2nd P2v+v3 goes down in less than 2 months!

[PaganLinuxGeek]

Yes that's right the second. The first was delivered on the 13th of May and went down on May 27th. Display on tablet shown "Control signal lost" and she starts RTH (my RTH is set to 204 as I am frequently near tall pines) during her descent the right side of the craft drops suddenly and she drives herself into the rear bumper of my vehicle (figure the odds on that one!). The gimble is sheared. props broken, case smashed with a motor pointing in. Send it into get support and learn it's going to take 6 weeks. I order another p2v+v3 and have been flying it. Today I flew one battery to about 25% at an empty ball park to survey it for a potential practice location for disc golf. During the flight I notice she's wobbly and figure it's probably due to the winds coming off the bay a few blocks away. So I pack everything up hit a drive through and make my way east to another potential practice location. I sit and eat 3 tacos, drink half a large soda. Hop out of the car and throw 18 long drives in an empty football field.The time between flights was easily an hour and a half. I drive around and think this would be a great little temp course if we could get an aerial survey we could setup some portables and have a nice change up course! I take out the phantom load a fresh battery and send her off. Less than 11 minutes into the flight as I am bringing her in and preparing to set her down she suddenly flips to her side (left) and drives herself into the ground. Fortunately this is from a height of about 3 feet and the prop guards take the brunt of the impact. One prop is broken, two prop guards are broken but everything else seems ok and she powered back up after I reinserted the battery. Gimble rotates freely and camera seems to be working. I've reviewed the flight video but it stops right as the flippy phantom suicide maneuver. Fortunately I had screen recorder running on the tablet since I'm paranoid after the first one went down. I realize this is a long post but I wanted to be thorough. My point is this: seems to be something wrong with the P2v+v3 The first phantom had over 50% battery left when she went down. The 2nd had over 30% battery remaining.

I could understand the law of averages and getting one bad one is so many hundreds but what's the odds one guy purchasing two units from 2 different dealers from two different states encounters the same thing? I know the first reaction is likely to be "pilot error". However I have been careful to follow the recommended pre-flight checks, avoid interference potentials, stay safe. The phantoms were both in GPS mode, both had the latest firmware released both had been compass calibrated in this town away from cars, buildings, etc. Is there something I can do to see if I suffer the bad esc I have heard without voiding my warranty? I still have 4 weeks wait to get my first phantom back and I am reticent to send in a 2nd but just want to be safe. I am trying hard not to be cynical about this product as I really do like the features but now I'm getting scared to even send a phantom up.

 

[Clipper707]

I think it was the three tacos.

 

[gecarey]

Was it a diet soda ?

 

[Clipper707]

Just having fun with you. Being thorough is good, but keep it relevant or it's a distraction.

Prop guards = relevant. Type of hot sauce on your tacos = not so much.

When Bird #1 went down, were you controlling or still in RTH? What was the wind doing? Same questions for Bird #2.

Did you see them wobble immediately before they pitched over? Were you descending straight down? How much down stick were you applying?

Are you familiar with Vortex Ring State? VRS is also known as Settling With Power. There's a lot of information on VRS on the forum. A lot of your symptoms sound like VRS.

 

[BlackHawk388]

Just having fun with you. Being thorough is good, but keep it relevant or it's a distraction.

Prop guards = relevant. Type of hot sauce on your tacos = not so much.

When Bird #1 went down, were you controlling or still in RTH? What was the wind doing? Same questions for Bird #2.

Did you see them wobble immediately before they pitched over? Were you descending straight down? How much down stick were you applying?

Are you familiar with Vortex Ring State? VRS is also known as Settling With Power. There's a lot of information on VRS on the forum. A lot of your symptoms sound like VRS.

No kidding!!!

NOT trying to be a ****. But dude, clean up your post if you want some serious feedback.

VRS is as real as what's called, "Settling with power" in helicopter communities. As mentioned.

I got a BUNCH of information about your eating habits, but VERY little about your pre-flight, in-flight and post-flight habits. Perhaps you're not taking this as seriously as you should?

On a lighter note, I've had my Quad for all of two weeks. I've even flown it half assed drunk in my own yard. Not a single problem because I ALWAYS do a thorough pre-flight. I don't recommend that for most folks, but I have a large area for my backyard to fly in. Also, lots of open space in a couple of directions.

So without the real information one requires to diagnose your issues, I'll just say this. Your wallet is deeper than mine.

 

[PaganLinuxGeek]

Prop guards were on bird 2, not bird 1. Bird was was in rth and would not come out of it even when I toggled right switch down and up. Tried twice btw. I am familiar with vortex as the phantom is not my first multirotor. The 2nd did wobble during the flight at park 1 and again at park 2 but not during descent. Bird 2 was hovering at about 3' off ground as I was about to stop video and hand catch. I turn slightly to see a car turn and glance back right as the phantom is titled 90 degrees in the screen recording you can see the prop guard is vertices and the gimble is trying to correct. I immediately check her for damage. Plug in the battery after powering it off first and then power up again to save the video file as I've read sometimes it will close it that way. I'm just glad she was close to ground! I'm tempted to open the case and check esc but don't want to void my warranty as its a month old.

 

[PaganLinuxGeek]

**** this autocorrect!

 

[BlackHawk388]

You live VERY close to me. I would strongly suggest you and I look each other up for a "friend flight". It would seem you need someone who has a bit of experience to fly with.

