Heart broken,

Flew my Mavic 2 Pro, a short distance in a very rural area.

Due to my location down in a valley, I lost connection after approximately 4900 ft.   

My intentions was to drive along the road and see it safely back.  Unfortunately by the time I reunited with the connection, I seen the Mavic 2 Pro camera showing weeds and grass.  I immediately used the find my drone function which placed me in a field, exactly where I last lost connection.    Unfortunetly, I paniced and lost the previous flight screen before having seen the camera clearley showing it had crashed.  

By the time I got where I thought it was, the battery was at 32%,  I was clearly in the wrong location and should have slowed down once I gained a connection.  The battery died leaving me with no intel.

Key points,  my home point was 845 ft above sea level,  I lifted it up to exactly 400 AGL before setting way points.

The waypoints was an increase in land altitude above sea level by approximately 100 ft.  It is possible one of my way points was set to default and allowed for a tree crash.

IS THERE ANYWAY to see the waypoints cached in the DJI GO 4 application?   

if I had this information, I can likely find my aircraft by walking the 3 way points around a chicken farm.

HELP!

Can waypoints.db. show me this info, it seems encrypted.

This flight shows info as it was flying to its forst way point.

https://app.airdata.com/flight/d4e84dc29552e2fcaaaffff83e530828/GENERALNotifications

It is after it hits its first waypoint that my Mavic 2 has crashed, absolutely had to be, as 400 AGL would not have allowed for a crash.  I can only estimate by memory where I set waypoints, seeing them once again would LARGELY INCREASE MY ODDS OF finding it.

I live 300 miles away and have got a hotel tonight i hopes of finding it tomorrow before heading back home, any help is appreciated.

There are two problems for anyone wanting to help.
1.  We can't see your flight data
You need to tick the Share box in Airdate to make it available for others
Or just post the .txt file here.

2.  We have no idea where you programmed to drone to fly after it lost signal.
Can you at least post a rough sketch?

Labroides Posted at 5-23 20:15
There are two problems for anyone wanting to help.
1.  We can't see your flight data
You need to tick the Share box in Airdate to make it available for others

Hi,  I was just able to open waypoint.db using a DB SQL browser,  I now have my waypoint lat, log and the 4 way points!

I will update in the morning once I find this bird, (feeling very optimistic)

you can probably find the bird's (crashed) location in the flight record because it was connected to the RC temporarily after the crash

FieldPivot, any update ?

USS ENTERPRISE Posted at 5-23 23:08
you can probably find the bird's (crashed) location in the flight record because it was connected to the RC temporarily after the crash

Heading over there in just a few.   Unfortunately, not in flight record,  I panicked and switched the IOS of it's current instance of flight.   Had I slowed down I would have at least reset its home position or payed closer attention.   Fact is here,  the find your drone feature can be VERY misleading.   It gave me coordinates of its last place in which it lost connection.   I was able to see the video cached to that point also, flying high.  Absolutely unlikely for it to have just fell from the sky at that exact point.   I feel pretty good about finding it,  Now that I have the way points.   I think DJI should allow easier access to that info, it is critical for a dumb ass like me.  Been up all night plotting this out from IOS cache files and DB Browser,  See pic

On my smart controller, I can see a map recording of each flight I did.  It is easy to replay it after a flight.  Yet, I don't know when exactly this flight data is recorded onto the smart controller... is this being written when you have landed again, or is this recorded 'online'....?  Don't know if the map data from the last flight is available when there is a crash... ?

Anybody an anwer on this ?

Flight records should still display regardless of crash.

Than I think this is the best and easiest way to find a missing drone, not ?
GPS coordinates, speed, height etc.. are also displayed.

Upload your flight record to the following site. Then export to a CSV and go look at the last few lines in the file to see if it captured the LAT/LONG of the last position it was at when you reconnected and saw it in the grass.  It may not be in there if it was disconnected for a while, but might be worth a try.  

https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/

USS ENTERPRISE Posted at 5-23 23:08
you can probably find the bird's (crashed) location in the flight record because it was connected to the RC temporarily after the crash

The issue here is:

Once you goto home menu to get to find my drone, you are then leaving the flight instance.

For whatever reason, find my drone was and is showing its lost connection point.

