Catasptrophic failure - P2V+ 1 week old wrecked

[Phantom_Menace66]

O M G... Well, took my shiny new Phantom2 Vision+ out for it's 4th flight this morning. No wind, did the calibration routine, set home point, slow green flashing lights indicating good to go.... It wasn't in the air 40 sec & maybe 50ft off the ground when something failed...
It began to rotate left then "tumbled" end over end to the ground... I suspected a motor failure of some kind the way it tumbled. When I walked over to it, I stood there stunned... The gimbal/camera were destroyed, L+R landing gear were bent at right angles, the battery was completely dislodged and sitting 6ft away. When I got it home I thought I'd download the footage to see if it would shed some light on the incident, that's when I noticed the micro SD card had also been dislodged. Went back to look for it but it's so small I couldn't find it.
The body of the P2V+ seemed intact, I removed the props & what was left of the gimbal/camera & replaced the battery. Turned on the battery, audible tone and lights came on but the motor would not spin up at all... It's dead. I fear some internal damage from the impact or perhaps total motor failure as the likely cause of the crash.

$1,500 down the drain.....

 

[Gator113]

I am sorry for your loss. This is the stuff that nightmares are made of.

I ordered a build from DSLRPros last week. They estimate 14 to 21 business days before shipping. $2800 (Sundance Edition), not counting the GoPro - another $400+ accessories.

Occurrences like yours, and reading about some of the issues that others have experienced makes me wonder if I haven't gone completely crazy.

Again, I really am sorry about your crash.

p.s. I do like your attitude. Instead of offering a basket case for a quick sale, you're looking for parts to get it back in the air.

 

[Phantom_Menace66]

I am sorry for your loss. This is the stuff that nightmares are made of.

I ordered a build from DSLRPros last week. They estimate 14 to 21 business days before shipping. $2800 (Sunrise Edition), not counting the GoPro - another $400+ accessories.

Occurrences like yours, and reading about some of the issues that others have experienced makes me wonder if I haven't gone completely crazy.

Again, I really am sorry about your crash.

p.s. I do like your attitude. Instead of offering a basket case for a quick sale, you're looking for parts to get it back in the air.

Meh... Such is life my friend. We all invest money probably better spent elsewhere on these flying machines & we're all well aware of inherent risks involved with flying that could result in damage or total loss. But we do it anyway!
You wonder if you've gone crazy, I've just ordered a brand new one!? At least I'll have spare parts if anything dies on the new one! lol...

 

[varmint]

Ugh, horrible every time I see a post like this. My condolences. Do check the connections on the ESCs, or better yet, look at all of all the high power connections (thick red & black wires). If any of them are dislodged, or completely disconnected, take a shot of them and post it. It may tell us whether the failure was due to a bad solder contact. If so, you should be able to get a replaement, since DJI has honored replacements due to bad connections in the past.

 

[Drone-Outlaw]

I feel your pain bro. Mine had a catastrophic failure during my first test flight following the unboxing of my new Phantom Vision+. However since I purchased my drone from DAVES DISCOUNT MOTORS I was able to return the Lemon P2V+ - and will receive my new P 2 V+ in about 3 hours from FEDEX ALL WITHOUT ANY QUESTION BY WORKING WITH DAVES DISCOUNT MOTORS. I spoke with a contact of mine who has NASA Engineering skills, and he stated that the problem with most of the P2V+ anomaly catastrophic failures are a result from "firmware'" issues.
However, sorry for your crash. My battery & SD card flew out on inpact with the street. However there was no other visible damages, other than a small scratch on the frame and dents on 2 props. After checking it out and testing again hovering over a high school "pole vault foam pit" in case the drone wanted to drop like a brick again. It flew perfectly until the 10th flight, when my P2V+ "lost its fricking mind" and bounced off the ground from a 50 ft hover, then giving me the finger and flying off.

I'll tell the whole story in my 2nd unboxing tonight of my new P2V+.
Moose

 

[Drone-Outlaw]

I am sorry for your loss. This is the stuff that nightmares are made of.

I ordered a build from DSLRPros last week. They estimate 14 to 21 business days before shipping. $2800 (Sunrise Edition), not counting the GoPro - another $400+ accessories.

