Ohhhh I'll Fly Away...
- Thread starter Spappy
- Start date
Bsartist is correct. I was using litchi, and always have it set to "return to home", but for whatever reason it was on "hover" in this instance, which is beside the point as we were able to recover the drone after it was "lost". The issue now is figuring out why the two won't connect.
Sorry about your lose. I hate to complain during your mishap, however, you know the FAA rules are to fly below 400 feet and insight. I can't hardley see my drone at 400 feet.much less 800 feet. Hope you find it without much damage.Today my greatest fear concerning my PS3 came to fruition: signal loss and ultimately lost the drone. I was out the Cascade Lakes Highway in Oregon near Devil's lake getting some footage of the Cascades. I was using Litchi and had just completed doing a simple panorama. The bird was up around 7-800' and about 500' out and seconds after the panorama completed I got the "signal lost" error. I waited a few seconds for it to reconnect, but never happened. I drove about 1/4 mile down the highway (thinking it was towards the direction the drone was headed) and continued trying to reconnect, but to no avail. Much to my dismay, the action for "signal lost" got switched to "hover". I always keep it to "return to home", but forgot to check it before flight. I know, idiot move. I walked and drove around the area for a good 1/2 hour looking and listening for it, but never saw it come down or even heard it. I even talked to a few people in the area and no one said they saw it come down or heard it in the area. My question is: does Litchi keep any files in the app that might give me a clue as to the bird's last known position prior to signal loss, or should I just chalk it up to experience and move on? TIA for any advice or help.
I did find the drone, and the airspace rules where I was flying are class g, which are different as you may know. As previously stated, VLOS wasn't a problem until I lost control, then started to panic when I couldn't regain control.
AFAIU, Class G airspace doesn’t get you around the 400ft guideline (or regulation if you are part 107 certified.)
Admittedly, I have been in your situation several times. The drone was within sight, only about 1000' away. Given the ratings for the P4P of being able to fly much further away, I couldn't believe the DJI GO 4 screen turned gray, then blanked out, and my control signal failed to communicate with my drone. In my case, after about 30 seconds, my drone was returning to home at the designated altitude and I could re-take control of the drone. Drone piloting can be very scary at times.
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End of mission does have several options, one of which is hover. That way the pilot can retake command and make the next move. I can see this strategy backfire if the AC is out of range at which point the failsafe RTH should kick in. If the failsafe is also set to hover, then the drone will just hover there so you can walk to it and re-establish your signal.
I should have been clearer. The combination of "End of Mission" AND signal loss should trigger RTH, I believe. Essentially a Boolean "And statement" where BOTH conditions are met.
Easy to test. Run a mission. Let the mission end. Let the craft hover. Then turn off your transmitter. I may test this tomorrow because now I'm curious.
Actually it’s a very interesting question because I guess order would matter. For instance, if you lose connection before end of mission, it will still fly to end of mission. If EOM action is “None” (hover) then I think it’ll hover. Not decide to return home because it realizes at that time that it no longer has a signal. But I suppose a transition to loss of signal after it’s just hovering could initiate RTH.
Then again it could be that being in waypoint mode alone defeats the LOS RTH whether in mission or not.
Seems like this thread won't let up on the RTH debate.
The issue at hand is the failure to re-connect. I think you've done everything possible short of taking the thing apart.
Any possibility of testing with a different controller?
It must have sustained some sort of internal damage when it crashed. I would bite the bullet and send it in.
Hey doods;
Okay....so I finally decided to test this whole "flew away" theory out. So I set up a short mapping mission via GS Pro and set it to "Hover" post-mission. I then flew the mission, I watched as the bird ran the mission and then hovered. I then shut off the controller to simulate "loss of signal." Within a few seconds the bird ascended to its RTH height, and then started heading home. As she was ascending to land, I turned my RC back on, re-established a connection, and landed normally.
I was going to try the same with Map Pilot, but there doesn't seem to be an option to "Hover" post mission.
I was going to take video of the whole mess, but I'm at my GF's house for Memorial Day and I don't have my camera stands with me. So you're just going to have to take my word for it.
So, to reiterate...
Even if you set up your mission to complete without the benefit of RC connection, once the bird *finishes* the mission, it *should* RTH at the end of the mission.
D
Okay....so I finally decided to test this whole "flew away" theory out. So I set up a short mapping mission via GS Pro and set it to "Hover" post-mission. I then flew the mission, I watched as the bird ran the mission and then hovered. I then shut off the controller to simulate "loss of signal." Within a few seconds the bird ascended to its RTH height, and then started heading home. As she was ascending to land, I turned my RC back on, re-established a connection, and landed normally.
I was going to try the same with Map Pilot, but there doesn't seem to be an option to "Hover" post mission.
I was going to take video of the whole mess, but I'm at my GF's house for Memorial Day and I don't have my camera stands with me. So you're just going to have to take my word for it.
So, to reiterate...
Even if you set up your mission to complete without the benefit of RC connection, once the bird *finishes* the mission, it *should* RTH at the end of the mission.
D
I’m not sure you proved the last statement because you turned the RC off after mission completion (see my note above). I think to prove that it will RTH once it finishes you would have to turn the RC off before end of mission.
When you talk about setting up and flying a "mission", are you referring to waypoints only, or any autonomous function carried out by the drone? I wasn't flying waypoints, rather doing a panorama. Not sure if it makes a difference or not in terms of what you were trying to prove or disprove.
Argh. Okay...I'll do that tomorrow. But I honestly don't see how that's going to make a difference.
OR...you could try it. I'm not the only one in this forum with a Phantom and mapping software....<;^)
I can try it with Litchi when I get home from jury duty. Assuming that the both apps work the same based on the SDK.
The reason I think it could make a difference is that the transition to disconnected state may trigger the RTH. Just a hunch.
Actually, not to beat a dead horse but maybe more than a hunch. I think RTH kicks in after no signal for a set amount of seconds right? So it has to start counting from some event. My bet would be LOS and not EOM - if you get what I’m saying.
I’m feeling somewhat bad about hijacking this thread but it’s an interesting thing to know.
