and follow the green line home

jasper7821@yaho Posted at 2015-12-3 15:04
For me the easiest way to come back home if I've lost sight of the Phantom is the map view. The red  ...

Or press the RTH button and you will see it come flying back to you. You can cancel RTH at any time. It's totally worth the price of admission.

"there have been many times when the orientation seemed exactly backwards. The radar icon shows the Phantom is pointing to the left, but when I push left on the right stick, the Phantom goes to the right"
The radar display should match what's in front of you and is a great help.
If things are looking backwards to you, the most likely cause is that the compass in your tablet needs to be calibrated.  
This seems to be a particularly common issue in Samsung devices, but others get it too..

Have you tried changing the map setting using the dead-reckoning icon in the upper right on iOS? That may not have anything to do with this issue, but there are 2 compass views in the map.

hummingbird.uav Posted at 2015-12-3 13:38
I don't use the radar much, I prefer the map.  Press the C2 on the back of the transmitter gives a f ...

Yes, I was aware of most of what you write, but not quite all. Thanks for some additional clarification.

Yesterday, I was out flying and my RC friend was watching and asking questions. The map was kind of "goofy" at the time and I realized my tablet probably doesn't have GPS. I just barely understand about the technique for caching the map data at home and then flying.

My friend asked about the "home point" and I expanded the view so we could see the difference between the established home point and the position of the Phantom. I'm assuming that you can expand the map view, then rotate the Phantom so it's pointing back toward the home point (on the map, not with the "radar" view) and fly that direction until it becomes visible - or at least close enough to discern the orientation, etc.

Don't know how far it is across the body of water where I'm flying. Yesterday, I flew what I *thought* was pretty close to the marina, then turned around and flew back. I would estimate about half a mile, but I forgot to look at the telemetry to see how far it really was. When I viewed the video later, I turned back towards the home point waaaaay short of the marina. Of course, at 71, my general eyesight and depth perception are shot to hell anyway!

When flying my Phantom at a reasonable distance (and beyond) I need all the visual clues I can get!

Thanks for your input.

Art - N4PJ
Leesburg, FL

jasper7821@yaho Posted at 2015-12-3 17:04
For me the easiest way to come back home if I've lost sight of the Phantom is the map view. The red  ...

I assume this green line is the supposed "direct path" back to the home point?

I haven't yet tried anything in regard to "dynamic home point" but sometimes I do move around while I'm flying. Until I truly understand how to read both the map and the radar icon (compass pointer might be a more accurate description?).

While my friend was there with me (and a healthy charge on the battery) we discussed what we were looking at and finally came to the conclusion (two IQs of 50 makes us pretty normal, huh?) that the compass pointer (radar icon) doesn't point back to yourself except coincidentally. If you turn it to where it's "facing you" it actually points to a compass direction, i.e., NE, SW etc.

Looking at the map with a lot of water in the view is sometimes not real helpful. There just aren't that many roads running through the water - LOL!

Art

Rnfaust Posted at 2015-12-3 17:43
Or press the RTH button and you will see it come flying back to you. You can cancel RTH at any tim ...

I have resorted to that a couple of times. It makes me feel like I've hit the panic button and I figure that means I need to sharpen both my piloting and my navigation skills - but you're right - it definitely works.

Art

labroides@yahoo Posted at 2015-12-3 19:50
"there have been many times when the orientation seemed exactly backwards. The radar icon shows the  ...

I've discovered the map/compass are both calibrated just fine.

If you take off with your device oriented N/S, then fly "behind" where you're standing, everything gets reversed. It's exactly the same as having the Phantom flying toward you - left becomes right and vice-versa.

I also discovered that what I thought was north from where we're usually taking off is actually well east of north. The Phantom has to be pointing almost what I thought was NW before it's truly pointing north. That throws a wrinkle in the whole thing. Kind of like flying a plane in the dark and discovering there's far less feedback unless you rely more heavily on the instruments.

