Insight into Phantom 2 Fly Away

Joined
Jan 28, 2014
Messages
425
Reaction score
13
Yesterday I lost my P2, Hero 3+mini, iOSD, etc. and my H3-3D gimbal flying on the North part of the West Coast of the South Island in New Zealand

I was flying at a deserted beach in nearly 0 wind, 2nd flight of the day. Calibrated compass before flights, I had 10 satellites locked, all flashes on P2 showed good.

The P2 was only 200m away, about 50m up in the air. I switched the IOC to home lock to bring it back while maintaining the mountain view I wanted with my camera.

I was watching the camera view when I noticed the altitude raising rapidly. I turned the IOC off and put it into Atti mode, throttle held to minimum, but it kept going up, completely unresponsive. Hit the FS switch, but by that time it was over 350m and climbing. I never saw it again.

This is my second fly-away this year. I've seen a lot of posts by people who say it is always pilot error. That is bullsh*t.

I would love some insight. Is the Naza system simply inconsistent? Are the Phantoms simply a waste of time and money? I don't read about s900 or s1000 fly-ways.

Can anyone help me here?
 
It most certainly is not all pilot error, just most of those analysed here turned out not to be hardware/software failures.

On first thoughts it does sound odd. First question from me would be is the a cell tower or radio mast close by, especially those with the directional dish type antenna on the side?
 
From memory of the fpv video could you determine the rough ground zero point and try and retrieve the craft, you never know it might have landed?
 
IrishSights said:
It most certainly is not all pilot error, just most of those analysed here turned out not to be hardware/software failures.

On first thoughts it does sound odd. First question from me would be is the a cell tower or radio mast close by, especially those with the directional dish type antenna on the side?

No towers within sight. It was in a remote area of the New Zealand Coast. I was concerned that I wouldn't get good satellite coverage, but I had 10-14 every time I tried.
 
Was it a pure straight up or was there lateral uncommand movement?
 
I don't think its satellite related
 
IrishSights said:
From memory of the fpv video could you determine the rough ground zero point and try and retrieve the craft, you never know it might have landed?

No, once it was too far away, the FPV just dropped (I only had live FPV, and the range wan't very good).

Good idea, though.
 
If failsafe failed it sounds more hardwareish. If low battery level was reached it would be a response initiated on the aircraft rather than connection so it should have tried to autoland but by that time and height it would probably not have had enough power to return under power. If you can find it and get the sd card you might have a chance of intervention from dji
 
IrishSights said:
Was it a pure straight up or was there lateral uncommand movement?

Not sure. I was bringing it home from about 200m out. When I noticed things were wonky, the lateral distance showed 50 m, and around 350 up. However, I waited at least a half hour in that place, and it never came anywhere near me or within sight), so it MUST have had a great amount of lateral travel.
 
IrishSights said:
If failsafe failed it sounds more hardwareish. If low battery level was reached it would be a response initiated on the aircraft rather than connection so it should have tried to autoland but by that time and height it would probably not have had enough power to return under power. If you can find it and get the sd card you might have a chance of intervention from dji

I was keeping a close eye in the battery voltage. It showed 11.6 when I started bringing it home and was only 5 or 6 minutes into the flight. It *should* have landed once I hit Failsafe, but that didn't happen.

There is no chance of finding it and its SD card, as I had to move on from there, and am leaving New Zealand tomorrow.
 
IrishSights said:
If failsafe failed it sounds more hardwareish. If low battery level was reached it would be a response initiated on the aircraft rather than connection so it should have tried to autoland but by that time and height it would probably not have had enough power to return under power. If you can find it and get the sd card you might have a chance of intervention from dji

I am convinced this is a issue with the Naza M, which works great when it works. When it gets confused, that's something else all together.

Does the Inspire use the same brain, or an upgraded version of this, or something else all together?
 
No, its a variation on the A2 FC I believe. I feel your loss
 
Sorry to hear about the loss. It's very hard to figure out a root cause without video. The Naza could be at fault but so could many other things. A 300m uncommanded ascent is pretty alarming and would be the first I've come across. RF interference and GPS issues are pretty much always red herrings with the P2.

An issue with the barometer could cause an uncommanded ascent if the P2 thought it was descending. But if the OSD showed the height ascending to 350m, then the barometer was likely working.

