Hopefully you have insurance!
We lost a drone while using DD due to a faulty battery. It took me some time but I was able to find the flight log file hidden on my Iphone and recover the drone. Iām not sure if that is something youāve already tried. This kind of explains what I did GPS log for lost drone . Sorry about your loss, best of luck.
Thanks Dronium
I downloaded the Flight Record the night of the loss however the Flight Record file was not able to be read by the first of the 3rd party apps listed in the DD so I gave up. At first DD support could not help me with that.
Yesterday, with DD customer support manager Nipul help, I used another app from that list ( https://app.airdata.com) I am now able to see where the drone went down. Its a very good app!
However in the AirData app report I note that their is confusion between flight height (relative to flight launch level) and altitude (which in mapping specifically refers to height above sea level). The ātake off locationā is correctly specified at āabove sea levelā however āthe last known locationā is incorrectly specified at āaltitudeā. Even DD support was confused at that aspect of the report.
3 of us have already spent a day looking for the drone in the loss location and with snakes, cliffs and other hazzards we have decided to not pursue it any further. Oneās life is not worth the replacement cost of the drone.
Hello all,
Extremely important: Before starting DD, always start and set all parameters in DJI Go 4. RTH is determined by DJI Go 4, not DD. Hereās a part of my preflight checklist:
**In DJI G0 4**
System Check ok
Compass Calibrated
Remaining SD capacity ok
Return to Home altitude set
Max Flight Altitude set
RTH Obstacle Check ON
Units- Imperial
Camera mode set (not video)
Aperture - Set to Auto, EV 0
Camera - White balance set
Exposure: center-weighted, auto
Focus - Auto-focus on object at same distance as mission AGL, set focus to manual
Camera Zoom 1.0x
Exit DJI Go 4
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Thanks Dan
Thatās a vg idea.
It is a pity that DD did not provide this as part of their documentation.
From, what I can gather (although no one from DD has stated such, the flight parameters are controlled by the DJI SDK.
ā¦ and the SDK is programmed by the last running of the DJI Go 4 app. Those parameters remain in the DJI SDK which is initiated by the DD app during the flight.
Am I understanding this correctly?
If I decide to get another P4p and continue to use DD I want to know how it functionsā¦
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The parameters are stored on the actual drone firmware. Similar to if the drone had a bunch of switches and dials on it. Unless something requests one of those values to change, they are stored on the drone.
Hi Daniel,
I donāt know the specifics of the SDK, but Iām fairly certain that the RTH elevation is loaded into the drone from DJI Go 4; thereās no place to set RTH altitude in DD as far as I know. (Same with camera settings.)
A couple of examples:
The other day DJI Go 4 app crashed in mid-flight and refused to restart, so I hit the RTH button on the controller. The drone climbed vertically to the 100m RTH height I had set, then flew back and descended to the LZ no problem. I was shooting photos of radio towers in an area with tall trees, so in my preflight I had set RTH at 100m to make sure Iād clear everything. Turns out that DJI Go 4 crashed because of incompatible firmware, even though I checked and updated before I drove to the site. Guess it didnāt completely update, but RTH sure worked.
Another time my iPad shut down because of user error- I had secured the iPad to the Mavic controller so the iPad off-button was accidentally pushed and held down by the controllerās clips after it was airborne. DOH! At the time I had no idea why the iPad shut down in mid-flight. I hit RTH on the controller, and the drone climbed to the preset altitude, went to the LZ and landed- no iPad necessary.
I think that one can conclude from these two incidents that the RTH altitude is loaded to the drone from DJI Go 4, so the drone doesnāt need to communicate with the software during flight.
RTH altitude is critical, especially on multi-battery missions. The drone will automatically RTH during a mission based on rate of battery drain, so it can bee-line back to you at any time, even if thereās an obstacle in between.
To be on the safe side, I always set RTH high enough to clear any terrain, trees, or other obstacles from any location in the mission to the LZ.
The P4p has obstacle avoidance however from my understanding DJI disables obstacle avoidance during RTH - thatās a really useful feature of RTH!
Apparently the flight parameters are all programmed into the drone when the DJI Go 4 app is running and remain on the drone after the app is shut down.
DD then initiates the flight through DJI control without actually informing the user!!!
It is a very illogical way of doing things and DD excuses all of that by stating that DJI forces them to do that.
It would at least be excusable if DD explained that process clearly from the outset.
It appears to me that DD software developers and documentation authors have taken a lot for granted as they went through their initial development of their app.
They probably need to take a step back, get a complete novice who has just purchased a drone and start their documentation from that viewpoint.
Hi @Daniel777,
DJI Go 4 is not required to initiate a flight with DroneDeploy. There are no commands that are given by dronedeploy that then run through DJI Go.
