DJI drone Commits Suicide - Anyone else loose $2700. ?

[davehumphreys.ca]

So I just bought a phantom 2, brushless gimbal 4 and attached a hero 4 go pro black. cost in total about $2700.
It flew fine for about 10 times, when the battery got to 20% it would take itself over and return within 30 feet of original gps starting point. Not great but at least somewhat close.
Within two weeks of owning this thing I was bringing it in for a landing, it was 20 feet from me, it takes itself over and flies UP AND AWAY !!! flies 300 feet out over a lake and decends ever so slowly and drowns itself !!!!
I totally panic, strip down and swim out into a FREEZING LAKE trying to save it, $2700 !!!!!! I almost froze to death and still no luck before it sank.
I rented scuba gear and hired a diver but no luck, deep dark lake with some current at bottom due to inflows.
DJI sent me paper work, I supplied all info, receipts for dive gear and diver, pictures of the recovery, witness' and anything else they requested.
DJI RESPOSE - buy another one at a discounted price !!!! WTF !! is this company for real ???

I am TOTALLY blown away by the response and the complete unprofessionalism of this company and their shitity products and the absolute WASTE OF MONEY!!

If your reading this DO NOT BUY A DJI !!!!

 

[msinger]

From what you described, it sounds like it was returning to home and the home point was not where you thought it was. You can disable the auto RTH on low battery feature in the Phantom Assistant application.

 

[Marlin009]

Agreed ^^^

Why people fly the battery that low is beyond me.

 

[msinger]

Many people do not read the DJI manual, do not fully understand it, and/or do not take the time to setup the settings in the Phantom Assistant application. Failing to do any of those things is really a recipe for disaster.

 

[davehumphreys.ca]

All was set up fine, manuals were read, machine flew fine every other time!
Battery so low?, I was bring it in at 24%, it was 20 feet from me, it's home point was at my feet. It took itself over and flew off!! Trust me, I didn't set a homing point to the middle of a lake !!!

 

[msinger]

At the point where it was 20 feet from you, how exactly did it fly away? Did it fly away at an angle or fly straight up and then parallel with the ground to the point where it started to land?

 

[tcope]

If not in Phantom mode, you'd switch to Atti before it flew away and take control.

As others have mentioned, it sounds like your home point was not set correctly. When you take off you pop the Phantom up about 15 feet and let it hover for a few seconds before flying away. You also need to make sure you have a good compass calibration. Lastly, under firmware 3.12 you can still steer the Phantom while it's in RTH mode.

 

[Woods]

All was set up fine, manuals were read, machine flew fine every other time!
Battery so low?, I was bring it in at 24%, it was 20 feet from me, it's home point was at my feet. It took itself over and flew off!! Trust me, I didn't set a homing point to the middle of a lake !!!

Sorry for your loss. There's no telling why some of these drones feel suicide is their only way out. If you could only have gotten it to talk to the application, I'm sure things could have worked out differently.
He's in a better place I'm sure.

 

[rrmccabe]

This sucks.

But avoid low battery at all cost. Even more so around water. You cant always count on GPS connectivity to save you. I do not want mine to function using RTH. Just critical autoland which is not good if you are over water.

Low battery is an if all else fails thing.

 

[davehumphreys.ca]

All was set up fine, manuals were read, machine flew fine every other time!
Battery so low?, I was bring it in at 24%, it was 20 feet from me, it's home point was at my feet. It took itself over and flew off!! Trust me, I didn't set a homing point to the middle of a lake

At the point where it was 20 feet from you, how exactly did it fly away? Did it fly away at an angle or fly straight up and then parallel with the ground to the point where it started to land?

It flew straight up and then away 300 feet over the lake.

 

[davehumphreys.ca]

JUST SO I'M CLEAR, and thank you for the responses. GPS was set correctly as it had been the many times previous. Nothing worked once it took itself over, nothing. To the point I'm so certain it was a complete malfunction that I have contacted the Canadian Association of Astrology and discussed the date that it occurred.

Just so happens they are mentioning very strong solar flares during that date which create magnetic pull on all gps systems. Possibly hard to believe for some but I was there, I had flown this thing many times and this was different. CNN also wrote about it the day after the accident I can see.

 

[rrmccabe]

I am not gutsy enough to fly around water at 24% Dave

I just don't have enough faith in the technology for that.

It would be nice to have had something that logs back to your device.

Once again sorry for your loss. Has to be frustrating.

 

[Marlin009]

it's home point was at my feet.

It flew straight up and.....

When they RTH, they ascend to the altitude set in the software, pause for a moment and then go home.

How do you know the home point was at your feet?

 

[kirk2579]

did you get BOTH sets of fast flash green prior to take off?

what color were rear led flashing when you started flying.

I don't trust under 50% on batteries for what its worth,
I have p2v1 and plus and share 3 batteries' between them 2 green led on battery and it lands by my control and new battery installed.

