lost P3A thnks to Litchi

[Neon Euc]

I missed seeing this the other day, that's terrific man!! So happy you found it!!

Thank you so much for your help. I really do appreciate that

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[neven]

Then I am more then happy to accept that but by then their was enough juice to carry on the mission as it did previously. That's why I am still scratching my head on this one. I decides to re-instsll the app and factory reset the phone just in case it was a glitch. Won't try that mission again until I get a tracking device lol

Wind made the difference this time. You mentioned that the day before your Phantom did something at 35% battery despite you setting it to 30%. What exactly Phantom did and what exactly did you set to 30%?


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[ElGuapo]

Hi guys. So sorry for all the feet and meters confusion. The fact is it started raising higher then it should. The RTH button was also hit about 5 mins after the video section where I said it was rising. Regardless if it was feet or meters which is my fault I know... But it still went upwards and I have no ides why

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Neon Euc,

I recommend a pair of these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01HW91PLE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[ElGuapo]

I move my Antenna Range extender between drones, I love that it works like a charm. I am now able to fly in place where I could not before.
There is a local park close to where I live, I go there quite often to practice autonomous flying using Autopilot. Before I started using the extenders I would start getting weak signal messages in my display at about 1,800 ft away, which is not a whole lot for a Phantom 3 P/ 4. I attributed this behavior to interference, at times RTH would kick in and worried that one day I was going to lose one of my birds. Then one day I decided to pull the trigger and go with the extenders, night and day difference those puppies make. I am not able to fly way past the point where I was getting weak signal messages.

 

[Numone]

Just get this one Daniel. I actually paid £1.40 earlier this year. Works very well. Big bonus is that it folds-up too...
Extra Foldable Antenna Signal Booster Transmitter Range Extender for DJI Phantom 3 Inspire 1 Quadcopter

 

[RC Madman]

Then I am more then happy to accept that but by then their was enough juice to carry on the mission as it did previously. That's why I am still scratching my head on this one. I decides to re-instsll the app and factory reset the phone just in case it was a glitch. Won't try that mission again until I get a tracking device lol

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It was 100% not a software "Glitch". It did what it was programed to do. You pressed the RTH button and the AC did as it should. If you had the RTH altitude set to 400 feet instead of 400m it would have likely had the juice to RTH but the juice was spent on that long 1,300+ foot ascent.

 

[Mozzie67]

Just get this one Daniel. I actually paid £1.40 earlier this year. Works very well. Big bonus is that it folds-up too...
Extra Foldable Antenna Signal Booster Transmitter Range Extender for DJI Phantom 3 Inspire 1 Quadcopter

Yep buy yourself a set of these they make a world off difference and extend the range heaps.......
I live with the bush completely surrounded,when I don't feel like driving anywhere for a fly I can still get out 700 meters and the signal travels through the trees perfectly

 

[With The Birds]

Yes I can. In previous flights battery had enough juice to finish the mission, this time it did not. RTH kicked in and with 1300ft set RTH altitude with 36mph wind gusts this is by far the best outcome of that flight.

Edit: there is always a few moments of drone doing nothing before auto-RTH kicks in

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There probably was enough battery to complete the mission, the issue here was that the mission had been cancelled. The battery was depleted while Neon was attempting to bring the AC home manually.

 

[With The Birds]

Hi guys. So sorry for all the feet and meters confusion. The fact is it started raising higher then it should. The RTH button was also hit about 5 mins after the video section where I said it was rising. Regardless if it was feet or meters which is my fault I know... But it still went upwards and I have no ides why

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You were out of F mode (mission not running) when signal lost initiating RTH.

 

[With The Birds]

It was 100% not a software "Glitch". It did what it was programed to do. You pressed the RTH button and the AC did as it should. If you had the RTH altitude set to 400 feet instead of 400m it would have likely had the juice to RTH but the juice was spent on that long 1,300+ foot ascent.

Agreed software doesn't seem to be implicated here. THe RTH ascent (power used) probably isn't the determinant factor however. If you look at the log and consider Neon's explanation if events it is apparent he wasted a lot of time trying to familiarise himself with the controls and understand what he needed to do to fly home.

 

[Phill2]

It sounds like your bird ran out of battery and RTH was initiated. It went up to 400 meters, which is 1300 feet you saw on your screen,and reached critical low power. This cause it to auto land. It happened to land in a driveway. Remember, RTH height is set in METERS, not feet. This is a major human factors issue that is responsible for many crashes.
Settings can be changed to imperial or metric

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[Phill2]

Thanks a lot litchi, you lost my brand new P3A with only 5 flights or so. this is what happened.

