Litchi almost made my P3 crash!!!! (Waypoints is dangerous!)

[Darwish]

Auto land? Battery was almost out. When the battery is under load, in the air powering the motors, the voltage drops. So an in flight battery reading is going to be lower than an on ground idle battery reading. It might have reached critical battery level and did the auto land failsafe. When you cut stop the motors, the voltage rises, that is probably why you saw a higher voltage reading than the failsafe voltage, which is 10% I think. Check the flight logs to be sure. Just because Litchi will let you plan out a mission for 10 miles , 20 or 100, does not mean your quad has the ability to do it. Plus you have to factor in wind etc.

How do i find an flight log ?


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[With The Birds]

How do i find an flight log ?


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They are in the litchi app flight logs folder on the device you were flying with.

 

[happydays]

I have to agree with all of the above points made. I have used Litchi extensively for many, many missions and I find it faultless. Perhaps it is time to change the title of this thread? Clearly. Litchi didn't make the P3 almost crash, and clearly, waypoints are not dangerous.

 

[paniza]

Sorry to hear about your bad experience.

As uncle Ben said once, with great power comes great responsibility. The Phantom and Litchi uses cutting edge technology. Both are not perfect.

Next time, if I may suggest, start with a small mission and make it bigger as you feel comfortable with missions.

Cheers,

 

[eliomartin]

I think you do not correctly programmed the gotohome, you should have left to land.

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[Dreamflight1]

This is why I have a Pro and not a standard, 55 Litchi Missions, no Prob

 

[DroneTone]

I noticed you also had about 30 waypoints defined in your mission.
At least on my Litchi missions, upon reaching a waypoint, the aircraft decelerates to a stop and then accelerates back to cruise speed.
This occurs at each waypoint, regardless if there is a turn or simply a straight line waypoint between two more distant waypoints.
So while a fast cruise speed and short mission time may have been set in the app flightplan, this is not the actual speed/time the aircraft should be expected to perform at. Stopping at each waypoint can add significantly to mission time and battery power required when many waypoints are planned.

 

[WetDog]

I trusted it to go with no problem

Your problem in a nutshell. Litchi or any other semi autonomous flight system isn't to be 'trusted'. You have a completely incorrect attitude of what you and the craft are capable of doing. Before you get into even more trouble (and you were very lucky) you need to carefully digest all of the info here AND Read The Fine Manual several times.

Then try some simple flights.

Geez.

 

[matti]

At least on my Litchi missions, upon reaching a waypoint, the aircraft decelerates to a stop and then accelerates back to cruise speed.

Have you set Litchi to take a picture at each waypoint?!

 

[Pharm]

I noticed you also had about 30 waypoints defined in your mission.
At least on my Litchi missions, upon reaching a waypoint, the aircraft decelerates to a stop and then accelerates back to cruise speed.
This occurs at each waypoint, regardless if there is a turn or simply a straight line waypoint between two more distant waypoints....

True. This does not occur however if the path mode is set to "curved turns". The downside to curved turns is that you cannot add an action at a waypoint (such as "take photo"). The reason it won't work is because the bird has to reach the waypoint before initiating an action. With "curved turns" the waypoint is never actually reached. The bird merely flies by the waypoint and so it won't initiate actions defined in the flight plan. In the screenshot posted by the OP, it appears that "straight lines" was selected in path mode, thereby causing a series of brief stops and starts at each waypoint and adding to the calculated mission time. The mission time is calculated based on the total distance traveled and the cruising speed. This would NOT take into account a multitude of waypoints stopping and starting the AC during the mission but being thoroughly familiar with both the AC and the software you're using could have prevented this "almost" unhappy ending.

 

[beegee]

With respect, I think you should have a greater understanding of your aircraft and the software you are using to fly. No offence intended


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[skipilot1]

Hey i had an very scary and unacceptable flying experience today! So i made this 6000 m route.

I trusted it to go with no problem cause i just watched a video who flew the P3 Pro 13 km(Total) He flew 6.5 Km out, and i had 6.8 km in total and he came back with 15%. The litchi app said that it will take 10 min in total. So i didnt worry. So i set it on its mission. I walked inside as my friend was inside. We walked out at '':27 as it started the mission at "":19. And expected it to come back at "":29. But i saw nothing and no buzzing. I simply thought it was a little bit late. But at "" :40 i was very scared and lost hope. It was 10 min to late!! Finally i heard buzzing and i saw the drone!!! I was so happy ! Just one problem... Litchi sucks when it comes to video range. So i still didnt see the battery life. But it stopped a totally other spot than the last waypoint. I tried to get it back as it was landing. My heart even started hurting and i stressed. When i moved my stick to right (The way to get it towards me) But it just was descending faster when i did that. I had lost orientation but i finally made it point at me. I made it fly to me, I saw that it had bad battery as both back and front LEDS was flashing red. I took over and flew it fast down myself. I hand catched it but the video signal still haven't come back !! When finally inside the video signal came and i had 10%!!! I trust the app as much as before, it almost made my 600$ Phantom 3 Standard crash.


