Motor Fire on my P3P, help please!!!

[Kevin Greenspan]

Dear All, major disaster today, the headline is a bit dramatic I'm afraid but what happened really did shock and disappoint me. I'll keep it short and to the point but would really love some feedback on my next options.

Flew today for about 10 mins, conditions were a little gusty but the quad was coping rather well. Realised that I'd forgot to load the sd card so landed on the grass in my back garden. Touch down uneventful until a gust of wind pick up the front two rotors and the back two struck the ground in flight idle power. The ground was damp and the blades dug in stopping instantly.

This was followed by the most horrendous screeching noise. I immediately applied full ****** on the throttle but noise continued, then applied the diagonal throttle shut down with both sticks again nothing. I also had the rotor obstruction message on the DJI go app. By now I was approaching the machine to see smoke coming from one of the motors. I righted the machine thinking the rotors would start but they didn't and the screening continued with smoke pouring from the motor. I tried to shut the battery down by double pressing the battery, no joy! In the end pulled out the battery and the noise stopped!

Obviously the motor was to hot to touch but by holding the damaged motor rotor you could feel the whole rotor assembly moving thus telling me that the plastic had started to melt!! After leaving to to all cool down I removed the rotors had a good look; you could obviously see heat damage to the coils shown on the photos. I thought I'd remove all rotors and just see if it connected and would fire up! To my amazement it did and all throttle movements seem to make the rotors move in apparently correct fashion. But I did not attempt a test flight due to the extent of apparent damage.

Now to my concerns and actions slash rights with warranty and DJI!

I assumed if the rotors were obstructed it would shut down automatically thus preventing this problem? Right or wrong? Being such an minor incident I thought this would have been standard.

With the obvious damage to not only the motor but also the body shell/plastic I'm assuming a new body is required? Note in the pictures the miss alignment of screws caused by the heat and melting companies to the god side.

Now to my major concern and actions from here! The machine is only 4 months old. Is it covered by warranty for such an incident or will DJI say its pilot error or act of God? If by chance it is covered do I just ring my local DJI rep? Secondly, and worse case scenario (which I'm expecting) if I need to repair it has anyone heard of this type of problem before and can the quad be brought back to life? I'm guessing the alignment of this rotor will now be totally out and thus affect the flight characteristics?

Finally would you suggest me taking it apart and having a look, bearing in mind I've never done this sort of thing before or should I leave it all to the professionals?

All/any advice would be hugely welcome, it's just such a shame as I was just getting really into this fantastic hobby. I hope it's not the end!!

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I have hand caught my P3P every flight. Many times in very windy conditions. Just bring it in slow. Props are on top not below.

 

[Imabiggles]

I immediately applied full ****** on the throttle but noise continued

Never go full ******, never.

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

Never go full ******, never.

Full ****** might have been useful if it had been the CSC emergency maneuver, but according to the OP, it was the normal down-stick shut down movement first, CSC after that didn't work.

In case it's not clear to the OP or anyone else reading this: the normal down-stick will only bring down the craft and shut off the engine if it detects that it's landing (with all the logic in its sensors, etc.). When the craft turns upside down, it no longer thinks that it's in any kind of landing mode.

I've had my craft upside down like this, full squeal and all, but didn't burn out a thing because my first movement was the CSC maneuver, which works on the motors regardless of what the craft's orientation is. It's the only thing that you want to go full on.

 

[Imabiggles]

Full ****** might have been useful if it had been the CSC emergency maneuver, but according to the OP, it was the normal down-stick shut down movement first, CSC after that didn't work.

In case it's not clear to the OP or anyone else reading this: the normal down-stick will only bring down the craft and shut off the engine if it detects that it's landing (with all the logic in its sensors, etc.). When the craft turns upside down, it no longer thinks that it's in any kind of landing mode.

