Litchi crashed my p4

lesly · Jun 7, 2016

Today was the last day, at least for a while, that i flew my p4. Just a month old and now already dead

How? I did some new test out today with the litchi app on a new spot to fly some waypoints. 9 waypoints total. All waypoints were set on 10m altitude and tripple checked all setting. Length of the flight 715m and the duration of the flight 3 min. It went fine to the first waypoint. But on the way to the second waypoint is went up in the air like crazy till around 400m high. No way to stop it. The pause button didn't work while it was going up so pressed the return to home button. then it came down slowly. Then the horror happened. It just flipped ver and crashed down on the ground. Housing cracked open, gimbal bended and damaged, props gone and some more damage.. any idea why this happened and what went wrong? I have the flight logs and video if that would make things more clear..
thanks guys!

Here the screenshot from after the crash. -411m? Im forever done with this app. It just dont do what it supposed to do.. [file]litchi crash p4|none[/file]

Here are the flight logs..
HealthyDrones.com - Innovative flight data analysis that matters

and here is the video..

jmkreege · Jun 7, 2016

Wow I have been wondering how trustworthy a third party app is for control...sounds like it is still not ready for primetime.

WWK888 · Jun 7, 2016

Are you saying it flipped over while descending or after it landed? Post logs, someone smarter than me will be able to tell you more.

llyons92 · Jun 7, 2016

lesly said:
Today was the last day, at least for a while, that i flew my p4. Just a month old and now already dead How? I did some new test out today with the litchi app on a new spot to fly some waypoints. 9 waypoints total. All waypoints were set on 10m altitude and tripple checked all setting. Length of the flight 715m and the duration of the flight 3 min. It went fine to the first waypoint. But on the way to the second waypoint is went up in the air like crazy till around 400m high. No way to stop it. The pause button didn't work while it was going up so pressed the return to home button. then it came down slowly. Then the horror happened. It just flipped ver and crashed down on the grount. Housing cracked open, gimbal bended and damaged, props gone and some more damage.. any idea why this happened and what went wrong? I have the flight logs and video if that would things more clear..
thanks guys!

Here the screenshot from after the crash. -411m? Im forever done with this app. It just dont do what it supposed to do.. [file]litchi crash p4|none[/file]

Why did you change the mode manually and take control of the bird? I never rely on.the pause button. Switching it out.of gps mode is the only way to ensure you have control of the bird again

Mark C. · Jun 7, 2016

I just purchased the Litchi app and have not used it yet, however I had watched a number of reviews and demonstrations on YouTube prior to my purchase. From the information I had seen in the demo, it looks as if you might have lost signal and regained signal after hitting the return home. I had seen that if control is lost, you move selection switch to S mode on the RC and manually return it to home. The video I watched also mentioned about starting a mission with the motors on can make it flip. He said to allow it to auto start and fly the mission. Again I'm new and have not used the app as I just bought it today, hope I could shed some light, I'm sure more experienced people will have an answer.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

lesly · Jun 7, 2016

well, the fact that it descended towards the 400m after the first towards the second waypoint is not normal I think. At one point I had the control again to lower it down. I dont know how but it came down at least. Then in mid air it flipped over and crashed.
Im uploading the video that was recorded in 3 parts on youtube now and post that in the thread later.

How can i post logs?
No way to select the CSV file to add it in the thread..

write4food · Jun 7, 2016

I've used Litchi twice, I sent White Betty on a 14 minute mission, three miles away, in a densely populated residence. I had to wait for her to come back, as I lost signal with her 30 seconds after she took off. She returned, and the video I later watched showed that she followed the course I set out. All of this is to say that I haven't had an issue with the app.

llyons92 · Jun 7, 2016

write4food said:
I've used Litchi twice, I sent White Betty on a 14 minute mission, three miles away, in a densely populated residence. I had to wait for her to come back, as I lost signal with her 30 seconds after she took off. She returned, and the video I later watched showed that she followed the course I set out. All of this is to say that I haven't had an issue with the app.

