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Lost Video After Drone Loses Signal and Starts RTH.

JJS3788

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I have had this happen twice now. While flying, I lost signal with the drone. It went into RTH mode and started to return. I tool over once the video in the goggles came back. Once I landed and tried to review the footage prior to the signal loss, I couldn't find it. I even removed the card from the drone and put it directly in the computer and nothing. Do you automatically lose the footage once you lose signal with the drone ? If so that really sucks. I had some great video going until signal loss. I do have the record on takeoff enabled, so I know it was fming. Any help ?
 
Yes, it stops recording when it ‘failsafes’
you have to restart it manually.

it’s probably so that if the drone does some wrong/ unsafe during automated control - you don’t have video evidence against DJI.

pity they don’t at least make it auto start once you retake control.
 
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Does it delete the entire video prior to the failsafe ? That's what I don't understand. I canbsee video stopping once failsafe activates, but I appears that it deletes the entire flight before failsafe as well.i flew down to 25% battery then hit failsafe. The video is gone.
 
Three different times it has happened and all of the videos are gone. I am chatting with DJ I support right now and they are telling me this is normal
 
Is it only happening when you get a failsafe?
does it normally record fine?

honestly, I can’t say I failsafe that often ;)

but I’m sure last time I did, that I looked at the footage prior to the failsafe, as I wanted to see where I was, why it happened.

there is a remote possibility, that this happened on the file size boundary, so drone had closed file - but seems unlikely.

if your getting general record fails, I’d suspect an issue with your sdcard.
 
Yes, only in failsafe. 2 times I flew behind a group of trees and the screen went black quick. No time to get out before it happened.
 
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I've had several failsafes as well and it stopped the recording but I always had the video up to that point.
 
I did just find the last one. I still can't find the other 2. Maybe it was user error, im not sure, but I know it was recording.
 
The question is, though, WHY?!?!?

What's the reasoning?
 
Also may explain a few instances where I couldn't find video of some flying I remember, and just chalk it up to forgetting to start recording.
 
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One the true benefits of the DJI FPV is the fail safe RTH after loss of signal. It happens fast after diving behind any hill or solid or obstacle. I would have lost a traditional FPV drone many times now while surfing ridge lines. Screens goes black but the signal regained in about 10 very long seconds once it starts climbing on the RTH. Mine has stop recording every time but video up to that moment has always been intact. I wish it the video kept recording so I could see exactly what the drone did post signal loss.
 
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One the true benefits of the DJI FPV is the fail safe RTH after loss of signal. It happens fast after diving behind any hill or solid or obstacle. I would have lost a traditional FPV drone many times now while surfing ridge lines. Screens goes black but the signal regained in about 10 very long seconds once it starts climbing on the RTH. Mine has stop recording every time but video up to that moment has always been intact. I wish it the video kept recording so I could see exactly what the drone did post signal loss.

"I wish it the video kept recording so I could see exactly what the drone did post signal loss"
I think thats pretty much why DJI stop the recording, in case it does something stupid, like fly into mountain.
they do it with all thier drones, so its not going to change.




agreed, I spend all my time diving thru the valleys and ridges, and the RTH/Failsafe is excellent.

I agree, in this environment signal loss can be a be unexpected, because often you dont see which little ridges/mounds are getting between you and the drone.
and frankly, with 2.4ghz, you seem to 'get away' with an awful lot, which can lull you into a false sense of security.
(I'm now fllying an air unit on a diatone f5 in the same area, and it shows how exceptional the reception is on the DJI FPV drone)

all that said, I keep a good eye on both the vtx and rc meters, once either dips to one, I tend to throttle up to get a clear line of sight... as it can be pretty quick to go from one to zero... and also latency can quickly become an issue.

I really try not to failsafe, partly because the last time I did, I was pretty close to the ground when I lost contact..
and for the 30 seconds or so it took to 'recover', I pretty much assumed it had piled into the ground due to not having enough time to 'switch' to RTH mode.
... fortunately, I was wrong, but its made more careful.

these days, I usually 'scout' the area, so I know where there is weak coverage, kind of build up a mental model of the height from ground I can go in various areas.

but for sure, the DJI drone is absolutely excellent for this kind of flying :)
 
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"I wish it the video kept recording so I could see exactly what the drone did post signal loss"
I think thats pretty much why DJI stop the recording, in case it does something stupid, like fly into mountain.
they do it with all thier drones, so its not going to change.




agreed, I spend all my time diving thru the valleys and ridges, and the RTH/Failsafe is excellent.

I agree, in this environment signal loss can be a be unexpected, because often you dont see which little ridges/mounds are getting between you and the drone.
and frankly, with 2.4ghz, you seem to 'get away' with an awful lot, which can lull you into a false sense of security.
(I'm now fllying an air unit on a diatone f5 in the same area, and it shows how exceptional the reception is on the DJI FPV drone)

all that said, I keep a good eye on both the vtx and rc meters, once either dips to one, I tend to throttle up to get a clear line of sight... as it can be pretty quick to go from one to zero... and also latency can quickly become an issue.

I really try not to failsafe, partly because the last time I did, I was pretty close to the ground when I lost contact..
and for the 30 seconds or so it took to 'recover', I pretty much assumed it had piled into the ground due to not having enough time to 'switch' to RTH mode.
... fortunately, I was wrong, but its made more careful.

these days, I usually 'scout' the area, so I know where there is weak coverage, kind of build up a mental model of the height from ground I can go in various areas.

but for sure, the DJI drone is absolutely excellent for this kind of flying :)
While I don't have valleys and ridges I have a heavy tree cover here and it acts the same when I dive down into an open field the other side of some trees or when I'm flying some paths through the woods, have to keep a close eye on the signal levels, rc and such.. I do not remember losing video however.
 
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"I wish it the video kept recording so I could see exactly what the drone did post signal loss"
I think thats pretty much why DJI stop the recording, in case it does something stupid, like fly into mountain.
they do it with all thier drones, so its not going to change.
I've lost signal on my Mavic Pro twice where RTH was initiated. Both times the video kept recording until I later stopped it myself. So I know it's not on all of them.
 
I've had a signal loss a few times myself here in the mountains, and each time it looses the entire video it had been recording. I've actually started stop/start recording more frequently because of this, otherwise I can loose almost a fully batterie's worth of work. Here in the mountains there are a bunch of weird metal deposits around and I'll be flying along, sometimes just maybe 100 feet away and all of a sudden the drone will just cut to black from 4 bars to no signal, emergency brake, then start to lift. Usually about 10-15 seconds later the signal returns to full signal and I can take back over, but I have to immediately remember to reengage recording.

Seems like a bug, but I can see where from DJI's perspective it's intentional.
 

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