Lost my drone...for 15 minutes

If you do a search on IMU error, you'll find several posts about it. Here is just one:

http://www.phantompilots.com/threads/imu-error-recalibrate.41563/

Weird thing is it acted like normal once I reconnected to it after losing it. I think that straight line jump from the end of the arc is the drift it did after I lost signal. The end of that straight line is where I reconnected when I find it.

No IMU error is NOT normal.
The posts you've found (If the one you've linked to is anything to go by) are from people who don't even know what an IMU calibrations are or how to do it. I'd therefore ignore anything they say.

There were many reports of IMU calibration errors for quite some time now. It's why people have been putting them in the fridge. I calibrated last week roughly 10 miles from here, so I don't think a compass calibration would be necessary.
People putting phantoms in the fridge before calibration is so the calibration is effective from a colder temp. Meaning less delay when you turn it on as it only needs to warm up to a lower temp. It has nothing to do with any IMU error or a need to calibrate it more often than you should.
 
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No IMU error is NOT normal.
The posts you've found (If the one you've linked to is anything to go by) are from people who don't even know what an IMU calibration are or how to do it. I'd therefore ignore anything they say.
Comments like these are so unhelpful. The original post is the exact same error that I have received on several occasions since updating firmware. Many other people have experienced it as well. The forums are full of people with this error. How others respond to people experiencing this error is irrelevant. Let's not get side tracked.
 
Comments like these are so unhelpful. The original post is the exact same error that I have received on several occasions since updating firmware. Many other people have experienced it as well. The forums are full of people with this error. How others respond to people experiencing this error is irrelevant. Let's not get side tracked.

Sorry but I (respectfully) disagree. I think it IS useful to challenge what could be misinformation. Posting things like "I got the normal IMU error but ignored it and flew anyway as its a known error" is worse. As it can (as you found) cause "flyaways" looks like your drone went over quite a major road there. Could have been serious if it came down there.

I've never had any errors or flyaways, now I'm not saying this is purely skill or knowledge. It may indeed be luck and I got a good one, however if/when I do get an error I WILL NOT FLY until I am sure of the cause of it and have taken steps to remove the cause.
 
I recalibrated it as I was instructed by the dji flight app. I did not ignore it. You clearly picked what you wanted out of my post to make an incorrect assumption. Just because you haven't experienced it nor know about it doesn't make it misinformation. Many others have experienced it, including myself. You are not the be all end all for flight experience. Please move along since you aren't helping anything and are only distracting from the real issue.
 
The fact that the GPS "hops" to that spot leads me to believe something is awry with the satellite positioning (on that flight) or the flight recording. You say you picked up tx/rx signal after you drove, and were able to pull it back in from where it really was - and it really was where it said it was on the map at that point...so that big arc I am assuming is not the true flight path. Is it more likely it lifted off and made a lesser curved beeline towards that spot or did you have visual for any of this?
 
The fact that the GPS "hops" to that spot leads me to believe something is awry with the satellite positioning (on that flight) or the flight recording.
The data shown is from his phone/tablet and thus cannot record data when the P3 is out of range. The jump is because the connection was lost and the P3 moved in between when the connection was lost and when he re-established the connection after driving to catch up with the P3.

To me it looks like the P3 was already flying away even before the RTH was hit and it continued on the same trajectory through the connection drop. What I don't understand is why it stopped the fly away. Once the connection was re-established it seemed like it was heading back toward the true home point
 
The data shown is from his phone/tablet and thus cannot record data when the P3 is out of range. The jump is because the connection was lost and the P3 moved in between when the connection was lost and when he re-established the connection after driving to catch up with the P3.

