My first long range disconnect!

[Shimien]

So I was out flying and got out to 2500ft on my stock setup. Everything was fine while I was hovering there for a few minutes, full RC signal and everything. Then all of a sudden I completely lost signal. After waiting what seamed like 5 minutes (may have only been 2) she was still just hovering there. I thought the RTH should have kicked in my then so I started to get nervous. Even though the light on my controller was red, I tried toggling the S1 switch. It immediately worked and I could tell she was heading back properly. Thank god for DJI systems working as they should. My question is why did I never get the signal back??? Even when it was 10 feet away finishing the RTH sequence I never got any connection back at all. I stopped and started the Go app but that didn't seam to help much. Next time should I power off and back on the controller to try to get control back?


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[Atgx999]

This has happened to me. Usually just lose video signal and still have rc signal and control. That is why it hovered and did not RTH on its own. Sometimes if you look at the map in the lower right you can see your movement to continue flying. Sometimes it takes coming all the way back to get my video feed up and running

 

[Heisnuts]

That's funny.. I thought toggling the S2 switch initiates RTH and S1 cancels RTH....

 

[kingfisher555]

So I was out flying and got out to 2500ft on my stock setup. Everything was fine while I was hovering there for a few minutes, full RC signal and everything. Then all of a sudden I completely lost signal. After waiting what seamed like 5 minutes (may have only been 2) she was still just hovering there. I thought the RTH should have kicked in my then so I started to get nervous. Even though the light on my controller was red, I tried toggling the S1 switch. It immediately worked and I could tell she was heading back properly. Thank god for DJI systems working as they should. My question is why did I never get the signal back??? Even when it was 10 feet away finishing the RTH sequence I never got any connection back at all. I stopped and started the Go app but that didn't seam to help much. Next time should I power off and back on the controller to try to get control back?


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I had the same thing happen today at only 650 feet out and 200 high. It said disconnected and the same thing it was hovering so I shut the tx off and it came back and landed but I could not get the signal back, I did fly over some power lines so that might of done it .

 

[Shimien]

Yeah I meant S2 sorry, I guess I just assumed the one on the left on the controller would start with 1 not 2.


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[Shimien]

So even though the light was red on the controller you think I still might have actually had control? That makes sense I guess since the S2 seamed to work. I don't think I actually tried now that I think about it. I guess home lock would be a good idea next time that happens, then at least if I can control it I would be able to get it back to me close enough to see it better.


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[Heisnuts]

So even though the light was red on the controller you think I still might have actually had control? That makes sense I guess since the S2 seamed to work. I don't think I actually tried now that I think about it. I guess home lock would be a good idea next time that happens, then at least if I can control it I would be able to get it back to me close enough to see it better.


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Either that, or maybe it activated RTH on its own if the signal was completely lost for a given amount of time.

 

[Shimien]

After reviewing the video it was about 4 minutes after signal loss before it started coming back, but again it was started by my S2 toggle. I would hope it would normally initiate a RTH much sooner than that


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[RodPad]

Given amount of time, more than 3 seconds.

 

[RodPad]

After reviewing the video it was about 4 minutes after signal loss before it started coming back, but again it was started by my S2 toggle. I would hope it would normally initiate a RTH much sooner than that

The Phantom was still picking up signal from your remote, your remote was not receiving data from the Phantom.

 

[RodPad]

If you didn't turn of the remote, your mobile device should still had a WiFi link to your remote. Meaning you should have got your data and live feed back. But? It has with mine but?

 

[kingfisher555]

Never got my wifi feed back l'm not sure what happend.

 

[witerlaw]

So I was out flying and got out to 2500ft on my stock setup. Everything was fine while I was hovering there for a few minutes, full RC signal and everything. Then all of a sudden I completely lost signal. After waiting what seamed like 5 minutes (may have only been 2) she was still just hovering there. I thought the RTH should have kicked in my then so I started to get nervous. Even though the light on my controller was red, I tried toggling the S1 switch. It immediately worked and I could tell she was heading back properly. Thank god for DJI systems working as they should. My question is why did I never get the signal back??? Even when it was 10 feet away finishing the RTH sequence I never got any connection back at all. I stopped and started the Go app but that didn't seam to help much. Next time should I power off and back on the controller to try to get control back?


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I had the same, I got nervous, I imagined every single scenario... I was so scared to lost my drone


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[Sabalon]

The Phantom was still picking up signal from your remote, your remote was not receiving data from the Phantom.

It's little tidbits like this I like learning about how it all functions. That could explain what happened to me the other day when I lost RC but it didn't RTH, until I turned the remote off. Will keep it in mind to toggle S2 before panicking next time!

 

[dirkclod]

Panicking is your worst enemy , take a breath and then think it out .

 

[Shimien]

The only reason I could is because of you all here on the forum. All the stories about trusting the RTH helped me keep cool, at least in the beginning =)


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[RodPad]

Panicking is your worst enemy , take a breath and then think it out .

Dirk, Yes!

To the rest, Post #20 on the link..

First long range, Didnt go as expected. | DJI Phantom Forum

 

[wellsi]

This has happened to me. Usually just lose video signal and still have rc signal and control. That is why it hovered and did not RTH on its own. Sometimes if you look at the map in the lower right you can see your movement to continue flying. Sometimes it takes coming all the way back to get my video feed up and running

And this happened to me too on Saturday at 200m altitude... that's 600 ft of drop and I couldn't work out why the RTH wasn't kicking in.
As the app appeared frozen, with the RTH app function not responding, I actually restarted the Go App, which wasn't the best thing to do. As it soon reconnected but then refused to RTH, simply saying RTH Failed.
But, realising it wasn't plummeting to its doom, I soon realised I did actually have full control and it was just the video that was lost.
So I manually landed fine and have now written RTH on S2 switch

it's a bit disconcerting to have the whole screen go grey with big red No Signal message at the top... No Video Signal might me a little less panic-inducing

 

[Shimien]

This experience taught me when I'm pushing my luck with range to make sure I set my RTH very high and don't fly behind anything that's higher than that. I'm also going to start setting home lock as I don't ever seam to use back on my right stick for anything during normal flight, that way at least I know I can pull it back in the right direction to me no matter how it's facing.


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[wellsi]

Thing is, as soon as I lost signal, I checked the aerial orientation to ensure it was angled to give maximum exposure; there were no big buildings in my line of site (apart from a 900 year old ruin of an old castle - well out of the line of site....) and walking closer to it didn't make any difference. A 200 metre altitude at a 100m metre distance away should have been no problem for it.
But, lesson is don't panic, toggle the S2 switch and wait...
I'm not sure about using home lock; I'm trying to learn to always steer it by always knowing its direction of travel... How are you finding Home Lock?