Today I am sick ..... Literally...

[Quamera]

Every phantom made has gps.
Yours would have recorded home as soon as it had gps which would have been very soon after powering up. Upload your flight record to phantomhelp log viewer and we might work out what really happened

Will the P4 still set a home point while it is moving. Most of us would still prefer to wait on the ground until its set but it would be handy to know if we didn't have to.

 

[Meta4]

Will the P4 still set a home point while it is moving. Most of us would still prefer to wait on the ground until its set but it would be handy to know if we didn't have to.

Yes ... if you had a semi-enclosed launch point, maybe under tree cover and couldn't get good GPS, you could launch in atti mode and go up through a break in the canopy and when you first get GPS, the Phantom will record that as home.
In the OP's case. it probably recorded home very close to the launch point anyway.
But he doesn't memtionthe Phantom returning and landing in the water just beside where he launched so I'd like to see what really happened.

 

[msinger]

does my Phantom 4 Pro have a GPS built in anywhere?

Only the Phantom contains a GPS receiver.

 

[DeeJayEyeGuy]

Only the Phantom contains a GPS receiver.

Cracks me up how many people don't understand this... The remote DOES NOT HAVE GPS, It is the phone or tablet that must have this capability in order to set a home point.. If using a tablet that does not use cellular data then you need a GPS source.. I am getting a Garmin GLO To help prevent another loss...

 

[msinger]

You got it. The Inspire 1 remote controller is the only P4 compatible remote controller that actually contains a GPS receiver.

 

[olefolks]

Cracks me up how many people don't understand this... The remote DOES NOT HAVE GPS, It is the phone or tablet that must have this capability in order to set a home point.. If using a tablet that does not use cellular data then you need a GPS source.. I am getting a Garmin GLO To help prevent another loss...

I don't agree! The phone or tablet does not need GPS to set a home point, the phantom has GPS which sets the home point when it connects to the Sats. Just saying!

 

[WilsonFlyer]

I'm somewhat intrigued that no one has asked this.

Why would not having GPS cause you to lose your Phantom? You should (and could) be able to fly your Phantom with no GPS whatsoever. I'm sorry, but blaming the loss on a lack of GPS lock is a poor excuse for losing a quad.

If you guys want to have a pity party, that's all well and good, but something else happened.

 

[batch0912]

I'm somewhat intrigued that no one has asked this.

Why would not having GPS cause you to lose your Phantom? You should (and could) be able to fly your Phantom with no GPS whatsoever. I'm sorry, but blaming the loss on a lack of GPS lock is a poor excuse for losing a quad.

If you guys want to have a pity party, that's all well and good, but something else happened.

+1 on this. There were several instances in the past when I totally lost connection between the RC and the Phantom. What I did was re-position myself from where I was standing and pointed the RC at another angle, and most of the time (like 7 out of 10) I re-acquired signal and regained control of my aircraft.

 

[DeeJayEyeGuy]

No pitty party, I tried everything that I could and it just never locked back on to the remote... New quad is already in the mail. Perhaps it just wanted to fly away..

 

[Cavmedic]

They have to get those refurbished drones from somewhere. I think they all fly to one location and DJI picks them up...say once a month

 

[DeeJayEyeGuy]

They have to get those refurbished drones from somewhere. I think they all fly to one location and DJI picks them up...say once a month

[emoji106][emoji106][emoji106]

 

[dannyz]

I don't agree! The phone or tablet does not need GPS to set a home point, the phantom has GPS which sets the home point when it connects to the Sats. Just saying!

Yes, but since he launched without waiting for the bird to record a home point, he could have set the home point to his current location, but only if his tablet/phone had gps turned on, so it could relay the new home point to the bird.(which he had to do before he lost contact)

 

[dannyz]

I'm somewhat intrigued that no one has asked this.

Why would not having GPS cause you to lose your Phantom? You should (and could) be able to fly your Phantom with no GPS whatsoever. I'm sorry, but blaming the loss on a lack of GPS lock is a poor excuse for losing a quad.

If you guys want to have a pity party, that's all well and good, but something else happened.

Not having GPS on the tablet did not cause the loss. Not setting a RTH before launch, them losing radio control during flight, appears to have caused the loss. If he would have had functioning GPS on the tablet, he could have set a RTH point during flight.(providing he realised he had no valid RTH point before he lost contact)
Without active GPS on the tablet, setting a new homepoint at your current location is only possible by flying your drone to your current location first.
As it was, the RTH point was not recorded before takeoff, so was likely set somewhere over the water, once the aircraft found enough satellites.
The drone either suffered some other sort of loss, like a bird attack that put it in the water, hitting one of the sailboat masts, battery falling our, motor failure, etc, etc, or, it actually returned to wherever it set it's home point, (almost for certain over the water) and landed.

 

[jsposito]

That's correct.

You don't need it for "Follow me" or "active track"? Thanks

 

[DeeJayEyeGuy]

Mystery solved, it was downed by a pelican according to the sailers on one of the boats. Phantom is still at the bottom of the river....

 

[dannyz]

Mystery solved, it was downed by a pelican according to the sailers on one of the boats. Phantom is still at the bottom of the river....

That was actually my first thought, when it didn't return at least somewhere near the takeoff point, was that a bird had taken it out. (That is why, in my previous post, the fist thing I mentioned, was a bird attack.)

I have had several near misses with birds, but most of them were birds out over the water.(maybe, because nearly all birds over the water normally get their meals in a diving attack?)

 

[Jussaguy]

You only need a GPS receiver on your mobile device if you want to reset the home point to your current location after taking off.

Or if there is a software glitch that causes a waypoint to go wayward which has happened before or you accidentally set it at the bird or you need to reset it because you've moved for some reason. There are plenty of reasons.

 

[John Locke]

So, like a ******* I was in a hurry and did not acquire a home point before rushing off to get some awesome sailboats that were on the river....
Long story short, radio signal lost and no drone to come home with...

Just so we learn something here..... Are you saying you took off before you got the green "safe to fly" acknowledgement in the GO app?

 

[DeeJayEyeGuy]

Just so we learn something here..... Are you saying you took off before you got the green "safe to fly" acknowledgement in the GO app?

Well,
Yes and no...
I acknowledged after it was up and on the shoreline and not before liftoff..
I bought this quad used and for some reason it always seemed to loose connection with the radio. This aparently was not the cause of the anomaly but it always seemed to have a mind of its own..
Bottom line is to NEVER get in a rush to put your bird in the air for a shoot.

 

[msinger]

You don't need it for "Follow me" or "active track"? Thanks

If you're referring to GPS on the mobile device, it's only needed for Follow Me. ActiveTrack does not use GPS data from the mobile device.