Worst flight ever with p4p I'm still shaking, no control but got it landed

[Kewdo]

As a fresh owner I don't know much, so here's my question relative to that subject :

Is there a way to test is the GPS module is faulty prior to launching the p4p ?
Or is the only way to launch and fly to trigger the issue ?

I haven't done my first flight yet but I'm concerned. I certainly do not want loosing it on my first try !

 

[John Locke]

As a fresh owner I don't know much, so here's my question relative to that subject :

Is there a way to test is the GPS module is faulty prior to launching the p4p ?
Or is the only way to launch and fly to trigger the issue ?
I haven't done my first flight yet but I'm concerned. I certainly do not want loosing it on my first try !

There's really no way to know if what happened to Snowolf will happen to you. All you can do is watch your GPS satellite count. If it gets above 8 you'll get the GREEN Safe to fly indication. If not, you won't get the GREEN light, Safe to Fly. Normally you'll see 13 to 18 satellites. It's rare to have GPS problems if you stay on open clear sky. Although I've seen more reports of this with P4P than with P4. In fact I can't even remember one instance with P4 losing satellites to the point where it goes into ATTI mode. Just remember, out of the thousands of P4P sold to members of this forum, you'll only hear from people with problems. I seems the instances of GPS loss are a small percentage.

Start off slow in beginner mode until you get your confidence up. After you get through that you'll know if you have GPS issue, but you should be fine.

 

[Jason Porembski]

I hope I get a different drone back to be honest, lost all faith in that one now

It's not. It's a repair. I didn't fight on the replace as I had a funny feeling this would be a wide spread problem. A new bird may have the same problem and have worse outcomes.

I get it back tomorrow and I'll give it a go. I'll let you all know.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

 

[Jason Porembski]

There's really no way to know if what happened to Snowolf will happen to you. All you can do is watch your GPS satellite count. If it gets above 8 you'll get the GREEN Safe to fly indication. If not, you won't get the GREEN light, Safe to Fly. Normally you'll see 13 to 18 satellites. It's rare to have GPS problems if you stay on open clear sky. Although I've seen more reports of this with P4P than with P4. In fact I can't even remember one instance with P4 losing satellites to the point where it goes into ATTI mode. Just remember, out of the thousands of P4P sold to members of this forum, you'll only hear from people with problems. I seems the instances of GPS loss are a small percentage.

Start off slow in beginner mode until you get your confidence up. After you get through that you'll know if you have GPS issue, but you should be fine.

He's right. Probably not a faulty unit that you have BUT just cause you flew throughout beginner mode means nothing. I had approx 20 successful flights on my P4P when it developed its GPS issue. This did not occur out of the box.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

 

[Slackware]

Do you ship it in the original box? would be leery of ups seeing what I am shipping. to many rouge employees.

 

[Jason Porembski]

I shipped in the styrofoam case then in a box


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

 

[Snowwolf]

Yes shipping in its foam case and in original box, they want me to send just the remote and drone, no memory either. They have asked for as much info as possible, so will print off all the stuff that might be relevant and put it in the box, I will let you know how the fix goes and how it flys when I get it back, just like to say what a great bunch of guys on here, very helpful indeed, much appreciated

 

[Jason Porembski]

So to update you guys I got my bird back. Some cool things to note. I opened the styrofoam box and found that the controller was wrapped. I'm think why the hell did they send me a new controller!!! I took the bird out and noticed that all the stickers were still on it as in the side sensors, top DJI logo as well. Also there was a black DJI prop back with 4 new props. So ultimately I did get a new bird and 4 new props. I just updated the firmware and now waiting for the battery to charge. Going to take it for a test flight shortly and see. The good news is that even in the house I was pulling 6 sats which is great!


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

 

[Jason Porembski]

Took it for a good 10 minute flight and the thing is rock solid! Great signal, great GPS, I feel it even handles better.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

 

[Snowwolf]

Nice one Jason, glad it all ended ok, mine was sent off this morning

 

[Spooky Maxwell]

Hi all
I decided to have a fly today, lovely bright sunny day very minimal wind, before flight it was taking its time finding satellites but eventually it did and said I could take off, once up in the air the bird was totally out of control, it was the worst 10 minutes flight I have ever had, all sorts of warnings were coming up on the screen but I could not take my eyes off the drone as I was having great difficulty keeping it from flying away, sometimes I was full throttle from keeping it drifting away, then all of a sudden it would accelerate fast and needed to full throttle in opp direction, lots of things were happening on screen and with the drone, I did eventually get it back down on the ground, how I don't know, luckily I have flown planes for many years and always fly atti mode with the drone very often in case of flights like I just had, I had a P4 previous to the p4p and have done 160 full flights with no issues, 140 flights being with the P4 so I am pretty good and check everything before a flight.

I have the data log of what has happened in the link below and hoping someone can have a look at it to find out what went wrong.

I have had a look at the flight I done on the iPad Pro which I use, I am running the latest software and firmware, I have taken a few snap shots from the flight, one warming was un paved airport but that is untrue, here are is a snap shot of the screen, I had 14 satellites on take off but looking at the flight on iPad it kept losing them, also it looks like it has only recorded half the flight and only recorded from when I walked to a new position I was getting a lot of warnings of gimbal yaw reached end point
Here is the flight data file folder link and a video from my ipad on how it was flying.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/jomjd ... I6KAvSoRn3iDEa?dl=0

Was there a cell phone tower nearby? It kept saying something about a magnetic force. Maybe it got confused by your accent and wasn't sure what country it was in. (just kidding). I think that I would raise hell with DJI on that one.

