Disaster struck today - drone fell from sky

[Nathan Carter]

"Phantom Connection Broken"

Means WiFi connection lost. If WiFi is not connected then anything we see on that photo, all the telemtry is just a read out from the last possible moment the app had connection. The app is left in a state of waiting for WiFi reconnection.

There is no separate channel over which the Phantom could deliver telemetry data, if it says "Phantom Connection Broken" that telemetry is old, frozen state.


Final determination: Hardware failure related to power system.

 

[flyNfrank]

Maybe motors were shut off by having the throttle all the way down for 2 secs. I believe the motors can be shut off that way

That is not what happened on this crash.

It looks to be a product of the GPS issue I warned everyone about. The reason I say that is, his quad never lost power before hitting the ground. The telemetry shows data at 36.5ft which takes a gps signal for that info. I think his quad reacted to a broken gps plug connection, and then went into a combo of Manual & Atti mode. It then dropped from the sky until I switched S1 from GPS mode to Atti made and back to GPS mode. As soon as it went back to GPS mode the motors spun up and it was like hitting the brakes.

Anyway, that's what I think happened here. Btw, sorry your quad was trashed.

What the crap! There is section of my post missing. LOL! The bottom half of my post above I was actually referring to my quad and a similar situation I had experienced with my quad. If you did read it, you had to have gotten confused by what was typed.

Anyway, it looks like the missing part of my post was where I was talking about the GPS. So when the GPS connection breaks at the quad is when all hell breaks loose. It would be the same as if there was no GPS even mounted on the quad. So where ever the quad is at at that moment of connection loss, the quad will have no idea how to function the way it was programmed to. There is a part of something that allows it to have enough stability to stay upright as it falls and not tumble. That is why refer to it as going into a combo of atti & manual modes. The atti part would be because it stay upright on it's own. And manual mode because it will not hover and drops to the ground. I never tried moving the levers on the controller during my experience. I only went for the S1 switch per the GPS mode I mentioned. Also for some unknown reason I could simulate the entire experience when enabling the failsafe mode. It would be like 4-5 seconds after the point in which the quad begins the down descent, it would start picking up speed until I would finally switch the S1 switch.

So unless russianfront's quad came down tumbling, then it may have been some other issue. But if it didn't tumble then I'd say it was the GPS plug connection.

 

[samd012]

What should I do? Send back to DJI? I am now wondering how safe these things are. I shudder to think if I was flying over a house, street or people when I decided to act like a flying brick. I have read a lot about "flyaways". This was no flyaway. It looks like the power cut off for whatever and it crashed hard.

There was a crash a few weeks ago where the wire from the battery to the mainboard had a cold solder joint and suddenly all power was lost. Open it up and see if you have the same problem. If so, then you may have an argument to take to DJI.

If you are positive that everything just stopped completely and there was no power to the unit this is where I would start also. No power at all would most likely be in the power systems.

 

[H-Films]

Hello everybody!

Some months ago, I've had the exact same problem. I was flying my p2v+ (80%+ battery) and when I was bringing it down to land, and when it was about 7 or 8 meters from the ground (23/24 feet) it suddenly lost power, props stopped (no sound, complete silence) and then it fell down from the sky and crashed in the grass. I always check if the battery is correctly installed in the quad, I always do the compass calibration on every flight, and every other thing listed on the pre flight check list. The crash ****** up the crappy gimbal and then I became one more of the million phantom 2v+ users with a useless, expensive and bad quality camera/gimbal that it is only capable to do the chicken dance.
My quad was new, only 20/25 flights i guess. In all previous flights it was everything perfect, no problems. After reading a lot of threads, for months, I guess that the problem caould have been something related to the altimeter or variometer, as I was bringing it down (all the way down on the RC) and if for some reason the atimeter/variometer didn't send the correct descending data to the brain, it may have understood that the drone was on the ground and after 2 seconds it stopped the motors. The other possibility could have been a power contact problem, but I checked the battery and it still had a lot of energy and after repairing all the broken parts (all except the shitty camera gimbal) and after checking all the cables and connections inside, I can fly it without any problem, but I lost all the telemetry, battery info and compas in the app and Im still trying to fix it.

