Battery Ejection

[Sim597]

I have to say, his first flight and the OP not only used a 3rd party app, but also let it fly at night, and beyond line of site, I mean, again, ppl think they're buying a toaster! It's not that surprising is it? Don't get me wrong, I feel for the guy, really, when I saw the piece off the prop holder I was like "oh no, damnit" I thought maybe he got lucky.
So, again, let's go over what he did
1st flight ever since buying it
It was dark outside so no obstacle avoiding
Using a 3rd party app
Flying well beyond LOS
Flying in a populated area on top of all that
That's an aweful lot of things I personally have avoided, even one by one, with all of those put together, he's lucky it's only that much damage. This is the exact kind of flying that gives this hobby and drones such a bad rep, and I'm not even against the poor dude, I stand by what I said, but I still rather his bird was OK and a learning experience would be enough, now the cost of repairing it, which may not be that bad if he can get that one part. I do hope he learned a lesson, I know DJI pretends these are fail safe and all that, but to fly at night blos is reckless to say the least, in a populated hood also.

Ppl have got to use some common sense, that goes with age I suppose, and using RC's for years has taught me they're just to unreliable to be used like a appliance. I take it he had flown before as he is using Litchi, that doesn't mean he has just a notation

 

[Dounin Front]

When I crashed my P3 into branches, which was low, 8' or so (playing with the dogs) my battery came out easily.

After reading what u said, It makes sense, with battery ejected, my bird undoubtedly weighed less and suffered less damage, makes total sense. In fact, I'll bet this incident also lessened damage with the battery not adding the weight to the craft as it tumbled.

I agree with that and add possibly causing less damage to others and their property as well. Might be an unintended benefit - as long as the battery doesn't dislodge on its own without an impact - ever.

 

[tenpine]

Third party "Beta" App.

 

[Squeamish]

So, again, let's go over what he did
1st flight ever since buying it

Wasn't my first flight, period, just my first flight in over a week. More specifically, about my third or fourth flight of the night, but my first group of flights in about a week and my first group of flights testing autonomous flight. I flew it a good bit when it was first delivered.

 

[Sim597]

Wasn't my first flight, period, just my first flight in over a week. More specifically, about my third or fourth flight of the night, but my first group of flights in about a week and my first group of flights testing autonomous flight. I flew it a good bit when it was first delivered.

Oh, my mistake, either way, I am on your side, like I said, it probably has to do more with your more gusty then I am, do to various reasons, I actually wish I had a little more guts!
I hope u get the gimbal worked out, and hope you get it back in the air without it costing too much time or money. I forgot the gimbal had the error code throwing out at you.

Just because you have guts doesn't mean you should have your drone broken, I'd much rather you'd found the drone and it wasn't broken man. It does look like you had almost everything going against you that night, don't know what it's worth but at least you did get the P4 back, and it didn't hurt anyone, heck doesn't even look like anyone noticed anything either, in a way you kinda got lucky no one got injured or any property damage someone is crying about. I don't trust it to fly autonomously yet, I still have to download firmware for the AutoFlightLogic app on bird and remote, which I am also apprehensive about but will likely do. And to be fair, a 3rd party app and flying around the hood doesn't mean it should fail, just it was more likely that's all

 

[Squeamish]

Oh, my mistake, either way, I am on your side, like I said, it probably has to do more with your more gusty then I am, do to various reasons, I actually wish I had a little more guts!

It was dumb (obviously, in hindsight) but all it seems to have cost is money and time. I have a P3P I can fly in the meantime.

Autonomous flight is the main reason I like to play with these things. I get bored pretty quickly with controlling them myself, it's way cooler to see them do "on their own" what it is you want.

 

[Sim597]

It was dumb (obviously, in hindsight) but all it seems to have cost is money and time. I have a P3P I can fly in the meantime.

Autonomous flight is the main reason I like to play with these things. I get bored pretty quickly with controlling them myself, it's way cooler to see them do "on their own" what it is you want.

Well, you have a good attitude about it, and seem to be taking it better then I would. And hey, it's your hobby, if that's the thing that you like to do, then of course by all means, enjoy that part of the hobby. I too would like to begin trusting the AutoFlightLogic app. They're beta testing the P4 right now and let me be a part of the testing. This app is crazy powerful and the team that works on it is full bore on top of things by what I can see and learn. Have you thought about or tried using it for the P3? Of course, if your thinking about it, wait, because they're waiting for an update by DJI, and then they will come out with a new firmware update due to a RTH problem where, they claim ALL third party apps are having this issue. Instead of RTH it hovers, until critical battery comes up, only then it tries to fly home, but of course I think autoland comes into play almost immediately. I wonder if that had anything to do with your crash? It's too bad the P4 doesn't use radar instead of cameras to avoid collisions, then it wouldn't matter how much light is left or available.

 

[Squeamish]

Went and measured the tree today. Couldn't get the very top branches, but got up where the highest "solid" portion of it was.

Add about 3 feet because I was kneeling to steady the laser and we've got 49'.

...but that's the (angled) distance from where I was standing from the top of the tree. I was 21' from the tree at the time, so height = sqrt(49^2 - 21^2) = 45'

The base of this tree is within a few feet of the elevation of my driveway (where the home elevation was) and there is maybe 4-5' of branches above the "solid" trunk I shot with the laser.

TL;DR: The tree was maybe 50' tall

 

[Meta4]

The base of this tree is within a few feet of the elevation of my driveway (where the home elevation was) and there is maybe 4-5' of branches above the "solid" trunk I shot with the laser.
TL;DR: The tree was maybe 50' tall

Unfortunately the HealthyDrones analysis gives no detail to help explaining what happened.
It just says that you fley and then stopped flying

If you go to https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/
... that gives a second-by-second record of what was happening and may help.

