Flying tonight, after 10 minutes, I lost signal, return to home button was greyed out. Recovered flight log via the DJI Go 4 app and uploaded here. Checked end point on the flight map, found no Phantom around area. I tried to upload the CSV file to healthy drones but it failed. Hope someone can help and sorry if i'm missing important details.
Lost P4 Pro
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I did press that, but not at first, I was busy panicking and running frantically towards the flight area to regain signal. Does the manual RTH button on the RC usually work when the app one fails?
Meta4
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If you have a connection between the Phantom and controller it should.
Have you used RTH before to know how to press the button and how to know it's working?
I don't think i've ever used the RTH button on the remote before tonight, just the on screen version in the app.
Meta4
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Everyone should practice with RTH to know how it works, how to activate it and how to cancel it.
But it wouldn't have made any difference in this situation.
This picture explains why your flight record just ends ... like your control signal did.
How high is the I Bank building?
It looks about 25 storeys.
Three seconds after losing signal, your Phantom would have initiated failsafe RTH and attempted to go straight home.
It was at 274 feet and may still be up on the roof?
Thanks for the detailed explanation, I appreciate it. We went back and had another extenstive look, no sign of the drone. Deciding whether to ask the building owners to check the roof, but risk them reporting me, or leave it on the roof. It's rained very hard since flying and is probably ruined.
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It would depend on WHY the app RTH failed. If it was due to loss of contact then the button wouldn't work either. Once you've lost contact you can't manually initiate RTH because, well, you have no contact. At that point you must rely on your bird automatically initiating RTH like it's designed to do on loss of contact. I hope you find your bird soon.
Edit: late post.
Edit: late post.
Rain may not have ruined it, if the battery was dead before it rained. Just make sure it is good and dry before you try it with a fresh battery (IF you recover it).
Found it! It was pretty much exactly where Meta4 said it would, although not on the roof, on the lower surface that wraps around the building, about 20ft off the ground. It's a mess by the looks of it (they haven't retrieved it yet), is upside down, with what looks like the battery, a meter away. Will send pics of the damage later
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Upload the dat file to Dropbox and share it here. I'll look at it and can tell you what most likely happened.
Also, obstacle avoidance is off by default, did you enable it? How to retrieve a .DAT
Also, obstacle avoidance is off by default, did you enable it? How to retrieve a .DAT
Thanks, not going to happen i'm afraid, the Phantom started smoking as soon as I turned it on with a fresh battery inside. Will the original flight record not be enough?
Meta4
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Unfortunately obstacle avoidance isn't magic and has a number of limitations and situations that can fool it.
It should be regarded as a backup rather than first line safety and doesn't replace things like appropriate RTH height setting.
Remember if you have a fly away, just flip the small flight mode switch back and forth. If it's in P mode, switch it to ATTI, then back to P.....or vice versa. This in most cases will get control back. Not sure about the grayed out issue. Sorry about your phantom. The loss of control could have been a few things, but when flying in urban environments, heavy WIFI signals can be a huge issue and signal loss is very common. So switching out of the 2.4 signal maybe the way to go.
Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots
Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots
Looks like it did, given where it was found. Remember it only backtracks for around 30 seconds, give or take. He found it on the north side of the building. If it hadn't back tracked it would have been on the east side.
Scary stuff to newbie.
Does flying in beginner mode no higher than 97 ft
cut way down on losing-control events like this?
Does flying in beginner mode no higher than 97 ft
cut way down on losing-control events like this?
Not to sound like a "know it all" but for a person new to flying drones, keeping it in sight will eliminate a whole lot of problems.
This also gives you plenty of time to read up on how RTH works for YOUR bird and how to get into and out of RTH when needed.
In Beginner mode, you'll be in sight so have fun and get confident with your bird.
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