Hey guys! Big fan of DJI products (waited for the release of the Ronin-s for my first gimbal, and recently acquired this Mavic Pro). I was shooting a little property video for a house, and had finished all the shots I wanted. Audaciously I flew the drone really really high, and then it disconnected from the remote & I had lost line of sight. I'll attach the airdata log as that quantifies the situation better than I ever could. Just seems odd that it would entirely disconnect, and I couldn't even control the drone manually with the drone at all. I haven't had this drone for long (bought it second hand), but certainly didn't expect this to happen. Especially with all the safety / return-to-home mechanisms in place.

So my question is~ is there any way I can utilise the log data I have to estimate the location of the drone? Or do you guys have any advice for finding the drone other than to start scanning tree-tops?

AIRDATA: https://app.airdata.com/share/ccmCWS

Appreciate it!
Caleb

flying over houses is never a good idea, lots of WIFI and other sources of interference plus signals get blocked from the quad to controller, your map shows its last location as being close to home point so its a good chance the low battery return to home kicked in and its landed close by.

I would start looking in the last shown location, seems to be opposite the take off point, its possible as its come down its a power line etc maybe

crash1sttime Posted at 12-2 05:09
flying over houses is never a good idea, lots of WIFI and other sources of interference plus signals get blocked from the quad to controller, your map shows its last location as being close to home point so its a good chance the low battery return to home kicked in and its landed close by.

I would start looking in the last shown location, seems to be opposite the take off point, its possible as its come down its a power line etc maybe

appreciate that! I've learnt so much about signal interference since the loss unfortunately. i'll keep scouting the area I kept an eye out for the drone on it's RTH but didn't see anything. I guess my best crack is to just search the area. maybe with another drone!

It should have gone into RTH for loss of signal it was only 35ft from home, so my guess is your craft is within radius of 30ft from homepoint, you haven’t said why you thought you lost signal but I’m only surmising that some how direct signal was blocked from RC.

hallmark007 Posted at 12-2 05:18
It should have gone into RTH for loss of signal it was only 35ft from home, so my guess is your craft is within radius of 30ft from homepoint, you haven’t said why you thought you lost signal but I’m only surmising that some how direct signal was blocked from RC.

Ah yes I see that I didn't mention that . I had moved to standing under a tree, but moved back out as soon as it said weak signal. Good to hear that it must be nearby. I'll scout the location tomorrow morning. I assumed that since it was so high it could be anywhere (which is still possible). Thanks for having a look, definitely helpful!

calebhemara Posted at 12-2 05:24
Ah yes I see that I didn't mention that . I had moved to standing under a tree, but moved back out as soon as it said weak signal. Good to hear that it must be nearby. I'll scout the location tomorrow morning. I assumed that since it was so high it could be anywhere (which is still possible). Thanks for having a look, definitely helpful!

Your craft is programmed to operate after loss of signal, unless you were extremely unlucky to lose gps your craft will do one of two things RTH or Land , so I believe it’s worth getting out there to give search.
Good Luck.

hallmark007 Posted at 12-2 05:37
Your craft is programmed to operate after loss of signal, unless you were extremely unlucky to lose gps your craft will do one of two things RTH or Land , so I believe it’s worth getting out there to give search.
Good Luck.

Definitely, get out there and look,it probably landed behind a bush or something?

Hiya,

It has been said already ; your drone cannot be far.

From you takeoff postion in the direction 200 with 33 feet  away it was hovering at approx. 283.8*3 meters.
Hovering with normal pitch and roll angles so it could easily hold GPS lock postion.

Batt 36%, low level set at 25 % (critical at 10), after loosing control it should have do a RTH.
Guess somewhere bewteen 30 and 20% batt the smart landing will become active (because of the height versus time needed to land save)Takes about 55 seconds to land.

EDIT if the RTH did not happen (because there was a connection) than it will land due to the smart landing batt value.A RTH action is ofcourse followed by a landing.

Drone must be close near you....(in top of a tree?)
Good luck finding it!!

cheers
JJB

JJBspark Posted at 12-2 06:14
Hiya,

It has been said already ; your drone cannot be far.

It will only return home if it has been set to RTH , it could also have been set to hover or land on loss of signal.

hallmark007 Posted at 12-2 06:25
It will only return home if it has been set to RTH , it could also have been set to hover or land on loss of signal.

Yes, ofcourse. Forget to inform you that the fail safe action of his drone was set to GoHome.
And if not....drone was 30 feet away from home, so after hovering it would land or if it was setto land....same position to land.

check your roof
what did the "find my drone" thing say on your app?

calebhemara Posted at 12-2 05:24
Ah yes I see that I didn't mention that . I had moved to standing under a tree, but moved back out as soon as it said weak signal. Good to hear that it must be nearby. I'll scout the location tomorrow morning. I assumed that since it was so high it could be anywhere (which is still possible). Thanks for having a look, definitely helpful!

