P3A disconnected at 3,000' out, luckily found it.

[FreeBerd]

Rural setting, edge of a large lake. Bird was 3,000' feet out, flying over the headwaters of the lake and I was turning it back towards home. Screen goes blank, says DISCONNECTED. No imagery, Nothing. Now it was a clear sight to the bird at 350' altitude in this flat area, so signal strength was not it. I was not panicked as I have had situations that makes your pulse jump so I thought it through. RTH on the ipad did nothing as it was DISCONNECTED. Pressed RTH on the controller. Nothing. No flashing white light. Tried again, nothing.

I sat stunned for a few moments, coming to the realization that I'd lost the drone for good. I thought for sure it was gone. I had no clue if it would initiate low battery RTH. In the lower right of app I could still see the birds heading was pointed back towards me. So I started driving it forward hoping I could eventually hear it. By some amazing luck I hear it after 10 seconds or so and it's getting louder! Finally gain sight of it and land it. Sweatin bullets. It never reconnected. Had to restart. Have no clue what happened. Tonight I'll try to find the flight record for analysis and make sure firmware is up to date. Any thoughts? To clarify, it was not a LOST SIGNAL, it was DISCONNECTED.

 

[Mark The Droner]

What's your max range to date?

 

[Meta4]

Have no clue what happened. Tonight I'll try to find the flight record for analysis and make sure firmware is up to date. Any thoughts? To clarify, it was not a LOST SIGNAL, it was DISCONNECTED.

Have you ever experimented to see what happens when you completely lose signal but flying over 20 metres away and switching off the controller?
The Phantom is programmed to RTH when the control signal is lost (unless you over-ride that in settings).
To examine the flight record, go to https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/
Follow the instructions to upload your flight record.

 

[HWCM]

You could have restarted the app, turned off the controller. You had control of it obviously if you flew it back and had a correct compass reading on the app, you just lost video feed. When you pushed the RTH button, did you hold it down for a couple seconds?

 

[happydays]

As Meta4 says, test RTH yourself. Get into a big open field, fly a few hundred metres away, turn of the TX and watch what happens. Gives you immense confidence in the machine's ability to return home. ALWAYS make sure that the home point is where you are as the voice command advises.

 

[FreeBerd]

I did hold the controller RTH down for a couple seconds, but admiittedly I've only used that button a few times. I plan to get out in an open area and test the RTH features to get fully confident. Will turn off TX, restart app, run through all the scenarios that I can foresee. I uploaded the flight log to healthy drones HealthyDrones.com - Innovative flight data analysis that matters
I've also uploaded here Phantom Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com
The log stops when I'm 3,000 feet out and when it disconnected.

 

[kingfisher555]

I had that happen before and I shut of the remote and it hovered for about 20 seconds and came back and landed.

 

[Ben Sandwith]

Mine did same thing a few times and the problem was micro usb wire .

Sent from my LG-H812 using PhantomPilots mobile app