Dodged a bullet today…

[zeldon50]

Flew from my front yard about 1/4 mile down the road (lots of trees) to a big open field. For the first time ever I got a low transmission signal warning and then immediately an Aircraft disconnected message. I waited for a few seconds thinking return to home will initiate. When it didn't, I pressed the return to home button. I did not get a verbal message telling me it was coming home, but the return to home button is blinking and making a ticking sound like it usually does. After 15 minutes of waiting, I knew it wasn't. Needless to say I freaked out a little bit. I hopped in my car and tore off towards the field. When I got there, there was my drone sitting in the middle of the field. It was in some tall grass; nevertheless the gimbal was absolutely fine.
I checked my return to home settings and make sure that it was set to return to home and not hover in place. So my question is why did it not initiate return to home when it lost signal? Am I confused or is that what it is supposed to do? I have manually initiated return to home in the past, but this is the first time that I ever lost signal.
When I got back to my house, I flew it up to about 100 feet and then have to return the home button. Voice said coming home and it started flying back towards me, so I know that the function is working properly. Any thoughts on this would be helpful. Thanks!

 

[Meta4]

So my question is why did it not initiate return to home when it lost signal? Am I confused or is that what it is supposed to do? I have manually initiated return to home in the past, but this is the first time that I ever lost signal.

Lots of mysteries are solved by looking at the recorded flight data. WIthout that people will only be guessing.
Go to DJI Flight Log Viewer
Follow the instructions to upload your flight record.
Come back and post a link to the report it provides and someone might be able to analyse it and give you an understanding of the cause of the incident.

 

[John Locke]

If you have lost signal to the drone it cannot obey any commands from RC to RTH, however it should have initiated it by itself it you have the setting correctly set, instead of "hover" or "land", which I think are the other two options instead of RTH. Disconnect can sometimes mean video. Look at your radio bars if that happens. If your transmit icon has bars, you still have control signal connection, so the best thing to do is ascend to higher altitude to regain the video connection, not push RTH, IMO.

 

[KevMo Photog]

Def must have been set to hover or land in the RTH mode I'm guessing! Plus what John said. Anytime I start getting transmission signal losses I start climbing some and also try diff angles of the bird as well.

 

[DaRana]

Yikes, that's scary. Hope you are able to determine the root cause. Having your confidence shaken in the AC's reliability/performance really sucks.

 

[zeldon50]

Thanks for all the replies! I double checked all my settings and it was definitely set to return to home. Some other interesting things – I took the memory card out of the drone and watched the video that I was recording at the time this happened. As soon as the drone lost signal it stopped its forward movement. It hovered in place for 5 to 10 seconds and then immediately begin landing. After it landed, it continued recording for about six or seven more minutes. When I picked up the drone, it still had a solid single bar on the battery, which I believe means that there was 25% left.
What I want to do is attempt to make the drone disconnect in a controlled situation (like my front yard). Can I simply turn off the controller to simulate a lost transmission signal?

 

[Pharm]

Thanks for all the replies! I double checked all my settings and it was definitely set to return to home. Some other interesting things – I took the memory card out of the drone and watched the video that I was recording at the time this happened. As soon as the drone lost signal it stopped its forward movement. It hovered in place for 5 to 10 seconds and then immediately begin landing. After it landed, it continued recording for about six or seven more minutes. When I picked up the drone, it still had a solid single bar on the battery, which I believe means that there was 25% left.
What I want to do is attempt to make the drone disconnect in a controlled situation (like my front yard). Can I simply turn off the controller to simulate a lost transmission signal?

Yes, you can. Just make sure it's at least 20 m away or it'll land where it is. Also, please upload and post a link to your logs as requested in post #2.

 

[John Locke]

Thanks for all the replies! I double checked all my settings and it was definitely set to return to home. Some other interesting things – I took the memory card out of the drone and watched the video that I was recording at the time this happened. As soon as the drone lost signal it stopped its forward movement. It hovered in place for 5 to 10 seconds and then immediately begin landing. After it landed, it continued recording for about six or seven more minutes. When I picked up the drone, it still had a solid single bar on the battery, which I believe means that there was 25% left.
What I want to do is attempt to make the drone disconnect in a controlled situation (like my front yard). Can I simply turn off the controller to simulate a lost transmission signal?

