P3P crash after firmware update

[iSander]

Hi all, it's kind of a sad day for me.

A couple days ago I installed the latest firmware update (v1.3.20) on my Phantom 3 Pro & controller.
Today I went out for a fun flight to a friends place. First flight since the update.

It looked like a normal flight without any issues for about 6 minutes and then it went wrong.
I was starting to fly back to my location for landing (I had about 63% battery level, full control + video signal)
At 51 meters altitude and no trees near that could have caused the drone to crash.
All I saw was it flipping over on my screen and then I lost all connection. My friend saw where it went down and picked up the pieces. the camera came off and gimbal bend, 3 broken props (they were still on the on the motors so didn't come off mid-flight) and also the battery was laying next to it. (Also don't believe the battery came out mid-flight as it was laying right next to it)

I don't think this is a pilot error but I hope somebody can help me find out what caused this.
Also going to contact the shop I bought it from tomorrow, hopefully they can help me in some way as well.

I was also recording during the flight and got the video file from the SD card, I can't watch the full video as it doesn't work (does somebody know how this could be fixed?) but I do have the final seconds that were recorded by the app on my iPad.

Also got some pictures:

Thanks for reading,
Sander

 

[jryser]

Almost looks like an engine failure. I will be curious as to what the smart folks have to say. I'm experienced but need a lot more time for the smarts!


Sent from my PT beating heart

 

[Buckaye]

first - sorry for your loss... you're probably going to want to post your flight logs so someone can give you a better idea... my guess is that based of your description you might have a bad cell on the battery and it caused it to go into go home mode... when you crashed it looked like a complete power failure....

 

[JohnK]

Oh man so sorry to hear of this. I am nervous every time I fly due to the number of reports I read about flyways and who-knows-what-else. Good luck, and please keep us posted. I hope you can get some satisfaction from DJI. That video was freaky ... it just went crazy on you. Fingers crossed for successful outcome.

 

[iSander]

Ps: I only have the flight logs from the DJI GO app.
I was going to get the log files and attempt to fix the video via the Phantom 3 but as soon as I put in the battery and turned it on there were a few flashes inside, bit of fire and some smoke coming out so I immediately pulled out the battery again.

You should be able to view the flight log here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1z8qgNL3N9yeFqTrEpejrCBO1FLqNpNpp7vdCGzJW1q0/edit?usp=sharing

 

[Skylark]

I am also very sorry for your loss which does probably concern the whole phantom community. I am beginning to think that we are approaching a First World War moment in terms of not having any means to avoid the dire effects of free fall to earth. Perhaps a quad motor formation is so vulnerable to a power loss or motor failure that a six motor configuration may be safer and could be made to compensate for a motor loss. I believe the DJI S1000 can survive a motor failure, but at a hell of a price! Obviously a power loss from a single defective battery could only be countered by having a backup battery. I realise that all these ideas may be impossible at our price point. Parachutes may be another way to go.

 

[Buckaye]

Ps: I only have the flight logs from the DJI GO app.
I was going to get the log files and attempt to fix the video via the Phantom 3 but as soon as I put in the battery and turned it on there were a few flashes inside, bit of fire and some smoke coming out so I immediately pulled out the battery again.

You should be able to view the flight log here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1z8qgNL3N9yeFqTrEpejrCBO1FLqNpNpp7vdCGzJW1q0/edit?usp=sharing

well... I'd say the only alarming thing I see in you log is that you drop over a volt in about 3 seconds towards the end... from 14.857V to 13.523V in 3 seconds where as other 1V drops took minutes... that seems odd to me....

 

[iSander]

Managed to recover the video from the Phantom.
Maybe the battery could have been the issue indeed. Otherwise I'd expect it to keep recording until it hits the ground (in the last frame recorded its still 5-ish meters away from hitting the ground).
Or am I wrong?

 

[dottat4]

The single prop that's still intact. Does that motor spin freely? This looks like a motor failure as sudden as it comes on.

Edit... Front right prop was definitely still spinning on the way down

I can't see the left prop spinning in the video. Perhaps someone on a PC can look at the frame by frame to see. The right one was so easy to see the spinning rotor.

Sent from my HTC6535LVW using Tapatalk

 

[flyNfrank]

If you zip the .txt file and attach it here I can look at it for you in more detail then what you placed in your post above.

 

[PhantomFun]

Sorry for your loss. I hope you get some answers soon.