There are three things involved here, DJI GO 4, Onboard DJI Software, DroneDeploy. I posted that diagram above, but the autopilot is what is in charge of all drone flight and it is also where settings get saved that are set within dronedeploy or dji go 4.
A good example is obstacle avoidance. If you set this value to āonā in DJI GO 4, the Onboard DJI Software will store this on the drone. You can then go into DroneDeploy and if you were to explicitly disable obstacle avoidance, DroneDeploy would disable it on the Onboard DJI Software. If you were to then open DJI GO 4, you would see that it was disabled. None of these settings or controls run through DJI Go.
Obstacle avoidance is not disabled during RTH. Do you have a link where it says that?
Chasem your advice is confusing the matter further.
From my comprehension of the English language in the context of this subject the above 2 statements are directly contradictory.
Also please advise where in DD one sets the obstacle avoidance - this contradicts the previous advice from DD support who advised that DD does not carry out any flying functions or commands other than provided waypoints to fly to and between.
My drone crashed down into a tree with all settings set to factory default within DJI Go 4 and DD other waypoints and flight height of 78m. Obstacle avoidance was on but RTH flight height set at 30 m within DJI Go 4.
The P4p flew under DD guidance at 78m fly height to a tree which was higher than 78m height above home, stopped and then upon DD red button (RTH) being pressed crashed down into a tree.
DroneDeploy sets lots of camera and drone settings prior to flight, such as obstacle avoidance. In the latest version of DroneDeploy it should be an option on your planning page. You should only have to do anything if you want to disable it, otherwise itās always on.
During the flight, the autopilot is in control and is only executing all of the commands that DD provided it using the settings that it set prior to the flight. For example, DD makes sure that the takeoff and final waypoint are above the takeoff location so at the end and start of the mission it takes off and lands vertically above the takeoff location. There are a lot of other things DD does to prepare for the mission so that it can be run autonomously.
DroneDeploy does not change any settings, such as RTH altitude or battery failsafe thresholds. These are set by the users according to their preferences and stored on the drone.
Daniel ā¦ having read your many posts what comes through is that:
- You donāt really understand how to fly your Phantom or how it works.
Before getting involved with sophisticated 3rd party software, it is imperative that you have a thorough understanding of flying your Phantom and are experienced in its use. - You donāt understand much about DroneDeploy and how it works either
- Why are you trying to learn with trees close by?
- You are very quick to blame DD or DJI but the fact is that the Phantom and DD was operating properly, the operator was not.
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Hi Meta4
Thanks for your obvioulsy well considered opinion.
What comes through is based on -
- several conversations (by phone) with DD personnel who have offered differing opinions on how DD app works
- there were no trees anywhere close by (obviously you havenāt read my posts)
- DD personnel blaming hardware failure (read their posts)
- I have found nothing sophisticated in any of the 3rd party software that I have used
- 3 of us in our office read all of the documentation and webinars material promoted by DD before starting any flight planning with DD
- I understand and have used the Phantom 4 pro on numerous flights with DJI Go4 app.
- I am more than happy to acknowledge and accept operator error
Thanks again for your help - itās people like you that really make this forum such a helpful feature of Drone Deploy!
Unfortunately ditto here alsoā¦only I lost signalā¦and after a review of the logs, the last reported altitude was 60āā¦I was flying the mission at 200ā so I suggest it decided on its own to land instead of RTH at the specified altitudeā¦ This was not the Phantom 4 Proās first flight ,ā¦with DD, but maybe a DD update made it sickā¦who knowsā¦I only know its supposedly in a think forest 60ā off the groundā¦looking forward to going to its last GPS position, but at 60ā last reported in the logā¦it ended in the treesā¦
Larry
Are you 100% certain the home point was properly set before take off? If not, it is possible that the home point was still set from the previous flight, in which case if the previous HP was out of reach for the remaining battery, the drone would land right where it was when the RTH was initiated.
100% positive as this was the 2nd battery and was continuing the previous mapping process and I used the RTH function on the first battery and it returned directly to me from where I launched. The second battery I lost the connection on the continuation of the mapping once it got to what I believe was the continuation point, and that was the last I saw of itā¦according to DD support the log indicated it was at 60ā at the certain GPS position I haveā¦and will have to check to see if it is thereā¦but its 2 hours awayā¦ Anyway, upon loss of connection to the controller it the Phantom 4 Pro is supposed to RTH and I believe this just decided to landā¦as my planned altitude was 200ā AGL and that is what is was prior to its return to the continuation pointā¦
How long before this flight was that battery taken off charge?
The batteries all were charged the day beforeā¦ These batteries have only 10 charges on them eachā¦I have 3 batteries total. the battery switch took less than a couple minutesā¦ And all batteries have been updatedā¦ Once the remote lost signal it should have returnedā¦
When the drone loses signal, it will continue its mission. What happens if signal is lost?.
How far away was the drone when it landed and what state was the battery?