DJI Help needs explaining

[Warnica]

I had a 3 week old P4P disconnect and take off. Everything was set, I'm a 4 year Phantom veteran. It did not return home when it disconnected from the RC & iPad as it was set to do.
I contacted DJI about the defect, sent them my flight log and they replied;

"Thanks for your patience.
For your claimed case, our analysis is as follows:
44.3958649 -79.5397362 last point
44.4014717 -79.5245464 home point
At flight time 03'57'', the aircraft was with a relative height of 90 m and a relative horizontal distance of 1,361 m. It was piloted under Sport mode with a horizontal speed of 16.7 m/s. The flight record suddenly cut off.
With the record ended without any sign of abnormality, we could not verify what happened afterwards. As such, we could not provide warranty service."

It disconnected and I have no video on my flightlog after that? Do they not know what DISCONNECT means?
I knew all those log figures 3 weeks ago so nothing new to me.
The point is, IT DISCONNECTED AND DID NOT RTH and they think that is normal?
When it disconnects, of course that's where the video ends.
So you can't verify after it disconnects, is that really new to DJI . That is the biggest crock I have ever heard in my life.
DJI needs to re-read what they just wrote and tell me how that is my fault and not DJI's

Does anyone have an idea how to handle this.
Thank you

 

[msinger]

Did you ever find it?

DJI needs to re-read what they just wrote and tell me how that is my fault and not DJI's

If you upload your TXT flight log here and post a link back here, I would be happy to take a look at it and let you know what I think happened.

 

[Warnica]

Thank you, I uploaded the txt file.
I just have a hard time believing a disconnect was my fault and that DJI expected my iPad to keep on recording after it disconnected.

 

[msinger]

Please post the link back here.

 

[Warnica]

To Msinger , Never found it as it kept on going after disconnect in the direction it was flying. I used a GPS locator and scoured 4 acres of open field where it showed a disconnect, with no luck. With the battery life remaining, it is possible it is a couple miles out in the lake or on the far shore.

 

[Warnica]

Flight log for the disconnect
Thank you

 

[Warnica]

That flight log at

Phantom Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

Hope someone can show how it's my fault or DJIs

 

[msinger]

It disconnected and I have no video on my flightlog after that? Do they not know what DISCONNECT means?

After the downlink drops, the video will stop recording on your mobile device (if you're caching it there) and no more data will be saved to the flight log on your mobile device. That does not mean the remote controller connection dropped at that point though. If you're confirming the remote controller also disconnected, then RTH was surely auto initiated 3 seconds after that disconnect.

Never found it as it kept on going after disconnect in the direction it was flying. I used a GPS locator and scoured 4 acres of open field where it showed a disconnect, with no luck. With the battery life remaining, it is possible it is a couple miles out in the lake or on the far shore.

The Phantom never continues on its path when the remote controller disconnects (unless you're flying waypoints). So, there is no chance it continued straight out into the water -- unless the remote controller was still connected and you continued to pilot it in that direction.

The point is, IT DISCONNECTED AND DID NOT RTH and they think that is normal?

It sounds like all they are saying is the flight log does not show anything unusual. In cases like that, they usually don't replace a Phantom for free.

It looks like the downlink dropped due to the slew of trees between you and your Phantom. Here's a shot that shows that:

At the end of your flight log, the data is showing your Phantom had about 485 seconds of flight time remaining and it would have taken about 211 seconds for it to return to the home point and land. That's assuming there were no strong winds at that time. Weather Underground is showing the max wind was about 10 MPH around that time, so wind shouldn't have been an issue.

If RTH was initiated right at the end of your flight log, your Phantom would have followed a path like this back to the home point:

Since it did not make it back to the home point, here are a few possible scenarios:

• The remote controller was still connected at the end of the flight log and your Phantom continued to fly until the battery reached the critically low level and it auto landed at its current location.
  
  
• Your remote controller was still connected at the end of the flight log, you descended to 40 meters (or below), RTH was initiated, your Phantom returned home at 40 meters (the RTH altitude), and it crashed into a tree.
  
  
• You had the "Remote Controller Signal Lost" setting set to "Landing" and your Phantom auto landed at its current location when the remote controller disconnected.
  
