My first near flyaway --> CSV Analysis added with intereresting discoveries!

[Foosy]

Foosy, I had a similar experience a couple of weeks ago. I flew a full battery with no issues. Put the second battery in, and was flying in the same area at about 250 ft when I got a compass error message displayed on the app and the P3 went into P-vision mode. At the time I was in the settings menu about to correct the horizon tilt, by the time I backed out of the menu and started to try to fly back home it returned to P-GPS mode. I haven't had a problem since in the six or so flights I've done.

This is great news- well, sort of: we may be able to compare the reasons for this behavior.
Do you still have access to your TXT file on the mobile device? If you do can you analyze it and see if it is the same issue?
It is extremely important that we collect those issues and get them to DJI to fix.

With the amount of P3s being flown, it will not take long before such an issue results in an actual flyaway or worse in injuring people or damaging property.

 

[Meta4]

I switched the P3 off, inserted the memory card, moved the P3 back to the driveway and powered on. Then I launched, and found I had a bucking bronco in the air.

And does your driveway have steel reinforcing inside it?
Concrete with hidden steel is always a bad choice for launching .. it will screw up your compass and can create flight difficulties.

I suspect if I'd had the presence of mind to switch to ATT I would have had better control.

As the OP found, unless you have multi-mode enabled in the app, you cannot switch to atti mode.

 

[yblaser]

This is great news- well, sort of: we may be able to compare the reasons for this behavior.
Do you still have access to your TXT file on the mobile device? If you do can you analyze it and see if it is the same issue?
It is extremely important that we collect those issues and get them to DJI to fix.

With the amount of P3s being flown, it will not take long before such an issue results in an actual flyaway or worse in injuring people or damaging property.

Here is the csv file as well as the kml file showing the flight path.

 

[43k]

About entering vision mode at high altitudes - is this supposed to happen at all?
My impression was that vision mode is only used at a few meters from the ground.

Did you launch from a higher point, or was the ground at the same height during the flight? Did you fly over some high objects, like over roof tops or trees, when it switched to vision mode?

 

[Yves]

I see in Foosy's screenshot that he also has a animated field on the left top corner of the map asking him to chose a name for his bird. How do you get rid of that or where can you insert a name? If it was not an animated it would not be so bad but it distracts me. I would like to have it gone. Anyone knows how?

 

[Jimmykjimmy]

Flew my P3P yesterday. All was good for multiple flights, until one flight when things went bad:
Compass MOD was OK, around 1480. I took off in front of a church at night, and was going straight up.
Then, when it was high up, it suddenly started drifting without me moving the sticks. The app showed a red alert "compass error". I tried to get it back but it was going further away, missing a building and at that point I really got scared as there were people in the area and I did not have control over it.

I had just planned going up and down and was not ready for the elevated heartbeats, especially as a person next to me shouted: " if that thing scratches my car, I'm going to kill you..."

The p3p was still high up, and seconds looked as minutes. I think I switched it to Attitude mode, and after getting my orientation, I was able to get it back and land it without hitting anything. It felt like navigating a boat in a huge storm. When I regained the phantom, I looked at the controller and it was in Attitude mode and I was wondering- did I send it like that, or did I switch it in midair when the problem occurred? I will need to check the logs to see what exactly happened, was it instinct, user error or a p3p issue.

Now is the time I wish there was a sticky post with direction how to pull the logs and analyze them....

[UPDATE 7/29/2015]
II got the following information from the log file:
1. There is no compass error - even though the app alerted me there was....
2. The bird switches to using VISION at the time 00:29.5 until 01:02.5 ?!?!?!!!
3. For the same period as above the unit gets a YAW_ERROR_LARGE for nonGPScause
4. Throughout the flight, imuInitFailReason is set to MonitorError, but imuInitFailReason.raw is 0, so does not seem like a problem

I got a compass error just the other day, two of them to be exact. One before I took off. The other one in the air but nothing happened. I just re-calibrated the compass and flew.
However, I might add that I was flying when a thunderstorm was in the area, no it wasn't raining and it was about 5 miles away by the mountains. But I believe that the storm with all of its electro magnetic power might have screwed things up for a while.

 

[ROOF55NO]

Sounds like a scary experience.

If the switch was in ATTI-mode you must have done it physically?

To me this is a reminder to learn to fly the Phantom without all the aids all the time - meaning learning to fly in ATTI-mode without the GPS-assistance. It is vital to know how it reacts when something like the GPS fails.

Only way to prepare is to take off the GPS-training wheels once in a while - even when there is a bit of wind - and getting a good feeling of how it handles.

"You must have done this by pchycically". That's not correct. If P3 lift up at safe mode P-GPS, and for some reason lost GPS-informatin, it's goes over to Atti-mode, but the switc is still in P-GPS mode, to active if the error situation fixed any time. Similar situation is my own experiences. This Atti- mode situation are also similar to calibrate error. If calibrate adjustment correct the horizontal plane, but fails in the vertical plane and you put P3 on the ground, without completing calibration, RC warns "Atti-mode". So, to start the thread notes, the only way the control of P3 with RC is, physically switch to Atti-mode with switch.

