When I flew my drone for the first time everything was working as it should, however I took it up today and the " Return to home button" did not work. Any ideas what I did wrong.
Several things come to mind…
The first is what was the Satellite count, if the satellite signal is weak the drone will not attempt to RTH.
Then, in your excitement (as a newbie…) even wait long enough for the drone to acquire enough satellites to establish a GPS position and did the Controller report that it had registerd a Home Point?
With the Drone being new, did you ensure that the Compass was properly calibrated?
Were you flying in an area where there are GeoZones controlling flight?
Finally, I experienced this when I tried the RTH the first time in my back yard (as a newbie) the drone was hovering barely 30 feet away from the original take off spot, and I received an error message that it was “too close” (I think…) and I just accepted this as a paradigm of the system… So, how far were you from the spot that you expected the drone to return to?
I am attaching a second posting to your original question and hope that provides you some more information as a Newbie to the Mini 2…
Good Luck.
As I wrote in the previous posting, I hope this information helps you in your journey to becoming a Happy Mini 2 Drone Flyer.
I too am a Mini 2 Flyer and I know the excitement of flight. So, if I may offer some advice.
Do not let the excitement of the moment get the best of you. When you are going out to fly, do it slowly and deliberately. Get used to a set procedure and even practice it.
There are so many things I could write but these are the highlights that I feel need mentioning.
Plug in your phone/tablet into your controller; turn on the Controller and DJI Fly App (if it does not start on its own…). On the Drone, open the front legs, then open the back legs, then remove the Gimbal Cover.
The Gimbal is the most delicate item on the Drone and banging or bumping can damage it. I also fastened a short “Remove Before Flight” ribbon to the cover so it’s more noticeable and I do not forget to remove it…
Turn on the drone and watch it come to “life.” Watching the Gimbal go through its self-check is almost like watching a kitten or puppy opening its eyes for the first time…
Place the drone down (preferably on a Landing Pad) while it finishes its self-test (collecting satellites, etc…).
Check your battery status (Phone, Drone, and Controller), check the Signal Strength, by now the Controller should have reported it updated the Home Point.
Lift off, 4-5 feet (1-1/2 meters) or so, hover a bit, check the controls (move the drone a bit forward, back, left, right, yaw left and right). By now, your Controller will probably report again, Home point Updated.
If you go out in a rush and race thru your start up and take off before the drone has finished it prep, it may update its Home Point over that pond or that old tree you are flying over and in your excitement, you’ll fly the drone long past it Low Battery point and when it engages Return to Home and lands in the pond or in a tree; it will be all on you…
Now go have fun, learn to fly the drone by sight before you try to fly it out a distance depending on the video feed, FPV.
I would also advise you to use YouTube and watch a lot of the Videos on flying and setting up the Mini 2. When it is too dark, too cold, or too wet, you can “fly it vicariously” through YouTube. Also watch some of the Blooper Drone Videos and learn how not to fly your “New Baby.”
Below is the link to all of the downloads offered by DJI for the Mini 2. You will also find the 75-page Mini 2 User’s Manual, in case your Mini did not come with one. The User Manuals are published in different languages.
Happy Droning
2 Likes
As a follow-Up to my other postings, and in case others have this issue, I am posting again to this topic. I took my Mini 2 out and played with the Return to Home (RTH) and I found out some stuff not in the user manual.
I flew the Mini 2 out for a 100 feet or so and tried all three RTH protocols. User press the RTH Button, Loss of Signal (turned off Controller), and ran the battery down, and all three worked as specified.
Now, I remember when I flew the Mini in my back yard the first time and I took off from the Deck and flew out 30 or 40 feet and tried the RTH and “something” flashed on the screen but I did not catch it as I was also trying to keep my eyes on the Mini. I tried it again and I caught the message, “RTH Cancelled”, but in the excitement of my first flight, I did not give it much thought. The Mini did not RTH…
So, now that I’ve had the Mini 2 for a while and I’ve settled down a bit, I decided to try some “close-up” RTHs (under 20-meters from HP) and I caught the message this time and recorded it on my Tablet in a screen shot… The FLY App will not engage the RTH routine if the Drone is within 20-meters of its Home Point.
I also tried running the battery down and it again would not engage RTH. And I also turned off the FLY App and pressed the RTH on the Radio Controller, and I even turned off the Controller, and as before, it just hovered there.
In the first Screen shot, you can see the message “RTH is unavailable within 20-meters of home point”
A point to mention, the warning did not come up every time I pressed the RTH button, it was just like I had done nothing… But when I pressed it a second time, a message came up on the second push, “RTH Cancelled” so it knew I pressed the RTH the first time, but the App sent no warning…
In the second Screen Shot, you can see the same message and the Low Battery Warning and it hovered until it went into a forced landing.
So, be aware of this limitation if you are pushing the boundaries, such as flying FPV and you cannot actually see the drone behind some obstacle (building, tree, etc…) and you want it to RTH or its battery is low and it wants to RTH, it ain’t gonna happen…