  
• You had the "Remote Controller Signal Lost" setting set to "Hover", the remote controller disconnected, your Phantom hovered until the battery reached the critically low level, and your Phantom auto landed at its current location.
  
  
• RTH initiated and your Phantom was not able to return home because it was detecting the sunlight as an obstacle.

At the yellow pins below, your downward sensors are detecting the ground is near. That's pretty odd -- even more so when it was not over top of the trees. While flying that high up in the air, the only thing that should cause something like that is sunlight reflecting off of something (since I doubt it could hit the bottom sensors directly).

There are really many possibilities here. Perhaps this information (along with what you know about your flight) will help narrow down this mystery.

 

[DanMan32]

If the AC was still receiving from the RC and mistakenly thought it disconnected, AC would (or should have) RTH on low battery before it got to critical and landed. That's happened to me once with my P3A. Now I manually RTH or raise altitude if I go blind. If I actually still have control, it will get my instructions and RC will resume receiving from the AC.

 

[msinger]

If the AC was still receiving from the RC and mistakenly thought it disconnected, AC would (or should have) RTH on low battery before it got to critical and landed

That will only happen if the "Smart Return-to-Home" setting is enabled.

 

[DanMan32]

True, but why risk turning that off?

 

[msinger]

Or a better question maybe -- did the OP turn it off?

 

[DanMan32]

Strange too VPS altitude started showing up with low readings while barometer altitude was quite high, as if an obstacle was encountered.

 

[Meta4]

Strange too VPS altitude started showing up with low readings while barometer altitude was quite high, as if an obstacle was encountered.

Occasional false VPS readings do happen, I sometimes get them out at sea when I am well above VPS altitude.

 

[Warnica]

After the downlink drops, the video will stop recording on your mobile device (if you're caching it there) and no more data will be saved to the flight log on your mobile device. That does not mean the remote controller connection dropped at that point though. If you're confirming the remote controller also disconnected, then RTH was surely auto initiated 3 seconds after that disconnect.


The Phantom never continues on its path when the remote controller disconnects (unless you're flying waypoints). So, there is no chance it continued straight out into the water -- unless the remote controller was still connected and you continued to pilot it in that direction.


It sounds like all they are saying is the flight log does not show anything unusual. In cases like that, they usually don't replace a Phantom for free.

It looks like the downlink dropped due to the slew of trees between you and your Phantom. Here's a shot that shows that:

View attachment 82077

At the end of your flight log, the data is showing your Phantom had about 485 seconds of flight time remaining and it would have taken about 211 seconds for it to return to the home point and land. That's assuming there were no strong winds at that time. Weather Underground is showing the max wind was about 10 MPH around that time, so wind shouldn't have been an issue.

If RTH was initiated right at the end of your flight log, your Phantom would have followed a path like this back to the home point:

View attachment 82078


Since it did not make it back to the home point, here are a few possible scenarios:

• The remote controller was still connected at the end of the flight log and your Phantom continued to fly until the battery reached the critically low level and it auto landed at its current location.
  
  
• Your remote controller was still connected at the end of the flight log, you descended to 40 meters (or below), RTH was initiated, your Phantom returned home at 40 meters (the RTH altitude), and it crashed into a tree.
  
  
• You had the "Remote Controller Signal Lost" setting set to "Landing" and your Phantom auto landed at its current location when the remote controller disconnected.
  
  
• You had the "Remote Controller Signal Lost" setting set to "Hover", the remote controller disconnected, your Phantom hovered until the battery reached the critically low level, and your Phantom auto landed at its current location.
  
  
• RTH initiated and your Phantom was not able to return home because it was detecting the sunlight as an obstacle.

At the yellow pins below, your downward sensors are detecting the ground is near. That's pretty odd -- even more so when it was not over top of the trees. While flying that high up in the air, the only thing that should cause something like that is sunlight reflecting off of something (since I doubt it could hit the bottom sensors directly).

View attachment 82079

View attachment 82080

There are really many possibilities here. Perhaps this information (along with what you know about your flight) will help narrow down this mystery.

