I’ve noticed that Mission Planner doesn’t read the Home position. It is not mentioned anywhere in the Wiki Guide
My procedure, as read from the Wiki:
Turn on TX
Connect Battery
Wait 15 s
Press Connect in Mission Planner
Quadcopter is located on the map correctly on the Flight Data tab (but no Home waypoint (or house picture) which should be draggable in the Flight Data view)
Click on Flight Plan
Map opens in Global View seeing the whole planet (Why is this so? It is very time consuming and annoying especially when on the field. If it can be done on Flight Data, then it should be the same in Flight Plan. Please add this, shouldn’t be too complex because the procedure is already written for Flight Data page)
What it should do, is to place the view exactly where it read the quadcopter is positioned and at zoom (17th line on the right side from the bottom up like on Flight Data), and automatically place the Home Position waypoint at that exact spot so an operator can begin with clicking the waypoints on the map.
I think you misunderstand the meaning of Home position.
Home position for RTL is established at the time of arming if you have GPS lock.
Even if you establish one before hand by clicking on the map it is ignored and overwritten later at time of arming.
You can set a proposed one manually by clicking on the Lat or Long line in Flight Plan if planning a mission and saving it. But again it is a temporary placeholder and will be ignored and overwritten at time of arming.
Well, I think the logic here is not really thought out.
Home position has to get read when you connect the batteries when the number of satellites stabilizes and gets a good average of position. Quad has to remain disarmed during the planning process for safety reasons. So it means the Home/House Icon has to show before that and Mission Planner has to respond to that position even before arming. Arming is only that - armed and ready to fly. This means, all systems, all flightplans, all safety points, everything has been set up, and then just press the button to arm the motors and fly the mission.
It has to move you to the position on the map and it has to zoom in so you can start planning right away.
It really is a quick and easy fix for a seasoned programmer, and as a whole preparation workflow, it comes off much more professionally.
Sometimes people move their craft many yards after connecting the battery, one would not want the Home position established then.
I can find no downside and only upsides to it working exactly like it does and see nothing unprofessional about it.
I usually have a good idea of where I will be taking off from even when I plan from home and later travel 30 miles to fly. I can establish a temp home point easily enough if needed. Or when I get to a site and do my planning on a tablet I can set a rough “home” placeholder by putting a #1 waypoint above a proposed launch site. Easy enough to erase or use to get the craft above tree tops for travel to subsequent WPs.
No way I would want Home established other than at the time I actually arm.