Fight with Gum trees

[granny bren]

Hi all, Nearly smashed the drone (Mavric Pro) to pieces and how it is unscathed is beyond me. Although I do need a new set of propellers. I took off with good GPS connection, my wifi to the house was off, as I have found that it interferes with the controller.
I went to circle the house to show a friend what it looks like, and was half way around the house when the drone decided to RTH, while I was under a gum tree. Needless to say it was not pretty. The only thing I can think of was that I did not climb to 7m prior to coming back down to circle the house at around 2-3 m. Is that where I went wrong? The controller connection stated poor connection ( I was only about 10 m away and 3-4 m up) or something similar, so drone began RTH. I now know I could have cancelled the RTH and just flown it myself, I was in a total panic. Can a metal house interfere with reception.? Surprisingly it managed to attack itself past the gum and with half propellers, did return to the place I took off from.

 

[Thomas B]

Hi all, Nearly smashed the drone (Mavric Pro) to pieces and how it is unscathed is beyond me. Although I do need a new set of propellers. I took off with good GPS connection, my wifi to the house was off, as I have found that it interferes with the controller.
I went to circle the house to show a friend what it looks like, and was half way around the house when the drone decided to RTH, while I was under a gum tree. Needless to say it was not pretty. The only thing I can think of was that I did not climb to 7m prior to coming back down to circle the house at around 2-3 m. Is that where I went wrong? The controller connection stated poor connection ( I was only about 10 m away and 3-4 m up) or something similar, so drone began RTH. I now know I could have cancelled the RTH and just flown it myself, I was in a total panic. Can a metal house interfere with reception.? Surprisingly it managed to attack itself past the gum and with half propellers, did return to the place I took off from.

Did you lose VLOS when behind the house?

 

[granny bren]

Did you lose VLOS when behind the house?

Did you lose VLOS when behind the house?

No just on the side. I was close to the drone as I was sort of walking around with it.

 

[granny bren]

No just on the side. I was close to the drone as I was sort of walking around with it.

I had VLOS the whole time. Sorry working on acronyms.

 

[lannes]

It sounds like the drone lost connection and did a return to home, but rose up to the RTH altitude as it was further than 20m from the homepoint, which is a normal function.

The issue is probably the disconnection and what caused it only being 10m away from your controller.
Is it only around the house you have the disconnection problem or does it happen elsewhere as well ?

Are you using the side usb-micro A port on the controller or the large usb port on the bottom to connection to your phone ?

 

[granny bren]

It sounds like the drone lost connection and did a return to home, but rose up to the RTH altitude as it was further than 20m from the homepoint, which is a normal function.

The issue is probably the disconnection and what caused it only being 10m away from your controller.
Is it only around the house you have the disconnection problem or does it happen elsewhere as well ?

Are you using the side usb-micro A port on the controller or the large usb port on the bottom to connection to your phone ?

Yes it seems only around the house that has a connection problem, which is how I figured out to turn off the wifi. Other flights have been fine. Am using the side micro as cord to a samsung s8.

 

[lannes]

Yes it seems only around the house that has a connection problem, which is how I figured out to turn off the wifi. Other flights have been fine. Am using the side micro as cord to a samsung s8.

Were you flying in 2.4ghz or 5.8ghz mode ?
Have you got the channel selection on Auto

If you have it on Auto maybe check in the DJI Go4 app to see which one is the most crowded frequency and manually select one channel that is not crowded
Remember to give the app time to switch over to the new frequency, it's not instantaneous as the Ocusync needs to reset.

Have you got neighbors nearby, it could be their wi-fi

 

[granny bren]

Yes I have neighbours with Wi-Fi, however I turned my phone ability to connect with wifi off. Do you think it could interfere with the actual controller. Thanks for your thoughts. I think I will stick to flying higher with a bigger clear paddock for a while. Ta

 

[LeRoytheBoy]

With tongue in cheek I say your lucky to have a gum tree to fly into.
Most of Victoria, NSW and Kangaroo Island - there are only a few still standing.

 

[Camino Ken]

Interference from other RF sources can cause a loss of connection between your drone and the controller. This interference can commonly come from WiFi but other things like microwave ovens, cordless phones, cell phones, TV/Radio broadcasts, police communications, etc. Any signal that is close in frequency or large amplitude can contribute to the interference. All of these signals are additive, with each additional signal making the problem worse. They cause a connection loss when the interference signal is large enough to overwhelm the input circuitry of either the controller or aircraft. One simple test you can do is to open up your WiFi settings and see how many different sources it shows. The more you can see, the bigger the risk. Best case is to fly at least 100ft(30m) away or more from any potential source. If you live in the vicinity of any commercial broadcast locations, they transmit at much higher power and therefore travel a longer distance.

To your other question regarding a metal house, yes it can block or reduce the signal if it is between the controller and the aircraft. Another signal blocking culprit is trees, primarily due to the water content in the leaves.

Your specific disconnect could have been caused by any of these or more likely, a combination.

 

[granny bren]

Omg thanks for that knowledge. Who would know all of that prior to what I thought was a basic maneuver. I was flying so low and close to me, thinking that would be easy peasey. But no, almost broke an expensive item. How do people do realestate shoots, when they wouldn't have a clue who has what in the area. I live on 2 acres, but 2 neighbours are close ish.
I'm feeling a bit scared to take off again.

 

[granny bren]

What happens if I turn off RTH and the controller loses connection. Will it just be hovering until it runs out of battery. Landing would have been just as bad as I was flying over my garden.

 

[granny bren]

With tongue in cheek I say your lucky to have a gum tree to fly into.
Most of Victoria, NSW and Kangaroo Island - there are only a few still standing.

True that! If SA fires were not in check, we were next.

 

[Thomas B]

What happens if I turn off RTH and the controller loses connection. Will it just be hovering until it runs out of battery. Landing would have been just as bad as I was flying over my garden.

Yes.