Today my drone said battery level low aircraft will return to home in 10 seconds. It has done this many times before and always came home. Today after advising drone is coming home screen went black lost all control with the drone. No idea where it is. Any Ideas how to find it I went to the last location on the flight log searched the area nothing. Any Help would be appreciated.

Check out your TXT flight log to see if it explains what happened. You can upload and view it online here. If you'd like other people to review and comment on your flight log, then please post a link back here after you upload it.

That's called playing with fire. After awhile you get burnt. Mine did that too. It is now in the bottom of a canyon. How was your battery? Mine was at 29%. It didn't matter what battery I used. Was that your case?  Did you ever get a battery error message?  Was there much wind? Look down wind. The higher your phantom was, the farther it will travel. Also, you can look at the flight data to see if everything was normal.

In your home page try "Find My Drone" If it has any power left, however small it will ping and give you the location. If it was a total power loss give  Post # 2 a shot.

msinger Posted at 11-24 14:14
Check out your TXT flight log to see if it explains what happened. You can upload and view it online here. If you'd like other people to review and comment on your flight log, then please post a link back here after you upload it.

https://app.airdata.com/share/tjPIdP
Here’s the flight what happened

MurrayL Posted at 11-24 14:56
https://app.airdata.com/share/tjPIdP
Here’s the flight what happened

airdata sucks.  Upload here:  http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/ per post #2

Hope you find it

Mark The Droner Posted at 11-24 15:30
airdata sucks.  Upload here:  http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/ per post #2

Hope you find it

How do I upload it from an iPad to where your requesting. Not easy, what’s wrong with air data.

MurrayL Posted at 11-24 15:34
How do I upload it from an iPad to where your requesting. Not easy, what’s wrong with air data.

It blows...

MurrayL Posted at 11-24 14:56
https://app.airdata.com/share/tjPIdP
Here’s the flight what happened

I would start by looking in that group of trees and/or around them. Dont forget to look up in the tree tops.

MurrayL Posted at 11-24 14:56
https://app.airdata.com/share/tjPIdP
Here’s the flight what happened

I would start by looking in that group of trees and/or around them. Don't forget to look up in the tree tops.

TheLazyC Posted at 11-24 16:20
I would start by looking in that group of trees and/or around them. Don't forget to look up in the tree tops.

I agree big time on that call. That was the way the wind was blowing.

MurrayL Posted at 11-24 14:56
https://app.airdata.com/share/tjPIdP
Here’s the flight what happened

You simply lost connection because of the trees which were in direct line from your drone to the homepoint.
Dont think it has anything to do with battery.  30% in that tailwind will do.

Deleted the first because of wrong wind map.

MurrayL Posted at 11-24 14:56
https://app.airdata.com/share/tjPIdP
Here’s the flight what happened

Sorry to hear about your lost.
here is your error report, the Battery was charged to 40% but you flew in a strong wireless interference area alot of Yaw and Compas Errors and there was a high wind velocity.
https://app.airdata.com/share/tjPIdP/GENERALNotifications

MurrayL Posted at 11-24 15:34
How do I upload it from an iPad to where your requesting. Not easy, what’s wrong with air data.

Airdata just gives a brief summary and is harder to analyse.
The instructions were in the link shown in post #2.

Even Airdata shows that your compass was screwed up, probably by launching from reinforced concrete and it could be that RTH couldn't fly straight.
The log was full of Yaw Errors.  That's usually serious.

Sorry to read about the lost drone.

We all hope that you can find it.

By posting the flight LOG, you could get much more info...


RedHotPoker

Rodger8 Posted at 11-24 14:37
In your home page try "Find My Drone" If it has any power left, however small it will ping and give you the location. If it was a total power loss give  Post # 2 a shot.

Which "Home Page"  Where do you find that ?

Sorry to read that mate

Mark The Droner Posted at 11-24 15:30
airdata sucks.  Upload here:  http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/ per post #2

Hope you find it

http://www.phantomhelp.com/logviewer/A5MJ7YU45GG85NEVRD3N

Manxmann Posted at 11-25 01:10
Which "Home Page"  Where do you find that ?

when you turn the GO 4 Program on the first page which is white with a picture of your drone.  There is a menu bar in the upper right hand corner, three bars, hit that and it will appear on the screen.

Sorry to hear about your drone, hope you are able to find it.

Hello and good day MurrayL. I am sorry to know what happened to your DJI Phantom 4 Pro. Since this issue happened to your drone the best thing you need to do is to contact DJI Support at https://www.dji.com/support and create a ticket or your drone for further help. Please sync the flight records as well using your DJI Go 4 application for further analysis. Thank you.

G_Sig Posted at 11-24 17:43
You simply lost connection because of the trees which were in direct line from your drone to the homepoint.
Dont think it has anything to do with battery.  30% in that tailwind will do.
[view_image]

Thanks for the info Captain. I have flown this route many times in the past and it has been my best reception are to fly. I have never lost communication like this from any flight I made. Something must have malfunctioned in the drone.

G_Sig Posted at 11-24 17:43
You simply lost connection because of the trees which were in direct line from your drone to the homepoint.
Dont think it has anything to do with battery.  30% in that tailwind will do.
[view_image]

Is there anyway to see where the drone flew after the end point on this map. If signal is lost between controller and drone does it record flight map. Or do you need that signal between the 2 in order to have a flight map.

No data was recorded in the TXT flight log on your mobile device after the drone disconnected from the remote controller. The best you could do is use the flight log data to guesstimate where the drone landed.

MurrayL Posted at 11-25 11:47
Is there anyway to see where the drone flew after the end point on this map. If signal is lost between controller and drone does it record flight map. Or do you need that signal between the 2 in order to have a flight map.