I don't mean that badly, either. But your rush to complete sentences tells me one thing. Like my son, you're more worried about flying than learning HOW to fly.

Which parks were you flying in? Many of the Parks in this area use open ground as an emergency services repeater station and for Cell towers. While they may not be on the same frequency as we are, the overpowering effect of their transmissions WILL cause crashes.

Tom

 

[PaganLinuxGeek]

I am uploading a trimmed screen recording taken from my tablet to youtube now... My bandwidth is low at home so I am not going to upload the entire 15+ minute video from here...

Blackhawk: I've shot video close to you at Freeport Regional Sports complex. The flight went smoothly and she was hovering less than 3 feet off the ground with my fingers OFF THE STICKS as I rotated a bit to track a car. In the video you can see it clearly sudden roll to 90 degrees and the connection is broken. My sentences are run on partially due to an abundance of adrenaline, a strong desire to get the incident reported as quickly as possible after it happened while it's still fresh and while using a mobile device.

Preflight checks were done. I always do them, even with the mini-quads. Motors spun freely without grinding noises, or rough feeling, props were hand tight, secure. System initialized to the musical tone, lights indicated ready to fly with gps assist. Winds were out of the rear right of home position. Battery on transmitter is over 75%, repeater was 60% at that time.

I only mentioned the food and driving practice to illustrate the phantom had ample time to cool from previous flight. Not to be a **** but I posted in the hope of getting some help. While I'm no newbie (between the two birds I've logged 50+ flights on phantoms, more than that on the syma and eachines) I was reaching out to other phantom pilots for some helpful replies.

The abbreviated screen recording is available at

 

[PaganLinuxGeek]

Just having fun with you. Being thorough is good, but keep it relevant or it's a distraction.

Prop guards = relevant. Type of hot sauce on your tacos = not so much.

When Bird #1 went down, were you controlling or still in RTH? What was the wind doing? Same questions for Bird #2.

Did you see them wobble immediately before they pitched over? Were you descending straight down? How much down stick were you applying?

Are you familiar with Vortex Ring State? VRS is also known as Settling With Power. There's a lot of information on VRS on the forum. A lot of your symptoms sound like VRS.

I agree they do sound like vortex ring. However, I wasn't descending on bird 2. It was hovering at less than 3 feet. In fact after watching a quadcopter101 video I've made it a point to slowly descend and move the quad forward or sideways while doing so. Bird 1 was descending straight down as she was still in RTH.

 

[BlackHawk388]

My offer still stands. Flight with my bird as the experimental craft. I have literally thousands of hours in real helicopters and literally hundreds of hours in R/C aircraft.

Up to you.

 

[RoyVa]

I don't see anywhere in the post where you have done a proper IMU or RC stick calibration. A must for proper control. This should be a training film and a big must do before flight from DJI. They even tell us in a email to do the IMU after shipping. When the quads get put on all the stores shelves how do they think they got there. Yep!! Shipped in. Shipping can disorient the sensors and recalibration is the necessary fix.

 

[PaganLinuxGeek]

IMU, transmitter, and compass cali was performed the day I received each phantom.

 

[PaganLinuxGeek]

Last night I ran IMU cali again power cycled the phantom and set her to hover 2 feet off the ground for half a battery. She's rock solid with no wobble and barely any drift. I will take it out to field with some tall soft grass and see how she does in the breeze. What puzzles me is why she needed another cali. I've been gentle and it's not been subject to any jarring or impacts.

 

[BlackHawk388]

Last night I ran IMU cali again power cycled the phantom and set her to hover 2 feet off the ground for half a battery. She's rock solid with no wobble and barely any drift. I will take it out to field with some tall soft grass and see how she does in the breeze. What puzzles me is why she needed another cali. I've been gentle and it's not been subject to any jarring or impacts.

Could it have possibly been exposed to any magnets?

 

[MapMaker53]

If the compass gets screwed up as a result of the Phantom sitting in the vicinity of a strong magnet (as some have suggested maybe large speakers in a car trunk), then why wouldn't flight direction be totally whacked as soon as one lifts off? I'm referring to the possible cause of crashes, not just a few feet of drift. And I would think a non-correct IMU or RC sticks calibration would also be evident the second one lifted off. Doesn't make sense to me that someone could be flying around fine for several minutes and then suddenly take an uncontrolled sideways dive into the ground if the compass or IMU was out of whack all along. It makes more sense to me that there might be a problem with the NAZA where it suddenly switches into manual mode which requires an entirely different set of flying skills. Clearly, something is suddenly happening out of the blue with no warning in many of these crash cases.

 

[jonnied]

Did you notice the speed once the connection was broken, 2,582.1 MPH. I wonder if the NAZA locked up?

 

[PaganLinuxGeek]

Thanks map maker that was my point all along.

 

[PaganLinuxGeek]

I took it to an open area in a dog park this morning after league and ran compass calibration, power cycled and took it up to a height of 5 feet. She seemed fine and hovered well even in the wind. GPS and attitude mode were steady and she didn't wobble. I keep it in a box with the arms resting atop with batteries, Transmitter, etc inside on the rear seat so she's not near magnets... as map maker observed the stats reported by vision app are all wrong. She was 8 feet at most from me, less than 3 off the ground, and hovering stationary.

 

[PaganLinuxGeek]

Sorry it was jonnied that observed inaccurate stats.