Return to Home Feature DELETED! / DJI Mini 4 Pro VS Mini 2 Test

Has DJI really DELETED our favorite Return to Home feature? You may not like how this plays out so stick around to see what's going on.

There we were, minding our own business, when suddenly we saw a comment from G Rossi 46 saying DJI has deleted one of my favorite Return to Home features. His comment said when the DJI Mini 4 Pro's Return to Home flight is activated, the pilot no longer has control of the yaw or the height controls. Immediately I knew this was something we needed to test with both the DJI Mini 4 Pro and the DJI Mini 2 drones.

Today we went out with both of our Mini 2 drones (Jack and Rose) along with our DJI Mini 4 Pro (Dwight) to test this out and see if our fear was true. We pitted all 3 drones against each other to see which one (if any) still had this special return to home feature and which one(s) lost the control. Stick around to see what happens. Again, I say you may not like these results.

As always we want to thank everyone for watching and for taking the time to comment. We always enjoy reading what you have to say and really appreciate your input, suggestions and test ideas.

We hope you all have a great week and God bless!

Kevin and Kristi

#returntohomefeature
#djimini4pro
#djimini2

[grossi]

Great video buddy and thanks for the mention 😊. I have the rc-n2 and the results are the same 😔

[oldmanronerickson]

Buddy, it's always fun to see you in the morning. Have a great day buddy. 😊

[dougcooper]

Excellent test comparison video, and excellent verse. Have a wonderful, peaceful, and blessed week Kevin and Kristi. Thank you.

[TB_Production_aka_TB_]

Cool test. I love it, when all 3 synes are ouy for comparison 👍🏻 And of course, I love it the most, when the Mini 2 performs best 😎😉
Thanks for letting Martha's good old voice come through 🗣️🎶😉

[diggersdentysonu.k.m.d]

Brilliant job thanks for tacking us along with ya iam stuck in the rain is bad as 👍 from your brother tezza 😊😊😊

[shaunthedrone]

Interesting test Kev and good to see the Mini 2 is still a great little drone even now - many thanks for sharing the info

[TheDroneRanger]

At the 5:30 point of the video you commented on how mini 4 has that home point feature which all the other drone should have and I also wish my mini 2 and 3 had that feature as well. Thanks for sharing another great video.

[PeteCattell]

Just a note on the precision landing for the Mini 4. The DJI manual advises that the drone is taken straight up to 7m high before doing anything else, to give the drone a good view of the landing location. They say it improves the accuracy of the precision landing feature.

[JMprodquad]

Hey Kevin, Near the end of your video, I was thinking the same that the inability to control the mini 4 was a result of the RTH settings being set to Optimal RTH. I’m glad you came back and tested that theory as well. I was very surprised that you still couldn’t. Great video…
Keep on doing what you do… thanks

[Drone.vision]

Alright brother! Haha I thought the clicking was the start to the top gun movie lol 😂, brilliant entertaining tests as usual Kev, Jack and Rose stole the show! You could be right about the R/C mate, be interesting to see if it is that? I love the homepoint location indicator too, I’m with you that it should be on all their drones! Thanks for the video, keep them coming! Take care for now 👍

[dgibbsfl]

I think it is a matter of not being able to have cake and eat it too. You could always turn off the AR but you can't have both.

I am impressed once again with your choice for video title construct. Return to Home Feature DELETED! Very catchy as well as very ambiguous. Of course the RTH feature has not been deleted but your title sure attracts attention and you have to click on and watch the video to understand the parody. It is a unique form of click bait and you should get credit for originality.

[ronaldwilson]

Just got my Air 3 Kevin and I did see that the Air works like your Mini 4 Pro. The gimble moves on RTH but nothing else does. I’m loving this Air 3 and I’m on vacation next week and in between the honey do list I’m going to fly as much as I can. Keep up your great work.

[michidel]

Thanks for the video.I like the way you make the videos. Have you consider that the issue could be related with OcuSync 4 vs 3? Both Mini's are same network while M4 is not.

[fredmunson]

Hey Kevin, I did a test to see how important it is to do a compass calibration before flying. I did two flights without doing a compass calibration and two flights after doing a compass calibration. Flight out around 900 feet each test and used RTH each time. Without a compass calibration the drone was around 4 to 6 feet from the landing pad. With a compass calibration the drone (Mavic Air 2) was spot on. Have you tried this? God Bless you and Kristie.

[gama]

Excellent tests Kev! I noticed that about no controls on the Mini 4 while in RTH mode also, which is very disappointing. I hope DJI changes that in a future update. At least we still have gimbal control. BTW, I forgot I had Faith set on Optimal RTH. That's why she didn't go up to the preset RTH altitude. Even though I can't control her with the sticks while in RTH, I love the way she finds her way home weaving through the woods. I really appreciate your tests, Kev. They save me from having to do them myself. Koodos!

[skiphorni]

OK. I am wondering what would happen if you turn off the AR effects? I have an Air 3 that I have not tried this on yet. Hope to do so soon.

[pdtech]

Good info!
This is exaxtly why I don't uodate unless there is a new feature I need or a bug in the firnware!

Quite often DJI remove features that might be useful to some, or introduce new bugs with updates.

My mantra is, if it ain't broke, don't fix it!😊

[jjsliftedhorizons]

Great test my friend but I can explain the reason behind the mini 4 pro limiting what you can do with the return to home. It's all about the AR Return to home and the drone needs to follow that path. If you were going to change it with the yaw or the altitude it would alter the pre determined path Dwight already calculated. Hope that solves the mystery of the drone, as far as the audio that's a mystery that could be a number of different reasons but it may be electrical interference.

[DirtyBird]

The reason for the different behavior has to do with Obstacle Avoidance. Drones without OA are free to yaw about during RTH. Drones with OA cannot. The reason is the OA sensors obviously need to face forward in order to detect obstacles, hence no yawing. This makes perfect sense for drones that only offer forward or forward/rear OA like the Mini 3 Pro. More detail below...

Another super annoying change to RTH is the ability to abort the climb to RTH altitude by bumping the down throttle. You used to be able to set the altitude high, then easily abort the full climb when not needed. This no longer works. Now if you hold down it aborts RTH completely, inexplicably altering a practice that has been in effect for many years.

To dive deeper into the OA/yaw issue, with the older Go4 flight program, users could disable OA both during flight and, with a separate toggle, during RTH. With OA disabled during RTH, drones like the Mavic Pro, Mavic 2, & Phantom 4 could yaw about during RTH like their non-OA siblings. Unfortunately Fly offers no means to disable OA during RTH. Even when OA is set to off, it kicks in automatically during RTH, preventing OA-enabled birds that use the Fly app from yawing about during RTH.

What makes no sense is the latest generation of birds like the Mavic 3, Air 3, & Mini 4 Pro, offer 360° obstacle avoidance. There really is no logical reason that these models should not be permitted to yaw about during RTH. In a similarly illogical move, these models also disable OA when flown with the Goggles 2/Integra with Head Tracking enabled. Again this makes no sense since these models provide full 360° OA.

BTW, if you touch the sticks during the landing phase of RTH it aborts Precision Landing.

[danvanderknaap]

I bought a Mini 4 Pro a few weeks ago. On my first flight, I got a low battery warning and a RTH in 10 seconds notification. It flew directly to the biggest tree in the park on it's way and landed in it. I saw it, and tried to correct it's course but of course was locked out of the controls....all I could do was watch it land 50' plus up in the tree. It was a gentle landing and didn't even nick a prop, but cost me $$$ to hire a bucket truck to retrieve it... can't say I was too impressed.