P3S Dropped out of sky today

4F52031E-3A2F-4928-B213-6D222071BCCC.jpeg
 
That wasn't directly related to any specific instance. Other than your "Off Topic" posts. But, when commenting on certain things at times you drift away from the subject. No worry's there really though. Was just pointing that out. As we get older that tends to happen. Sometimes noticed by others, sometimes not. It has happened to me as well while working with all of these data files. Sometimes more than three at a time. They run together and I may post pre-maturely while looking at someone else's data. I almost always catch those and correct, but it happens.....
Yes absolutely truth. But try to do that in other than your native language. We are here from all over the world. Native English speaking members are in this as well as in other forums in great advantage. Do take this into account and be tolerant to minor uncertainties or mistakes. To catch the point is all we need here.
Now we are really off topic, but I have nothing more to say about it. Maybe the .dat file could reveal something.
 
Do take this into account and be tolerant to minor uncertainties or mistakes
I do. I have been around here long enough to know that. He ( WV Rootman ) and I have had a few conversations before so this is nothing new. You are not telling me anything I don't already know. ;)
 
Until the op comes back, I vote we talk about anything we want. :oops:;):)

Actually, I was showing a friend the destruction.

As stated by @Josh1234,
"It was a write off due to gps module going through the central processor into the battery."

So that's how that happens. I thought it was odd that CPU doesn't stay in its socket.

Rod
 
I am just sorry that you were unable to see what happened as you would have had you been flying responsibly. Now, you will never know to include knowing if the drone caused others damage or injury when it fell out of the sky.

I'm curious as you were referring to about not flying responsibly? I was flying over a completed wooded area at a safe altitude and had visual through the camera at the time of the crash. My mistake was that I didn't hit record so I could verify if a bird was involved or not.
 
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Ok, I was finally able to pull the .dat files off the internal SD card of the drone. I was unable to connect the drone back to the RC so I just took apart the drone and removed the internal SD card and it mount fine in my Mac that way. There were a total of 9 .DAT files with the same timestamp but varying sizes. I think this is likely due to the fact that the drone continued to run even after the crash and it started creating new files after about 300MB. I zipped them all up to make sure all data is available. I'm going to try to look at the logs later today myself but would be interested in your guy's inputs and assessment.

The issue I'm having is uploading this large file to this forum as it says the file is too large. What other options do you guys recommend to get make these files available?

Thanks,

Chad
 
What other options do you guys recommend to get make these files available?
You cannot upload those here. You will need to use a share site such as dropbox, google drive, etc...and place a link back here to that.
 
It appears that only 1 of the 9 files is an actual flight. FLY 102. The data ends basically the same way the RC data did. I don't see anything that "jumps" out as a direct cause and unfortunately the P3S does not report motor data. The data stops at 62 meters in altitude.

Capture.PNG
 
Wow, this is still a puzzle. It is almost like it suffered a complete loss of power but then again, it was still powered on when I found it.

I have a separate question if someone doesn't mind providing some input. I was able to find a new, unregistered P3 Standard on Ebay that had the camera and gimble removed for a good price. I got it in, installed my camera/gimble and connected to my RC. At first it would connect and then have constant RC Signal loss issues and I suspected there was some issues with the old RC being on a newer firmware than the replacement bird which came with an old firmware I wanted to stay on. I did some google searches and the issue seemed to have various potential solutions, one of which was to return the bird under warranty. That didn't seem logical unless I got a bad drone, so I figured I would go ahead and update the firmware to the latest DJI App suggested 1.9.2. I didn't really want to upgrade to that but I think that process fixed my issues and now the bird and RC remain connected and although I haven't done any controlled test flights at a low height, all indications point to this thing will likely work ok.

Now, one question is whether the upgrade process also upgraded something on the RC to get both in sync and if so, could I revert back to the older firmware and that keep the drone/RC in sync on the older firmware. The RC was never on the older firmware so not sure if the downgrade process will have any effect/benefit to the RC. Any suggestions on how best to properly get back on the older firmware? It seems that the latest firmware comes with some changes and limitations that I'd like to avoid but would be interested in other's thoughts before I try to revert back to the original firmware.

