Dropped like a stone from the sky.....

[gemini8026]

Bought my P4 Pro in November this year, first day it was announced.

I have owned a P3. An Inspire X1, and now a Phantom 4 Pro. This was my first ever crash. Fully charged battery. Props stayed on. I took off from the ground in an open area and at about 60 feet it just dropped.

What a sick feeling. Battery ejected and props stayed on. I'll say this, for that fall it is still in good shape. Camera snapped right off. I contacted DJI support and have received the email about sending it back.

Ive treated this thing like gold and it's been great. I'm not sure where to point the finger because the logs look like the battery behaved fine. Props were NOT the issue and Im thinking maybe the ESC failed?!? It didnt veer off path or do anythign other then just DROP.

I hope DJI is cool about this and deals with it right. I did nothing wrong and I respect the machine. But if I get a heavy repair bill because they cannot prove it was the craft, then I will be quite upset.

Anyone else experience something similar?

 

[John Locke]

Bought my P4 Pro in November this year

You mean last year, right? I'll be curious what your outcome is. That kind of failure sounds strange. Did you see it fall, was it within eyesight. If yes, did it fall straight down, or spiral like one of the ESC's went out?

 

[gemini8026]

Yes, November 2016. IT literally was just going straight up and landed 5 feet away from where it took off after being 60 feet in the sky. It was sunny and I was watching my screen. I just saw "tumbling" and chaos. But couldn't tell if it was one motor out or not. After reading threads and such, I agree, it is a strange one. I would be honest if I did something wrong or stupid, but I truthfully did nothing else, and have been a drone owner since the P3 was announced.

 

[Paul55]

Thanks.....now I have another reason to be more paranoid when I fly! I am kidding a little but seriously sometimes think it's a crap-shoot that sometime-somewhere-somehow my P4P will either fly away or drop from the sky for some unknown reason. I did buy the DJI ReFresh deal so I hope that if something happens I can recover the AC to send to DJI. Besides worrying about someone coming up to me and complaining about where I am flying now I can worry about the AC falling or flying away. ....

.BUT...as they say if you can't take the heat find another hobby!

 

[Zzzoom3]

Is the battery from Nov 2016? How many cycles on it?

 

[Michael Thompson]

I'll guarantee the battery didn't snap all the way in. These P4s are tough little machines. I've ridden mine very hard and she's been super reliable.

 

[gemini8026]

*sigh*

Battery died. It was essentially a new battery with roughly 10 charges on it. So I now pay 235$ usd plus I have to buy a new capacity battery. So this will come out to around 500$ cdn for me to fix. Here is the quote I got back from DJI repair. I feel like it's a slap to the face considering it was their equipment that failed, but apparently batteries have a different warranty period.

I have zero confidence flying anymore, and I think I will repair and sell the drone because if these batteries randomly die and drop out of the sky and DJI doesnt cover warranties, then this is a little Russian roulette for me.

Unhappy customer...... :s

 

[KevMo Photog]

*sigh*

Battery died. It was essentially a new battery with roughly 10 charges on it. So I now pay 235$ usd plus I have to buy a new capacity battery. So this will come out to around 500$ cdn for me to fix. Here is the quote I got back from DJI repair. I feel like it's a slap to the face considering it was their equipment that failed, but apparently batteries have a different warranty period.

I have zero confidence flying anymore, and I think I will repair and sell the drone because if these batteries randomly die and drop out of the sky and DJI doesnt cover warranties, then this is a little Russian roulette for me.

Unhappy customer...... :s

So you don't think it's possible that you did not have the battery snapped in all the way and it disconnected on you?

 

[gemini8026]

So you don't think it's possible that you did not have the battery snapped in all the way and it disconnected on you?

Honestly..... No. The reason I state that is because I never rolled off to any side. I literally just pressed to go STRAIGHT up, so without the unit tilting it would have had to have magically slid out. No one is perfect and stuff happens, but I really dont think that was the issue.

 

[KevMo Photog]

Honestly..... No. The reason I state that is because I never rolled off to any side. I literally just pressed to go STRAIGHT up, so without the unit tilting it would have had to have magically slid out. No one is perfect and stuff happens, but I really dont think that was the issue.

Gotcha man. But it may be possible for it to become unconnected and still remain in the unit. I have noticed a couple of times when inserting my batteries that it can just be hooked at one point and not both. That mounting clip could be better for sure.It just sucks no matter what though!