I've had my craft upside down like this, full squeal and all, but didn't burn out a thing because my first movement was the CSC maneuver, which works on the motors regardless of what the craft's orientation is. It's the only thing that you want to go full on.

you missed it, skip to 1:56

 

[varangian]

I started reading this post before it drifted into to hand catch or not, and was surprised to hear of a P3 not shutting down after a crash. Since then I had to misfortune to clip a small branch and drop six feet and land leaning forward with at least one prop in the damp earth. I was 115' away and heard the motor squealing like the OP stated. I immediately initiated a CSC to absolutely no avail. As I ran toward the craft I alternately tried left stick down and CSC but it continued to scream until I pulled the battery. Several things bother me, first why didn't the CSC work, why was the obstructed motor try to continue to spin while the others didn't and if I hadn't been within sight of the crash would it have just sat there until it caught fight and burned the surrounding acreage? As it was the plastic arm warped enough to separate and the motor shifted enough to cause the prop to hit the top of the case. Surprisingly, the motors all spin up and the motor doesn't look burnt although it sure smelt bad right after the crash. I haven't pulled the case apart yet, but plan on it soon. I've flown, and crashed, my FC40 for the last couple of years and never experienced that behavior before. My biggest questions are why would the motor continue to while obstructed and why wouldn't there respond to my CSC command?


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[piperjon]

I am waiting for my warranty to come through. I did the 360degrees 2 times like once holding the aircraft out in front of me. check the lights on the aircraft. all good Turned the aircraft inside down with the front pointing down to the ground. Checked the light on the aircraft all good. Walked under my porch and checked the tablet. Safe to fly (GPS).
started the engines waited for a little moment and then slowly moved the stick up and the aircraft shot up in the air and came straight back down again rolled over and the scanning noise start stayed on it's side. pulled the stick back but, but nothing happened to stop the noise and also smoke coming from 1 engine. Picked up the aircraft and pulled out the battery. Put the aircraft on my table and grabbed the engine to remove the props and burnt 3 fingers as I didn't know the engine would be hot and so hot that it burnt my fingers. The engine was so hot that it fell out of the place it was screwed in. Just melted where the 4 screws was holding it in. The engine was the same looking as the guy who started the post.
It was the same problem I had when it rolled over and stayed on its side. 5 weeks later DJI want me to tell them what happened.

 

[Mark The Droner]

We hear this a lot. "CSC didn't work!", they say.

CSC is not instantaneous. You can CSC and then let go of the sticks allowing them to return to neutral and the motors will continue running just fine. To kill the motors, one must hold CSC in position for a half second or so. I suspect when people are in a panic, time seems to slow down, and when they CSC, they don't have the patience to wait the half second that's needed to stop the motors.

 

[piperjon]

I did all that and the engine or motor was turning really slow and only 1 motor not 2 or 3or 4 only 1 was turning very slow and making that dam sound and then smoke started to come out. after bring the stick down and holding there and then letting go back neutral it did stop. So as I was walking over to my aircraft quick I picked it up and pulled out the battery. It stopped them hay

 

[piperjon]

Check this out and you will know I was doing the right thing with CSC.

 

[Tony Cowan]

How did you get it airborne without an SD?
I tried that to no avail.


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Sd card is not required to fly. Simple. Start it up. It just won't record any photos or video.


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[varangian]

Same in my instance too. I've used CSC on several quads over the past few years and performed it twice in the aftermath of my crash. As I stated earlier, beside the inability to kill the motor, I'm surprised that DJI's protocol allows the jammed motor to continue to try to spin to the point of extreme overheating while the free props shut down.


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[ComP3P]

This happened to me. My P3P dropped about 3 feet into a bush and I heard the same screeching sound. When I got to the Phantom one motor was smoking and had begun to melt the plastic motor support. After cooling it was obvious that it would not fly correctly at the angle the motor had moved to. Sent it in to DJI in LA. They called it pilot error. They changed out the entire bottom shell and returned it to me 3 weeks later. $118 repair bill. This happened on my 59th flight. I now have a total of 225 flights, 335,000 feet distance and 15Hours 54 minutes of flight time. The design is flawed if it continues to run the motor long enough to melt. Just saying.

 

[stitch0852]

Very sorry your bird is down.

Something had to cause the bird to not respond to your shutdown request, both with left down full and with both to inside bottoms. That would be the first thing, to me.

Why didn't it obey?

That said, damages may be more than just your motor. I agree the ESC (the card in the arm that also contains the LED for that arm, may have issues, but where in the circuitry does the stop command go and why didn't it stop it?

If the motor is eating itself, overheating, the circuitry should still have powered it down, assuming nothing else is wrong, I would assume. But hey, I have been incorrect before.

If you repair yourself, just ensure you check all besides the ESC card and the motor. It would truly suck to get parts in and perform the swap, close it up, and take it for testing to find something else wrong.