Even though I bought a drone that was technically new and unregistered, my assumption is that the warranty may be suspect given the camera/gimble are not original to that drone. I was able to register this new drone under my email so I have the 1 year warranty now, but I'm curious if I did ever need warranty support would the fact I have a different camera have any impact on coverage. I'm not sure if the drone/camera are mated by serial numbers, etc.
 
Wow, this is still a puzzle. It is almost like it suffered a complete loss of power but then again, it was still powered on when I found it.

I have a separate question if someone doesn't mind providing some input. I was able to find a new, unregistered P3 Standard on Ebay that had the camera and gimble removed for a good price. I got it in, installed my camera/gimble and connected to my RC. At first it would connect and then have constant RC Signal loss issues and I suspected there was some issues with the old RC being on a newer firmware than the replacement bird which came with an old firmware I wanted to stay on. I did some google searches and the issue seemed to have various potential solutions, one of which was to return the bird under warranty. That didn't seem logical unless I got a bad drone, so I figured I would go ahead and update the firmware to the latest DJI App suggested 1.9.2. I didn't really want to upgrade to that but I think that process fixed my issues and now the bird and RC remain connected and although I haven't done any controlled test flights at a low height, all indications point to this thing will likely work ok.

Now, one question is whether the upgrade process also upgraded something on the RC to get both in sync and if so, could I revert back to the older firmware and that keep the drone/RC in sync on the older firmware. The RC was never on the older firmware so not sure if the downgrade process will have any effect/benefit to the RC. Any suggestions on how best to properly get back on the older firmware? It seems that the latest firmware comes with some changes and limitations that I'd like to avoid but would be interested in other's thoughts before I try to revert back to the original firmware.

Even though I bought a drone that was technically new and unregistered, my assumption is that the warranty may be suspect given the camera/gimble are not original to that drone. I was able to register this new drone under my email so I have the 1 year warranty now, but I'm curious if I did ever need warranty support would the fact I have a different camera have any impact on coverage. I'm not sure if the drone/camera are mated by serial numbers, etc.

FLY102.DAT (the flight in question) ends abruptly at 20:23:55Z as noted above. The next log, FLY103.DAT starts with an aircraft boot sequence at 20:24:00Z, i.e. 5 seconds later, with the aircraft on the ground and tipped over on its right side. That strongly suggests the FC crashed and rebooted rather than simply suffered power loss, although a brief power interruption could, conceivably, have caused the reboot.
 
That strongly suggests the FC crashed and rebooted rather than simply suffered power loss, although a brief power interruption could, conceivably, have caused the reboot.
Was wondering about that. Looked at FLY103 as well....
 
FLY102.DAT (the flight in question) ends abruptly at 20:23:55Z as noted above. The next log, FLY103.DAT starts with an aircraft boot sequence at 20:24:00Z, i.e. 5 seconds later, with the aircraft on the ground and tipped over on its right side. That strongly suggests the FC crashed and rebooted rather than simply suffered power loss, although a brief power interruption could, conceivably, have caused the reboot.

Thanks for extracting and providing the details from the logs. The drone was sitting as you stated when I found it although I can't remember if it was left or right side but either way the logs are likely accurate. After looking at the data and recalling what things looked like while flying in that brief instant I saw the drone quickly dip to the left and then video frozen, I'm beginning to rule out a large bird as this log data seems to suggest something more drone related. We may never know for sure what exactly caused this incident but I appreciate everyone's time in trying to identify a root cause.
 
We may never know for sure what exactly caused this incident but I appreciate everyone's time in trying to identify a root cause.
Thank you for that. At times we try to assist and the OP, is either un-appreciative, and/or unwilling to accept what the data reveals. If anything conclusive..........;)
 
Wow, this is still a puzzle. It is almost like it suffered a complete loss of power but then again, it was still powered on when I found it.

