I am currently using a handful of Phantom 4 Pro V2 to do stockpile measurements using MapPilot to fly the drones. The day before Thanksgiving one of our pilots hot the home button when the battery gave him a warning at 30%, he stated that the drone stopped, turned toward him, then flew away from him (straight South) for about a mile and half, then hovered. However, it stopped recording any information that I can see during its normal flight, I'm assuming this was when he hit the home button. We have looked everywhere that he thought it might have initiated an autoland procedure, but no luck. I'm hoping that someone with more knowledge than me can look at the data and give me some leads on where this thing might be. Here is a link to the AirData: https://app.airdata.com/share/xGWuth
Help with lost Phantom 4 Pr0 V2
- Thread starter Cory51
- Start date
There is nothing abnormal in this flight data. There was no "battery" warning at 30% ( according to this file ). The battery was at 28% when you apparently lost signal. Also, there is no RTH in this file. The last transmitted co-ordinace was 46.8195819,-100.9561045. On another note, I do not see in this file where the home point was ever established at any time during the flight which is odd. Since I know nothing about how Map Pilot operates, I can only assume that the aircraft used a previous home point from a different mission, being that I do not see the establishment of one. If the aircraft did indeed initiate RTH, it is not noted in the file and all indications are of a normal flight, other than the oddity of no home point. Bottom line is, personally I really do not know where to direct you with this very limited data set. On a side note, is it possible that you have a device .dat file? As opposed to the synced .csv? That may provide additional information.
Thank you for the reply, I believe the RTH functionality and low battery warnings are handled by the Go4 app, even though it is closed. The last flight for this drone was about 30 miles to the North of this one, and the pilot states he could see the drone taking off to the South on the MapPilot app. I will upload the .dat file when I get back to the office
Low battery warnings possibly. But the RTH functionality is stored on board the aircraft. It must have a "home point" to initiate RTH when full signal is lost in order to know where to return to when initiated. Otherwise, it would would return to the last home point recorded on board.
I cannot find a file from 11-21-18 from the device, so it must not have recorded anything from this flight, but here is the .dat file from the previous day and from a few days later with another drone.
Files from other flights or other drones do not help matters. FLY 043 is useless information. FLY012 has compass issues but it is a different location so it is also useless.
Open the DJI go app and click on the three bars in the top right corner and a drop down menu will appear. Select find my drone and it will show you the last location of your drone. You can also used maps on the iPhone to take you directly to it.
No - it won't do that if the GO app was not used for the flight in question.
We did try using the find my drone function, and if I remember correctly it either showed the last location recorded in the flight log, or the home point in the gravel pit. I’m starting to wonder if maybe it landed at those last known coordinates, but we were focused on looking for it to the South and missed it. Merry Christmas everyone!
It appears to me that the app simply crashed (perhaps when RTH was pressed), or at least it stopped logging. You said that the operator described it turning and then flying off over a mile. Did he get that information from the app at the time (i.e. was it still functioning)? If the connection was lost it should have returned to the home point, but no home point information is recorded in the log.
Yes he said he could still see it on the screen in the MapPilot App, he thought it flew about 1.5 miles straight South and hovered there until it lost connection. I have searched that area extensively and can not find it.
I use MapPilot from time to time so intend to test this. I usually open up in Go4 to run through my pre-flight checks. If you are opening up in MP, how do you cover off IMU and compass check? I would also look for home point setting within Go4. As I say, I don’t know if Go4, followed by MP would help but at least it enables pre-flights to be carried out.
According to MapPilot the correct procedure is to open up DJI Go4 and set the home point/make sure the drone is prepared to fly/set your camera setting, then force close DJI Go 4 and open up Map Pilot to fly your mission. They told me that having Go 4 running in the background can cause issues.
In my case starting to wonder if the battery fell out and the drone dropped at its last known location. I plan on looking out there when some of the snow melts.
In my case starting to wonder if the battery fell out and the drone dropped at its last known location. I plan on looking out there when some of the snow melts.
Meta4
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If the Go app is closed, it can't have any effect on your drone's flight.
RTH is baked into the Phantom and does not come from the Go app.
That's how it can work when there is no connection to the controller.
Low battery levels come from the aircraft which relays them to whatever app you are flying with.
It appears that Map Pilot doesn't display the homepoint separately in the data like most other programs do but it's obvious that a home point was recorded.
It shows a starting location (home) and for each 1/10th of a second it gives a new location and a calculated distance back to home.
The distances start at zero and after 10 seconds of ascending the distance from home is 3 feet.
There is no evidence of an old home point being used (this can't happen anyway).
They are correct telling you to only have one app running but there's no need to set a home point in DJI Go before closing and opening Map Pilot.
Your Phantom will record the home point itself automatically, even with no app or connection to the controller.
That doesn't fit with the description of the incident from the pilot and the coincidence of losing a battery at the same time as initiating RTH seems unlikely.
There are a few things in the initial description that don't quite add up, which isn't all that unusual but it shows that some of the clues cannot be relied upon to be accurate.
No-one can see a Phantom at 1.5 miles well enough to tell that it's stopped and hovering.
The recorded flight data should not stop when RTH is initiated.
Any RTH activity should be part of the recorded flight data.
If his comment about flying to the south was correct, that eliminates drifting with the wind in atti as an explanation.
Meta4
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Is there really any need to check anything about the compass or IMU other than any warnings in your app or flashing lights?
When your Phantom gets a GPS location fix, it records a home point.
There's no need to check in DJI Go.
Whatever app you are flying with will display your distance from the recorded home point.
Simply check that the displayed distance is about right when you launch.
I disagree. The "starting point" was Waypoint 1. Not the launch point.
Not that I saw. Again....the "starting point"....
This is also possible. Unlikely I grant you but it can happen and has. This can happen when first launching without an established home point. The "last" home point recorded is in the aircraft. Launching in ATTI mode for a flight will keep the old home point as it was, unless switching to P-GPS and establishing a new point.
This is all really mute points, unless unlike myself, you have experience with Map Pilot.......Personally, I have no idea how it operates.