To me it looks like the P3 was already flying away even before the RTH was hit and it continued on the same trajectory through the connection drop. What I don't understand is why it stopped the fly away. Once the connection was re-established it seemed like it was heading back toward the true home point
thank you for the reply. the short line at the end where it appeared to be heading home is where i had hit RTH a second time. in my excitement at having regained connection, i hastily hit it thinking that was my best option. once i realized that i had a "real" connection and could control it again, i decided to just fly it back to me and land it.
it looks like, based on behavior and nothing else, that it switched to ATTI mode once i lost connection and drifted from the end of the arc to the point at the end of the line where i had finally reconnected to it. once i reconnected, it seemed to fly as if it were under GPS control and like nothing weird had ever happened.
 
Yes switching to ATTI mode can and has helped people recover control of the aircraft when GPS and compass had conflicting data. It's always worth a shot to use if something goes awry
thank you for the reply. i was thinking about this after you had responded. we have a tough choice to make at that point. if we put it ATTI mode, we may be able to gain control again but we lose GPS tracking so we aren't able to locate it once we lose contact. if i switch to ATTI and i still don't have control, do i instantly begin to receive GPS tracking once i switch back to GPS mode? GPS tracking sure saved me in this situation.
 
Had all you've said with my Vision 2+ except it held in the air at 120 feet after hitting fail safe switch, it then dropped straight down into a large ware house yard which was a security compound and had many lorry trailers waiting to be loaded. Left all my details with gatehouse who have never found a trace of it. Their thoughts were that perhaps it landed on top of a trailer and being twelve feet plus high could not be seen from ground level.
 
I believe it is recommended to do a IMU calibration after each firmware upgrade and if you crash/drop the bird.
I second that you shouldn't put it in the fridge due to moisture. Besides the only reason to cool it down before calibration is to reduce IMU warmup time when you power on. Has nothing to do with strange flight behavior.
I put my P3 in a garbage bag and then put it in the fridge. That way it gets the coldness but not the moisture.

Oh, and a quick word to the OP. I definitely recommend you get a separate GPS tracker. That would allow you to keep a constant location if this happens again. The one I use costs me just $3.33 a month.
 
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I put my P3 in a garbage bag and then put it in the fridge. That way it gets the coldness but not the moisture.

Oh, and a quick word to the OP. I definitely recommend you get a separate GPS tracker. That would allow you to keep a constant location if this happens again. The one I use costs me just $3.33 a month.
i had already researched the GPS trackers, but i haven't had any issues since i bought the P3A back in May so i thought i would go cheap and not buy one (i know...dumb after i spent all the money on the P3A to begin with). your post has reminded me just how important it is and how badly i need one. i'll be adding one before i fly again. great suggestion. thanks again!
 
Oh man, I'm getting my P3 today. I'm wondering it I made a mistake. My Q500+ never flies away, super dependable so far, after 50+ flights. I thought those fly away problems were P2 related.
 
Oh man, I'm getting my P3 today. I'm wondering it I made a mistake. My Q500+ never flies away, super dependable so far, after 50+ flights. I thought those fly away problems were P2 related.
i've flown my P3A probably 20 times over land and the ocean. 400 feet up to just a few feet off the ground. 6000 feet away to a couple feet. apart from some random connection issues that could be attributed to anything, this was my first real "fly away". i, too, thought fly aways were a thing of the past. it just goes to show that anything that flies can get away or crash. you just have to be prepared to that eventuality. the thing you have to ask yourself is are you prepared to lose $1k+ if it gets away and can you handle that. i thought i could until mine flew off...i'm not so sure now. i may end up selling it and dropping down a few rungs in quality so a loss doesn't hurt quite so badly.
 
I put my P3 in a garbage bag and then put it in the fridge. That way it gets the coldness but not the moisture.

Oh, and a quick word to the OP. I definitely recommend you get a separate GPS tracker. That would allow you to keep a constant location if this happens again. The one I use costs me just $3.33 a month.

Eh still bad idea no matter how you slice it. No one should ever be putting their Phantom in the fidge. No need for it and not worth the risk it may cause some form of damage.

