Find My Phantom feature

[RedRyderMedia]

Find My Phantom - the User Manual is less than helpful on this feature.

Does anyone know how this feature works? I understand it uses GPS for the location, but where do the maps come from? Does this feature require a data service, or are the maps stored in firmware on the Phantom? Or Are they In the DJI app on your iPhone/iPad/Android device?

I've been playing with it before takeoff and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Has anyone found a reliable way to get it to work while you know where your Phantom is and just want to make sure the Phantom thinks it's at the same location? My interest is trying to prevent flyaways.

My experience is it's been very unreliable. Sometimes it does find itself, other times it finds a previous flight location (this one worries me!), and sometimes (usually!) it finds nothing.

 

[kgarrison]

You have to have a data service and you still need to be in communication with your Phantom. If you have lost video signal then you are screwed on this feature.

 

[RedRyderMedia]

You have to have a data service and you still need to be in communication with your Phantom. If you have lost video signal then you are screwed on this feature.

If you need a data service, does this feature not work if you're not near a cellphone tower?

 

[jaykay2PT]

You have to have a data service and you still need to be in communication with your Phantom. If you have lost video signal then you are screwed on this feature.

Actually, Google Maps lets you download a chunk of map for off-line use, so you can still use the "find my phantom" feature when you are off line, (well you can on a Nexus 7) but I do agree with the OP, the info on this is sparse.

 

[RedRyderMedia]

You have to have a data service and you still need to be in communication with your Phantom. If you have lost video signal then you are screwed on this feature.

Actually, Google Maps lets you download a chunk of map for off-line use, so you can still use the "find my phantom" feature when you are off line, (well you can on a Nexus 7) but I do agree with the OP, the info on this is sparse.

Have you tried this and know it works? I know you can download maps for use offline, but will the Phantom use that map to Find My Phantom?

 

[RedRyderMedia]

Bump

 

[Madwak]

Yes.

 

[ChuckMRN]

This is what I use. It will work in conjunction with Back Country Nav for Topos you down load at home, or Google Maps. I haven't verified that it will work in a place with no cell reception yet. TAGG Pet Tracker. About $100 and a monthly fee. Use it for the dog too when we go places .

 

[RedRyderMedia]

This is what I use. It will work in conjunction with Back Country Nav for Topos you down load at home, or Google Maps. I haven't verified that it will work in a place with no cell reception yet. TAGG Pet Tracker. About $100 and a monthly fee. Use it for the dog too when we go places .

I looked at that, but it requires a monthly service contract of some kind. I want to use the Find My Phantom feature BEFORE I LOSE IT. I want to make sure the Phantom knows where it is when it is with me. Then I know it will try to come back to me rather than fly away.

 

[doug86]

This is what I use. It will work in conjunction with Back Country Nav for Topos you down load at home, or Google Maps. I haven't verified that it will work in a place with no cell reception yet. TAGG Pet Tracker. About $100 and a monthly fee. Use it for the dog too when we go places .

I looked at that, but it requires a monthly service contract of some kind. I want to use the Find My Phantom feature BEFORE I LOSE IT. I want to make sure the Phantom knows where it is when it is with me. Then I know it will try to come back to me rather than fly away.

The "Find my Phantom" feature really isn't related to the Return to Home feature. If your phantom is going to come back to you automatically, it will fly to what ever is recorded as the "home point" in it's memory. Of course, if it loses the GPS signal, it can't fly to that place.

all Find my Phantom does is show the last KNOWN Lat/Lon that your Phantom transmitted via telemetry to the phone app. Your phone can force that Lat/Lon to display on a map like Google Maps. If your Phantom loses it's GPS signal and goes off on a safari and lands miles away from the last know position (or ,you lose the wifi connection) then Find My Phantom will not know where your Phantom is, only where it was at the time you lost connection...
Hope that helps

 

[PhilAnderson]

Find My Phantom - the User Manual is less than helpful on this feature.

Does anyone know how this feature works? I understand it uses GPS for the location, but where do the maps come from? Does this feature require a data service, or are the maps stored in firmware on the Phantom? Or Are they In the DJI app on your iPhone/iPad/Android device?

I've been playing with it before takeoff and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Has anyone found a reliable way to get it to work while you know where your Phantom is and just want to make sure the Phantom thinks it's at the same location? My interest is trying to prevent flyaways.

