In case you just lost your own drone, you’ re going to want me personally to jump directly into this. So I won’ t waffle, here’ s the first thing you shouldn’ t do.
DO NOT turn off your drones remote controller. That is the first and GREATEST advice I can provide you with.
Your controller could be the lifeline between you and your own drone at the moment. It’ s the only thing that connects you to your drone and it’ ersus the best thing you can use to get it.
Your own controller should continuously be trying to reunite to your drone provided that your drone, plus remote controller have battery power. So as shortly as you get nearer to the drone, the controller should reconnect and you’ ll be able to see where exactly the drone is certainly on the map.
01. Before Searching For Your Drone, Hit The “Return To Home” Button!
The first thing you’ lso are going to want to do can be hit the “ return to home” key and wait for a couple of minutes. Make sure you press plus hold it in to make sure it subscribes.
At the bottom of the remote screen, you’ ll observe telemetry information. It is going to show you what path your drone is usually, and how far it is away from you. In case you see that the distance quantities are decreasing, it means the drone can be making its way back to you.
If these numbers don’ t change at all, it means that you either lost connectivity to your drone, or your drone is stuck somewhere.
Take note of the final known direction and distance based on exactly what your remote is certainly telling you. This will offer you a great starting point.
If your drone is definitely stuck somewhere, let’ s start with the best steps you can take first.
02. Find Drone With The Remote Control
As you walk towards your drone, one of two things can happen. Your drone might reconnect, and you’ lmost all get a live movie stream and a good updated location, which may make the below ways a lot easier. Or your drone will remain offline, and the hunt might be a bit more difficult.
Either way, listed below are the steps you need to take to find your own drone:
- You should have the particular direction and distance that your drone will be away from you shown on the remote. Therefore pack up your equipment and start heading in this direction. The nearer you get, the higher the chance is that your controller will certainly reconnect to the drone.
- With the DJI, the control should show you the drone course using the last known place. So as you’ lso are walking or traveling, the controller can show where you are in accordance with that course and last known drone location.
- All you need to do is keep following the training course line until you get to the last known position of the drone. In case your drone reconnects, you’ ll get a good updated location.
- Once you be able to the last known location, keep your eyes and ears peeled. If your drone has arrived in the crash placement, it should be flashing reddish lights and it will make a beeping sound.
- In case you see or listen to it, head because direction. If you don’ t, try the next phase.
- Once you think you’ re in the general part of the drone, rev in the blades just for a second, and listen to the drone engines or blades reducing shrub. Or you might hear the hiss of the blades and motors.
- Head in the direction. And repeat the above mentioned step if you have to.
If your drone and the remote is still on, then the over should work. Just make sure you find it before the battery dies in your drone. Without battery-life, it won’ to be able to let from the beeping noise and flashing red lighting. Which will make it much more difficult to find.
03. Use The DJI “ Find My Drone” Feature
Ok so let’ t say you had a good oops moment, and you also switched off your drone controller, or it’ s been ages since you’ ve lost your drone, and your drone’ ersus battery is probably even by now. Try using DJI’ s to find the drone app. Sadly, this step is only regarding DJI pilots, nevertheless , do some research to see in case your drone has a similar feature on your cellular app. If it’ s a sophisticated drone, the chances are high that it can.
IMPORTANT NOTE: You’ lmost all know if your remote control and drone taking connection if the telemetry information on your remote controller screen, like distance and path, doesn’ t revise as you’ re moving around.
This is a pretty great feature that was put into the DJI Proceed app. When your drone loses GPS signal, the GO app can be programmed to save the final GPS coordinates from the drone. So even if your remote controller continues to be turned off, at least you’ ll still be capable to access the drone’ s last place on your mobile phone app.
This function was introduced within 2017 on the GO 4 app. So if you’ re flying the DJI, chances are that you have it.
Here’ s using the GO 4 app find our drone feature:
01. 1st, open the DJI GO app and tap on the burger menu at the top right of the screen since shown in the red box in the image below.
02. Once open, faucet on “ Find My Drone. ”
03. A map will pop open. You’ ll see 2 locations. The blue circle is your location, and the red triangle must be your drone’ t last known location. If your drone and remote are still connected, it will show your drone’ s current location.
04. Head towards your drone’ s last known location.
05. Once you’ re there, look out for beeping sounds, flashing lamps. You can also try to reconnect your own drone to the controller. It’ s really worth a shot.
INSIDER SUGGESTION: If you believe that your drone has got taken away by the breeze, find your drone’ s last recognized location. Once there, move in the direction of the wind while wanting to reconnect to the control.
04. Use “ Airline flight logs” In Your Drone App
It is a pretty neat feature that most drone applications will have. For the sake of this informative article, I’ ll be talking about the DJI GO mobile app, however , the same thing might be found in your drones app. Do some research.
So what makes logs so useful is that the trip log stores your drone’ s flight path. And you can pull this information on a satellite map that shows the particular terrain. So even if your drone and your controller is off, this will give you an idea of where your drone was final spotted.
Here’ s how you can access your flight log information:
01. Open up the DJI GO app
02. Tap on the hamburger menu at the top right of the screen as shown in the red container in the image below.
03. Tap upon flight records.
03. At the bottom, you’ lmost all see “ Trip list. ” This can pull up a record of all of your past drone flights.
04. A list of your own previous drone flights will now pull up. Touch on your last drone flight. You’ lmost all see a map appear with a red triangle and a blue department of transportation. The red triangle is the location of the drone, and the blue dot is your location.
05. As you drag the slider at the end, it will show the direction your drone shifted in, and at the end of the flight past, it will show you the last location of your drone.
