Is it possible that just maybe Phantom 3's falling from sky and griping is competition?

[ianwood]

I've been counting the posts of the Weekend horror stories that pop up. Most if not all have 10 posts... or 13 posts before the complaint.
Some have 1 or 5.
The 10 and 13 posts are more common.
Keep an eye out you will see what I mean.
Yes we have trolls in our mist.... Finding them is getting harder as they are using correct key words.

I'll leave it at that....

We don't have trolls making up stories about drones falling out of the sky. There are currently 142 members viewing this site as I write this and there are 160 unregistered guests. Some people don't post until they have a problem. Low post count by itself means nothing.

If you spot someone you think is a troll, you have two options: ignore them or report it to your friendly neighborhood mod.

 

[YolevonALLin]

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

[playhouseent]

@envisionabove so low post count makes me a troll because I am reporting what happened to me? Did you look at my last posts? I have a low post count because I've never had an issue before and have been professionally filming with various DJI Phantoms for more than a year. My previous posts were installation guides.

I had an issue with my P3 today, went online to find info about it, found this thread and asked a question, only to get several judgemental responses.

 

[Meta4]

I was flying my P3 today and also had it fall out of the sky. The battery level was at 80%, it was connected to several GPS, and it appeared to be flying normally, when all of a sudden it just started dropping from the sky until it hit the ground, destroying the entire unit.

I am wondering if it is possible that an error with the DJI Pilot App could cause the drone to stop working properly? Like if the app crashes on the phone while the drone is in the air, what happens?

1. If the app shuts down, it has no effect on the Phantom.
With the current firmware glitch, I lose the app approx every second flight so I've had plenty of experience with that. The app pops up again a couple of seconds later and the Phantom continues hovering while I have the black screen and hands off the sticks.
It would be possible to safely fly home and land even if the app never came back - it's not connect to flight controls.

2. Bad luck on the incident. Best thing would be to contact DJI and send the flight log to them so they can identify the problem and (hopefully) give you a replacement.

 

[ScottyT]

Conspiracy theorists are everywhere - I'm still waiting for the US to invade Texas...many people have said this would happen. I got Fox news especially.

Looking at their forums, 3DR appear to have enough of their own problems to worry about. But that could be DJI retaliation. I just don't know what to believe anymore.

 

[playhouseent]

@Meta4 Thanks for the info.

 

[envisionabove]

@envisionabove so low post count makes me a troll because I am reporting what happened to me? Did you look at my last posts? I have a low post count because I've never had an issue before and have been professionally filming with various DJI Phantoms for more than a year. My previous posts were installation guides.

I had an issue with my P3 today, went online to find info about it, found this thread and asked a question, only to get several judgemental responses.

Nope your out of context.... Most that trash DJI are new users they post and your never see them again. Majority are real people. And if I thought your were I would not comment.

 

[Ben Gemini]

Just happened. Literally a brand new unit (upgrade from 2) and on flight 3 after about 8 minutes of incredible flight and footage we were bringing her home - when it came within about 30' of home and down to about 80' I turned it towards us and slowed down, then spun slowly while advancing to get one last big pan shot.

Silence. "What the...." That was my son.

Then a slight whoosh and a thud and a few scattered sounds as the camera, two mounting screws, and the battery yard saled down the shoulder of the road.

Broken Gimball but looks repairable (if anyone had parts)
Broken 8 wire ribbon on Gimball
2 broken mount screws (the ones in the rubber case
Grey wire in piece next to Gimball (which is partly off is disconnected (needs solder)
Small opening in seam at one of the arms
It appears one of the worlst things is that the wife went from thats cool to thats stupid and dangerous

We have both video of the fall but from that distance an iPhone5 renders it as a speck pretty much but the fall is still spooky, and video was running on the app.

It's recharging now...suggestions on appropriate treatment of this content?

 

[witold]

I think you underestimate how many clueless people are buying Phantoms. The same crowd that buys $4000 dSLRs and $2000 lenses (which, to be fair, includes me) don't mind springing 1-3K for a Phantom or Inspire.