I would only do this test in an open field where the launch site has at least 30' clear in all directions to land, in case is has to land at the take off point. To test, yes you can turn off the radio, but as Pharm said make sure craft is at least 65' away, in fact make it 100' away. If it was me, I'd take it out about 300' to give more time to return. When you see it returning you can turn the RC back on to take control instead of auto land. Check your RTH return height too. I think the default is 30 meters if you haven't changed it. That should be OK, but if you're flying higher than the 30m setting, it will return at the present height the craft is flying.

You should upload your flight record to msinger's log program. See what was recorded in the log and then ask DJI to explain it. RTH should have worked. You must have that working in emergencies when you accidentally slip behind a building or mountain. RTH is absolutely essential.

 

[zeldon50]

Lots of mysteries are solved by looking at the recorded flight data. WIthout that people will only be guessing.
Go to DJI Flight Log Viewer
Follow the instructions to upload your flight record.
Come back and post a link to the report it provides and someone might be able to analyse it and give you an understanding of the cause of the incident.

Lots of mysteries are solved by looking at the recorded flight data. WIthout that people will only be guessing.
Go to DJI Flight Log Viewer
Follow the instructions to upload your flight record.
Come back and post a link to the report it provides and someone might be able to analyse it and give you an understanding of the cause of the incident.

Hi-
I am Happy to do this; however I am using a Crystalsky monitor. Are there instructions somewhere for accessing the files on this device?

 

[Meta4]

I am Happy to do this; however I am using a Crystalsky monitor. Are there instructions somewhere for accessing the files on this device?

Yes ... at the bottom of the page here: DJI Flight Log Viewer

 

[bdooley]

Just s thought. One of the first times I tried the RTH by pressing the button on the controller, may Phantom tried landing in place. I freaked out because it was trying to land in a forest but eventually figured out how to take control and bring it back. But it did not take long for me to figure out that I must have pressed the land button instead of RTH. Any chance this is what happened to you? I have not looked at flight logs much yet but I would guess you could see which button was pressed in your flight log.

 

[Meta4]

Just s thought. One of the first times I tried the RTH by pressing the button on the controller, may Phantom tried landing in place. I freaked out because it was trying to land in a forest but eventually figured out how to take control and bring it back. But it did not take long for me to figure out that I must have pressed the land button instead of RTH. Any chance this is what happened to you? I have not looked at flight logs much yet but I would guess you could see which button was pressed in your flight log.

That's one possibility but another possible explanation is ....
How far away from home was the Phantom when tou initiated RTH?
If it is less than 20 metres away, the Phantom will simply land where it is.
You need to be >20 metres away for RTH to work normally.

 

[Peio64270]

Hi-
I am Happy to do this; however I am using a Crystalsky monitor. Are there instructions somewhere for accessing the files on this device?

I would be more interesting to look at the .DAT file stored in the drone itself in order to get the complete story...

 

[John Locke]

Just s thought. One of the first times I tried the RTH by pressing the button on the controller, may Phantom tried landing in place. I freaked out because it was trying to land in a forest but eventually figured out how to take control and bring it back. But it did not take long for me to figure out that I must have pressed the land button instead of RTH. Any chance this is what happened to you? I have not looked at flight logs much yet but I would guess you could see which button was pressed in your flight log.

There is no "LAND" button on the RC. That only exists in the Go4 app on your tablet. If you pushed the RTH physical button on the RC, I'm betting you were within 20m like Meta4 suggests.

 

[Meta4]

Yes ... the only Land button is a screen button.
There's none of the controller

 

[zeldon50]

Just s thought. One of the first times I tried the RTH by pressing the button on the controller, may Phantom tried landing in place. I freaked out because it was trying to land in a forest but eventually figured out how to take control and bring it back. But it did not take long for me to figure out that I must have pressed the land button instead of RTH. Any chance this is what happened to you? I have not looked at flight logs much yet but I would guess you could see which button was pressed in your flight log.

Thanks for the thoughts, but when the screen said aircraft disconnected, no input on my part from the RC would have been received by the bird. Even if I did accidently hit the land button, it would not have been received by the drone.