Advice on a particular RTH scenario

[Jeffrey Journey]

I have a question on a particular scenario regarding RTH...
There is a field close to where I work where I enjoy flying my spark during lunch time. There is a vacant basketball court around 1800 feet away next to a few vacant buildings. What I would like to do is to take off from my spot in the field (ensuring RTH is set) and then fly to the basketball court and land the spark in the center circle of the middle of the court stopping the rotors. I would then like to start the spark back up and fly back to my spot in the field. What I also wanted to do was to go into the DJI Go 4 app and set the RTH point to be my location and not the drone's current location on the basketball court before starting it back up. I have yet to do this but was experimenting with this scenario and playing with the RTH function and discovered that since my ipad mini4 is a wireless only device (no cellular) that it could not set the RTH to be where I am while the drone is away. I believe the message said something to the effect of a weak GPS signal which somewhat makes sense...more like no GPS signal.
Assuming I have described this in an understandable manner what would be the correct way to define the RTH to be my location while the drone is remotely away somewhere when my device essentially has no connectivity to anything other that the RC? My first thought was a caching of the map while I have wireless connectivity. Maybe the answer is that this can't be done...

Thanks for any advice and insight...Jeff

 

[Haggi]

Cannot answer your specific question, but you def. need a spotter over there.

I would try it out in an area with line of sight of 300-400 feet maybe.
Then try to mark homepoint on map on my location.

Good planning is everything, best of luck!

 

[Jeffrey Journey]

Thanks for the advice Haggi...

 

[Northwood Mediaworks]

Not to hijack this, but if I read correctly Jeff wants to use his original homepoint after making a landing somewhere else, I too would like to know if this is possible. Almost like a plan on a return trip, landing to take on fuel and drop off passengers....

 

[Jeffrey Journey]

Yes Robin...that is a good summation of this post. After thinking about it a little more what I am really wanting is for the RTH return point to be where I am and not where the drone is...I'll attempt to test this in a "controlled" environment...Thanks

 

[Koala Tails]

Isn’t there an option for setting the RTH to the controller instead of the aircraft? I’m not sure if this option will need to be reset after the aircraft has shutdown & been restarted. Having a weak GPS is nothing to do with the IPad, it’s the connection to the satellites. The proximity of vacant buildings mentioned are probably the cause of your lack of GPS

 

[Haggi]

Isn’t there an option for setting the RTH to the controller instead of the aircraft? I’m not sure if this option will need to be reset after the aircraft has shutdown & been restarted. Having a weak GPS is nothing to do with the IPad, it’s the connection to the satellites. The proximity of vacant buildings mentioned are probably the cause of your lack of GPS

Yeah, but I think the remote gets its position from connected device.
Remote has no internal gps.

 

[Koala Tails]

Yeah, but I think the remote gets its position from connected device.
Remote has no internal gps.

I have question for Jeff, Do you use an any app on your mini iPad that can pinpoint your location?
eg. I use an iPad Air, I have an app to check if I am in a restricted airspace (too close to an airport or helipad). If you do then your iPad is not the problem, it has GPS.
It could be a weak controller signal, caused by the distance plus any interference in the surroundings. Not a complete drop out & good enough to steer your spark.
How good is the live picture from the basketball court when you’re 1800 feet away?

 

[graywoulf]

I have question for Jeff, Do you use an any app on your mini iPad that can pinpoint your location? eg. I use an iPad Air, I have an app to check if I am in a restricted airspace (too close to an airport or helipad). If you do then your iPad is not the problem, it has GPS. It could be a weak controller signal, caused by the distance plus any interference in the surroundings. Not a complete drop out & good enough to steer your spark. How good is the live picture from the basketball court when you’re 1800 feet away?

If his iPad Mini 4 is not a cellular device then it does not have GPS.

 

[Jeffrey Journey]

Yes Koala...my ipad mini4 is not cellular so any connectivity to GPS satellites would have to be via the drone itself. I think what I need to do is to just start from scratch with the RTH configured to use my location (the RC) versus the drone and give that a whirl...
I appreciate all the feedback folks!

 

[JimboBeamish]

If his iPad Mini 4 is not a cellular device then it does not have GPS.

Vehicle GPS devices have GPS bit aren't cellular. GPS on your phone works in airplane mode. GPS is a one way signal that only requires a receiver (to triangulate position from multiple satellite signals). As long as your device has a WiFi connection to your drone, and its own onboard GPS, then the Drone should be able to use it as a dynamic RTH location through the standard settings, no ? In case of disconnect, the drone just returns to the last known position of your device ?

