Parrot Minidrone Flew Away

brilli on 16/10/2016 - 15:44
Last edited 16/10/2016 - 18:06 by 1 other user

Hi Guys,

I bought the parrot mini drone as part of this deal. Today I was playing with this outside using iPhone and I lost the control suddenly. It started to fly high straight upwards and disappeared in the sky. I was looking the sky for 15 mins hoping it will fall down as the charge only lasts upto 10 mins but it didn't come back.

I'm still surprised this small drone can reach up to sky. Anyone experienced this before?

Will it come down or float in the sky creating potential issues to flight? Also will this be covered under warranty?

Electrical & Electronics

Comments

  • Diji1 on 16/10/2016 - 15:57
    +6

    :D

  • altomic on 16/10/2016 - 15:59
    +13

    if you love something then set it free….

  • apple2016 on 16/10/2016 - 16:09

    Will it come down or float in the sky creating potential issues to flight?

    No it won't cause issues to flights!…

  • avgbowlofpho on 16/10/2016 - 16:12

    This is probably the main reason why I wouldn't buy one of these, or at least like get some tracking device and attach it in case of situations like this

    • Scrooge McDuck on 18/10/2016 - 16:56
      +2

      You mean like… a string?

      • avgbowlofpho on 18/10/2016 - 16:56

        Pretty much!, solves the drone's flying away problems

  • fruit on 16/10/2016 - 17:43

    lol

    • magic8ballgag on 16/10/2016 - 20:49

      Not sure why this was downvoted, this is hilarious.

  • bargainslut on 16/10/2016 - 17:49
    +3

    Technically once it's off the ground it's in the sky.

  • [Deactivated] on 16/10/2016 - 18:11

    hijacked by the NSA

  • cmdwedge on 16/10/2016 - 18:29
    +1

    RIP little drone.

  • [Deactivated] on 16/10/2016 - 18:34
    +1

    1. It probably lost signal, how far away were you from it, the law says you must be within visual range at all times, I guess in your case you were close to it?

    2. Did anything erratic happen before it took off

    3. Someone possibly could of taken control of it and "stolen it" I guess a GPS tracker would be a benefit in this case, it does and can happen, it is just a wifi frequency and some sick individual would certainly cause problems with jamemrs / interceptors

    4. Covered under warranty?, I doubt it, you can certainly plead your case to them, see how you go

    I) was the battery okay and charged
    II) How far were you away from the drone? visual sight
    III) what is the area like you were flying in, an oval or a packed residential area?

    • brilli on 16/10/2016 - 18:46
      +1

      Thanks!

      1. It was just around 2 or 3 meters from me in distance. The altitude would also be around 2 or 3 meters. This was when i had control.
        When i lost control, it gained altitude by itself and rose to an altitude of around 5 meters for a while. I pressed the land button but the drone did not respond.
        Then it took off off off gaining altitude.. till it disappeared to into the sky.

      2. No, nothing erratic happened until it probably went out of bluetooth range.

      3. I dont that anyone other than me took control. I just started gaining altitude and i believe no external interference could have caused it.

      4. I have raised a ticket with Parrot. Lets see.

      i) yes the battery was ok and charged. I had around 15% charge when i lost control and i wanted to land it anyway in like around 1 min due to low battery
      ii) just 2 or 3 meters when i control.
      iii) it was residential area and it was just in my back yard.

      Already raised a tic with Parrot. Lets see what they have to say.

      • [Deactivated] on 16/10/2016 - 19:01

        Good luck mate

        3-4m sounds like a logic issue with the unit and its freaked out

        I hope parrot come to the party

  • Allan on 16/10/2016 - 19:24

    Was it windy? I've had winds take a light drone away. Just kept flying higher, lost signal and gone. Dropped into a tree and couldn't reach. Was quite funny to see

  • chkz84 on 16/10/2016 - 19:44
    +2

    Our DJI Phantom 2 flew away about 2 years ago on our first flight. My brother thought he is an awesome pilot as he watched a couple of Youtube videos and then wind flew it away. It was $1100 or so at the time. I printed out some posters and posted on some poles in our area (Truganina, 3029). We also offered a $50 reward. 4 days later my brother got a call from a bloke who saw the ad and found the drone stuck on his antenna. He was a 30YO south asian dude and my brother gave him $70, I think.

  • captobvious on 16/10/2016 - 20:10
    -4

    Nekminit mh370 drops out of the sky.

    • toristo on 16/10/2016 - 20:27

      This would be totes funny if people hadn't actually died a horrible death… douchebag.

      Joke would have been stood up without a specific reference to a flight. Get what you were aiming for, but dude… low.

      • captobvious on 16/10/2016 - 21:13
        -1

        Reports presumed passengers are dead but that has not been 100% determined yet. Yes debris has been found but it is inconclusive. For all we know the passengers could be alive locked up in a bunker being tortured and someone has been throwing bits of aircraft into the ocean for people to find.

        You must be referencing mh17 which was blown out of the sky.

      • Scrooge McDuck on 18/10/2016 - 17:09

        This would be totes funny if people hadn't actually died a horrible death… douchebag.

        Joke would have been stood up without a specific reference to a flight. Get what you were aiming for, but dude… low.

