How is spark at return to home?

[robl45]

Considering this maybe for my son after seeing a phantom 3 fly yesterday. He currently has a hubsan 501s and while the return to home has never failed yet, it is not awe inspiring. It lands around where we take off which means it could be in a building or in a tree if one is nearby.

The person flying the phantom with us yesterday his took off from the little launch pad and landed on the little launchpad. Does this work about the same?

 

[John Harvey]

I have a small tale off / landing pad for my Spark and use it all the time. It always lands back on the Pad!!, (sometimes a little off the side),,

 

[NyJosh]

Yeah the spark uses both GPS and downward facing cameras (Visual Position Sensors) to scan the area where it takes off. This is why when you launch the Spark, it's good to ascend and let it sit for a minute in the air. It'll record its home point via GPS and will scan the takeoff area via VPS. When it RTH's, it'll use GPS to get to the right general area, then use image pattern matching to recognize where it took off from to land in roughly the same place.

It's awesome technology. The caveat is that if it takes off from an area with little visual differences (white snow, a large empty concrete area that's all the same color), it may not land as precisely because it doesn't have a visually unique pattern to lock onto. This is why some people use the landing pads. It gives the drone something unique to lock onto (and also prevents landing it in the dirt / tall grass, etc.).

 

[robl45]

So could this thing be launched from my backyard. Its like 10 x 10 pavers with some trees around, but it could launch straight up, would it be able to return to home and land in the same spot? Its not a no fly zone but my city is a little overzealous about these things. Its a gated community so if I fly in back of the house, hardly anyone would see me and I really doubt the cops are going to bother coming in the community. I tried to talk the kid into a helicopter instead since these are a pain to fly here, but he seems to want this so I'm trying to find the best option.

 

[msinger]

With the help of GPS and its downward sensors, the Spark is able to land close to the takeoff spot. Like all of its automated features, it's not foolproof. So, it would be best to also practice manual landings in case it's ever required.

 

[NyJosh]

So could this thing be launched from my backyard. Its like 10 x 10 pavers with some trees around, but it could launch straight up, would it be able to return to home and land in the same spot? Its not a no fly zone but my city is a little overzealous about these things. Its a gated community so if I fly in back of the house, hardly anyone would see me and I really doubt the cops are going to bother coming in the community. I tried to talk the kid into a helicopter instead since these are a pain to fly here, but he seems to want this so I'm trying to find the best option.

Yes, you could launch it there, although it'd be a bit more risky if it's a small enclosed area. Trees and the house could block GPS signal. I don't think it'd be outrageously risky to do it, but it'd be in the back of my mind.

More importantly though, in that situation what would you do with it? Considering the Spark has a range of over a mile and can easily climb hundreds of feet, it'd be pretty boring pretty fast to fly it around a 10x10 yard. If you do it for some low altitude practice, that'll work, but once you realize how good the drone is when it's high and free, you'll never want to fly it in such a constrained area.

I'd also suggest you don't launch it from your back yard, over the trees and plan on going out of visual sight. Probably the worst case scenario is doing that and losing connection and GPS on the drone at the same time. It'll be gone and you'll have no clue where it was even headed when it happened.

On the other hand, I love taking my kids to a big open field and letting them play while I fly high and far or orbit around recording my kids from an awesomely unique vantage point.

Sorry if any of this sounds preachy, but I want to help you avoid buying a Ferrari that you only plan to drive up and down the driveway.

 

[robl45]

No we would launch it there above the approximate 12 foot trees and fly around. We wouldn't have a lot of LOS although we could move over to the side of the house and see it. As for losing connection, shouldn't it return to home? Where I am in south Florida, every place pretty much is over buildings/roads etc so i'd say the chance of finding it if it took off are slim to none.

We've never had a problem with the hubsan drone not returning, but its not super precise so I don't trust my son flying it out in front or in back of the house. I wouldn't attempt it in back of the house either. Otherwise its been no issues. I would expect this to be the same only better?

 

[NyJosh]

It'll handle what you describe, but I personally wouldn't be comfortable flying it much when objects (trees / houses) between my controller and the drone.

Do you not have schools with sports fields in your area? In my area school fields are usually quite empty after school hours (unless there's a game of course).

 

[msinger]

I would expect this to be the same only better?

