KM5RG-Robert Posted at 2017-3-3 08:50
Well I cannot tell what you were doing from that, but if you are saying that yaw inputs have a slight effect on the track taken while using RTH, then OK.

While Healthy drones site doesn't show stick movements, like the Go app or Phantom help does. You can at least see it's not a straight line home, and can see that a RTH had started and was not canceled the whole way back. So something caused the path home to bend to the left. It was me yawing the drone trying to get a video of the quarry passing by. I was thinking myself if would act like it does in Course lock or Home lock, but it didn't.

WilliamM Posted at 2017-3-3 08:24
No once canceled, it stays canceled. I cancel my "Smart RTH" often as it's overly conservative, and have never had it restart again.

Thanks for that William, yes it certainly is conservative especially if you fly upwind after lift off but because I always turn back towards home after cancelling I wasn't sure if the calculation was still running in the background ready to activate again if the Phantom thought it didn't have enough power to make it home.

I will have to try a large yaw during RTH sometime to see how far it will deviate just to satisfy my curiosity.

Anyone including DJI got any ideas on a red flashing RTH button, maybe in James' panic he was actually looking at the Status LED flashing because his battery had dropped below 10% and his Phantom was auto landing about where Alec, Spiry and others have indicated.

If that was the case and he was able to recall whether the white ring was illuminated or not around the RTH button then he could work out whether to look a little closer to the home point or not from the indicated probable landing point.

Geebax Posted at 2017-3-2 22:10
I am fairly sure that the tracker you linked to is a 2G device, and the 2G networks are being phased out in many places, including the US. I had to buy a newer version of mine to get 3G coverage.

I believe Australia and USA may be phasing out 2G, but Europe seems to be keeping it running for a few more years yet so one of these trackers could be a good deal for Europeans

method007 Posted at 2017-3-3 08:31
You still have to pay a month service fee with this one don't you?  If so, I wouldn't say it costs $20 to use.

I think it would work with a 'pay as you go' SIM. e.g. In UK O2 offer a pay as you so SIM where you pay £10 and it will last a couple of years so long as you make one call every 5-6 months to keep it alive.

Simon Child Posted at 2017-3-3 16:07
I believe Australia and USA may be phasing out 2G, but Europe seems to be keeping it running for a few more years yet so one of these trackers could be a good deal for Europeans

ATT has dropped it as of Jan. 1st 2017 coast to coast in the US. T-Mobile still has it but I've read that they leased the majority of their 2G tower service with ATT, so it's coverage is also impacted.
Here's the full story in the US with 2G.

AT&T began sending out letters to customers with old 2G-only devices still active on their plans, reminding them that as of January 1st 2017 those devices will become completely obsolete and unusable.

• Verizon: Verizon has a rough target of 2021 for a final shutdown of its 2G and 3G networks, after which point Verizon's network will be 100% LTE. But Verizon has already begun the transition, in many areas having drastically cut back 3G capacity to devote more resources towards LTE. If you are still using a Verizon 3G device, it will only get slower over time. Verizon's 2G CDMA network will likely outlive its 3G network in many areas, because CDMA is needed for voice calls on all phones that are not VoLTE compatible.
• T-Mobile: T-Mobile's 2G technology supports a lot of hard-to-upgrade systems, such as home security alarms, car trackers, and even vending machines. To keep supporting these types of customers, T-Mobile has announced that it has no plans to shut down its 2G EDGE network anytime soon - no earlier than 2020. T-Mobile has however transitioned a lot of its 2G capacity and much of its original "4G" HSPA+ network to LTE, and will continue to do so.
• Sprint: Sprint shut down its 4G WiMax network last November, but has indicated that it plans to keep its older 2G and 3G networks around "for the long haul", with no sunset date as yet even hinted at.
  