It's apparently all a process of learning everything there possibly is to know. All the more reason for reading the manual, watching videos, etc. I've got tons of flights and lots of hours on my Phantom and I'm still learning. Then again, maybe I'm a real slow learner! LOL

Art

Rnfaust Posted at 2015-12-3 22:21
Have you tried changing the map setting using the dead-reckoning icon in the upper right on iOS? Tha ...

Using an Android device. The iOS gadgets just seem so expensive. However, I spend a lot of time here on the forum and my personal opinion is that the people running iOS have the better end of the deal - there seems to be less app crashing, more info (like the stick positions when you review the flight).

I guess if I really want to be super-serious I'll have to break down and buy an Apple gadget.

Art

aburkefl@gmail. Posted at 2015-12-4 07:35
I assume this green line is the supposed "direct path" back to the home point?

I haven't yet trie ...

Yup, follow the green line back to home

It has been my experience that the "radar" icon heading is actually the heading of the Phantom relative to the heading of my iPad on the radio controller.  If my iPad is  pointed directly at the Phantom then the heading of the Phantom correlates with the heading of the iPad and the radar icon heading is orientated just as you see it. If I rotate the Phantom 90 degrees left the heading of the icon points 90 degrees left on the iPad. Now here is where you can get in trouble or lose your orientation, if your iPad is NOT pointed directly at the Phantom then the icon heading is off by the amount of degrees your iPad is pointing away from the Phantom. So if I am pointing my controller/iPad due north and the Phantom is 60 degrees to the right of the direction I am pointing, then the radar icon is off by 60 degrees. So you need to realize that when you put in flight control movements.

Also, if you point the iPad directly at the Phantom and the Phantom is pointed directly away from you and the radar icon is off by a couple of degrees left or right, then you most likely need to calibrate the compass on the iPad to get them to line up exactly.  I did this and it lined up perfectly afterwards.

Bottom line, I always keep the controller/iPad pointed directly at the Phantom to maintain proper orientation of the radar icon.  Hope this helps.

sww60 Posted at 2015-12-4 13:06
It has been my experience that the "radar" icon heading is actually the heading of the Phantom relat ...

"then the radar icon is off by 60 degrees. So you need to realize that when you put in flight control movements."

My very first thought was that a "rule" like that can get very confusing. If you're pointed directly at your Phantom with your iPad, but your Phantom is actually pointed at you (i.e., it's on its way back to you), then the heading is off by 180 degrees! Having the heading off by *any* number and taking the chance that you'll make the proper calculation in plenty of time.....

Sounds somewhat risky to me.

Several others made reference to "the green line" that runs from the Phantom's current position back to the home point seems like the best idea/use of the icon and/or map. That also assumes, of course, that you've not utilized any dynamic change of the home point. In that case, your home point could be far removed from where you actually are at any given time.

To me, that little "radar" icon is really a Compass Rose without any numbers. Knowing that due west is 270 degrees, due east is 90 degrees and so forth, will provide a rough estimate of where your Phantom is pointed. It might be nice if that icon could be enlarged to take up a huge chunk of the screen *and* have numbers on it - then the heading of the Phantom would be accurately (perfectly) represented.

Or better yet, if there was some kind of easy control to magnify the map very quickly so you could see where the home point is located, relative to your Phantom. You can do that now by "un-pinching" the map, but that's somewhat tedious. A button push that could do that would work much faster.

Unfortunately, the compensations I've made thus far dictate that I don't let my Phantom get very far away. Then those kinds of decisions/calculations never have to be made! And there's always the RTH button. I just thought it would be fun to become so proficient at both navigation and control that you wouldn't really need the RTH button.

Maybe get someone gifted software writer to create me a dashboard that resembles a Cessna 182 - with an autopilot! LOL

Art - N4PJ
Leesburg, FL
da-di-dah

Forget  about north, south etc.
It's all about  you and the Phantom.
The radar display doesn't know about north.  
Everything is relative to the home point and keep in mind what SWW said about facing the direction of the Phantom.
Try it at 100 feet .. fly left and right, turn the Phantom around and observe the radar display.
It's a fabulous tool and it shows you exactly which way your Phantom is pointing so you can bring it back easily.