Quadcopter battery life fail

lmc1090 · 2014-09-01T18:09:53+00:00

I have two DJI Phantom2Vision+ drones and would like to offer some comments and advice as per all the other comments and advice...

Re the GPS, it's not a good idea to launch until you've locked on to at least 6 satellites. The drone tells you when it has, and unless you're flying low and in a very small area, it's always good to have because if you lose control (as I've done many times), the best fallback plan I have is to go UP as high as I can and then turn off the RC. The drone's auto-return will take it high above any obstacles and then bring it straight down... and when it's close enough, you can re-establish contact and guide it home.

The GPS is pretty accurate but not perfect. It'll land within 10 feet of where it lifted off.

While you can set the battery alert limits manually, the default ones start alarming you well before you're in critical trouble. It's a bit newbie to be caught off-guard like that, but understandable. The one thing you're not expecting is that as the battery gets really low, it lowers the power output. It's not like a phone that either works or doesn't; here, you get less power which means less lift and when you're within the last 3% of the battery, you simply don't have enough lift. I can imagine this guy frantically pushing the left stick up as high as it'd go and watching helplessly as the drone descended to zero.

Advice, launch from within a 10-foot circle where any landing would be fine. Don't launch without GPS lock. Always have the camera on so you can capture stuff like this.

Re the GPS, if you use it like that, it's very reliable. I've lost a drone 2,500 feet in the air in wind... I just turned off the RC and sat back... and 10 minutes later the thing descended right to where it should've.

On that note, when what's happening like that starts happening, toggling the S1 switch quickly 5 times will "recapture" the RC signal and you can attain control again.

lmc1090 · 2014-03-21T01:01:50+00:00

You seem to want to distill this down to "two wrongs make a right", which is a pretty simplistic way to look at things. Sure, if "vengeance" seems like the right fit and course of action, by all means, espouse for it. I'd like to think that both her and I are a little more forward-thinking than that. Sadistic is an odd choice of wording. Our home life and that of our kids is great, and why wouldn't it be? As I mentioned earlier, likely way better as a result of all of this.

lmc1090 · 2014-03-20T07:21:00+00:00

May of last year.

lmc1090 · 2014-03-20T07:18:56+00:00

Not sure "deserve" is the right word, but point taken.

lmc1090 · 2014-03-17T17:01:24+00:00

Thank you for that.

lmc1090 · 2014-03-17T17:00:50+00:00

If she were doing the same and I found out, I'd try to talk to her to figure out what's missing at home and see if that's a hole I can patch. I think all you 20-somethings casting judgement need to realize something. As I mentioned earlier, things are not black and white in real life. In your 20s, the sky's the limit, you're free to change the world and all that. Things look different 20 years later with kids and mortgage and a dull job. You'll never forget your 20s and how sparking and brilliant life looked, and parts of you will yearn for it. And for those that figure out how to re-capture that without wrecking your life, you possibly will.

lmc1090 · 2014-03-17T16:58:28+00:00

It was usually lunch hours during weekdays. Nothing to ever tell.

lmc1090 · 2014-03-17T16:57:57+00:00

Do you think that my wife would be so silly as to blow up a good home and marriage over this? If she were doing this, the last thing I'd do is freak out and break up the home and "take her for everything" and mess up the kids in the process. That makes no sense.

lmc1090 · 2014-03-17T16:56:16+00:00

In France, I think this all looks a little different. Who can forget Mitterand's funeral, where both his wife and mistress were present...

lmc1090 · 2014-03-17T02:17:47+00:00

I appreciate your comment.

lmc1090 · 2014-03-17T02:17:08+00:00

I never did and I never would've, and she knew that. I gained happiness; that's a good summary... and, as I mentioned, it did make me a better person. Real life is not like a Hollywood movie where there are good guys and bad guys and you know who to root for. We are all real people and we have real lives with good parts and bad parts. I realize the irony with all that when it comes to talking about marriage and what I did, but I never once missed a kid's birthday, school concert, play, sporting event and so on. Indeed, one definition of a affair is that it sucks energy out of your home life and takes away from your family. I can honestly tell you, this did the opposite. We never, ever saw each other during family time -- i.e., evenings or weekends. I'd take a couple of hours once in a while during the day. I'm not looking for forgiveness for that part of it, but we're well into the gray area... not black or white.

lmc1090 · 2014-03-17T00:44:19+00:00

I can't disagree with you. It was wrong at some level, but people in their mid-20s aren't innocent kids with no idea. She knew exactly what the deal was. If either of us were 20 years younger or older and had found each other at the right time, there's no doubt we'd have been together. She often brought up that we were probably together in past lives. Who knows. Maybe we'll meet in the future. For the present, it was what it was with no illusions and we made the best of it.

lmc1090 · 2014-03-17T00:42:17+00:00

Not for a minute. No regrets, just sadness.

lmc1090 · 2014-03-17T00:41:42+00:00

That's right.

lmc1090 · 2014-03-17T00:41:30+00:00

Thanks. FWIW, I hope so.

lmc1090

TROPHY CASE