Fail safe crashed my P2V+

[PhantomDave]

I am Pissed. I was flying without a problem. I was showing someone that wanted to buy one, how it worked. I wanted to show them how the failsafe worked, so I shut the controller off. All went well, until it started to desend. It started dropping slowly at first, then faster then normal, then I realized it wasn't stopping at the 40 foot mark, before I could respond it crashed into the pavement. WTH? It is suppose to do this automatically. This was the 3rd flight. I had a p2v before this, so it is not my first bird. Has anyone else had this problem? Now the Gimbal just shakes and wiggles around when i start it up

 

[tizzl10]

I am Pissed. I was flying without a problem. I was showing someone that wanted to buy one, how it worked. I wanted to show them how the failsafe worked, so I shut the controller off. All went well, until it started to desend. It started dropping slowly at first, then faster then normal, then I realized it wasn't stopping at the 40 foot mark, before I could respond it crashed into the pavement. WTH? It is suppose to do this automatically. This was the 3rd flight. I had a p2v before this, so it is not my first bird. Has anyone else had this problem? Now the Gimbal just shakes and wiggles around when i start it up

sounds like a classic case of prop wash descent death.

 

[midwestjeff]

Did you calibrate the compass before this flight? Sometimes my altitude shows higher than it was and after calibrating it corrects. Also in the future I would switch to Naza-m mode so you can just flick the right stick down to activate return to home and then flick it up if something is going wrong and take back control.

 

[ShoreBird]

I still don't have the confidence to test my RTH on my plus. It seems that it works so sporadically. It has kicked in before on my older Vision and it worked but I'm just not ready with my + yet. Furthest I have flow from me was only about 400 maybe 500 feet....yeah I'm a wimp.

 

[AmosMoses]

When this happened, did you by chance notice what the altitude was reading? I have mine boxed up and ready to be retuened.

Over the last 4 days mine has been slowly loosing altitude and the app will be reading that it's @ 60' when it's only 10' off the ground. Ive done all the calibration and every possible trouble shooting step possible.

I'm convinced that the barometer is malfunctioning. I even had it in a hover at about 20' and it was showing 73' on the app. To see if it was just the app reading the altitude wrong I flipped on the failsafe to see if it would climb to the 66'. Nope! As soon as I flipped the switch it started heading to it home position at 20'!
When I first got it, it was rock solid and trouble free. After only 3 days it's now completely unpredictable and going back.

Sent from my SM-P900 using Tapatalk

 

[srandall25]

When this happened, did you by chance notice what the altitude was reading? I have mine boxed up and ready to be retuened.

Over the last 4 days mine has been slowly loosing altitude and the app will be reading that it's @ 60' when it's only 10' off the ground. Ive done all the calibration and every possible trouble shooting step possible.

I'm convinced that the barometer is malfunctioning. I even had it in a hover at about 20' and it was showing 73' on the app. To see if it was just the app reading the altitude wrong I flipped on the failsafe to see if it would climb to the 66'. Nope! As soon as I flipped the switch it started heading to it home position at 20'!
When I first got it, it was rock solid and trouble free. After only 3 days it's now completely unpredictable and going back.

Sent from my SM-P900 using Tapatalk

Yes i had the same problem with mine... losing altitude.. not holding it's place a fixed point.. RTH cause a fast descent leading to a crash.. and then i had a couple aggressive oscillations and uncommanded descents... I shipped mine back to DJI... customer support is overloaded at the moment. I had to call Hong Kong to get the shipping instructions because DJI wouldn't respond to my email for an RMA. Did you purchase yours from DJI as well? If so, curious what your experience has been...

 

[AmosMoses]

When this happened, did you by chance notice what the altitude was reading? I have mine boxed up and ready to be retuened.

Over the last 4 days mine has been slowly loosing altitude and the app will be reading that it's @ 60' when it's only 10' off the ground. Ive done all the calibration and every possible trouble shooting step possible.

