Whelp, it happened. Lost signal. Return to Home kicked in, thankfully

[HBJLR714]

Not sure what happened. It was a clear day and no signal issues came up that I noticed. My MA was about 1000ft away, so I wasn't pushing it too hard. All of a sudden my app went dark and I lost signal. At that point I figured it had dropped into the ocean or possible onto the beach. I started walking to the last place I saw it near a lifeguard tower. All of sudden the sweet sound of a buzzing wasps comes from up above me...I had to turn around and run back to the takeoff point. I had not control whatsoever, but it did it's thing and landed safely. Whew.

 

[dronerdave]

Glad you got er back. I've had my app drop out a few times. When it did my Mavic just hovered in place until I got rebooted. Then it flew as normal. I'd suspect it would RTH if the battery was low enough though.

 

[GFields]

I know that was a scary experience. Glad it came back.

 

[spartanrob]

Does the Mavic Mini have the same feature? I lost signal a couple of days ago and panicked. After a few stressful minutes (felt like forever) connection was re established. Will the MM RTH automatically?

 

[johnbirt]

HBJLR714 if you lost visual contact at 1000ft which for many for an Air sized drone is at or near VLOS then that should be a future caution to make sure you can always see the drone not just on screen. Some claim 1500ft+ others a lot more ... yeh right!

I had a similar scare when I first started out with my M2P at probably no more than 400ft away and no more than 100ft over the sea/beach. I looked down to check the battery remaining and a few other parameters and when I looked back up the drone was gone.

Combination of blue sky, bright sun and a lot of seabirds impersonating drones. Probably looking back my novice fault with incorrect antennae placement with Smart Controller as I also lost contact at more or less that time as well. I think I had the antennae set for being overhead and didn't adjust accordingly when it went further away. Anyway it had indicated 60% battery left so toss up whether to reboot or re-insert cable which can often restore connection decided to wait and after a good few minutes the noisy critter hovered overhead and landed unaided about 6 inches from where it took off.

You will learn from it as I did. Still scary though.

spartanrob the MM should RTH when battery is low. Be careful to ensure you know the RTH is set correctly in the first place by ensuring strong GPS and since the MM is so light and doesn't like wind ensure your RTH battery setting is set sensibly so it can get back and avoid fly aways. I have mine at 30% for a MA and M2P. If there is any wind fly into it so its with you coming home. To be safe I would always take off away from water and bad terrain if possible so if and when you get connection back which it should do all being well you can perhaps cancel RTH and land it yourself nearby if there is struggle to get it home. I would advise definitely practice RTH so you know what to expect even though advisable as you progress to control it yourself as far as possible. Where I often fly a few yards from my take off mat there is often thick mud so don't fancy trekking a few yards through that to retrieve the critter ankle deep.

 

[DanMan32]

There is no setting for what battery level triggers RTH on any Mavic. That is dynamically determined by the system based on how far and high you are.

What is configurable on most is low battery warning. That's only a warning for your convenience.

Some have critical low battery. At least my P3 does, where minimum is 10%. M2 has this dynamic with height being the controlling factor.

But Spartanrob's question was about signal loss fail-safe. For other Mavics, you can set this to RTH (default), hover (good when under something), and land. Mini is currently fixed at RTH.

 

[jonthecourier]

Hi You kept calm and let the MA do its job and RTH, I have read that some loose their calm and start making various inputs into the controller and everything goes tits up, well done.

 

[JAW]

Most of these issues occur when the signal is lost and the drone is no longer in sight,

 

[Lowell Crabb]

Not sure what happened. It was a clear day and no signal issues came up that I noticed. My MA was about 1000ft away, so I wasn't pushing it too hard. All of a sudden my app went dark and I lost signal. At that point I figured it had dropped into the ocean or possible onto the beach. I started walking to the last place I saw it near a lifeguard tower. All of sudden the sweet sound of a buzzing wasps comes from up above me...I had to turn around and run back to the takeoff point. I had not control whatsoever, but it did it's thing and landed safely. Whew.

I know the feeling well. I've had that happen to my Mavic Pro multiple times. The screen freezes on mine so I'm blind. So far when I hit the RTH button, it has come home. I was advised to replace the cable to the screen and have not had the problem since.

 

[kevinhooke]

I lost signal for a couple of seconds for the first time at the weekend, I lost and regained signal on and off a few times (screen goes grey) until I got it closer and regained a good signal. It's a heartstopping moment the first time. I haven't lost signal for long enough yet that it automatically started RTH, but encouraging to hear stories that this works as advertised, which gives you some reassurance if it does happen all should be good.