Lost Phantom, you're never going to believe why

I would use Google Earth to get an aerial view of the area and print it out. Then mark the spot you were standing and the landmark you mentioned. Then draw a line from the start point through the second dot. That will give you a good idea where to look.

You can zoom down in Google Earth and really find details like trees, etc.

If Google Earth won't let you print, hold the Ctrl key and press PrtScr. Then open MSPaint, Ctrl and V to paste it in. Move the picture up and to the left to the corner, go to lower right corner, get the arrow and move it up and to the left to make the photo match the area of the screen you want to keep.
 
I feel your pain bro. I lost my P1 about 2 weeks ago in the woods of NH back behind my log cabin. This was the second time I lost it. The first time I let a friend who's "flown rc before" drop it in a brook a 1/4 mile away. Lucky for me the guy who lives on the opposite side of the brook found it and called me the next day.

I searched for about 4 or 5 hours total over 3 days not coming up with anything, then I stumbled across a P2 w/ Zenmuse on Craigslist for $700. The guy really didn't seem to know much about the P2 (never set up the NAZA software and wasn't sure how to calibrate the compass) and he couldn't find the charger for the p2 battery, so he offered it to me for $500. What a steal!

I ended up rigging up a FPV setup and I LOVE the fact that it transmits what's left in the battery, but also the direction, distance and elevation of the Phantom 2 in addition to the live video feed. Sure I could still lose it, but it gets about 1/4 mile range which is enough for me.

I'm heading back up to the cabin this weekend to do a little recon with the newly decked out drone and I still believe I will find it. Like yourself, I have one neighbor who seemed to be a little annoyed, and there's about a 50% chance it landed in his 5 acres of land, but I doubt he snatched it.

So, keep your eyes on Craigslist, maybe you too will get lucky!
 
Check out the Marco Polo tracker that readymaderc sells. Best $220 dollars you could spend. My P2 went down in a heavily forested area and I walked right to it. With it the phantom would have been lost
 
BWJ said:
Chriserl said:
Check out the Marco Polo tracker that readymaderc sells. Best $220 dollars you could spend. My P2 went down in a heavily forested area and I walked right to it. With it the phantom would have been lost

Or the cheaper and better Loc8tor http://www.loc8tor.com/uk/everyday/loc8 ... veryday_uk

Oooohhh, I like that. I think my wife missed getting me something for my birthday this year. Just found the perfect way to make up for it. Or I'll get the super duper deluxe one and put a tag on her keys which she likes to misplace. :lol:
 
Chriserl said:
Locator is only better if you fly where there cell coverage. Not easy to do up here

Different system. Doesn't require cell signals. Better yet, doesn't have a monthly fee associated with it. One time buy.

Should work great as long as you don't fly stupidly far away to the point where IF you were to crash you don't even know where to start looking.

The deluxe version has a 600' range, which gets you a 1,200' diameter circle while you're walking around looking. That's almost 1/4 mile. Pretty **** good if you ask me.
 
Chriserl said:
If I might add I've had a few planes go down and there always farther away then you think.

My experience has been the exact opposite. I was doing flyover videos for a golf course. I would stand on the teebox and then take off and fly towards the hole and once I estimated that I was over the green I would slowly land the phantom. Invariably, I would be well short of the green. Had to get a friend to stand greenside and signal when I reached my intended landing zone.
 
Green_Phantom said:
Chriserl said:
Locator is only better if you fly where there cell coverage. Not easy to do up here

Different system. Doesn't require cell signals. Better yet, doesn't have a monthly fee associated with it. One time buy.

Should work great as long as you don't fly stupidly far away to the point where IF you were to crash you don't even know where to start looking.

The deluxe version has a 600' range, which gets you a 1,200' diameter circle while you're walking around looking. That's almost 1/4 mile. Pretty **** good if you ask me.


Just read about someone crashing their mini quad in long grass, they knew where it was but wanted to try their locator. It didn't make a sound until they were within 50 feet. A far cry from 600.

I've tested my Marco Polo out to 550 metres in very heavily forested areas. It got enough of a signal at that range to send me in the right direction.