I'm convinced that the barometer is malfunctioning. I even had it in a hover at about 20' and it was showing 73' on the app. To see if it was just the app reading the altitude wrong I flipped on the failsafe to see if it would climb to the 66'. Nope! As soon as I flipped the switch it started heading to it home position at 20'!
When I first got it, it was rock solid and trouble free. After only 3 days it's now completely unpredictable and going back.

Sent from my SM-P900 using Tapatalk

Yes i had the same problem with mine... losing altitude.. not holding it's place a fixed point.. RTH cause a fast descent leading to a crash.. and then i had a couple aggressive oscillations and uncommanded descents... I shipped mine back to DJI... customer support is overloaded at the moment. I had to call Hong Kong to get the shipping instructions because DJI wouldn't respond to my email for an RMA. Did you purchase yours from DJI as well? If so, curious what your experience has been...

No, I purchased mine from DDM. There's going to be no issue with retuning it. I just have to wait until they get more in stock. Honestly, I'm thinking of just getting a refund now though.
The more I am paying attention the more I'm starting to question dji,their quality and their customer service! DDM was contacting dji for me and the generic responses that dji was giving were pretty much laughable!

Sent from my SM-P900 using Tapatalk

 

[Dirty Bird]

I am Pissed. I was flying without a problem. I was showing someone that wanted to buy one, how it worked. I wanted to show them how the failsafe worked, so I shut the controller off. All went well, until it started to desend. It started dropping slowly at first, then faster then normal, then I realized it wasn't stopping at the 40 foot mark, before I could respond it crashed into the pavement. WTH? It is suppose to do this automatically. This was the 3rd flight. I had a p2v before this, so it is not my first bird. Has anyone else had this problem? Now the Gimbal just shakes and wiggles around when i start it up

I am sorry that your Phantom crashed. The gimbal's behavior indicates it definitely suffered some damage. I too have showed off the aircraft's Failsafe & auto-landing abilities. I am in NAZA mode, so I just need to toggle the S1 switch to the lowest position to trigger a return to home. But I ALWAYS watch closely and remain prepared to take over the controls in an instant if something isn't right. In NAZA mode, all I need do is flip the S1 switch back up and the failsafe or auto-landing will abort and I can hit the throttle to halt the descent. I've been fortunate that I have not experienced a landing like that, but you should always remain vigilant and ready to take over the controls.

 

[pyrophantom]

Im sure a lot of these problems are down to calibration. When I bought my P2V the dealer advised doing the advanced calibration in the tx before doing the normal calibration just to reset everything after its very long journey. Some people have probably not noticed that for the vertical calibration you are to do this with the nose pointing downward. Others do the calibration by holding the vision and turning themselves around in a circle rather than just the aircraft so you get a more spatial calibration of 360 degrees than just spinning around its axis.

No idea if these could have caused your issue but calibration is one of those things that wil really bugger up your aircraft if not done correctly.

The failsafe usually descends quite slowly, what was your battery status telling you at the time ?

 

[PhantomDave]

Im sure a lot of these problems are down to calibration. When I bought my P2V the dealer advised doing the advanced calibration in the tx before doing the normal calibration just to reset everything after its very long journey. Some people have probably not noticed that for the vertical calibration you are to do this with the nose pointing downward. Others do the calibration by holding the vision and turning themselves around in a circle rather than just the aircraft so you get a more spatial calibration of 360 degrees than just spinning around its axis.

No idea if these could have caused your issue but calibration is one of those things that wil really bugger up your aircraft if not done correctly.

The failsafe usually descends quite slowly, what was your battery status telling you at the time ?

I did the calibration and had been flying all day. Fresh battery with 5 mins flight time. The problem is it came down super fast. Even if the altitude was off it still should have been slow coming down.

 

[Whiteram]

Thanks for sharing. Been reading this all over the net. Every forum. I was ready to take the plunge for a p2v+ last weekend. Seems there are groups talking class action to squeeze DJI to recall all p2V+. Some attorneys in San Fran. Anyway, exact same issue you described. Thanks for honesty


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[DrJoe]

I'm convinced the firmware is the issue, not calibration, but this is just an opinion.
Many people posting (I haunt these and other boards) have had one issue after another with the Assitant 3.0 software:
J-hooking in flight
Toilet bowl effect in flight
Altitude issues with GPS
Strange responses from the phantom in general.

