18 months, 429 flights.... gone

[DrJoe]

Sad to report the loss of my phantom.

Had it out on a sunny, windless morning. Started it up when it had satellite lock (8) and flew around. Tested Home lock and it worked as usual. I went flying at 200 feet and within 500 feet of my location, line of sight. Had 45% battery left, and was hovering and taking photos. The last time I looked, it had 10 GPS satellites.

Suddenly, lost connection in the app on my iPhone 6. Started to bring the Phantom home by switching to "IOC Home lock", right stick back. But the Phantom started moving away. I switched to RTH, it kept moving in the same direction; and then I watched the Phantom continue away from me until I lost it in the tree line before I could try and regain control with ATTI.

Somehow, it must have reset its GPS home location, or lost GPS all together. GONE. I searched for an hour in the direction it went, but it had over 10 minutes of battery remaining. Wouldn't you know I had just removed my Flytrex Live to have it repaired, it had a bad cable attachment, so I was flying without a tracker. Dumb. I just hope and pray it didn't hurt anyone.

I suppose this is a good excuse to by a P3, but my heart just isn't in it right now.

 

[BigAl07]

Sorry to hear about this. Did you have your contact information on it?

Maybe.. just maybe you can find it on another trip or some honest person finds it.

 

[RoyVa]

If you were using the DJI app go to settings and find my Phantom. Should show the last location it had while on battery.

 

[BlackTracer]

First, sorry for the loss. Heartbreaking indeed. I wonder if it was facing you and lost GPS. That would explain it flying away from you with stick back in what you thought was HL but was actually ATTI. If it had in fact lost GPS and you then switched to RTH, it would try to land wherever it was rather than returning. This could fool you into thinking it was flying away when it was in fact slowly descending to land. Just guessing. FMP would still show its last location when it lost WiFi, not that it would help much at this point.

 

[DrJoe]

Sorry to hear about this. Did you have your contact information on it?

Maybe.. just maybe you can find it on another trip or some honest person finds it.

It did have my contact info... fingers crossed.

 

[DrJoe]

If you were using the DJI app go to settings and find my Phantom. Should show the last location it had while on battery.

Sadly, the DJI app shows last point it was in contact with the bird. Nothing there.

 

[DrJoe]

First, sorry for the loss. Heartbreaking indeed. I wonder if it was facing you and lost GPS. That would explain it flying away from you with stick back in what you thought was HL but was actually ATTI. If it had in fact lost GPS and you then switched to RTH, it would try to land wherever it was rather than returning. This could fool you into thinking it was flying away when it was in fact slowly descending to land. Just guessing. FMP would still show its last location when it lost WiFi, not that it would help much at this point.

Yeh man, thats what I figured. Couldn't find that thing anywhere around. I had taken the Flytrex off for servicing as I said, maybe the antenna connection shook loose, but it was in there pretty solid

 

[JKDSensei]

That blows. Sorry for ya.
I got one of those $35 TK109B GPS trackers. Never lift off w/o it. Cheap Ins.
Some say it makes no difference because it'll probably be destroyed.....but I don't care....I'd want the ashes back just because. Just me.

Until it gets returned, jump back on. P3 time!

 

[nynelyvz]

Yeah, sounds like you lost GPS and it went into Atti like mentioned above. Pull back on the right stick in that case it will travel in the opposite direction it is pointing. But we all know that. That's one reason I like Litchi. It will give me a verbal warning if I drop below 6 sats.
Hope you find it man.

 

[dirtybum]

I wrote it before, if you love flying, start saving for a backup bird! Its the only way to make this less painful is to crash or lose it knowing you'll be flying tomorrow! When you guys crash and start using your spare start saving for a another spare. I'm not a rich guy but with e-bay i've crashed or lost a couple and i'm telling ya you'll never look back. Every flight could be yer last. And Dr. Joe sir i commend you, you got yer $$'s worth outta that one

 

[BlackTracer]

But there is more than one mystery here.
Mystery 1: For the atti theory to hold true, one moment you had 10 sats, the next you went below 6? Whaaaaaat????? I know.....your GPS puck spontaneously disintegrated.
Mystery 2: You lost wifi connection (assuming ths is what you meant by lost connection) at the same instant you lose sats? Huh?????? Oh that's easy....your wifi module fried at that same moment.