To each there own but my monies with MP. :)
 
Just an update, no good news to report. I went back to the area I lost it after weeks of looking, just to try again and nothing. No phone calls, nothing. It's either buried in some deep landscaping or the one homeowner who didnt like drones flying over his house snaked it before I could get down the hill to find it. The maddening part is I saw it go down and know almost exactly where it landed. A tracker would have really helped solve this mystery.

It's rained hard several time since I lost it so I dont figure the Go Pro or Gimbel will be worth much if someone ever does find it. I'm not sure whether to get another phantom 1 and upgrade it again since I have the controller, extra batts and goodies for the Go PRo already or what. Go Phantom 2 with Go Pro setup maybe?

I do miss flying it and tinkering with upgrades and posting and reading here. It's been hard to keep the chin up.
 
Thanks for the update even though it is still a sad one. With this being a "rich" area one would not think someone would keep it. They could buy a dozen or so with their pocket change. Maybe best to buy whatever will fit what you have left. :cry:
 
Build one from scratch to whatever specs you want. One of the big things I dislike about the Phantom is how limited you are as to what you can add to it.

Sort of like building your own PC from parts vs buying a ready built Sony or HP that limits you to what you can upgrade.
 
Today the phone rang and I almost let it go to voicemail. The elderly man asked me if I had i lost a drone. Thud!! I fell out of my chair. Yes! YES I DID!!!. 6 months later my phantom is home. Nothing busted up on initial inspection. Rust on the screws and Zenmuse 3D gimbal. Charging a battery to test it out now.
 

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Wow well there's a very happy ending to a very long running story. Delighted for you mate. I remember you posting this up first. Where was it found? I bet you must have been close to it in your search all those months ago. I'm sticking my new number on my latest bird as soon as I finish typing lmao.
 
GoPro didnt work at first. Took the battery out and plugged in USB charger and got it to power up. Put the battery back in and it's charging now. What a relief on that.

The Phantom goes through the warm up sequence and locks onto more than 6 sats and I get the flashing green light but it will not start the motors. Motors spin freely by hand. There is a cycling sound coming from the Phantom that I don't remember before I lost it. Kind of a dunt dunt sound and then pause for a few seconds and then dunt dunt again. Maybe a motor fail override of some sort? I have my old motors I could solder in to check if the current motors are bound up somehow. ANyone have any ideas on that sounds or things to check.

Looking at Google maps we had searched about a 4 block area. I had the right bearing on where it went, it just went further than I had thought. It was just outside the grids we had searched but up higher on a ridge of homes. We even pushed out our grid after finding nothing the first week. The last I saw the drone it was descending to land because of a low battery. I simply misjudged how far out it was. We had even flown another drone like mine in the same spot to judge distance by the size of what we saw and still blew it. GUH!!!!

Engrave you cell or contact info on the outside and inside. I had my cell on both with laundry marker. The outside marking had faded in the sun to where they homeowner who found it couldnt telll what the 6th number was. His wife and him called several guesses and got disconnects. I was the 4rth call. Bill said there was silence after he asked me if I had lost a drone. I told him that was me falling out of my chair. "Yeah YEAH!!! I did!!!!" i finally said. I was stunned it was found after 6 months, I had given up hope. We figured if it was in a tree the winter storm winds would knock it loose and when nothing showed up thats when I finally gave up. I had talked to the gardners there and the swimming pool guys every couple weeks to keep checking.

The Dinogy LiPO battery wrapper is puffy, throw away time. Probably from the heat, we got up to 110F last sept when I lost it.

Bill showed me where the Lookout Point where I launched from and its relation to his house. The Phantom must have had more juice then it appeared and it climbed higher than when I last saw it. His house is on top the ridge across from the Point. It appeared to me it went down way below his house.. It also had to get around tall trees to land in his juniper bush. That or it was really high and came straight down into his yard. What really makes me scratch my head is the drone was auto landing when it reached low battery, that was the last I saw of it. The red lights were blinking which is how I know that. The tall middle tree in the pic is where the point is about 1/2 mile away.
 

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I think you should look into a locator of some sort .I did get the Marco Polo after I lost my Phantom. Never needed it But I test it out all the time .I let my wife hide the Transmitter One time I found it in her pocket.She was trying to pull a fast one on me.The price of the GoPro alone is worth looking into a locator.
 

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