Help me understand what went wrong here

Makes sense. What a genius idea.
 
just out of curiosity whats up with the gimbal motor error prior to take off on 2nd vid?
 
DJI is remotely crashing all Phantom versions now that the Phantom 3 has been released.


haha!!!! we actually had a software guy who left the company make a last change in the std product before he left..... he had the eeprom write a varable to itself once a minute or so...... result was over a year after he left ALL ESC drives began failing.... eprom worn out failures.... took us a year to replace about 1000 controller cpu boards under warranty....
 
result was over a year after he left ALL ESC drives began failing.... eprom worn out failures.... took us a year to replace about 1000 controller cpu boards under warranty....

Strange...sure it wasn't user error....? And what's this warranty thing you talk about? ;)
 
haha!!!! we actually had a software guy who left the company make a last change in the std product before he left..... he had the eeprom write a varable to itself once a minute or so...... result was over a year after he left ALL ESC drives began failing.... eprom worn out failures.... took us a year to replace about 1000 controller cpu boards under warranty....
This can happen, I worked at a large aluminum rolling mill, a programmer who quit his job, placed some software code in the computer that controlled one of the rolling mills to cause it to crash after a certain number of operations. It took months to figure out what was going on.
 
Sorry for your loss Connor. I suspect there was ferrous metal in the ground around you that played havoc with your compass.

I've seen a number of Phantoms react similarly when they're flown around large, ferrous objects, such as playground structures in a park, or automobiles in a parking lot. I once witnessed a Phantom pilot attempt land his Phantom on top of his truck. Once he got down to about 10ft above the truck, his Phantom did exactly what yours did in your first video. Without any pilot input, it angled down about 30 degrees and (luckily) shot off toward an empty section of the parking lot. As the pilot uselessly yanked on the sticks trying to regain control, the aircraft struck the concrete at about 20mph. The result wasn't pretty.

My only advice when you do get back to flying is to always calibrate the compass before a flight session. An error during the process likely would have warned you that something wasn't right in the area.
 
Is the DJI iOS app good at telling you when to calibrate the compass?
 
Is the DJI iOS app good at telling you when to calibrate the compass?


Unsure how good it is when close to ok, when it is way out of normal it will alert.

I just do not count on any auto alerts for things like this. I don't calibrate all flights.

I do it periodically, when at relatively different location, or even if it appears not so stable in flight.

I also Bought the new version p2v3 compass and installed on my V2 plus just because.....
 
I'm also thinking of getting the new compass, hoping it would make things better. I perform the compass calibration every time I fly from a new location. Also after I get a satellite home lock, I walk the quad around to make sure its GPS knows exactly where I am before I launch. And I also hand launch and before I let go, make sure it's going straight up and not to the side. One time I felt it wanting to veer off as I was about to let go, so I aborted my launch, powered it off and started the launch whole process over.

I know it's just a numbers game before I lose my quad and probably in the water, I do have the Getterback system on it so I could at least recover the footage.
 
I'm also thinking of getting the new compass, hoping it would make things better. I perform the compass calibration every time I fly from a new location. Also after I get a satellite home lock, I walk the quad around to make sure its GPS knows exactly where I am before I launch. And I also hand launch and before I let go, make sure it's going straight up and not to the side. One time I felt it wanting to veer off as I was about to let go, so I aborted my launch, powered it off and started the launch whole process over.

I know it's just a numbers game before I lose my quad and probably in the water, I do have the Getterback system on it so I could at least recover the footage.

What does this do?
 
Connor, having flown my own P2V+ into a water fountain, a very large and high water fountain which took two hours to get a fellow over with a ladder to retrieve it, I can commiserate with your not being able to retrieve your quad from the reservoir. I'm sure this was a hard lesson for you to learn in regards to flight stability and control stability issues whilst zipping to and fro near water.

I wonder what the date, time, temp, humidity was on that day?
I ask because on March 17th I noted that there was a geomagnetic storm caused by an outburst from the Sun and had been going on (is still going on?) that was playing havoc with all things compass and GPS. Not saying that was your issue though, but it's a thought.

