Karma drone disappears

[efalmeida79]

I'm very, very worried now.

I have made 3 flights so far with the Drone, my last flight was just a few days ago in Bruges - Belgium.
I had a GPS lost connection, however and luckily - and I really mean luckily after everything I've been reading here - I was able to regain control and land the drone, never flew back since that event after the things I've been reading here. Honestly I'm thinking to return it to Amazon and buy something else.
Like someone said here - and very right - we are in the beginnings of this drone thing and like cell phone needs its time to become reliable and pristine, until that day I guess there is better things to spend £900.00 on.

What I find outrageous from a company like GoPro is putting the fault on the users, on those that trusted that their well and hard deserved money with lame excuses. There is several erros here, the main one is that there is dozens of reports of drones flying away, from some of the recovered ones that release videos of there crashes is easily seen that is not a lack of pilots ability, literally the drone takes is own imitative sand decisions, even if we didn't had videos from crashes is it difficult to assume that something is wrong? Isn't to many drones flying away to, at least, raise suspicion?

I'm sorry to disagree with some of you that believe this is pilots error, I don't agree in fully, is way to many events.

The other major error of GoPro is that they fail to state on manuals website and etc the "limitations" of the Drone (not just Karma) instead they try to avoid exposure. For me it sounds that not even GoPro was - is - aware of this issue, but they should by now. They are being slow and negligent not assuming this and take action - maybe afraid of another callback? Maybe because this would be a big - and maybe last - strike on the Karma Drone?

I do actually develop and build very complex machines filled with software, hardware, electronics and power-electronics for high end industries with great safety and reliability standards. There is so many signs here of an unfinished and well stress tested product. But worse and surprisingly, a very poor customer support.

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[gm82au]

From what I've read and the videos I've seen, I'm going to make the assumption that there are two things wrong with the Karma system:

1. The GPS hardware seems flawed or weak. It either isn't sensitive enough, is poorly placed on the drone, or is susceptible to outside interference. If that's the case, there's nothing we (or they) can do about it. It won't stop me from flying, but it does mean I choose my locations carefully (law here in Australia largely prevents me from flying in stupid places anyway).
2. The controller-drone connection protocol is too weak, but that's not unexpected for a first-generation drone. 2.4Ghz (WiFi) isn't a great option, and I would be very surprised if they didn't upgrade it to some other RF band for Karma 2.0. In the meantime, again, I choose my locations carefully to minimize potential interference from other WiFi sources. I don't fly the drone somewhere that the controller signal strength is likely to drowned out by another WiFi transmitter.

No drone is going to be infallible, though it seems that Karma is a little more susceptible to issues than other more mature drones. In my opinion, you should fly it and enjoy it, because you'll never have 100% confidence in any drone product. Choose your locations carefully, and perhaps wear a second GoPro on a head mount while you fly so you can constantly record what the controller is saying/doing just in case. Also don't forget that with Karma you can get some great footage on the ground - no other drone package is going to give you that.

Since you've now had a GPS loss but were able to control and recover the drone, that should give you confidence that your hardware is behaving as expected. My concern would be that some of the hardware is behaving erratically on GPS loss, but it sounds like yours is OK. Take that as a positive!

Enjoy.

 

[Mischa]

I have now flown several flights with the Karma and I have had no problem.
No risky flights with high altitude or far away and the GPS signal has been very good and no interference near by (I think the closes phone mast is 7miles away).

I just thought to share a positive feedback...

 

[CRXPanda]

Thank you @Mischa


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[nameaneh]

I just got my Karma drone a few weeks ago, and I've been surprised at how many times it has lost connection or given me a weak connection warning. Yesterday the drone was literally 100' from me in clear line of sight, and I wasn't even moving and it started to return to home on a lost connection issue. It was less than 25' from me and about to land when I finally had control again. Given I think there were a lot of Wi Fi routers around because it was in a field behind a neighborhood.

 

[Yusri45]

Thanks for the useful threat! Now, I know how to seah for the lost drone)

 

[Shaun Wilkins]

I had the same issue a lot of you have mentioned. Loss of GPS signal in controller and drone which lead to me loosing the drone. I have tried for weeks to fight my corner, I wasn't flying in a big built up area, It was calibrated before take off, I had gps on takeoff, I had flown my old dji in this area before, the weather was perfect yet the drone still flew off completely erratically and uncontrollable.

I just keep getting the same response, there must have been interference, the wind blew it off course (there was no wind), the controller was too far away (it was less than 50m when it lost connection) and to irritate me even more they said 'you should have landed immediately', the thing had a mind of its own. They keep trying to baffle me with technical, robotic and scripted jargon and they have now closed the case with no offer of any kind to help me out. No joy for me and now £1200 and a drone out of pocket.

