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Lost Karma

Lilenok

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Hi all,

Today the worst happened: I lost my karma drone...
We are currently in vacations and went flying the drone to take the latest pictures of our stay. No strong wind, perfect conditions. I took off, and immediately we lost control: the drone went sideways, and back instead of up. I managed to get it to go up, as Inbelieved it could be due to the wind, and then I totally lost control... the karma didn’t follow my commands to go back to us, nor any commands actually, and just went farther and farther from us above the sea and in the general direction of the beach. After a little while we totally lost connexion, and voila. No more karma... no more Go pro, not a single picture of our vacations left. Only positive thing here: looks like it didn’t fall on land and cause an accident, that could have been absolutely terrible. We walked the whole length of the beach, asked every one if they saw anything, no trace.
I am so, so sad and upset. We bought it a little more than a year ago, in July 2017.

Did something similar happened to anyone here ?

Lilenok
 
Hello Lilenok!
Sorry for your lost drone. Your report is very similar to many other reports in the forum. You are not allone. Unfortunately there is not much you can do about it. Some pilots get a new drone from GoPro - others get nothing. You should give it a try and contact GoPro Customer Service.
Where are you from?
 
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hi Phobos,

Thanks a lot for your message, as absurd as it sounds it makes me feel better to know I’m not alone... your message makes me feel a little better, thank you.
I’m from France, but currently in Cabo Verde with only my phone - I planned on contacting Go Pro to at least let them know such situation can happen, but their customer service works via chat and it doesn’t work from my phone.
I’ll try again when I am back home in a couple of days.

Have a nice day/evening :)
 
Hi, sorry to hear you lost it. Just curious did you calibrate Drone before flying?


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hi,

No, I did not. But the drone didn’t ask for me to calibrate it,
: he did take a few minute to find the GPS (you know, with the charging bar), but then he stated the GPS was ok...
To be very honest, I don’t how to calibrate If the drone doesn’t ask for me Tod o it. Is there a way to force it ?
 
hi,

No, I did not. But the drone didn’t ask for me to calibrate it,
: he did take a few minute to find the GPS (you know, with the charging bar), but then he stated the GPS was ok...
To be very honest, I don’t how to calibrate If the drone doesn’t ask for me Tod o it. Is there a way to force it ?

Yes there is. In the settings you can callibrate them.
 
hi,

No, I did not. But the drone didn’t ask for me to calibrate it,
: he did take a few minute to find the GPS (you know, with the charging bar), but then he stated the GPS was ok...
To be very honest, I don’t how to calibrate If the drone doesn’t ask for me Tod o it. Is there a way to force it ?

Sorry to hear about your drone. My greatest fear is that the same will eventually happen to me, no matter how careful I am when flying.

There is a pre-flight checklist on Gopro’s Official forums that recommends recalibration if you are flying 120 miles from your last location. The drone will not signal you to recalibrate unless it senses interference.

I tend to recalibrate before flying in any new location.
 
My Karma was off duty last month for almost two weeks. Had no time for flying. Battery was pulled out during that time. Last week I went out for a flight and was very surprised because after starting up the system, Karma did a complete gimbal calibration and asked for a sensor calibration. Looks like the data is wiped out of memory if it is cut off from battery for a longer time.
 
My Karma was off duty last month for almost two weeks. Had no time for flying. Battery was pulled out during that time. Last week I went out for a flight and was very surprised because after starting up the system, Karma did a complete gimbal calibration and asked for a sensor calibration. Looks like the data is wiped out of memory if it is cut off from battery for a longer time.
Hmm. Interesting. I just did a full recalebrstion yesterday, as I haven’t calibrated the accelerometer in a while.
 
No matter where you are and how close you are to your last flying spot, always go through the full set up procedure before take off. There are no short cuts. Make sure battery is fully charged, even if the previous flight was very short. Remember that lithium batteries
do lose charge over time, even when not in use.
 
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Hi All,

Great News !!!

I contacted Go Pro, and after sending the the flight journal, they advised the issue was due to a material issue, and they have replaced the drone, grip & Go Pro !!

I am SO happy. I've read several times here stories of how Go Pro told fellow pilots it was "their fault" and that they wouldn't replace the drone, so I didn't hope much of it. But hey, it's worth it anyway !

Thanks for your insights. I'll make sure now, with the new drone, to always requalibrate before a flight. Thanks a bunch for your help and advises :)

Lilenok
 
If folks are a bit reasonable and think about what the logs say and how handled by GoPro, a lot of lost Karma’s are probably the fault of the pilot. Folks have a hard time with admitting that though.


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If folks are a bit reasonable and think about what the logs say and how handled by GoPro, a lot of lost Karma’s are probably the fault of the pilot. Folks have a hard time with admitting that though.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I've seen this statement a lot, both about the Karma and about other drones. If the drone loses connection and flies away how could it EVER be the fault of the pilot. If there are a set of circumstances that could cause this to happen the drone should look for these as part of the start-up/self-check. If calibration is necessary for every flight then the drone should REQUIRE it.
 
I find the Jordan Hetrick book on the Karma Drone most helpful. It is available through Amazon. Once you get a copy, keep reading it, until you have it down verbatim! You won't regret it!
 
Like motorman, I am also interested in where you get the flight journal.
 
The GoPro Karma Drone can be purchased through Amazon.
 
hi Phobos,

Thanks a lot for your message, as absurd as it sounds it makes me feel better to know I’m not alone... your message makes me feel a little better, thank you.
I’m from France, but currently in Cabo Verde with only my phone - I planned on contacting Go Pro to at least let them know such situation can happen, but their customer service works via chat and it doesn’t work from my phone.
I’ll try again when I am back home in a couple of days.

Have a nice day/evening :)
I called them on the phone...they answered in less than 5 minutes. Had me upload flight data directly from my controller to them, & I got my replacement in a week Good luck!
 

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