Lost signal - phantam 4 Pro LOST

[Cozy Canuck]

I have flown a few times, once the signal was lost and I pressed the (return to Home) and it successfully returned home. However yesterday morning I tried again. It flew ... made it come home and I made it fly again. This time, again, weak GPS signal and then No Signal. I pressed on the Return home however it never came back. I have gone to the last point that shows on my video and cannot find it. When it loses signal, does it not automatically come back home? My video shows that it turned around on its spot but then nothing. I figuered this meants it crashed at that spot but nowhere to be found. Of course, the drone has no battery life so going there with the remote to aquire signal wont work. My wife purchased this for me for xmas and its already lost.

Any suggestions? Does it simply hover on the spot where signal is lost? The winds were picking up...so would that mean if it hovers on spot, the wind brought it with it.,

 

[Lucone]

If you're saying you lost GPS signal and not just remote controller signal, then the drone would've lost the capability to return home automatically. It likely switched to vision mode to try to maintain a hover, but if the drone was higher than 30 feet, the vision system can't function and the drone was subject to the wind. If no GPS signal is true, I think your drone maintained altitude and drifted until its battery reached the critical percentage and triggered auto-land. I would recommend studying your flight log for the last known altitude, battery level and, if possible, wind speed and direction. If you collect enough data you could find other possible places it landed. You could also post your flight log here and someone may take a look at it. Lots of intelligent and helpful people on the forum! Wishing you the best!


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[grin factor]

If your battery was so low, it will have landed when it lost signal.
Bit of a buga, but have a look around if you have an idea where it was.
Good luck

 

[captainmilehigh]

Sounds like a mystery that @msinger would love to solve.....


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[msinger]

Cozy Canuck, please upload your TXT flight log here and post a link back here.

 

[Cozy Canuck]

If you're saying you lost GPS signal and not just remote controller signal, then the drone would've lost the capability to return home automatically. It likely switched to vision mode to try to maintain a hover, but if the drone was higher than 30 feet, the vision system can't function and the drone was subject to the wind. If no GPS signal is true, I think your drone maintained altitude and drifted until its battery reached the critical percentage and triggered auto-land. I would recommend studying your flight log for the last known altitude, battery level and, if possible, wind speed and direction. If you collect enough data you could find other possible places it landed. You could also post your flight log here and someone may take a look at it. Lots of intelligent and helpful people on the forum! Wishing you the best!


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How do I post my flight video??

 

[Lucone]

How do I post my flight video??

Follow msinger's link and the instructions on that page to find and upload your flight log file.


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[Cozy Canuck]

Cozy Canuck, please upload your TXT flight log here and post a link back here.

Question
The altitude .... is it the altitude from sea level, from Home base or from the ground no matter where you go?

Our home base is below a hill ... we flew over the hill .... if we are at 150 feet height at home base and the top if hill is 100 ft higher than home base...does it mean it is now only flying at 50ft?
It's hard to explain

 

[msinger]

Our home base is below a hill ... we flew over the hill .... if we are at 150 feet height at home base and the top if hill is 100 ft higher than home base...does it mean it is now only flying at 50ft?

Yes. DJI GO will show 150 feet though since it does not know where the ground is located.

 

[John Locke]

Question
The altitude .... is it the altitude from sea level, from Home base or from the ground no matter where you go?

Our home base is below a hill ... we flew over the hill .... if we are at 150 feet height at home base and the top if hill is 100 ft higher than home base...does it mean it is now only flying at 50ft?
It's hard to explain

Did you fly over the hill and accidentally fly behind the hill, at which point it lost signal? It's kinda odd that it would lose GPS signal unless you flew below something, like a cement bridge, or high tension wires, etc.

 

[F3honda4me]

Really need to upload the logs as msinger requested. Many a lost drone has been found using msingers log upload. Also when you say lost signal, which do you mean? Video? Transmitter? GPS? Those are very different things. Strongly urge you to read the full manual at DJIs website. These drones are very sophisticated and require you to fully understand what they do.

Altitude is relative to where you took off. So 150 feet high means 150 feet above home point.

 

[Cozy Canuck]

Cozy Canuck, please upload your TXT flight log here and post a link back here.

