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Dang it.

jgriff63

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Was taking pictures of the hotel of which I am construction superintendent. All of the sudden, it says "signal lost, drone will RTH in 11 seconds." It never came back. I looked in the woods where it was last seen, but it is gone. Why did this happen? Here's the flight log: DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com DAT file attached.
 

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First post, bummer.
What drone ?

Strange flight, all looked normal, no wind to speak of ?
Safe looking flight (apart from lack of take off satellites), not high or far.

Funny though, looking at the straight up Phantom Help info, no warnings, no signal warning, no RTH or even the home point recorded message (which was well away from take off point).
If you lost signal, then it was probably because you were quite low, out of LOS.

It looked like you just flew sideways into trees, or this happened right on RTH . . . how high are they ?

They don't look over 50' high from a back street google maps street view shot . . .

lima.jpg

(Actually, looking at the view from 75, they could be 50' +.)

There are some electricity lines running through there in places though, again not sure what height they'd be.

Let's see if the proper analysis tools and expertise can dig some more.
 
Well you took off without any home point set, but that wasn't the problem. The home point was set at 14.5 seconds:

Status.png

The aircraft was under pilot control for the entire flight, and the log ends abruptly:

1586384828013.png

It must have been a bit higher than it appears or it would not have cleared the building on the left.
 
It is a Mavic Mini. It said homepoint set before I left hover. I was actually flying around the building behind that one (between the two buildings), and it suddenly lost signal. I was watching it until then. Once I turned the corner, and couldn't see it, I went to the screen, and BOOM, no signal. I was thinking it might have to do with power lines? It is very strange. Have conducted a number of flight around this building, with no issues. Today I was a little lower, trying to get pictures of the installed windows.
 
Those lines do run right through there north - south, looks like that is probable.

It looks like it wouldn't take much to access that strip of land where they run through, did you get a chance to take a look ?

It's possible @sar104 could see if there is a more pinpoint place you could search, but it should really be right where it stopped on that treeline, if so probably up high.
Maybe it will blow down on a windy day, so possibly take another look from time to time.
 
I searched the woods, and drove back to the businesses behind us. Will spend more time tomorrow searching...I don't do well looking for a golf ball on the golf course, so....
 
All I am trying do now, is decide what drone to buy to replace it...I bought the fly more package, so I have all kinds of extras. But if the ( Mod Removed Langage)thing is going to get flaky like this, I may go another route. Either way, I want the flexibility of aerial photog for my projects..
 
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I searched the woods, and drove back to the businesses behind us. Will spend more time tomorrow searching...I don't do well looking for a golf ball on the golf course, so....

Well, good luck.
If somehow everything including telemetry just stopped at the end there, it's 50' up or so.
If the battery was thrown somehow (or it tipped and stopped, but then telemetry should still show up), then it may be anywhere from there to SFC (ha ha that's surface, as in ground).

All I am trying do now, is decide what drone to buy to replace it...I bought the fly more package, so I have all kinds of extras. But if the ( Mod Removed Langage) thing is going to get flaky like this, I may go another route. Either way, I want the flexibility of aerial photog for my projects..

If $ aren't in the picture, go the M2P, best Mavic for stability, best camera for buck.
As someone else reminded me though a few days ago, the Phantom 4 Pro is also on par with that, but it is obviously bulky for transporting, and not as stealthy in the air.
 
So you flew behind the building, maybe that might explain loss of connection. Without obstacle avoidance, and if below building height, it might have crashed to the side of the building.
 
Update; very windy morning, so I headed back into the woods, where the “find my drone” told me it was. Was hoping if it was in tree, it would be on the ground, now. Found it, right where I searched yesterday, so it must have been up. Interesting part (to me) was that the battery was nowhere to be found.

The camera is damaged, but not sure how badly, going to look at it a little more in depth this weekend.

I am wondering if somehow the battery was ejected during flight, which caused the communication breakdown. I had just installed it, and thought maybe I hadn’t secured the battery door well enough. It is possible I hit something, but it wasn’t the building. I had believed I was over the power lines and not too close to the trees, but it was out of sight, about 300 ft away, so who really knows.

At least I got it back! Now fingers crossed it can be repaired. I ordered a replacement, so I’ll have a backup for the next fiasco. Thanks for the comments and advice!
 
Update; very windy morning, so I headed back into the woods, where the “find my drone” told me it was. Was hoping if it was in tree, it would be on the ground, now. Found it, right where I searched yesterday, so it must have been up. Interesting part (to me) was that the battery was nowhere to be found.

The camera is damaged, but not sure how badly, going to look at it a little more in depth this weekend.

I am wondering if somehow the battery was ejected during flight, which caused the communication breakdown. I had just installed it, and thought maybe I hadn’t secured the battery door well enough. It is possible I hit something, but it wasn’t the building. I had believed I was over the power lines and not too close to the trees, but it was out of sight, about 300 ft away, so who really knows.

At least I got it back! Now fingers crossed it can be repaired. I ordered a replacement, so I’ll have a backup for the next fiasco. Thanks for the comments and advice!

So just to clarify - does it seem like it hit a tree, or just fell from the sky?
 
So just to clarify - does it seem like it hit a tree, or just fell from the sky?

Well, there is no indication on the drone that is struck anything. Props are clean, no damage. And I thought I was above the tree line. I can’t help but think it fell into the tree after the battery was ejected. But, for the life of me, I can’t figure out why or how that would have happened. It was found at the bottom of a tree, right where the app said it would be (but wasn’t there yesterday). I guess the answer to your question is; I have no idea.
 
Update! Sent it in to DJI for repair estimate. I explained what happened, and synced the flight data. They examined it, and emailed me today to let me know they are repairing it under warranty. Replacing the camera module and the gimbal.

While I have read all kinds of complaints about DJI customer service, I wanted to put in this positive comment. They have handled this smoothly, and informed me all along the way. Made me very happy with my decision to go with DJI.
 
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