Finally lost my bird after 9 months of great no issues flying.

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I'm going to make this short.. Flight log is attached..

At 56% left. Low voltage warning. Going to land. Looked at app.. No signal. Looked up bird is gone. Went for a swim. It was the second flight on the battery for the day, I live in Miami where temp is not an issue. Plus I have over 45 hours of flying the phantom and never had issues and pretty experienced with it.. Now what should I do. Besides fish it out.. Also I was on 1.4 firmware. I was no where close it have sticks to center if yall thinking about it too
 

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For the 2nd flight was the battery charged to 100% beforehand?

How many total cycles did the battery have on it and if more than 20 did you discharge the batter to 8% or below and charge to 100% (battery recalibration)?
 
2nd flight of the day on the battery. No it was not charged to 100% it was at 69 when I took off I have done the Calibration at least 6 times on that battery. I have flown with even less %... I'm not complaining not mad or upset just spreading the word.. On maybe a possible bug and true reason to probably update to most recent firmware
 
when you fly you shouldn't only be looking at the battery percentage, you should select the option to show voltage on main screen. Then you will see the voltage under the percentage and if it is green, you are good. If it turns yellow that is a warning and red means you should really go easy on the sticks and try to land.
 
I think if DJI wrote something into the firmware to prioritize the voltage so it is only applied to essential systems during a voltage drop, that would keep these birds from dropping out of the sky (turning off camera and throttling the stick input). However if DJI did do that it would likely cause a whole other set of problems and people would complain about the limits imposed.
 
...and fighting 17MPH headwinds depletes partially charged batteries fast. Looks like you were headed into the wind as you was returned over the marina.
 
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...and fighting 17MPH headwinds depletes partially charged batteries fast. Looks like you were headed into the wind as you was returned over the marina.
Perhaps you're right, but if it were me I would still be expecting the P3 to make it home in that situation.

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Voltage is misleading. What powers the motors is current. You could show 100% charge (voltage)....and not have enough current to sustain flight. That's my opinion on why sometimes folks have crashes moments after takeoff among other reasons.
Personally, I don't trust voltage readings without doing a true load test on my batteries periodically.

Also, it is not unheard of for solder connections on batteries and connectors to fail. They are often soldered. If you fly until your battery is depleted and continue to demand current from the battery, the heat rises from the resistance and can soften solder. That's why you should always use Hi-Temp solder when making high current battery connections such as the Phantom.
 
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Exactly right & why testing a car battery you apply 50-100 amp load & measure the voltage drop. We need an enterprising company to develop a compact load tester for P2/P3 packs.

Voltage is misleading. What powers the motors is current. You could show 100% charge (voltage)....and not have enough current to sustain flight. That's my opinion on why sometimes folks have crashes moments after takeoff among other reasons.
Personally, I don't trust voltage readings without doing a true load test on my batteries periodically.

Also, it is not unheard of for solder connections on batteries and connectors to fail. They are often soldered. If you fly until your battery is depleted and continue to demand current from the battery, the heat rises from the resistance and can soften solder. That's why you should always use Hi-Temp solder when making high current battery connections such as the Phantom.
 
When you select the option to show voltage on main screen the voltage numbers can go up and down without the battery percentage numbers changing. I don't know why it is displayed like that but basically if you monitor voltage drops in real time, then you are able to predict if the voltage gets too low to supply the needed current. If you go by the color codes I described above it is a better measure than just going off percent of battery remaining.
 
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Exactly right & why testing a car battery you apply 50-100 amp load & measure the voltage drop. We need an enterprising company to develop a compact load tester for P2/P3 packs.
And that is why we should only fly with a fully charged pack, because we don't really know what the charge is until the load is placed. I don't know why people post about their birds falling from the sky and then the first thing we find out is they were not flying with a fully charged battery. It is the people that post about power loss during flight that scare the potential newcomers away.
 
Personally, I "try" to fly out against the wind and return with the wind. I have found that the wind makes a big difference and and flying out with a good tail wind I can all of a sudden find myself a long way out and then having to fight the wind to get back. That can be scary at times.
 
Personally, I "try" to fly out against the wind and return with the wind. I have found that the wind makes a big difference and and flying out with a good tail wind I can all of a sudden find myself a long way out and then having to fight the wind to get back. That can be scary at times.
That is good practice when you have a fully charged battery.
 
Everyone's point is good. I have been flying for months have well knowledge. I do have the voltage displayed when flying. At the moment I was watching the bird fly and not look at screen. Within one second of looking down to looking back up it was gone... Next it not reasonable to fly with 100% at all times especially if your just changing locations. Plus they normally say you have 98% or 99% when you take off... In this situation I was not flying far from me so was not worried about flying in 17 mph wind. I have tested out in 35+ mph wind and it handles like a beast... Just a reminder not complaining jus hope this does not happen to anyone else..
 
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it is very reasonable to say you should only fly with 100 percent charged battery. Your battery life is down to 87% and your takeoff battery was reported as 67%. You climbed fast, and flew into the wind. Why risk a $1000 (I know they are cheaper now) quadcopter because you want to squeeze in those extra 9-12 minutes of possible flight time? Stop scaring the potential newbs and stop blaming DJI for your error.
 
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it is very reasonable to say you should only fly with 100 percent charged battery. Your battery life is down to 87% and your takeoff battery was reported as 67%. You climbed fast, and flew into the wind. Why risk a $1000 (I know they are cheaper now) quadcopter because you want to squeeze in those extra 9-12 minutes of possible flight time? Stop scaring the potential newbs and stop blaming DJI for your error.
 
For the 2nd flight was the battery charged to 100% beforehand?

How many total cycles did the battery have on it and if more than 20 did you discharge the batter to 8% or below and charge to 100% (battery recalibration)?

Quick 2 questions on cycling batteries: I have three batteries; 18,19,22 times charged. Sounds like its time i refresh all of them. What is the process to bring down to 0% and rebuild to 100%? Generally i end all my flights at about 40% battery remaining for safety. Does this create a memory within the battery that is bad?
 
Unfortunately the problem is when you run a pack down half way, then turn it back on & fly with the now cold pack, the results can quickly become catastrophic.

Assume you normally land at 25-30%. You lifted off at 67%. Factoring in voltage recovery, your pack was likely down to nearly 50% on the first flight. In only 2 minutes the voltage dropped to the point of shutdown. This situation is exacerbated by the power demands of a quick liftoff & countering a 17 mph wind.

For the sake of safety & the aircraft it's preferable to lift off with a fully-charged battery. I always show up to fly with 4-8 freshly-charged packs & fly them to completion. As you can see this is a good practice to follow. I am sorry for your loss & hope you are able to recover & salvage your Phantom.

Everyone's point is good. I have been flying for months have well knowledge. I do have the voltage displayed when flying. At the moment I was watching the bird fly and not look at screen. Within one second of looking down to looking back up it was gone... Next it not reasonable to fly with 100% at all times especially if your just changing locations. Plus they normally say you have 98% or 99% when you take off... In this situation I was not flying far from me so was not worried about flying in 17 mph wind. I have tested out in 35+ mph wind and it handles like a beast... Just a reminder not complaining jus hope this does not happen to anyone else..
 
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