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Your flight plan is a it on the odd side. At that speed, I don't know what you are trying to accomplish as far as good video. I have mission set around a lake that is 1300 meters and lasts 9 minutes whereas yours is over 6000. Mine will take less time as I will manually increase speed until I get to the more interesting video parts.

You might try some shorter missions closer to home where you have RC contact for most of the mission. That way you can always break it off. If you had used a safety margin of adding a few more mph to the wind speed and a few more minutes to Lithchi's time, you might have estimated that you had a 12 to 15 minute flight flying at full power the whole time so coming home with 10 per cent is probably about right.

 

[DarkDayz]

This is why I have a Pro and not a standard, 55 Litchi Missions, no Prob

This issue has nothing to do with the AC being a pro or standard. It has everything to do with not understanding the technology the pilot was using. Standard or pro his outcome would be the same.


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[HWCM]

I have to agree with all of the above points made. I have used Litchi extensively for many, many missions and I find it faultless. Perhaps it is time to change the title of this thread? Clearly. Litchi didn't make the P3 almost crash, and clearly, waypoints are not dangerous.

"Waypoints is dangerous" lol

 

[HWCM]

This issue has nothing to do with the AC being a pro or standard. It has everything to do with not understanding the technology the pilot was using. Standard or pro his outcome would be the same.


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I was just about to post the same thing. I don't know what his point was with his comment.

 

[hjklaassen]

If I'm flying an autonomous mission I would never consider pushing the Phantom to fly more than a mile away simply because I do not know the wind speed that far away, and wind will drain the battery real fast. Why not just fly shorter missions, and if you really need to get a video of a mission that long just combine the videos from a few missions. That way you eliminate the risk of the low battery and still get your video or photos.

I am a big believer in risk control, and it seems to me that the longer my flight is the higher my risk factor becomes. I enjoy flying my Phantom 3 Advanced and do not want to lose it because I have pushed the envelope further than the battery is capable of handling. It all boils down to common sense.......My two cents worth!

 

[hjklaassen]

OK, but Why did it try to land 40 meters away?!


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When the battery reaches a critical level, your Phantom will autoland. That's a built in safety feature that is for the aircraft and the pilot's protection. Just plan missions with the battery life always in mind and this will not be an issue. I have done many autonomous missions and never had a battery issue.

It is so easy to just depend on the Phantom and the software to do everything for me. However at the end of the day I still must accept responsibility for poor flight planning.

 

[Nick Goss]

Hey i had an very scary and unacceptable flying experience today! So i made this 6000 m route.

I trusted it to go with no problem cause i just watched a video who flew the P3 Pro 13 km(Total) He flew 6.5 Km out, and i had 6.8 km in total and he came back with 15%. The litchi app said that it will take 10 min in total. So i didnt worry. So i set it on its mission. I walked inside as my friend was inside. We walked out at '':27 as it started the mission at "":19. And expected it to come back at "":29. But i saw nothing and no buzzing. I simply thought it was a little bit late. But at "" :40 i was very scared and lost hope. It was 10 min to late!! Finally i heard buzzing and i saw the drone!!! I was so happy ! Just one problem... Litchi sucks when it comes to video range. So i still didnt see the battery life. But it stopped a totally other spot than the last waypoint. I tried to get it back as it was landing. My heart even started hurting and i stressed. When i moved my stick to right (The way to get it towards me) But it just was descending faster when i did that. I had lost orientation but i finally made it point at me. I made it fly to me, I saw that it had bad battery as both back and front LEDS was flashing red. I took over and flew it fast down myself. I hand catched it but the video signal still haven't come back !! When finally inside the video signal came and i had 10%!!! I trust the app as much as before, it almost made my 600$ Phantom 3 Standard crash.


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You set a phantom on a way point mission over a heavily populated area and then.... Went inside and didn't watch what was going on !!!! Your lucky you didn't injury a person, child or damage someone's property !! I swear DJI need to put out some kind of mandatory safety training module before letting people fly these things.

 

[Darwish]

You set a phantom on a way point mission over a heavily populated area and then.... Went inside and didn't watch what was going on !!!! Your lucky you didn't injury a person, child or damage someone's property !! I swear DJI need to put out some kind of mandatory safety training module before letting people fly these things.

I couldn't see the drone, and no video signal.


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