I hope this works. Wind during this time period was approximately 14 mph Wind Direction : 260 degrees (W)

My elevation at my base is roughly 54 meters and the highest point near the last location was roughly 74 metres...so because I have 20meters difference, this would mean that my last location it was flying roughly 29 meters high, right? which is 98 feet. I've looked for 2 days in a row, with no such luck.

Phantom Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

 

[F3honda4me]

I hope this works. Wind during this time period was approximately 14 mph Wind Direction : 260 degrees (W)

My elevation at my base is roughly 54 meters and the highest point near the last location was roughly 74 metres...so because I have 20meters difference, this would mean that my last location it was flying roughly 29 meters high, right? which is 98 feet. I've looked for 2 days in a row, with no such luck.

Phantom Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

Ouch that does not look good.

To start, you have some kind of magnetic interference near your home point. From the looks of it I'd say it's the power lines. The problem here is that this will throw off your compass and possibly also affect your drone's flight behavior, and also possibly cause other issues. So you had at least two magnetic interference warnings. You also had a LOT of GPS warnings even though you had plenty of satellites. This means either a hardware issue or some kind of interference issue. As the owner's manual indicates, if there is a loss of GPS, the craft will go into "attitude mode" at which point you must completely manually control the drone as no return to home or other GPS-related functions will work. Your drone lost GPS completely at the 4 minute 55 second mark (after doing a bit of a toilet bowl spin, which tells me that your compass was probably affected by the previous interference). And it went into attitude mode. And because you simply hit return to home with no GPS your drone flew off to the east at an altitude of 237 feet. It likely just kept going that way until it ran out of battery and eventually landed or crashed somewhere.

I know there is not much comfort here, but you may want to try to submit a case to DJI and upload your logs to them. They MIGHT cover this under warranty due to the GPS issue, but it's hard to say since it was more user error than anything. But it's worth a try if you haven't started that process already.

Msinger will probably have more info for you, or correct anything if I am mistaken.

 

[Cozy Canuck]

at what % of batty life that the drone start deseeding?

 

[Lucone]

at what % of batty life that the drone start deseeding?

I think auto land will trigger somewhere between 20%-10% depending on what you set in the app.


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[msinger]

The Phantom was flying in ATTI mode at the end of the flight, so manually initiating RTH wouldn't have been an option at that point. A mix of the wind and commands from the right stick pushed the Phantom farther and farther away from the home point. There was still plenty of battery power left at the end of the flight, but the Phantom could not return to the home point since it was flying in ATTI mode. Instead, it most likely drifted with the wind for another 3 seconds and then continued to drift as it was auto landing. If it cleared the trees, it most likely landing in the yellow circle below. If it didn't make it to the yellow circle, it probably clipped a tree and crashed to the ground. You will probably find it if you start walking from the end of the green line to the yellow circle.

 

[Lucone]

Man, looks like you might be in for some jungle trekking.. I really hope you find it!

 

[Cozy Canuck]

Did you fly over the hill and accidentally fly behind the hill, at which point it lost signal? It's kinda odd that it would lose GPS signal unless you flew below something, like a cement bridge, or high tension wires, etc.

No....it levels out on top of hill.

 

[Cozy Canuck]

Man, looks like you might be in for some jungle trekking.. I really hope you find it!

Spent the whole day with 2 guys searching with no such luck

 

[Cozy Canuck]

The Phantom was flying in ATTI mode at the end of the flight, so manually initiating RTH wouldn't have been an option at that point. A mix of the wind and commands from the right stick pushed the Phantom farther and farther away from the home point. There was still plenty of battery power left at the end of the flight, but the Phantom could not return to the home point since it was flying in ATTI mode. Instead, it most likely drifted with the wind for another 3 seconds and then continued to drift as it was auto landing. If it cleared the trees, it most likely landing in the yellow circle below. If it didn't make it to the yellow circle, it probably clipped a tree and crashed to the ground. You will probably find it if you start walking from the end of the green line to the yellow circle.

View attachment 71863

Ok so I spent 7 hrs searching the area with another guy and with no such luck. Should I even consider making a case with DJI. Is there a possibility you would know what I should say to p,ead my claim that this shouldnt have happened with 18 satellites.

My wife spent over $2000 on this since we live in Canada and with our poor exchange rate...I would hate to see this be gone for good.