Ohhhh I'll Fly Away...

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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.
:(:mad::weary::triumph::cry::unamused:
 
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.
How did you confirm it was switched to hover?
Unless you switched it, it stays on the default setting which is RTH.
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?
Although not as good as the log that DJI Go records, you still have recorded flight data to look atGo to DJI Flight Log Viewer
Of course, there is no data recorded from the time signal is lost so it may be tricky solving the riddle without the critical information.
Follow the instructions there to upload your flight record from your phone or tablet.
Come back and post a link to the report it gives you.

And it would help if you can explain what the wind was doing that day.
 
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Cant you check the flight path and get last known gps location?
That's what I'm trying to figure out. I'm not sure how, where, or if Litchi stored any of the flight data on my phone during flight so I can retrieve it and attempt to go back and find my drone.
 
How did you confirm it was switched to hover?
Unless you switched it, it stays on the default setting which is RTH.

Although not as good as the log that DJI Go records, you still have recorded flight data to look atGo to DJI Flight Log Viewer
Of course, there is no data recorded from the time signal is lost so it may be tricky solving the riddle without the critical information.
Follow the instructions there to upload your flight record from your phone or tablet.
Come back and post a link to the report it gives you.

And it would help if you can explain what the wind was doing that day.

After signal loss (I know, bonehead move on my part) I checked the aircraft settings within Litchi and discovered that the setting for "signal loss" was set to "hover" instead of "return to home" like I normally have it.
 
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.
:(:mad::weary::triumph::cry::unamused:

Yes, there is a flight log, however, you will need to have an airdata.com account to see the data. I also read somewhere that Dashware will read the file.

I haven't used Litchi in a while but I do recall a "Find My Drone" feature built in to the app. I don't recall if the drone needs to be powered on or not.

If you don't have airdata, you can try uploading the file here and I can upload to my account. There may be a map.
 
How did you confirm it was switched to hover?
Unless you switched it, it stays on the default setting which is RTH.

Although not as good as the log that DJI Go records, you still have recorded flight data to look atGo to DJI Flight Log Viewer
Of course, there is no data recorded from the time signal is lost so it may be tricky solving the riddle without the critical information.
Follow the instructions there to upload your flight record from your phone or tablet.
Come back and post a link to the report it gives you.

And it would help if you can explain what the wind was doing that day.


The wind wasn't too horrible up there. Maybe 10-15 MPH. Not ideal, for sure, but this was my 4th flight this afternoon in similar conditions and I hadn't noticed any anomalies prior to this incident.
 
Yes, there is a flight log, however, you will need to have an airdata.com account to see the data. I also read somewhere that Dashware will read the file.

I haven't used Litchi in a while but I do recall a "Find My Drone" feature built in to the app. I don't recall if the drone needs to be powered on or not.

If you don't have airdata, you can try uploading the file here and I can upload to my account. There may be a map.
DOH! I just tried the "find my aircraft" function in Litchi, and it shows the craft only a couple hundred feet from where I was parked! Now I just gotta drive an hour (tomorrow, obviously) back up there and try to find it...
 
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DOH! I just tried the "find my aircraft" function in Litchi, and it shows the craft only a couple hundred feet from where I was parked! Now I just gotta drive an hour (tomorrow, obviously) back up there and try to find it...
That will be your last recorded location from the flight log. At 800 feet up it probably drifted.
 
That will be your last recorded location from the flight log. At 800 feet up it probably drifted.

I was parked in the pulloff in the lower left corner of the photo, and headed up the road around the bend when it lost signal. Mind you, there is still a foot or two of snow in spots up there, but I'm hoping with this info, I'll be able to go back and find it...
 

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That will be your last recorded location from the flight log. At 800 feet up it probably drifted.
I looked in file explorer (I have my phone plugged into my laptop) and the latest date for flight logs in the Litchi file is April 22nd. There should be at least 4 from today. Not sure why they are not there...
 
I looked in file explorer (I have my phone plugged into my laptop) and the latest date for flight logs in the Litchi file is April 22nd. There should be at least 4 from today. Not sure why they are not there...
If Litchi works the way DJI Go does, you might have to shut doun the tablet and power it back on to see today's flight records.
 
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After signal loss (I know, bonehead move on my part) I checked the aircraft settings within Litchi and discovered that the setting for "signal loss" was set to "hover" instead of "return to home" like I normally have it.
Did you also check to verify that you had "Log Flights" enabled? If not, that may explain why you can't find a log for this flight.
 
After signal loss (I know, bonehead move on my part) I checked the aircraft settings within Litchi and discovered that the setting for "signal loss" was set to "hover" instead of "return to home" like I normally have it.

I know Meta touched on this point above, but I didn't see a clear reason why your RTH setting got switched from what you normally have it set to. Is that a Litchi quirk? Just looking for a clear explanation for that.
 
Is that a Litchi quirk? Just looking for a clear explanation for that.
Can't really think of anything clear and definitive, other than possibly a recent app update. That could possibly clear that setting to default. I don't recall what the Litchi default is, I change that setting from time to time. The RTH altitude would remain as it was, since that is stored on the AC. That doesn't do much for anything if the final action was set to hover. The only other thing would be that it was manually changed on a previous flight, and the OP simply overlooked that in pre-flight checks. That's about all that comes to mind.
 
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I know Meta touched on this point above, but I didn't see a clear reason why your RTH setting got switched from what you normally have it set to. Is that a Litchi quirk? Just looking for a clear explanation for that.
I'm not sure either. The only thing I can think of is possibly the app updated and it reverted back to factory settings. I'm not sure. All I know is I always have it set to return home but for whatever reason this time it was set to hover.
 
I'm not sure either. The only thing I can think of is possibly the app updated and it reverted back to factory settings.

In the absence of any other factors, that's probably the most likely explanation. I remember the last time I did an update, I found several of the settings had been reset to factory default. I believe RTH was one, but I'm not completely certain. Others here can probably confirm if that's actually the case.
 
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@Spappy,
Pulling the flight logs from an Android is easier then crApple.
Litchi will be a .csv file.

Basic instructions are on this web sight.
DJI Flight Log Viewer

Also can your share mission though Litchi's hub.

Both of these a very important (More important than you realize) to help you find it.

I lost one myself, been there, it's not fun. :oops:

Oh, there is Geocache close by, easy to find. :rolleyes: ;)

Rod
 

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