P4P+: Losing video connection + GPS... What did I do wrong?

[gmagana]

Hi all, I just took my P4P+ to New Zealand and captured some awesome scenery in both still images and video.

I had a couple incidents that scared the crap out of me though, because I almost had a fly-away both times. I'm asking to see what I did wrong, or maybe I have a defective unit...

In both cases, I powered on the drone and the remote control, I waited until there was GPS mode before taking off. I calibrated compass every time the controller requested that I do so.

What happened is this: I was flying around pretty conservatively and taking pictures and video, I'm into the drone thing because of the images and not for the "Let me see how far I can fly this thing before I lose it" thing. Anyway, I'm just doing my thing in the middle of nowhere (ie, not a single interference source anywhere near, I'm next to a lake or in the mountains). Next thing I know, GPS mode gets turned off and goes back to "Visual", and then I lose video connection. I cannot seem to get video connection back (does the P4P retry to establish connection? Is there a way to force it to?). Both times I still had RC control, so I eyeballed it back to land. Once it really scared the crap out of me because it was very windy next to a lake, and was a couple hundred feet up in the air when it happened, and I could not find nor hear the drone, so I had to fly randomly until I spotted it in order to land it manually. I was pretty sure I had lost the drone because right after it lost GPS signal, the strong wind pushed it really fast and a couple sends later I lost video feed.

What scares me is that I was in the least interference area I could imagine, and it really drains my confidence when I lose GPS signal completely flying a couple hundred feet up in unobstructed air. Making my suspicions of hardware problems even worse is that the drone seemed to start working again (GPS + video feed) after a power off cycle.

I did notice that my drone reverted settings (ie, all the shots went back to JPG instead of RAW, etc) when this happened the second time.

I've lost video connection several more times (without losing GPS), but the feed does get restored after a couple seconds. This happens when I have the drone sometimes in front of me, maybe 30 feet away at most, with the RC antennas lined up perpendicular to the drone (Facing the drone in parallel, NOT pointed at the drone), so in theory I think I should not be having any lost video feed, especially when the drone is flying right in front of me.

I'm a drone newbie, so am I breaking some sort of rule and I neglected to do something that caused these problems? There are some pretty cool shots I could be taking with the P4P+, but if I'll need to always be able to eyeball the drone back to me, I'll have to continue to not take risks, which will make the pictures really boring :-(.

Thanks!

 

[GadgetGuy]

P4P+ is still very buggy with no updates. The GPS loss is troubling. Best results for signal and FPV appear to be in HD Auto on 5.8Ghz.

 

[Paulza]

Mine is doing exactly the same thing. To me this seems to be more of a hardware problem than a firmware fix although I hope I am wrong. It seems to be affecting quite a few new P4P's so I have no doubt DJI will fix it. Just be very careful when flying and be ready to fly in Atti mode at any moment until they iron out these issues..

Sent from my SM-G935F using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[bkushner]

Yep lots of reports of whacky things going on with P4P+

 

[GadgetGuy]

Yep lots of reports of whacky things going on with P4P+

It's unfortunate. It was supposed to be the poster child for the CrystalSky tablets, and proof of DJI's ability to optimize their Android version of DJI GO 4 for known hardware. They have definitely dropped the ball!

 

[John Locke]

I'm thinking the close range video disconnects might be the radio switching channels. But way out in the wild away from everything you would think there would be no need to switch channels. However, sometimes you may think you're alone in the middle of nowhere and it happens to be a hotbed of RF activity for unknown reasons.

I suspect this is more of a h/w or f/w issue than environment. Although the percentage of P4P reports of GPS loss is low, it's still too many. P4's don't lose GPS signal like this.

Gmagana, can you make your flight logs available so we can see what happened during your flight?

 

[IBV]

Are Rc, bird firmware and dji go up to date? Check while online thoroughly.