WilliamM Posted at 2017-3-3 08:38
That's not 100% true, look at this link of a flight of mine.  RTH is started at 8m 4s into the flight just past a quarry, and on the return home I yaw the drone so to get a video image of it going past. The RTH is activated and running the whole way back home up to the auto landing. You can see it's does not flying in a straight line back to home point. And it only goes back on it's true course when I yaw it back to face home. http://healthydrones.com/main?share=JQIbpe

A yaw maneuver shouldn't upset the otherwise relatively straight track back to home.  Once you are in phase 2 of the RTH (risen to RTH height and now tracking to home) you can use the sticks and it won't cancel the operation.  You are free to yaw the aircraft and it will not have any effect on the direction of travel, the aircraft can just as easily fly sideways and backwards.  It is the GPS position which is important, the "nose" or front is irrelevant.  As stated above, it is flying in course lock mode.  It is possible the small kinks in your otherwise perfectly straight course were caused by additional sideways input at the same time you were rotating to view the quarry.

Healthy Drones can show the stick movements, just like the others.  When you are sharing the flight record, you need to select some additional options (kml and csv) which are not enabled by default like Phantom help. This will provide the necessary information to see whether there were any additional stick movements.

TheDennisWagner Posted at 2017-3-2 23:49
After 10 seconds it would have started the RTH, and you must cancel it on the screen or by RC once it begins the RTH process. If he tried to fly, by moving the sticks erratically it could cancel the climb in altitude to avoid obstacles during RTH, but the RTH still makes a straight line for the home point. I would not be surprised if it is in the patch of trees between the spot it was hovering and the home point. He also said he was flying blind so he could have went in any direction. I would check the trees in between hover point and home point. It seems likely. Those trees are tall.

Anyone see what his return to home altitude was set at?

I would not be surprised if it is in the patch of trees between the spot it was hovering and the home point. I would check the trees in between hover point and home point.Those trees are tall.

That's exactly what I was thinking, except he was starting from 363m altitude.  The closest he would have come to any of the treelines would be about 200m, they would have to be some mighty tall trees!  The rest of the track is a flat, clear and featureless slope back to the home point.

endotherm Posted at 2017-3-3 21:29
A yaw maneuver shouldn't upset the otherwise relatively straight track back to home.  Once you are in phase 2 of the RTH (risen to RTH height and now tracking to home) you can use the sticks and it won't cancel the operation.  You are free to yaw the aircraft and it will not have any effect on the direction of travel, the aircraft can just as easily fly sideways and backwards.  It is the GPS position which is important, the "nose" or front is irrelevant.  As stated above, it is flying in course lock mode.  It is possible the small kinks in your otherwise perfectly straight course were caused by additional sideways input at the same time you were rotating to view the quarry.

Healthy Drones can show the stick movements, just like the others.  When you are sharing the flight record, you need to select some additional options (kml and csv) which are not enabled by default like Phantom help. This will provide the necessary information to see whether there were any additional stick movements.

I will play back this flight on the Go app first, as that also shows stick movement and see if the right stick had any movement by me. But you're than saying the right stick could have a play during a RTH flight path, which would contradict others on this thread that are saying you can't change the flight path at all during a RTH.  My link above shows otherwise, as the flight path on the left is the return path. I'll report back either way. I do set the display options on Health Drone to the lowest setting on links I post to avoid the busybodies on this site.

endotherm Posted at 2017-3-3 21:53
I would not be surprised if it is in the patch of trees between the spot it was hovering and the home point. I would check the trees in between hover point and home point.Those trees are tall.

That's exactly what I was thinking, except he was starting from 363m altitude.  The closest he would have come to any of the treelines would be about 200m, they would have to be some mighty tall trees!  The rest of the track is a flat, clear and featureless slope back to the home point.

Yep.. I was thinking if he accidentally cancelled the RTH after it had moved over the trees possibly and then the battery hit 0% and it dropped out of the sky or if he possibly lowered it while flying blind. He wasn't very clear on the use of his sticks or which direction he flew in or thought he was flying in. It's really hard to tell.

