P3 turned off and fell from the sky

[jaked_902]

So, last night I flew this P3 Pro, successfully for a full battery, landed and swapped batteries, took off again, and about 4 or 5 seconds in, it went completely dark, no LED, and fell from the sky.

It fell straight down. I slammed the left stick up as soon as it began falling, and although I couldn't see lights come back on, I heard the rotors begin spinning again before it slammed into my neighbour's roof. Needless to say, it's trashed, camera is in multiple pieces, casing broken multiple places.

Everything is (was) relatively new, under 2 dozen flights, batteries were charged the night before. Here is the flight data:

Dropbox - P3 Data and Logs

Will DJI repair / replace this if shown not to be user error? Thanks!

 

[UnrealDrones]

When did you purchase it? Definitely doesn't seem normal.

Here's DJI's warranty policies: Warranty Period of Main Parts | DJI

 

[Lonewolf]

Are you in a cold climate? Cold battery could be the problem.

 

[dirtybum]

Was you pushing either full throttle up or out or both! What firmware 5.3.0. Its now known that full throttle with that battery firmware can and has caused complete battery disconnect/ failure and dji has replaced hundreds of units with little ?'s asked

 

[jaked_902]

Purchased at Henry's in Canada (national photo retail chain), less than a year ago, but I doubt they'll take it back. I wish warranties were based on usage hours not simply length of time. Not like hardware wears out just sitting around.

I'm in Nova Scotia, so not a very cold climate, not yet anyway. It was no colder than 5C (41F). I had just finished flying out the first battery, which came out of the same case. Is there a known issue about DJI batteries failing in the cold? I know Lithium capacity is reduced below freezing, but they should still work. The battery that was in my P3 had plenty of juice, in fact it still shows 3 bars.

 

[jaked_902]

Was you pushing either full throttle up or out or both! What firmware 5.3.0. Its now known that full throttle with that battery firmware can and has caused complete battery disconnect/ failure and dji has replaced hundreds of units with little ?'s asked

That's exactly what I was doing, yes - takeoff, full throttle up and out. If this is a known issue why wouldn't they alert people not to do this via the app? I already get popup alerts every time I launch DJI Go.

Any idea how I initiate a claim with DJI then? They don't seem to respond to email.

Thanks, the responses are appreciated.

-Jake

 

[msinger]

jaked_902, your logs show the following:

- You took off with a battery that was only 58% charged.
- At takeoff, the battery voltage was 15.35V (about 3.83V per cell).
- When the battery shut off, the voltage was 11.95V (about 2.98V per cell).

The battery will auto shut off when the voltage drops below 3V per cell. That is by design to prevent the battery from damaging itself. See more details here.

Since you climbed at such a rapid pace, it caused the voltage to drop to a very low level since your Phantom was drawing a lot of power to achieve that feat. You would have been fine if you had taken off with a fully charged battery.

 

[James Cole]

jaked_902, your logs show the following:

- You took off with a battery that was only 58% charged.
- At takeoff, the battery voltage was 15.35V (about 3.83V per cell).
- When the battery shut off, the voltage was 11.95V (about 2.98V per cell).

The battery will auto shut off when the voltage drops below 3V per cell. That is by design to prevent the battery from damaging itself. See more details here.

Since you climbed at such a rapid pace, it caused the voltage to drop to a very low level since your Phantom was drawing a lot of power to achieve that feat. You would have been fine if you had taken off with a fully charged battery.

So what happens if you take off with a 100% battery but when it reaches say 30-50% you manoeuvre aggressively like both sticks fully upwards... will this happen to or it wont because the battery is warm?

Thanks!
JC

 

[msinger]

So what happens if you take off with a 100% battery but when it reaches say 30-50% you manoeuvre aggressively like both sticks fully upwards

Any aggressive maneuvers will cause the battery voltage to drop. If it drops too low, the battery will shut off. It's a good idea to monitor your voltage in the DJI GO app like this.

 

[syotr]

jaked_902, your logs show the following:

- You took off with a battery that was only 58% charged.
- At takeoff, the battery voltage was 15.35V (about 3.83V per cell).
- When the battery shut off, the voltage was 11.95V (about 2.98V per cell).

The battery will auto shut off when the voltage drops below 3V per cell. That is by design to prevent the battery from damaging itself. See more details here.

Since you climbed at such a rapid pace, it caused the voltage to drop to a very low level since your Phantom was drawing a lot of power to achieve that feat. You would have been fine if you had taken off with a fully charged battery.

What a great feature! Let's save the battery but destroy the Phantom. Oh, and the battery is likely also destroyed in the crash. Does anyone think is is a good design?

 

[Mordor]

Just for curiosity, what was the fw, the last one? Because supposedly it would prevent that of happen...

 

[bluer101]

What a great feature! Let's save the battery but destroy the Phantom. Oh, and the battery is likely also destroyed in the crash. Does anyone think is is a good design?

LOL


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[haysaqo]

LOL


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

That made me laugh too )

 

[msinger]

What a great feature! Let's save the battery but destroy the Phantom. Oh, and the battery is likely also destroyed in the crash. Does anyone think is is a good design?

The Phantom does have a built-in fail safe that is supposed to auto land the Phantom at its current location when it detects the battery is critically low. It seems there are some scenarios where that fail safe is not activated though. A rapid steep climb on a low battery is one of those scenarios that has popped up a lot lately.

 

[Carmach]

Will this happen with the latest fw?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[CFoxtrot]

Forget about emailing DJI, either call them or use their chat feature. Calling is your best bet.

 

[Solar Deity]

So, last night I flew this P3 Pro, successfully for a full battery, landed and swapped batteries, took off again, and about 4 or 5 seconds in, it went completely dark, no LED, and fell from the sky.

It fell straight down. I slammed the left stick up as soon as it began falling, and although I couldn't see lights come back on, I heard the rotors begin spinning again before it slammed into my neighbour's roof. Needless to say, it's trashed, camera is in multiple pieces, casing broken multiple places.

Everything is (was) relatively new, under 2 dozen flights, batteries were charged the night before. Here is the flight data:

Dropbox - P3 Data and Logs

Will DJI repair / replace this if shown not to be user error? Thanks!

Jaked,

When was the 58% battery charged last? To me it seems, from all the similar posts that once the battery enters self discharge, the firmware doesn't read or report the correct voltage. Many machines shutting off in FFF (fast forward flight). You wouldn't have had 58% really left in the battery. DJI just released new FW to address this 2 days ago.

Another cause could be high internal resistance in the battery cells to have a resting charge of 3.83v per cell and pull down to 2.98. What is the battery life reading and how many cycles on the failed battery? I still think it's the firmware after a self discharge. Again, when was the last charge on the battery that took a nap?

Sorry about the crash.

SD

 

[tcope]

As has been mentioned, this appears to be an issue that DJI is just learning about. It has happened to several people, myself included. You may not think 41F is cold but in the realm of batteries its considered cold weather. The latest firmware update does address this issue by limiting full throttle when the batteries are cold. I suspect that it does other things as well to address this issue.

I'm planning on contacting DJI about my issues. I've heard from other people who have had the same problem and DJI took care of it under warranty. I can't speak for DJI but I bet there is a _very_ good chance that they will correct your issue under warranty.

 

[fastsmiles]

Contact DJI, their support is getting better and they may very well replace your bird. Phone is better than email.

 

[h2nd2none]

I had the same problem doing a Demo for sheriff office. I purchased insurance in case something like that happened and it has been gone for a month. I am still waiting for mine to come back. The weather was great.