Is this "normal", if not is it worth contacting Autel?

[House Forasken]

My low battery warning (I have mine set at 30% remaining) came on. According to Autel Support smart flight features, " Failsafe will also be activated if you meet one of the following low battery conditions."
"Anytime your aircraft’s remaining battery level reaches 25% (Low Battery Warning), Failsafe will be activated and your aircraft will automatically return home. If you regain control during this process, the aircraft will automatically land onsite when the remaining battery reaches 15% (Critically Low Battery Warning). In this case, you may press the Pause Button to stop the aircraft landing and command it to fly away from the current location for a safe landing in case of an emergency.

I did my best to match up the screen recording with the flight log. Around the :35 second mark I am pressing down and forward the aircraft isn't unresponsive to my commands and remains unresponsive until around 1:09 mark. It also did not go up to the set 400' return to home height.

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This is my 2nd time with a low battery warning and I believe it did the same thing. Is this normal or user error? If not should I contact Autel? Thank you in advance!!!

 

[Ansia]

During the time your drone became unresponsive, you can observe that RTH initiated. Perhaps you hit RTH button in your controller by mistake? I know for a fact that you cancelled the RTH afterwards.

 

[parkgt]

It also did not go up to the set 400' return to home height.

Why did you have the height set to 400"?

 

[House Forasken]

During the time your drone became unresponsive, you can observe that RTH initiated. Perhaps you hit RTH button in your controller by mistake? I know for a fact that you cancelled the RTH afterwards.

View attachment 7723

I did cancel the RTH when I noticed it, which was a little while as you can tell from video. I don't believe I hit RTH button as I only had my fingers on the sticks trying to get it to respond. I was thinking the RTH was part of the fail safe because of the low battery warning?

 

[House Forasken]

Why did you have the height set to 400"?

Due to advise I've received from other drone users. Set the height well above other objects in the area.

 

[parkgt]

The more you have to climb and descend the more battery capacity used. In a low battery situation that could be a problem. Unless one is flying among tall buildings or very tall trees 400 feet seems excessive. I have rarely set mine above 120', but you know what you need to avoid.

 

[House Forasken]

The more you have to climb and descend the more battery capacity used. In a low battery situation that could be a problem. Unless one is flying among tall buildings or very tall trees 400 feet seems excessive. I have rarely set mine above 120', but you know what you need to avoid.

Thanks. I should probably make it a habit to change the RTH height based on my surroundings. I am more curious/concerned with the lack of response when I was giving input to the drone. I thought "regaining control during this process" would allow me to control the drone except when it is a critically low battery warning.

 

[sunflower]

RTH altitude defaults to 98 ft (or current altitude whichever is greater) when within horizontal 100 ft of Home Point.

 

[House Forasken]

RTH altitude defaults to 98 ft (or current altitude whichever is greater) when within horizontal 100 ft of Home Point.

It was a little over 400' away from the Home Point, so it should have gone up to my set altitude. I am mainly wondering if it's normal for the drone not to respond to commands while in a RTH or during the low battery warning I received.

 

[Jagerbomb52]

From what I remember if RTH is activated for any reason to regain control you need to hit pause which takes a few seconds.

 

[House Forasken]

From what I remember if RTH is activated for any reason to regain control you need to hit pause which takes a few seconds.

Oh! I thought that only applied to the critical battery warning. The manual isn't exactly clear on some details, lol.

For example here, when it says to point the nose down, but the photo shows it facing up...

 

[Jagerbomb52]

Well I really don't use RTH and you could be right. There still might be a pause before you are able to take full control with the sticks. If not in critical battery warning the sticks should cancel out RTH but like I said there still might be a slight delay which could seem like minutes when you are in a panic.

 

[Ansia]

I did cancel the RTH when I noticed it, which was a little while as you can tell from video. I don't believe I hit RTH button as I only had my fingers on the sticks trying to get it to respond. I was thinking the RTH was part of the fail safe because of the low battery warning?

Not quite. When you cancel RTH, you will be able to fly until 20 or 15% when RTH will be mandatory. So it's strange for me to see RTH start up when you clicked "No" on the popup.

 

[House Forasken]

Well I really don't use RTH and you could be right. There still might be a pause before you are able to take full control with the sticks. If not in critical battery warning the sticks should cancel out RTH but like I said there still might be a slight delay which could seem like minutes when you are in a panic.

Those ~30 seconds felt like an eternity and my heart sank wondering what was going on. I'll have to take it back to a "safe" place like that area and see what try to intentionally recreate it.

 

[House Forasken]

Not quite. When you cancel RTH, you will be able to fly until 20 or 15% when RTH will be mandatory. So it's strange for me to see RTH start up when you clicked "No" on the popup.

Since I've only flown my battery down that far one other time, I am not used to the pop up messages on the screen. I am sure I hit OK instead of cancel. Which is why the RTH pop up occured which I did cancel, but still couldn't move the drone with my inputs.
Maybe it does take it a few (30ish) seconds to adjust..if so, it's pretty scary when you don't have control over your precious and expensive drone lol

 

[sunflower]

Somebody should also test RTH altitude when the controller is turned off. Would require high altitude visual estimation after low altitude shut off.

 

[Tomaso]

Why did you have the height set to 400"?

400' is the lower threshold of needing a 107 license. Your RTH default is 98' and understandably you can go up to 399. 400' and above is a No-No without a license. The drone Police will start looking for you.