There is a sceintific explanation for what happened We just may never know what it is.

 

[dirtybum]

Just for arguments sake, Dr joe, u said u just took off flytrex ? What type cable was you using? The old one where gps ties into it and its soldered on or the canbus adapter? You said the cable was worn out right, and was this the only time youve flyed it w-out flytrex but cable still installed

 

[MapMaker53]

For the atti theory to hold true, one moment you had 10 sats, the next you went below 6? Whaaaaaat????? I know.....your GPS puck spontaneously disintegrated.

Well. he could have very easily lost all sats suddenly if the GPS plug was loose and disengaged due to vibration. Many have reported loosely connected GPS plugs upon popping the top off -- which is why some mod the plug for a more secure fit. However, any hope of knowing what actually did happen will require recovering the Phantom -- and even then it would be tough.

 

[Mark The Droner]

Have you seen DBS Mod's theory on flyaways? It's on youtube. He believes that most flyaways are caused by incorrect home points. In other words, sometimes the GPS doesn't locate us (or the Phantom) correctly. Sometimes it's off by 100 ft, 200 ft, 400 ft, or fourteen miles. It's rare but it happens. So you were juicing up your Phantom, it records the home point at some place three miles away or half mile away or whatever, but you don't know it. You think everything is fine. So you go to fly. There's eventually a problem. And when it goes to RTH, off it flies to its original recorded home point which is in the next county.

This makes sense. Especially when you consider that in Naza M mode, the Phantom will record its home point before it has its six satelites needed to fly. I think it records its home point when it has four satellites, since four satelites are all that is needed for a car's GPS.

Maybe I'm just paranoid or over-cautious, but ever since seeing his vid, I launch, hover immediately, do a dynamic home point setting as I'm looking at my GPS location on the FPV screen. And then fly.

Sorry for your loss.

 

[MapMaker53]

Yep. I always set the home point manually once I have enough satellites. I never rely on the Phantom setting the correct home point upon start up. It does seem to occur a bit to early. Okay as a backup if for some reason you forget to set it, but I don't think it is very reliable.

 

[lalvar40]

I always set the home point manually

Pls, how do you set up the home point manually in PV2+V3?

 

[Mark The Droner]

Pls, how do you set up the home point manually in PV2+V3?

Doesn't the PV2+V3 have dynamic home point capability? I confess I have a Vision so I'm not sure. I assume it does. If so, enable it from the settings in the app. You only have to do it once.

So you go to fly. Place phantom on the ground ready to launch. Turn the remote on. Turn the Phantom on, turn the extender on, turn the display on. Watch.

The Phantom will eventually flash green very quickly. It will eventually do it twice. This indicates that it knows what direction it is pointing and it knows its home point.

Pick up the phantom. Walk 20 feet away. Zig zag a little. The Phantom will revalue its GPS location each step you take allowing it a much better chance for GPS location accuracy.

Return to your launch point. Place phantom on the ground just as you had it before. Rapidly move the S2 switch all the way down and all the way up six times or more. You should see rapid flashing green lights indicating a new home point. If it doesn't take, try it again until it takes.

Now you have a much smaller chance of an incorrectly recorded home point location.

 

[sdtag]

I use Ultimate flight and Litchi.
In UF you can drag the HP on a map with your finger and drop it where you want to set it. I ALWAYS do this especially if I am flying somewhere new. The last tine I flew at my house the HP was about 100 feet off and I moved it, and it kept trying to reset itself to that spot 100 feet away. After 2 or 3 times it finally stuck.Then I flew. After it got in the air my sat count went up and everything was fine.

 

[BlackTracer]

All, this guy tested his home point using HL before he flew away for his mission. He had a good home point. This is common practice for all flyers in the know about how to test for your home point.

I forgot all about the GPS plug problem MapMaker. Good call. I wonder if Joe will chime in and tell us if he had that connection reinforced.

 

[LuvMyTJ]

I use the Flytrex Core on my P2 and I used tape or a drop of hot melt glue at the GPS cable connection since they are not the clip-lock style and I am paranoid they will separate at some inopportune point.