How to avoid loosing another drone....

[The Goshawk]

Greetings,
Today I was flying our fence line of 40+ acres with a phantom 3 pro just for the view and looking at our expecting cows. I went north a couple of hundred yards above some timberlands just to use up some battery life, when at 53% I got a "low battery voltage. Landing now" message. About this time my return to home button turned into a red X and was not available. I tried to turn the drone south to head back to field, but the visual locked up and became highly pixelated to the point of seeing nothing useful for direction. I pushed for altitude and made my best guess for south only to receive one last pixelated view of trees.
I went cross country to try and get a better signal but it was and is lost.
So,
I will be replacing this drone since we have gotten used to using it as a camera and tool around the house and property. What I want to avoid is another lost one. Is there some way of tracking via GPS that would give me the location of a drone with low battery voltage issues?
Thanks for reading.

 

[dirkclod]

Welcome to the forum and hate your troubles .
One of our members will be along shortly and
have you download and post your info and hopefully
you‘ll find your drone and what happened.

 

[The Goshawk]

I appreciate the thought, but I'm pretty sure it's "gone on to a better place" as it were. As with all things electronic, these things happen sometimes. The trick is not to be repeating it!

 

[dirkclod]

Might be but without posting your flight logs/dat file we won’t know what happened.

How to retrieve a .DAT

datfile.net

 

[The Goshawk]

You sure have my attention. I'm powering it up now.

 

[The Goshawk]

I'm unable to locate any 'DAT information on my controller. No idea where that is located. I can find the "flight data (all)" list, but when I click on my last flight it just says "loading", but never loads anything, even after several minutes. I know my "show flight route" has always been turned on. Nothing quite as expensive as learning by braille.

 

[TroyIrl]

I tried to turn the drone south to head back to field, but the visual locked up and became highly pixelated to the point of seeing nothing useful for direction. I pushed for altitude and made my best guess for south only to receive one last pixelated view of trees.

If you turn on Smart home in the app it draws a line between you and the craft when you switch from camera view to map view. It also shows the drone as a triangle and if you still have control you can turn the craft and point it homeward bound without needing to use land marks as references.

Hope this helps

 

[The Goshawk]

If you turn on Smart home in the app it draws a line between you and the craft when you switch from camera view to map view. It also shows the drone as a triangle and if you still have control you can turn the craft and point it homeward bound without needing to use land marks as references.

Hope this helps

Once I had the "Critically low voltage. Aircraft will land" message, that command option was not available. It turned into a red button with an X across it.

 

[The Goshawk]

I thought my recorded flights would provide a path to go back over, but none of them will load. See Pic.

 

[bsartist]

With respect to your question, you could look into the Marco Polo tracking system.

 

[dirkclod]

I thought my recorded flights would provide a path to go back over, but none of them will load. See Pic.

So you click on your last flight and you get nothing.
@Meta4 @sar104 @BudWalker should be on shortly
and will see this and can guide you.

 

[Drone Freedom27]

Goshawk you can click your last flight there on the right it should bring up a map and video recording of you flying the drone also should have coordinates I know cause my dad uses the Dji Go app for his phantom 3 pro you should be able to find the last location of your drone or a rough estimate of its location that's better than nothing.

I thought my recorded flights would provide a path to go back over, but none of them will load. See Pic.

 

[The Goshawk]

Correct. It just says "loading" but nothing ever loads. None of my past 20+ flights will load. I'm heading off to bed, so thanks to all. I'll check back tomorrow, but it will be late as I'm Pacific time.

 

[The Goshawk]

With respect to your question, you could look into the Marco Polo tracking system.

With respect to your question, you could look into the Marco Polo tracking system.

Got it.
Thanks,
Gos

 

[The Goshawk]

Goshawk you can click your last flight there on the right it should bring up a map and video recording of you flying the drone also should have coordinates I know cause my dad uses the Dji Go app for his phantom 3 pro you should be able to find the last location of your drone or a rough estimate of its location that's better than nothing.

That's what I thought too, but none of them will load. Of course I only need the last one to work but it just says "Loading", but never loads up. I've stopped and restarted at least 5 times with no improvement. A great idea, so thanks for thinking of it. It looks like my system never was working properly in that respect.

 

[Meta4]

That's what I thought too, but none of them will load. Of course I only need the last one to work but it just says "Loading", but never loads up. I've stopped and restarted at least 5 times with no improvement. A great idea, so thanks for thinking of it. It looks like my system never was working properly in that respect.

Go to DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help
Follow the instructions there to upload your flight record from your phone or tablet.
That will give you a detailed report of the flight.
Come back and post a link to the report it gives you.
With a little luck, we'll be able to help you with a GPS location for your Phantom and some insight into the battery issue.

 

[Deleted member 62848]

Yip as post #10 metion,,did you try sync your flight with cloud, it might let you watch it back then I think ? I know for some reason some last flights dont show cause flight ended suddenly but bit unsure here,,I did have auto land with p3s other day at 50 odd% battery but could cancel with × on screen..just wondering does p3p have esc beeping like p4 does,,if battery still in and on turn it on in the app,,,its called esc beeping,,it makes drone make loud find me noise

 

[Deleted member 62848]

Correct. It just says "loading" but nothing ever loads. None of my past 20+ flights will load. I'm heading off to bed, so thanks to all. I'll check back tomorrow, but it will be late as I'm Pacific time.

Do you sync your flights with cloud at top right of screen,if not they wont load...if flights aren't synced with cloud they wont load...you growth of value should grow each time you sync a new flight,, if you are syncing to the cloud uninstall the app and reinstall it that should bring it right but you will get new playstore app update,,,,,,,,,,,,! Some dont like to update when things work fine,,your choice on that

 

[The Goshawk]

Yip as post #10 metion,,did you try sync your flight with cloud, it might let you watch it back then I think ? I know for some reason some last flights dont show cause flight ended suddenly but bit unsure here,,I did have auto land with p3s other day at 50 odd% battery but could cancel with × on screen..just wondering does p3p have esc beeping like p4 does,,if battery still in and on turn it on in the app,,,its called esc beeping,,it makes drone make loud find me noise

Cloud sync also does not load. It hovers at 65% and never goes beyond that.

 

[DroneB]

This is one of the reasons for VLOS (visual line of sight) regulations. Mine disconnected once, no screen view and I couldn't restart it. Thought I was flying toward me, instead it was flying the other way. Now I always practice VLOS and enhance that with Firehouse strobe lights.