First long range, Didnt go as expected.

Joined
Jan 6, 2016
Messages
181
Reaction score
30
Age
33
I made a DIY windsurfer because why not.
I flew 2 rounds, one without and another with the surfer.
First try not to bad flew 1100 feet before loosing signal. It asked me if i wanted rth i said no, since i just flew straight i simply hit the throttle back to me and landed.
Second round i flew 1000 feet and lost signal (The reason why the surfer failed i dont know, my only guess is i used aluminium foil way to cheap/thin).
Here is where it whent wrong.
I hit the throttle back but stupid me i had a brain fart and spun the bird facing me as its coming back (thinking i was on course lock) and didnt take long for me to realize my mistake but at this point i still have no video feed and dont know where its pointing (i do have sight of it).
I decided to trust my rth, i hit it and it said "rth timed out"
Got closer and got a little bit of video feed and and pointed it to me, before i brought it back i decided to hit rth with signal and all and this time it read "rth failed".
I decided to stop fooling and brought it back to me.
Question is why did it fail and has anybody had this happen or similar.

Sidenote. I calibrated compass and since i knew i was gana be flying far i tested the rth and worked fine
 
Well that sure is strange. Did the aircraft have a GPS lock and set its Home Point prior to launch? Was the aircraft flying in P-GPS mode? Were there any compass or other errors during the flight? How did you test the RTH?
 
Yeah, definitely strange. Maybe not related to your issue but a recent firmware bug has surfaced (thanks to 3rd party developers), where the bird may not RTH from signal loss when using a 3rd party app. But it will still RTH in the event of a low battery (If you set it that way).
My furthest so far with my stock Standard is 4000'.
 
Well that sure is strange. Did the aircraft have a GPS lock and set its Home Point prior to launch? Was the aircraft flying in P-GPS mode? Were there any compass or other errors during the flight? How did you test the RTH?
Yes, yes, yes, no errors at all what so ever and the way i tested it was i flew not to far and hit the rth comand to make sure it worked properly and the return area was acurate
 
Yeah, definitely strange. Maybe not related to your issue but a recent firmware bug has surfaced (thanks to 3rd party developers), where the bird may not RTH from signal loss when using a 3rd party app. But it will still RTH in the event of a low battery (If you set it that way).
My furthest so far with my stock Standard is 4000'.
Wow that is impresive. I fly by building so a thousand is as much i get. Ill try in an open area like a park
 
I tried looking at my flight log see if i could get a screeshot of the failed rth attemps but it actually broke down that one flight into 4 logs.
Thats funny i didnt know that's how it worked, my first thought was that log gets saved as full. Second idea is that if drone loses signal and that data is never saved then i would only have 2 logs one being before loosing signal and the other when it came back cause i already had signal. Instead i got like 4 different ones all just random parts. I guess am gana have to start screen recording my flights
 
Wow that is impresive. I fly by building so a thousand is as much i get. Ill try in an open area like a park
Dirkclod had reached over 6000' with his stock before he franken-modded it. :D

I get one flight & one log per battery.
 
  • Like
Reactions: dirkclod
Dirkclod had reached over 6000' with his stock before he franken-modded it. :D

I get one flight & one log per battery.
That was 6,666' thank-you and it's Dixie not Frank :p
That's been beat since then and mine is simple now compared to some I've seen with the amps and extra rc battery's .
As far as those logs I have one that was 2 battery's 2 long trips on one log showing 1 battery . That was a strange looking log .
Image-1.jpg
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Dirty Bird
I have had my P3S for two weeks and have 10 flights so far. I don't know how you guys are getting that kind of range on a standard set up. Flying from my house ( lots of power lines and wi-fi around I could get out to 650'. Then I went to an open field and could not get past 1,000'. I am going to try a windsurfer to see if I can get any more range.
 
I just returned mine as never getting near the advertised distance even in good terrain. Jessops UK were great to deal with and had no problem with me returning it used!

I was going to mod it etc but then it ends up more expensive than a new advanced

Best bit, I bought mine at the pre christmas price so the shop have given me an advanced for a minimal payment.
 
I have had my P3S for two weeks and have 10 flights so far. I don't know how you guys are getting that kind of range on a standard set up. Flying from my house ( lots of power lines and wi-fi around I could get out to 650'. Then I went to an open field and could not get past 1,000'. I am going to try a windsurfer to see if I can get any more range.

So far I have went 1737 feet could have keep going but I chickened out. Tomorrow I am going to do some real stock range testing on the beach. Just purchased my 2nd battery :) So I get to play with my toy for an extra 25 mins or less.
 