 

[HVDV]

It looks like some ESCs are going short circuit when overloaded, causing obstructed motors to continue to try to run at very high currents, which causes the motors to overheat. I agree that this looks like a bad ESC design, and that the only cure for now is to add a fuse to one of the ESC's input wires for all four ESCs. However since in my opinion it is an ESC design fault DJI should replace the motor, the ESC and the shell under warranty. However you need to be very careful in selecting a suitable fuse rating since you don't want one motor to stop working when flying aggressively, since that will cause a crash.

 

[HVDV]

An alternate solution to consider is the use of prop guards for windy conditions if you do not like to hand catch.

 

[stitch0852]

I see a lot of pro / cons touting hand catchings.

Myself, I see it as a personal preference. Not something that makes you a better or worse flyer because you do not. Definitely not something worth arguing how someone does land or catch their bird.

I ground land my P3P every time and have experienced no issues with tip over. However, I also do not fly in high winds.

With my older Phantoms, where the only shutdown option was CSC, I did tip over sometimes.

With the P3P I have never had that problem. Left stick to bottom and it shuts off with no tipping.

I believe each person flying needs to weigh which way best serves them and none of the nonsense "my way is better and those who don't do it this way aren't as good at flying" type scenarios.

I am certain many flyers take off with wind speeds higher than I do. That is my preference and it makes me no more or less a flyer because of my preference. Just as landing vice hand catching makes me no less a flyer.

 

[Tony Cowan]

I see a lot of pro / cons touting hand catchings.

Myself, I see it as a personal preference. Not something that makes you a better or worse flyer because you do not. Definitely not something worth arguing how someone does land or catch their bird.

I ground land my P3P every time and have experienced no issues with tip over. However, I also do not fly in high winds.

With my older Phantoms, where the only shutdown option was CSC, I did tip over sometimes.

With the P3P I have never had that problem. Left stick to bottom and it shuts off with no tipping.

I believe each person flying needs to weigh which way best serves them and none of the nonsense "my way is better and those who don't do it this way aren't as good at flying" type scenarios.

I am certain many flyers take off with wind speeds higher than I do. That is my preference and it makes me no more or less a flyer because of my preference. Just as landing vice hand catching makes me no less a flyer.

+ I don't see one better than anything. I fly like dji says. If you want to hand catch1. . I have no issue with it either


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[piperjon]

My hot motor came out because of the heat. Because no matter what I did to shut the aircraft down the screeching sound just keep sounding and really wondered what it was. But seeing the smoke I knew the only way to stop it was remove the battery. So why did only one motor run and just turning? Why didn't the other motor turn too? My aircraft was siting on its side and the other two motors could not turn. So to me it looks like I will be out of pocket with the long delay in getting back to me regarding my warranty.

I think that there is some thing goes wrong when motors are stopped by obstruction and say two are free to run. why does only one run and really just turns over as I say it is really slow in turning. So I just feel that I will not get any warranty and just have a stuffed P3P. May as well bin it. I was going to buy a P4 but noway after this going on. I didn't just stand there looking at the aircraft while all this was going on. I walked quickly over to the aircraft still moving my sticks to stop the motor and noise.

 

[Rich M-S]

An alternate solution to consider is the use of prop guards for windy conditions if you do not like to hand catch.

Good idea; however does reduce the performance of the Quad by a considerable amount and thats not great in windy conditions!

 

[Rich M-S]

My hot motor came out because of the heat. Because no matter what I did to shut the aircraft down the screeching sound just keep sounding and really wondered what it was. But seeing the smoke I knew the only way to stop it was remove the battery. So why did only one motor run and just turning? Why didn't the other motor turn too? My aircraft was siting on its side and the other two motors could not turn. So to me it looks like I will be out of pocket with the long delay in getting back to me regarding my warranty.

I think that there is some thing goes wrong when motors are stopped by obstruction and say two are free to run. why does only one run and really just turns over as I say it is really slow in turning. So I just feel that I will not get any warranty and just have a stuffed P3P. May as well bin it. I was going to buy a P4 but noway after this going on. I didn't just stand there looking at the aircraft while all this was going on. I walked quickly over to the aircraft still moving my sticks to stop the motor and noise.

Know how you feel, my incident was so inocquious and then the situation escalated
to melting the shell and motors screeching and nearly catching fire!. If I'd crashed into the ground in a flaming ball of fire I'd of understood the warranty would have been null and void, but it literally just tipped over!! Surely in this day an age of electronics the motors should have just shut down when the current got so high! If this happened out in the middle of nowhere in a dry environment and subsequently caught fire it could have had catastrophic consequences for the environment! (Forrest fires etc!!)