No Signal, Did not return to home - Did the battery cut out?

[dirtybum]

Most likely its right where your log ended!
If you use aftermarket batteries most likely it failed w/out warning and fell straight down.
1500' would be no prob at 40% wouldve been back in one minute

 

[heykool69]

No need to connect control.
Open go app. Top left corner of screen there is a small arrow. Tap that to see logs..
Just tap on a log file and it should open in a google earth view of your flight.
Tap the play button to start playback.

I think Reed is talking about the cached video.

THANKS!!! I'm learning something new everyday.

 

[BroncoMarc]

Well, I got some good news today. Someone found my drone and turned it into the office at the park. I had left my contact info and they called me today. They said it's not in too bad of shape. I guess it helps that it would have landed in either a tree or in sand. I'm going to run up there (3 hrs away) this weekend to pick it up.

 

[heykool69]

That's great news.

 

[BroncoMarc]

The missing drone has made it home! It's nearly a best case scenario. It's just dirty and a couple spots on the body are popped or cracked. One of the lenses over the lights is missing. There was a little bit of grit in a couple of the motors, but that cleaned out ok.

I tested it and it seems to fly fine. There was actually 2 bars left on the battery!, so why the heck did it lose signal that close? This is out in the country, so there is nothing around to interfere.

There are cracks in the top half of the shell by 2 of the motors. Is this anything to worry about?

 

[Mark The Droner]

I would repair that crack

 

[dgd3]

Where did it go down?
Was your RTN altitude high enough to clear the woods?

 

[Mark The Droner]

Isn't there a way to get a better idea what happened from a log that might be on the P3 itself? I don't have a P3. In other words, is there a log that is recorded onto the aircraft?

 

[HoboDan]

I was flying my 2 month old P3A yesterday and it suddenly went to No Signal. I was only about 1500 feet away and the last reading on the battery was around 40%. It never returned to home. We went to the last position within a few minutes and I didn't hear it. Yes, I was using an aftermarket battery which I regret now. It was my 2nd flight on that battery.

It went down in a wooded area and I have not found it yet. We searched for 1/2 hr and didn't see it. Once I got home and got connected to WiFi on my tablet I could get satellite view on the map and I see that we were searching in the wrong place.

Since it just suddenly went to No Signal, can I assume that the battery just cut out and it fell out of the sky at the last position that it showed on my tablet? If so, that would really help with the search. Unfortunately it's 3 hours away!

- Marc

Same happened to me, and about a month later I got a call from a man that found my P3p at the same spot I lost it only 400 ft lower... I thought it was a fly-away... Destroyed

 

[BroncoMarc]

Looks like Return To Home altitude was set to 30 Meters. It's questionable if that was above the trees or not.

I don't think that's what happened though. #1 it was found around the area of the last GPS co-ordinates (although I never found out exactly where). #2 I've only crashed it once and that was into a tree. When I did, the motors kept spinning and the props got stained pretty bad from the leaves. This time the props were just a little dirty from being around the sand and rain for 3 days.