One guy at my local field crashed his Phantom on first flight. It's a giant wide-open fields with nothing to hit for 600 feet, but he just flew it straight into the woods and had to look for it. And with the horseshoe up his you-know-what, the P3 was fine so he flew it again and crashed it again... and it is still fine.

Anyway, 3DR is always pissing on DJI and that Colin guy is more than willing to take swipes at the company that pushed him out.

But it is not that easy to covertly do this. You can check posting records of people who post their sob stories. They're not just appearing out of no where.

 

[bobmyers]

I think you underestimate how many clueless people are buying Phantoms. The same crowd that buys $4000 dSLRs and $2000 lenses (which, to be fair, includes me) don't mind springing 1-3K for a Phantom or Inspire.

One guy at my local field crashed his Phantom on first flight. It's a giant wide-open fields with nothing to hit for 600 feet, but he just flew it straight into the woods and had to look for it. And with the horseshoe up his you-know-what, the P3 was fine so he flew it again and crashed it again... and it is still fine.

Anyway, 3DR is always pissing on DJI and that Colin guy is more than willing to take swipes at the company that pushed him out.

But it is not that easy to covertly do this. You can check posting records of people who post their sob stories. They're not just appearing out of no where.

I sure that there are a significant number of posters here who are doing just that. But despite all the complaints, mine included regarding getting delivery on orders, the Phantom just continues to roll-- must be some reason for that -- Duh!

 

[Foosy]

I remember reading somewhere that dji had sold 500,000 units last year. That is a significant amount. People reporting on issues is what allows advancing the technology. As long as people provide facts with their reports of flyaways, or reports of drones falling, things will get better.
My only complaint is that dji does not address the people directly when reports are provided. It took me, and others, a long time to analyze and provide a full account of a problem. It would have been nice to at least receive an acknowledgement: "thank you, we are working on this. "
Even better would be, we have assigned case number xxx to this issue. Later when new versions are released, they could list all cases resolved.
I suspect they do not do this because of liability concerns. If a phantom fell out and injured a person, they would prefer to keep ambiguous if it was a pilot error or a problem with their device.

 

[roz0]

my p3 professional literally just fell out of the sky at about 280 feet...the bar on top that is usually green went red and said something and then the video feed started spinning and cut out...i recovered the unit, destroyed, and am in the process of trying to recover the mov file that was being recorded...

 

[hidaven]

There will always be a number of unexplained crashes due to various reasons ASIDE from user error. It happens as vibration and electronics don't play nice......but if DJI sells a half million of these and we hear of say a thousand fly away/ crashes......that's still pretty darn good odds in my opinion. Even if the number was 5000 crashes that's still a 1% failure rate.

 

[DrewFlies]

DJI don't need any help when it comes to crashing Phantoms. They've got us, the users! Or, well... them, the people who fly them without reading the forum first. We're smarter than that!

Also, you need to be prepared that something can go wrong with the equipment. There's no redundancy. 4 motors, 4 ESCs. A complicated array of sensors that all need to work perfectly to keep your craft in controlled flight. After 200+ flights on my P2, it happened to me:

The IMU pooped its pants and my P2 darted for the ground all of its own accord. It killed the Lightbridge unit, the gimbal and the Hero4 Black (and annoyingly, it grenaded the actual video of the crash). About $1,300 later, I'm back in the air.

No pics. No video of crashing even though you were I guess recording right before the crash. Confidence lost with DJI. But, still bought a DJI Phantom 3 Pro I'm guessing? My spidey senses are tingling

 

[bobmyers]

There will always be a number of unexplained crashes due to various reasons ASIDE from user error. It happens as vibration and electronics don't play nice......but if DJI sells a half million of these and we hear of say a thousand fly away/ crashes......that's still pretty darn good odds in my opinion. Even if the number was 5000 crashes that's still a 1% failure rate.

