Motors cut out mid flight

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Hello. Only a few days ago I came on here and read flyaway/crash threads. I assumed it was mostly user misuse, how can you possibly lose control if you follow the guidelines?! Well I was obviously wrong when a little bit of me inside died today...

My phantom vision 2 plus v3 was unboxed for its first flight on 6th May.
It has been flawless every day for 7 days.
I was in an open space, no power lines near by, no wind and no adverse weather.
Battery and propellers securely fixed in, battery at 90%, wifi extender 3/4 charged, controller fully charged. Compass had been recently calibrated. Over 7 GPS satellites connected (green lights) and s1 s2 on controller were up position.
Take off and flight was fine. Photos came out brilliantly as usual.
When finished taking photos of a hot air balloon in the distance, throttle fully clicked down to descend, while moving slowly back towards home point, about 5 seconds later at 150ft~ the motors became very loud by the speed it was decending, image on iphone still visible, switched right S switch down then back to GPS to try regain control with throttle fully up, but made no difference and fell out the sky like a brick. I did notice the drone did not spiral out of control, but stayed upright as it fell which may mean all 4 motors stopped simultaneously?
Transmitter and drone was updated to the latest firmware last week and every day before and after it had flown perfectly.

Why has happened? I don't think I have missed anything on the checklist. The drone has flown flawlessly every day for 7 days (too addictive to stop flying).
Is there a way I can upload a flight log as proof? I am yet to receive DJI's email reply, this is completely not user error but I'm sure by default they will blame anybody but the drone itself by the looks of feedback over the internet.

Now one prop is snapped, gimbal is bent, camera lens is damaged, and image does not connect to wifi extender.

After picking up the pieces of the most expensive impulse buy of my life, the image on the screen was at 72ft before it came down through a tree and onto a brick wall.
 
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Sorry to hear about your incident. I wish you best in getting back in the air.

throttle fully clicked down to descend,

I've never fully locked the left stick into the detent during flight (the descent rate is way too fast), but those times I've neglected to unlock it while conducting my takeoff checklist just before liftoff, the motors would stop.

Wondering if this is part of the issue. Barometer malfunction not seeing a descent, so the motors kick off.
 
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I've never fully locked the left stick into the detent during flight (the descent rate is way too fast), but those times I've neglected to unlock it while conducting my takeoff checklist just before liftoff, the motors would stop.

Wondering if this is part of the issue. Barometer malfunction not seeing a descent, so the motors kick off.
If the barometer malfunctioned, i would not have
I found the decent extremely slow, and for good reason due to VRS. But as it is so slow to decend normally, I lock it down, and point the camera completely down, and just move the right stick to above myself watching FPV. Unlock the down throttle and hold on to the landing gear, then hold down the throttle which turns off the motors. I find it much safer to hold onto the landing gear and shut the motors off than land on the ground.

Saying that, are the motors meant to shut off at head height? I would have thought the drone would want to see near 0ft altitude to down power the motors?
 
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I hand land everytime as well. And then I lock the throttle down.

I think you are trusting in a chinese-built barometer to correctly gauge the difference of a couple hundredth of kPa...
 
It doesn't know what head height is.

Full down on the left stick will shut of motors in about 3 seconds after it does not detect any pressure change which would be associated with not moving [vertically] anymore such as landing. This can be accomplished by catching as well.
 
I hand land everytime as well. And then I lock the throttle down.

I think you are trusting in a chinese-built barometer to correctly gauge the difference of a couple hundredth of kPa...
True, although where does DJI advise not to decend at their limited decent speed of 2m/s?
Also, if it was barometer issue, the last image from the iphone would have an incorrect altitude reading maybe? 74foot seems about correct looking at the last image on the screen.
If locked down left stick means motors off, im sure it would have happened on a decent previous to this, I've done about 20 flights in 7 days, every time I lock down the stick to get down as fast as possible, so i have more battery for the next location on that day
 
... the motors became very loud by the speed it was decending, image on iphone still visible, switched right S switch down then back to GPS to try regain control with throttle fully up, but made no difference and fell out the sky like a brick. I did notice the drone did not spiral out of control, but stayed upright as it fell which may mean all 4 motors stopped simultaneously?

I am confused by your description. If the motors became very loud they were not stopped.

If the motors stop the Phantom will tumble as it falls.
 
True, although where does DJI advise not to decend at their limited decent speed of 2m/s?
Also, if it was barometer issue, the last image from the iphone would have an incorrect altitude reading maybe? 74foot seems about correct looking at the last image on the screen
I am confused by your description. If the motors became very loud they were not stopped.

If the motors stop the Phantom will tumble as it falls.
Reading that back, yes it is sorry. No the motors did not cease, they were still rotating, while it was falling out the sky.
 
I think you are trusting in a chinese-built barometer to correctly gauge the difference of a couple hundredth of kPa...

The actual value is irrelevant in application. The Phantom software uses the value at takeoff to represent zero feet. When there is no altitude change for three seconds and the throttle is at 10% or less, it assumes you've landed and shuts off the motors.
 
Reading that back, yes it is sorry. No the motors did not cease, they were still rotating, while it was falling out the sky.
Do you have the video? Hearing what happened would tell us a lot.
 
Do you have the video? Hearing what happened would tell us a lot.
I really wish I did Steve. My main use is still photography. I would much prefer a constant video record and to be able to take photos simultaneously like a GoPro but it doesn't seem possible with the Vision.
(Off topic but Neither do you get .Raw files from burst shots even when settings show RAW is on. Disappointing when you get home to edit after a whole morning of snapping!)
 
i added a v3 remote to my v2 but first thing i did was open it up and remove throttle lock.
just does not seem right to lock the throttle down.
 
If it is VRS, this is a fault with the product, there is no warning of VRS in the manual as it is limited to 2m/s.
 
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If it is VRS, this is a fault with the product, there is no warning of VRS in the manual as it is limited to 2m/s
You can enter VRS at any descent speed. the risk is just greatly reduced at lower speeds. If it was wobbling on it's way down then VRS is really likely.
 
Are you 6ks above sea level?
If the air is thin, then it could be VRS.
If you are coming straight down and it starts wobbling and you hear the motors spin up and down, try spiralling down as you descend, this will give it clean air to grip on at all times.
 
"throttle fully clicked down to descend"

in mid flight, their is a CSC command that will cut the motors.. when i do a hand catch, ill grab it and use my left hand to pull the throttle all the way down, after about 3-5 seconds your hear a quick power up then motors cut off. You phones app should contain a dji log somewhere in the folder directory, it will be dji something and inside will be a file you can open with notepad. it will confirm the shutoff assuming logging was enabled.
 

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