HELP! LOST PHANTOM!

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So, bought the Phantom yesterday and made about five successful test flights. Today we started it up, and the green and yellow lights were blinking. Went through the procedure to set the compass. Green and yellow lights were still blinking. Powered it up, and instantly lost control. It flew high and far away and disappeared. When we lost it in the sky, we shut off the transmitter, hoping it would return home. It didn't. Had a GoPro3 with Wifi onboard.

What happened?
 
"Working in IOC mode (Course Lock), no matter what's the direction the drone is pointing at, you control it just like standing behind the drone, you pull back elevator stick, it will come back to home point.
(Yellow Green -Yellow Green - Yellow Green and keep looping)"

That quote is from the phantom site http://www.helipal.com/dji-phantom-gps-drone-rtf.html

Nice grammar.

Sounds like it never set a home point, continuous green, found satellites (should have had some initial red flashes) and maybe not fully warmed up yet (continuous yellow). Also, its not obvious in the minimal support material from Dji but you have to hook up the phantom to your PC only computer, download the NAZA controller software to calibrate your quad, and to set up home and course lock. It really is pitiful how poor the manuals are for this device given the amount of money they cost and the potentially dangerous or destructive outcomes for the noob.

All the users of this site feel your pain.
 
Thanks. We didn't update the firmware, so I'm not sure what green with some blinking yellow means. That thing just took off though, lost into woods and farmlands.
 
Some people that had their Go pro wifi turned on experienced fly aways, so DJI posted to make sure you turn it off to avoid conflicts.

Just a rule of thumb, if the lights aren't blinking correctly, don't try to fly your quad.
 
really sorry to hear.
hopefully you had your name and number attached to it?

if not.. put up reward signs all around the neighborhood, within a 3 mile perimiter
contact your local authorities to report a missing copter (you never know).
and then pray. :|

sadly,DJI doesn't do such a good job of strongly informing it's users of the perils..(such a leaving Wifi turned off, tightening nuts, flying with solid home lock/GPS)
and users often miss important steps to preventing bad stuff from happening.
 
Not sure if this would have made a difference- but I have found that you really need to be careful to make sure the Phantom has acquired a good GPS Home Position before flying it. This means you need to wait until the yellow flashing lights stop as it warms up, and then that the Green Green Red Red Red pattern changes to a Green Green that indicates it has acquired a GPS signal and position. The more red lights remain, the poorer is the GPS fix.

I don't fly mine unless I have only one or no red lights flashing, indicating that I have good or reasonable GPS coverage. This can be tough if you're in a deep valley where GPS signals are poor.

I have also found that if I have a problem in GPS mode, or some other weird problem, it usually clears up if I switch to ATTI mode. Normally, if I do this, it doesn't affect the homing function.
 
Never thought of having my name and phone number on my Phantom- but that really is a good idea!
 
FrankB said:
Never thought of having my name and phone number on my Phantom- but that really is a good idea!

DJI should supply labels so users can attach info,. just like what comes with luggage.
I printed out my name and contact and used thick clear tape to attach mine.
some people write their info on their Lipo's.

and just the other week, one guy lost his Phantom in the ocean, but miraculously his GoPro washed ashore a week later (in it's waterproof housing) and was returned to him because he had his info attached to it as well.
 
I don't get it. Your Phantom took off without you initiating the motors to start??

So you plugged in your lipo, you kept seeing, green yellow, green yellow, green yellow and without you initiating the motors to start, it just took off? ****, that's pretty crazy. Sorry to hear that happened.
 

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