  • Like
Reactions: telescott
So far I have went 1737 feet could have keep going but I chickened out. Tomorrow I am going to do some real stock range testing on the beach. Just purchased my 2nd battery :) So I get to play with my toy for an extra 25 mins or less.
You may want to look into the 10 & 10 method to break in new batteries. 10 minute flights for the first 10 flights. ;)
 
Since I'm feeling more comfortable with the RTH, I've been doing some distance testing. From my house, I was about to get to 2100', and I believe I lost the signal because of trees at the end of the road which eventually got in between. Next test will be at my daughter's school, which should have about 3000' feet from one end of the area to the other (multiple schools) where I could have unobstructed signal. I could do 2.5mi at work, but that's over a reservoir and a little scary!
 
Since I'm feeling more comfortable with the RTH, I've been doing some distance testing. From my house, I was about to get to 2100', and I believe I lost the signal because of trees at the end of the road which eventually got in between. Next test will be at my daughter's school, which should have about 3000' feet from one end of the area to the other (multiple schools) where I could have unobstructed signal. I could do 2.5mi at work, but that's over a reservoir and a little scary!
I wish i could tak3 mine to work. I have about 2 other friends with drones but i work at the airport :(
 
Well...it would probably not be a work day :) School had all sorts of people practicing, so I brought it home and did some testing. Got about 2600-2700 ft...need to pull the logs and put them on HealthyDrones. No way I could see it, and had a scare I'm curious about. When it got to the signal lost point, it hovered for about 90seconds before it turned around to come home. And when it did eventually come home, it took until it was almost overhead before signal came back. I could see it visually before the remote (Well DJI app) could.

Thinking that if it just went out of range it should return into range I panicked after a bit and turned the controller off so that may have been when it started back.

Does the DJI app consider loss of video to be loss of signal, or can you lose one and not the other?
 
My record is 4100 ft in an open city park with houses around and 2000 ft in my neighborhood. My P3 standard is running totally stock. Both places have trees, buildings and lots of wifi signals. If you only getting 1000 ft or less you may have a defective bird.
 
Well...it would probably not be a work day :) School had all sorts of people practicing, so I brought it home and did some testing. Got about 2600-2700 ft...need to pull the logs and put them on HealthyDrones. No way I could see it, and had a scare I'm curious about. When it got to the signal lost point, it hovered for about 90seconds before it turned around to come home. And when it did eventually come home, it took until it was almost overhead before signal came back. I could see it visually before the remote (Well DJI app) could.

Thinking that if it just went out of range it should return into range I panicked after a bit and turned the controller off so that may have been when it started back.

Does the DJI app consider loss of video to be loss of signal, or can you lose one and not the other?
Yes. You can lose video and still have complete control of the bird. Especially if many obstructions. That's why light bridge is good. Sending video all the time. If you lose video best to do rth. Better safe than sorry.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app
 
I guess the unknown is did I let go of the stick when the video cut out, which would explain why it stopped. But if I remembered right I think that when I lost video all the telemetry stopped (speed distance etc) which I would assume is coming over the control frequency. Guess I need some better understanding of the architecture. Light bridge would be great if I didn't have a standard. If only the price drop had happened before Christmas. Oh well. It is what it is. At least that's what I tell myself to sleep at night.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app
 
I tried looking at my flight log see if i could get a screeshot of the failed rth attemps but it actually broke down that one flight into 4 logs.
Thats funny i didnt know that's how it worked, my first thought was that log gets saved as full. Second idea is that if drone loses signal and that data is never saved then i would only have 2 logs one being before loosing signal and the other when it came back cause i already had signal. Instead i got like 4 different ones all just random parts. I guess am gana have to start screen recording my flights
Here is my thoughts and from my experiences.
Your mobile device saves the log. When you loose your data and live feed that is the end of your flight log. When your data comes back in even that it is the same flight it starts a new log.

On a Standard if you tap the RTH button on the app. The app is telling the remote control to tell the Phantom to RTH.
But RTH timeout or fail?
The app has no data making it back to the remote. So the app doesn't know what the Phantom is doing. The app is warning you it doesn't know what is going on.

If your really scared you turn off the remote and calmly say "Oh *hit I hope this comes back" 5 times. It should then be headed back. If you turn the remote back on when it gets close enough your data and live feed should show back, keep in mind the mobile device maybe stubborn and try to lock on to a different WIFI.

When RTH is active I get a readout it at the top of the app (if I have data coming in) displaying distance away. I had been flying on real windy day, into the wind some trees got between us and RTH activated. The wind was gusting so strong that it couldn't get back to me the distance was getting smaller then it started getting larger I couldn't see it because of trees. It actually was blowing it past me. It kept trying and finally it made it. Short flight and used a lot of battery.
 

Members online

No members online now.

Forum statistics

Threads
143,066
Messages
1,467,358
Members
104,936
Latest member
hirehackers