It is recorded in the drone but on the device it stops when you loose connection.
Could you post older flight log from same area?
Would bee good to have both posted if you have it.
Have something changed lately. Update to FW or App update?

Sorry but this looks like pilot error to me.  Multiple compass warnings were ignored early in the flight.  You had several IMU errors and the software begged you to land and restart the AC.  You lost downlink multiple times around the 12 min mark.  You had multiple "Weak GPS" warnings.  You had repeated high wind warnings advising you to land:

Downlink Restored (after 0m 5.4s); High wind velocity. Fly with caution and land in a safe place ASAP.

But instead of heeding the warnings, you treated them just like the compass and interference and IMU and GPS warnings you had earlier.  You ignored them and flew further and further away from home with the wind at your back.

When you lose your downlink over and over like you did at 12 mins, and you decide to fly still further away from home with a pretty strong tail wind, you have to expect another lost downlink at some point, don't you?  I didn't count them but it looks like you must have had several dozen.  

I like post #12 suggesting it might be trees.  Even if the trees weren't blocking LOS, they could still weaken your signal enough to cause a disconnection.  You were kind of low for that distance.  See the Fresnel Zone wiki.  

So you lose connection.  You say you got a message that the AC was returning home, but there's nothing in the log.

So if we assume it RTH'd at that point, then your AC turns around and your AC is in an RTH fighting a pretty strong headwind and you have no connection.  We've seen so many situations/threads like this.  The AC will make very slow progress trying to return in a head wind.  The AC probably landed due to low battery, it may have even landed safely, and would likely be somewhere between the last point on the map and home.  What we don't know for sure is if you were trying to work the controls after you lost the downlink connection the last time.  Because you may have had a control signal even with no downlink.  If you were working the controls with no downlink, the AC could be off the assumed track.

Next time, you might consider a tracking device to aid you when you lose your AC.  

Having a cheap used backup drone to help you search could be helpful too.

Good luck

Mark the Droner, you say I would be  fighting a head wind on RTH that  isn’t correct. If you look at the home point it’s to the south of where My drone lost connection. I was North of the home point, the wind direction in my flight log is from the North. I had a nice tail wind to fly home in. No it wasn’t pilot error this was a mail function of the Drone, does the wind blow the gps signal away or weaken it. Or does the wind reduce compass accuracy.  Is 12.5mph to dangerous to fly in land safely now, I don’t think so.  This is a clear case of a fly away drone with no way of determining what really happened.

I was looking at the underground weather data for Winnipeg.  The graphic seems to say wind was from the South at around 15 mph.

https://www.wunderground.com/his ... =22&reqdb.wmo=71579

That's surface winds.  Winds aloft would be stronger.

Am I reading it wrong?  I agree your AC speed within the log seems to show you have winds from the north, not the south.  I apparently read the graphic wrong.  The text chart says wind from the North.  My bad.

Still, with dozens of compass, GPS, IMU, and wind speed warnings, I don't know how you can justify flying away from homepoint at top speed on a waning battery.  A bad compass, GPS, IMU - any one of those could confuse your AC as far as its ability to find home.  You knew there was a disconnection risk, and you kept flying further out.  And the north wind is even worse news, because there's really no way to guess where the AC might be.  With a tail wind, I think it should have made it home if everything was working correctly, but clearly you had multiple issues and you were repeatedly warned about them and you repeatedly ignored them.  So who knows what direction the AC went in its quest to find home.  Yeah, you could call this a flyaway if you wanted, but it's a pilot-induced fly away.

Bottom line:  I don't think it's possible to find your AC with the data we have here.  Maybe somebody will find it your phone number on it or you have data on your SD card which will help the finder locate you?  

Sorry for your loss.

Winnipeg is 1.5 hours South of me 121 km’s Use environment canada for arnes,mb if you want,  it would be more accurate for where I was flying.
https://weather.gc.ca/past_conditions/index_e.html?station=pgh

Certainly looks like he had a tail wind for the return journey and RTH wouldnt show on the long until it regained contact, this it didnt do, so it probably did regain contatc but i am hypotheising that with regards to the errors the drone thought it was heading home when infact it didnt know which way home was? perhaps? could the -7C have played a part in this?

Rodger8 Posted at 11-25 05:55
when you turn the GO 4 Program on the first page which is white with a picture of your drone.  There is a menu bar in the upper right hand corner, three bars, hit that and it will appear on the screen.

I guess that must be an app you use with a tablet or phone as opposed to when you use the built in screen on the "Plus" ??

Manxmann Posted at 11-26 01:36
I guess that must be an app you use with a tablet or phone as opposed to when you use the built in screen on the "Plus" ??

I believe it is not available on the plus at this time. Could be wrong. I use a Mini 4.

I think it should be in flight log.

I certainly cannot find it ........  never mind !  

Sorry from my side too. Such lost is more than "never mind". But here is nothing that can be said and wasn't said before. Not enough data.
Whatever it is I think if not directly the pilot error it sure was the very irresponsible flight according to all that warnings. Did you see or hear them? Maybe your phone sound was set too low?
At first yaw error message I would turn back for sure. The wind warning in that scenario wasn't so serious issue as it could be because you were flying against the wind.   

No the only message I got was battery level low returning to home, normal message, got this message many times before. This time about 8 seconds into the 10second RTH I got another message strong wireless interference, screen blacked out and drone never came back to home point.  When your buying these drones they sound fail proof, safety measures in place and suppose to RTH. I agree computers malfunction and I believe that is what happened here.

Is it possible you pressed the RTH button because you thought it wasnt on its way thus cancelling the auto rth and in fact its actually sitting along that RTH line somewhere, have you walked the full RTH line?