Apologies if this is in the wrong topic area since I couldn't find a Phantom 4k topic area, but this does apply to any Phantom 3 that uses wifi.

How do these stories start, "Well I was flying my drone and everything was fine and suddenly..."  I became a victim of statistics the other day. Pryor to flight I recalabrated everything after a minor hard landing a week before, installed new and balanced blades.   I had been flying my Phantom 3 4K after it snowed (snow had stopped)  and did several circles around the house after hovering to check stability etc.   I followed a well taken flight route before going on any serious 'adventures' as my last flight check.  Flying over a large farm field and filming as I went all instruments were well within ops parameters:  safe to fly with gps, sats-10, battery started at 100%-flight termination 35% (return to home is 25%), map indicated flight path, altitude around 640 ft., wifi signal was strong...until.  And this is where things went wrong.  With the trees i usualy get a weak siginal and I either turn back or RTH.  This time I got the usual weak signal and suddenly a 'wifi failure' error message just as I hit RTH.  The screen froze when wifi was lost and attemps to re-establish wifi link was nil.

So, white drone in snow...not good.  I searched in the area that was the last known transmission location, which was in a grove of trees (just my luck).  I went back later when snow started meltinng but too much snow left in shadows and tree areas to make it stand out.  Searched the open fields that was clear of snow to eleminate those.  And headed out in a few minutes since snow is gone.

So here is my question:
What wifi failure would make the wifi suddenly fail like turning off a switch?  Especally when everything indicated it was still viable?
   Note:  When it failed it was in normal flight, not tumbling, etc. at time of failure, just level flight.

Phantom 3 4k:  Stock equipment except for the carbon fiber gimbal guard.  Controller: stock.  Software at time of flight: DJI Go (latest version).  Tablet: no other flight software running in background nor any other software.

Thanks for any info.  

Components can just die.

But what happened to your Phantom?
Why didn't it RTH on loss of signal?

To possibly find where it is or why it didn't return ...
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 gives you and someone may be able to help solve the mystery.

If it was only WiFi that stopped the manual RTH should have worked from the TX . If it lost all signal the auto RTH should have kicked in after 3 seconds. Was it set to RTH on signal loss not hold position or land ? Perhaps it just held position until low battery auto land took place.
Hope you find it once the snow clears. It might be roosting in one of the trees waiting for the weather to improve.
The log file from your mobile device will hopefully  give some clues as to location and cause.
Fingers crossed .

Sorry to hear about your lost drone.  Please post the flight log record.
There might be enough info there to help direct you to its present location.

RedHotPoker

weird! even the log on healthydrones, free account, can shed some light maybe... after the last app update on android, i noticed that my "on loss of signal" changed from rth to throttle down.. good thing i noticed!  hope u find the drone...  

Phantomski Posted at 2017-1-12 17:46
weird! even the log on healthydrones, free account, can shed some light maybe... after the last app update on android, i noticed that my "on loss of signal" changed from rth to throttle down.. good thing i noticed!  hope u find the drone...

Always go through the app, after any updates, and correct anything that may have reverted back to stock settings. It happens frequently enough, that it becomes a common procedure after firmware or app updates. Check your preference settings for personalized adjustment, if need be.  ;-)


RedHotPoker

i do check the main ones on preflight, that is how i caught this one.... i also noticed that when i flipped between litchi and GO the settings got goofed.... well, this one time.. did not touch litchi since then..

Sorry it took so long but between looking for the DJI drone and getting obligations done it took longer to get it online.

Shucks, didn't link first time so here I go again.

Flight Log