 

[#1 PC Medic]

Is there any steeple with cellular antennas or large metal framework on the church, that could be the culprit. Antennas can be hidden inside the steeple.

Flew my P3P yesterday. All was good for multiple flights, until one flight when things went bad:
Compass MOD was OK, around 1480. I took off in front of a church at night, and was going straight up.
Then, when it was high up, it suddenly started drifting without me moving the sticks. The app showed a red alert "compass error". I tried to get it back but it was going further away, missing a building and at that point I really got scared as there were people in the area and I did not have control over it.

I had just planned going up and down and was not ready for the elevated heartbeats, especially as a person next to me shouted: " if that thing scratches my car, I'm going to kill you..."

The p3p was still high up, and seconds looked as minutes. I think I switched it to Attitude mode, and after getting my orientation, I was able to get it back and land it without hitting anything. It felt like navigating a boat in a huge storm. When I regained the phantom, I looked at the controller and it was in Attitude mode and I was wondering- did I send it like that, or did I switch it in midair when the problem occurred? I will need to check the logs to see what exactly happened, was it instinct, user error or a p3p issue.

Now is the time I wish there was a sticky post with direction how to pull the logs and analyze them....

[UPDATE 7/29/2015]
II got the following information from the log file:
1. There is no compass error - even though the app alerted me there was....
2. The bird switches to using VISION at the time 00:29.5 until 01:02.5 ?!?!?!!!
3. For the same period as above the unit gets a YAW_ERROR_LARGE for nonGPScause
4. Throughout the flight, imuInitFailReason is set to MonitorError, but imuInitFailReason.raw is 0, so does not seem like a problem

 

[ianwood]

Antennas hidden in steeples, power lines, etc. will not cause a problem unless you land on them!

 

[rwakins]

I found out that you can calibrate the compass too often. My P3P went nuts on me twice while flying around my neighborhood and both times I calibrated on my side walk. So i now go to the park a few miles ago and cal there before I fly around my house and it flies perfect.

 

[Askaraboz]

Flew my P3P yesterday. All was good for multiple flights, until one flight when things went bad:
Compass MOD was OK, around 1480. I took off in front of a church at night, and was going straight up.
Then, when it was high up, it suddenly started drifting without me moving the sticks. The app showed a red alert "compass error". I tried to get it back but it was going further away, missing a building and at that point I really got scared as there were people in the area and I did not have control over it.

I had just planned going up and down and was not ready for the elevated heartbeats, especially as a person next to me shouted: " if that thing scratches my car, I'm going to kill you..."

The p3p was still high up, and seconds looked as minutes. I think I switched it to Attitude mode, and after getting my orientation, I was able to get it back and land it without hitting anything. It felt like navigating a boat in a huge storm. When I regained the phantom, I looked at the controller and it was in Attitude mode and I was wondering- did I send it like that, or did I switch it in midair when the problem occurred? I will need to check the logs to see what exactly happened, was it instinct, user error or a p3p issue.

Now is the time I wish there was a sticky post with direction how to pull the logs and analyze them....

[UPDATE 7/29/2015]
II got the following information from the log file:
1. There is no compass error - even though the app alerted me there was....
2. The bird switches to using VISION at the time 00:29.5 until 01:02.5 ?!?!?!!!
3. For the same period as above the unit gets a YAW_ERROR_LARGE for nonGPScause
4. Throughout the flight, imuInitFailReason is set to MonitorError, but imuInitFailReason.raw is 0, so does not seem like a problem

It sounds very similar to the way I described my flyaway experience here http://www.phantompilots.com/threads/i-thought-i-lost-another-phantom.47313/#post-442226

 

[JerEl]

well something blocked your GPS reception.

Every time I go for a flight I always stay at least a minute at low altitude i.e. 2 or 3meters and observing the behaviour of P3 while not giving any stick input. In case that there is a problem with compass or GPS I will detect some drifting behaviour so I bring it down for calibration or any other action required

BINGO!
I sometimes take off from the deck on the back of my house and rise and move away from the house as quick as possible because of a steel roof. I then hover in a clear spot in the yard and reset the home point so in case of RTH it doesn't try to land on the deck as the steel roof does effect the compass. But even in other locations I hover for a minute or so both in GPS and ATTI mode and check the drift and settings before flying off in the blue yonder. Another good idea is to check the winds aloft at altitude by going to ATTI before flying off just in case which can give you an idea what direction it's going to drift if it loses GPS. Many times, especially on hot summer days, the wind at 350' is not the same as ground level.

That church may well have a steel roof as many of them do and also sometimes the steeple is steel. Nowadays steel roofs are more common from residential to commercial.