I have a separate question if someone doesn't mind providing some input. I was able to find a new, unregistered P3 Standard on Ebay that had the camera and gimble removed for a good price. I got it in, installed my camera/gimble and connected to my RC. At first it would connect and then have constant RC Signal loss issues and I suspected there was some issues with the old RC being on a newer firmware than the replacement bird which came with an old firmware I wanted to stay on. I did some google searches and the issue seemed to have various potential solutions, one of which was to return the bird under warranty. That didn't seem logical unless I got a bad drone, so I figured I would go ahead and update the firmware to the latest DJI App suggested 1.9.2. I didn't really want to upgrade to that but I think that process fixed my issues and now the bird and RC remain connected and although I haven't done any controlled test flights at a low height, all indications point to this thing will likely work ok.

Now, one question is whether the upgrade process also upgraded something on the RC to get both in sync and if so, could I revert back to the older firmware and that keep the drone/RC in sync on the older firmware. The RC was never on the older firmware so not sure if the downgrade process will have any effect/benefit to the RC. Any suggestions on how best to properly get back on the older firmware? It seems that the latest firmware comes with some changes and limitations that I'd like to avoid but would be interested in other's thoughts before I try to revert back to the original firmware.

Even though I bought a drone that was technically new and unregistered, my assumption is that the warranty may be suspect given the camera/gimble are not original to that drone. I was able to register this new drone under my email so I have the 1 year warranty now, but I'm curious if I did ever need warranty support would the fact I have a different camera have any impact on coverage. I'm not sure if the drone/camera are mated by serial numbers, etc.
First, you have to buy from a DJI authorized dealer to have warranty.
Just my 2 cents, You are not opening the P3 up so I see no problem. You are only plugging in 3 wires to the gimbal. Replacing the pins and absorbers is normal maintenance.
 
Ok just a short but interesting update. I got the replacement drone in just under 2 weeks ago and today was the first chance I've had to do a simple test flight. I calibrated the IMU and Compass before flight. I wanted to keep things under control and near my property. I flew it around my home to get a feel for its behavior and make sure the compass calibration was ok. I got it up to about 150ft or and never let it get out of my sight. I decided to land it as it was nearing sunset. Once I got the drone back to the landing zone and landed, I kid you not, a falcon or small hawk landed within 20 ft of it on the fence around our pool area and just sat there still for about 10 seconds. I lifted the drone off the ground again to try and get a picture of the thing and it flew off. Now, I simply can't rule out a bird strike of my first drone that started this thread. If I had not landed when I did, I can't help but think that bird was tracking my drone down. I'm curious if others have had other "birds of prey" track their drones in such a way even without striking it. I am rather surprised that it got that close to me as well as I was at about the same distance. Oh well, another interesting flight and now I'm always going to be wondering if these birds will be lurking out there when I fly around my area.
 
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A bird tracking your drone? I had that happen a couple of times. Not with my Phantoms, but with my Spark. I think the high-pitched "bee" sounds the props on Spark make attracts birds, specifically swallows. They have twice gone after it. Crazy. Nothing bad happened, but it was odd. I have footage of one circling the drone and literally pass by about one foot in front of the camera.

Oh, and then there's the bees. A pack surrounded my Spark once. I landed the drone and bee guts were on the props.
 
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The only time I ever had my P3 drop out of the sky as you describe, was once when I had been practice flying out back my house w/the kids; luckily all low altitude not flying above 15-20 ft off the ground. I didn't realize I did this till after it happened, and I was writing hate email to DJI about the incident and I remembered switching the battery on the drone w\ fresh one, but forgot to cycle off/on the power of the remote control. I did the same thing again to verify (this time only being 18" off ground) this is what caused it, and about the exact amount of time after change out of battery, the propellers stopped and the drone dropped into the grass.
I won't do that again! (I hope)
 

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