P3P fell out of the sky returning to me with 3% battery, what could have happened?

[the2048]

My P3P fell out of the sky returning home with 3% battery. I had flown like 4 km and all of a sudden the thing just DROPS out of the sky and disconnects! It had landed upside down, and the battery still turns on (3% before it fell), however I'm scared to take it back out without retrieving the FLY###.DAT files and checking to see if it's all OK.

DJI GO didn't record the flight data log (I've checked my phone) and all I can think of is "What happened?".

There isn't any physical damage to anything, however the body slightly unclipped. What actions should I take?

 

[Kirby Johnson]

My P3P fell out of the sky returning home with 3% battery. I had flown like 4 km and all of a sudden the thing just DROPS out of the sky and disconnects! It had landed upside down, and the battery still turns on (3% before it fell), however I'm scared to take it back out without retrieving the FLY###.DAT files and checking to see if it's all OK.

DJI GO didn't record the flight data log (I've checked my phone) and all I can think of is "What happened?".

There isn't any physical damage to anything, however the body slightly unclipped. What actions should I take?

What could have happened? You ran out of gas fellow. That battery thing is just a rough estimate. Assume that it is plus or minus 10 percent, and that is being generous. If it was on the low side it should have crashed long before it did.

 

[the2048]

What could have happened? You ran out of gas fellow. That battery thing is just a rough estimate. Assume that it is plus or minus 10 percent, and that is being generous. If it was on the low side it should have crashed long before it did.

Still spooked, that's for sure. I was literally 5 to 10 meters away from me and then it just dropped.
I'll pull the logs and have someone look at them, just to make sure it's only that as I've had other things happen that didn't result in this.

 

[N017RW]

No reason to be spooked, it was easily explained by KJ.
Never take off with less than a FULL charge, and I never fly below 20% under load.
(For me it's usually more like 25-30% typically.)

 

[Shoot4fun]

As I've been told in this forum many times... 30% battery, ya better be close to home. Have mine set to alert at 35%, but I also have Litchi reading out altitude, distance and battery every 60 seconds just to avoid such problems.

Brad

 

[Fly Dawg]

My P3P fell out of the sky returning home with 3% battery.

You answered your own question. Battery Shutdown. Pretty Obvious. No data needed.

 

[Shoot4fun]

@Fly Dawg
Yer sposed ta say "Here's her sign"... ?

 

[Deleted member 62848]

Yup mine set first warning 30% and critical at 10% ,,I never fly that low on power,,flying battery that low must get pretty warm and risk swelling a battery,,any future flights like that always give enough to get back,all the best and take care

 

[Meta4]

My P3P fell out of the sky returning home with 3% battery. I had flown like 4 km and all of a sudden the thing just DROPS out of the sky and disconnects! It had landed upside down, and the battery still turns on (3% before it fell),

DJI GO didn't record the flight data log (I've checked my phone) and all I can think of is "What happened?"

3% is zero.
The motors don't run on %, they need volts and the battery runs into problems if you go below 3.3 volts per cell.
Your flight data would show that your cell voltages were <3.3 volts.
The drone would have attempted to autoland to protect the drone and battery before 3%.

Go to DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help
Follow the instructions there to upload your flight record from your phone or tablet.
That will give you a detailed report of the flight.
Come back and post a link to the report it gives you.

 

[Fly Dawg]

"Here's her sign"...

That would be politically incorrect and gender biased. " Here's yur sign "

 

[Shoot4fun]

You are correct Good Sir. Missed that'n bya mile...

 

[solentlife]

I'm surprised that it was still in air till that point !!! 3% ?????

Like another - I don't like going below 30% unless really necessary.

What people tend to forget - as voltage drops - amps increase. Its a function of WATTS needed to sustain action. It means that the battery mA's deplete at an increasing rate as the battery voltage drops in discharge. When you get to 30% and lower levels - the mA rate is such - you better be close to home !!!

