Phantom 4 disappeared today

[Ranch5]

So I was a bit over six minutes into my second flight of the afternoon. I had my P4 hovering over a spot where I could get a shot of a passing train. Suddenly my screen goes blank and "Aircraft Disconnected" message appears on my iPad! What the heck????? I immediately hit the RTH button but to no avail. I went searching for it but it was getting dark and the last contact I had with it was over a private orchard so I'll go searching again in the morning with permission of the land owner for certain.

Talk about a sinking sick feeling!!! If I am able to find it I'm dreading the condition it'll be in and if not found I'm really dreading replacing it. Ugh!!

Has anyone else had the experience of the P4 just disconnecting in mid flight? If so any ideas of what may cause it? By the way, before the flight I am certain that the battery was properly mounted in the aircraft.

 

[Neon Euc]

If connection is lost it would return to home. At worst it would be in hover mode and will just hover till
A) smart RTH feature kicks in and sends it home
B) will hover and slowly land at the spot it hovered when battery is low
C) if you have an android app on the latest firmware your drone would be miles away due to the firmware bug

But I really do hope you find it. Can you connect up to healthy drones and see if their is any errors then we can help more

Neon Euc

 

[Ranch5]

If connection is lost it would return to home. At worst it would be in hover mode and will just hover till
A) smart RTH feature kicks in and sends it home
B) will hover and slowly land at the spot it hovered when battery is low
C) if you have an android app on the latest firmware your drone would be miles away due to the firmware bug

But I really do hope you find it. Can you connect up to healthy drones and see if their is any errors then we can help more

Neon Euc

I downloaded the data to Healthy Drones and reviewed the info but as this is my first visit to that site I may be overlooking sumpin'
HealthyDrones.com - Innovative flight data analysis that matters

 

[Crawschecker]

I am totally new to this. Are Android devices not advised? I have a galaxy tablet.

 

[John Locke]

That really sucks, I hope you find it. Was the RTH height set properly set to be above anything in the area?

I've had many times where my P4 would lose the control connection at 3000-4000' in perfectly clear areas I fly all the time with my P3P with no problems, I could easily get 2mi range with my P3. The real stinker is when lose the control connection that automatically disconnects the video simultaneously. My P4 RC would often lose control signal at short distances (4000') when I least expect it. My P3P has NEVER lost the control signal before video signal, never, no matter where I was. I always had control so I could ascend to regain the video signal. It wasn't until I started using the GL658A Inspire controller with my P4 that the range and connection behavior was more like my P3P, with good 2 to 3mi range and a solid control signal that never disconnects before video does. The weak P4 controller is one of the P4's worst problems IMO, which is why I never recommend it anymore, now that P4P is out with good range and signal behavior. Other pilots say they don't experience what I have, but I'm unsure if they have a P3P to compare with.

 

[hooligans]

That device should be fine. Your device needs gps capability for your drone to know where home is as far as I know.


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[Jayfdee]

That device should be fine. Your device needs gps capability for your drone to know where home is as far as I know.


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No the device does not need gps. Many of us use non cell ipads just fine.

 

[Phill2]

No the device does not need gps. Many of us use non cell ipads just fine.

I use non cell Android with no probs.
I stopped updating last year because of reported probs

 

[Ranch5]

That really sucks, I hope you find it. Was the RTH height set properly set to be above anything in the area?

I've had many times where my P4 would lose the control connection at 3000-4000' in perfectly clear areas I fly all the time with my P3P with no problems, I could easily get 2mi range with my P3. The real stinker is when lose the control connection that automatically disconnects the video simultaneously. My P4 RC would often lose control signal at short distances (4000') when I least expect it. My P3P has NEVER lost the control signal before video signal, never, no matter where I was. I always had control so I could ascend to regain the video signal. It wasn't until I started using the GL658A Inspire controller with my P4 that the range and connection behavior was more like my P3P, with good 2 to 3mi range and a solid control signal that never disconnects before video does. The weak P4 controller is one of the P4's worst problems IMO, which is why I never recommend it anymore, now that P4P is out with good range and signal behavior. Other pilots say they don't experience what I have, but I'm unsure if they have a P3P to compare with.