You don't say what your antenna orientation was.  When the drone is almost directly overhead, especially at altitude, your controller antennas must stick directly out toward the horizon.  That's because the antennas radiate from the sides of the antenna.  If they were standing vertical, very little signal is received or transmitted to/from the drone and controller.  Always pay attention to the relationship of the antennas to the drone.

JJBspark Posted at 12-2 06:34
Yes, ofcourse. Forget to inform you that the fail safe action of his drone was set to GoHome.
And if not....drone was 30 feet away from home, so after hovering it would land or if it was setto land....same position to land.

Also remember that if the drone is less than around 65 feet horizontally from you, it will land where it is and NOT seek out exact home location.

calebhemara Posted at 12-2 05:16
appreciate that! I've learnt so much about signal interference since the loss unfortunately. i'll keep scouting the area  I kept an eye out for the drone on it's RTH but didn't see anything. I guess my best crack is to just search the area. maybe with another drone!

There are 2 types of "DISCONNECT"

1-  "DISCONNECTED"   Upper left of screen will mean your USB connection to/from your device and TX is not connected......unplug the USB and plug back in.......you do NOT loose TX to AC connection

2- " AIRCRAFT DISCONNECTED "  Upper left of screen will mean TX to AC signal is no longer and in a few seconds the AC should RTH as long as that is setup correctly.

Randy

Weak signal......you were almost directly overhead at 16m 00s        931.1 ft        35 ft        Warning        Weak signal. Adjust antenna and avoid signal block.

Weak signal means your antenna on the TX were pointed straight up and not 90 deg to the AC.    You thought you were disconnected,  but you weren't......try to recall what you did with the sticks while you were straight above your home point......you may have inadvertently flown off in a direction.....WHAT direction is the Q of the day.....

BTW,  900+ ft flying NW of the end of an airport runway is NOT something you should be doing!!

Randy

Oh my goodness this is an amazing response! And with all the knowledge I have now regarding angle of antennas, different kinds of disconnection, and the huge radius of safety from an airport, I would've done things differently and that hurts.

I'm going to go search this morning! Cheers guys and i'll let you know how I go!

as mentioned already - may well be on the roof next door or in one of 2 or 3 trees - probability seems good that the drone is somewhere close to you - not a big job to search - good luck

Bekaru MP UAV Posted at 12-2 13:47
as mentioned already - may well be on the roof next door or in one of 2 or 3 trees - probability seems good that the drone is somewhere close to you - not a big job to search - good luck

Yeah thanks for that. Might actually try borrow a friends drone to search from a higher perspective..
The only discouraging part is that I kept a close eye out for it landing / returning to home & I didn't see it / hear it at all.

calebhemara Posted at 12-2 13:51
Yeah thanks for that. Might actually try borrow a friends drone to search from a higher perspective..
The only discouraging part is that I kept a close eye out for it landing / returning to home & I didn't see it / hear it at all.

my best guess from half a world away is that yr drone is likely to be found within the spaces of this picture.
Pretty sure it is in yr neighbors garden on the ground somewhere.
my guess  is it clipped the roof during its decent and so it is either in a roof gutter (most unlikely) or on the neighbors front porch (possibly) or on the ground somewhere and which is built off the guess that your drone continued a verticle decent (controlled or not) over that last spot it was hovering.

Bekaru MP UAV Posted at 12-2 14:18
my best guess from half a world away is that yr drone is likely to be found within the spaces of this picture.
Pretty sure it is in yr neighbors garden on the ground somewhere.
my guess  is it clipped the roof during its decent and so it is either in a roof gutter (most unlikely) or on the neighbors front porch (possibly) or on the ground somewhere and which is built off the guess that your drone continued a verticle decent (controlled or not) over that last spot it was hovering.

woah. isn't it crazy that you can scout the location that thoroughly from the other side of the world. i'll let you know how i go! i'm going for a drive this morning and i'll knock on their door and ask!

AG0N-Gary Posted at 12-2 12:23
Also remember that if the drone is less than around 65 feet horizontally from you, it will land where it is and NOT seek out exact home location.

Hiya,

The manual of the MP says:


cheers
JJB

Also take note that the signal is much stronger if you are in FCC mode and much much weaker if you are in EC mode, I don’t fly at all in EC mode. I just think it’s too dangerous, the chance of disconnect is very high.
And with boosted mode you get 3.75 times stronger signal than in FCC mode
I hope that you find your drone, and I think it’s quiete risky to fly 300 meters high in EC mode, Australia is EC mode if I’m not mistaken.

Flysafely all
Alex

Hi, we're sorry for the lost drone. I would recommend syncing your flight records and contact our support for our team to initiate the investigation and provide an appropriate resolution. Please refer to the link below. Thank you for continued support.

www.dji.com/support