I am sure others may have the same issue:

I fly around sea shores and the sun glare is very bad.  Even though I have a 20/20 vision, there have been times when the P4 is close to Home but I am unable to see it.  Due to tall tress in some areas, I do not feel comfortable descending straight down.  I prefer to stay at 250 feet, but I just want to bring the P4 right above me.

Please consider adding a feature where we can just tap on a screen control, and bring the P4 right above us, while maintaining the current altitude. This is not anothet RTH, it's only when the P4 is close to us and we just want to bring it above our curent device location.

I will add a scenario:

I was flying a long mission and I was under a hill and there were 80 foot oak trees. The app showed that the P4 was close to Home point but I could not see it and I could not hear it. My first thought was about all those P4 which flew away!!  I did not want to lower the altitude until it was above me. But I had no idea where it was; and the battery was low and it was around a lake.

I could not press RTH because it may have been hovering close to Home Point, so it would have gone down. In my case, it would have been at the bottom of a lake.

So I gently lowered the altitude making sure it was still above the tallest tree (guessed) and ran around until I can see it.

If I had a quick way to press a button and bring it above the current device location! I would be happy as clam!

Shade your screen so you can see it. Watch the location of the drone on the map. Expand the map to full screen. Use RTH to bring it over the homepoint then cancel. I guess I do not understand the difficulty you are having. Seems simple to me.

This has happened a few times to me and in all cases it was close in distance to the home point, so I could not do RTH. One time it was behind trees, the other time it was sun glare.  The screen showed it was above me, but it was not.  Now I fly by sea shores, close to hills, high trees, so I do not have the luxury of descending it, plus I cannot hear it even if it is 100 feet above me, due to all the sea shore noise, wind.

I do not want to harp on the firmware issue, but I seem to also have greater deviation recently between the reading on the screen and the acutal P4 location. it has been off by up to 60 - 100 feet. It's my hope though, that it can home in on the current device GPS location.

MD_Icarus Posted at 2016-8-27 21:45
I will add a scenario:

I was flying a long mission and I was under a hill and there were 80 foot oa ...

"Use RTH to bring it over the homepoint then cancel"

I would go with that,  you can control the position of the aircraft using the sticks, to avoid obstacles. So you push RTH, The distance reading will then reduce to zero as it arrives above you, then use the sticks to control descent speed and position,  or cancel the RTH at any time by tapping cancel icon or pushing RTH button.

Aardvark Posted at 2016-8-27 17:06
"Use RTH to bring it over the homepoint then cancel"

I would go with that, to cancel RTH all you  ...

But if RTH is activated when the P4 is close to Home, it will go straight down from it's current location?  

MD_Icarus Posted at 2016-8-28 05:10
But if RTH is activated when the P4 is close to Home, it will go straight down from it's current lo ...

Fly it further away, then activate RTH.


And, moving the throttle does not cancel RTH, you actually have to push the RTH button.

I do not like to use RTH in general, and especially when I do not have the dji go maps working in some areas.

KM5RG-Robert Posted at 2016-8-27 22:12
Fly it further away, then activate RTH.

"And, moving the throttle does not cancel RTH, you actually have to push the RTH button."

Thank you, you are correct, I have amended my post. It will cancel any ascent to RTH height if above 65 feet and initiate RTH at that height (could be dangerous).

MD_Icarus Posted at 2016-8-28 07:27
I do not like to use RTH in general, and especially when I do not have the dji go maps working in so ...

One issue is that the aircraft does not necessarily know where the control unit is. To do that it relies on the GPS receiver in the phone/tablet, and not all of them have GPS. And of those that do, it is often not reliable.

It would be very rare that the Phantom's distance reading is out by more than 10 feet and it should be closer to 3-6 feet most of the time.
This number comes from GPS and although large errors are possible they are very rare.
It's always a good idea to consider RTH issues when choosing a launch point but sometimes there can be a good subject that just doesn't have an easy option.
In that case, you just have to do whatever works and use extra care.
RTH should bring the Phantom back to right above the launch point and your distance and radar displays should indicate the direction of your Phantom and whether it is closer than 20 metres.whether

labroides@yahoo Posted at 2016-8-27 19:29
It would be very rare that the Phantom's distance reading is out by more than 10 feet and it should  ...

Check out this litchi mission, WP 6 WP7; I meticulously set it to pass just off the parking lot.


Look at the video at about 3.2 min.  It is off by more than 100 feet.



I calibrate the compass before each mission on sand.

MD_Icarus Posted at 2016-8-28 13:30
Check out this litchi mission, WP 6 WP7; I meticulously set it to pass just off the parking lot.

...

"Look at the video at about 3.2 min.  It is off by more than 100 feet."

Does that not then suggest inaccuracies in Litchie waypoints ?

MD_Icarus Posted at 2016-8-28 13:30
Check out this litchi mission, WP 6 WP7; I meticulously set it to pass just off the parking lot.

...

