At about exactly a mile away with no obstruction it gave me the connection warning and it asked if I want it to RTH so I clicked yes but it never reconnected so it landed at the beach just a few feet into the water. Isn't the distance limit 5 miles on these drones? It was a clear sunny day so doubt there was any satalitle issues. But either way, why would it not return to home? Also, since it's been a couple months since I purchased it, would DJI cover this under warranty? I suppose there's a way to send them the flight record so they can see it malfunctioned?

Edit: I was using the smart controller.

A couple of things:

1 - There is no guaranteed distance.  Distance changes drastically depending upon conditions, elevation, interference, line of sight, etc.  There are plenty of cases where 1 miles is all you will get.

2 - If the drone really did malfunction,  DJI will warranty it.  I suggest opening a case.

3- In the app, you can set what the drone should do on loss of signal?  Did you have it set to RTH?   The log files will show this.  If you had it set to Hover or Land, it will not come back.

4 - Was the home point recorded?  Did you take off with enough satellites?  If the home point was never recorded, it won't know where to come back to.

You can post your logs here and some people may help look at them to see what happened.

Hi, parkloop. Thanks for reaching out! We're sorry to read about your loss and your unfortunate experience. If there's no way to retrieve the unit, please sync your Flight Records via the DJI GO 4 and reach our Customer Support to report this incident and open a ticket.

Hi parkloop,

Best to get answers what really happend is to upload your flightlog for this flight.

Use this link > https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/

Post that upload link on here or just put a cloud-link to your flightlog.txt

cheers
JJB

But either way, why would it not return to home?
The solution to this mystery is probably in your recorded flight data and if you can post the data, someone might be able to help interpret it for you.

To get to your flight data, go to: https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/
... where you'll find instructions to upload the data to that site and it will give a report
For help interpreting the data you can post a link for the report here.
Or just post the .txt file.

JEZ2 Posted at 3-21 07:10
A couple of things:

1 - There is no guaranteed distance.  Distance changes drastically depending upon conditions, elevation, interference, line of sight, etc.  There are plenty of cases where 1 miles is all you will get.

4 - Was the home point recorded?  Did you take off with enough satellites?  If the home point was never recorded, it won't know where to come back to.

If someone is impatient and launches before the drone records a homepoint, that shouldn't make much difference.
The drone would still record a home point as soon as it does get good GPS location data and that won't be far from the launch point.

That he could tell how far the drone flew shows that a home point was recorded.

JJB* Posted at 3-21 08:34
Hi parkloop,

Best to get answers what really happend is to upload your flightlog for this flight.

https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/17E4Y1NPWJ8TXQ7GIGV8
https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/VXQPRRYAQ9KEQGI1B67T

parkloop Posted at 3-23 08:14
https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/17E4Y1NPWJ8TXQ7GIGV8
https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/VXQPRRYAQ9KEQGI1B67T

Hi parkloop,

OMG, it happed again to to DJI drone !!

Twice in your log a forcelanding, an unwanted landing initiated by you bc the VPS height sensor 'measures' low height of approx 0.5 meter.

First forcedlanding at baro height of 40.1 meter, VPS height 0.5 meter.
Second time at baro height 18.2 meter, VPS height 0.5 meter.

With 0.5 meter VPS height AND 100% stick down : a commanded forcelanding!

In both situations flying forward with 8.5 and  14 m/s.

First time by pulling UP at last the forcelanding was stopped, second time not possible as you lost contact. So your drone just landed in the water!.
Flying at that distance that low ; not surprised it lost contact. Lost contact at 4.4 baro height with rate of descend at 3 m/s, , so within the 11 seconds to wait for RTH it had already landed.

Ask DJI to help you out!

IMO this is a software coding error, no pilots wants to land a drone flying with forward speed and at that baro height!

PS why the VPS measured some height, don`t know. Mayby water spray on the sensor.

I have asked DJI many many times to change this unwanted forcelanding ; if flying above some baro height level AND/OR flying with forward speed :: Show a confirmation landinng message in the FlyApp: "Really want to land?"

cheers
JJB

JJB* Posted at 3-23 08:49
Hi parkloop,

OMG, it happed again to to DJI drone !!

Yeah I just sent them the flight record they said they'll have an engineer look at it and get back to me.

parkloop Posted at 3-23 08:59
Yeah I just sent them the flight record they said they'll have an engineer look at it and get back to me.

oke, DJI must act on this ofcourse. If they say it is a pilot error ....

DJI software should protect pilots from this kind of 'mistakes'

Forcelanding is in the software to perform a smooth safe landing, hover in front of you at 0.5 meters height, 100% stoick down and a DJI drone enters automaically a landing.

Condition for this is
a) low hover and
b) 100% stick down for short moment.
BUT DJI forgot imo c en d!
c) not automatically when baro height is above a pre-defined value (10 meters or so....)
d) not automatically when speed is above pre-defined value. ( 2 m/s or so....)

cheers
JJB

parkloop Posted at 3-23 08:59
Yeah I just sent them the flight record they said they'll have an engineer look at it and get back to me.

Hi,

Do you have any news from DJI ??

cheers
JJB

JJB* Posted at 3-27 01:32
Hi,

Do you have any news from DJI ??

So far we've just been going back and forth about how to give them the flight records. They don't seem to have clear instructions on how to do that... I'll keep everyone posted.