Breeze 4K help

Falco361 · Apr 7, 2018

hello guys I’m brian from south texas and I recently got the breeze 4K and it flew great for first 3 days glight log of 12 flights on my 13th one I requested it to come home and it went up to its height and started to come back then just fell out of sky and bottom cover came off and crack one prop arm and camera will not move , I spent 200 on it just 4 days ago , what did I do wrong gps was on and everything , I’m saddened and feel I lost 200 for no reason , anyhow has this happened to anyone else beside me,also how can I get it fixed to get back in air again , Best Buy won’t take it back and no shops were I live that fixes them , I’ll have to save for another I guess , sadly to see it spin out from air I wanted to run under it to catch it but I would have got hurt by I’m sure .

DoomMeister · Apr 7, 2018

Sorry to hear about your crash.

Not sure what you had your RTH height set to, and what level your battery was down to, but it sounds as if the battery pooped out during the climb to RTH setting.

You can follow the directions in this thread Guide to Analyzing Breeze Cam FlightLogs - Your Data is Needed to get the flight log from the Breeze. Then upload it to Google Drive and post the link here or in a PM to me, and I’ll see if there is data for that flight to try and pinpoint a cause.

For a replacement it would probably be cheaper to get the $149 deal at Walmart than send in for repair. Keep the crash for spare parts.

Scott_in_Colorado · Apr 7, 2018

Its important we start analyzing these types of things. You will note a Breeze Quiz in the Help part of the forum - sticky, always at the top. I wonder if you can answer (to yourself) the questions. DoomMeister and I worked on these questions and it's hoped that if you can answer these questions things like what happened to you will not happen. While it's unknown, I'm guessing 90% of problems are pilot issues - and perhaps in your case, as mentioned, the battery was out of power on the way back. There really is no reason other than that for the Breeze just falling out of the air. The IR sensor will not even let you land, the Breeze will hover about 2' and you then have to initiate a 'land' sequence, but this did not happen. I suppose the GPS could all of a sudden fail - but unlikely. As you had 12 flights on the Breeze it's really hard to say what happened. Were you flying in the same location? Did you calibrate before you flew this last time? You had successful experience so this is very puzzling to me. I flew my Breeze today, just flying figure 8's around in my front yard; about my 25th flight or so. I'm keeping my fingers crosses and always monitor the battery as in CO, with thin air, I can't fly much more than 7 minutes before I start getting worried.

By all means, if you can find the Breeze at Walmart, its $150 and batteries are $21. Get it there is possible but the word is spreading and they are hard to find - at least here near me in CO.

nikono · Apr 7, 2018

The OP's case brings about some thought.
The Breeze's low battery warnings are more thorough than low gas warning on cars. However, newer car's display shows how many miles left to empty and the car driver makes the decision to stop in gas station to fill up or continue driving. I don't know what a Tesla would do in autopilot and low gas.

The Breeze only tells what percentage of battery is left to fly. The pilot monitors the battery level and decides to continue flying, to fly home manually or push the Y button for RTH.

My recollection of low battery warnings.
Battery level display turns red when it is down at 20% and lower.
At 15%, beeping warning of low battery level pops up on screen with "land the Breeze soon."
Then 1 or 2 more warnings of low battery level pop up with "land the Breeze soon." as the battery level goes lower and lower.
At 5%, the Breeze lands itself regardless of where it is.

Often at as early as 20% battery level, I'd start a RTH when I didn't feel like piloting anymore, I'd let the Breeze go home on its own.

The OP didn't mention seeing any low battery warning when he started the RTH. If the low battery warning popped up, it would stay on screen so it could not be missed.

The OP might have a similar battery problem like I did once. I got several batteries, one of them in one flight suddenly discharged very fast when flying. Luckily, the Breeze was not to far to land. I wrote on the battery "fast discharge" with a red marker. I stopped using that particular battery.

If the OP gets a second Breeze, hover it with the old battery to check out its discharge rate.

DoomMeister · Apr 7, 2018

Good point nikono! I remember that happening to you.

The first few times I flew my Breeze i would run it to the 20% mark and the RTH or Land. I found the batteries were not giving me good flight times and seemed to deplete at a higher rate. So I started bring the Breeze back when I would get to 30% battery level. Now my batteries don't seem to run down quite as fast, I average about 9 minutes a flight on a full charge and flying to 30% level.

vgreunke · Sep 4, 2018

I have been flying one of my two Breezes for a while now, (2nd one a back up, just in case) and I seem to be only able to get it slightly over the 200 ft. mark in Pilot mode. I have both controls set at max about 295 or so. I lose wi-fi connection somewhere between 200-250 feet and wait helplessly as I see it hovering and hoping it does what it is supposed to do and return to home. so far, so good. I tried hooking a battery pack up to my iPhone 5 (not S) in case it was low power to the wi-fi. That seemed to help yesterday, or I was just lucky as before I lost wi-fi between 100-150. I flew it horizontally "out" to about 186 feet, and it seemed to bump into a GEO fence, but I got no message to that fact on my phone. I was trying to see how far "out" in a flat flight it would go before running out of wi-fi but I never got there. Any suggestions? Someone suggested a Mini-iPad but I don't now without seeing any specs if the wi-fi power would be any better?

DoomMeister · Sep 4, 2018

vgreunke said:
I have been flying one of my two Breezes for a while now, (2nd one a back up, just in case) and I seem to be only able to get it slightly over the 200 ft. mark in Pilot mode. I have both controls set at max about 295 or so. I lose wi-fi connection somewhere between 200-250 feet and wait helplessly as I see it hovering and hoping it does what it is supposed to do and return to home. so far, so good. I tried hooking a battery pack up to my iPhone 5 (not S) in case it was low power to the wi-fi. That seemed to help yesterday, or I was just lucky as before I lost wi-fi between 100-150. I flew it horizontally "out" to about 186 feet, and it seemed to bump into a GEO fence, but I got no message to that fact on my phone. I was trying to see how far "out" in a flat flight it would go before running out of wi-fi but I never got there. Any suggestions? Someone suggested a Mini-iPad but I don't now without seeing any specs if the wi-fi power would be any better?

The power pack will only help with the power drain on the iPhone 5(5c maybe). What would help more is the power pack with a WiFi repeater. Check this thread Breeze Range Extender for more information. Three that are available and known to work are the Comfast WR370AC and WR371AC as well as the ZyXEL WRE6606.

vgreunke · Sep 10, 2018

Not a reply to the above exactly, I see the new Mantis Q says it comes with a controller. It appear to me the controller is controlling the "wi-fi" signal and the phone is only used for visual monitoring? Is that correct. With the range of distance the "Q" is rated to fly, it would far exceed the limited wi-fi range of my iPhone. Clarification greatly appreciated! I know it's not supposed to but running my phone with an auxiliary battery pack in my pocket hooked on to the iPhone sure seems to help the "lost wi-fi" at heights greater than 150 ft. Or ... I'm just getting lucky at times?