This is no question a flaw in DJI Go 4.

I am now 20 minutes from the crash area, wish me luck in my search.

FieldPivot Posted at 5-24 06:28
The issue here is:

Once you goto home menu to get to find my drone, you are then leaving the flight instance.

Wished you luck.

We wish you luck, and are waiting for a picture from the retrieved drone !

  like a needle in a haystack,  I give up.  I had the help of some understanding properly owners.   Thank goodness as they could have been MUCH of a hard ass.  Especially with such a waypoints as I displayed.


Many briar cuts and other nature's bites, I paid the young fellow (son of property) 60 bucks for his time and his efforts which he says he will continue.  This is a huge lesson learned,  as there is many things differently I could have done.  For what it is worth,  my ability to pull the previous waypoints from the .db file was the only increasing odds of making it search possible.

My largest error was backing out of the application to use find my drone, that function it borderline garbage in that you are then stopping your flight instance.   Nevertheless here is a google earth map which I have most accurately created.  The green line from home point was exactly 400 feet, I had video up to lost connection.  

I have DJI Refresh Care Plus,,   is this possible to get a discount

FieldPivot Posted at 5-24 10:48
like a needle in a haystack,  I give up.  I had the help of some understanding properly owners.   Thank goodness as they could have been MUCH of a hard ass.  Especially with such a waypoints as I displayed.

https://app.airdata.com/flight/d4e84dc29552e2fcaaaffff83e530828

DELETED for private property reasons

Oh damn, bad ending... I was really hoping for the picture of the retrieved drone...

Maybe the best way to find it back is to use another drone... but indeed, if grass is long, trees are present, it is searching for a needle in a haystack..

Could you see your last flight in 'my flight records' ??

FieldPivot Posted at 5-24 06:28
The issue here is:

Once you goto home menu to get to find my drone, you are then leaving the flight instance.

Only when there is a connection drone<>rc<>mobile device the "find my drone" can be updated with the last position. So only usefull when drone lands somewhere and is still in contact with the rc.
All other situations it is indeed useless, not a app flaw, just how it works.
No connection = impossible to write data in the log on your device.

Think you lost connection because your line of sight was hampered due to that hill between you and the drone.
cheers
JJB

Hello FieldPivot,

Did you noticed this in your loggings ?

I should expect at that moment that it should return to its home-position... unless it was set to 'hoover' ?

In the flight recorder, a descending radio strength is visible also...

JJB* Posted at 5-24 11:05
Only when there is a connection dronercmobile device the "find my drone" can be updated with the last position. So only usefull when drone lands somewhere and is still in contact with the rc.
All other situations it is indeed useless, not a app flaw, just how it works.
No connection = impossible to write data in the log on your device.

The wierd thing is, for a brief moment I had regained a connection, which allowed me to see the camera and everything.   I failed miserably at staying on that screen as I was concerned with getting shot by a farmer.   I am certain that where I regained a connection was not from the same place the lost my drone page was showing.  In fact, when I drove to the lost my drone location, I lost connection. By the time I looked around and drove back to the waypoints area, the battery had died.

It is clear what I done here, failed to account for a 120 ft elevation change, with 100 ft+ trees.  Waypoints set at 50m    Jumped the gun, forget that it decent once it hit waypoint 1.  

FieldPivot Posted at 5-24 11:25
The wierd thing is, for a brief moment I had regained a connection, which allowed me to see the camera and everything.   I failed miserably at staying on that screen as I was concerned with getting shot by a farmer.   I am certain that where I regained a connection was not from the same place the lost my drone page was showing.  In fact, when I drove to the lost my drone location, I lost connection. By the time I looked around and drove back to the waypoints area, the battery had died.

It is clear what I done here, failed to account for a 120 ft elevation change, with 100 ft+ trees.  Waypoints set at 50m    Jumped the gun, forget that it decent once it hit waypoint 1.

oke, but if you had after the disconnection again contact, do you have other logs than the one you shared on airdata?

KDP + Posted at 5-24 11:17
Hello FieldPivot,

Did you noticed this in your loggings ?

It was set to continue flight,  I quickly drove to waypoint 3 location,  with a spotter back at home point.

