I was flying my drone today and after I flew it out of range it would not reconnect to the controller. I took off a little to close to a tree or it would have returned safely, this was my mistake. What was not my mistake was the drone disconnected and never reconnected. I have flown out of range many times and was able to cancel RTH(Return to Home) after it flew back in range. During RTH it clipped a nearby tree and crashed damaging the camera and gimble. I turned off the controller and back on after it stopped overhead in an attempt to regain control. I was never able to regain control. I fired it back up at home and it will connect to the controller (green light on controller and signal level on screen). Any body experience this before?

Sorry, but this is pilot error.  You should have read your manual more carefully and learned how to cancel RTH regardless of what your app is showing.  Turning your controller off and on doesn't cancel RTH.  In fact, it invokes RTH.  

It would also be a good idea to practice cancelling RTH while ignoring the monitor or turning the mobile device completely off.  That way when the mobile device crashes or turns black, you'll know what to do to get it landed safely.

Your post is lacking details.  When you say your drone disconnected, it's not clear what you mean.  

I will guess your mobile device is an Android.

Sorry for your troubles.  

What was your RTH altitude set at?

I had that happen to me once a few months ago. Screen went black and the light on the controller went red. I waited until the bird came back and was then able to regain control once it was overhead starting to land. I had the RTH height set according to my surroundings and had made sure the takeoff (RTH landing spot) was open enough to allow for some variation in the GPS. It has only done this the one time. Not sure why it did it but when it happens you definitely cross your fingers. Mine was out about 8900' and it took a few LONG minutes to finally hear it on its way back. Hopefully you can get it fixed and back in the air soon.

I am always disturbed to read these reports.

Hope that you can discover your mistakes and learn to avoid them in the future.

Post the flight LOG link. Thanks

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


RedHotPoker

I'm sorry to read the crash. The aircraft performance can not be ensured after crash, I would suggest to send it in for diagnosis and repair: http://www.dji.com/support

Did you have a stick input during RTH or after regaining control?

Mark The Droner Posted at 2017-11-12 13:42
Sorry, but this is pilot error.  You should have read your manual more carefully and learned how to cancel RTH regardless of what your app is showing.  Turning your controller off and on doesn't cancel RTH.  In fact, it invokes RTH.  

It would also be a good idea to practice cancelling RTH while ignoring the monitor or turning the mobile device completely off.  That way when the mobile device crashes or turns black, you'll know what to do to get it landed safely.

I know how to cancel RTH. The comm between the AC and controller was gone completely. The RF signal between the controller and the drone was lost. The RF signal strength indicator stayed zero. On it's automatic return flight the RF signal strength indicator stayed gone and so did the video, even when overhead.  I have been flying for over a year now and have flown and know how to cancel RTH etc.. The only reason I turned of the controller was a last ditch attempt to see if it was my controller that was not transmitting RF. It was a reset attempt. I believe the problem is inside the drone. As I said in my initial post, my error was not selecting a site further from a tree as the standard does not land exactly where you take off which I knew. Even with the RF failure the drone would have landed safely if NOT for my error of site selection. I am an electronic tech by trade and have some ideas. I will check connections/connectors first. If you fly out of range with the standard, it will initiate RTH after several seconds and start returning to home. Then once it flies back into range your signal strength will return and you get a cancel RTH query. Initially, I got the query but the RF signal strength never returned and cancel RTH would not transmit to the drone even while overhead and I never regained video or RF strength.

ALABAMA Posted at 2017-11-12 13:42
What was your RTH altitude set at?

High enough to 200 feet. Again, the crash was HALF MY FAULT. The standard will land 10 to 15 feet from takeoff. I chose a site too close to a tree. I flew slightly out of range. Drone started RTH. Never got signal strength OR video back even after overhead. DEFINITELY SOME MALFUNCTION. Even with the malfunction the drone would have landed safely. It flew overhead and started decending and hit the tree and the rest is history. $27 is the damage to my camera. Never had a total loss of video and RF signal strength before. Flying over a year now.

Mark The Droner Posted at 2017-11-12 13:42
Sorry, but this is pilot error.  You should have read your manual more carefully and learned how to cancel RTH regardless of what your app is showing.  Turning your controller off and on doesn't cancel RTH.  In fact, it invokes RTH.  

It would also be a good idea to practice cancelling RTH while ignoring the monitor or turning the mobile device completely off.  That way when the mobile device crashes or turns black, you'll know what to do to get it landed safely.