I contacted DJI, and after several e-mails that they didn't answered I finally get a response saying that they need some proof that I didn't crashed my drone, like a video showing how it falls from the sky while I scream: "NOOOOOO!!!" I wonder if they are just assholes or if their mothers abused drugs when pregnant. Are we all supposed to have an extra camera recording video pointing to our drones every second of every flight we make in case it falls? Is that implied in the warranty form? As I live in South America it is not so easy to send the quad back and the wait 2 or 3 months just to get a response saying that DJI is not responsible for my damaged drone as I can't show them any proof of malfunction or factory mistake (That was what they basically told me).

But I consider that the main problem is not a broken drone, but the EXTREMELY DANGEROUS situation that every phantom pilot are facing EACH time we fly one of this dangerous white robotic birds. I can assure you that this drones can fall from the sky at ANY moment. But I still see every week lots of videos and pictures of phantom quads flying over people heads, even DJI publish videos of their drones flying over people when they know that their drones can get out of power at any moment, fall and hurt people, animals or even cars, houses or anything you don't want to hit. The higher the drone flies the bigger the damage. Just ask someone to drop your phantom from only 1/2 meter over your head and let me know if that hurts, now imagine if it falls from 200 or 300 feets...

THIS THINGS ARE VERY DANGEROUS; PLEASE DONT FLY OVER ANYTHING THAT IS ALIVE OR ANYTHING YOU CAN'T PAY FOR!


Fly safe...

 

[russianfront]

Not a GPS fail, proven by satellite readout.
Not a battery failure or power failure, proven by battery telemetry
Not an ESC failure, since all motors stopped.
Inspection will likely prove no solder joint failure of power wires (likely none, I will assume this is the case)

Ruling out all of the above, this was an inadvertent CSC. While CSC's are a decent attempt at a "fail safe" by DJI, giving the pilot an emergency way to shut down even when flying, it is possible to inadvertently shut down if the pilot makes that error.

Final determination: Pilot error caused by inadvertent shut down command (CSC).

There is no way I did the "toggles inward and down" shutdown sequence while flying. I was simply holding the left toggle in the descent position. I would have to be a real idiot by trying to shut the thing down while flying hundreds of feet up.

 

[russianfront]

Hello everybody!

Some months ago, I've had the exact same problem. I was flying my p2v+ (80%+ battery) and when I was bringing it down to land, and when it was about 7 or 8 meters from the ground (23/24 feet) it suddenly lost power, props stopped (no sound, complete silence) and then it fell down from the sky and crashed in the grass. I always check if the battery is correctly installed in the quad, I always do the compass calibration on every flight, and every other thing listed on the pre flight check list. The crash ****** up the crappy gimbal and then I became one more of the million phantom 2v+ users with a useless, expensive and bad quality camera/gimbal that it is only capable to do the chicken dance.
My quad was new, only 20/25 flights i guess. In all previous flights it was everything perfect, no problems. After reading a lot of threads, for months, I guess that the problem caould have been something related to the altimeter or variometer, as I was bringing it down (all the way down on the RC) and if for some reason the atimeter/variometer didn't send the correct descending data to the brain, it may have understood that the drone was on the ground and after 2 seconds it stopped the motors. The other possibility could have been a power contact problem, but I checked the battery and it still had a lot of energy and after repairing all the broken parts (all except the shitty camera gimbal) and after checking all the cables and connections inside, I can fly it without any problem, but I lost all the telemetry, battery info and compas in the app and Im still trying to fix it.

