Disconnected , but control still worked

[GyroBR]

Hi All,
I have logged about 6 hours of flight time. I decided to go out today and just do some usual stuff . It was about dusk, I waited for it to warm up, gps said good to go, even though my iPad is not wifi (but I have done this a bunch of time) I took off and started flying behind a tree. All was good, I was only about 150 feet up and about 200 feet away. I pushed the camera on to take some video, it froze for a second, then said disconnected with no picture. All data was showing nothing.. Thank God I was in sight, the controls worked, but still no screen picture and said disconnected.
The drone was a little less responsive as usual. I had to hold a little yawl to keep it straight and it was not windy. The hover was not holding alt more heading as good as usual, when I finally landed it, it took a few extra seconds to cut off.
What the heck happened, I tried to get it to reconnect by turning on and off the drone, and then controller. Still would not show connected, but again, I could still start the props and there was control by remote. After about 5 or 6 times It finally reconnected but was dark..
I don't want this to happen again.. I just don't know why it malfunctioned like that. That battery was 99% charged when Started and the flight, which was only like 5 minutes.

 

[tevek]

I'd suggest that the tree wiped out your signal and you were in atti mode as you still had control although no GPS to stabilise the drone. Normally when you have a disconnect message, after three seconds, RTH is initiated which would have been interesting given the trees. Returning back to you would only have the barometer working above 10 mtrs and VPS below that and without GPS, it would have moved around a bit coming back. Heading towards dusk may have played havoc with the VPS when you were landing depending on the surface you were trying to put it down on. As for reconnecting once landed, I had that once and turned everything off and started drone/RC/device and it fired up again. I fly at night sometimes but get right above the forest to avoid any potential obstructions and bring it down expecting a switch to atti mode due to the trees.

 

[RémyHeli]

If the problem started when video recording I could be an issue with the sdcard and the craft was busy with it. But tree are definitively killers, I have experienced this flying under pines.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

 

[Luke Skywalker]

Did you install a different memory card in your drone?


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

 

[Meta4]

I waited for it to warm up, gps said good to go, even though my iPad is not wifi (but I have done this a bunch of time)

Every iPad has wifi.
Perhaps your iPad is a non-cellular (therefore non-GPS) but that would not have any effect on anything unless you are trying to do follow-me flight or reset your homepoint to the current location of the iPad.

I took off and started flying behind a tree. All was good, I was only about 150 feet up and about 200 feet away. I pushed the camera on to take some video, it froze for a second, then said disconnected with no picture. All data was showing nothing.. Thank God I was in sight, the controls worked, but still no screen picture and said disconnected.

I don't want this to happen again.. I just don't know why it malfunctioned like that. That battery was 99% charged when Started and the flight, which was only like 5 minutes.

As you describe it, all that happened was that you flew behind a tree which blocked signal and you lost your downlink..
No mystery at all.
If you want to look further into the flight, go to https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/
Follow the instructions to upload your flight record.
That will provide a display of the recorded flight data and show you what happened.