****! First crash.

[cahutch]

I had my first crash tonight and I'm fuming mad about it.
Unforeseen consequences of my own actions. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

I got the idea to do some camera testing at night. First I was motors off just taking test pictures and video in the dark.
Then I got it in my head to do some actual flight testing, just hovering in my back yard and looking back at the house to see how well the camera could see me and the lights in the windows at various ISO settings.
Then I made the fatal mistake. I decided to clip a flashlight into the gimbal protector tray. (thanks fatsmiles)

I took off from the back deck and put it into a hover about 12 feet up in the back yard. Then I noticed she was drifting a lot. I saw the TBE (toilet bowl effect) for the first time. Should have landed it then and there but the effect settled out and she seemed fine after that. For only about 30 seconds. I was trying to rotate back and look at the house when all hell broke loose. She started drifting backward fast. I tried to counter with no effect so I gave it throttle to try to get altitude and by that time she was leaned over so far the throttle only served to speed up the sideways momentum. She just missed the house, went past the side of the house, impacted on asphalt and skidded under my neighbors truck.
The battery dislodged on impact and I found that 10 feet away from the wreck. The camera guard came lose and lodged up in the wheel of the truck with the flashlight on it.

While it was happening, I had no idea why. On reflection though I realize I had put a metallic, high current device right next to the compass. **** it.

So let that be a lesson to all. Don't attach anything to the phantom without thinking really hard about how that will affect it. And keep anything metallic away from the landing gear.

The good news is the damage seems superficial as far as I can tell now. The camera and gimbal still work. The ribbon cable is still intact. Nothing is bent.
Just some broken props and nasty black road rash on two arms.

Now I need to go back to kicking myself and checking and cleaning the damage.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.

 

[ircphoenix]

YOU LEFT OUT THE MOST IMPORTANT PART!!!

A link to the youtube video. =D

Glad to hear the damage seems to be minor!

 

[UrAwFuL]

So did the protector serve it's purpose? :lol:

I'm thinking about ordering from fatsmiles tonigt.

 

[cahutch]

Update:
Based on the skid marks, she impacted straight back on the back arms and back corners of the landing gear.
The battery took heavier damage than I thought at first. The plastic housing is cracked in several places and there's some superficial road rash damage to the actual LiPo shell.

Not sure if the protector helped in this case. The tie wraps all broke and I found it a few feet away. The way it hit though was probably the best possible way to hit in terms of gimbal damage. Backwards where there is the most clearance. I don't think any part of the camera or gimbal touched the ground or anything else.
One of the motor housings has some grinding on it so it may have hit upside down and rolled over onto the landing gear.

Unfortunately I wasn't recording at the time. I was just getting into position.

 

[sidebox]

Update:
Based on the skid marks, she impacted straight back on the back arms and back corners of the landing gear.
The battery took heavier damage than I thought at first. The plastic housing is cracked in several places and there's some superficial road rash damage to the actual LiPo shell.

Not sure if the protector helped in this case. The tie wraps all broke and I found it a few feet away. The way it hit though was probably the best possible way to hit in terms of gimbal damage. Backwards where there is the most clearance. I don't think any part of the camera or gimbal touched the ground or anything else.
One of the motor housings has some grinding on it so it may have hit upside down and rolled over onto the landing gear.

Unfortunately I wasn't recording at the time. I was just getting into position.

I'm gonna count that as a win for gimbal protectors... It means that the guard probably took at least some of the energy. I'm not biased or anything...

The toilet bowl effect is probably caused by the compass interference or do you think it was the weight of the flashlight?

 

[DavesMotorCity]

1300$ of Chinese plastic. Great move with the flashlight redneck!

 

[cahutch]

The toilet bowl effect is probably caused by the compass interference or do you think it was the weight of the flashlight?

TBE is caused by compass.

1300$ of Chinese plastic. Great move with the flashlight redneck!

Yeah. I know. Don't rub it in. I'm already kicking myself.

I have to wonder how and why the compass could possibly cause this kind of thing.
AFAIK, the compass only tells the phantom what direction it's heading.
The IMU tells it if it's level or yawing.
So why would a heading error cause it to pitch out of control? It seems like a flaw in the software. If the compass and IMU don't agree, it should trust the IMU first.

I have a small $150 quad that doesn't have a compass but it maintains it's heading anyway since the internal gyroscope can tell if it's yawing and it automatically compensates for any yaw.
I'm beginning to think the Phantom would be better off without a compass.

If I had switched to Atti mode would that have helped recover? Does it ignore compass as well as GPS in Atti mode? It does use the IMU in Atti mode to automatically level right?
I'm thinking if I had switched to Atti mode it would have leveled out and I could have gained some altitude and recovered.

 

[freeskier989]

1300$ of Chinese plastic. Great move with the flashlight redneck!

Why you such a douche in all your posts? Sounds like your the redneck...