You shouldn't always expect it, but it should be able to land close to the takeoff spot in ideal conditions (as described in the "Precision Landing" section of the Spark manual). Here's a good example:

 

[NyJosh]

You shouldn't always expect it, but it should be able to land close to the takeoff spot in ideal conditions (as described in the "Precision Landing" section of the Spark manual). Here's a good example:

This is true, but I personally am cautious and would treat a connection loss RTH to be akin to an ejection seat in a fighter jet. I never ever want to have to use it because there's potential for it to go wrong, but yes - I'm happy it's there and have a good amount of confidence that it'll work.

 

[robl45]

It'll handle what you describe, but I personally wouldn't be comfortable flying it much when objects (trees / houses) between my controller and the drone.

Do you not have schools with sports fields in your area? In my area school fields are usually quite empty after school hours (unless there's a game of course).

Of course we do, but basically everything is off limits. There are like 2 official places you can fly which are the same for model helicopters.

 

[azswift]

Using default settings there are two scenarios for return to home.

Within 100 feet of take off point:
The drone will attempt to land in place.

Beyond 100 feet:
It will attempt to rise to 100 feet above take off point before returning to it's home point then descending from 100 feet.

If you are within 100 feet and return to home is triggered it could come down into a tree.

If you are beyond 100 feet it could rise into a tree or other obstacle as it prepares to return home.

 

[robl45]

I don't understand the 100 feet thing. why would it not just return to home if within 100 feet? I could understand 20 feet but 100 feet is not that close. So you fly from the beach and by mistake hit return to home when its 90 feet away and it lands in the ocean?

 

[Virtual1]

I don't understand the 100 feet thing. why would it not just return to home if within 100 feet? I could understand 20 feet but 100 feet is not that close. So you fly from the beach and by mistake hit return to home when its 90 feet away and it lands in the ocean?

Its statistically risky to try to rise up to RTH height when it's that close to the home point already. You're likely to be in your back yard or something since you're so close to it, and in that case any movement in a direction it can't "see" is a bad risk. There are no UP sensors on the Spark, and I've seen quite a few videos where people went up into a tree that was overhanging a clearing they were in. Trees overhang open areas and create hazards above your Spark that they can't detect.

They figure if it's that close to you and is headed straight your way then you are surely close enough to clearly see it and take over if its about to hit something. If it's doing an RTH 500m away then its reasonable to assume you're mainly using your FPV camera and have a much poorer understanding of your surroundings, so it's going to fly more cautiously by rising to RTH height. It's also anticipating more speed needed to get home (rather than the slow RTH when less than 100ft away) so it will need more time to stop if it sees an obstacle, so the higher the better to just plain not encounter any low, hard to see obstacles like small trees, dead branches, power lines, etc that are much more common at lower elevations.

 

[robl45]

I guess it depends where you fly from. This makes me nervous because this is very small. At 90 feet out if I can't figure out what direction its facing that could turn into a disaster. As I said, if you are flying over somewhere where it just can't land and want to hit return to home it shouldn't just land where it is.

 

[Hddeuce03]

I don't understand the 100 feet thing. why would it not just return to home if within 100 feet? I could understand 20 feet but 100 feet is not that close. So you fly from the beach and by mistake hit return to home when its 90 feet away and it lands in the ocean?

Not sure where azswift got the "Within 100 feet of take off point: The drone will attempt to land in place." from but that is not correct. It's in the manual. If within 20m it will land in place. 20m is 65.6 feet...so while he was off by about 35 feet, 65 feet is still pretty far away IMO. But I will say that if it does end up over water, it will recognize it's not a good place to land and hover in place...until battery runs out, but hopefully you will be able to manually take over and bring it back safely.

Kloo Gee made a nice video testing the various RTH modes/distances:

 

[Hddeuce03]

I guess it depends where you fly from. This makes me nervous because this is very small. At 90 feet out if I can't figure out what direction its facing that could turn into a disaster. As I said, if you are flying over somewhere where it just can't land and want to hit return to home it shouldn't just land where it is.

I hear you, but with experience it get's easier. If far out and you can't tell which way it's facing, you can look at your compass/map and see it's orientation. You can also look at the video and "see" which direction it's facing. Also, from my experience, it won't simply land in water, it will detect that water is not a safe place to land and hover in place...that is until the battery runs out.

 

[Pmpsklz]

I would also caution to double check your options in the DJI Go app. I had the RTH at current altitude checked and the drone flew into a stop sign.

 

[Spark 317]

I guess it stopped.

 

[Pmpsklz]

I guess it stopped.

Yep, pretty abruptly...