Yea same we need the logs to see what happened

lesly · Jun 7, 2016

write4food said:
I've used Litchi twice, I sent White Betty on a 14 minute mission, three miles away, in a densely populated residence. I had to wait for her to come back, as I lost signal with her 30 seconds after she took off. She returned, and the video I later watched showed that she followed the course I set out. All of this is to say that I haven't had an issue with the app.[/QUOTE

llyons92 said:
Yea same we need the logs to see what happened

How can i post the logs? CSV file is not selectable to post..

Stealthmatt · Jun 7, 2016

It won't flip over unless a propeller is lose, a motor failed or an esc failed.

Logs is the best way and log a case with DJI.

Stealthmatt · Jun 7, 2016

HealthyDrones.com and Litchi new collaboration - boost your flight experience

madmanbean · Jun 7, 2016

Flight

madmanbean
Jun 7, 2016

Interesting.. I had a similar problem with litchi and my p4 also went up and up to 400 metres. I discovered that the problem seemed to be a gimbal protector I had installed which was affecting the sonar and fooling it into thinking it was about to hit the ground and thus increasing power. Do you happen to have one fitted? Below is a track of my problem flight mapped to google earth.

lesly · Jun 7, 2016

I didn't had a gimbal guard installed..
anyone that can explain why ascended so quick and on the way down it flipped in the air and crashed?

madmanbean · Jun 7, 2016

Thanks for that response. As said this is very similar to my problem except that I managed to eventually activate RTH and it landed. I appreciate that you did not have agimbal guard attached but once I removed mine I have had no further problems. I will be interested to see if anyone else can come up with some suggestions as it seems you had two problems. 1) the climb to a great height and 2) the flipping

Mcook929 · Jun 7, 2016

Watching that video is like watching a nightmare happen. I cannot imagine what you were feeling as that thing was upside down and coming down quick. The way it was jerking almost looks like it was trying to flip back over.

sar104 · Jun 7, 2016

Why is there a break in the video at 2:21? The aircraft had very poor connection to the RC for most of the flight. At 4:43 it went into autoland mode at 43% battery. Why? The subsequent fall looks to me like the motors are stopped, since otherwise it will attempt to self-correct and end up spinning. No CSC recorded as issued though.

What was your RTH altitude set to?

lesly · Jun 7, 2016

sar104 said:
Why is there a break in the video at 2:21? The aircraft had very poor connection to the RC for most of the flight. At 4:43 it went into autoland mode at 43% battery. Why? The subsequent fall looks to me like the motors are stopped, since otherwise it will attempt to self-correct and end up spinning. No CSC recorded as issued though.

What was your RTH altitude set to?

The only asnwer I have is about the video. This is a stitched video from 3 parts. Thats why it skipped at 2:21. All the other things happened automatically as it was coming down to return home. The return to home altitude was set on 15 meters. Had no problem the 10 other missions i did before..

Here another picture of the mission. The drone didn't even make it to waypoint 2

[file]mission litchi crash|none[/file]

Can you say that it was my mistake or else?

Stealthmatt · Jun 7, 2016

Need to upload the log like i said above - cant see anything with these pictures.

Here is how to do it through the app: HealthyDrones.com and Litchi new collaboration - boost your flight experience

or just go here and upload the csv HealthyDrones.com - Innovative flight data analysis that matters

then paste the link here

as I have said in the above post your video looks very much like 1) a propeller came off/failed, 2) a motor failed, 3) a ESC failed.

lesly · Jun 7, 2016

Stealthmatt said:
Need to upload the log like i said above - cant see anything with these pictures.

Here is how to do it through the app: HealthyDrones.com and Litchi new collaboration - boost your flight experience

or just go here and upload the csv HealthyDrones.com - Innovative flight data analysis that matters

then paste the link here

as I have said in the above post your video looks very much like 1) a propeller came off/failed, 2) a motor failed, 3) a ESC failed.