The crashes on the forum are front and center, because everyone likes to "investigate" and find out why it happened-- because they could be next. If the news and facts of the crash are broadcast to 25,000 flying the same type of craft-- someone may have an answer and the next one may avoid that crash.

It is too bad that some want to use the forum as a platform to broadcast their frustrations when most RC hobbyists know that crashes can and will occur--- most of the time it goes back to inexperience and knowledge of the aircraft and the radio systems that keep them in the air -- IOW-- pilot error. That is the objective of trying to help someone, did the system fail or did the pilot fail to fly with the standards required. There is not one person on this forum that doesn't feel that frustration when one does go down. If people are going to fly these marvels of technology, we should not blame every failure on the manufacturer, although in some instances, responsibility for those failures may be due to a manufacturing defect or product malfunction.

Cheers-- and thanks to all of you out there that have helped me become a better Phantom pilot

 

[roz0]

im just here to share the story and investigate what happened...ill have a new one here tuesday while i wait for a refund (or a charge back ) from dji.

im not frustrated at all, its a toy, an electronic device that can malfunction, i get that. i just want an answer as to what happened and why, its a bit scary to be flying this thing all over the place and know that it can fall from the sky reaching 100+ mph on the way down at legal heights, and potentially injure somebody...time to get some personal injury insurance so im not the one on the short end of the stick if another one craps out on me.

if anybody knows how to pull the flight logs let me know, ill gladly share. im fixing the corrupt video file as we speak(i was recording when it happened), my ipad video just shows the camera rotating and eventually ends sideways as the feed just cuts out @ 280 feet high, which to me indicated the thing just turned off, at over 70% battery...

 

[BlackHawk388]

The Phantom 3 is very competitive with all the drones coming out. It clearly is out in front in terms of technology, video capability, flight time, and live HD stream. Is it just possible, just maybe, that some of these reports of Phantoms falling from the sky and some of the negativity on the message boards is from competitors trying to cast doubt on the Phantom 3 to reduce sales?

I don't have any evidence either way, but maybe some of you have some thoughts on this.

Think about how fast and furious rumors and dread can spread on the basis of only a handful of "my Phantom fell out of the sky for no reason" claims and negativity.

Just something to think about...

There are ALWAYS shills trying to do this no matter the product. I've seen in it the many car forums I frequent as well as computer forums. Not to mention the political forums.

Then, there are the "astroturfers" who are from a competing company that swoop in after some shill posts their negative experience talking about how their product is so much better. Another indicator.

It happens. All it takes is an individual, half *** intelligent mind to separate the wheat from the chaff. When you have thousands of people posting about great experiences and then, some person with 10 posts or less only bitching about the product, that should be a clear indicator.

I go with the "10% rule". If I take 100% of the talk about a given product and discard 90% of it, what am I left with? This is why when I was asked what Quad I wanted, I choose this one. Just like I've used the same rule to choose many products from vehicles to flat screen TV's to computer parts.

 

[ianwood]

You cannot assume someone is a troll simply because they didn't post until something went wrong. Many new fliers will do exactly that. And they will think the Phantom "went completely nuts" because they don't understand what happened and why.

That's why this site exists. To help those people. Hopefully, they come here BEFORE they crash but WE are going to help them even if their first post is about their Phantom going nuts and crashing.

 

[RedHotPoker]

How come DJI don't include TFM with the awesome, expensive kit?
The briefest of starter guide is very inadequate, and even the PDF version, online at their web site, leaves much to be desired. A proper Phantom 3/Go Pilot Manual should be printed and sent out to anyone of the customers who requests it.

RedHotPoker

 

[King Luff]

How come DJI don't include TFM with the awesome, expensive kit?
The briefest of starter guide is very inadequate, and even the PDF version, online at their web site, leaves much to be desired. A proper Phantom 3/Go Pilot Manual should be printed and sent out to anyone of the customers who requests it.

RedHotPoker

As a new owner with only 4 flights under my belt I couldn't think of anything better. If it wasn't for this community then I'd be completely lost, thanks phantom pilots!