14months of careful use without any real problems; took P2 out today, flew for 7 minutes in good conditions with nothing to report except beeping from controller, landed put in new batts in the controller, moved to another location further down coast for short 5 min flight around St Abbs lighthouse. Switched all on, green lights from Phantom after customary wait, flew over lighthouse from top of cliff, started to move north eastlery aroun headland (range was only approx 100 -150 ft away from me) as I was turning the drone to centre camera the P2 started to desced as I frantically am trying to go up, I switched off the controller just before it bounced off the rocks and into the sea in the vain hope it might RTH but no, unfortunately not. Does anyone have any advice on who and how to contact anyopne at DJI who might be able to explain this and I don't suppose they give a **** that I lost a new gopro in the sea as well do they?
P2 Lost control and descended onto rocks then sea, any helpful advice?
- Thread starter FearInLothian
- Start date
High FearinLothian
Real sorry to hear about your loss, I have a Phantom 2, and I think I responded to another guy who had a similar problem.
Did your P2 have DJI's ISOD mini fitted, if not, I would say that it an absolute must.
Here's my experience, RC batteries OK, flying in cold blustery weather (say 5° Deg C 8 to 10 Knots wind), bird fly's great hovers, turns, climbs, yaw's the whole works.
Brings her back to land (12 satellites visible on ISOD mini display), coming back in with around 20% battery charge remaining, coming down from 20 Meters, (slow decent)
Yaws about to get nose facing away (I prefer to land that way), drops from 15 meters like a stone.
Fortunately for me, season is late Autumn, really thick heather on the moor so no real damage, gimbal knocked off though.
This type of event happened to me 3 - 4 times, could not understand it, always did compass calibration, did IMU calibration, reset flight control parameters to DJI default, threw away Carbon Fibre props and cheap Ebay props, fitted balanced DJI props, still no joy, every so often the bird would drop, especially during yaw manoeuvres,
Eventually found the problem, the batteries were oldish, 30-35 charges each, but all cells showed good in the DJI assistant,(always stored them at the recommend charge level) but I eventually realised, ( having done everything I could think of ) that the instantaneous drain on the batteries doing complicated manoeuvres, (simultaneous decent, yaw and Forward/reverse stick inputs) when the charge level was around 20% was to much for the batteries.
I still fly the P2 but always bring her home with 25% charge remaining, and limit the number of simultaneous stick inputs.
I also learnt that quickly switching out of GPS mode into Atti mode when the problem occurred, saved it on several occasions, I believe (but more technical Op's may know) that there is more power and thus control available in Atti mode, so pushing the left stick hard forward would allow the Phantom to climb out of a rapid decent even when battery power was low.
I know my story does not help you, sorry for that mate, but it might help others who read this.
Regards Waylander
Real sorry to hear about your loss, I have a Phantom 2, and I think I responded to another guy who had a similar problem.
Did your P2 have DJI's ISOD mini fitted, if not, I would say that it an absolute must.
Here's my experience, RC batteries OK, flying in cold blustery weather (say 5° Deg C 8 to 10 Knots wind), bird fly's great hovers, turns, climbs, yaw's the whole works.
Brings her back to land (12 satellites visible on ISOD mini display), coming back in with around 20% battery charge remaining, coming down from 20 Meters, (slow decent)
Yaws about to get nose facing away (I prefer to land that way), drops from 15 meters like a stone.
Fortunately for me, season is late Autumn, really thick heather on the moor so no real damage, gimbal knocked off though.
This type of event happened to me 3 - 4 times, could not understand it, always did compass calibration, did IMU calibration, reset flight control parameters to DJI default, threw away Carbon Fibre props and cheap Ebay props, fitted balanced DJI props, still no joy, every so often the bird would drop, especially during yaw manoeuvres,
Eventually found the problem, the batteries were oldish, 30-35 charges each, but all cells showed good in the DJI assistant,(always stored them at the recommend charge level) but I eventually realised, ( having done everything I could think of ) that the instantaneous drain on the batteries doing complicated manoeuvres, (simultaneous decent, yaw and Forward/reverse stick inputs) when the charge level was around 20% was to much for the batteries.
I still fly the P2 but always bring her home with 25% charge remaining, and limit the number of simultaneous stick inputs.
I also learnt that quickly switching out of GPS mode into Atti mode when the problem occurred, saved it on several occasions, I believe (but more technical Op's may know) that there is more power and thus control available in Atti mode, so pushing the left stick hard forward would allow the Phantom to climb out of a rapid decent even when battery power was low.
I know my story does not help you, sorry for that mate, but it might help others who read this.
Regards Waylander
Waylander, good response, and excellent advice, FearinLothian, it must be horrible to lose your bird, I am too scared to fly too long over water.
Sounds like a low battery autoland, and hence a low battery. Are you in Lothian Scotland , the cold weather may be a factor. Yes I should know where the lighthouse is.
Sounds like a low battery autoland, and hence a low battery. Are you in Lothian Scotland , the cold weather may be a factor. Yes I should know where the lighthouse is.
Thanks for your sympathies and response, I realise the cold affects the batt but to go from 2 bars solid and 1 flashing to 'Auto' land while completely skipping RTH sequence all in the space of 2 mins seems like a bit of stretch, especially when RTH has kicked in effectively before at a much lower battery level, why would it skip RTH sequence when all lights and start up calibrations seem ok, sorry I'm still grieving. I don't even like GoPro cameras and now Im gonna have buy another one, dammit
Time for a P3?,no need for a GoPro. Yes I know you can use the Go\pro elsewhere.
Trouble with this hobby is sooner or later you have a big problem,hope you get over it, and enjoy a new version.
John
Trouble with this hobby is sooner or later you have a big problem,hope you get over it, and enjoy a new version.
John
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What don't you like about the P3, Jason? Just curious, as I've considered getting one (but still live my P2)
Give you one thing , there's no app to crash on a P2 . More advanced technology's nice but there's always a price to pay...
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