His friends probably already found it, and they are all laughing at us trying to figure it out.

endotherm Posted at 2017-3-3 21:29
A yaw maneuver shouldn't upset the otherwise relatively straight track back to home.  Once you are in phase 2 of the RTH (risen to RTH height and now tracking to home) you can use the sticks and it won't cancel the operation.  You are free to yaw the aircraft and it will not have any effect on the direction of travel, the aircraft can just as easily fly sideways and backwards.  It is the GPS position which is important, the "nose" or front is irrelevant.  As stated above, it is flying in course lock mode.  It is possible the small kinks in your otherwise perfectly straight course were caused by additional sideways input at the same time you were rotating to view the quarry.

Healthy Drones can show the stick movements, just like the others.  When you are sharing the flight record, you need to select some additional options (kml and csv) which are not enabled by default like Phantom help. This will provide the necessary information to see whether there were any additional stick movements.

Well I checked, and we both had points that were right. My right, was the yaw did have a influence on the flight path, but because of your point of the other stick movement. But it wasn't a roll movement as you might think, it was I have a habit of pushing the right stick full forward to get up the speed back home during a RTH.  So as I yawed the drone right (it's right) to face the quarry, my right stick was still full forward causing the flight path to slowly push right also (it's right). At one point I had turned the drone 180° causing the distance from home point to increase (still during the RTH), until I notice that then pulled the right stick full down causing the drone to fly backwards back toward home (I was still filming the quarry). So your point might well be right, that a yaw only input will not change the flight path. But the point I was trying to make is also correct, you can change the flight path during a RTH with stick inputs.

WilliamM Posted at 2017-3-3 22:37
Well I checked, and we both had points that were right. My right, was the yaw did have a influence on the flight path, but because of your point of the other stick movement. But it wasn't a roll movement as you might think, it was I have a habit of pushing the right stick full forward to get up the speed back home during a RTH.  So as I yawed the drone right (it's right) to face the quarry, my right stick was still full forward causing the flight path to slowly push right also (it's right). At one point I had turned the drone 180° causing the distance from home point to increase (still during the RTH), until I notice that then pulled the right stick full down causing the drone to fly backwards back toward home (I was still filming the quarry). So your point might well be right, that a yaw only input will not change the flight path. But the point I was trying to make is also correct, you can change the flight path during a RTH with stick inputs.

It seems this comes down to the fact that you aren't relying on RTH to do all the flying for you and you "help" it along faster by pushing the stick fully forward.  I'd say that is unusual behaviour, and is probably why we don't see this kind of glitch more often.  Not saying you are doing anything wrong here, just that it isn't the common way of using RTH.  So at least we have determined why it is deviating from an otherwise straight track back home.

I have always held the position that you can change the flight path during a RTH, and agree with you 100%.  It is described that way in the manual somewhere (too tired to look it up right now).  It is so you can avoid unforeseen obstacles on the way home, e.g. a car has stopped on your home point, kids and dogs are playing nearby etc.  The only time it doesn't allow you to deviate is in the first 20m of the ascent to the defined RTH altitude, although you will still have the option to abort RTH.

TheDennisWagner Posted at 2017-3-3 22:09
Yep.. I was thinking if he accidentally cancelled the RTH after it had moved over the trees possibly and then the battery hit 0% and it dropped out of the sky or if he possibly lowered it while flying blind. He wasn't very clear on the use of his sticks or which direction he flew in or thought he was flying in. It's really hard to tell.

His friends probably already found it, and they are all laughing at us trying to figure it out.

I had cancelled the return to home process just before the phone died as i often do this due to the fact i knew i still had more than enough flight time (Although wish i pressed it now!). I Used both sticks while flying blindly, I knew which way it was facing as i had been doing a time-lapse straight in front of me so decided to hold both sticks down so that the drone would reduce altitude at the same time as coming towards me.

RTH altitude should have been 100m btw

And no news From friends yet. Thanks, for all your help though guys. i really do appreciate it!

You sound fairly confident that you were flying back towards you. You said you were holding both sticks down. So it should be somewhere between its last recorded location and where you were standing (unless it flew over your head!)