Difficult to tell exact distance, but it must have been pretty close on target between WP6 & 7 given your altitude

MD_Icarus Posted at 2016-8-28 22:30
Check out this litchi mission, WP 6 WP7; I meticulously set it to pass just off the parking lot.

...

I think the waypoint mission hit the marks pretty well but don't realise it because there's an illusion caused by yawing the Phantom so it's not facing the direction of travel.
As someone that has used GPS for 20 years for work, I've never seen a 100 ft error in GPS positioning.
If you ever do, it will be extremely rare.

ps ,, whether you calibrate your compass every flight or not will have no effect on GPS positioning.
GPS and compass are two unrelated systems.

MD_Icarus Posted at 2016-8-28 14:30
Check out this litchi mission, WP 6 WP7; I meticulously set it to pass just off the parking lot.

...

I guess I am missing something here like others here....Why don't you just point the camera down when you see on the map hat the AC is close to you and then, progressively, bring it down next to you, avoiding any obstacles that might be in the way ??

How about using the "Home Lock" smart feature ?? That should do it, even if its too close to RTH.

I am unable to see the video clearly in most cases in the areas I fly due to glare.  I tend to fly using the red arrow most of the time. Once I zoom in the map it is easier to figure out the location, but sometimes zooming causes the app to lock up and I am afraid I may kill the app.  In some other cases, I do not have the map working in some remote areas I fly (even tough I cache the maps at home).  For some reason DJI app "forgets" the cached maps, but the litchi app tends to remember, as long as I open a waypoint at home.

Home Lock is a good option, I just wish I could have it as a C1 C2 option, or as in litci, they added it to the app screen for a quick tap.

MD_Icarus Posted at 2016-9-2 12:30
I am unable to see the video clearly in most cases in the areas I fly due to glare.  I tend to fly u ...

One thing you may not be aware of is that the position of any object in a map, be it Google Maps, Apple Maps or whoever, is not actually necessarily that accurate. They are not satellite images, but simple aerial photographs, and someone has to sit down in front of a computer and put them together in a mosiac. Every time there is a new set of aerial images available, it has to be done again, and the accuracy is not that great. So if you plan a mission with great precision off-line at home and then go out and fly it, it may be out by a significant amount.

I have my house position plotted onto a Google map and every time the images are updated, the position moves 10 or 20 feet in any given direction.

But if you use the DJI waypoint feature and actually fly the mission to plot it, it is much more accurate, because the aircraft has been to all the waypoints and knows where they are in actual space.

MD_Icarus Posted at 2016-9-2 03:30
I am unable to see the video clearly in most cases in the areas I fly due to glare.  I tend to fly u ...

"I am unable to see the video clearly in most cases in the areas I fly due to glare. "

Sounds like a Sun-shade would be a good investment for you. Isn't it risky if you can't see the aircraft or screen details because of bright Sunlight ?

Geebax Posted at 2016-9-2 02:16
One thing you may not be aware of is that the position of any object in a map, be it Google Maps, A ...

I am not looking for any more accuracy that 20 feet; I just wish the maps stay in DI GO though.  I cache them but then they are not there.  I had to walk 1 mile the other day until I got cellular reception to cache the maps because I wanted to use DJI GO to compare it to Litchi when I was testing/comparing range. Litchi had the map cached though after I uploaded the map from home the prior day.

Aardvark Posted at 2016-9-2 07:25
"I am unable to see the video clearly in most cases in the areas I fly due to glare. "

Sounds li ...

I have tried different ones, even a custom made one, as well as, the screen film.  It helps a little bit, but it is still hard to see a clear video.  I usually fly over the ocean at high altitude so my main concern is birds, and I would not have enough time to avoid them anyway.

I am considering a head umbrella, and I have also used a black backpack cloth to cover my head and the RC, but I also like to fly stealthy, so having such on my head, may result in a lot of stares!  

MD_Icarus Posted at 2016-9-2 20:12
I have tried different ones, even a custom made one, as well as, the screen film.  It helps a litt ...

Can you not RTH and tell it to hover until you can get a visual. I have the same sort of situation and I like too be sure where it is exactly before bringing it in.

MD_Icarus Posted at 2016-9-2 22:06
I am not looking for any more accuracy that 20 feet; I just wish the maps stay in DI GO though.  I ...

I don't use the maps function, but you do have to enable caching in the DJI Go app before it will cache your maps. Have you done that.

Mudge Posted at 2016-9-2 22:33
Can you not RTH and tell it to hover until you can get a visual. I have the same sort of situation ...

If the home point has been set when you took off then hitting RTH will bring it right overhead if the aircraft is more than 20 meters away.

MD_Icarus Posted at 2016-9-2 20:12
I have tried different ones, even a custom made one, as well as, the screen film.  It helps a litt ...

Here is something to consider.
http://hoodmanusa.com/

And you dont have any trees to go under? And if you cant see the image good then bump up the iso when you are coming home. And also the other suggestions mentioned here are really good too, so i cannnot understand your problem...