Oh Dear !! It had to happen - too far and battery runs out

[solentlife]

I thought you guys would appreciate more the end and the finding of the AC ..

Using the Tablets own 'Home point' moving as I motored along the river ... guiding me to the landing point.

My pal - who's an electronics guru and has a P3P, built various Quads and FPV racers etc ... is going to have a look later today ... but as he says - even if the board is OK - which he doubts - the Barometer is most likely shot anyway ..

There's a Repair shop in Riga ... 180kms from me ...

There's a near new P3S for 300 Euros said to fly perfect, video / photo works fine, but has slight camera alignment error ...

There's a near new P3P for 640 Euros ... but advert is iffy ... not absolutely sure its a P3P as he calls it a P3 Professional 4K camera drone .. which given latvian translation could be a P3 4K ...

So what to do ... will wait my pals verdict ... then decide ...

But to those reading - It was not the fault of the Phantom - this was totally my fault as the pilot. And yes a serious dent to my pride ...

Nigel

 

[solentlife]

I had 2 beers before I went out there .. not drunk, but maybe it created a 'relaxed' attitude ?

But during the flight I was having multiple warnings about DISCONNECTED .. and watching the Signal Bars closely ... moving antenna ... controller to see what was problem ... which distracted me ..

I think once she sorted and started going the distance - events overtook me ...

Very true .. I could have landed out in a couple of locations - fields that I could have driven to ... but we all wish we could go back in time.

I thought about reducing my critical battery to 0% from 10% but I had a thought that you cannot do that anyway ... so left it ...

Lots of things have gone through my mind since ... if I had done this ... if I hadn't been so stupid ... etc.

I'm not afraid to post this event and its videos ... to help prevent anyone else doing similar. But it also shows how you can find your AC if it does go down by using the APP.
It also shows what I warned others who were following my range tests some time back - its not the WiFi / 5.8 that will limit the max range - its the battery...
That flight hit 5kms with a short RTH in the middle - so I estimate in good conditions, without the battling head wind, that makes a 5km flight maximum based on 10% critical setting ... with 4km pushing limits as soon wind occurs.

So people please learn from my loss and I hope no-one else has same.

Cheers
Nigel

 

[solentlife]

The P3 was opened up by me and had fan blowing on it all night.

It is now with my pal who is a wizard with stuff like this. He's dismantling the gubbins inside to check and clean.

So far he's checked camera and gimbal - fine no water debris or damage found.

So now he's going over the mainboards.

Nigel

 

[dchao]

At the end of the video, you said you had no control, but that shouldn't be the case, if you held the left stick up, you should be able to stop the decent, and then you can use you right stick to maneuver the AC.
You seems to have lots of problems with batteries recently. I am not sure if it's good idea to use a standard LiPo charger for the P3 batteries, as the balance charging plug is not brought out of the P3 batteries. And there is no way to balance-charging them from these chargers.

 

[solentlife]

At the end of the video, you said you had no control, but that shouldn't be the case, if you held the left stick up, you should be able to stop the decent, and then you can use you right stick to maneuver the AC.

Wrong ... once auto landing is initiated because of critical battery - you cannot control as you suggest. You have very little control and descent is continued - you cannot stop it. Lateral control is extremely small - basically just enough to miss a lump or car etc. - certainly not enough to land mine on terra firma to left at quite a few metres from actual. Landing to the right would be worse as I would not be able to get to it in the boggy marsh.
Why do you think I said I have no control ? That was an exclamation because of the lack of move from its path of descent. Do you think I just stood there without trying to do something ?

Page 12 of the manual gives detail - but fails to tell you that lateral movement is seriously limited ...

You seems to have lots of problems with batteries recently. I am not sure if it's good idea to use a standard LiPo charger for the P3 batteries, as the balance charging plug is not brought out of the P3 batteries. And there is no way to balance-charging them from these chargers.

Total rubbish ... what trouble with batterys ? Please quote / link / cut copy paste any problems I have had with batterys .... because I have had NO problems with batterys.
Second - your comment about balance shows that you misunderstand about use of standard LiPo charger ... with LiHV mode.

The LiPo charger in LiHV and CHARGE mode delivers exact same voltage as the DJI charger - but you have user control of amps. The balance function remains with the 'Intelligent board' on the battery pack itself.

The reason for this incident has nothing to do with how the battery was charged - in fact it was fully charged before take-off ...
The incident is because the P3 was fighting a stronger wind coming back than I bargained for.

Nigel

 

[Alan Russel]

Sorry you lost your bird Nigel..all i can say that every flight you have to expect the unexpected!

 

[SteelWarrior]

After reading your -past last night Nigel..I proceeded to go out and crash my P3S..it spent the night in the woods but was able to find it thanks to GPS this morning...luckily no harm to AC and is flying again on same prop..battery popped loose and still had 65% charge on it.

 

[Pharm]

Nigel, I thought I taught you better than that! Flying that far with the wind and out of VLOS in a totally uninhabited area! You've clearly learned nothing from my intense tutelage. Go to your room and don't come out until you can behave! Bad boy!

 

[solentlife]

Bad Boy ? .... you should hear what my Wife says !!

Nigel

 

[Pharm]

Bad Boy ? .... you should hear what my Wife says !!

Nigel

Yeah, and you like it.

