Tracking lost P4

[Hangfire]

Hello, I fly over a forested area and lost my P4 into the thick underbrush of the forest floor. I was able to find it within a short time by reviewing the flight recording, but it was a lucky stroke, mainy because of the thickness of the underbrush. As it was I had to tramp through poison oak, blackberries, and other viney underbrush. If the arm lights had been off, I might never have found it. My question: is there a way to get the P4 to emit a sound. In my case, I had an RC connection, if there had been a way to get my P4 to emit any sound at all, it would have made recovery so much quicker. What other features can be used to home in on a downed craft? Assuming an RC connection.

I believe the original crash was caused by obstacle avoidance being turned off after upgrading firmware. I upgraded, took off and smacked into a branch on my first flight after upgrade. Now, the craft seems to fly really wonky. I can't figure if it was the crash or the upgrade. I am doing a factory reset and calibrating to see if I can get it flying right again. The crash was from about 30m, but it tumbled through branches and landed in a bunch of vines. Sort of a hard landing, but nit quite a crash, it never hit the ground.

The following is a list of things it does after upgrade/crash that it did not do before.

It doesn't hold height like it used to, If I put it at auto takeoff height and fly forward, it slowly drops until it starts clipping the grass.
Taking it up to any height and lowering it straight down gives a gradual rotation
Obstacle avoidance seems to be hit and miss, slowly approaching a building stops it, but rapid approach doesn't.
I'll update after reset recalibrate.

 

[msinger]

HWhat other features can be used to home in on a downed craft?

Get a tracker like the Trackimo or Marco Polo.

 

[John Locke]

My question: is there a way to get the P4 to emit a sound.

This is an option, it's cheap insurance to find the craft in the last 40'. I just ordered these FOB beepers to test them out.

I use Marco Polo, but haven't had to use it from a loss yet (knock on wood). I struggle to remember to arm the beacon for sleep mode each time I fly. I will often just leave it on since sleep modes lasts for 3wks or more. In test it seems to work good to get you close, but I've often worried about the final 40 or 50' in thick brush as you experienced.

 

[Hangfire]

Yes exactly, I was actually within 50 feet from it, it was down in heavy brush. I was dreading the thought of tramping around in that thicket of blackberries and poison oak when I spotted a red glow of an arm light. I was on a steep hillside, had a strong rc connection and was thinking if I could have just gotten that p4 startup sound to go off it would lead me straight to it.

This is an option, it's cheap insurance to find the craft in the last 40'. I just ordered these FOB beepers to test them out.

That is exactly what I need. It seems simple enough to get the P4 to do it though.

 

[daytona125]

I have a buzzer on my racing quad and it helps me so much. But then again I'm always crashing that thing, I haven't crashed the p4 yet. Another option is a product like'tile',a blue tooth tracker that you would use with your blue tooth device to locate your phantom,I'm looking into this option now and it looks promising and any one using the tile app would be able to help you find it.

 

[royster]

Brilliant!
You know those few sharp notes it plays, when you first fire up the birds battery, if DJI could allow pilot to flip/press a button (C-1 or C-2) & sound that sharp, do-do do do dooot!! sound on battery fire up, you can hear that 30' away.!

 

[alokbhargava]

Brilliant!
You know those few sharp notes it plays, when you first fire up the birds battery, if DJI could allow pilot to flip/press a button (C-1 or C-2) & sound that sharp, do-do do do dooot!! sound on battery fire up, you can hear that 30' away.!

DJI might be hearing you

 

[John Locke]

Yes exactly, I was actually within 50 feet from it, it was down in heavy brush. I was dreading the thought of tramping around in that thicket of blackberries and poison oak when I spotted a red glow of an arm light. I was on a steep hillside, had a strong rc connection and was thinking if I could have just gotten that p4 startup sound to go off it would lead me straight to it.

Everyone should send an email to Frank Wang, CEO of DJI. [email protected]
Seems like an easy firmware adder that would provide a very useful function. Nobody else has this, it would be a first for a drone company, right?

 

[msinger]

Seems like an easy firmware adder that would provide a very useful function.

It sounds easy on paper, but it would only work if the motors still have power and are able to spin freely (since that's what makes this sound).

 

[GT500BILL]

It sounds easy on paper, but it would only work if the motors still have power and are able to spin freely (since that's what makes this sound).

Not really the motors but the gimbal cycling makes the noise


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[msinger]

Not really the motors but the gimbal cycling makes the noise

The sound is definitely coming from the motors.

 

[Robert Melb FL]

Hello, I fly over a forested area and lost my P4 into the thick underbrush of the forest floor. I was able to find it within a short time by reviewing the flight recording, but it was a lucky stroke, mainy because of the thickness of the underbrush. As it was I had to tramp through poison oak, blackberries, and other viney underbrush. If the arm lights had been off, I might never have found it. My question: is there a way to get the P4 to emit a sound. In my case, I had an RC connection, if there had been a way to get my P4 to emit any sound at all, it would have made recovery so much quicker. What other features can be used to home in on a downed craft? Assuming an RC connection.