At loss of contact the altitude above takeoff was quite high at 784.4ft, so it may have seemed safe to pull the left stick all the way back. But looking at the terrain on google earth it was not that high above the ground below it. Did it hit the ground, perhaps near the point I've marked on this view?

WilliamM Posted at 2017-3-3 21:56
I will play back this flight on the Go app first, as that also shows stick movement and see if the right stick had any movement by me. But you're than saying the right stick could have a play during a RTH flight path, which would contradict others on this thread that are saying you can't change the flight path at all during a RTH.  My link above shows otherwise, as the flight path on the left is the return path. I'll report back either way. I do set the display options on Health Drone to the lowest setting on links I post to avoid the busybodies on this site.

I never said you couldn't change flight path in RTH, only that yaw input shouldn't change the course. I see in a different post now that you confirmed you were inputting right stick movements as well. That backs up what I said originally. Yaw inputs (only) will not affect the course in RTH.

KM5RG-Robert Posted at 2017-3-6 07:05
I never said you couldn't change flight path in RTH, only that yaw input shouldn't change the course. I see in a different post now that you confirmed you were inputting right stick movements as well. That backs up what I said originally. Yaw inputs (only) will not affect the course in RTH.

My line "would contradict others on this thread that are saying you can't change the flight path at all during a RTH" was really meant for "AlecW" from my post #23. He had at least three posts in this thread, that all seemed to be deleted now, odd.

Sorry to here that dude next time put a GPS tracker on it or something so you could locate it if the same thing would happen (hopefully not) in the future. Better safe than sorry

Cessna172 Posted at 2017-3-2 10:53
Did you ever consider a $20  GPS tracker for your $1000.00 drone ?

I had a similar issue. Lost my Mavic Pro when it got lost in a headwind and lost connection on a Litchi Waypoint flight.  I did attach a 20$ GPS tracker but it failed. Just going to trace over the original flight path and look for it on the ground with my Phantom 3. The weather has been terrible over the past week and I have not been able to fly. Luckily I live in the North East and ground foliage is gone.

i use a car tracker on my P3A with a sim card in it. I just dial the sim number
then it sends a text back with it's location on google maps. I can also call another code number to itand listen to any conversation on my mobile phone
also use a drone finder so if lost in long grass etc it beeps like hell for 2 1/2 hours

edifier Posted at 2017-12-14 04:58
i use a car tracker on my P3A with a sim card in it. I just dial the sim number
then it sends a text back with it's location on google maps. I can also call another code number to itand listen to any conversation on my mobile phone
also use a drone finder so if lost in long grass etc it beeps like hell for 2 1/2 hours

Which one do you have? Do you have a link.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tk102b ... :g:fB8AAOSwgY9Xc6DV

same as this one you can see them on ebay
just use a pay as you go sim card from E.E or asda sim card

and the drone keeper mini is
http://www.nichemall.net/index.p ... oduct&product_id=50
youtube

Hi All,

I lost my drone and was wondering if its covered by warranty?

http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Y4VEVX3ZTFO3TMNQFCBI/

Any help is appreciated.

regards,

jasonlone Posted at 2017-12-19 18:35
Hi All,

I lost my drone and was wondering if its covered by warranty?

No. Not a chance. Warranty covers the loss or damage caused by a malfunction of the aircraft due to a manufacturing defect. But taking off at 41% battery capacity and flying while receiving a barrage of error messages qualifies as bad flying by the pilot.

jasonlone Posted at 2017-12-19 18:35
Hi All,

I lost my drone and was wondering if its covered by warranty?

To get the error messages you got, you must have launched from very close to a lot of steel, a steel surface or reinforced concrete.
That's screwed up the compass which has made the flight go crazy.
You should have aborted the flight rather than sending it get away.

Starting the flight with a partially discharged battery is another mistake but the flight didn't last long enough for that to cause a problem.

Thanks for the info.

jasonlone Posted at 2017-12-19 18:35
Hi All,

I lost my drone and was wondering if its covered by warranty?

Not a chance.  Sorry for your loss