 

[Squeamish]

Unfortunately the HealthyDrones analysis gives no detail to help explaining what happened.
It just says that you fley and then stopped flying

If you go to https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/
... that gives a second-by-second record of what was happening and may help.

I don't have any logs to upload. The one at healthydrones was automatically uploaded by Litchi.

 

[Sim597]

I still hope the OP gets his craft fixed and keeps flying, he already admitted how he feels about it, and he never once did say anything other then it was his fault, And I do think the way DJI touts these as being so safe and reliable it makes some ppl believe that hype, I'm not saying that Squeamish does or did, talking about some others on this forum.Can't expect him to keep apologizing to every person who (like myself, I'm guilty) has stated the obvious.
There were some good points by the EMT/firefighter guy, anyone with any brains who flys over people ( a few on this site) without regard to the safety should be at least approached on this forum and called out for their stupidity, with that said the OP wasn't doing an automated flight over a fair or carnival like some other doeheads, and he's paying for his lack of judgement, I think we can all agree that he has learned and paid for his lesson. There are a few guys on this forum I wish would read what the Seattle EMT said, they think it's funny and cool to fly over lots of people, because you know, their drone will never fail! Those guys are 100X more deadly then Squeamish if you ask me, plus, as stated, he's now learned how inaccurate Litchi is, HE won't be the one that hurts you or the hobby at this point.

 

[Dounin Front]

I still hope the OP gets his craft fixed and keeps flying, he already admitted how he feels about it, and he never once did say anything other then it was his fault, And I do think the way DJI touts these as being so safe and reliable it makes some ppl believe that hype, I'm not saying that Squeamish does or did, talking about some others on this forum.Can't expect him to keep apologizing to every person who (like myself, I'm guilty) has stated the obvious.
There were some good points by the EMT/firefighter guy, anyone with any brains who flys over people ( a few on this site) without regard to the safety should be at least approached on this forum and called out for their stupidity, with that said the OP wasn't doing an automated flight over a fair or carnival like some other doeheads, and he's paying for his lack of judgement, I think we can all agree that he has learned and paid for his lesson. There are a few guys on this forum I wish would read what the Seattle EMT said, they think it's funny and cool to fly over lots of people, because you know, their drone will never fail! Those guys are 100X more deadly then Squeamish if you ask me, plus, as stated, he's now learned how inaccurate Litchi is, HE won't be the one that hurts you or the hobby at this point.

It was dumb (obviously, in hindsight) but all it seems to have cost is money and time. I have a P3P I can fly in the meantime.

Autonomous flight is the main reason I like to play with these things. I get bored pretty quickly with controlling them myself, it's way cooler to see them do "on their own" what it is you want.

This seems like a great time for me to give a shout out to DJI for their waypoint app. You may recall last year when they added it to their Go app. Everyone hated it because you actually had to fly the route to set each waypoint. Could they have been trying to save us from ourselves. It may have helped in Squeamishes' case. He couldn't have set up the route without line of sight. He could have set it up earlier however and flown it in the evening, probably with good results. But, I admit no one uses the DJI waypoint app anymore, including me.
I use Litchi for IOS daily and love it, but I really know the topography where I fly. BTW: I don't know if it's always been that way, but LItchi shows the true elevation in addition to the waypoint altitude above the takeoff point at each waypoint. Very helpful here in Colorado along the front range.

 

[Squeamish]

I still hope the OP gets his craft fixed and keeps flying, he already admitted how he feels about it, and he never once did say anything other then it was his fault, And I do think the way DJI touts these as being so safe and reliable it makes some ppl believe that hype, I'm not saying that Squeamish does or did, talking about some others on this forum.Can't expect him to keep apologizing to every person who (like myself, I'm guilty) has stated the obvious.
There were some good points by the EMT/firefighter guy, anyone with any brains who flys over people ( a few on this site) without regard to the safety should be at least approached on this forum and called out for their stupidity, with that said the OP wasn't doing an automated flight over a fair or carnival like some other doeheads, and he's paying for his lack of judgement, I think we can all agree that he has learned and paid for his lesson. There are a few guys on this forum I wish would read what the Seattle EMT said, they think it's funny and cool to fly over lots of people, because you know, their drone will never fail! Those guys are 100X more deadly then Squeamish if you ask me, plus, as stated, he's now learned how inaccurate Litchi is, HE won't be the one that hurts you or the hobby at this point.

DJI has my P4 in the shop now, hope to get it back soon. I didn't really learn "Litchi is inaccurate," because I think it actually was. I learned "Double-check your route before flying it."

 

[Sim597]

DJI has my P4 in the shop now, hope to get it back soon. I didn't really learn "Litchi is inaccurate," because I think it actually was. I learned "Double-check your route before flying it."

Yeah, didn't really mean how inaccurate, how about unforgiving? Lol
Good luck, hope you get it back quickly, I'm at a whole 10hrs (just under) in the air with 77 flights, so I'm a newbie. I have 4 missions planned in AutoFlightLogic Beta, but yet to fly one, soon maybe when weather clear up, want a field for the first autonomous flight, even they say the first time can be stressful (along with fun)

 

[DronerLee]

Gosh it sounds like drones will soon be going the way camera's have gone. Just put it on "P" and watch it fly. My grandkids will have fun when that day comes around.

 

[Sim597]

Gosh it sounds like drones will soon be going the way camera's have gone. Just put it on "P" and watch it fly. My grandkids will have fun when that day comes around.

Yeah it's already here, AutoFlightLogic now has LSMC "Lost Signal Mission Continuation" but, until they tell me how it's done (is it all DL onto the bird? On the 4gb built in card, or just how does it not only know waypoints, but how does it know to focus and speed control and all that?) I won't use it.