        Watch out everyone it's the joke police! ¬_¬

  • [Deactivated] on 16/10/2016 - 20:23
    +7

    Same thing happened to me on a 747. Captain came over the intercom and said 'sorry ladies and gentlemen, but we've had a slight problem and had to shut down the two left engines, don't worry, we have two right engines, but we will be half an hour late.'
    10 minutes later he came back on the intercom
    'Ladies and gentlemen, we've lost our outer right engine, but not to worry, we can fly on one engine, but we will be an hour late'
    The guy sitting next to me said
    'Shit, I hope we don't lose the last engine, otherwise we'll be up here all night.'

  • [Deactivated] on 16/10/2016 - 20:41

    I always wondered about this.

    I always thought about how secure the connection was and how easily it would be to hack into the drones signals.

  • trustnoone on 16/10/2016 - 22:17

    It's all a conspiracy, JB Hi-Fi is secretly flying them back to their warehouse to resell as another deal :p.

    Seriously though thats my biggest fear of getting one of these, that I end up getting like a 1000 dollar drone and it's like pretty much money flying away in the wind lol.

  • Findo on 16/10/2016 - 23:11

    OMG, it's probably orbiting the earth right now! :(

  • alxr0101 on 17/10/2016 - 07:36
    +1

    There's a drone somewhere, sipping margueritas on some remote beach.

    Ellis Boy "Red" Redding: I'd like to think that the last thing that went through his head, other than that bullet, was to wonder how the hell Andy Dufresne ever got the best of him.

  • alxr0101 on 17/10/2016 - 07:40

    Lord! It's a miracle! Man up and vanished like a fart in the wind!

    • alxr0101 on 17/10/2016 - 07:42

      More Shawshank quotes…

      What is your malfunction, you fat barrel of monkey spunk?

      Same old sh*t, different day.

      I have to remind myself that some birds aren't meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright. And when they fly away, the part of you that knows it was a sin to lock them up does rejoice. Still, the place you live in is that much more drab and empty that they're gone. I guess I just miss my friend.

  • peteru on 17/10/2016 - 14:18
    +1

    I met someone at a party on Saturday arvo who lives next to a park that is popular with drone users. It gives him the shits when they buzz his house. He also does penetration testing as a day job. I guess you can see where this is going…

    Apparently his end of the park is not favoured by the drone users any more because their drones tend to either drop to the ground for no reason or head straight for the trees. The hack is fairly simple, force a disassociate (apparent loss of control), then derive encryption key from attempted association attempts (a pause), then take over (bye-bye drone)

    Were you playing with your drone long enough to piss someone off? It would only take about 10 minutes of flying before someone got annoyed enough and got you.

    • brilli on 17/10/2016 - 15:20

      I hope not. It have been playing with my minidrone only indoor for the last 2 weeks.

      Only yesterday i decided to try it outdoor and then took it to my backyard.

      My joy lasted for only around 2 mins. Then i lost control and then ………. :-(

  • Joshman5k on 17/10/2016 - 14:50
    +1

    http://i.imgur.com/eDpPJY3.jpg

  • skyva on 17/10/2016 - 16:09

    I have a little drone I fly at home. It was in mild weather but I was trying to flying to the wind, and for some reason (user error) it kept gaining height. By the time I switched it off it was high, 30M maybe, and downwind so as it landed it fell into my neighbours property. I rang and got permission to get it, no dramas.

    It ended up a good 60m+ away from me I reckon. Mine was on manual pilot settings but I found it very easy to accidentally gain too much height when travelling into the wind, and by then if it is downwind, good bye.

    Good luck getting it back, i would be looking 30m directly downwind.

    A trick I learned (manual control) was that after losing it, to by quiet and pulse the throttle to hopefully hear the motors when you are looking.

    I also have enough land to be able to fly my own circuits.

  • Brendoo on 17/10/2016 - 16:46

    Pretty common way to lose it, even with the pro drones.
    Some of the pro drones have built in GPS and you can use the phone app or website to find the drone on the map if it has crashed somewhere, as long as the drone still has some battery and it isn't totally destroyed.
    I'm guessing that the Parrot probably doesn't have that feature as it's not a pro drone.

  • alxr0101 on 17/10/2016 - 16:50
    +1

    Isn't the wifi connection on these open? Seems pretty daft to not implement WPA2.
    http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/08/parrot-drones-easily…

  • Scrooge McDuck on 18/10/2016 - 17:14
    +3

    When I was in preschool I got to look after the class budgie over the holidays.

    Somebody left the cage door open and he flew away. :'(

  • brilli on 31/10/2016 - 18:37
    +1

    Hi All,

    Thanks for all your inputs.

    I was travelling a lot last week so was not able to update the good news.

    Update: :-)
    Parrot came back to me saying that they would give me a new parrot mini drone (the same model that flew away).
    The just wanted me to send them back all the accessories of the previous drone.

    I sent them the accessories and they have sent a brand new drone to me.
    Started playing with it again now. :-)

    Thanks again for all those who replied.

    Cheers.

    • [Deactivated] on 01/11/2016 - 20:28

      Great service. And great outcome. Now no playing with it outside.

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