 

[BigAl07]

Batteries are and have always been a weak point in our system. It's a single MAJOR failure point and has been for years. When we build large scale planes & heli we incorporate multiple battery systems just for this reason. When you have several grand invested as well as hundreds of man hours building you want backups for your backups.

The ONLY way to never crash is to NEVER fly. Anything else is just waiting on that "one time" when things go wrong.

With all things considered that's not a "bad" repair bill but it still sucks none the less.

 

[John Locke]

With all things considered that's not a "bad" repair bill but it still sucks none the less.

That's the truth. The OP is very lucky there was no major camera or gimbal damage, the bill would have been $900. $235 is a deal IMO, count your lucky stars for that. As for the cause, this is hard to tell. Did the battery survive the fall? Was it chargeable? It sounds like the battery clips were not fully engaged to retain the battery. If the battery wasn't fully engaged, straight up ascending can easily disengage it. I always firmly and deliberately install my batteries, and tug at it a little to make sure the top and bottom clips are engaged. Is it possible for a battery to fail suddenly? Yes, and intelligent battery a bunch of parts on two boards, IC's and power devices. It's not likely the power board failed, but it's possible. A battery cell discrepancy should NOT shut down the battery, as implied. It would have to be a huge discrepancy. I think it's more likely the battery wasn't secure, IMO, but that's just a guess of course. You can look at your battery history to determine if that battery had a bad cell, assuming you have the battery to look at the serial#. AirData can tell you about the battery differentials for all your flights, which should confirm what DJI said in their report, or dispute it.

 

[drone dude#]

Yes, I had totally the same thing happen. On take off AC climbed to 37M lost all power and fell from the sky. (Was a heart stopping moment) All telemetry was golden !! Interestingly my camera broke off as well and AC suffered extensive landing gear damage. Sent the AC off to DJI a few days ago, I'll keep you posted.

 

[KevMo Photog]

Yes, I had totally the same thing happen. On take off AC climbed to 37M lost all power and fell from the sky. (Was a heart stopping moment) All telemetry was golden !! Interestingly my camera broke off as well and AC suffered extensive landing gear damage. Sent the AC off to DJI a few days ago, I'll keep you posted.

So do you think your issue was the battery not fully hooked in then?

 

[Chris Abram]

Bought my P4 Pro in November this year, first day it was announced.

I have owned a P3. An Inspire X1, and now a Phantom 4 Pro. This was my first ever crash. Fully charged battery. Props stayed on. I took off from the ground in an open area and at about 60 feet it just dropped.

What a sick feeling. Battery ejected and props stayed on. I'll say this, for that fall it is still in good shape. Camera snapped right off. I contacted DJI support and have received the email about sending it back.

Ive treated this thing like gold and it's been great. I'm not sure where to point the finger because the logs look like the battery behaved fine. Props were NOT the issue and Im thinking maybe the ESC failed?!? It didnt veer off path or do anythign other then just DROP.

I hope DJI is cool about this and deals with it right. I did nothing wrong and I respect the machine. But if I get a heavy repair bill because they cannot prove it was the craft, then I will be quite upset.

Anyone else experience something similar?

Hi Gemini,
I have just experienced a similar "drop out of the sky" incident. I had a warning that I needed to update the firmware, which I did , then changed the battery. The P4P flew up fine, in a gusty wind, and then it just peeled off to the left and hit the ground at high speed. Damage: both landing legs and camera broken off. Took it to a local company, Quadcopters.co.uk in Lancashire, England, and they have said that the camera will need to be replaced and that will cost in the region of £450. They are sending it to Dji whose LOCAL depot is in the NETHERLANDS!!! LOCAL?
i AM ANTICIPATING A TOTAL REPAIR BILL IN THE REGION OF £500+ .... NOT BAD FOR ONLY HAVING OWNED IT FOR FOUR WEEKS.

Another problem, I bought an Ipad to use in FPV mode but couldn't see anything in the sunshine, even with a homemade sun shade, so I bough some Eechine goggles. They wouldn't work. Although BanGood advert says they are for all Dji machines, they are not. I set my P4P to manual 5.8 but I still couldn't see anything. P4P kept defaulting to 2.4. Being a newbie when I saw the advert I didn't realize that the band of frequencies in the 5.8 range were for racing and Dji does not recognize any of the frequencies in the band. BE WARNED IF THINKING OF BUYING EECHINE GOGGLES.