RTH was set to 30 meters and there's nothing higher than 50 feet around the area.

 

[Dramface460]

Ranch! Man I know the feeling. It sucks. I had a failed RTH on January 11th. I wrote about it here on this forum. Here's what happened.

On January 11th
I can't believe I lost my drone today. I was flying about 1200 feet away and 158 feet in the air. I could see the lights. I received a lost connection aircraft message then the whole app went gray( same when the transmitter is turned off and not connected to the aircraft). This wasn't a big deal for me because this has happened before so I figured I would press the return home button and it will fly back. It has always returned home. I then pressed the home button since I could not see out of the camera. I then lost sight of the aircraft. It never picked up the signal to the drone. I drove around and tried connecting the transmitter to the drone by turning it off and on but nothing. I have a recorded flight log and went to the last known location( by this time its 730pm and its dark) sucks because I have no idea why it wouldn't return home. I don't even have it now so I have no idea what kind of damage has been done.

So today January 27th. Dji emailed me and said they are repairing my drone for free. They haven't said why but I Know it has to do with the RTH and how it failed. I'm just hoping that since they are repairing it that the RTH won't fail again on me. I had my RTH set at 70 meters and my p4 just disconnected and never flew to the set altitude of 70 meters

 

[Neon Euc]

So I checked healthy drones and the last two warnings are a bit of a worry. As for the last warning it's something I never seen before. Hopefully @msinger may be able to share some light on this

Neon Euc

 

[msinger]

Ranch5, if you need help finding your Phantom, please upload the TXT flight log here and post a link back here.

 

[Ranch5]

Ranch5, if you need help finding your Phantom, please upload the TXT flight log here and post a link back here.

I'm going to look for it this morning as I have a good idea of its last position. But here's the link to the data

Phantom Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

 

[F3honda4me]

I'm going to look for it this morning as I have a good idea of its last position. But here's the link to the data

Phantom Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

Did you climb the drone to 400 feet yourself? That log is very odd, it literally just drops with no indication of anything really. Did you turn off your TX at that point?

 

[Ranch5]

Did you climb the drone to 400 feet yourself? That log is very odd, it literally just drops with no indication of anything really. Did you turn off your TX at that point?

I did climb to the max altitude. I was just hovering waiting for the train to come by for the shot I wanted. I didn't have my hands on the controls at all. Like I said, suddenly the "Aircraft Disconnected" message flashed on the screen and that was it. No contact from that point forward.

 

[Mylesob31]

My first thought is the metal train may have caused disturbance of one ever passed through? I know when I try launching at a baseball field it won't launch since the metal fences are all over. Had to move. Hope you find it.


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[Neon Euc]

My first thought is the metal train may have caused disturbance of one ever passed through? I know when I try launching at a baseball field it won't launch since the metal fences are all over. Had to move. Hope you find it.


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I'm not sure about that as I have train tracks about 30 metres away from me and I set up, calibrate and fly no problems at all. Seems like this is a firmware or maybe even a pigeon strike hitting the drone [emoji55]

Neon Euc

 

[Terry Evans]

Gosh, I just bought a P4 and all I read are negative things. Should have gotten a P3P until I can get an Inspire.
Terry

 

[F3honda4me]

Gosh, I just bought a P4 and all I read are negative things. Should have gotten a P3P until I can get an Inspire.
Terry

There are plenty of great things. Remember forums is often where people go with problems. So a drone as popular as this is going to have a lot of forum chatter.

 

[Ryan Hanscom]

My first thought is the metal train may have caused disturbance of one ever passed through? I know when I try launching at a baseball field it won't launch since the metal fences are all over. Had to move. Hope you find it.


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Can someone chime in here? Is tgis normal behavior of a drone. My gut tells me something might be wrong with his. I launch everywhere without issues, baseball diamonds, train tracks, on steel bridges, next to park benches with trees all around, etc. The only time I had an issue was flying through a bridge...lost GPS and had to go manual, but never issues launching or flying.

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