 

[Torcan]

JUST SO I'M CLEAR, and thank you for the responses. GPS was set correctly as it had been the many times previous. Nothing worked once it took itself over, nothing. To the point I'm so certain it was a complete malfunction that I have contacted the Canadian Association of Astrology and discussed the date that it occurred.

Just so happens they are mentioning very strong solar flares during that date which create magnetic pull on all gps systems. Possibly hard to believe for some but I was there, I had flown this thing many times and this was different. CNN also wrote about it the day after the accident I can see.

I think you hit the nail on the head,
Solar Flare ups cause huge problems with anything electronic
here is a website that you can put your address in and watch for safe times and days to fly
look at the KP listing
http://www.uavforecast.com/
(edit; address displayed is NOT my address)

What is the Kp index, and why does it matter?
The Kp index measures geomagnetic disruption caused by solar activity, on a scale from 0 (calm) to 9 (major storm). Anything at or below 3 or 4 is usually safe for flying. The higher the Kp index, the more likely you are to have diffulties getting an accurate GPS lock.

Solar activity interferes with GPS signals in two ways, both due to disruptions in the ionosphere:

• It decreases the signal-to-noise ratio and affects carrier frequency, causing the receiver to lose lock on some satellites. Instead of 9 satellites, you might lock only 6, or the number might fluctuate from second to second.
• It changes the propagation delay through the ionosphere, making GPS positioning inaccurate even if the receiver has all satellites locked.

Even during a major storm, the extent to which you see these problems will depend on many other factors. One major factor is your latitude: ionospheric disturbances are worse at high and equatorial latitudes, and less noticeable at mid latitudes. Another factor is the time of day: most disturbances occur in the evening between the hours of 8pm and midnight. The effects also vary; sometimes everything will be fine, while at other times you'll lose lock completely for a few seconds or even a minute, or appear to have a lock but the position will actually be wrong by hundreds of feet.

The storms can also interfere with radio control signals, or with electronics of your aircraft.

In general it's better to play it safe during solar storms, even though most of the time you won't notice any issues. Happy flying!

 

[ianwood]

The only way it would RTH into the middle of the lake is if the home point was manually reset during flight. OP says he didn't do that. It's not exactly something you would easily do by accident.

Some facts about RTH:

• At power up, there is no home point. Home LAT, LON, ALT are all zero.
• The home point keeps getting updated (as long as the sat count stays above 6) until you start the motors.

I've never seen any evidence to support a "rogue RTH" to a distant or old location. Not saying it isn't possible but everything I've seen suggests it's highly unlikely. Maybe if the claimed rogue RTHs all headed for the intersection of the equator and the prime meridian, we might be onto something.

Solar flares? Red herring. Seriously. That information is wrong. If there was a solar flare that was so big, it caused your Phantom to flyaway, we'd all be f***ed!

 

[Marlin009]

The only way it would RTH into the middle of the lake is if the home point was manually reset during flight. OP says he didn't do that. It's not exactly something you would easily do by accident.

Some facts about RTH:

• At power up, there is no home point. Home LAT, LON, ALT are all zero.
• The home point keeps getting updated (as long as the sat count stays above 6) until you start the motors.

I've never seen any evidence to support a "rogue RTH" to a distant or old location. Not saying it isn't possible but everything I've seen suggests it's highly unlikely. Maybe if the claimed rogue RTHs all headed for the intersection of the equator and the prime meridian, we might be onto something.

Solar flares? Red herring. Seriously. That information is all wrong. If there was a solar flare that was so big, it caused your Phantom to flyaway, we'd all be f***ed!

What if, he took off before it had GPS lock and it recorded the home point over the lake?

 

[ianwood]

What if, he took off before it had GPS lock and it recorded the home point over the lake?

Fair point. That's plausible. You'd have to take off pretty quickly and head out to the middle of the lake but it is doable.

 

[Marlin009]

Fair point. That's plausible. You'd have to take off pretty quickly and head out to the middle of the lake but it is doable.

Thanks. Just trying to confirm what I thought could be the case. We don't have much to go on. The OP doesn't seem to be looking for answers or help. I like to try to learn from these.

Mine can take a bit (never timed it) to get both fast greens, I can see someone taking off before then.

 

[dtitus6297]

He sais in the beginning that he flew only 10 times, but then goes on later to say "setup correctly as it had been so many times before" I'm guessing this was a user error...a sad one and I feel for him....but none the less that's my guess. DJI seems to think the same thing since they are not doin anything for him. It could have not been set up right any of the times and he just got lucky the other 9 times....or maybe I'm wrong who knows

dji phantom fc40
ardrone2 mod 4 telemetry+fpv
tplinkwr703+sunhans 2.5w and alpha 7dbi panel antenna for wifi boost
based in new jersey US