Thank you everyone for your support.
When the RC disconnected I used the RTH button a few times and waited, no hands on the sticks.
When that didn't work, I turned the RC off and waited .
It should have RTH in seconds from that location but after 10 minutes nothing.
The tallest trees were about 27 metres so I set the RTH at 40 metres to be safe.
I was on a high point of land and the Phantom at 300 feet so don't believe the leafless trees were an issue as I have flown this exact course many times with my P3P with no problems.
It was a clear day with a 2 K-index, hardly a breeze and the sun was directly overhead so doubt reflection.
Those pictures show a lot of trees due to the foliage that time of year because to the time the picture was taken but not accurate to what it was when I flew. No leaves, very open and easy to spot with exception of a few evergreens.
We covered every inch of that 4 acres with not a trace.
My video is on YouTube at

, from that you can see there are no leaves.
From that video, I don't understand the 2 big jerks in the flight, like I had a spasm with the sticks. I was very smooth and slow flying, as it was at 37 mph and didn't want a jerky video so don't know what those 2 movements were about.
RC was set to return home, not land.
I don't understand why VPS Altitude was 14.4 feet when it was at 295.9 feet with the sun above and nothing to reflect onto it.
Once again, Thank You for giving me some ideas.
Bill

 

[Warnica]

In looking at that flight log and comparing it to my previous successful and longer flight (7644.9 ft) over the same area and it too had irregular numbers, IMU of 200 feet and VPS between 0 and 23 feet while at 200 feet elevation. Is this normal as I see it in my good flight and my missing drone flight logs?
It to had many "GPS Position NoMatch" at over 5000 feet distance.
Does this look normal or is there something else going on?
Thank you

 

[Warnica]

Well today, after 5.5 hours and over 5 mile of searching , I found my P4P. My 72 year old body and 10 year old artificial hip took a beating today because of DJI's screw up.
I took previous advice that it would be between the point of disconnect and the RTH set point. But I kept on going in the same direction beyond the point of disconnect and found the drone had crashed into a tree that couldn't have been higher than 50 feet (when RTH was set at 140 feet) . Battery dead, shell broken but seems to work other then looks like a train wreak. With a new battery it looks like it's ok.
But from the attached YouTube video, on disconnect, why did it stop, not rotate to home point, but slowly drifts away in the opposite direction and with a decreasing altitude till it hit a 50 foot tree. I did not control this drift but had a planned RTH that didn't happen.
I can't upload the video to this site as it's too large so put it on YouTube at:

So if it's set to RTH on disconnect, but it stops and drifts sideways AWAY from Home Point, what is going on? And why is it descending?
Any input is greatly appreciated.
Thank you
Bill

 

[DanMan32]

Now that you've recovered the bird, you can analyze the DAT file on it for that flight. There's a PC utility to analyze it. In my case it showed no RC disconnect when the app log did show it, where it returned not because of disconnect but rather low battery.

 

[Warnica]

Battery at 66% at that point of disconnect and did not respond to RTH. It looks like it stopped for a couple seconds and then drifted away and descended while I was pushing RTH and crashed very quickly with in a few seconds after,
instead of the set failsafe RTH 40 metres. Weird.

 

[Deleted member 62848]

I had a 3 week old P4P disconnect and take off. Everything was set, I'm a 4 year Phantom veteran. It did not return home when it disconnected from the RC & iPad as it was set to do.
I contacted DJI about the defect, sent them my flight log and they replied;

"Thanks for your patience.
For your claimed case, our analysis is as follows:
44.3958649 -79.5397362 last point
44.4014717 -79.5245464 home point
At flight time 03'57'', the aircraft was with a relative height of 90 m and a relative horizontal distance of 1,361 m. It was piloted under Sport mode with a horizontal speed of 16.7 m/s. The flight record suddenly cut off.
With the record ended without any sign of abnormality, we could not verify what happened afterwards. As such, we could not provide warranty service."

It disconnected and I have no video on my flightlog after that? Do they not know what DISCONNECT means?
I knew all those log figures 3 weeks ago so nothing new to me.
The point is, IT DISCONNECTED AND DID NOT RTH and they think that is normal?
When it disconnects, of course that's where the video ends.
So you can't verify after it disconnects, is that really new to DJI . That is the biggest crock I have ever heard in my life.
DJI needs to re-read what they just wrote and tell me how that is my fault and not DJI's

Does anyone have an idea how to handle this.
Thank you

HI that sucks ,,,just idea does p4p have the find my drone options on home page from new update,,,,,,best of luck,,,