Hi everyone, i’m new on here and own a dji phantom 4 pro plus obsidian and unfortunately it just fell out of the sky for no apparent reason. imagine that!!! i hear about this often so this is a stupid question, it took us over two long hot days to find it and fortunately it fell into a brush area with some damage but not bad. my question is there some way to use the gps on the rc to have located this aircraft or do i need to get a stand alone gps to mount on the aircraft. i’m sorry for such a long question but i appreciate any and all info site
Unless this was a battery issue, your flight log should have lead very close. And to answer the question, GPS on the RC does you no good in locating a downed aircraft, except for as mentioned the flight data on the device you are flying with. If you fly BVLOS, you are asking for trouble. That said, there are many mountable GPS trackers available.
Thanks so much for the great advice. I really don’t get much time to fly but the battery was fully charged when the aircraft fell when it fell. I immediately turned off the RC then we started looking for the aircraft. After two days and a few ticks and chiggers we finally found it. I was trying to find the root cause of the crash but I didn’t know how to trace the flight log down to pinpoint a close proximity of the aircraft. You can see alI the flight data while flying so you would think it should be recorded somewhere. I have researched tracking devices to put on the aircraft but there are so many to choose from. Any suggestions? Is there a way to track the flight route after turning off the RC or did I miss the opportunity when I turned the RC off.
Yes, in short. The aircraft has it’s own data recorder. But the unfortunate thing is without the aircraft you can’t access it. As long as the aircraft is retrieved, the data should be there. If you need info to retrieve that we can let you know how to do so.
The flight data is recorded in the TXT flight log on your mobile device. If the aircraft is still connected to the remote controller when it lands/crashes, that log will contain the last recorded GPS coordinates. You can view TXT flight logs with a tool like my online log viewer.
The Marco Polo is a good choice if you don’t want to pay a monthly fee. The downside is that it’s a radio tracker, so you actually need to track it down – instead of being able to see its exact location on a map.
For a true GPS tracker, check out the Trackimo, Tracki, or Ping. You can find some other options here.
Thanks so much for your help!
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Short answer, yes you can use the feature “Find my Drone” within the DJI GO 4 App. You find this feature in the menu, top right corner of the welcome screen in the App. Since you mentioned you’re new I would like to tell you perhaps one of the most if not the most important step in your flight: make sure you record your home point. When prompted, make sure the Aircraft icon shows the actual position on the map, take your time, look at the screen and make sure you don’t have any warnings. In the future with more experience, you’ll find there are methods to read all the telemetry down linked from the aircraft, either using 3rd party’s software or directly with DJI where you can find in most cases WHY the incident or crash happened. Use forums like this one and YouTube to learn more about it. Happy landings!!!