Occurrences like yours, and reading about some of the issues that others have experienced makes me wonder if I haven't gone completely crazy.

Again, I really am sorry about your crash.

p.s. I do like your attitude. Instead of offering a basket case for a quick sale, you're looking for parts to get it back in the air.

Meh... Such is life my friend. We all invest money probably better spent elsewhere on these flying machines & we're all well aware of inherent risks involved with flying that could result in damage or total loss. But we do it anyway!
You wonder if you've gone crazy, I've just ordered a brand new one!? At least I'll have spare parts if anything dies on the new one! lol...

Dude, you need to get with your Dealer who you bought it from!! Thats ********! That Dealer needs to replace your P2V+ FREE, my bird did the same thing as yours, & I called my dealer and they replaced it with a brand new one without question!!! In fact it is on the FEDEX truck now about to be delivered....

Seriously bro - call the dealer you bought it from & use my example, they need to take care if you.......
Moose

 

[GMANNZ]

"I spoke with a contact of mine who has NASA Engineering skills" ..... ???? given some of their historic total "catastrophic" failures, unsure if I would be trusting them much more than DJI ...

 

[chriske]

If it realy just fell out of the sky on your 4th flight i would certanly go back to the dealer. Stuff like that shouldn't happen at al after a few flights.

 

[MikesTooLz]

"I spoke with a contact of mine who has NASA Engineering skills" ..... ???? given some of their historic total "catastrophic" failures, unsure if I would be trusting them much more than DJI ...

How can he even make a comment like that? did he work for NASA and is now working at DJI? Has he personally looked at the firmware and pin pointed the fault?

 

[ZeusF]

There MUST be a problem with the battery as this happened to me although without the catastrophic failure you experienced.
I ended up with deep scratched on my unit and the battery was 6ft away on landing. I am sure the battery dislodged which made the drone swerve in the air and crash.

 

[Skipholiday]

"I spoke with a contact of mine who has NASA Engineering skills" ..... ???? given some of their historic total "catastrophic" failures, unsure if I would be trusting them much more than DJI ...

Agreed.. wtf.. please have the NASA engineer post on his eXperience with UAV's software/firmware and HD cameras and 3d gimbals.
Do you know that the last space shuttle still uses windows 95? (Not knocking w95 it is stable and many multimillion dollar cnc machines utilize it) but using as an eXample to show there is a huge difference.

 

[offtosleep]

O M G... Well, took my shiny new Phantom2 Vision+ out for it's 4th flight this morning. No wind, did the calibration routine, set home point, slow green flashing lights indicating good to go.... It wasn't in the air 40 sec & maybe 50ft off the ground when something failed...
It began to rotate left then "tumbled" end over end to the ground... I suspected a motor failure of some kind the way it tumbled. When I walked over to it, I stood there stunned... The gimbal/camera were destroyed, L+R landing gear were bent at right angles, the battery was completely dislodged and sitting 6ft away. When I got it home I thought I'd download the footage to see if it would shed some light on the incident, that's when I noticed the micro SD card had also been dislodged. Went back to look for it but it's so small I couldn't find it.
The body of the P2V+ seemed intact, I removed the props & what was left of the gimbal/camera & replaced the battery. Turned on the battery, audible tone and lights came on but the motor would not spin up at all... It's dead. I fear some internal damage from the impact or perhaps total motor failure as the likely cause of the crash.

$1,500 down the drain.....

I feel for you 100%! Similar story on mine. Welcome to the joys of owning one of these POSs! If you're like me.....you'll be sick to your stomach for just about a week and burst into tears at every thought of the situation. I am reassured by my psychologist that it is one of the phase of grieving

 

[Skipholiday]

There MUST be a problem with the battery as this happened to me although without the catastrophic failure you experienced.
I ended up with deep scratched on my unit and the battery was 6ft away on landing. I am sure the battery dislodged which made the drone swerve in the air and crash.

if your battery dislodged during flight you have an issue. these batteries are normally a tight fit and take some persuasion to remove.

