Phantom 4 disconnected during flight

bullerman1946 · Jul 27, 2020

Phantom 4 disconnected during flight. Luckily I was looking at it when it did so I was able to fly it back home. I changed batteries and tried it again and it did fine. I don't think I have ever had it happen before that I remember. Controller and battery still had plenty of power. I did buy the controller used but after I linked it I did not have any trouble. I was in a area where I got an airport although I have no idea where a airport was at close to me.
One question I want to ask. If you are out of sight and don't know which way the drone is facing what do you do to get it back. I usually don't let mine get too far away so I can see it. If I had enough battery left I could probably get it back. Just wondering.

Capt KO · Jul 27, 2020

If you still had control but no video, you can hit return to home and it will aim the correct direction. You can continue with RTH or cancel and fly home manually. Hopefully you will regain video during the return. The telemetry would tell you if you are flying away or towards you without RTH. If distance increases, you’re going the wrong way.

BigL · Jul 27, 2020

Push your right stick up so AC is going forward. Look at drone to see which direction it is going. If it is veering left, push the left stick to the left until the drone is flying straight. The drone will be coming right to you. Reverse the instructions if the drone is veering to the right. If the drone is travelling straight initially, just apply left stick one way or the other and follow the above steps to bring your baby back home.

Steve7777 · Jul 28, 2020

BigL said:
Push your right stick up so AC is going forward. Look at drone to see which direction it is going. If it is veering left, push the left stick to the left until the drone is flying straight. The drone will be coming right to you. Reverse the instructions if the drone is veering to the right. If the drone is travelling straight initially, just apply left stick one way or the other and follow the above steps to bring your baby back home.

A good tip - but theOP was wondering what to do when the drone is NOT in sight.

bullerman1946 · Jul 28, 2020

Didn't think about the return home button. Kind of panicked actually. Hope it doesn't happen again. When I looked at the screen it was black. I know I didn't have any thing across the top of the screen. It just said disconnected. The rest of it was n/a I believe.
Sorry' I meant the drone was close to me so I could see which way it was pointing. If it was way away from me and it disconnected I wasn't sure about what to do. Could I also use the return home button on the controller? I have never used it. Thanks for the help.

Andy9 · Jul 29, 2020

Usually such kind of disconnections means that you loose a video signal and still have normal flight controls. I don't know if flight parameters were still functioning. If yes, then it's very easy to fly it back by the radar icon on the left bottom corner of the screen. If everything went out and the drone lost connection completely it will by default go to RTH mode and come back by itself. It is always a good idea to see the drone during the flight especially in the area with high obstacles.

bullerman1946 · Jul 30, 2020

I don't usually let it out of my sight. I did the other day at my friends house taking pictures of his and his sons house and it worked out good. Thanks for the information.

chazzm · Aug 1, 2020

Usually the little arrow on your display shows the direction of the AC point it to the middle point of the screening for bringing it to you or hit return to home!