Something weird happening?

[J Dot]

Hello everyone,
I'm a Cubscout den leader ( my 6yr old ) ,
We went to Disney Orlando, Florida.
Wilderness camp, for a 3 day camp out, with
Our whole troop ( 80 kids ). I took my vision, hoping
To get some video, and picks, to playback at our next
Meeting, when something strange happened?
I started phantom as usual ( controller & repeater on, then phantom )
I was going to calibrate compass ( as I was nearly 90 miles away from home )
I would not go into cal mode with s1 switch? So I decided to cal through App,
It worked, but all I would get after that was fast blinking yellow lights
( letting me know signal loss? ) it would happen off-on-off -on, I did get home point lock
But motors would not start? I figured no fly zone? I aborted mission. Well as I was trying to
Sleep 1st night, I thought, the app did not say no fly warning? So in the morning, I tried again,
Same thing ( fast blink yellow ) I took the craft into my tent, and placed it on its hard case, to
See if compass came unplugged? I wiggled plug a bit, did a quick examination, everything looked good.
So I turned it on ( in the tent, ON the hard case, about 1 foot off ground, got slow yellow, followed by home lock,
The slow green! ) I thought cool, must have been the plug. So I figured while it was working, I'd do a fresh compass cal.
I placed the phantom on the ground ( in the tent still ) as soon as I set it down, fast yellow again, I picked it up 1 foot, slow green,
Down fast, up normal? What the hell? So I went outside with phantom ON the case, started everything up, got home lock, 8 Sattelites, slow green blink, I tried to start motors, they came on at idol, i was going to shut it down, when it spooled up full throttle and took off ( I grabbed the landing gear JUST IN TIME, no response from remote, had to manually turned it off at battery! Anyone had this happen, or know what it might be? I did some research when I got home, Disney is a no fly zone for residential aircraft, but not commercial, so should not interfere with phantom. ( but could be wrong ) BUT, the did have free WI-FI At the sites, did not specify which GHZ it is ( 2.4 or 5.8 ) it is the only thing I can think of? Have not tried it yet here at home, want to hook to pc first! Just wondering what might have caused that? Fully charged repeater, batteries 3 , fresh batts in remote.
Thanks for any input, I would be appreciated!

I believe if I had not caught it, it may still be at Disney somewhere? No reply from remote when I caught it, had to drop remote,
Manually turn off battery!

Take care, fly safe

 

[N017RW]

**** that's hard to read JDot.

Let me try again.

 

[J Dot]

Sorry,
I find it hard to explain.
Basically, when phantom was on the ground,
The lights under the phantom USUALLY blink SLOW YELLOW,
Until squires enough Sattelites for home lock, when you get a quick
FAST blinking green, followed by Slow blinking green on two arms, other two
Solid red. Telling me home lock is established, and enought Sattelites for safe GPS
mode flying.

But this time, on DISNEY GROUND, I only got FAST BLINKING YELLOW lights
( telling me SIGNAL LOSS at transmitter ) in manual
If I lifted the phantom a foot off the ground I would get the normal slow blinking lights,
But as soon as I put it on the ground again, it would do the fast blinking gimmick.

If I put it on the phantom hard case I keep it in, it would start up normal, slow yellow, then blinking fast green
Home lock followed by slow blink green God mode ready, but back on the ground, fast yellow again, it never home locked,
Or went green on the ground? And no input from transmitter, could not turn motors on.

I did get motors to come on when I started it up on the case ( 1 foot off ground ) that is when it took off! No input from me.

Hope this clears it up a bit? Just a strange event?

J dot

Take care, fly safe!

 

[general01]

Sounds like interference from a jammer or some other kind of higher power radio gear to me

Never attempt to start the motors when it's like this as you can and will lose the bird

 

[J Dot]

TRUST ME,
Lesson learned, future ( STRANGE ) events
PROPS OFF, PROPS OFF, PROPS OFF!

Luckily I caught it, as soon as I heard it rev up, I reached for it
And got lucky. I did somehow damage I prop? Did not touch me,
But maybe it contacted the case during the chaos, while someone behind me
Said ( That almost got ugly ) I'm like yeah, close, but I somehow pulled it off?
Not my first rodeo, had similar incident with low batt return home feature
( I was unaware of at the time ) it took off, and I managed to catch it then too,
With no issues, I updated firmware, WITHOUT reading or researching the update,
Totally my fail! But again, lesson learned.

Thanks for the replies!

Take care, fly safe!

J Dot

 

[Zinnware]

I once had the yellow flashing lights when I was trying to take off from a concrete bridge. The bridge's concrete had reinforcement steel in it that I believe was causing interference to the compass. I did not try to lift off. I tried the start-up sequence multiple times with the same results of yellow flashing lights. I moved the Phantom 2 away form the concrete and tried the start-up sequence again and I got all green lights.

 

[Great Pumpkin]

JDot, did you ever get around to trying to fly back home again where you have had no previous problems?

 

[general01]

I am also curious as to the outcome

 

[SteveMann]

JDot, did you ever get around to trying to fly back home again where you have had no previous problems?

I doubt it would fly 90 miles to home.

 

[Great Pumpkin]

SteveMann, I understood JDot as saying he was able to grab his Phantom before it got away, so I asked if he returned to his home from his camping trip and has tried to fly it again, presumably away from whatever interference he may have experienced.

 

[J Dot]

Hello,
I am working on an answer, I did hook to
( RC ASSISTANT ), and ( PC ASSISTSNT )
All looked good, mod values NORMAL, compass
Was good, IMU was good, I went ahead and recalibrated
Controller through RC assistant, then did an ADVANCED IMU
Calibration, and controller calibration, also reset BTU, just for kicks.
Everything else was still set ( RTH height ) battery % alarm, still 15/25.
I have not set a limitations on flight distance.

So that all checked out!

Next, I took it out front, ( no props ).
NORMAL start-up, normal tones followed
By a little red-green-yellow light show, then
Normal slow blinking yellow lights ( front ) no lights rear
Acquired 6 Sattelites, got a fast blink green, the to slow blink green ( front )
Solid red rear. I did CSC start on motors, they started up at idol, then I turned it off.

So all normal there!

UNFORTUNATELY,
Like I stated before, I broke 1 prop, in the event at Disney,
And am waiting delivery of 3 new sets! ( local hobby sold out ) figures!

Hopefully get them tomorrow? But I will keep you informed!

I'm thinking Disney's free WI-FI at their campsites, might have caused Chaos,
I'm trying to figure out what GHz it was, if it in fact was ( 5.8 ) I'm sure that was the
Cause, there was an EXCELLENT WI-FI signal there!

It was just weird it only acted up on ground level? This still stumps me?
Or maybe some buried cables? There was power there, but pretty far away
From where I wanted to launch.

Thanks for the input and replies!

LOL ( 90 miles would be a feat ) {:0)

Take care, fly safe!

J Dot

 

[general01]

It's possible the wi fi antennas (or cables) were running under ground in the area

Sounds crazy but it's true that some power lines can also cause this as they can sometimes generate the same frequency as the remote depending on the load

 

[SteveMann]

SteveMann, I understood JDot as saying he was able to grab his Phantom before it got away, so I asked if he returned to his home from his camping trip and has tried to fly it again, presumably away from whatever interference he may have experienced.

Just making fun of your grammar - you asked if he tried to fly back home.

 

[Great Pumpkin]

My problem was with the syntax, not the grammar

 

[kryan]

Is it possible you had ground station active and it anticipated a go signal from a foreign source?