 

[solentlife]

Come to agreement with Wife ...

If I can sell my Belarus Tractor ... then I can buy a P3Pro ... so I can use my batterys etc.

I will then sell my P3S as separates ...

my Controller is perfect with well fitted Argtek antenna ...
the P3S GPS works fine
camera is working with gimbal, but the feed is stopped at faulty mainboard
flight motors are fine

So maybe things will turn out OK ...

Nigel

 

[solentlife]

Back to 'Tvarisch' "dchao" ...

"At the end of the video, you said you had no control, but that shouldn't be the case, if you held the left stick up, you should be able to stop the decent, and then you can use you right stick to maneuver the AC."

Having played detective further to try and find why "dchao" makes such error on the P3S - I find why.

The P3S when in critical battery auto-landing does not allow to STOP or HOVER .. it only allows to alter the point of landing ... basically to let you miss a house / cow / car / yeti ... Not to fly any distance as I would have needed.

BUT the Professional P3 actually does what he says ... 'Push left stick up and it will hover for you to decide landing point' .... interesting. You won't have long though !! But at least a chance to do something.

Still doesn't change fact of being wrong me'ol fruit 'dchao' ............. and totally irrelevant for the P3S.

Nigel

 

[dchao]

Of course, I haven't had the experience of running out of juice mid flight yet, touch wood.
I have both P3A and P3S, I could have got the two instructions mixed up.
But this is from page 12 of the User Manual for P3S:
"While the aircraft is in automatic descent, you can still control the aircraft’s movement although its ascent speed is very limited. Use this opportunity to find a suitable landing location. "
It mentions the ascent is limited, so I presume, if you push the left stick up, at least, it will let you maintain you altitude, or decent very slowly.

 

[solentlife]

My first language is English ... and it says clearly ... limited ... it does not say Stopped ... it does not say Hover ...

What it fails to tell you - is that the lateral offset you can affect by waggling your sticks is very limited in fact. Second that given I was PAST critical battery point when it did the auto land - where is this magic battery power going to come from to cross at least 100m of water to an accessible landing spot ? And considering that in fact my display video was cutting in and out with power failure... so deciding on a spot would be very difficult to determine at over 1000m out from home point ...

If you have very little battery left .. we are talking its on point of cutting out - how can you then demand power to slow descent / alter trajectory ? It takes extra power to slow descent / alter direction, that is not there in this case of mine ...

"dchao" ... would you stop this ....

Nigel

 

[solentlife]

My first language is English and it says clearly "limited" ... not stopped, not hover ...

It also takes extra power to slow a descent, and more to alter trajectory. Power that was not there.

To land on area I could get to would mean at least 100 - 150m off to the left, but I did not have that info at the time, and anyway power would not be sufficient ... my last indication before video stopped was landing on the edge of the reed infested marshy 'strip' that no-one can walk on. So I prayed it would not go in the water .. there was no choice.

Whether you agree or not 'dchao' ... I had pushed that P3S and its battery way beyond any limit that expectation to save was lost.

Please stop trying to tell me what I could have done when you have no clue about it ... just be thankful that my incident may save you from the same along with others.

Enough ... I would like this thread closed ...

Nigel

 

[MassGuy]

My P4P got caught up in high level winds earlier this year. Those winds pushed it in the opposite direction than I was trying to fly. I believe it was over a mile out with less than 30% battery left when I was able to regain control. Like you, I was flying into a headwind on the way back so it would only do about 15 MPH. My bird kept trying to auto-land. That was the first time I experienced this. I was able to keep the left stick up to fight it and almost make it home. I had to set it down one street away from me. I later found it was still 40-50' in the air when the meter hit 0. It was seconds away from falling out of the sky. Maybe the feature is different between models?

 

[solentlife]

My P4P got caught up in high level winds earlier this year. Those winds pushed it in the opposite direction than I was trying to fly. I believe it was over a mile out with less than 30% battery left when I was able to regain control. Like you, I was flying into a headwind on the way back so it would only do about 15 MPH. My bird kept trying to auto-land. That was the first time I experienced this. I was able to keep the left stick up to fight it and almost make it home. I had to set it down one street away from me. I later found it was still 40-50' in the air when the meter hit 0. It was seconds away from falling out of the sky. Maybe the feature is different between models?

Yes it is ... the Standard only gives you very limited 'interference' in the Auto-Landing.... unlike the Pro etc.

Nigel

 

[dodoftwogirls]

Boating is prominent where I live. Growing up there was a saying if you owned a boat... "It is said that there are only three kinds of skippers, those who have run aground, those who will run aground, and those that have but won't admit it."

Everybody, even seasoned drone pilots, have had a scare or two. Either through their actions, or through things beyond their control. Poor judgement on this day? Perhaps. But so what? No harm. No foul. Good luck getting her back into the skies!

 

[bsartist]

Just curious: did you let it fly back at its own RTH speed or did you accelerate forward to max speed to get home more quickly?

 

[solentlife]

In a power vs distance situation like this - you do not interfere - you let the model fly back to ensure shortest flight line and use of power.

Its acedemic anyway as it was obvious it was never going yo make it - but for some reason that I will never understand - I decided to ignore thoughts to land out early and go fetch it.

The model has been checked out and it needs new main board. But even then there's no g'tee it will work.

I'm thinking through what to do.

Nigel