Lost signal - phantam 4 Pro LOST

[Klaus_Klavier]

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.

I would hope that if it didn't crash INTO anything then it means it autolanded somewhere when battery reached critically low levels since no one was operating it so if you follow the flight logs you should be able to find it given someone didn't pick it up or see it land


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[Cozy Canuck]

I would hope that if it didn't crash INTO anything then it means it autolanded somewhere when battery reached critically low levels since no one was operating it so if you follow the flight logs you should be able to find it given someone didn't pick it up or see it land


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Based on the speed, wind, I figured it ended up 15km away. Like finding a needle in a hay stack

 

[Cozy Canuck]

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

We lost connection at about 82% battery life...never gonna find this thing

 

[Klaus_Klavier]

Based on the speed, wind, I figured it ended up 15km away. Like finding a needle in a hay stack

Well did it go towards civilization? If so I advise putting something in the classifieds (online and in the paper) and posters with the image of the drone with contact info if found.

Also the very end of the flight log should show it's final landing spot on the gps


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[Solly747400]

I really hope you find it man. I feel for you

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[Klaus_Klavier]

We lost connection at about 82% battery life...never gonna find this thing

Well if you lose GPS signal and it kept flying In atti it's a possibility it found GPS again (if it was still flying and if the switch was still in place for GPS mode) and tried to come home at some point so it maybe in a way different spot but close by


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[hoctro]

We lost connection at about 82% battery life...never gonna find this thing

CC: please don't give up. The good news is yours landed on land/tree while mine was at sea and it is coming back to me.
No signal then drown at sea
I wish I was in Canada to join your Search and Rescue mission... Best of luck!

 

[elarryland]

at the speed it was traveling and it had about 20 min of battery left it would have taveled 5.87 miles from last log reading

 

[F3honda4me]

Well did it go towards civilization? If so I advise putting something in the classifieds (online and in the paper) and posters with the image of the drone with contact info if found.

Also the very end of the flight log should show it's final landing spot on the gps


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It won't since the TX had no connection to the aircraft.

To CC, open a case with DJI. The worst case is they deny warranty claim. But they might not since you showed 18 satellites yet lost GPS.

 

[Cozy Canuck]

It won't since the TX had no connection to the aircraft.

To CC, open a case with DJI. The worst case is they deny warranty claim. But they might not since you showed 18 satellites yet lost GPS.

Anyone know how I can state my claim to DJI and to prove it was faulty

 

[Cozy Canuck]

at the speed it was traveling and it had about 20 min of battery left it would have taveled 5.87 miles from last log reading

I had figured 15km away...which is a heck of a long way from home

 

[Klaus_Klavier]

I had figured 15km away...which is a heck of a long way from home

That's if it kept flying. Given it was in atti mode I don't think it maintains its altitude does it? I know the barometer is the only thing on when it's In atti mode but doesn't it start to descend if you aren't constantly on the throttle?


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[Cozy Canuck]

That's if it kept flying. Given it was in atti mode I don't think it maintains its altitude does it? I know the barometer is the only thing on when it's In atti mode but doesn't it start to descend if you aren't constantly on the throttle?


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That's why I looked all day where msinger told me it should be.

 

[Klaus_Klavier]

That's why I looked all day where msinger told me it should be.

Is the area where he thought it might've landed populated? Is there a chance someone found it?


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Actually I should add that if it's in atti mode and it was dropping and drifting out it's got a high probability of being in a tree somewhere

 

[Cozy Canuck]

Is the area where he thought it might've landed populated? Is there a chance someone found it?


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Its all bush area, pine trees etc. No houses in that part where he thought where it landed.

 

[Klaus_Klavier]

Its all bush area, pine trees etc. No houses in that part where he thought where it landed.

Ouch evergreens. Yeah that's not good, even though it's winter the lack of leaves won't make it easy to find then


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[Cozy Canuck]

Ouch evergreens. Yeah that's not good, even though it's winter the lack of leaves won't make it easy to find then


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And we've had our fair share of snow storms already and one today as well. *sigh*

 

[Klaus_Klavier]

And we've had our fair share of snow storms already and one today as well. *sigh*

Well schucks, that's icing on the cake isn't it.

I hope DJI can replace it for you, I've heard they boast a DJI drone has never had a "true flyaway" but have replaced ones in suspicious incidents that resemble what most would call a flyaway.

How true that is I don't know, I just read it somewhere about a day ago. If they do replace it get some insurance on it, I just insured my P3S and it's given me a piece of mind that if my drone gets lost or damaged beyond repair that my insurance company will replace it


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[Sinisalo]

The first P4P I bought from B&H had an error "[GPS]disconnect please reset and check connection" I never even got off the ground. Another P4P owner said they had the exact same error but before they got the error they were able to make the bird lose GPS connection during flight by flying side to side, then eventually they got the GPS error and had to send it in for repair. Perhaps the P4P have some QC issues with the GPS units and so you could make a case with DJI that this is not your fault.

 

[maggiacman]

The Phantom was flying in ATTI mode ...

msinger props for all you do on here - you are appreciated.