Android tablet. But it did not cause this. You can fly without the tablet. My problem was no RF between the drone and the controller. It has never happened before. I plan to check inside connections. Reconnecting each one. $27 damage to my camera, no big deal. Just wondering if anyone else experienced this. I am able to fly the drone now just without tablet and camera.

Yep, something weird happened.  You should have regained a signal long before it being back directly overhead.  Glad the damage wasn't too bad.

Mark The Droner Posted at 2017-11-12 13:42
Sorry, but this is pilot error.  You should have read your manual more carefully and learned how to cancel RTH regardless of what your app is showing.  Turning your controller off and on doesn't cancel RTH.  In fact, it invokes RTH.  

It would also be a good idea to practice cancelling RTH while ignoring the monitor or turning the mobile device completely off.  That way when the mobile device crashes or turns black, you'll know what to do to get it landed safely.

Android tablet. But it did not cause this. You can fly without the tablet. My problem was no RF between the drone and the controller. It has never happened before. I plan to check inside connections. Reconnecting each one. $27 damage to my camera, no big deal. Just wondering if anyone else experienced this. I am able to fly the drone now just without tablet and camera.

ALABAMA Posted at 2017-11-14 07:30
Yep, something weird happened.  You should have regained a signal long before it being back directly overhead.  Glad the damage wasn't too bad.

Thanks! Lesson here, ALWAY pick a clear area to fly in the case of a malfunction. I knew I was choosing a bad location to take off, but never had an issue, so no prob was my thinking. WRONG, Crash my fault. Drone would have landed safe if not for my bad choice even with the odd malfunction.

So you're saying your 2.4 wifi connection was intact through out the flight?  You know this for sure?  

fans81882163 Posted at 2017-11-14 07:10
I know how to cancel RTH. ... I have been flying for over a year now and have flown and know how to cancel RTH etc.. ...

Good.  How do you do it?

Not trying to fight with you.  Just trying to figure out what happened...

Glad to hear the damage wasn't to bad! When it happened to me like I posted above my whole screen went black, like it would be if you turned off the tablet (IPad Pro). If I recall correctly it was like the app crashed and I also had no connection between the the RC and AC. I let it return and do it's thing until I was able to regain control. Once it went into landing I still had no connection and light was still red so I powered the controller off then back on and then it connected (light turned green). I still let it land on its own. I shut everything down and never have had a problem since. It was definitely strange.

My P3SE did the same thing and I was 10 feet away.
It would disconnect from the RC and reconnect, very strange. The rear led lights would start blinking yellow rapidly indicating the RC was disconnected.
This happened after an initial flight with no issues.
Shutting down and restarting and it worked fine. It has yet to happen again.
No rhyme or reason, the drone was having a moment.

It could be you were TOO close.  Like somebody yelling in your ear.  You can hear them but you can't understand them.  

CabinPete Posted at 2017-11-15 02:45
My P3SE did the same thing and I was 10 feet away.
It would disconnect from the RC and reconnect, very strange. The rear led lights would start blinking yellow rapidly indicating the RC was disconnected.
This happened after an initial flight with no issues.

Issue may be related to not closing and reopening the the app between flights/batteries. I've had same issue, resolved by doing that. Sometimes doing a force stop as well. Clearing its throat??

Doesn’t RTH hover at the selected height?  I didn’t think RTH also does auto-landlords but I always retake control when it gets close so I’ve never found out.
So, how do you cancel RTH if the app doesn’t respond?

Sunny D Posted at 2017-11-15 11:12
Doesn’t RTH hover at the selected height?  I didn’t think RTH also does auto-landlords but I always retake control when it gets close so I’ve never found out.
So, how do you cancel RTH if the app doesn’t respond?

Yes, RTH will land once it reaches homepoint.  

To cancel RTH, you toggle the S1 switch.  The beauty in this is the S1 switch is part of the 5.8 signal so it has nothing to do with 2.4.  The OP wasn't clear what he meant when he said he cancelled RTH and I suspect he never toggled the S1.  He also wasn't clear when he said he "lost comm."  I suspect he had 5.8 the whole time and didn't know it.  Common error.  

The other thing is that on some of the Androids, once 2.4 is lost, the device will not reconnect to the Phantom automatically.  This is only on some Androids.  I'm not sure if it's FW version or what.  So once you lose the 2.4 wifi, if it doesn't seem to want to come back, you need to go to settings and reconnect with the Phantom (i.e. the controller) manually.  It'll say something like "No internet, will not connect automatically."   So connect manually.  Then when you go back to the app it will be working normally.  

I suspect this happened to the OP.