Lost signal over water, took a swim.

[flyingquan7]

Hi,

I received my phantom 3 standard yesterday, I was going to fly close to the water and film the beach. I calibrated the compass and had 12 GPS's locked. Out of nowhere, it lost signal and went to ATTI mode. I brought it back, and tried to land it. I was 5 inches above the deck when a wind came and pushed it into water. It was standing in the water and the props were above the water. I got it out after 20 seconds, took out the battery and turned it off. Drained as much as I could and then drove home. Now I put the drone itself in a cartoon box with a fan blowing air on it "hotboxing" it as I saw on youtube a guy did. The battery is in a ricebag but I'm gonna buy a new battery if the drone still works. I feel stupid since I got 3 flights with it and never had a signal problem, and of course it happened above water. I don't know what to do. Btw, the battery turns on by itself sometimes and blinks..
BTW I'm new to this and I know you guys think it was stupid of me to do this but I'm just sad.

 

[53-63-6f-74-74]

It's not common to have 12 sats locked and all of a sudden lose them all, especially on a beach. Are you sure you didn't accidentally flip the s1 switch? Why not post the flight log so others can potentially see what went wrong. If it's a defect you might be able to get a replacement from DJI.

 

[flyingquan7]

Hi, it was on the lowest possible on S1 I believe it's P mode right? Was that what caused it? I was going to set up waypoints and this happened. How do I post a flight log?

 

[flyingquan7]

HI, I think I managed to do it. Here's a record of my flight.
Airdata UAV - Flight Data Analysis for Drones

I also uploaded it to phantomhelp.com and it says "Compass Error. Exit P-GPS Mode; Yaw Error" and then it just says "Yaw Error" until the crash. I also attach my flight log.

 

[Fly Dawg]

Please post a link here to your Phantom Help upload for others.

 

[flyingquan7]

Please post a link here to your Phantom Help upload for others.

Can you see it now?
DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

 

[WV. Rootman]

My thoughts on the battery. It keeps coming on because it has not been turned off. It has an anti, short designed into the battery. After a time it is trying to turn back on, then see a short and turns back off again.

 

[53-63-6f-74-74]

Can you see it now?
DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

Yes. It looks like you never actually lost satellite reception but received a compass error, which lead to the subsequent yaw errors. Your home point is very close to a large dock, what is it constructed of? Taking off from or calibrating near anything made of steel or concrete is not good. There are others here with more knowledge on analyzing log files so I'm sure you'll get more opinions on this.

 

[dchao]

Sorry to hear your lost.
I think the first mistake was compass calibration. A successful calibration doesn't mean it's done correctly. Some compass errors won't show up until you are airborne, away from your calibration point.

 

[flyingquan7]

Sorry to hear your lost.
I think the first mistake was compass calibration. A successful calibration doesn't mean it's done correctly. Some compass errors won't show up until you are airborne, away from your calibration point.

Thanks my friend, and is that my fault or the aircrafts fault? What does Yaw error mean?

 

[nogo]

Hi, it was on the lowest possible on S1 I believe it's P mode right? Was that what caused it? I was going to set up waypoints and this happened. How do I post a flight log?

P mode is upper, not lower

 

[flyingquan7]

P mode is upper, not lower

Sorry, so that's what caused the compass error and loss of signal?

 

[nogo]

Sorry, so that's what caused the compass error and loss of signal?

If you were in the lower, F mode, trying to land,was your home point set?

 

[flyingquan7]

If you were in the lower, F mode, trying to land,was your home point set?

Yes it was, but it wouldn't return to home for me, so I tried to land it but it blew away from the wind

 

[53-63-6f-74-74]

F-mode still uses GPS, it just allows access to the additional flight modes if enabled in the app settings. Either P mode (s1 switch up) or F mode (s1 switch down) would be acceptable for GPS-controlled flight and would not in itself cause the crash. The compass error is most likely, as stated above, due to calibrating near a steel or concrete (with rebar) structure or an area with high magnetic interference, perhaps the dock you launched from. Loss of compass will result in the yaw error because now the Phantom does not know which direction it is heading, even though GPS is still active (as shown in your log). In atti mode your altitude would still be maintained using the Phantoms barometer/altimeter, but RTH wouldn't work without both GPS and the compass working together to get back to the home point.

Also, if your aircraft is nearby (I believe around 20 meters) and you initiate RTH (although you could not in this situation) it will land where it is.

 

[flyingquan7]

F-mode still uses GPS, it just allows access to the additional flight modes if enabled in the app settings. Either P mode (s1 switch up) or F mode (s1 switch down) would be acceptable for GPS-controlled flight and would not in itself cause the crash. The compass error is most likely, as stated above, due to calibrating near a steel or concrete (with rebar) structure or an area with high magnetic interference, perhaps the dock you launched from. Loss of compass will result in the yaw error because now the Phantom does not know which direction it is heading, even though GPS is still active (as shown in your log). In atti mode your altitude would still be maintained using the Phantoms barometer/altimeter, but RTH wouldn't work without both GPS and the compass working together to get back to the home point.

Thanks for the explanation. So, this was all my fault and I will not get it covered by warranty?

 

[53-63-6f-74-74]

I doubt DJI would cover anything in this situation, unless they could determine that hardware was actually at fault. That's not a decision that I could personally make. I assume you didn't buy any kind of insurance or DJI Care/Refresh or whatever it's called. You could pursue a case with them, but I think it will probably just cost you more money (assessment fees, repair fees). Hopefully your quad will survive the short period of time it spent underwater. If not, the transmitter is still worth about $100 (U.S.) and the shell maybe $40. At least it's only a P3s and not something more expensive.

 

[With The Birds]

Following salt water exposure if drying out gets it working it will be short lived. You need to completely disassemble the AC and wash all the pcbs in IPA. Time is your enemy here.

 

[iflyp3s]

The S1 switch in the lowest position is the Function mode which still uses GPS but allows for more autonomous flight modes to be used. That would not have caused it.

As other people have mentioned, you may have calibrated with interference (from the dock) so when you were away from that interference that the compass is used to, your Phantom would literally get confused and panic, so it went into ATTI to ensure that the incorrect compass info wouldn't do anything drastic. A smart decision for the drone to make in that case.

Usually this can easily be managed as you would just be flying without assistance, but the wind had to catch you at the worst moment and slam your Phantom into the water [emoji30].

It was just a combination of unfortunate factors that caused this accident.

Almost ALWAYS concrete has metal bars underneath that give off interference so never calibrate near them.

Good luck with restoring it anyway [emoji846]

 

[solentlife]

My P3S went into Fresh Water river ... its no longer useable in any form.

The battery itself puffed up and had to be safely disposed of ... it actually started cracking the plastic case.

If I insert a good battery into the P3S now - you switch off - but then few seconds later - battery switches back on again ... in fact it keeps switching on.
This is due to mainboard blown and controller fault.

For OP - if its seawater .... the chances of ever flying again are extremely remote and even if it did - it only needs a second or so with power especially on the machine to start the corrosion ... once corrosion is there - its impossible to stop.... and eventually she'll die on you.

Nigel