Lost signal, but M2 Zoom hovered, drone never returned to home

[Meta4]

I don't think so - if it had been the climb that restored the connection then it would have happened much sooner. As you can see from the aircraft view perspective, it was the relocation of the RC to the parking lot that made the difference.

I'm curious to find out where the information about relocation of the controller is to be found.

I'm not sure if it did or didn't make a difference.
There's still a lot of terrain blocking signal wherever the controller was and the drone climbed 63 feet before signal before the connection was restored.

What might have triggered the RTH?

it never returned home even though I repeated sent that command. I get that it did not receive the command due to no connectivity, but why did it not return to home automatically ( it was configured for that). Any ideas?

Were you still pushing the RTH button up to the time the drone reconnected?
If signal was restored, that would explain the RTH and if you didn't realise it was coming back, pressing RTH again would have cancelled the RTH.

 

[WithTheBirds]

Another really simple thing you may consider in future is to launch from a location where you have a better chance of maintaining line of sight to the drone. Not only will this greatly reduce the likelihood of a disconnection it will also give you a better chance of maintaining an awareness of any potential hazards or even to fly the drone manually if the display device battery dies or it crashes etc......

 

[Deleted member 114292]

Another really simple thing you may consider in future is to launch from a location where you have a better chance of maintaining line of sight to the drone. Not only will this greatly reduce the likelihood of a disconnection it will also give you a better chance of maintaining an awareness of any potential hazards or even to fly the drone manually if the display device battery dies or it crashes etc......

As in mission planning.
It also makes sense to rehearse with RTH so you really get a feel for it. It seems you were unaware that pushing RTH again would cancel it.
I have found too when something like this happens it is good practice to just let go of the sticks and examine the situation and calm down a bit.

 

[slup]

I'm curious to find out where the information about relocation of the controller is to be found...

Hi @Meta4,

You have that info in below log signals ... here everything visualized through CsvView.

 

[sar104]

I'm curious to find out where the information about relocation of the controller is to be found.

The controller location is in the txt log: APP_GPS_latitude, APP_GPS_longitude.

I'm not sure if it did or didn't make a difference.
There's still a lot of terrain blocking signal wherever the controller was and the drone climbed 63 feet before signal before the connection was restored.

The climb helped, but not enough. Here are the viewshed data, which makes it clearer, perhaps:

 

[Made2Phly]

I need to be really mindful that my panic reaction to loss of connection not be pressing the RTH button repeatedly. In the heat of the moment, that pesky lymbic system takes over and rational thought goes on vacation. I should probably put that on my pre-flight check list; something like: "don't panic with RTH button."

 

[Buzzman]

If the loss of Signal action is set the RTH (the default setting), the mavic 2 will automatically enter Failsafe RTH within two seconds of losing signal.
That would have restored connection quite quickly after you descended past terrain that blocked the signal, without you having to do anything.

Meta4,
You looked at my flight log when I lost my Mavic2Pro a couple weeks ago. I don't ever remember changing my failsafe to hover instead of RTH in case of a disconnect. Is this something that you could tell from my flight log?
Would you mind taking a look?
Best,
Steve

 

[Deleted member 114292]

I need to be really mindful that my panic reaction to loss of connection not be pressing the RTH button repeatedly. In the heat of the moment, that pesky lymbic system takes over and rational thought goes on vacation. I should probably put that on my pre-flight check list; something like: "don't panic with RTH button."

Hence my advice to just stop for a moment and take stock of the situation.
I find letting go of the sticks and examining the screen is helpful.
Happens to all us.
SOP for a pilot.

 

[slup]

Meta4,
You looked at my flight log when I lost my Mavic2Pro a couple weeks ago. I don't ever remember changing my failsafe to hover instead of RTH in case of a disconnect. Is this something that you could tell from my flight log?
Would you mind taking a look?
Best,
Steve

If it was your flight from June 2nd ... then the set failsafe action was RTH, nothing else during the whole flight.

 

[WithTheBirds]

As in mission planning.
It also makes sense to rehearse with RTH so you really get a feel for it. It seems you were unaware that pushing RTH again would cancel it.
I have found too when something like this happens it is good practice to just let go of the sticks and examine the situation and calm down a bit.

Perhaps it was your intent to quote the OP?

 

[johnmoxl]

I don't think so - if it had been the climb that restored the connection then it would have happened much sooner. As you can see from the aircraft view perspective, it was the relocation of the RC to the parking lot that made the difference.

Agreed. RTH would have worked just fine.

After reading other posts I am more inclined to now think a firmware update changed my default RTH setting to Hover. I know I did not intentionally change it

 

[sar104]

After reading other posts I am more inclined to now think a firmware update changed my default RTH setting to Hover. I know I did not intentionally change it

That is possible. I'm going to test various scenarios that might change the setting and I'll report back.

 

[johnmoxl]

I'm curious to find out where the information about relocation of the controller is to be found.

I'm not sure if it did or didn't make a difference.
There's still a lot of terrain blocking signal wherever the controller was and the drone climbed 63 feet before signal before the connection was restored.

What might have triggered the RTH?

Were you still pushing the RTH button up to the time the drone reconnected?
If signal was restored, that would explain the RTH and if you didn't realise it was coming back, pressing RTH again would have cancelled the RTH.

Yes I think that is in fact what happened.

 

[johnmoxl]

Perhaps it was your intent to quote the OP?

Yes there I did a repeatedly hit the RTH button not realizing it was a toggle (as clearly stated in the manual), as I normally rely on it to land for It’s precision landing capability. In the end I should have tried sooner to move To a better line of site location instead of relying on adjusting the antenna orientation. The immediate loss of connection from flying below the cliff was new to me - I should have bettee anticipated that possibility and had a contingency plan

 

[Meta4]

After reading other posts I am more inclined to now think a firmware update changed my default RTH setting to Hover. I know I did not intentionally change it

That would be very unusual.
Updates only revert settings to the factory default values and RTH is the default.

 

[weccleston]

That would be very unusual.
Updates only revert settings to the factory default values and RTH is the default.

There is another thread where someone indicates that the most recent firmware defaulted his setting to Hover. Seems like the likely culprit, and a bad, perhaps not intentional change in the firmware.

 

[Davidoo]

Great post and awesome feedback guys - really helpful though sorry to learn from your loss John.

 

[jtschnel]

Likewise, sorry to hear about your loss, although I’ll have to say the discussion here has helped me better understand the ability to perform a flight post mortem.

I apologize if this question is of such a beginner type, but could someone point me in the right direction to learn more? Where are these files located and how do I access them, and what are the Tools used to analyze the flight and provide the fight renderings as displayed above.

Many thanks,

Jim.

 

[slup]

Likewise, sorry to hear about your loss, although I’ll have to say the discussion here has helped me better understand the ability to perform a flight post mortem.

I apologize if this question is of such a beginner type, but could someone point me in the right direction to learn more? Where are these files located and how do I access them, and what are the Tools used to analyze the flight and provide the fight renderings as displayed above.

Many thanks,

Jim.

Read up here --> Mavic Flight Log Retrieval and Analysis Guide

 

[jtschnel]

Read up here --> Mavic Flight Log Retrieval and Analysis Guide

Thank you!