Phantom 3 malfunction and crash (flight record video)

[Adam Kontras]

Sorry, Adam, that really sucks. Let DJI know and they should give you a discount on another.

On the bright side, you could sell your battery or at least have two when you get a new bird. I know, not much a bright side.

I have 3 batteries on their way here.

<blink>

And no, we're not in discount territory. If their hardware malfunctioned mid-flight and I have the records to prove it... they're lucky there isn't a lawsuit on their hands. There is no reason a motor just STOPS with no warning after a week of use.

 

[mmee1992]

This @#%$@#$% guy.

Sorry that happened. Please keep us informed on DJI's response. I'm glad it didn't happen while you were flying over Vegas.

 

[Adam Kontras]

Guys, relax! He wasn't calling him a troll, he was poking for pics. Everyone is so sensitive today! [emoji53]
Yeah it sucks when one of our birds bite the dust BUT it's no reason to cry and get bent out of shape. Pun intended... [emoji6]

Dude, posting "no pics of the bird so it didn't happen" is not "poking for pics".

The people asking for pics - actually asked for them. LOL. And I posted a video for them.

 

[AmosMoses]

Dude, posting "no pics of the bird so it didn't happen" is not "poking for pics".

The people asking for pics - actually asked for them. LOL. And I posted a video for them.

Guess I'm out of touch. I say that to my friends all the time on Facebook. Pics or it didn't happen. Always thought it was a way to get someone to post pics. Guess I'm always just a decade or two behind but I try.. [emoji12]

 

[ianwood]

Crashing your bird is a pretty traumatic experience. Maybe it's not the best time to poke fun. Let's help Adam figure out what happened.

 

[AmosMoses]

Crashing your bird is a pretty traumatic experience. Maybe it's not the best time to poke fun. Let's help Adam figure out what happened.

Cancer is a traumatic experience. Had a failure not of my fault with my bird, didn't do any good to cry about it. Get pissed? Sure but if you're around the hobby enough you'll learn quickly, crashing is part of it. Maybe I'm just an old fart and am able to laugh about things because crying makes it worse.

Hope the op gets it sorted out soon!

 

[louforgiveno]

I have 3 batteries on their way here.

<blink>

And no, we're not in discount territory. If their hardware malfunctioned mid-flight and I have the records to prove it... they're lucky there isn't a lawsuit on their hands. There is no reason a motor just STOPS with no warning after a week of use.

I hear you on that.....discount?? If it trully was a malfunction I'd expect full replacement!!

 

[snowghost]

Alright lots of questions, I'll try to answer them all in one post:

-I'm fairly certain you guys are right about one corner motor suddenly either going dead or malfunctioning. It's just crazy because it wasn't during any whacky maneuvering. You can see from the video it sat idle in the sky for a period of time, I turned it and it wasn't going but 2-3 mph when it went haywire.

-yes, the craft was spinning, but not in a perfect circle like it shows in the flight record of course... it was rocking left and right. I mean, just imagine all hell breaking loose when a real helicpoter goes down. That's what it looked like. I wasn't attempting to right it either... it was VERY clear this was over I was watching just to see where it would end up.

-looking at the flight record it was going in and out of atti mode, but no i didn't notice that during, only looking at the video later.

-I couldn't find an angle to take a good picture (cause there was so much damage) so I just took another video:

-I'm gonna attempt to get the .txt files as was suggested now...

Wow. Terrible. Nobody has opined on the bird going into Atti Mode. I wonder if that is related.

 

[Adam Kontras]

Guess I'm out of touch. I say that to my friends all the time on Facebook. Pics or it didn't happen. Always thought it was a way to get someone to post pics. Guess I'm always just a decade or two behind but I try.. [emoji12]

What scenario works best for "pics or it didn't happen"?

A) When your buddies tell you they went out with 3 cheerleaders last night...
B) Someone's $1250 drone just went haywire and was destroyed by no fault of theirs...

 

[Adam Kontras]

Wow. Terrible. Nobody has opined on the bird going into Atti Mode. I wonder if that is related.