I contacted DJI, and after several e-mails that they didn't answered I finally get a response saying that they need some proof that I didn't crashed my drone, like a video showing how it falls from the sky while I scream: "NOOOOOO!!!" I wonder if they are just assholes or if their mothers abused drugs when pregnant. Are we all supposed to have an extra camera recording video pointing to our drones every second of every flight we make in case it falls? Is that implied in the warranty form? As I live in South America it is not so easy to send the quad back and the wait 2 or 3 months just to get a response saying that DJI is not responsible for my damaged drone as I can't show them any proof of malfunction or factory mistake (That was what they basically told me).

But I consider that the main problem is not a broken drone, but the EXTREMELY DANGEROUS situation that every phantom pilot are facing EACH time we fly one of this dangerous white robotic birds. I can assure you that this drones can fall from the sky at ANY moment. But I still see every week lots of videos and pictures of phantom quads flying over people heads, even DJI publish videos of their drones flying over people when they know that their drones can get out of power at any moment, fall and hurt people, animals or even cars, houses or anything you don't want to hit. The higher the drone flies the bigger the damage. Just ask someone to drop your phantom from only 1/2 meter over your head and let me know if that hurts, now imagine if it falls from 200 or 300 feets...

THIS THINGS ARE VERY DANGEROUS; PLEASE DONT FLY OVER ANYTHING THAT IS ALIVE OR ANYTHING YOU CAN'T PAY FOR!


Fly safe...

Agree with everything you said! I think we all take these flying wrecking balls a little lightly...

 

[flyNfrank]

russianfront, did your quad come down upright, or was it tumbling?

 

[russianfront]

russianfront, did your quad come down upright, or was it tumbling?

It pretty much dropped like a rock but I think it tumbled a time or two before it hit the ground. I think it landed at an angle because one of the landing legs was broken as well as 2 prop guards and 2 props.

Thinking back to yesterday, the one thing that I am replaying in my mind over and over is that heart-stopping moment when I could hear the drone go suddenly silent as the props shut down. I knew at that second that my precious new drone was about to go into a death spiral and could do nothing to prevent it.

 

[H-Films]

Lol... I'm not sure yet!

 

[hionbusa]

Not a GPS fail, proven by satellite readout.
Not a battery failure or power failure, proven by battery telemetry
Not an ESC failure, since all motors stopped.
Inspection will likely prove no solder joint failure of power wires (likely none, I will assume this is the case)

Ruling out all of the above, this was an inadvertent CSC. While CSC's are a decent attempt at a "fail safe" by DJI, giving the pilot an emergency way to shut down even when flying, it is possible to inadvertently shut down if the pilot makes that error.

Final determination: Pilot error caused by inadvertent shut down command (CSC).

I concur .

 

[justin00]

Yip, well said.
Its old data that is displayed. Pull out the battery or shutdown wifi and exact same results as OP has experienced in terms of tele data.

The last readouts are from when the Quad was obviously moving. Nothing to suggest it was a CSC other than the motors stopped. CSC just shuts down motors, not the entire quad / wifi.

And if it was the gps plug, or a short, the motors would not of started back up again as the plug needs to be in for it to start. if the plug is undone while the motors are running the motors stay running. I originally suggested open it up, but now I reckon you will not find anything wrong... due to the fact motors started back up..

Would be easy and comforting to say pilot error.. but yeah, nothing to suggest that... Would kind of prefer if it was, cause I'm sure none of us want to think our quad could suddenly come down... and I'm sure quite a few of us probably think it wont happen, till it does :/

I didn't reallly think fly-aways were real / could happen to me... until one day when it stopped responding to R/C inputs... stopped in flight... then literally flew away.. Luckily it has the smarts built in, and it RTH when it detected a loss of R/C. Has been perfect for 50+ flights since...so I just put it down to radio interference... other wise I'd be to scared to fly anymore.

"Phantom Connection Broken"

Means WiFi connection lost. If WiFi is not connected then anything we see on that photo, all the telemtry is just a read out from the last possible moment the app had connection. The app is left in a state of waiting for WiFi reconnection.