RTH will cause an automatic ascent if the height is lower than the RTH height. Doubtful you set it to 350m though.

If the potentiometer on the throttle control had an issue or if something was stuck in the mechanism, that could cause it to command a higher than expected throttle position.

Lastly, if you have the P2 far and low, when you bring it back, it can look like it is ascending.
 
ianwood said:
Sorry to hear about the loss. It's very hard to figure out a root cause without video. The Naza could be at fault but so could many other things. A 300m uncommanded ascent is pretty alarming and would be the first I've come across. RF interference and GPS issues are pretty much always red herrings with the P2.

An issue with the barometer could cause an uncommanded ascent if the P2 thought it was descending. But if the OSD showed the height ascending to 350m, then the barometer was likely working.

RTH will cause an automatic ascent if the height is lower than the RTH height. Doubtful you set it to 350m though.

If the potentiometer on the throttle control had an issue or if something was stuck in the mechanism, that could cause it to command a higher than expected throttle position.

Lastly, if you have the P2 far and low, when you bring it back, it can look like it is ascending.

Thanks Ian. I suspect it was the Naza because within seconds of seeing the crazy vertical gain, I hit FS. If it was a bad pot on the controller, it should have just come home at that point. I guess it could have also been the GPS unit going crazy, but who knows?

My big question is what next? This Phantom 2 I purchased in June. Do you know if the V2 of the Naza M was out then? I need to see if I want to try again with the Phantoms, or try the Inspire (totally unproven, and for all I know will fly away even more than the P2), or go to a s900, which I hear are far more reliable.

I do a lot of hiking to remote places and travel all over the world, and I think the s900 might be too big and bulky for that.

Is it even possible to upgrade a P2 with an A2 controller?

What are your thoughts on all that?
 
DattaGroover said:
ianwood said:
Sorry to hear about the loss. It's very hard to figure out a root cause without video. The Naza could be at fault but so could many other things. A 300m uncommanded ascent is pretty alarming and would be the first I've come across. RF interference and GPS issues are pretty much always red herrings with the P2.

An issue with the barometer could cause an uncommanded ascent if the P2 thought it was descending. But if the OSD showed the height ascending to 350m, then the barometer was likely working.

RTH will cause an automatic ascent if the height is lower than the RTH height. Doubtful you set it to 350m though.

If the potentiometer on the throttle control had an issue or if something was stuck in the mechanism, that could cause it to command a higher than expected throttle position.

Lastly, if you have the P2 far and low, when you bring it back, it can look like it is ascending.

Thanks Ian. I suspect it was the Naza because within seconds of seeing the crazy vertical gain, I hit FS. If it was a bad pot on the controller, it should have just come home at that point. I guess it could have also been the GPS unit going crazy, but who knows?

My big question is what next? This Phantom 2 I purchased in June. Do you know if the V2 of the Naza M was out then? I need to see if I want to try again with the Phantoms, or try the Inspire (totally unproven, and for all I know will fly away even more than the P2), or go to a s900, which I hear are far more reliable.

I do a lot of hiking to remote places and travel all over the world, and I think the s900 might be too big and bulky for that.

Is it even possible to upgrade a P2 with an A2 controller?

What are your thoughts on all that?
ALSO- are the new P2 remote controllers (with the gimbal tilt control on the side) better than the older ones?
 
I can't offer anything else, except it wasn't pilot error. But, I wanted you to know that I am VERY sorry for your loss. If I had that happen and there was no chance of a refund or replacement, I'm not sure that I would buy a Phantom again.

Something is going on here. Sure, some are mistakes, but many aren't. DJI, we have a problem. But, I think they are fully aware of what is failing.
 
PhantomFanatic said:
I can't offer anything else, except it wasn't pilot error. But, I wanted you to know that I am VERY sorry for your loss. If I had that happen and there was no chance of a refund or replacement, I'm not sure that I would buy a Phantom again.

Something is going on here. Sure, some are mistakes, but many aren't. DJI, we have a problem. But, I think they are fully aware of what is failing.

Yes, thanks for that, and I'm sure DJI knows this happens.
 

Members online

No members online now.

Forum statistics

Threads
143,054
Messages
1,467,297
Members
104,919
Latest member
BobDan