watched someone steal my FC40

[heredium]

FC40 ...This is the short version: Wi-Fi lost signal so the video feed shut off. Itwasn't more than a hundred yards away when it did but i did not have a visual of it. Switched to the returntohome, and no sign of it. Spotted it on the ground across a highway, someone pulled over, looked at it and took off with it.
Why would the signal cut out?
Do you have to be within range of a "home" Wi-Fi signal to do the live feed?
Getting another one today, don't want to make the same mistake.....help?

 

[vinnyvetere]

FC40 ...This is the short version: Wi-Fi lost signal so the video feed shut off. Itwasn't more than a hundred yards away when it did but i did not have a visual of it. Switched to the returntohome, and no sign of it. Spotted it on the ground across a highway, someone pulled over, looked at it and took off with it.
Why would the signal cut out?
Do you have to be within range of a "home" Wi-Fi signal to do the live feed?
Getting another one today, don't want to make the same mistake.....help?

WTF?

 

[J.James]

WOW that freaking sucks the big one that some jerk pulled over and stole your phantom on you like that. Gosh I would be livid.
The wifi signal on the fc40s cam is not all that great usually about 100 or so meters.

Tho I'm wondering why it went down on you? did you have the fail safe setting in the naza assistant still set to the default to just land ? Instead of switching it to the come home then land setting?????

If you do get another one MAKE sure to have the fail safe set to come home then land. and also you really might want to check in to getting some sort of gps tracker for it such as a trackimo. So if it ever gets lost or some one steals it you can have a chance of being able to track it down.

 

[heredium]

WOW that freaking sucks the big one that some jerk pulled over and stole your phantom on you like that. Gosh I would be livid.
The wifi signal on the fc40s cam is not all that great usually about 100 or so meters.

Tho I'm wondering why it went down on you? did you have the fail safe setting in the naza assistant still set to the default to just land ? Instead of switching it to the come home then land setting?????

If you do get another one MAKE sure to have the fail safe set to come home then land. and also you really might want to check in to getting some sort of gps tracker for it such as a trackimo. So if it ever gets lost or some one steals it you can have a chance of being able to track it down.

thanks for the help. I'm assuming that I did not have it properly switched to the return to home setting, although I thought I had.
so I do need to be connected through a home Wi-Fi network? How do people take them out to a field, Wi-Fi hotspot?

what happens to the drone once it reaches max height or distance, return to home "in theory" or does it drop o out of the sky?

 

[4wd]

**** those are oddball questions.
Did you have any successful flights with it before the loss?

 

[heredium]

what's oddball?

 

[JerseyD]

I am new to this as well but here are some answers:

Re: Wifi hotspot
No, the WIFI to fly these is created by the system itself. You could be in the middle of the desert and fly around all you want. So flying these drones does not rely on a home wifi. I suppose it's possible if there is some really strong wifi around you it could mess with your signal.

Re: Max height etc.
Oddball behavior appears possible with these things since they are being operated by people and were made by people. I don't think height limits are hard coded except if near an airport or if you have less than 6 satellites. I read that satellite deal somewhere here.
Return to home happens with a signal loss or you initiating it on purpose, not height limit warnings.

Yes it appears these do fall from the sky sometimes but I haven't read it happened because of a height limit (unless you fly it into the clouds and it kills the battery or gets hit by a goose or something)

 

[J.James]

When it hits any of the programed limits for height or distance that you set in the naza assistant it will just act like its hitting a wall when it reaches that point. and just will not let you go past it. Tho it will not go in a return to home from hitting any of the distance limits unless you put it in to fail safe with the s1 switch or turn off the remote. Or have it fly so far that it loses radio signal.

But if you still had it set to just land in fail safe as soon as you tried to tell to go in to fail safe or RTH it would hover for a bit then start trying to land were ever its at. also if you still had the low voltage switch on they will try to auto land when the battery gets to low. and is some thing a lot of new flyers get them self's in a snag esp if they are still using the default voltages which are pretty high and it try to auto land unless you keep giving it some throttle to try and keep it in the air intill the 2nd level kicks in and then it will just land and throttle will not even keep it in the air. Which some times can be as little as about 7 or 8 minutes of flight time before its trying to auto crash its self if the low battery auto land thing is still turned on and the voltages not set low enough so that it will not try to land when you really still have a few minutes of power left in your battery. I hate that battery safety thing and have lost my fc40 a few times because of it. and now I use a battery buzzer alarm that just makes a loud beep beep beep when the battery is low and time to bring it close and land it while there is still enough juice to get it in and on the ground safely