 

[dragonash]

O M G... Well, took my shiny new Phantom2 Vision+ out for it's 4th flight this morning. No wind, did the calibration routine, set home point, slow green flashing lights indicating good to go.... It wasn't in the air 40 sec & maybe 50ft off the ground when something failed...
It began to rotate left then "tumbled" end over end to the ground... I suspected a motor failure of some kind the way it tumbled. When I walked over to it, I stood there stunned... The gimbal/camera were destroyed, L+R landing gear were bent at right angles, the battery was completely dislodged and sitting 6ft away. When I got it home I thought I'd download the footage to see if it would shed some light on the incident, that's when I noticed the micro SD card had also been dislodged. Went back to look for it but it's so small I couldn't find it.
The body of the P2V+ seemed intact, I removed the props & what was left of the gimbal/camera & replaced the battery. Turned on the battery, audible tone and lights came on but the motor would not spin up at all... It's dead. I fear some internal damage from the impact or perhaps total motor failure as the likely cause of the crash.

$1,500 down the drain.....

ugg!

Definitely talk with your dealer - like everyone says.
One thing I tend to do now before serious flying is to let it hover for about 10 seconds, then do a bunch of slow turns, pitch, rolls, etc etc less than 10ft off the floor.

really get it warmed up and make sure nothing spazzes out.

You shouldnt HAVE to do this, but with all these posts lately, I'm paranoid.

 

[offtosleep]

There MUST be a problem with the battery as this happened to me although without the catastrophic failure you experienced.
I ended up with deep scratched on my unit and the battery was 6ft away on landing. I am sure the battery dislodged which made the drone swerve in the air and crash.

if your battery dislodged during flight you have an issue. these batteries are normally a tight fit and take some persuasion to remove.

As Skipholiday mentioned, these batteries are tight! In fact, there was a recent thread with someone asking how to get the battery out because its in there so tight. The batteries SHOULD NOT come out easily.....so if that was the cause of the failure, there is a problem.

 

[Phantom_Menace66]

Dude, you need to get with your Dealer who you bought it from!! Thats ********! That Dealer needs to replace your P2V+ FREE, my bird did the same thing as yours, & I called my dealer and they replaced it with a brand new one without question!!! In fact it is on the FEDEX truck now about to be delivered....[/color][/b]

Seriously bro - call the dealer you bought it from & use my example, they need to take care if you.......
Moose[/quote]

Unfortunately, there aren't any dealers here in Perth, Western Australia, so I bought it directly from DJI website. I have emailed them several times & sent photos of the damage... No response whatsoever!

 

[Phantom_Menace66]

There MUST be a problem with the battery as this happened to me although without the catastrophic failure you experienced.
I ended up with deep scratched on my unit and the battery was 6ft away on landing. I am sure the battery dislodged which made the drone swerve in the air and crash.

if your battery dislodged during flight you have an issue. these batteries are normally a tight fit and take some persuasion to remove.

As Skipholiday mentioned, these batteries are tight! In fact, there was a recent thread with someone asking how to get the battery out because its in there so tight. The batteries SHOULD NOT come out easily.....so if that was the cause of the failure, there is a problem.

I'm certain the battery came out when it hit the ground. The battery in mine was a mongrel to remove just to charge it. I did however read somewhere that these so-called 'smart batteries' have decided to cut the power if they detect a problem in order to prevent damage to the Phantom!? Ironically, this safety feature causes them to fall if the power is cut when it's in the air! Lol...

 

[Phantom_Menace66]

Dude, you need to get with your Dealer who you bought it from!! Thats ********! That Dealer needs to replace your P2V+ FREE, my bird did the same thing as yours, & I called my dealer and they replaced it with a brand new one without question!!! In fact it is on the FEDEX truck now about to be delivered....[/color][/b]

Seriously bro - call the dealer you bought it from & use my example, they need to take care if you.......
Moose

Unfortunately, there aren't any dealers here in Perth, Western Australia, so I bought it directly from DJI website. I have emailed them several times & sent photos of the damage... No response whatsoever!

 

[Hovtech]

It looks like our birds are like most electronics, in the first few weeks they either 'burn in or burn out'. I have been flying fault free for about 3 weeks now. I hope that is an indication of the future.

 

[jimdenburg]

Make sure to pop the top off that thing and check all of the solder point between the Board/ESCs/Motor/Battery. Some of these solders have been noted to be bad and they can disconnect from the contacts on the main board. The way you described the failure fits this type of scenario and it should be covered.