1) took about 8 attempts to get the way point mission working
2) it is a 6 min flight and it came home no problem
3) put in new battery 100% charged and waypoint started straight away doing same 6 min mission
4) 15 minutes later drone comes back and its at 1300 feet AND JUST HOVERING !!! it was set to 400 feet max
5) saw the bird go down slowly and checked the camera as it had footage
6) last footage was of it on a pavement with a car tyre so I know it landed safely
7) 3 hours of walking down the street and nearby streets, driveways, etc..... no sign of it

really really p!ssed off with litchi as yesterday it decided to RTH at 35% battery left despite it being set to 30%

have no idea what to do now. my contact number is on stickers on both sides so its up to the public to be honest and also claim a reward. just angry as I had it for a few days costing £650 and I have yet still got to make my first monthy payment on it.

I will put posters around the area with a reward, what I would like to know is if someone links a new controller to it, will I still get the automatic healthy drones log sync to my computer or will that all change if they download the DJI GO/Litchi app and create a new account?

I included a few log files, one from litchi (which I cant understand) and one from healthy drones. sorry about the rant, but so so angry.

I cant upload the file so I will have to copy and paste, so sorry for that

This is why I bought a Trackimo

 

[Neon Euc]

***BIG APOLOGY***

I worked out what happened just now and rather then say nothing and leaving it at that I wanted to
Man up and admit

IT WAS MY FAULT IN THE END

the RTH on litchi was set to 1,634 feet. I did this as a safety feature so it won't crash into any buildings, from what I "thought" the return to home would rise at that height if you pressed the button but didn't think it would happen automatically if battery was low as I thought it would stay at the same height and go home to reserve battery life . Of course this didn't happen on the previous mission as the battery wasn't low. I had no ides the RTH night of 1,634 feet would apply. Like I said

IT WAS MY FAULT 100%

I did send a personal message to litchi apologising as it's only fair and the right thing to do. As for the YouTube video I will edit it as a warning video. I will take off the part where I blamed litchi and instead replace it as a "check your RTH altitude on low battery warning"

I do also apologise to everyone else on this post for taking time and the hard effort you put into helping me solve this and also locating my drone. But I like to apologise as well for my stupidity leading to many hours of everyone on here helping.

I see this as a very valuable lesson learned and dare I say that it turned out well as hopefully this will help out anyone else and prevent them from getting into the same situation. But thank you to everyone on here. Xxx

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[With The Birds]

I think most people realised litchi wasn't implicated. As you say a good learning experience with, fortunately, a happy ending.

Hopefully you will learn how to fly the drone and get up to speed with how RTH operates, and the performance characteristics generally, before sending it out of sight on autonomous missions. Despite how good they are things can and do go wrong and you need the knowledge and experience to take over.

 

[Neon Euc]

I think most people realised litchi wasn't implicated. As you say a good learning experience with, fortunately, a happy ending.

Hopefully you will learn how to fly the drone and get up to speed with how RTH operates, and the performance characteristics generally, before sending it out of sight on autonomous missions. Despite how good they are things can and do go wrong and you need the knowledge and experience to take over.

Def a lesson learned but ended up in a good way.[emoji6] hopefully other newbies will see this and go through all the settings to make sure everything is ok.

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[With The Birds]

Def a lesson learned but ended up in a good way.[emoji6] hopefully other newbies will see this and go through all the settings to make sure everything is ok.

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Hopefully most newbies won't dive headfirst into autonomous flight without getting the basics down first. It wasn't the climb to RTH altitudes that caused your issue. It was not being able to fly home.

 

[RC Madman]

Neon great to hear. Glad you got it all worked out and sent the guy that found your P3A a bottle of bubbly!

 

[BigAl07]

Out of all of this I'm proud of you for taking the high road and not just admitting your fault but going into detail so others may learn. That's impressive.

 

[Jayfdee]

Glad you got it back, but I would not fly that mission in the UK,flying over railway stations,shopping centres, public highways etc. Please heed some of the advice from other posters,find a wide open space and learn how all the functions work.
The Dronecode | UK Civil Aviation Authority
Gives guidance about flying over people and congested areas.

 

[Neon Euc]

Out of all of this I'm proud of you for taking the high road and not just admitting your fault but going into detail so others may learn. That's impressive.

Thank you. It's all about learning and making sure no one else has the same mistake [emoji2]

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