Also, you noted complete loss of control of your quad but then said you somehow regained control of the quad, your TX operates at 2.4Ghz and despite what appears to be a remote location even though buildings are present, there could have been a stronger WiFi signal that overpowered your TX's 2.4Ghz (yes, Wifi for home computer systems operates at 2.4Ghz unless somehow that's different in Ire) and I once was flying at Daytona beach with your type quad and loss complete control of it, but it has a built-in capability to note that if the stronger WiFi signal doesn't vary the quad's flight characteristics typical of human control, it knows that its no longer under human control and then performs a RTH automatically, I know for a fact that's what happened to me.

I wonder if humidity had a factor in the battery problem? Temp issues could also cause problems. If the quad were kept cold and dry (in your car) while it was warm/hot and humid outside, bringing your quad out into that environment could cause condensation to form inside the quad and cause a short circuit or electronic contact failure. Visa versa is true too if the quad was warm in your car but it was cold outside (and humid) and the same condensation can occur.

Otherwise, there must have been a component failure of some sort and a simple straight up test flight for a minute or so prior to flight ops may not be enough of a pre-flight test... if once you maneuver your quad you note instability issues, land immediately and get it checked out by a qualified tech.

I'm probably off base on this but it is food for thought.

BTW, after my P2V+ was retrieved from being submerged for 2 hours, I had insurance for the unit and was reimbursed by my insurance company for my loss. But for some reason my insurance company didn't realize what they had insured even though I had provided a complete description of what my quad was, how much it cost and even provided them a photo of it. But for some reason they thought it was a classic collectible toy... their mistake, my gain, they no longer insure quads or "drones". I was lucky.
 
Sorry for another phantom death. But you got a warning first, and should have avoided taking off again. One thing "pilots" should learn is not to be in a hurry and if something faulty happens check all values again through the software. One more thing. Where were you carrying yr phantom? On the front seat of the car? The front seat of a car has a very high magnetic field once you start a motor. I measured myself.
 
Some reservoirs are known UFO launch bases. Maybe you got some interference from some scrambling device underwater?

On a more serious note:
I calibrate compass everytime I land. And I manually set a HOME place before each each take off (left switch 5 time toggle).
One time I noticed that the HOME setting did not work, so I turned the bird off, and ON again.
I'm pretty sure if the bird went up that time, I would get in trouble.

A more strict pre-flight list could maybe have helped you, but you taking off over water that second time, after you had trouble, was the killer.
First time I had trouble with my bird, the next flight was a full battery in low altitude over soft grass, until I could find out what was wrong. Turns out it was just me flipping right into Atti without me noticed it.
 
Last edited:
You should be a beta tester for switches.
 
I'm beginning to think loss of compass control. The first clip shows the red arrow going all over the place, so something was affecting it. I have never flown up there before, but a guy on one of my FB pages has, so it can't be anything to do with the surrounding area.

I didn't do the dance, as the location is quite close to where I live and normally fly and I have been up to 40 miles away from the last dance location and the aircraft flew perfectly normally then.

Anyway it's gone now and that's that. So now I have one P2, four controllers (1 x P1, 1xP2V, 1xV+ and the new one with the shoulder wheel), a P1 battery charger, two Vision chargers, 2xRE500 range extenders, three batteries and some accessories.

I wish DJI would sell the Phantom only without all the other stuff.

Not sure I'll be replacing this one. I knew it would crash some time, I'm just glad nobody was underneath it. It's been fun and in the small town where I live, I have become quite the z-list celebrity as everyone got to see the video clips. One got 11,000+ hits on YouTube!

Thanks for all your kind comments, by the way.
Why did we not see the radar and gimbal position indicators on the left of the screen in the 2nd video?
 
Lost my V+ in a reservoir today. I'm trying to understand what went wrong.

Firstly, I am an experienced pilot, hundreds of flights with no issues. The Phantom (this one was my third) is a P2V+ from last June, with the original motors and ESCs, no upgrades done. The only addition was a new Tx with the shoulder wheel which I got months ago and have been using with no issues.

The phantom has never been crashed, is always hand caught so has never had a hard landing. I used it last Friday and it flew perfectly normally.

This morning I drove up to a local reservoir to make a clip of it. I fired up in the usual order, TX, repeater, phantom, linked in the pc (to use reflector for screen recording) almost immediately I got 8 sats, so I took off.

