NEO was found

[bbteach]

I lost my Neo in the woods yesterday. Searched for a few hours and had a couple helpers for the last 45 minutes. No luck. Last night I studied the log map and triangulated with various landmarks. Went back this AM and found it in about 30 minutes.

This is a rough area with lots of brambles, vines, fallen limbs and trees, steep-walled gullies, etc...

What happened?
I was hiking amongst all this while trying to fly avoiding branches ( Removal by moderator). I started to trip and somehow turned off the RC-N3 controller. Of course the Neo tried to go home but with heavy tree canopy it got caught up in branches. Eventually I heard it shut off and fall but had no idea where. Could not reconnect to use Find-My-Drone ( I don't understand why? ). I assumed the battery ejected. That turned out to be false.

Anyway, I ordered a spare Neo while the current one had to spend the night in howling winds and sub-freezing temps. Good news , I checked it over and had a quick test flight this AM, all is well.

Found Neo In Situ:

 

[bbteach]

The general area where the Neo was found:

 

[NEO 317]

Glad to hear you found it and it's working well.


I recently wrapped my NEO with a neon green skin cover from Wrapgrade just in case I have to do a SAR mission.

.

 

[bbteach]

You won't miss that among the brown and gray of Winter woods.

I am going to stick little strips of reflective tape on mine. If I had done that and looked in the dark, it would have been easy to find.

 

[GFields]

Glad you found it

 

[itzmyobsession]

Nice Recovery

 

[bbteach]

Any of you watch Ken Heron drone videos on YT or elsewhere? He sells some interesting swag: Ken Heron Shop

 

[NEO 317]

Any of you watch Ken Heron drone videos on YT

I do for entertainment purposes.

He's been around since the Phantom days.

.

 

[Chrislaf]

Glad you found it. When I hike with my NEO or fly in environments like yours, I set the NEO to Hover so that if I lose signal and it attempts RTH it will just hover and I can go retrieve it.

Chris

 

[bbteach]

Glad you found it. When I hike with my NEO or fly in environments like yours, I set the NEO to Hover so that if I lose signal and it attempts RTH it will just hover and I can go retrieve it.

Good point. Thanks for the tip. I actually don't fly in areas like that much. Yesterday we had fierce winds so, I knew flying down in those gullies would protect from the wind. However, I didn't expect so much vegetation this time of year.

 

[Chrislaf]

Good point. Thanks for the tip. I actually don't fly in areas like that much. Yesterday we had fierce winds so, I knew flying down in those gullies would protect from the wind. However, I didn't expect so much vegetation this time of year.

Most of my flights with the NEO are in heavily treed environments so I usually have it set to hover.

It was windy here too yesterday and cold (-12C). We still have lots of snow in the bush. You need snowshoes if not on a groomed trail.

Chris

 

[NeoNeo]

Try using the Find My Drone feature.
Using the satellite overlap map gives you geographical, physical landmark reference points.
Also, the last 30 seconds before crashing video record can help.
When close use the ESC beeper option to help locate.

Have used the Find My Drone couple times to locate my Avata2 after needing to land or crashing in the woods.
No need for Find My Drone with the last crash. Used the last 30 sec video to locate Neo. Crashed into the snow covered ice surface of L. Superior. Last image recorded was the buried into snow view. But the last 30sec gave me a reference point to approximately where I crashed. Easy to spot the snow crater once close.

 

[bbteach]

Try using the Find My Drone feature.
Using the satellite overlap map gives you geographical, physical landmark reference points.
Also, the last 30 seconds before crashing video record can help.
When close use the ESC beeper option to help locate.

Have used the Find My Drone couple times to locate my Avata2 after needing to land or crashing in the woods.
No need for Find My Drone with the last crash. Used the last 30 sec video to locate Neo. Crashed into the snow covered ice surface of L. Superior. Last image recorded was the buried into snow view. But the last 30sec gave me a reference point to approximately where I crashed. Easy to spot the snow crater once close.

Thank you for the tips. I did mention in the original post it had somehow powered off and the Find-My-Drone would not work. I though the battery had ejected but, that was not the case.

 

[NeoNeo]

From what I understand. Find My Drone will give you the last known position even if powered off and for day or days later. Nice feature just incase you crash eject the battery or run out of power. Haven't used the feature for the Neo.

Avata2 system is a bit clunky. Requires you to connect the Goggles3 with your smartphone with a cable. Bit like how it requires you to update firmware. Assuming wireless for the Neo like how we update firmware.

 

[bbteach]

I have tested Find-My-Drone. What it did--and the way it is described--is, it has the drone beep and flash the LEDs. The flight log in the Flight app opens a map and shows the flight. I used the flight log map to find my Neo.

 

[mavic3usa]

Most of my flights with the NEO are in heavily treed environments so I usually have it set to hover.

It was windy here too yesterday and cold (-12C). We still have lots of snow in the bush. You need snowshoes if not on a groomed trail.

Chris

I think this is important to note and I have since gone with HOVER instead of RTH for all my FPV flights upon disconnect. Most of my FPV flights are in and around areas where the drone doesn't have enough sensors to avoid obstacles. In the event you lose the signal, the drone will hover and wait and if the pilot starts walking or moving or power cycle his equipment, he should only need about 2-3 more minutes to reconnect. The drone stops almost immediately on signal disconnect which means a few feet earlier you were able to connect so it makes sense if you move several feet, you might be able to reconnect and turn around and fly home. If the drone hovers for too long and you cannot reconnect, it should RTH on low battery (I believe this is correct, not 100% sure). For this reason, I have set the default setting to HOVER on disconnect unless I plan long-range FPV flying in a wide-open area since I don't flying in signal-challenged areas (inside a building) when the FPV drone is far away.