Anyone else who has had this issue make sure you ask them straight away for a screen shot of the flight path and last location. This wasn't available to me on my controller but after 2 weeks of arguing with them they sent me this screenshot which they had all along!

Thought I would share my experience.

 

[Rambler358]

after 2 weeks of arguing with them they sent me this screenshot which they had all along!

What screenshot?

 

[efalmeida79]

My fears came to reality, my drone flew off (at 96 km/h [emoji15] ) last Wednesday, I’ve already contacted gopro Sent everything they’ve requested and now the wait begins, after reading and flowing this thread with attention I’m ready for a long journey, I did told however to the GoPro support that I’m not going to waste time with back and forward emails, If I get responses that wanna make me feel a retard that spent 1200 £ to nothing I will immediately start all and I mean all legal actions against GoPro and if I do that won’t be just the financial loss but as well as emotional and moral losses.

I’m really not in a mood to play there game


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[CRXPanda]

96 is like almost 60mph. Jeez.
Keep us updated and if you ever find the thing.

Mine keeps losing connection standing right by it.

Still propless, so it won't run off.

I play Destiny (an annoyingly difficult videogame) & Karma has it beat.

I'm beginning to think there is an RNG (random number generator) afoot. When our number is up, we lose our drone.

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[Mischa]

I'm now back home from our vacation and I continue with my positive feedback:
No problem in any of my around 30 flights.
Never even hinted there would be any GPS problem.
My top altidude 420m (from the controller) and distance 1000m.
I managed to fly twice in a tree/bush and broke totally 5 propellers... totally my own mistakes.
Drones is ok as the first fall was 1m and in the second accident it remained in the bush...just had to buy new set of propellers.

I had one unsecure moment when I was flying and suddenly the cloud came (I was in the mountains) and lost the visual contact and was not sure if I use Auto Return would it drop the altitude to the setted value 30m (the drone was at 250m altitude) which would have ment it had flown to the woods.
But I decided to fly it back using the controllers distance and altitude info and managed to fly it safely back even when it was 20m from me I could not see it, only hear it.

So at least in my experience when there is no interface near by the KARMA is just excellent.
And now even I will not use the drone back home I'm going to use the KARMA Grip... no other company is giving all that with very good price.
Of course if the drone would have flown away I would not be so positive, so I understand the concern many of you have.

 

[deanrobi]

I never did hear anything back from the Gopro tech guys on using a Trackimo so Ive gone ahead and done a few test flights.I use the hook & eye tabs and connected the tracking device onto the back of the karma near the power button.

There is no problem with clearence for the props and on all test flight the minimal weight dose not look to effect the handeling

For the test flight i flew the drone approx 300 mtrs from my launch spot and landed in the sports field, the Iphone app was easy enough to use and showed the location of the drone, it was easy enought to find. There is a feature that indicates your position as you approach the drone, closer you get the green indicator increases and decreases as you move away. I prefered to use the map feature with the blue dot being me/phone and the red icon the drone

The Trackimo also records flight details, i had this session set to record location every minute

I've yet to experience any loss of GPS or fly aways but would be confident that I could locate the drone with this device if it ever happened

 

[chris dziuba]

Yes I did not have GoPro care and it does not cover this anyways. They need to be real with people and put a disclaimer on the box telling buyers to only fly in wide open spaces with no wifi interference around. I received my replacement last week. After 10 days they wrote me saying they would be granting me a one time replacement. I will most likely not fly it again as I don't want to risk losing the camera and stabalizer again. Let alone the karma.
I'm sure most people with our same issue are all getting replacements!
Good luck!

Mine took off uncontrollably yesterday and crashed. I spoke to customer service and they will be replacing it as well as the stabilizer and camera. Once I receive the replacement, I will probably return it or sell it and go to another company. Anybody have other drone recommendations?

 

[chris dziuba]

Three weeks after my initial call to GoPro I finally got them to send me a replacement after my karma disconnected and took a nose dive. Hands down, absolutely the worst customer service. If the goal is try to frustrate the customer so they hopefully just give up, then good shot, but if the goal is customer service they really need to get their shit together. I was told I would be contacted by the karma team within 24-48 hours 3 SEPARATE TIMES and never got a call or email without me making contact. After about a week and a half of that I spoke to a "supervisor" named Mona, he told me specifically that they had received my flight logs on june 6th(3 days prior) and that they would need up to 7 more business days to review the logs. About a week later Mona emailed me asking me questions I had already answered in the very first email questionnaire AND asking me to upload my flight logs. I resent the info and he gave me a new 3-5 business day time frame. At the end of that I had to call again and spoke to someone else. After 45 minutes on the phone with that guy, live on he line the whole time, they went from offering me nothing, to offering a replacement camera, then replacement parts, then finally gave in and said they would replace the drone. The guy never mentioned results from the "tier 3 karma team" or anything, it's a big load of bull. I sent off the broken drone and I'm waiting to get the replacement. Meanwhile, they sent me the replacement camera, and forgot to send a battery for it. Honestly kinda funny if done on purpose, but probably wasn't. Top notch idiocy.View attachment 33

