P3P crash after firmware update

[Wilfros]

For what it is worth, I had a similar event. Difference is.... I was lucky enough to walk away with the P3P in tack. Here is the video of what happened to me.

 

[flyNfrank]

Controls were all in default settings.

Where the video stopped, the data stopped logging also. 8.16m

The 1st thing I noticed was there was no compass calibration. Not that there needed to be, I just have the ability to see if one was performed prior to.

Next I saw a warning you received when reaching the max set height, which was not that high.

At this point I went on to see if the data gave any appearance of hitting a tree limb as mentioned in one of your post. While I found no evidence of that taking place, I did begin getting a very good feeling that your aircraft (a/c) had been attacked by a bird. This was based on what I saw in the Pitch data and Height data at the same point and time. The nose of the a/c went downward while traveling forward, and in the same time frame the a/c also climbed nearly .46 meters.

I then looked over everything that would indicate a motor issue and found nothing.

I then paid attention to the pilots flying characteristics with the r/c during the point in which the a/c began to come down.

It was after I went through the tumbling part of the video frame by frame and sync's what I saw there and with the data from the pilots control with the r/c that lead me to the final call.

The final call is the left rear propeller broke. It either broke off in flight, or broke but not completely until contact with the ground......... So now if none of the following took place, then you can go back to the bird attack. 1) If the mentioned Propeller has never had any contact with any surface, ever. 2) If you have never tightened down the propeller with a tool to assist you.

If your answer is NO to 1 & 2, go with the bird. Btw, nothing electrical stood out anywhere that was abnormal until the last 3 lines of data which would equal milliseconds well after the point which the a/c came down.

 

[GhostMaster]

DJI livechat support wasn't really helpful unfortunately. Took like 15-20 minutes to find out that they can't help because I'm from Europe and I need to send an e-mail instead.
Back to the waiting game... does anyone know how long it usually takes for DJI Europe to respond?

Call dji Europe, they are slow to answer emails.

 

[g00se]

For what it is worth, I had a similar event. Difference is.... I was lucky enough to walk away with the P3P in tack. Here is the video of what happened to me.

GPS sat count drops from 18 to 13 right when things go wonky...

Correlation = causation?!?

 

[imadago]

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.

You can't get through to DJI. I have tried repeatedly. The phone recording says they are experiencing high call volume, call again later. I would suggest emailing them on their zendesk.

 

[iSander]

Where the video stopped, the data stopped logging also. 8.16m

The 1st thing I noticed was there was no compass calibration. Not that there needed to be, I just have the ability to see if one was performed prior to.

Next I saw a warning you received when reaching the max set height, which was not that high.

At this point I went on to see if the data gave any appearance of hitting a tree limb as mentioned in one of your post. While I found no evidence of that taking place, I did begin getting a very good feeling that your aircraft (a/c) had been attacked by a bird. This was based on what I saw in the Pitch data and Height data at the same point and time. The nose of the a/c went downward while traveling forward, and in the same time frame the a/c also climbed nearly .46 meters.

I then looked over everything that would indicate a motor issue and found nothing.

I then paid attention to the pilots flying characteristics with the r/c during the point in which the a/c began to come down.

It was after I went through the tumbling part of the video frame by frame and sync's what I saw there and with the data from the pilots control with the r/c that lead me to the final call.

The final call is the left rear propeller broke. It either broke off in flight, or broke but not completely until contact with the ground......... So now if none of the following took place, then you can go back to the bird attack. 1) If the mentioned Propeller has never had any contact with any surface, ever. 2) If you have never tightened down the propeller with a tool to assist you.

If your answer is NO to 1 & 2, go with the bird. Btw, nothing electrical stood out anywhere that was abnormal until the last 3 lines of data which would equal milliseconds well after the point which the a/c came down.

Thanks for helping to investigate!
It's a no to 1 & 2, the props never got damaged in any way.
The bird attack looks like a possibility, but wouldn't there be a sign of the bird hitting the a/c? If the bird hit the propeller, wouldn't there be at least some blood on the prop? Would definitely be the case if I hit a prop with my hand.
Also looked through the final seconds frame by frame, multiple times, thinking there must have been at least one frame with the bird in it, as the a/c was spinning around so many times. But found nothing.

 

[flyNfrank]

Thanks for helping to investigate!
It's a no to 1 & 2, the props never got damaged in any way.
The bird attack looks like a possibility, but wouldn't there be a sign of the bird hitting the a/c? If the bird hit the propeller, wouldn't there be at least some blood on the prop? Would definitely be the case if I hit a prop with my hand.
Also looked through the final seconds frame by frame, multiple times, thinking there must have been at least one frame with the bird in it, as the a/c was spinning around so many times. But found nothing.

Yeah the video is going to be limited on what you see as it tumbles. I usually look for missing props, or a prop that is not spinning. Both of your front props were fine in the frames you could see them.

I don't think I mentioned this before, but what you see in the video with how the a/c began rotating to the left. ect. This was all done be you with the controller. Everything matched up.

I saved one of my, drop from the sky crashes, earlier this year by holding up on the UP-Stick all the way. The a/c became level for second and the compass was able to back over again all at the last second. I had like 15ft to spare once recovered. This is worth watching!!!

 

[iSander]

Update:
The week after the crash (towards end of August) I sent my Phantom to my dealer in the Netherlands, they would then send it to DJI Germany for "repair".
While I was waiting for news from my dealer I also contacted DJI support directly via e-mail, after sending the required information regarding the crash they let me know that there would a free repair. About the exact reason for the crash, they didn't want to answer that question as the question was ignored it every time I asked.
After waiting a couple of weeks I've finally received a call from my dealer regarding my Phantom. They said they had received the Phantom back from DJI Germany, not repaired + a note of what the repair costs would be. (When DJI Germany requested details via my dealer, they received the same information as I had sent to DJI support and even the e-mail conversation with support)
Now, my dealer also says the crash was caused by software malfunction and they asked me if they could send the unit to some new DJI repair center or something in the Netherlands, because they would be better in handling Warranty related stuff.

The waiting game continues...