There is no separate channel over which the Phantom could deliver telemetry data, if it says "Phantom Connection Broken" that telemetry is old, frozen state.


Final determination: Hardware failure related to power system.

 

[flyNfrank]

And if it was the gps plug, or a short, the motors would not of started back up again as the plug needs to be in for it to start. if the plug is undone while the motors are running the motors stay running. I originally suggested open it up, but now I reckon you will not find anything wrong... due to the fact motors started back up..

Explain to me where you have the idea that the motors stopped. Have you been under the impression that when the gps plug breaks connection, the motors shut down?

 

[dbfletcher]

Possible from the OP's first post...

when all of a sudden I heard the props switch off and the drone simply plummeted to the ground

 

[justin00]

This bit....

And from testing, if the gps is unplugged when the motors are running the motors while continue to run... but if its unplugged before they are started up, they will not start up. I thought you are saying a possible theory is the cable came loose so the motors shut down ?

when all of a sudden I heard the props switch off and the drone simply plummeted to the ground. I saw every painful second of it. Landed on the soft grass turf. Pretty big damage -

And if it was the gps plug, or a short, the motors would not of started back up again as the plug needs to be in for it to start. if the plug is undone while the motors are running the motors stay running. I originally suggested open it up, but now I reckon you will not find anything wrong... due to the fact motors started back up..

Explain to me where you have the idea that the motors stopped. Have you been under the impression that when the gps plug breaks connection, the motors shut down?

 

[singapore_phantom]

I wonder how much weight a parachute system would be if you make it as light as you can get way with. Are we talking 30g, 50g, or perhaps 100g? It wouldn't have to be pretty, durable or reusable. Something Getterback-ish would be good enough.The Phantom doesn't have to remain unscathed - the canopy just has to slow terminal speed to something not lethal.

Not claiming that it would be the ultimate panacea to copters dropping out of the sky. But it would be better than no parachute at all.

 

[johncocci]

Not a GPS fail, proven by satellite readout.
Not a battery failure or power failure, proven by battery telemetry
Not an ESC failure, since all motors stopped.
Inspection will likely prove no solder joint failure of power wires (likely none, I will assume this is the case)

Ruling out all of the above, this was an inadvertent CSC. While CSC's are a decent attempt at a "fail safe" by DJI, giving the pilot an emergency way to shut down even when flying, it is possible to inadvertently shut down if the pilot makes that error.

Final determination: Pilot error caused by inadvertent shut down command (CSC).

I concur .

Not sure how that can be. Can't you only do a CSC while the unit os on the ground? Doesn't it need to sense that its no descending anymore before you can do that?

 

[rickasaurus]

No, what you say applies to the other method of stopping the motors, pulling the stick down and holding until the motors stop - the motors won't stop while descending. But the CSC will stop the motors, at any time, including in the air.

 

[FantomPhlyer]

App should have reported this instead...


Just kidding, and very sorry for your loss.

In all seriousness though, using iRec/Shou for app recording would do wonders here. I have had some weird movements coming straight down or even diagonally down for landings. Also not sure if the downwards and in control could actually cause an inadvertent shutdown, I began using the RTH to land once close enough over head. It seems to come down much smoother and accurate. However, I have had times where the altitude was reporting much higher and landed VERY hard. I am now doing my landings with RTH and taking control a few feet from ground to manual land.

So... if it could report altitude much higher when landing, in theory couldn't it also report much lower as well. Say 0ft, which may cause a shutdown if the controls are being held down for long enough? Just a theory.

 

[msinger]

in theory couldn't it also report much lower as well. Say 0ft, which may cause a shutdown if the controls are being held down for long enough?

When holding the left stick down, the motors stop when the altitude stops changing. I don't think the altitude being 0ft would even be a factor there.

 

[russianfront]

Here's where it went down and a pic taken about 3 min. before. I was lucky that I didn't loose the miniSD card as it ejected on landing but was still sticking out of the drone. Had it fallen out I would have never found it.