My Karma disconnected yesterday and shot straight up into the air into the bottom of a bridge, then crashe dback down to the road below. Spoke to customer service and I agree, very frustrating. I answered all the questions over the phone for about 40 minutes and then answered them AGAIN in the questionnaire I was sent. Then I got and email to answer more questions about serial numbers which I ALREADY answered them over the phone. They make it so difficult to fix a problem that is not mine, it is theirs. I loved it when it worked, but now they have lost me as a customer. When I get the replacement (sounds like it will be a while), I will return it or sell it and go to DJI. Maybe they should have rethought the name Karma.

 

[deanrobi]

Mine took off uncontrollably yesterday and crashed. I spoke to customer service and they will be replacing it as well as the stabilizer and camera. Once I receive the replacement, I will probably return it or sell it and go to another company. Anybody have other drone recommendations?

Depends what you are looking for, a drone for flying and the occasional video then DJI mavic or spark or if you want a drone for videoing and the occasional bit of fun flying then you may as well stay with the Karma. There is a lot more involved in flying the DJI products, why more features

 

[efalmeida79]

An update from my last post, after reading all the posts here and after my incident I thought I was going to run into a nightmare of emails back and forward with Gopro, however I have to say that in no moment they created difficulties, the read the logs, acknowledge their mistake and shipped me a all new Drone, stabilizer, hero 5, etc. I hope I’m more lucky with this new drone.




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[Methix]

Hey everyone, I’ve also lost my Karma drone just yesterday. I flew it over a lake and it lost signal. A 3 minute countdown told me it was attempting to return/reconnect connection basically but nothing. As the timer runs down I panic more and more and never see it again. Walk round the entire lake which takes about an hour with no sign of it in there or around it on land. Assume it’s landed where I lost connection (I.e gone straight in the water). Absolutely gutted.

Now got to try and sort a replacement very quick as I’m leaving the country to continue travelling and would like it for then of course.
Any tips from anyone ?

 

[JCLs]

Just wondering:

1) how far away when signal lost?

2) what was setup for lost signal?

3) what was setting for low power?




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[chris dziuba]

Hey everyone, I’ve also lost my Karma drone just yesterday. I flew it over a lake and it lost signal. A 3 minute countdown told me it was attempting to return/reconnect connection basically but nothing. As the timer runs down I panic more and more and never see it again. Walk round the entire lake which takes about an hour with no sign of it in there or around it on land. Assume it’s landed where I lost connection (I.e gone straight in the water). Absolutely gutted.

Now got to try and sort a replacement very quick as I’m leaving the country to continue travelling and would like it for then of course.
Any tips from anyone ?

Wow, so sorry to hear. Did you purchase GoPro Care? With GoPro Care, they were able to process a replacement in about a month. Still waiting for the Karma core and stabilizer, but I got the camera.

 

[Cdbr229]

Greetings, I'd like to discuss my new Karma drone and the disappearing act it pulled on me yesterday. My third overall flight, flying in a residential setting, I did my first "high" altitude flight, reaching as high as 300.' I came back down to about 200,' lost GPS, then lost connection between the controller and drone, and that's when Karma instantly took off at a very high rate of speed, not responding to any controller input, never to be seen again. I've filed a claim with GoPro, I've uploaded flight logs, and now I'm just waiting for a response from GoPro. A search for the drone has yielded nothing. I've got ads up on Craigslist and other neighborhood forums. And, no, I don't have a GPS device on the drone, nor my name and phone number. Your thoughts? Anyone experienced the same thing? How will GoPro handle this?

Hey so recently speaking my drone did the EXACT same thing where it told me it was landing in place but we viewed it fly off into the distance never to be seen again. I’ve been lied to a hundred times as to how they can handle this case and I’m wondering how you got the customer service convinced that your case was valid and how they requested a new drone to be sent out. I’ve been waiting over a month and the best they can tell me is this was an operator error however they said they wanted to replace half the drone because they “felt bad” and in my perspective you don’t just give someone over 600$ in equipment for pure pity, something else is going on and I’m planning on bringing in a lawyer to review this case and possibly file law suit against GoPro customer service and a few of their employees whom I’ve written down full names and where they are located. Low and behold the drone I’ve spent a fortune on flies off due to a defective internal software malfunction and the company doesn’t own up to the mistake