 

[cahutch]

Well, I got it all cleaned up. Had to take some sandpaper to the road rash to smooth it out.
Checked internal connectors. Checked motors. Checked Gimbal. All appear OK.
Fired it up and checked IMU, no calibration required but I did anyway.
I'll re calibrate the compass when I can take it outside.
Motors start and all appear to spin normally.

Camera and telemetry work with the app. The gimbal seems to work fine though it may have a problem. Time will tell.
It may or may not be making a noise now that I didn't notice before. Sort of a sizzling or buzzing noise. I think that's the servo motors making small movements. The noise gets louder when I move it around.
And when I started a recording to test, it tilted sideways a bit. But after I picked it up it leveled again.

I won't say I was lucky because it would have been luckier to have not crashed at all, but it could have been much worse.
The only real damage was to the battery. I'm going to have to epoxy the plastic frame back together and see if I can salvage it.

 

[Double-D]

I feel your frustration with yourself. Glad it ended in only superficial damage.
Just putting it out there, but what you described also sounds like a possibility that it lost GPS satellites and went into ATTI mode with it driving ?

 

[happydays]

Ouch! At least you escaped with relatively minor damage and not an expensive gimbal to replace.

 

[cmhorka]

OUCH! SO sorry to hear this mishap! I am patiently awaiting delivery of a new P2V+ today ... these stories scare the beejeepers out of me! I have been practicing with a Hubsan X4 107C and feel fairly confident that the P2 will be easier to fly considering altitude/position hold (fingers crossed). I have some experience with Rd airplane flight, but that was some years ago. I also have a private pilot license, though no flying in several years. No crashes as a private pilot! I'm planning to follow the user guide page by page tonight with a possible first flight tomorrow in a wide-open field. Any 'newbie' comments, suggestions, or pit-falls to avoid are most welcome!

 

[happydays]

OUCH! SO sorry to hear this mishap! I am patiently awaiting delivery of a new P2V+ today ... these stories scare the beejeepers out of me! I have been practicing with a Hubsan X4 107C and feel fairly confident that the P2 will be easier to fly considering altitude/position hold (fingers crossed). I have some experience with Rd airplane flight, but that was some years ago. I also have a private pilot license, though no flying in several years. No crashes as a private pilot! I'm planning to follow the user guide page by page tonight with a possible first flight tomorrow in a wide-open field. Any 'newbie' comments, suggestions, or pit-falls to avoid are most welcome!

viewtopic.php?f=39&t=22221

 

[M.Tigelaar]

Lucky man, most people are not so lucky.
Like me. :lol:

I hit a tree. ( pure pilot error )
It fell down 30 meter.
Bent the gimbal.
Rolled over in the water.
It still flies fine but no camera at all.
I use it for manually fly

I bought a new one

 

[DCGOO]

I am patiently awaiting delivery of a new P2V+ today ...

Patiently?... I doubt that

 

[cmhorka]

I am patiently awaiting delivery of a new P2V+ today ...

Patiently?... I doubt that

Ok - you are right - there isn't a patient bone in my body right now :lol:

 

[cmhorka]

viewtopic.php?f=39&t=22221[/quote]


Thanks for the link for a newbie - MOST appreciated!

 

[Double-D]

OUCH! SO sorry to hear this mishap! I am patiently awaiting delivery of a new P2V+ today ... these stories scare the beejeepers out of me! I have been practicing with a Hubsan X4 107C and feel fairly confident that the P2 will be easier to fly considering altitude/position hold (fingers crossed). I have some experience with Rd airplane flight, but that was some years ago. I also have a private pilot license, though no flying in several years. No crashes as a private pilot! I'm planning to follow the user guide page by page tonight with a possible first flight tomorrow in a wide-open field. Any 'newbie' comments, suggestions, or pit-falls to avoid are most welcome!

You will find all the advice has been mentioned on these forums so I won't repeat them and it sounds like you are intelligent as you're reading the manual, plus you've flown real planes. I can only imagine the nerves you must have flying a real plane for the first time so I'm sure you'll cope. I have about 80 flights under my belt and I'm still anxious every flight.
I guess the real difference would be the lack of feeling the plane/quadcopter movement sitting in the chair holding the sticks.
I will say, take it slow, get familiar with it and safe flying.
Be sure to let us know how you go

 

[cmhorka]

Thanks for the encouragement Double-D, appreciate your feedback. I would say even in a actual plane I always had anxious excitement (if that make sense) before each flight. I am hoping to NOT encounter any of the technical, 'out of ones control' issues. It is challenge enough to fly safely and accurately without dealing with failures due to manufacturing or software issues. I DO hear many folks on this board having successful flights and a TON of fun. I hope to be in that category! - Happy flying - CHris

 

[cahutch]

I feel your frustration with yourself. Glad it ended in only superficial damage.
Just putting it out there, but what you described also sounds like a possibility that it lost GPS satellites and went into ATTI mode with it driving ?

Even in atti mode there would be no reason for it to suddenly pitch over. There was no wind at all. I was watching and it had 10 satellites and I checked the switch to make sure it was in GPS.
Ironically, if I had switched to atti mode I may have been able to get control and avoid the crash.