How I lost my P3P. Interesting Find

Paul A Byers · Jan 21, 2017

Bear with me, this may take some time. However, you may find it interesting if you are planning on installing Itelite DBS02 or Maxxrange. So, on Christmas day, this is funny, I was teaching my next door neighbor how to fly his new P3P using my own so incase something happened I would lose mine and not his. I took off and never saw my bird again that had 18 hours on it with never an issue. Last known location was in a lake about 1,000 ft from my house. All the time I thought it was pilot error. Not the case. A little back history. I bought a second controller and added the DBS Mod to it. A range extender modification to the controller that would allow me interchange between two different antennas, DBS02 and Maxxrange. They are identical, only the Maxxrange is three times the size and hence gives about three times the range. Love them both! This allowed me to have a completely original stock setup and a second controller to use for long range. I had invested quite a bit of money in my P3P. Total of 5 batteries, second controller, the range modification kit and the two antennas. I decided to buy another P3P since I had so much money tied up in my P3P with all the extras. When my new P3P came in I immediately attempted to link to my modified second controller with the Maxxrange antenna on it which is what I was flying with on Christmas day when I lost my bird. I could not link to that controller, which really ticked me off because I had become accustomed to flying with long range controller as I had so much better range. After about an hour or so of getting frustrated trying to link to my long range controller I decided to see if I could link to my original controller from my original P3P. Guess what? I could. Then I linked back to the controller that came with my new one and once again I was able to link to it. I went back and forth between my two stock controllers with no problem, but could not link to my modified long range controller, the one I was flying with when I lost my first P3P. Bam, something happened inside my modified controller mid flight which caused me to have no control, all the time I thought it was pilot error. The error? Modifying my controller. A risk you take. Now, any advice from proponents of range extenders/controller modifiers? Because I have to admit, the thrill of flying farther away is fun and I will probably go there again.

Paul

Alan Russel · Jan 21, 2017

Yes flying long range is fun and gets the adrenaline going, it can be risky but if you do all modifications correctly and make sure your battery is in good condition you can achieve great results. ( always expect the unexpected though).

alokbhargava · Jan 21, 2017

If for any reason link with your modified RC was broken during the flight, AC should have initiated RTH. Were your RTH settings correct? And 1000' was not far away.

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Electro32 · Jan 21, 2017

alokbhargava said:
If for any reason link with your modified RC was broken during the flight, AC should have initiated RTH. Were your RTH settings correct? And 1000' was not far away.

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Absolutely right! The moment the remote stopped sending a signal to the bird, the drone should've start RTH, what probably happened is that the bird was set to "hover" if signal was lost, it probably hovered until critical battery alert and bird probably initiated forced landing which looks like happened right over a lake

Electro32 · Jan 21, 2017

Hey! Now use your neighbors phantom to fly over the area where you lost it and maybe will be able to see it from above

alokbhargava · Jan 21, 2017

Be careful, ghost lives there

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HueJorgan · Jan 21, 2017

Thanks for sharing

One of the reasons I personally wouldn't modify a standard setup

NoBiffBetter · Jan 22, 2017

What was your signal at before the "crash" or missing quad? was the signal good full bars? Did the app say "aircraft disconnected?" Some more Info would be nice.. How ever I do feel you on the long distance.. I have the maxxrange as well, my 2nd run ever with a maxxrange and battery mod I got 30,000 feet, today I pushed it to 40,000. But never made it home. I did however reconvene my bird today I landed it at a local school right in the bad all diamond so I knew right where it was.

I'm sorry for your loss. It may have never even been caused by the mod, this is the first I have heard of it.. Could have just been a bad or short circuit on the board inside the controller, you will never know, but I wouldn't say 100% it was the mods fault.. Maybe you nicked a wire somewhere when you closed everyrhing up and it finally shorted out.. Or again maybe it was just the controller itself failing as in dji motherboard failing or so on.

Good luck with your new bird! I hope you can get more hours on this one!

It's def a rush, I am totally addicted to long range and will prolly do it for ever. May need a few backup quads if your not carful lol

Also why did you want two controllers? So that you didn't have to switch the antenna back and forth when you didn't want the big panel on it? .. I just got a couple 5dbi antenna (comparable to stock) and thread those on when I just wanna fly around the naiborhood and not go 5-10 miles out lol.

Don't give up on the antenna mod, as this is very uncommon, I did mine myself but you can also send it in for 100$ to have them mod it for you, maybe they offer a warrantee idk. But I would check into it if I were you for the next one.

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