Home point

Richdwarren · Oct 9, 2019

Which setting should be used on an Autel Evo for Home Point.
Me or Aircraft?

Richdwarren · Oct 9, 2019

Ansia · Oct 9, 2019

Aircraft. The Me option is when you have moved from your original Home Point and wish your drone to return to your current location.

Trox · Oct 9, 2019

Richdwarren said:
Which setting should be used on an Autel Evo for Home Point.
Me or Aircraft?

Welcome aboard the forums.

You have brought up a very good question that others probably have wondered about too. So its good to clarify here just exactly how that "Change Home" feature in Explorer Settings works.

By default, once the drone has locked on to the satellites in GPS Mode, the drone automatically sets that take off location to the Home Point as soon as its airborne. When initiating a Go Home command or you reach low battery level that triggers a fail safe Return To Home the drone will fly back to that starting point.

Explorer > Settings > General > HOME POINT > Options: Me or Aircraft
This "feature" is designed by the programmers to be used once you are flying. Based on your query it is not intended to be selected while your aircraft is still on the ground before flight. And as you can realize, there is no point to select Aircraft at this time since the aircraft has already established that spot for its default Home Point. And there is no reason to select ME before take off when you want the aircraft to return to your landing pad and not where the pilot is standing at take off. Logic prevails.

(Yeah, Spock and I go way back!)

During a Flight you can go to the Settings > General > Home Point. Selecting ME at that time will transmit your device (cell/tab) coordinates to the drone for its new Home Point....providing your cell or tablet has LOCATION turned on to acquire GPS coords from the satellites. If you don't have Location available on the device or its not turned on selecting ME would fail to send a new Home Point as the lat/lon is not available. Beware! I assume the drone would continue to use the default Take Off location as its Home Point under this circumstance as a logical safeguard. You would have to fly the drone visually back to your new location.

If cell/tablet Location is On then wherever you are standing/sitting/floating is the landing pad for the new Home Point. I've tested this a number of times and its quite accurate. As Ansia mentioned, its used when the pilot location has changed from walking, boating, biking, etc. and you no longer want the drone to go back to the original starting point.

During a Flight you can also select AIRCRAFT for the Home Point. Wherever the drone is when you make that selection will be the landing pad coordinates for the new Home Point. Be careful when using that selection and be sure the landing zone is clear of obstacles and people especially if the aircraft is at a distance. I feel selecting Aircraft (location) during flight is something that would be used very infrequently and most likely only when the drone is in close proximity to the pilot unless there was a dire emergency.

As added assurance I just ran all this past Alejandro at Autel to make sure the explanation and programmer's logic was correct.

Happy & Safe Flying!

Peter Goldwing · May 11, 2020

Ansia said:
Aircraft. The Me option is when you have moved from your original Home Point and wish your drone to return to your current location.

This is an old post . I had the same question. I see Trox has not been on this forum for awhile but many thanks for his explanation.
Actually I don't see a reason to make the aircraft's position a home point. Its either the take off location or ME if I move to a new location.

Jagerbomb52 · May 11, 2020

Peter Goldwing said:
I see Trox has not been on this forum for awhile but many thanks for his explanation.

Ya we have wondered what happened to Trox? Hope he is doing well and will check in here some time soon.

Ansia · May 11, 2020

We all miss Trox and his detailed explanations. Right @Tufargon?

Tufargon · May 11, 2020

His explanations were always in extreme detail. He always put a lot of work and effort into them. ?

Heckmaniac`s Drone · May 12, 2020

Peter Goldwing said:
This is an old post . I had the same question. I see Trox has not been on this forum for awhile but many thanks for his explanation.
Actually I don't see a reason to make the aircraft's position a home point. Its either the take off location or ME if I move to a new location.

Not that I've done this yet, but have considered flying from point A (my home) to point B (a friends home) - hover over his driveway and then change the homepoint to Aircraft location so it lands there (point B). If I tried landing there on my own without changing homepoint to aircraft, it would lose signal and RTH (point A), since the treeline and distance that low would cause signal loss. No real purpose in doing this, just fun trying new things to see if it works.

Peter Goldwing · May 13, 2020

Actually that crossed my mind too.
But would be much better if you could hand take the drone to a location and make that Home point. And you could have more then one. By default it would be where it took off from

Heckmaniac`s Drone · May 13, 2020

Peter Goldwing said:
Actually that crossed my mind too.
But would be much better if you could hand take the drone to a location and make that Home point. And you could have more then one. By default it would be where it took off from

Yeah - for me taking to 2nd location and setting home point is less interesting than resetting it on the fly. I want to see if I can pick a spot to land at an alternate location by pointing gimbal straight down at altitude, pic safe spot to land and reset homepoint to aircraft and see how close it lands to that mark.