 

[louforgiveno]

Managed to recover the video from the Phantom.
Maybe the battery could have been the issue indeed. Otherwise I'd expect it to keep recording until it hits the ground (in the last frame recorded its still 5-ish meters away from hitting the ground).
Or am I wrong?

it probably did record the impact, but since the recording was not properly stopped it truncated off up to 30 seconds of video. Same thing happens when you manually forget to stop recording and remove then reseat the sdcard and power on to recover file.

 

[zincsoldier]

I am very sorry for your loss. In my opinion, this issue is 80% related to VPS. I am not so sure about the other 20% which could lead to a number of various issues. I had the flip on take off when I updated to v1.2.6 firmware. Luckily the flip was not hard enough and it happened at the beach so there was no 'casualties'. After that, I contacted DJI Support and they asked to provide them all flights log but I haven't been received any further notices from them. I thought the new firmware would be able to get rid of this VPS problem but it hasn't been solved to be honest. At first it might look fine but I was experiencing altitude loss when hovering at 0.6 to 2.5 meters. I hope they are going to come up with a better update soon to solve all these issues. If you guys are also reading this, please note there might still be problems with VPS and please be careful. I am not saying this will affect all P3 units but the ones that are problematic like mine. To the OP, I hope all your problems get result and you can get back to flying asap. Good luck!

 

[louforgiveno]

I am very sorry for your loss. In my opinion, this issue is 80% related to VPS. I am not so sure about the other 20% which could lead to a number of various issues. I had the flip on take off when I updated to v1.2.6 firmware. Luckily the flip was not hard enough and it happened at the beach so there was no 'casualties'. After that, I contacted DJI Support and they asked to provide them all flights log but I haven't been received any further notices from them. I thought the new firmware would be able to get rid of this VPS problem but it hasn't been solved to be honest. At first it might look fine but I was experiencing altitude loss when hovering at 0.6 to 2.5 meters. I hope they are going to come up with a better update soon to solve all these issues. If you guys are also reading this, please note there might still be problems with VPS and please be careful. I am not saying this will affect all P3 units but the ones that are problematic like mine. To the OP, I hope all your problems get result and you can get back to flying asap. Good luck!

He was way too high for VPS to be a factor.....take a look at the video that was posted

 

[John Locke]

It would be interesting to test the esc of the motor that didn't break the prop. I think esc failure is more likely than motor failure, but I may be wrong. An esc short would certainly discharge a battery quickly, as logged. I'm wondering if the fire and smoke was from the esc on the motor with unbroken prop.

 

[zincsoldier]

He was way too high for VPS to be a factor.....take a look at the video that was posted

Sorry it was only my humble opinion. I had a look at the video and decided to tell him there might be a problem with VPS because:
+ When I was in v1.2.6 firmware, even if I am from 120 meters of altitude, the human icon on DJI Pilot (back then) kept switching back with optical sensor icon. I had been seeing it switching back and fourth for several times at whatever heights. Occasionally I received the 'VPS error - please land' error.
+ The latest firmware v1.3.2 might only fix VPS temporarily??? I am running on v1.3.2 with DJI Go and occasionally loosing altitude at 0.6 - 2.5 meters. I am not decisive on anything yet as these issues are unknown. Even in the firmware release note, DJI does not mention that.
I am being very neutral in things and would like to contribute my point of view towards these issues that some members and I are experiencing. Please let me know if I was wrong and you guys could figure this problem out. I am not as very confident to fly my P3P now but still decided to go another 4km a couple of days ago What do you do !?!? This hobby is so addicting!!!

 

[Stephan]

Was this the last seconds of flight? Seems the battery stopped functioning, otherwise it would continue filming till there was no more juice while falling.

 

[ScottyT]

Bummer. Contact DJI for sure - they'll want to get at the logs on the P3 I imagine.

On the plus side, at least you were being responsible and not flying in a built up area when it happened. No real harm done.

 

[iSander]

If you zip the .txt file and attach it here I can look at it for you in more detail then what you placed in your post above.

Attached the file, thanks for looking into it

 

[iSander]

It would be interesting to test the esc of the motor that didn't break the prop. I think esc failure is more likely than motor failure, but I may be wrong. An esc short would certainly discharge a battery quickly, as logged. I'm wondering if the fire and smoke was from the esc on the motor with unbroken prop.

Fire appeared to be coming from the mainboard, directly above the battery. I believe the ESC's are located in the arms, correct me if wrong.