 

[Calsun]

If in fact the battery provides power to the aircraft without it being locked into place then that is a design defect for which DJI bears the responsibility. I cannot start any of my cars unless the transmission is in the park position. All it takes is a small switch to indicate the transmission is in park and the ignition switch provides power to start the engine. This is not rocket science.

More likely the battery was defective. Unfortunately there is no way to load test one of these batteries. By design a lithium-ion and an alkaline and a flooded lead acid and a NiMh battery will show an excellent voltage state when their is no load but this is not an accurate indicator of the actual state of charge and the ability of the battery pack to provide current to a device.

I used to have issues with AA NiMh batteries that my Maha charger showed were fully charged but when put inside a device that device would not function properly. Unlike an electric motor, digital circuits require a minimum voltage level to function properly. I bought a ZTS Pulse Load battery tester and it puts a load on the battery and measures the drop in voltage. Great for ferreting out defective alkaline and NiMh batteries that showed in the charger or with a standard battery tester or voltmeter as being at 100% that were actually at 60% or 80% and it only takes one bad battery in a device taking multiple batteries or one bad cell in a battery pack like the DJI one to cause the electronics to malfunction with a lowered voltage level being supplied.

 

[drone dude#]

Interesting take and some good ideas for DJI.

I just took delivery of my p4p a few days ago after a completely similar incident. My aircraft on take off rose to 37 meters then completely shut down, no error message of any kind, battery at 98% the aircraft just dropped , camera broke cleanly off, landing gear crippled. DJI replaced the aircraft deciding to warranty the repair but now struggling with " aircraft not connecting and weak transmission signal issues " it's been frustrating!

 

[Paul Buckley]

Interesting take and some good ideas for DJI.

I just took delivery of my p4p a few days ago after a completely similar incident. My aircraft on take off rose to 37 meters then completely shut down, no error message of any kind, battery at 98% the aircraft just dropped , camera broke cleanly off, landing gear crippled. DJI replaced the aircraft deciding to warranty the repair but now struggling with " aircraft not connecting and weak transmission signal issues " it's been frustrating!

This is sudden shutdown is very interesting as it has also just happened to me!
My P4p is only a little more than a week old, bought in the UK from 'SLR Hut' in the US.for my forthcoming trip to Arizona, where I am right now.
I am an experienced 'pilot' having a P4 for nearly two years.
After flying a few times in the UK to test the P4p I brought it to Az last Thursday and flew for the first time after the latest update.
At first I was continually getting message 'camera disconnected' but it eventually seemed to settle down so I decided on a short photo shoot flight. It lasted four minutes before the motors shut down at an altitude of 40ft, speed less than 2mph, and the craft hit concrete and is severely damaged ..... except the props, of course! I retrieved the sd card but cannot play the video, but I did manage to download three photographs.
My flight log stops at 40ft after a proximity warning that lasted only a split second, and shows the craft backing away from a palm tree (I was flying very slowly sideways at the time) before power ceased.
The landing gear is untouched but the camera is broken off and one motor arm severely buckled, with another two arms also buckled.
What the h...l can I do now? I need the drone to salvage the rest of my vacation,

 

[Paul Buckley]

This is sudden shutdown is very interesting as it has also just happened to me!
My P4p is only a little more than a week old, bought in the UK from 'SLR Hut' in the US.for my forthcoming trip to Arizona, where I am right now.
I am an experienced 'pilot' having a P4 for nearly two years.
After flying a few times in the UK to test the P4p I brought it to Az last Thursday and flew for the first time after the latest update.
At first I was continually getting message 'camera disconnected' but it eventually seemed to settle down so I decided on a short photo shoot flight. It lasted four minutes before the motors shut down at an altitude of 40ft, speed less than 2mph, and the craft hit concrete and is severely damaged ..... except the props, of course! I retrieved the sd card but cannot play the video, but I did manage to download three photographs.
My flight log stops at 40ft after a proximity warning that lasted only a split second, and shows the craft backing away from a palm tree (I was flying very slowly sideways at the time) before power ceased.
The landing gear is untouched but the camera is broken off and one motor arm severely buckled, with another two arms also buckled.
What the h...l can I do now? I need the drone to salvage the rest of my vacation,

Further to my above post, if the craft starts to overheat is there any warning message?

 

[drone dude#]

Here's an update to the above, DJI again took the AC back due to linkage issues, again on warranty, this time complete with the controller. The AC is now on route back to me in Prince George BC, hopefully now with the linkage issues resolved.

I have to say DJI has been awesome to deal with through all of this.