So how can you use this information? The great thing about this is that it will display your drone’ ersus location on a map with satellite pictures. This way you’ lmost all easily be able to use features around you just like a road, building or trees that will help you locate the drone.
You’ ll furthermore clearly be able to see the direction your drone was moving in before it lost transmission. So if it obtained carried away by the wind, at-least you’ ll know what general path to head into.
INSIDER TIP: Make sure the map is placed to terrain mode so that you can see functions. Spot a feature near to the drone and stroll to that feature first. Once you have, you’ lmost all know where you are in accordance with your drone. This can make finding it a lot easier.
05. No Air travel Logs, No Control Connection? Look For Lamps And Listen Just for Sounds
I might only resort to only looking for these signs if you have to. Some entry-level drones won’ big t have cameras, flight logs or GPS trackers. In that case, all you have to find your drone is your senses and a bit of logic.
The best advice that I can give you is to provide yourself a few minutes in order to calm down before you head on the hunt. If you panic you won’ t be able to believe, and you’ lmost all disorientate yourself. Once you’ re calm, take these steps:
- Stop and think about where your own drone could be. Since you can’ t voyage these drones too much, chances are it didn’ t go extremely far. So create a mental note of the direction it was drifting, or direction may be the wind blowing?
- Then begin to head in that direction. Look out for tall trees and shrubs or large buildings. As you walk, also keep looking for lights and sounds. Smaller drones should also have crash signals for example flashing lights and beeping sounds.
- As you’ re walking in the general direction, also rev up the engine. Often times your drone will get reconnected and you’ ll hear the blades trimming a bush or even tree somewhere.
That’ h all you can really do regarding entry-level drones. Simply stay calm, and keep a lookout.
06. Lost Drone Posters
The truth is them on every single light post plus bust stop displaying lost dogs, pet cats, and even people. In 2020, expect every single light post in order to filled with pictures of drones. Who knows, Walmart might even introduce a lost drone panel. It’ s getting that common!
If you lost your own drone in a residential area, this is a great way to get your drone back. Honest hearted people find lost drones frequently, however , most of the time they keep them only because they don’ big t know who the particular owners are.
Solution? make it easy for them to find you. When they see your lost drone poster, chances are they will contact you. I’ ll tell you exactly what, just because I’ meters a nice guy I’ ll go ahead and furthermore make it easy for you.
- I created a poster template which you can use for your lost drone on canva. com. All you have to do is usually edit it plus download it here.
- After you click on the link over, edit the poster to include a picture of your drone. Or find a picture of a comparable drone online.
- Follow this link to get a bunch of your lost drone posters printed in Walmart, and get them delivered straight to your own door. I use their particular printing service often. They are extremely inexpensive, I got around two hundred photos printed using their service the other day and yes it only cost me around $0. 20c a photo. Low-quality a4 dimension printed paper needs to be cheaper than that.
- As soon as you get the posters back, go crazy. Paste them on every single light post and bus stop in your area. Make your drone so popular, that even when someone did take it, someone within their household will identify the drone and obtain suspicious.
- Wait for the call. Tell me in the comments beneath if this worked for them, would love to know!
07. Check The Online Market Place
Ok so not everyone is as honest-hearted as I would like them to be. Some people might find your wondering drone as a quick way to make a few dollars. I’ ve noticed a lot of cases where people would notice their own lost drones for sale on WIKIPEDIA market place.
Keep track of local market locations, especially the FB market place. Also, check FB sales groups in your local area. Normally, this is the first place these people try to sell them.
Online market places to check:
- auction web sites
- Market
- Nearby FB groups
- FB market place
- Craigslist
Discovered a drone that will looks like yours? Find the serial number of your own drone or any evidence of purchase. Contact the vendor and get all their details before you break this news that will ruin their day.
Get their phone number, address or even as much information as is possible. Then lay this on them. Tell them if they don’ t courier your drone back, you’ ll get in touch with the police.
JUST DON’ To set up a meeting. Not what you would want to do will be put yourself in danger.
How To Make Sure You Never Eliminate Your Drone Once again
If you discovered your drone, great! If not, I’ m sorry to hear. This stuff happen. Either way, you’ re going to want to make sure this by no means happens again.
- Admit that it may happen again. The first thing you need to do will be admit that it will happen again. Denial gives you a reason to be lazy which means you won’ big t prepare. This is what obtained you in this situation in the first place.
- Do a display capture when you see it footage is starting to lose signal. If the drone footage cuts out when this occurs, at least you’ ll have aerial video footage of the last area. This will drastically increase the chances of finding your own drone again.
- Prepare yourself when flying within high-risk areas. If you know you’ re flying inside a high-risk area, be sure you know where it is. And take all the necessary precautions.
- Prevent flying in bad weather or during the night. Most drones go lacking in these scenarios, so that you can avoid it by just only flying once the weather seems ideal.
- Get a GPS tracker. This software costs cash, however in a lot of situations it could be worth it. If you want to fly your drone in high-risk areas and bad weather conditions, and you’ lso are concerned that it can get lost, consider setting it up. It could save you lots of money and an entry-level drone tracker such as the tk102 can cost as little as $30 to setup.
Final Thoughts
Losing a drone can be extremely frustrating. It might take some people months to save up for a drone, and they can disappear in a blink of the eye. If you’ re one of them, get it on the chin and learn from your experience.
When you buy your next drone, take the suggested precautions above, spend an extra $30 on a GPS tracker, and when it does happen again—because it will—at-least you’ ll be prepared! Don’ t be that will guy that loses a drone two times in their lifetime