 

[graywoulf]

Yes Koala...my ipad mini4 is not cellular so any connectivity to GPS satellites would have to be via the drone itself. I think what I need to do is to just start from scratch with the RTH configured to use my location (the RC) versus the drone and give that a whirl... I appreciate all the feedback folks!

When I was first shopping for an iPad Mini 4, I of course was finding better deals on non cellular models without GPS so I did some research and found that there are GPS modules that will plug into an iPad Mini 4 which will add GPS to it. I am not sure if this will extend the GPS to your controller and Spark as I did not explore that option any further after I found a deal on a Mini 4 with cellular. If you are interested just Google "can i add gps to my ipad" and take it from there. Otherwise, if I were you, I would find a large parking lot and fly out a hundred feet or so then land it, shut it down and then restart it and do the low level take off then activate the RTH function to see if it returns to it's take off point. You might want to set your RTH height at about three meters temporarily as well. If it works, let us know here. And if it does work, don't forget to reset your RTH altitude. Good luck!

 

[beachcombing]

Vehicle GPS devices have GPS bit aren't cellular. GPS on your phone works in airplane mode. GPS is a one way signal that only requires a receiver (to triangulate position from multiple satellite signals). As long as your device has a WiFi connection to your drone, and its own onboard GPS, then the Drone should be able to use it as a dynamic RTH location through the standard settings, no ? In case of disconnect, the drone just returns to the last known position of your device ?

Yes, but the WiFi only iPad does NOT have an internal GPS chip. Thus, it cannot be used to set the RTH homepoint.

 

[JimboBeamish]

Yes, but the WiFi only iPad does NOT have an internal GPS chip. Thus, it cannot be used to set the RTH homepoint.

That would definitely be a barrier...

 

[Jeffrey Journey]

Well I have now learned that I cannot utilize the my current location (meaning the RC I am holding) as the RTH point. I tried this morning and received the message again stating that the GPS signal was weak. Should have stated something like no GPS signal as my ipad mini4 is wireless only. Looking back this should have been obvious to me but some times you just have to go thru the motions for it to sink in.

 

[cozzykim]

Well I have now learned that I cannot utilize the my current location (meaning the RC I am holding) as the RTH point. I tried this morning and received the message again stating that the GPS signal was weak. Should have stated something like no GPS signal as my ipad mini4 is wireless only. Looking back this should have been obvious to me but some times you just have to go thru the motions for it to sink in.

That's the weak GPS signal that the drone is receiving, it has nothing to do with the iPad Mini.

 

[beachcombing]

I have a question on a particular scenario regarding RTH...
There is a field close to where I work where I enjoy flying my spark during lunch time. There is a vacant basketball court around 1800 feet away next to a few vacant buildings. What I would like to do is to take off from my spot in the field (ensuring RTH is set) and then fly to the basketball court and land the spark in the center circle of the middle of the court stopping the rotors. I would then like to start the spark back up and fly back to my spot in the field. What I also wanted to do was to go into the DJI Go 4 app and set the RTH point to be my location and not the drone's current location on the basketball court before starting it back up. I have yet to do this but was experimenting with this scenario and playing with the RTH function and discovered that since my ipad mini4 is a wireless only device (no cellular) that it could not set the RTH to be where I am while the drone is away. I believe the message said something to the effect of a weak GPS signal which somewhat makes sense...more like no GPS signal.
Assuming I have described this in an understandable manner what would be the correct way to define the RTH to be my location while the drone is remotely away somewhere when my device essentially has no connectivity to anything other that the RC? My first thought was a caching of the map while I have wireless connectivity. Maybe the answer is that this can't be done...

Thanks for any advice and insight...Jeff

Why not just use your phone in this situation instead of you iPad?

 

[Sparky46]

Why not just use your phone in this situation instead of you iPad?

I have an iPad 2 that has no cellular. Although there is no GPS, mapping programs are able to determine my location from the wi-fi with an accuracy of about 200+/- feet according to the gps diagnostic app. When I am out and about, I can use my iPhone as a hotspot and apparently the device can determine my location from the wi-fi connection to the cell phone. "GPSdiagnostic" indicates the same wi-fi accuracy of 200+/- feet. This is why I use the OTG cable to connect my iPad to the RC. Leaves the wi-fi available on to connect to the cell phone for map data, etc. I also get the "weak GPS signal" message, maybe due to the reported accuracy of the location. Of course, if I use the cell phone instead of the iPad, it has a GPS but the screen is too tiny for my old eye balls.

 

[Jeffrey Journey]

Thanks for all the suggestions and feedback fellow drone enthusiast...Have a great Memorial Day weekend...