Data lost no return home.....explained

[AIRNUTS]

I was flying over the ocean early today and lost both video and data for more than 5 minutes there was no communication between the transmitter and the P3 pro I had a red light on the transmitter very concerned that my P3 never initiated RTH when is supposed to do it after 3 seconds of lost connection This went on for 5 long minutes....I finally got some data back and I did a manual RTH.
Can you please check the healthy drones data to see exactly why this happened
By the way on the following flight I turned the transmitter off on purpose to see if RTH was initiated and sure enough P3 went to preset altitude and returned home.
Here is the link
Thanks

HealthyDrones.com - Innovative flight data analysis that matters

 

[Drone Master]

Hi AirNuts,
I have tried to analyze your data. It Looks like you pushed your range to the point of teetering between connect and no connect thus not triggering the RTH .
The amount of No connect errors show this. Based on your rudder, you must have turned just enough to establish a good connection to start the RTH manually. Kind of a freak thing but it can happen. BTW, 5449ft is not to bad for out of the box. I know! Although if you would have had range extension hardware mods, you could have taken the bird a little farther out. Would love to see the video from it.

 

[Reed L]

Looks like you proved the critical error that they found this week on Autoflight that rth isn't working on the platform that you used today either. Was it the go app? -
Critical Issue Discovered | DJI Phantom Forum

 

[Drone Master]

Looks like you proved the critical error that they found this week on Autoflight that rth isn't working on the platform that you used today either. Was it the go app? -
Critical Issue Discovered | DJI Phantom Forum

He does not add to this thread stating that he is using a 3rd party app though. Using the Go app with some third party apps has been known to do this.
Have you tried to analyze his flight log?

 

[Air Ontario]

Sort of looks like you never literally lost the uplink, although the yaw seems sluggish.If true, not technically losing the uplink may have kept the RTH from initiating.
If you were using other than DJI GO, I don`t know.

 

[Reed L]

He does not add to this thread stating that he is using a 3rd party app though. Using the Go app with some third party apps has been known to do this.
Have you tried to analyze his flight log?

I did look at his flight logs but honestly, I am too new to find any different diagnosis from yours myself and it would be good to know if he is using the go app and if it is 1.6 because this would be a good start to proving that the problem isn't just with 3rd party apps with birds on the 1.6 firmware. I mean, he is only a mile+ out and with all of the connection loss notifications over 3 seconds, one right after the other it also shows that there were signals in between a couple of them like between m & n he would have had signal for 11 seconds right? So I thought of the Autoflight RTH issue and threw it out there for others who know more to think on

We also need to know if he tried atti because according to the email, the problem with RTH is only in P mode I believe

 

[m0j0]

No professional here. You would probably need to download the flight data for a complete analysis. But... The healthy drone explanation for data loss doesn't state that you had complete loss of data. Is it possible that you still had intermittent connection during those reported data loss periods. I have seen others with similar questions learn that they didn't lose connection and were controlling the AC when they didn't think they were.


Phantom 3 Pro / iPad Air 2

 

[Drone Master]

In true reality, It looks like he just wanted to fly it back to china. LOL!! Just Kidding!
All aside though, The analysis of this log by actual times at given altitudes and wind make a difference as well. He did a little flying around the beach and just punched the gas and flew out to the ocean. Ouch! My Battery hurts!! Hehe..

 

[Meta4]

I was flying over the ocean early today and lost both video and data for more than 5 minutes there was no communication between the transmitter and the P3 pro I had a red light on the transmitter very concerned that my P3 never initiated RTH when is supposed to do it after 3 seconds of lost connection This went on for 5 long minutes....I finally got some data back and I did a manual RTH.
Can you please check the healthy drones data to see exactly why this happened

What happened is that your controller lost video and data from your drone but your Phantom still was receiving the signal from your controller.
From 7:42 till 10:32 your drone just sat there wondering when you were going to give it some orders.
You could have used RTH or flown it back into signal range during this time.
The Phantom didn't enter RTH because it was still receiving signal but you just weren't sending any orders.

It's quite normal to lose video signal before your Phantom loses control signal and it's lucky that it works that way because it allows you to initiate RTH.

 

[AIRNUTS]

He does not add to this thread stating that he is using a 3rd party app though. Using the Go app with some third party apps has been known to do this.
Have you tried to analyze his flight log?

Im using the Go app and I did lost connection for wayyyy longer than 3 seconds as I stated before my controller was showing a RED light for a long time, im going to upload the flight video shortly

 

[AIRNUTS]

Looks like you proved the critical error that they found this week on Autoflight that rth isn't working on the platform that you used today either. Was it the go app? -
Critical Issue Discovered | DJI Phantom Forum

Yes Go app

 

[AIRNUTS]

Here is the video
Notice the lost video and data from 4.34 thru 4.36 there is at least 3 minutes missing in time, twilight zone

 

[ukglyn]

I would agree that you never totally lost contact, & that signal was coming & going so never went into RTH, that said though I am far from an expert so could be barking up the wrong tree.

I bet there was a few choice words uttered, & a few twitchy bum moments while you had lost control though, you definitely look pleased to see its return when you hand catch it on the beach.

 

[Meta4]

Here is the video
Notice the lost video and data from 4.34 thru 4.36 there is at least 3 minutes missing in time, twilight zone

Of course there's 3 minutes missing ... that's what you saw on your screen.
We already knew that you had a black screen for three minutes.
That's what the HealthDrones data showed.
There's no mystery or "twilight zone".
The camera kept recording for the missing 3 minutes and if you look at the video recorded on the SD card you'll see everything and in proper detail rather than the reduced resolution you see on your screen.

 

[phneeley]

In this situation (assuming intermittent signal), is it safe to assume that had he turned off the RC the bird would have initiated RTH? Would that have been advisable/not advisable for any reason?

 

[henick]

Can someone clarify this please. What I've learned is this is NOT the best thing to do (but will work) as there is some other procedure that can retain manual control in case it fails. Something to do with C2?

I'm only a month in. Learning fast.

 

[Meta4]

In this situation (assuming intermittent signal), is it safe to assume that had he turned off the RC the bird would have initiated RTH? Would that have been advisable/not advisable for any reason?

Yes, it would have ... his Phantom was just hovering there waiting for some control.
Loss of control signal will trigger RTH.
It's easy to test this and every Phantom owner should properly test RTH so they understand how it works.

 

[John Lo]

I would like to ask if rth triggered, the home point should be in miles away cause u are in the moving object, am i right? If there is true, you are so lucky that u still can get the link back after 3 minutes.

 

[phneeley]

That's what I figured, but wondering if that would have been advisable/best option in this particular scenario, given that intermittent/dropping signal might have precluded a manual RTH input from getting to the bird.

 

[RCFantom]

M

Here is the video
Notice the lost video and data from 4.34 thru 4.36 there is at least 3 minutes missing in time, twilight zone

Good thing you weren't in front of that ship when you went into a hover