P4P+ Pano mode, complete lockup, almost lost bird, what should I have done?

[Alvaro L]

I think that has to mean that the control stick data in the .txt comes directly from the RC. It doesn't make a trip through the AC. I recall now that the control stick data in the .txt is in the range [-1024, 656] and that gets converted by TXTlogToCSVtool to [-10000, 10000]. That was done to make it compatible with the data seen in the .DAT. The [-1024, 656] data likely comes from a 10 bit A/D converter used for the stick control mechanism. The point being that this data doesn't make a trip through the AC before being recorded.

Here is another P4+ incident that kinda like this one.
Need help understanding Phantom 4 Pro V2.0 & Crystalsky Ultra Aircraft Disconnect

The conclusion was that the part of the RC firmware that does the uplink was intact. But, that part of the firmware that handles control stick data has crashed. RC:sigStrength is derived from a frameLost signal in the .DAT. The P4 is still receiving packets from the RC. It's just the control stick data isn't being inserted into those packets.

Hi thanks for your answer guys, really appreciated. One doubt I have with your theory is that the remote controller was fully rebooted with a power off/power on at least two times, why didnt that restored the signal integrity? The only explanation I think is that the problem was not in the remote controller but in the aircraft, some crashed algorithm like you propose. Another question would be what could be the best course of action if someone experiences something like this. If the AC were on the water now it would be lost.

 

[Alvaro L]

Since you mention that the AC could be in some kind of flight mode, possibly in waypoint mode, could it be that flying the aircraft without registering any point during the flight would crash the aircraft telemetry in such a way?

 

[bsartist]

I had a similar situation. I believe the AC firmware can get in a non responsive state. Thankfully the failsafes continued to run.

See this thread:

Lost total control of the AC. What happened here?

 

[alsobrook4336]

Last night I saw a thread that pano mode had been added to the P4 Pro + controller now too, so I thought I'd give it a try today. Started off great, but ended with a major panic.

I first took it up and did a sphere pano. Then a 180 and a horizontal. All seemed to go fine with the first three.

Then I took it down to around 14' off the ground about 15' from the front of my house to do a horizontal pano. Went fine. Then I changed it to do a 180 pano and it seemed to only turn half way and stopped. I didn't see a complete message, but it was ready to take another photo (solid white circle around white circle photo button, not moving) and nothing more seemed to be happening for 10 seconds, so I clicked the (on screen) photo button again to take another 180 pano. It seemed to take a few photos, turned to the left, and then just seemed to stop with nothing happening on the controller for 30 seconds. It did not seem to be taking any more photos so I decided to move it... I could not move the bird with the sticks at all. Nothing.

Sometimes when flying at the same spot (when not taking a pano) I'll get an obstacle avoidance sensor that won't let me fly in one direction due to being close to the house and tree to the left, but I can always back up, or change altitude or turn. So I thought maybe in pano mode the forward obstacle sensor was triggered when it auto-turned left for the pano and it was stuck. (although there was no beeping this time) There was also sunshine in that direction which in other circumstances has sometimes kept me from flying forward when it directly hits the camera... not exactly like this circumstance as I wasn't asking it to fly forward and always before I could always turn... But in case, I went to the Visual Navigation Settings menu and slid the green slider to "Off" for Enable Forward and Backward Obstacle Sensing. Still nothing, no response to sticks.

(I didn't go to advanced to turn off other obstacle sensing settings... just turned off forward and backward obstacle sensing there... maybe I should have turned off more of the advanced settings, not sure?)

I also didn't see any way to cancel the pano.

Luckily it was 15' from the ground, so I grabbed my tallest step ladder, and put my hand on the drone. A friend arrived, and I had her hold the throttle stick fully down while I was holding the drone. Nothing. Motors didn't stop as they normally would when hand catching for me. Motors continued.

Then I tried pushing the power button on the battery of the drone itself and then holding it for 5 seconds. Nothing again, motors continued to hold position.

Tried turning remote off and then on again. Remote did power off and on, clicked go fly, seemed to connect normally (although was in a bit of a panic and didn't note specifics, but didn't get any connection error, saw normal green bar). Still didn't respond to sticks or throttle down.

Tried pushing the power button of the battery and holding for 5+ seconds a couple more times, and still nothing. Motors at full speed since I was holding the drone now.

Finally had to physically remove battery to power off drone.

Have never seen a lockup like this, and am now scared silly of the pano mode.

Has anyone experienced a lockup like this?

 

[alsobrook4336]

Are you using the newest firmware 105.600 I just updated mine a few days ago after having my drone a year brand new and it’s been nothing but headaches problems in 1000 bugs in the system terrible vibration cracked the frame the list goes on anyway I did the new firmware update which is not actually knew but the 105- 2600 everything is perfect the bird is fixed and I do have the plus version As well I would suggest not using the Panno mode I didn’t see that in mind I will say I do have the pneumatic to pro and I know they’re expensive but trust me it’s a much better built plane and you will not regret it keep me posted

 

[island2]

Yes, running the latest firmware update.

Thanks also for the link to the related thread above. Have done a few more low flights to test. Tested pano really close to the ground, but probably will stay away from using it until the next firmware update!

 

[bsartist]

Yes, running the latest firmware update.

Thanks also for the link to the related thread above. Have done a few more low flights to test. Tested pano really close to the ground, but probably will stay away from using it until the next firmware update!

I’ve stopped updating firmware since so many posts start with “I updated my firmware and now [insert litany of problems here].

In fact I’ve downgraded my P4P to the beloved .509 version and there I stay. I use Litchi for panos.

 

[Shaun Roster]

Ive experinced the exact same issue, with pano shots in particular, ever since the upgrade in early August. Prior to the upgrade ive never experienced an apparant 'buffering' problem of the image data being saved to the card during which time the photo button remains solid and aircraft control is completely locked out. Even single images appear to be slower than before but when in pano mode, the system completes the 9/21/32 image sequence as per pre-upgrade, but now the system remains locked out for a similar length of time comparible to the time it took to take the sequence before the camera button unlocks and aircraft control is returned. I immediately turned to the good old 'Switch to Atti' mode, to jump it out of this apparant lock and give me back control, which works a treat and weirdly, all of the pano files are saved and useable on the card. I have NOT changed the Ultrat highspeed card and obviosuly this worked fine pre-upgrade, I have tried alternative cards but with no improvement, ive also tried the same card in my Mavic Pro which works fine. Something has slowed down the writing or processing speed of data to card during the last upgrade maybe. Ive attached a screen recording of a pano sequence and you can see at the end of the sequence how the screen prompt for 'please stay still...' stays on screen even though the sequnce is over and the camera button remains locked out for a long time before returning back to a pano button. During this time control of the aircraft is completely locked out unless I switch to 'Atti'. I know its in RAW + JPEG, ive tried in JPEG only and have the same problem, I always shoot in RAW and therefore even pre-upgrade my Panos were RAW+JPEG without this issue.
Screen recording video can be seen at ... https://www.shaunroster.smugmug.com/VIDEO/Vid/i-NLfMKn2/A