I believe the original crash was caused by obstacle avoidance being turned off after upgrading firmware. I upgraded, took off and smacked into a branch on my first flight after upgrade. Now, the craft seems to fly really wonky. I can't figure if it was the crash or the upgrade. I am doing a factory reset and calibrating to see if I can get it flying right again. The crash was from about 30m, but it tumbled through branches and landed in a bunch of vines. Sort of a hard landing, but nit quite a crash, it never hit the ground.

The following is a list of things it does after upgrade/crash that it did not do before.

It doesn't hold height like it used to, If I put it at auto takeoff height and fly forward, it slowly drops until it starts clipping the grass.
Taking it up to any height and lowering it straight down gives a gradual rotation
Obstacle avoidance seems to be hit and miss, slowly approaching a building stops it, but rapid approach doesn't.
I'll update after reset recalibrate.

I know this doesn't help you now. I think you were lucky finding your drone. Because of the disconnect factor. And the long-distance the P4 can fly. I purchased a Trackimo GPS locator. To help prevent further disappointments They're not inexpensive at 140 bucks. You can do a little bit better on eBay. And then get a mounting kit from gimbal-guard.com. But $1400 for a drone isn't cheap either plus any it on juju t but $1400 for a drone isn't cheap either plus any Add on's you do to it.

 

[Hangfire]

This is an option, it's cheap insurance to find the craft in the last 40'. I just ordered these FOB beepers to test them out.

I use Marco Polo, but haven't had to use it from a loss yet (knock on wood). I struggle to remember to arm the beacon for sleep mode each time I fly. I will often just leave it on since sleep modes lasts for 3wks or more. In test it seems to work good to get you close, but I've often worried about the final 40 or 50' in thick brush as you experienced.

I know this doesn't help you now. I think you were lucky finding your drone. Because of the disconnect factor. And the long-distance the P4 can fly. I purchased a Trackimo GPS locator. To help prevent further disappointments They're not inexpensive at 140 bucks. You can do a little bit better on eBay. And then get a mounting kit from gimbal-guard.com. But $1400 for a drone isn't cheap either plus any it on juju t but $1400 for a drone isn't cheap either plus any Add on's you do to it.

I am with you on this too, I just ordered the Trackimo.

 

[Chopstix Kid]

The sound is definitely coming from the motors.

The initialization chime is coming from the motors? I'm no rocket scientist but how do brushless motors make a chiming noise?

 

[msinger]

The initialization chime is coming from the motors? I'm no rocket scientist but how do brushless motors make a chiming noise?

I'm not rocket scientist either (nor am I a mechanical engineer). The ESCs apparently make them vibrate at different frequencies. Watch the motors as your Phantom is making that sound and you'll see them move slightly.

 

[Chopstix Kid]

I'm not rocket scientist either (nor am I a mechanical engineer). The ESCs apparently make them vibrate at different frequencies. Watch the motors as your Phantom is making that sound and you'll see them move slightly.

Yes I have noticed that however I've always contributed to synchronized initialization. I would be very interested in a confirmation that the sound is indeed generated by the ESC's. If that's the case, then there shouldn't be any reason why the ESC's cannot generate a chime in the event of a downed aircraft.

 

[LMT0286]

Use tile


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[Stealthmatt]

The tune is generated by the motors, I first thought it was the ESC. However, I read up on it and it is indeed the motors.

The motor rings at the tone due to current passing through the wires in a pattern that does not allow the motor to turn...basically a short circuit.

The magnets and the bell (housing) of the motor are induced to vibrate by the waves generated in the esc

Think of the motor as a speaker, the ESC generates the electrical current, but the motor is the speaker. No motor, no beeps

 

[Stealthmatt]

FYI, stepper motors, relays, ceramic capacitors, reed switches, charge coils, inductors all have either this magneto acoustic or piezo acoustic effect. So when you hear your charger buzzing, relays buzzing, door locks buzzing remember that any of them could be playing the imperial March instead if some bored engineer or hobby guy wanted.

You could make your motor speak as well

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[Sim597]

Again, if your new you may not know about insurance for $60 a year from State Farm and others. Of course you wouldn't want to file a claim if bird wasn't toast, but see, even in this case, the OP is having serious issues with the bird after a softer landing them most. To not have to trudge around (some of us can't do that anyway) and to have a bird that is solid and new again, is pretty remarkable for the price, and cheaper then a tracker. Trackers usually find birds that need hundreds and hundreds of dollars to fix, if cost effective at all, which in most cases, the bird is totaled, insurance seems like a better deal to me then tracking, I live around a huge lake, that also played a role in what I did, as a tracker is one thing on land, a different animal under 18' water.


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