 

[Capt KO]

When I read his description at the top, I thought it was a joke, guess not. Mine would have autolanded well before 3%. I have to force it to stay in the air at about 6%. Scary for sure, But landed safely on my truck. Lesson learned

 

[captainmilehigh]

Most of us either learn the hard way, or by reading posts like this in the forums of what not to do.

But for some, it ends like this. The drone is flown all the way to the crash site.

 

[Ken Nash]

Chalk that down to experience and take note of the experienced Phantom Pilots - they know what there talking about.

 

[cheddarman]

At 30% the battery warning comes on in DJI-GO and mine comes home! Why would you try to fly with 3%!

 

[Capt KO]

Poor guy is taking a beating here. I would rather think he's learned his lesson. As far as the body coming apart, it is a snap together design. Hopefully it will snap back into place without too much pressure. Sounds like you're good to fly again, with a little more knowledge and experience under your belt. Have fun fly safe.

 

[Deleted member 62848]

Agree it's hard road sometimes but that's like a 747 circling on fumes ,change your alert settings so you got some time to play with and you be sweet from there on in ,,you'll get it sorted

 

[captainmilehigh]

Poor guy is taking a beating here. I would rather think he's learned his lesson. As far as the body coming apart, it is a snap together design. Hopefully it will snap back into place without too much pressure. Sounds like you're good to fly again, with a little more knowledge and experience under your belt. Have fun fly safe.

If the OP’s bio is correct, he/she is only 15 years old.

At that age I was doing much the same thing. Trying out a new ‘toy’ first, and then reading the instructions second. I’d wager we’ve all done that some time or another. Although our egos won’t admit it.

As said earlier, live and learn. Hopefully the OP gets back in the air soon, with a better understanding of lessons learned.

 

[John Locke]

Remembering way back in late 2015, the P3P had issues with falling out of the sky on low battery. This was most prevalent when starting a new flight on a partial charge battery, and in cold flight condition. This occurred when the weakest of the 4 cells reached 3.0V. The P3P has a very small tolerance for landing. Correct me if I'm wrong, but for P3P 20% was around 3.3V. When that low it's always dangerous when giving the craft full throttle ASCEND and FORWARD. In fact, in the 1.6 firmware DJI actually built in a THROTTLE REDUCTION governor to prevent this mistake. In firmware 1.5 (this is old 2015 firmware) the craft didn't have the governor in the firmware, and craft were falling out of the sky, especially in cold weather where batteries don't do so good.

In the P3P I think they ALWAYS had the issue of motor shut down if the craft got to 2.99V, which likely happened to the OP. It's really helpful if P3P flyers always display the voltage on the screen, which is the real time voltage level of the weakest battery. If you start getting down to 3.2V, you should gingerly operate the throttle, however simply planning to land by 20% is the best way to avoid craft that drop from the sky.

Newer craft, such as Mavic2 (not sure about P4P or MP), don't shut down the motors anymore at 2.99V. When the battery reaches 3.0V, it simply starts descending where ever it's at. On M2 this 3.0V level occurs after 0% on the bar gauge, so you can actually continue to maintain altitude and move forward for about a minute after 0%, but it's not advised of course. But once it reaches 3.0V on the weakest cell, it will slowly descend uncontrollably. Newer DJI craft won't simply turn off the motors and fall form the sky like P3P, this motor shutdown flaw, exhibited in P3P has been fixed in newer craft. DJI will never admit to this flaw in the P3P, but I deem it as a serious P3P flaw, one that I don't think ever got fixed, entirely. They only included the governor in firmware 1.6 and later firmware, which is more like a bandaid than a fix.

As newer craft were released, you will notice the tolerance to accidental low battery level is greater. When landing M2P for instance, if my memory is correct, I believe 20% is ~3.5V instead of 3.3V in the P3P (correct me if I'm wrong). This gives more margin for error, more mileage to return when mistakes are made.