Still learning, but learning the hard way,  went out yesterday to fly from hill top 683.8 feet above sea level with my Home point updated Max Altitude set at 60 meters and Max distance set at 120 meters. my camera was not set up correctly and my screen was almost white so could see very little detail, during my flight I reached my Max distance at which point i decided to return to home using app screen button which i could hardly see, the drone did not seem to react and the drone looked to be heading in the wrong direction, I began to get worried as the drone was dissapering from sight, i then tried a return RTH using the remote control by this time when i looked for the Drone I could not see it at all, I then entered in to the menu screen and tried a return to controler by this time Iam making my way down the hill by this time i was thinking what i was going to tell the wife this is going to cost me. i think i might have reset the home point accidently by pin pointing  some where on the screen, i did manage to get the drone back by at some point taking back control and trying to fly the route back looking at the little map at bottom left of the tablet screen, after a sit down to catch my breath back I packed up and went home and uploaded my flight data to healthy drones at one point I was 2452ft = 747.3696meters away from my home point, HOW when my Max Distance was set at 120 meters = 393ft
My fight log uploaded to DJI

sorry should be in Phantom 4   not pro

Your problem was that at 10 minutes 0.4 seconds you set a new home point that was about 700m away.  That meant that you couldn't fly it towards you anymore because that would have meant going further beyond the max distance, and when you pressed RTH it set off towards the new home point.

Did you know that you set a new home point?

I think normally when this happens it is because your tablet/phone doesn't have GPS and is guessing a location based on the mobile signal, very inaccurately...

Nigel_ Posted at 2017-3-8 09:14
Your problem was that at 10 minutes 0.4 seconds you set a new home point that was about 700m away.  That meant that you couldn't fly it towards you anymore because that would have meant going further beyond the max distance, and when you pressed RTH it set off towards the new home point.

Did you know that you set a new home point?

Thanks for that nigel ,yes thats looks about right but Iam not sure how I managed to set a Home point that far out when my Max Distance was set at 120 mtrs. still a bit b{:4_154:}affled

bigal Posted at 2017-3-8 09:57
Thanks for that nigel ,yes thats looks about right but Iam not sure how I managed to set a Home point that far out when my Max Distance was set at 120 mtrs. still a bit baffled

The inaccurate location must have come from your phone/tablet.  Is the phone normally that far out? Does it have GPS?  

Or maybe they don't properly understand each others coordinates?  It is possible that one uses degrees and fractions of a degree while the other uses degrees and minutes...

I think it would be good if DJI disallowed setting a home point beyond the distance limit if the distance limit is enabled, that would mean that you couldn't be locked out from flying it back due to it being beyond the distance limit.

bigal Posted at 2017-3-8 09:57
Thanks for that nigel ,yes thats looks about right but Iam not sure how I managed to set a Home point that far out when my Max Distance was set at 120 mtrs. still a bit baffled

Your screen is to bright because ISO is set to high, set it to 100 until you get sorted with camera...

Nigel_ Posted at 2017-3-8 10:09
The inaccurate location must have come from your phone/tablet.  Is the phone normally that far out? Does it have GPS?  

Or maybe they don't properly understand each others coordinates?  It is possible that one uses degrees and fractions of a degree while the other uses degrees and minutes...

my tablets gps usually  spot on.

hallmark007 Posted at 2017-3-8 10:29
Your screen is to bright because ISO is set to high, set it to 100 until you get sorted with camera...

thanks hallmark007 ive sorted the camera a couple of settings were wrong ISO and shutter

bigal Posted at 2017-3-8 10:36
thanks hallmark007 ive sorted the camera a couple of settings were wrong ISO and shutter

No problem, glad you were able to retrieve your AC, sometimes we learn a lot more about this technology when things go wrong, keep watching the tutorials and reading the manual.

Good luck..

Thank you to hallmark007 and Nigel_  for not coming down on the guy for "not reading his manual" or for "flying irresponsibly". He came here for help and he got just that. That's why we're all here.

From what I have seen that Max Distance function has a much larger downside than an upside. Probably best to keep that off and monitor your aircraft.

Cabansail Posted at 2017-3-8 12:40
From what I have seen that Max Distance function has a much larger downside than an upside. Probably best to keep that off and monitor your aircraft.

Yes, it has caused some serious problems for a few people, but it is always the same problem with the home point not being at the take off point, or moving to another location.   The problem could be sorted by not allowing take off without first setting the home point to the take of point and not allowing the home point to be moved beyond the distance limit.