Keep in mind this is basically the same equipment as the P2 Vision, with an upgraded camera/gimbal. It was suggested to me to try to downgrade the firmware to an earlier version (1,08), which I did. That solved many of my problems, though I do lose some of the benefits of the new software, like safety restrictions.

Also, I got prop guards, which destroyed my descent performance (vortex ring state). I don't recommend flying with them.

DJI should be on the hook for crashes due to firmware issues, IMHO. Downgrade the firmware and check your altitude in the app. You should be good. Please let me know if this worked for you too.

 

[DHut_PV+]

I've only had 1 flight so far for about 20 minutes and a few still shows to show for it, I'm totally new to this and being overly cautious. I'm planning on showing a friend of mine who I've talked to over the last few years about how fun it would be to buy one. I obviously went out and bought it. Just like the original poster did, but I don't want the thing to crash because of some bug. I'm good with user error though. He'll probably switch to some sort of RC car if he sees it crash. :lol:

Now that I've been reading the forums there is a ton of great information, but now I'm scared to death to fly the thing after reading these stories. The weather here has been horrible since I bought it, which is probably a good thing otherwise I would be out daily flying it keeping it grounded until I figure out what to do.

Thats a big bummer though that it crashed. I'm hoping I can get many hours of flight with very little issues out of it. Otherwise I'll also face the wrath of my wife on why I bought it.

 

[denofr]

I am Pissed. I was flying without a problem. I was showing someone that wanted to buy one, how it worked. I wanted to show them how the failsafe worked, so I shut the controller off. All went well, until it started to desend. It started dropping slowly at first, then faster then normal, then I realized it wasn't stopping at the 40 foot mark, before I could respond it crashed into the pavement. WTH? It is suppose to do this automatically. This was the 3rd flight. I had a p2v before this, so it is not my first bird. Has anyone else had this problem? Now the Gimbal just shakes and wiggles around when i start it up

You avatar shows you are using the prop guards, that may be the problem. As far as the gimble is concerned there's a possibility that the 4 wire ribbon cable plug on the left side may be loose. BTW both of these things happened to me. Luckily there was no major damage and once you re-seat the plug all is well.

 

[4wd]

Tried the failsafe return on mine for first time today (naza mode)
Compared to the phantom1.1, it really zipped back to base and seemed to come down quicker than expected but not at all out of control - then slowed down a few feet off the ground.
It just barely touched down and tried to drag sideways closer to homepoint - which could easily have tipped it on rough ground, so I took control again.
Will try that again next time, it did descend about 20 feet from the actual take off place too, which is only just OK.

 

[Didjelirium]

Well that is scary... I did hesitate to try the failsafe function but if has to happen when the bird if far, might as well try it when it's close first. Since i didn't switch to NazaM mode yet, i switched off the controller and waited with shaky hands for the failsafe to activate. It did work and land slowly after hovering and all.

On my second try, i switched the controller back on and could almost immediately reconnect with the Phantom and throttle back up, so it CAN give you the control back, even if you switched it off. Though i guess the flick of a S1 button is a safer option and I should change to NazaM.

The firmware issue is troublesome as it's tempting to have the latest version, at least cos one would expect it to fix issues not attended to in previous versions, but then again, as they say, "if it ain't broken why fix it?"
It's my first phantom so not sure what the 1.08 version holds over the 3.0 or if worth downgrading.

Is the 3.0 that risky ? It's always scary to read all those stories. At the same time, most people won't post on a forum for a trouble-less flight where everything went smooth and perfect cos they are too excited charging the batteries, unloading the card and gettting ready to go out there fly again. People with troubled phantoms will post most messages.
And me. But that's cos i have a troubled mind. ^^

Thanks for sharing and hoping for the best for all.

 

[PhantomDave]

Cables are all tight. Prop guards should not be a problem if it was decsending at the proper speed. There was no wind. I still have the problem with wi-fi connectivity, so I still need a replacement. If anyone else has had this problem, please let me know. Thanks