At waypoint 3, I regained signal and it was clearly in trees or scrubs.  Had I slowed down, I would have moved the gimbal around for better surrounding visual.   Using find my drone sent me to EXACTLY where I first lost signal.

My cached video at that point shows a clear shot at 400 AGL.   I believe it is at waypoint 1 in the trees.  VERY THICK.

JJB* Posted at 5-24 11:30
oke, but if you had after the disconnection again contact, do you have other logs than the one you shared on airdata?

No other logs, I will zip entirely, one minute,   THANK YOU ALL for your humble and grateful help.

JJB* Posted at 5-24 11:30
oke, but if you had after the disconnection again contact, do you have other logs than the one you shared on airdata?

DELETED for private property reasons

KDP + Posted at 5-24 10:54
Oh damn, bad ending... I was really hoping for the picture of the retrieved drone...

Maybe the best way to find it back is to use another drone... but indeed, if grass is long, trees are present, it is searching for a needle in a haystack..

Yeah man :/. It was a lesson learned, hard expensive one.   

1. Waypoints, left at default 50m while I was 400ft in the air forgetting it would decline once it hit first waypoint 1.  Waypoints was up to 120 feet above my home location.
2. Using find my drone feature which ends the current flight records. (bad GUI in my opinion). So,  backing out of current flight to use this function, means no more flight tracking once it regains.    Unfortunately it failed to show me the proper location (in my strong opinion) I base this on loosing signal while physically going to that shown location, away from Waypoint 1,2 and 3.   

Thank you for you well wishes!

Dang,  sorry to hear see this issue with your M2Pro.

I was just out today flying a job, shopping center in SoCal.....behind the center was a fairly good raise and Eucalyptus trees and homes.  This view gave me the clue that the requested 150ft ORBIT ain't gonna do it.

At 150, I would have been in the trees.....due to having to be back from center that far to get horizon at top 33% of screen.....Due diligence and double checking helps us ALL.

FieldPivot Posted at 5-24 12:11
Yeah man :/. It was a lesson learned, hard expensive one.   

1. Waypoints, left at default 50m while I was 400ft in the air forgetting it would decline once it hit first waypoint 1.  Waypoints was up to 120 feet above my home location.

Looking at your heights, if the drone descended from its 122 metre cruise height to the 50 metre waypoint heights at wpt 1, there aren't many places it would run into tall trees.

Ground level at your waypoints (relative to home) was
1  +6m
2  +25m
3  +37m
4  +10m

The highest point is +41 metres near the road between 2 & 3.
But with no trees here the drone should have flown over at 9 metres above ground here.

The highest point with trees is shown with the red arrow in the map.
It's 289m = +35m, but the drone was still at 122m, it would take an 87 metre tree to stop the drone here.

There are very few trees after waypoint 1 until waypoint 4 where it would take a >40 metre tree to catch the drone.

Labroides Posted at 5-24 21:14
Looking at your heights, if the drone descended from its 122 metre cruise height to the 50 metre waypoint heights at wpt 1, there aren't many places it would run into tall trees.

Ground level at your waypoints (relative to home) was

Thanks for your charting, previously, here is what I have come up with.

The circle that says reconnected is where I gained a connection again while driving, and now that i think about it, I must have been in the shrubs enough that GPS was not allowing sats reception,  I do barely remember,  in panic thinking it was at 6.

Labroides Posted at 5-24 21:14
Looking at your heights, if the drone descended from its 122 metre cruise height to the 50 metre waypoint heights at wpt 1, there aren't many places it would run into tall trees.

Ground level at your waypoints (relative to home) was

DELETED for private property reasons

Labroides Posted at 5-24 21:14
Looking at your heights, if the drone descended from its 122 metre cruise height to the 50 metre waypoint heights at wpt 1, there aren't many places it would run into tall trees.

Ground level at your waypoints (relative to home) was

We are absolutely on the same thoughts here.  Though, between WP2 and WP3, along the side of main road as well as dirt road, there is power lines, which is about 40 ft of ground.  This means the m2p could have crossed power lines 3 times total, again between wp3 and wp4.    I believed it was here, the weeds are very high also.   I just wonder how far it could deviate from a fall at that distance.

I double bit the bullet and made purchase of another M2P yesterday. BestBuy again.  Even though much of the pain is gone now, I still cant help but to think of the lost beautiful bird still alone and rusting.

