Back Lights blinking Red then Green

PinnacleRun · Oct 6, 2017

My Phantom 3A is all up to date with firmware on everything. Last night I went to film the harvest moon, and for the 1st time I saw my back LED lights blink red. I always fly with my front red led's off so I wasn't seeing the front. What was happening was that the back two lights would be solid for 1 sec then switch to green for 1 sec. I've never seen this in the almost two years I've had it. Has anyone else seen this? I'm kinda thinking that this might be an upgrade to the lights when the drone know's its flying after sunset. I've attached a quick clip and it's not the best but both the back two lights are the only ones blinking red/green.

PaulSouthport · Oct 6, 2017

Were you in or near a warning area or NFZ?

PinnacleRun · Oct 6, 2017

PaulSouthport said:
We’re you in or near a warning area or NFZ?

no, see attached. but I know I'm within 4 miles of a hospital with a helipad, but I fly at my house all the time, just the 1st time I've ever seen this

SrChap · Oct 7, 2017

PinnacleRun said:
no, see attached. but I know I'm within 4 miles of a hospital with a helipad, but I fly at my house all the time, just the 1st time I've ever seen this

I might be wrong but I did some research on this and it could indicate a satellite availability issue. It won’t effect the flight but it might warn of lack of satellites in the area at the time. Mine did the same thing and that’s the only information I found. My flight went fine though. The app showed I had 10 satellites. I was also told that if you’re flying with just two lights that those two will flash red and green as if you were flying with four lights.

PinnacleRun · Oct 7, 2017

SrChap said:
I might be wrong but I did some research on this and it could indicate a satellite availability issue. It won’t effect the flight but it might warn of lack of satellites in the area at the time. Mine did the same thing and that’s the only information I found. My flight went fine though. The app showed I had 10 satellites. I was also told that if you’re flying with just two lights that those two will flash red and green as if you were flying with four lights.

I had 16-17 locked satellites the entire time so not sure if that was the issue.

KAOS Imagery · May 9, 2018

@PinnacleRun did you ever find out what that blink pattern means? Mine does it from time to time and I am having a hard time finding any documentation about it.

PinnacleRun · May 9, 2018

KAOS Imagery said:
@PinnacleRun did you ever find out what that blink pattern means? Mine does it from time to time and I am having a hard time finding any documentation about it.

No I never figured it out, but I did calibrate my IMU again as well as compass and haven't had this issue again, so whatever it was it seemed to get fixed by do these two thing.

KAOS Imagery · May 9, 2018

PinnacleRun said:
No I never figured it out, but I did calibrate my IMU again as well as compass and haven't had this issue again, so whatever it was it seemed to get fixed by do these two thing.

Thanks for the fast reply! I'll try doing the calibrations, thanks for the idea. I have not experienced any flight issues, so I didn't think it was a critical warning. Funny how there's no info on it.

KAOS Imagery · May 10, 2018

Think I might have figured it out....

Did the IMU calibration and flew this eve. Flight was great, no issues. Half way through, I went up to my programmed max alt of 400 to shoot the sunset. The LEDs started the green / red again. I descended 10' and it stopped, back to slow green. Back up to max alt and green / red showed again. Think it's a visual warning that you've reached max alt.

Try it some time when you have the chance and see if yours behaves the same way.