Hi bigal - I had to laugh while I was reading your post and I'm glad there was a happy ending to the story!
I'm a beginner just like you and I can totally sense what you went through :-)

The previous answers all makes sense to me.
While digging into the flight log in Google Earth I started wondering  though .

I put my findings in a map and I don't understand the whole thing. The flight path makes no sense to me.
BTW: Besides the initial Home Point Recording you updated the Home Point three times along the way.

See the maps below:
You updated the Home Point not far from your initial Home Point. You kept flying and triggered "Return Home".
The drone ascends but instead of returning it flies straight away 205 meters where a Max. Distance warning occurs.
The drone continues another 367 meters measured linear line.
At this point another Max. Distance warning comes in and you triggerd another Home Point Recording.

Drones are full of mystery - and I had my fun looking at this ;-)

theGrindLab.com Posted at 2017-3-8 12:21
Thank you to hallmark007 and Nigel_  for not coming down on the guy for "not reading his manual" or for "flying irresponsibly". He came here for help and he got just that. That's why we're all here.

reply from the Grindlab.com was not at all helpful  as i do read the manual and attempt to fly responsibly within  my line of sight, Iam on a learning curve and do try to take it one step at a time, my main failure in this case was not sorting out my camera prior to taking flight which i did not think it was going to be a problem as my intentions were to keep my Drone in my sight at all times. lesson learnt. thanks to all who have tried to help .

Eric13 Posted at 2017-3-8 15:07
Hi bigal - I had to laugh while I was reading your post and I'm glad there was a happy ending to the story!
I'm a beginner just like you and I can totally sense what you went through :-)

thanks Eric13 I can see I made a pigs ear of this flight I am thinking maybe I inadvertently activated the Fly to mode and that could be the reason the Drone flew away from me, the new updated home points were probably my attempts of set return to me on the controller.     

bigal Posted at 2017-3-9 02:13
reply from the Grindlab.com was not at all helpful  as i do read the manual and attempt to fly responsibly within  my line of sight, Iam on a learning curve and do try to take it one step at a time, my main failure in this case was not sorting out my camera prior to taking flight which i did not think it was going to be a problem as my intentions were to keep my Drone in my sight at all times. lesson learnt. thanks to all who have tried to help .

I don't think grindlab was saying you don't read your Manual, he was just pointing out, that a more constructive way to give help , is to try to point out what might have gone wrong in your situation, and not to use the usual mantra, go read the Manual.

I think he was actually saying the opposite of the way you took him up..

hallmark007 Posted at 2017-3-9 03:26
I don't think grindlab was saying you don't read your Manual, he was just pointing out, that a more constructive way to give help , is to try to point out what might have gone wrong in your situation, and not to use the usual mantra, go read the Manual.

I think he was actually saying the opposite of the way you took him up..

My apologies if this is the case.

hallmark007 Posted at 2017-3-9 03:26
I don't think grindlab was saying you don't read your Manual, he was just pointing out, that a more constructive way to give help , is to try to point out what might have gone wrong in your situation, and not to use the usual mantra, go read the Manual.

I think he was actually saying the opposite of the way you took him up..

Thanks, hallmark007! That is exactly what I was saying.

Apologies to theGrindlab.com picked you up wrong....

bigal Posted at 2017-3-9 07:38
Apologies to theGrindlab.com picked you up wrong....

Not a problem! I'm just glad you were able to get some help here. We have some good, knowledgeable people around, most of whom are willing to give you/me insight we might not otherwise have access to.

theGrindLab.com Posted at 2017-3-9 09:53
Not a problem! I'm just glad you were able to get some help here. We have some good, knowledgeable people around, most of whom are willing to give you/me insight we might not otherwise have access to.

thanks

Guys, just reding this thread....

I use a wifi ipad pro, so out in the field it has no access to gps, etc.......

Question is, is the only way that my P4 knows its home point position derived from the p4 itself?

What Im trying to say is, I assume a none cellular ipad thats not connected to wifi cannot confuse the issue as it has no gps reference?

"I assume a none cellular ipad thats not connected to wifi cannot confuse the issue as it has no gps reference?"

As far as I understand it makes no difference if your tablet has GPS or can/cannot retrieve it's position through some other device like Wifi, phone etc.
Position of RC (the RC has it's own GPS) and AC are what matters when you choose between or mess with the two home point options.

My guess in regards to bigals flight is that he set new home points along the way by choosing the AC's position as home point rather than where he (the RC) was.
I hope I get this all right. I'm very knew to this ;-)