Maximum flight distance for my P4P is 30 meters

OOO · Feb 25, 2017

Hi

Please have a look attached screen capture taken from RC screen during my first flight with my P4P. I keep getting “no signal” error on the RC screen. Everything is OK during take-off but when the quad travels approximately 20-30 meters in any direction it shows “no signal” alert on the screen (please find attached screen capture). The weather was good and I had a good GPS signal during all flights. Whenever it shows “no signal” alert on the screen the quad either try to land wherever it is, or returns to home. My maximum flight distance was 30-32 meters. I was not able to go beyond this limit since one of the landing options mentioned above was automatically activated by the quad. Most of the time I was able to re-control the quad by moving close to it or during RTH when the distance between RC and the quad fell below 15-20 meters. But in my last flight (distance 34 meter, height 19 m) the quad behaved differently. At 32-meter distance, it moved away from home point and disappeared very fast. I run in the same direction and tried to locate it. 3-5 minutes later while we were searching for it (500 meters away from home point) it suddenly appeared over us. It was flying towards home point location and it was very fast. When we got there, the quad had already landed and everything was OK on visual inspection except some minor scratches. I have video and flight data for all flights. But for the last flight there was no any recorded data (video or flight) after 1 minute and 10 seconds of flying. This is the point when the quad lost the control and moved away from us.

Thanks in advance for your comments and suggestions.

Craig H · Feb 25, 2017

Humm. My P4 has a beginner mode which allows you to fly in a radius of 30 meters only. Take it out of the "beginner mode" and the range is substantially increased. Does the P4P have a "beginner mode"?

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msinger · Feb 25, 2017

Craig H said:
Does the P4P have a "beginner mode"?

Yes.

Craig H · Feb 25, 2017

Not a "beginner mode" issue. What is your "max flight distance" set for?

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OOO · Feb 25, 2017

It was not in beginner mode. Max flight distance is 2000 meters.

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OOO · Feb 25, 2017

Maximum flight distance without "no signal" alert was between 20-32 meters (horizontally or vertically). After that point the drone either returned to tome or tried to land wherever it is. On the last flight, it did returned to home but after 1-2 km journey. The battery level was 16% after landing.

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KevMo Photog · Feb 25, 2017

Wow! Is this your first flight with it?

OOO · Feb 25, 2017

Yes, first flight with P4P plus. I'll send it back but I'm trying to understand what was the problem. Any comments?

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Jimz · Feb 25, 2017

Craig H said:
Humm. My P4 has a beginner mode which allows you to fly in a radius of 30 meters only. Take it out of the "beginner mode" and the range is substantially increased. Does the P4P have a "beginner mode"?

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My first thought was the same, but the rest of the symptoms don't fit.
Were you flying in a high interference area? High voltage lines for example? That would explain losing connection and possibly make it think it was at another location and try to recover by going to a 'wrong' home? Just thinking out loud...

OOO · Feb 25, 2017

No. A remote area with no interference. What about RC antennas? Do you think something was wrong with it?

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OOO · Feb 25, 2017

I have never seen a drone flying so fast. It was crazy fast. But at the and while searching for a dead drone it was a big moment for me to see that it is going to true home

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Jimz · Feb 25, 2017

OOO said:
No. A remote area with no interference. What about RC antennas? Do you think something was wrong with it?

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That would only explain the loss of connection I think. Not the flying away then zooming back home.

Meta4 · Feb 25, 2017

OOO said:
Whenever it shows “no signal” alert on the screen the quad either try to land wherever it is, or returns to home. My maximum flight distance was 30-32 meters. I was not able to go beyond this limit since one of the landing options mentioned above was automatically activated by the quad. Most of the time I was able to re-control the quad by moving close to it or during RTH when the distance between RC and the quad fell below 15-20 meters. But in my last flight (distance 34 meter, height 19 m) the quad behaved differently. At 32-meter distance, it moved away from home point and disappeared very fast. I run in the same direction and tried to locate it. 3-5 minutes later while we were searching for it (500 meters away from home point) it suddenly appeared over us. It was flying towards home point location and it was very fast. When we got there, the quad had already landed and everything was OK on visual inspection except some minor scratches..

It's hard to work out what happened from what you say.
Flight data might be useful to find out what's happening.
Go to https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/
Follow the instructions to upload your flight record.
Come back and post a link to the report it provides

Craig H · Feb 25, 2017

In that your Phantom has a mind of its own, you might consider limiting the max distance, if you decide to fly it again. Hopefully, it will stay close and you will better be able to observe and possibly correct the issue.

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OOO · Feb 25, 2017

Meta4 said:
It's hard to work out what happened from what you say.
Flight data might be useful to find out what's happening.
Go to https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/
Follow the instructions to upload your flight record.
Come back and post a link to the report it provides

No way to get flight log from P4P with integrated screen.

OOO · Feb 26, 2017

Hi,

I was not able to get flight log or records from P4P plus. Thus, I recorded my RC screen while playing two flight records. One of them is showing what is wrong with my quad (title: sample flight record). As you can see at the end of the record, upon loss of signal, the quad activates RTH. In addition there is no sampling between the place where the signal was lost and home point (last straight line). It suddenly appears at home point with no sampling between these two points. In the second one, which was my last video, there is no data after loss of signal. Recording stops when the quad is 32 meters away from home point. The story of this last flight was explained in my first message. As you can see from both recordings I have a good GPS signal.

Any kind of help will be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Video 1: Sample Flight Record

Video 2: Last Flight

wildturkeyway · Feb 26, 2017

OOO said:
No way to get flight log from P4P with integrated screen.

Yesterday I fired up my P4P+ remote in the house and uploaded flight logs through my DJI account using WIFI if I recall correctly and then uploaded them to Dronelogbook. Can't upload flight logs? You sure?

OOO · Feb 26, 2017

You can sync flight data with DJI. I did that but I couldn't find a solution to save flight record to my computer.

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OOO · Feb 26, 2017

Meta4 said:
It's hard to work out what happened from what you say.
Flight data might be useful to find out what's happening.
Go to https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/
Follow the instructions to upload your flight record.
Come back and post a link to the report it provides

I finally figured out how to download flight log from P4P+.

1) From P4P+ remote sync your flight data with DJI cloud servers,
2) Go to your iPhone or iPad, login to your account and sync flight data with your device.
3) Watch this video for the third step:
I have uploaded 4 flight log:

Flight log from my last flight: No data after loss of connection.

Phantom Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

Sample flight logs showing loss of connection and activation of RTH.

Phantom Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

Phantom Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

Phantom Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com