There's a good RF Tracker called Marco Polo. It's an RF beacon and has multi mile range depending on the environment and no monthly fees as it's not GPS based.
 
i had already researched the GPS trackers, but i haven't had any issues since i bought the P3A back in May so i thought i would go cheap and not buy one (i know...dumb after i spent all the money on the P3A to begin with). your post has reminded me just how important it is and how badly i need one. i'll be adding one before i fly again. great suggestion. thanks again!

Look into an RF Tracker called Marco Polo you can see some info about it here
http://eurekaproducts.com/rc-model-tracking-and-recovery/
 
thank you for the reply. i was thinking about this after you had responded. we have a tough choice to make at that point. if we put it ATTI mode, we may be able to gain control again but we lose GPS tracking so we aren't able to locate it once we lose contact. if i switch to ATTI and i still don't have control, do i instantly begin to receive GPS tracking once i switch back to GPS mode? GPS tracking sure saved me in this situation.

Turning ATTI mode on does not disable the GPS function / tracking in the Phantom itself. ATTI mode just disables the GPS's use in aiding the position hold of the Phantom itself. That and the gains are increased a bit as well allowing slightly more aggressive flight.

Another alternative to using a secondary GPS tracker are devices called RF beacons. Here's one that caught my eye called Marco Polo, i'm considering getting one.

http://eurekaproducts.com/rc-model-tracking-and-recovery/
 
Turning ATTI mode on does not disable the GPS function / tracking in the Phantom itself. ATTI mode just disables the GPS's use in aiding the position hold of the Phantom itself. That and the gains are increased a bit as well allowing slightly more aggressive flight.

Another alternative to using a secondary GPS tracker are devices called RF beacons. Here's one that caught my eye called Marco Polo, i'm considering getting one.

http://eurekaproducts.com/rc-model-tracking-and-recovery/
Thanks for the info on ATTI mode. I'll remember that the next time I fly.

The Marco Polo is the tracker I was considering. I really like the technology behind it. I think I'll pull the trigger now that so many people are recommending it.
 
I started up my drone and got the fairly common imu calibration error. Calibrated it and it still said error. A minute later it said everything was good, so I took off...straight left. I pushed it up as high as I could to make sure it didn't hit anything, and hit return to home. It began to hook back to me but kept going right about a mile and a half before I lost connection. I thought for sure it was gone, but I jumped in the car to go to the last spot it reported just in case I could get the scraps. I turned into the drive of a gated community of townhouses and got the weak rc signal! My heart leaped for joy! I jumped out of the car and flew it back to me with 36% battery left. Some drunk guy in the yard next to starts yelling at me about shooting my drone out of the sky for invading his privacy as I'm nervously flying it back to land. I tell him to shut up as it finally touches down and I kill the motors. I'll pull the video and logs later, but this flying off to the left issue has to be fixed.

edited - changed "typical" to "fairly common"
The FAA considers "drones" as aircraft and is therefore a violation of Federal law to shoot a gun at an aircraft and if convicted, the shooter could face 20 years in prison. But a recent court case resulted in the shooter paying for parts to fix the drone he shot out of the air. Ironically, the drone wasn't even over the shooter's property.
 
There were many reports of IMU calibration errors for quite some time now. It's why people have been putting them in the fridge. I calibrated last week roughly 10 miles from here, so I don't think a compass calibration would be necessary.
I have had several

Last Thursday I did my usual high altitude shots of my mine and video of train loading all good used up 4 batteries. I often get a high levels of electromagnetic notice and asked me to move , recalibrate compass and then get safe to fly.

I decided to do a night video thinking 15 m would give me what I was needing. Went thru the pre flight re calibrated compass and then did auto launch ........

The drone suddenly got a mind of its own and didn't hover at 1,2 m it headed off nearly crashing into the train were loading, I managed to firce it up but I had zero control

It did a 4 km fly away into the darkness. It went forward in all kinds of directions . Did a return to home and it came back only to disappear again . Long story short the second return home it came back

WTF is up with these drones
 

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