I have a Mini SE and have until now been using DJIFly.
One of the features of this is an RTH when the battery level is so low that it only has enough power to get to the home point even if just free flying as well as doing trick shots.
In the Litchi user guide under the aircraft section there is a ‘Smart RTH’ setting but that is NOT appearing on the app on my phone.
Does the Mini SE pick up its RTH behaviour from the settings given to it in the DJIFly app or am I missing something obvious? (Is that power vs range calculation done by the drone or the controller?)
The Screenshot does not have some options in it after Signal Loss Behaviour that are in the guide such as:-
Smart Return to Home: <<< Is this inherited from DJIFly??
Exit Waypoint Mission on Signal Loss
Collision Avoidance <<< I get that - Mini SE does not have collision avoidance
Disable Sideways Flight <<< as above
Active Obstacle Avoidance <<< as above
Advanced Pilot Assistance System (APAS) , Not in my drone
Like the DJI Fly app, Litchi needs the drone to be connected to the remote controller to get an accurate/relevant set of settings to be displayed, especially the settings that are stored in the drone itself, like RTH settings.
The “Smart RTH” in the Litchi user guide is an unfortunate naming of what DJI calls “Low Battery RTH”. There are three different RTH functions. They are described here:
This RTH behavior is stored in the drone. The calculations are done in the drone. This way, “Low Battery RTH” will still function when out of controller range.
Yordie was correct in stating that the drone must be turned on and connected to your device in order for Litchi to show the complete set of options. Without the drone connected, the Litchi app will only show a subset of available options. Some people do not realize this. That is why he wanted to make that clear.
I fully understand how RTH works in terms of what triggers that function.
What I don’t understand is why I am not seeing this missing questions.
My follow-up question must therefore be, with my drone switched on and connected and with my phone connected to the remote controller why am I not seeing all of the questions listed in the user guide?
Thanks @Yordie. In the original post you can see that I was guessing that some settings are not relevant to this drone…
I can see a setting for Signal Loss RTH which is case “1 Failsafe” in the How To Fly a Drone article shared further up this topic.
I could press the RTH button on the controller or on the app which is case "3 Smart RTH"in the article above but I haven’t tried that yet. I’m guessing that will do what it says it will.
The user guide describes a setting " Smart Return to Home: Enables/disables the Smart Return-To-Home (RTH) feature. When it is enabled, aircraft will request to go home when remaining battery is only enough for completing the go-home action."
This then (if I have this correct) is what @wesbarris has said is really “Low Battery RTH” and is a calculation done by the drone itself.
I can’t help wondering why there is “Smart Return to Home” setting if this is all automatic,
Please then can you confirm that even though I can neither enable or disable Low Battery RTH because that setting is not visible (i.e. not relevant?) that the drone will RTH when the battery only has sufficient to completing the go home action?
The low battery RTH calculations and activation/triggering is always active.
It can only be canceled when:
It is activated/triggered by the drone and the drone is within controllabe range.
All RTH functions are hard coded in the drone itself and can not be altered by either Litchi nor the DJI Fly app.
For the avoidance of doubt, my drone has been connected for all of these posts.
With regard to RTH, the first screenshot shows the DJIFly app setting …which you can only get to with a connected drone (note the garden wall in the background as evidence of a connected drone)
My original question was centred on why the set of settings above is different from the User Guide and whether RTH due to low battery would still work.
From the the posts above, it seems that the list of settings is a reduced set from the User Guide because the missing ones are not applicable to this drone.
RTH altitude and signal loss behaviour are the only RTH settings available (see screenshots) in this because of the type of drone.
We have gone round this subject a few times. I am happy that I now understand what is going on, that the Litchi App is correct… now to test it when we have weather that I can fly in.
Thanks everyone for bearing with me… got there in the end.