 

[Silversand]

What scares me is that I was in the least interference area I could imagine, and it really drains my confidence when I lose GPS signal completely flying a couple hundred feet up in unobstructed air

.....just a crazy thought to throw out there: ....is the P4P airframe (the bird's entire skin) made from metal (especially the airframe skin above the 2 internal GPS chipsets); and, where exactly are the GPS antenna(s) themselves located ?

 

[JimHarris]

I have a problem with my P4P+ where if I am out like 1k feet or more and try to switch from photo mode to video mode I lose the video stream when I hit the mode switch button. The only way to get the stream back is to hit the button again and go back to the mode where I had video in.

 

[John Locke]

.....just a crazy thought to throw out there: ....is the P4P airframe (the bird's entire skin) made from metal (especially the airframe skin above the 2 internal GPS chipsets); and, where exactly are the GPS antenna(s) themselves located ?

Yes, that's a crazy thought. It's plastic.

 

[Silversand]

Yes, that's a crazy thought. It's plastic.

....OK, thanks. Good to know. I thought I had read somewhere that the skin (not the landing pedestal) was metal (aluminum, or titanium).

On edit: ....here it is. I found the reference: "The adoption of titanium alloy and magnesium alloy construction increases the rigidity of the airframe and reduces weight, making the
Phantom 4 Pro similar in weight to the Phantom 4." , on DJI's Phantom 4 Pro web page...

 

[azgeek]

On edit: ....here it is. I found the reference: "The adoption of titanium alloy and magnesium alloy construction increases the rigidity of the airframe and reduces weight, making the
Phantom 4 Pro similar in weight to the Phantom 4." , on DJI's Phantom 4 Pro web page...

I believe they are referencing the internal structural components. The exterior skin is definitely plastic.

 

[Silversand]

I believe they are referencing the internal structural components. The exterior skin is definitely plastic.

...OK...thanks for clarifying!
Cheers

 

[Meta4]

....OK, thanks. Good to know. I thought I had read somewhere that the skin (not the landing pedestal) was metal (aluminum, or titanium).

If this was the case, every P4pro would have a permanent GPS problem.
What's being discussed is a temporary problem with just some P4pros

 

[gmagana]

Hi everyone, FINALLY figured out how to get the flight logs out of of my P4P+ controller (thanks to another thread on here, this is a great forum!).

Here is my flight: log where I lost GPS and video feed mid-flight: Phantom Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

One thing that's not shown on the log that is shown while replaying the flight on the GO4 app is that GPS signal strength went from 5 bars to 1 (in red) mid flight. The log just shows the "Satellite positioning off" message I saw on screen. Right at that time I also lost video feed and never got it back.

There are a couple "video buffer full" messages in there, I turned auto buffer clear option since then, not sure if that has anything to do with all this.

Also, this was with the 203 firmware, I've since updated to the new firmware, but have not flown with it yet.

Any ideas on what could have happened? From my looking at the logs, they just say that I lost GPS connection, and not enough info for a possible cause...

 

[gmagana]

Found this online log converter I'm sure you all knew about (djilogs.com). Charged me a dollar to get much more detail out of the log file. I see the flight mode changing to Atti from GPS (Line 1172), but no sign of the cause... I attach it anyway, maybe it contains something I missed...

 

[santiago luis]

Hola gente del foro: E seguimiento con la imagen , aunque los mando estan activo, y si lo tengo cerca lo traigo, y esta muy lejos la funcion RTH,Me En la pantalla y sobre el margen superior isquierdo, de aparece la leyenda de que el avion desconectado, alguien me podria ayudar?

 

[Paulza]

Let's us know if the firmware update fixes the GPS problem. Mine still doing the same thing.

Sent from my SM-G935F using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[Paulza]

Forget to mention I have not done the firmware update yet

Sent from my SM-G935F using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[santiago luis]

Hola gente del foro: E s seguimiento con la imagen, AUNQUE los mando estan activo, y si lo tengo cerca lo traigo, y esta muy Lejos la Función RTH, Me En La Pantalla Y Sobre el margen Isquierdo superior, de Aparece la leyenda de Que El avion Desconectado, alguien me podria Ayudar?