The normal procedure that I use is to hover about 10' up, check everything is ok and then go about filming. So I did this, but the aircraft started drifting around, and would not respond to the controls at all. I was using maximum sticks to keep it airborne. It flew off at about a 45 degree angle towards the ground but I managed to get it going up and it crossed a road and crash landed in a field. Thankfully, this being good old Ireland, it was a bog, and it got a soft landing.

When it all started going wrong, I wasn't looking at the phone screen, using direct line of sight. When the phantom came down, I noticed that the screen said 'battery communication error' and so I believed that a dodgy battery might have been the cause. However, upon reviewing the reflector recording, I can see that this message only popped up on the screen upon impact, and the battery was partially ejected.

Thinking about this a bit more logically here at home, the battery message wouldn't really have much relevance to lack of control, but in the field...

So I changed battery (both are the larger, square pin type) and thought I'd have a second go, believing incorrectly that the battery error message was the issue. I got a gimbal warning message on screen, but this cleared and I took off again. Exactly the same thing happened again, the phantom took off at all sorts of angles, but this time it crash landed in the reservoir and is now lost for good.

Why would this have happened? There can't be any interference coming from anywhere, it's in a mountain range in the middle of nowhere, there are no electricity pylons or anything else close by. I'm at a loss to understand what happened.

Here are the two screen recordings; you can see I had loads of sats. Anyone able to help?

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.


To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.
Lost my V+ in a reservoir today. I'm trying to understand what went wrong.

Firstly, I am an experienced pilot, hundreds of flights with no issues. The Phantom (this one was my third) is a P2V+ from last June, with the original motors and ESCs, no upgrades done. The only addition was a new Tx with the shoulder wheel which I got months ago and have been using with no issues.

The phantom has never been crashed, is always hand caught so has never had a hard landing. I used it last Friday and it flew perfectly normally.

This morning I drove up to a local reservoir to make a clip of it. I fired up in the usual order, TX, repeater, phantom, linked in the pc (to use reflector for screen recording) almost immediately I got 8 sats, so I took off.

The normal procedure that I use is to hover about 10' up, check everything is ok and then go about filming. So I did this, but the aircraft started drifting around, and would not respond to the controls at all. I was using maximum sticks to keep it airborne. It flew off at about a 45 degree angle towards the ground but I managed to get it going up and it crossed a road and crash landed in a field. Thankfully, this being good old Ireland, it was a bog, and it got a soft landing.

When it all started going wrong, I wasn't looking at the phone screen, using direct line of sight. When the phantom came down, I noticed that the screen said 'battery communication error' and so I believed that a dodgy battery might have been the cause. However, upon reviewing the reflector recording, I can see that this message only popped up on the screen upon impact, and the battery was partially ejected.

Thinking about this a bit more logically here at home, the battery message wouldn't really have much relevance to lack of control, but in the field...

So I changed battery (both are the larger, square pin type) and thought I'd have a second go, believing incorrectly that the battery error message was the issue. I got a gimbal warning message on screen, but this cleared and I took off again. Exactly the same thing happened again, the phantom took off at all sorts of angles, but this time it crash landed in the reservoir and is now lost for good.

Why would this have happened? There can't be any interference coming from anywhere, it's in a mountain range in the middle of nowhere, there are no electricity pylons or anything else close by. I'm at a loss to understand what happened.

Here are the two screen recordings; you can see I had loads of sats. Anyone able to help?

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

I fear this every time I launch...it is, after all, prone to crash just like any other computer.
BTW, how did you get the phone's screen included in the video?
 
What does this do?
I saw this guy's video (
To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.
) about how the Phantom uses the commercial satellites which is not always 100% accurate. I guess I will try anything to prevent a flyaway.
 
As many have posted, it is more than likely that the erratic behaviour of the compass that was a the heart of the issue.

So what caused it?
Ferrous metal at the take off point? Huge steel pipes underground carrying overflow water? UFO's?

One thing that is often overlooked by those that say your compass doesn't need calibrating every flight is that we normally get to the new locations in our cars.

All modern cars are full of electromagnetic sources, add that to the big magnets in speakers and you have a risk of upsetting calibration.
 

Recent Posts

Members online

No members online now.

Forum statistics

Threads
143,066
Messages
1,467,352
Members
104,933
Latest member
mactechnic