My experience is it's been very unreliable. Sometimes it does find itself, other times it finds a previous flight location (this one worries me!), and sometimes (usually!) it finds nothing.

I have done this before, but because of your post, I tried it again. Here is how it works for me:

I was flying in a park about three miles from my house, yesterday. Today, while at home, Phantom securely locked in it's case, battery removed, I opened the app and clicked on Find My Phantom. It shows the spot on a map in the park where the Phantom was last turned on. Not just the park in general, but the exact location in the park.

I get from this, the lost Phantom does not need to be on, running or anything else. It just records the last known location when it was on and relays that location to the app. Or, the app itself is recording the location, don't know which.

I may not totally understand this feature, but I think it is recording it's location continuously and stops recording when turned off or the battery goes dead.

Like I said, I've done this before and that time it was at a school playground and it showed me the part of the playground where the phantom was when I turned it off.

 

[4wd]

It seems to record the co-ordinates and when your phone or tablet is on data or wifi later it shows the spot it was turned off quite accurately.
It isn't clear to me which map it is using, often there are very few features shown when zoomed in, which could be unhelpful.
It doesn't look like the normal google maps.

 

[Dadcat]

Saving a map for offline use in Google Maps doesn't work, at least not on my Nexus 7 or iPhone 5. On the iPhone the app seems to be using Apple Maps anyway.

Open up "Find My Phantom 2 Vision" while do you have an internet connection (like before you leave home). It saves the map in memory. You probably shouldn't power off the device before you're done flying. The app saves the last location of the Vision that it saw, even if there isn't a map loaded, so you can open the map later when you have a data connection to see the location.

 

[GeoffJ]

It would only record the last position it had contact with the remote wouldn't it?
After that it was on it's own, out of contact and unable to tell anyone where it was.

 

[Mark The Droner]

Yep. But if the craft goes down and the battery stays intact, you could venture to the area last known with your controller on, and you may re-initiate contact via the RC and get a better position.

 

[dirkclod]

As far as losing signal and this happen about a week ago I lost my Vision . I had messed up and cut my tracker off so tried this feature
with the controller on and found it here Now I had a 1 year old with me and couldn't go in and get it so just left .
I checked from my house several hours latter and saw it and me at home went back without my TX and parked here
Then walked ,chopped and fell in to here and there it was .
Not sure how it works but did . I still had enough battery left for it to send the signal I guess .

 

[Mako79]

Just to clear things up.
Provided the phantom has accurate GPS and the Range extender (RE700) has communication with the wifi module, the phantom will ping back location to your smart device via the 2.4ghz wifi data stream. If you slide over to ground station mode, you can see the phantoms position is updated at all times. This means the Phantom is always sending back its location. Losing FPV doesn't always mean loss of data. You can still get the telemetry as the bandwidth for telemetry is a lot smaller than video. The problem is when your data stream completely breaks and your device is no longer updated with the Phantoms location. Eg over a hill or distant too far or a collision where the phantom powers off. Find my phantom just looks at the last known communicated location and just provides lats/longitude data to your device.

 

[dirkclod]

In that Mako after I got home extender and TX was off . Battery in drone still had power though . Is that why I still saw it or was that location just saved in my app .

 

[yorlik]

I'm more confused than before! First, glad you found it!

But

1) you saw the crash location before you left the area.
2) you went home and it displayed your home, not the crash site
3) you went back BUT said "went back without my TX." So with no RE700,

HOW THE HECK DID THE CRASH SITE SHOW UP AGAIN?

 

[dirkclod]

I'm more confused than before! First, glad you found it!

But

1) you saw the crash location before you left the area.
2) you went home and it displayed your home, not the crash site
3) you went back BUT said "went back without my TX." So with no RE700,

HOW THE HECK DID THE CRASH SITE SHOW UP AGAIN?

# 1..Yes but couldn't leave little boy in truck .
# 2...Yes and it showed me at home in blue and site as that red pin .
# 3.. Correct .
I have no clue what made it do that as it was my first time using it for real . I did notice after about 4 hour's that red pin went from solid red
to starting to blink . Guess cause battery was getting low . It did get me back my Vision though however it worked .
Here is the thread where I show what happened Mia done took off again :-O