 

[Drew finn]

Another GPS problem could be a jammer, some employees use them to hide from management when they are in company vehicle, recall to problem at Newark NJ airport several years ago. Odd but could happen to any of us at any time, not sure of the range of the jammers tho.

 

[YL2016]

Don't think I mentioned calibrating each time you fly somewhere new - only stated the issues I had while calibrating near a wire fence and that was done only to see how it would react.

I calibrated my P3A once about a year and a half ago and have flown it in other locations over a 150km away from that point of calibration without issues - once "home point is established" - you fly.

My P4 I have also only calibrated once and again have flights from numerous new locations without re-calibrating.

Thanks for mentioning it anyway.

I agree with you eaglegoaltende. I have actually NEVER calibrated my P4. I have flown it more than a hundred times at locations 1000km apart and take off altitudes ranging from 100m to 3600m without any problem. My P4 flies rock solid and I never felt the need to calibrate it. But I do take my time when powering up and wait for GPS lock, Home location, or messages, and even did the hovering waiting for batteries to warm up when freezing outside.

 

[Jim Hampton]

Hi all
I decided to have a fly today, lovely bright sunny day very minimal wind, before flight it was taking its time finding satellites but eventually it did and said I could take off, once up in the air the bird was totally out of control, it was the worst 10 minutes flight I have ever had, all sorts of warnings were coming up on the screen but I could not take my eyes off the drone as I was having great difficulty keeping it from flying away, sometimes I was full throttle from keeping it drifting away, then all of a sudden it would accelerate fast and needed to full throttle in opp direction, lots of things were happening on screen and with the drone, I did eventually get it back down on the ground, how I don't know, luckily I have flown planes for many years and always fly atti mode with the drone very often in case of flights like I just had, I had a P4 previous to the p4p and have done 160 full flights with no issues, 140 flights being with the P4 so I am pretty good and check everything before a flight.

I have the data log of what has happened in the link below and hoping someone can have a look at it to find out what went wrong.

I have had a look at the flight I done on the iPad Pro which I use, I am running the latest software and firmware, I have taken a few snap shots from the flight, one warming was un paved airport but that is untrue, here are is a snap shot of the screen, I had 14 satellites on take off but looking at the flight on iPad it kept losing them, also it looks like it has only recorded half the flight and only recorded from when I walked to a new position I was getting a lot of warnings of gimbal yaw reached end point
Here is the flight data file folder link and a video from my ipad on how it was flying.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/jomjd ... I6KAvSoRn3iDEa?dl=0

Question I have, would switching to atti mode been the solution to landing safety? He was anexpericed RC pilot.

 

[Jason Porembski]

Question I have, would switching to atti mode been the solution to landing safety? He was anexpericed RC pilot.

Absolutely. That's why it's imperative for all pilots to learn ATTI mode in all sorts of conditions, especially wind. That's how I landed mine.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

 

[Skyler King III]

So, when you power on the drone, the drone determines the direction it is facing using the compass. Once that is established, and the drone takes off, it uses gyros and accelerometers to determine yaw. So, if you have magentic interference when you first power on the drone, once you get clear of that interference the drone is going to act crazy as yours did, because it can't make sense of what it is seeing. If you look at the image, the yaw and magyaw should have nearly identical values (the green and blue lines) but as you can see, they are off from the start and continue to be off throughout the flight most times. (red line is altitude)

By the way, @BudWalker is to thank for this program (datcon and csvview) and I'm using info I saw in another similar post where he talked about this to determine what happened.

I'm now confused after reading your comments about calibration.

Having a P4 and a P4P I am really confused. With the P4 I was used to calibrating the compass before every flight. It was my understanding that the P4P, the compass should not be calibrated unless it asks you to calibrate it. Can you clarify for me please?

 

[Shawn Hughes]

Don't think I mentioned calibrating each time you fly somewhere new - only stated the issues I had while calibrating near a wire fence and that was done only to see how it would react.

I calibrated my P3A once about a year and a half ago and have flown it in other locations over a 150km away from that point of calibration without issues - once "home point is established" - you fly.

My P4 I have also only calibrated once and again have flights from numerous new locations without re-calibrating.

Thanks for mentioning it anyway.

I am totally a newbie, so pardon the simple question - but I was under the impression that you needed to calibrate the compass before each and every flight. I'm flying a P3 standard.

Shawn

 

[Jason Porembski]

I am totally a newbie, so pardon the simple question - but I was under the impression that you needed to calibrate the compass before each and every flight. I'm flying a P3 standard.

Shawn

I calibrate my P3S compass at every new location from the previous flight. On my P4P I don't.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

 

[F3honda4me]

I'm now confused after reading your comments about calibration.

Having a P4 and a P4P I am really confused. With the P4 I was used to calibrating the compass before every flight. It was my understanding that the P4P, the compass should not be calibrated unless it asks you to calibrate it. Can you clarify for me please?

Per the manual. Don't calibrate compass unless it tells you to. OR if the drone isn't flying correctly.

 

[Snowwolf]

Was there a cell phone tower nearby? It kept saying something about a magnetic force. Maybe it got confused by your accent and wasn't sure what country it was in. (just kidding). I think that I would raise hell with DJI on that one.

I live near the place I had the flight problem in but have not seen a cell site around that area, DJI have been really good with the problem I had, so far I can't fault their help,