Hi there

I have a serious issue with the Phantom 4. I have been flying Phantoms 2, 3 and 4 for 20 months now and have not had this happen before. The Phantom today suddenly pulled up in mid air (over water) with the alarm sounding on my iPad. I could not identify any issue other than maybe the collision avoidance causing the alarm. Anyway the Phantom could not be controlled and hovered in place. I could only control altitude and nothing else. Return to home did not work. The Phantom then went into an auto land procedure which I had to keep cancelling. Eventually after about 2 minutes the alarm stopped sounding and I regained control and brought the Phantom home. The Phantom was not near any objects and this does not make sense. Does anyone have any ideas or have had a similar experience. I have all the latest firmware and updates installed on the RC, the aircraft and my iPad. I have logged the issue with DJI support but they do not have any ideas at present.

Thanks

Did you try switching modes RTH wouldn't work if GPS was lost?

parkgt Posted at 2016-4-18 22:57
Did you try switching modes RTH wouldn't work if GPS was lost?

I did not but that is a good point - can I tell from the flight records if GPS had been lost and does the loss of GPS cause a continuous alarm on the controller/ipad?

russellsingapor Posted at 2016-4-19 08:07
I did not but that is a good point - can I tell from the flight records if GPS had been lost and d ...

You can export the logs from your ios/android device https://healthydrones.com/

Then you can check what errors you received, if the compass had issues or if the GPS had failed.

It will also show your flight path and will show where it stopped.

Post back here - let us know what it says

russellsingapor Posted at 2016-4-19 08:07
I did not but that is a good point - can I tell from the flight records if GPS had been lost and d ...

HealthyDrones gives very little information.
You will find out a lot more if you go to http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/
Follow the instructions to upload your flight record.

Come back and post a link to the report it provides

labroides@yahoo Posted at 2016-4-18 23:42
HealthyDrones gives very little information.
You will find out a lot more if you go to http://www. ...

Ok I will thanks

labroides@yahoo Posted at 2016-4-18 23:42
HealthyDrones gives very little information.
You will find out a lot more if you go to http://www. ...

Ok sorry if I am missing something here but the only flight records I can export from my drone are in BAK and DAT format and neither will work with the two sites mentioned above

russellsingapor Posted at 2016-4-19 09:18
Ok sorry if I am missing something here but the only flight records I can export from my drone are ...

Forget the files in the drone.
They aren't very user friendly anyway.
Just go to http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/
Follow the instructions to upload your flight record - from your tablet!

Come back and post a link to the report it provides

Hello, could you plase upload your flight record and leave me your DJI account after syncing?

DJI-Paladin Posted at 2016-4-19 08:53
Hello, could you plase upload your flight record and leave me your DJI account after syncing?

OK - thanks - well I have to say that my experiences in the past 30 minutes have just renewed my hatred for anything to do with Apple. I followed the instructions to download the flight records using iTunes. Now  because my new Ipad Pro which I purchased to use specifically for the Phantom 4 was a new device I have spent the last 3 hours trying to connect it with iTunes using old iTunes accounts and new iTunes accounts. This was followed by endless circles of getting nowhere. Anyway no matter what I try to do I cannot get the DGI Go app to sycn with my PC because there is a previous iPhone that appears to be stopping this from happening. Anyway the bottom line is that the flight records now appear to have all been deleted from the App. Good one Apple - you make your dam products so user unfriendly I have to say I am sick and tired of every time I have invested in an Apple device. My advice is always stick to Android if you are using the P4. Anyway I guess myself and everyone else will never know why this P4 behaved in such a way yesterday!!

russellsingapor Posted at 2016-4-19 16:34
OK - thanks - well I have to say that my experiences in the past 30 minutes have just renewed my h ...

Alright so be careful next flight

Are you certain that the records have been deleted and can't be restored?

"Anyway the Phantom could not be controlled and hovered in place. I could only control altitude and nothing else. Return to home did not work. "
Without the flight data, no-one can say for sure.  They will just be guessing.
With the data, we would be able to see exactly what the Phantom was doing rather than what you think it might have been doing.
That would have been very useful for preventing further problems.

This happened to another pilot in the forums.  Strange, very strange indeed.

labroides@yahoo Posted at 2016-4-19 10:12
Are you certain that the records have been deleted and can't be restored?

"Anyway the Phantom could ...

I still have the flight records held on the drone which I have downloaded and these are very large bak and dat files - is there anything I can do with these - they are not readable as plain text.

Anyway I agree we really need to know what happened here. I have flown Phantoms totalling over a hundred hours in flights and have never had one serious incident until this. I think it is in everyone's interest to know what happened

DJI-Paladin Posted at 2016-4-19 09:55
Alright so be careful next flight

Not sure what you mean here. I was careful and got the aircraft back safely - this is a DJI issue and not a pilot error issue

russellsingapor Posted at 2016-4-20 05:37
Not sure what you mean here. I was careful and got the aircraft back safely - this is a DJI issue  ...

Or I should say it would be necessary to sync the flight record after every flight.

Hi. I had the same issue this afternoon. When I pressed return home button  the drone came back home slowly while stopping every few meteres and an alarm like a telephone ringtone was coming out from my android tablet. It finally landed safelly but I am very worried about it. The sunlight was very limited and this happened only on its way back home when I pressed RTH. Please help Thanks

nikolaous Posted at 2017-12-29 13:24
Hi. I had the same issue this afternoon. When I pressed return home button  the drone came back home slowly while stopping every few meteres and an alarm like a telephone ringtone was coming out from my android tablet. It finally landed safelly but I am very worried about it. The sunlight was very limited and this happened only on its way back home when I pressed RTH. Please help Thanks

On its return home, was the Phantom flying into a setting sun?

Yes it was

nikolaous Posted at 2017-12-29 16:21
Yes it was

Then that is why it was stopping while returning home, it saw the sun as an obstacle.

Alien intervention!!

Deffo the sun issue, just turn off the front sensors and issue will be gone, with the angle of the sun, the star my appear close than it really is, a LOT closer lol
When it does happen, just return the sticks to center and it will allow moving again.

Thank you very much for your answers. Is there a difference on its speed from day to night ?

Is there a chance that might be the red lights flashing at night and recognises them as an obstacle ?

SOLUTION I believe the problem is finally solved with a simple gimbal calibration through DJI assistant 2 !!! Thank you for your ideas and help.

russellsingapor Posted at 2016-4-19 13:35
I still have the flight records held on the drone which I have downloaded and these are very large bak and dat files - is there anything I can do with these - they are not readable as plain text.

Anyway I agree we really need to know what happened here. I have flown Phantoms totalling over a hundred hours in flights and have never had one serious incident until this. I think it is in everyone's interest to know what happened

Did you fly in P mode when you ran into problems? Did you try to solve it by switching to Atti? I'm curious if Atti would have helped here...

Yes it was flying in P mode. I didnt try Atti

nikolaous Posted at 2017-12-30 10:48
SOLUTION I believe the problem is finally solved with a simple gimbal calibration through DJI assistant 2 !!! Thank you for your ideas and help.

That would be a sensor calibration using DJI Assistant 2 ?

If the visual sensors are not in calibration then it is more likely to lead to problems as you describe, perhaps making it more sensitive to the Sun than it already is.