It just dawned on me, to take my new one to the crash site and run the exact waypoint mission (FULLY ATTENDED) and see where it has an obstacle collision.  Obviously stopping it short of such occurrence.  Since it is possible that it may overcome a obstacle, I can search said area then adjust the waypoints to pick up after that collision point and see if there is additional collision points.

Excited and hope to soon show you a picture of 2 (two) M2P soon .  IF SO, I think I will sale one of them and get the new M2Air.   My wallet is taxed, yet I was tired of loosing sleep over it.

Hello there FieldPivot. I am sorry to read and to know know what happened to your DJI Mavic 2 Pro and for the trouble this has caused. Since this unfortunate event happened I would recommend you to contact our DJI support team at https://www.dji.com/support?site=brandsite&from=nav for further assistance.  We have a professional team that will do there best to check what happened to the said drone and will give out the best resolution for this issue. Again I am sorry for the trouble and please stay safe always.

DJI Stephen Posted at 6-1 22:21
Hello there FieldPivot. I am sorry to read and to know know what happened to your DJI Mavic 2 Pro and for the trouble this has caused. Since this unfortunate event happened I would recommend you to contact our DJI support team at https://www.dji.com/support?site=brandsite&from=nav for further assistance.  We have a professional team that will do there best to check what happened to the said drone and will give out the best resolution for this issue. Again I am sorry for the trouble and please stay safe always.

Hi Stephen!

Thank you for the kind words,  I have been in touch with Abbey, there is currently some dialog concerning this via email.

thanks again

FieldPivot Posted at 6-2 05:02
Hi Stephen!

Thank you for the kind words,  I have been in touch with Abbey, there is currently some dialog concerning this via email.

Hi there FieldPivot. Thank you for the reply and for giving us an up date on the matter. It is great to know that you are already communicating with one of our DJI support team. If you have any other concerns or inquiries with DJI. Please feel free to post it here at DJI Forum. We are here to assist you. Thank you.

I am trying to figure out the exact flight path it took with a waypoint turning corner radius of  2.0.  Can anyone please provide such info?   Using this image, drawing a rough sketchof how it flew during the waypoint transitions?

FieldPivot Posted at 6-3 16:51
I am trying to figure out the exact flight path it took with a waypoint turning corner radius of  2.0.  Can anyone please provide such info?   Using this image, drawing a rough sketchof how it flew during the waypoint transitions?

[view_image]

Also,  while flying at 400 ft above and from the home point, would have it gradually, while in flight descended to 50m to wp1, or would it have went to wp1 then descended over top of it?

KDP + Posted at 5-24 10:54
Oh damn, bad ending... I was really hoping for the picture of the retrieved drone...

Maybe the best way to find it back is to use another drone... but indeed, if grass is long, trees are present, it is searching for a needle in a haystack..

After 3 days of searching since the 23rd of May, driving several hundred miles in order to go back and forth and dealing with property owners.  I HAVE RECOVERED my aircraft!  I found it between waypoint 3 and 4.  Has a broken arm at least,  was in the rain for a couple days.  Afraid to power it up.  I am SO VERY happy.  How do I proceed to send in via Refresh Care Plus?

Thanks all for your assistance.

FieldPivot Posted at 6-4 18:13
After 3 days of searching since the 23rd of May, driving several hundred miles in order to go back and forth and dealing with property owners.  I HAVE RECOVERED my aircraft!  I found it between waypoint 3 and 4.  Has a broken arm at least,  was in the rain for a couple days.  Afraid to power it up.  I am SO VERY happy.  How do I proceed to send in via Refresh Care Plus?

Thanks all for your assistance.

Congrats on recovering your AC!

FieldPivot Posted at 6-4 18:13
After 3 days of searching since the 23rd of May, driving several hundred miles in order to go back and forth and dealing with property owners.  I HAVE RECOVERED my aircraft!  I found it between waypoint 3 and 4.  Has a broken arm at least,  was in the rain for a couple days.  Afraid to power it up.  I am SO VERY happy.  How do I proceed to send in via Refresh Care Plus?

Thanks all for your assistance.

This is good news !

At first sight, it doesn't look too bad.  Could you figure out if there were some specific obstacles which could have lead to the crash ?