Peter Goldwing · May 14, 2020

Heckmaniac`s Drone said:
Yeah - for me taking to 2nd location and setting home point is less interesting than resetting it on the fly. I want to see if I can pick a spot to land at an alternate location by pointing gimbal straight down at altitude, pic safe spot to land and reset homepoint to aircraft and see how close it lands to that mark.

That would be interesting .I have a friend less than a mile away. He has room for the drone to land. But Im not sure I can spot from 200 ft high an exact location . What im trying to say im not sure that spot is exactly vertically under the drone. If I lower it I lose FPV.
If I hit the fence is going to cost me.
So you go first.

Heckmaniac`s Drone · May 14, 2020

Peter Goldwing said:
That would be interesting .I have a friend less than a mile away. He has room for the drone to land. But Im not sure I can spot from 200 ft high an exact location . What im trying to say im not sure that spot is exactly vertically under the drone. If I lower it I lose FPV.
If I hit the fence is going to cost me.
So you go first.

Haha - sure np, plan on testing on a landing pad in the middle of a field several hundred ft away from takeoff, reset homepoint from 200 ft altitude over target and either hit land or maybe shut off controller. Will put center point grid on my display with gimbal pointed straight down at the center of landing pad. Maybe I'll record and share when I do. Any bets on hitting the target, or maybe who guesses closest to center. I'm going to guess within 6 ft of center (just a guess)...

Heckmaniac`s Drone · May 18, 2020

Peter Goldwing said:
That would be interesting .I have a friend less than a mile away. He has room for the drone to land. But Im not sure I can spot from 200 ft high an exact location . What im trying to say im not sure that spot is exactly vertically under the drone. If I lower it I lose FPV.
If I hit the fence is going to cost me.
So you go first.

Another test would be to create waypoint mission with last WP being your friends house (driveway/back yard, whatever). After takeoff select Aircraft to be new homepoint - and finish action for waypoint to be "Go Home". Wil it then try to land at that spot of the last waypoint (remote control signal or no signal)? Think I'll test that next - but probably won't work as I think it Mark's new hp to be where aircraft is at the time you change to aircraft - not where it is when mission ends - will test anyway.

Peter Goldwing · May 19, 2020

Heckmaniac`s Drone said:
Another test would be to create waypoint mission with last WP being your friends house (driveway/back yard, whatever). After takeoff select Aircraft to be new homepoint - and finish action for waypoint to be "Go Home". Wil it then try to land at that spot of the last waypoint (remote control signal or no signal)? Think I'll test that next - but probably won't work as I think it Mark's new hp to be where aircraft is at the time you change to aircraft - not where it is when mission ends - will test anyway.

I think, in the last case, the HP will be the location where the drone is at the time you select "aircraft" so wont work as you intend.

How do you get a center point grid ?

butch · May 19, 2020

Welcome bac Tronx, missed your insight..

Heckmaniac`s Drone · May 19, 2020

Peter Goldwing said:
I think, in the last case, the HP will be the location where the drone is at the time you select "aircraft" so wont work as you intend.

How do you get a center point grid ?

Go in through camera view then on the bottom far right you will see a symbol that looks like a camera with a wrench. Click that and then one of the options is (Center Point) - click that and several options to choose from (I chose cross).

Peter Goldwing · May 19, 2020

Peter Goldwing said:
I think, in the last case, the HP will be the location where the drone is at the time you select "aircraft" so wont work as you intend.

How do you get a center point grid ?

Peter Goldwing · May 19, 2020

Thanks. I learned something new.

Peter Goldwing · May 19, 2020

Heckmaniac`s Drone said:
Haha - sure np, plan on testing on a landing pad in the middle of a field several hundred ft away from takeoff, reset homepoint from 200 ft altitude over target and either hit land or maybe shut off controller. Will put center point grid on my display with gimbal pointed straight down at the center of landing pad. Maybe I'll record and share when I do. Any bets on hitting the target, or maybe who guesses closest to center. I'm going to guess within 6 ft of center (just a guess)...

Today I raised the drone to some 150 ft above landing pad.I adjusted the gimbal to 90 and put the crosshair on the pad. I pressed landing and it came about 5-6 ft away from landing pad. So yes its doable