If you watch the initial video it went into ATTI mode AFTER it started going haywire. Most likely because GPS couldn't track it since it was spinning so violently. If you look closely it jumps back and forth from GPS to ATTI mode as it's going down. I'm fairly certain that wasn't the issue. Something clearly malfunctioned in one of the motors. Either the the firmware went nuts or the motor itself sputtered or stopped.

I also just noticed on the flight record you can bring up the stick movements over the animation. That's pretty cool, and in this case absolutely puts my mind at ease. If they don't replace this after that much proof, we're all gonna riot.

 

[ianwood]

Final altitude of -56ft?

 

[snowghost]

If you watch the initial video it went into ATTI mode AFTER it started going haywire. Most likely because GPS couldn't track it since it was spinning so violently. If you look closely it jumps back and forth from GPS to ATTI mode as it's going down. I'm fairly certain that wasn't the issue. Something clearly malfunctioned in one of the motors. Either the the firmware went nuts or the motor itself sputtered or stopped.

I also just noticed on the flight record you can bring up the stick movements over the animation. That's pretty cool, and in this case absolutely puts my mind at ease. If they don't replace this after that much proof, we're all gonna riot.

Good point. Noticed that the second time around.

 

[Adam Kontras]

Final altitude of -56ft?

Yeah I saw that, but it was accurate before the spin... I was around 200 feet when I descended to about 90 and was bringing it back... but the fact that it ended up at -56 could point to a firmware issue.

 

[leekiya]

Mine went into p atti mode first thing this morning on 1.1.8, i had 16 satellites and then took off, got to exactly 10mtrs (just looked back in flight log) and it went into p atti mode, flew forward and back a few mtrs or so and it kept flicking from gps to atti, flew forward 5 mtrs and got full gps 16 satellites back. Its been on my mind all day.

 

[snowghost]

Mine went into p atti mode first thing this morning on 1.1.8, i had 16 satellites and then took off, got to exactly 10mtrs (just looked back in flight log) and it went into p atti mode, flew forward and back a few mtrs or so and it kept flicking from gps to atti, flew forward 5 mtrs and got full gps 16 satellites back. Its been on my mind all day.

Mine did that a few times after taking off from my driveway. I'm thinking the rebar might have done it. I'm going to launch from the lawn from now on and see if it happens again.

 

[packerman8]

Sorry Adam... I would recommend upgrading to the newest firmware as soon as possible for people who haven't. The the only thing I can say DJI might have a problem with is your firmware not being on the newest version... Besides that's, it looks totally like your drone malfunctioned... Can you buy warranty from anyone on these machines?

 

[leekiya]

Mine did that a few times after taking off from my driveway. I'm thinking the rebar might have done it. I'm going to launch from the lawn from now on and see if it happens again.

Well the place i took of from was on the sea front on a new main stretch of sea wall and walk way on the flyde coast which will have defiantly had lots of the rebar you talk about. I didn't know if this would have played a part in loosing gps signall or not, It was fine when it was on the ground, it was just when it got 10mtrs in the air it lost gps.

 

[packerman8]

If someone can explain what the hell just happened, I'd be awfully appreciative.

Trying to troubleshoot the "jello" issue, I had my P3P in the air floating around 90 feet while changing settings. I go to bring it a little closer and it goes absolutely crazy. With nothing around it, it spins, rocks from side to side and as you can see from the video below, crashes. It's completely totaled (gimbal broken, shell busted, ripped apart). Thankfully no one was hurt! My neighbors were scared, but really just felt bad for me. They saw it just go crazy.

Thankfully there's flight records so I can prove it went completely crazy with ZERO input from me... however does that matter? Is this considered user error? I'm just out?

Stunned.

Do you have video from the drone itself when this happened?

 

[Adam Kontras]

Sorry Adam... I would recommend upgrading to the newest firmware as soon as possible for people who haven't. The the only thing I can say DJI might have a problem with is your firmware not being on the newest version... Besides that's, it looks totally like your drone malfunctioned... Can you buy warranty from anyone on these machines?

It came out Thursday night and this happened Saturday morning. They can't expect everyone to be able to upgrade their firmware THAT quickly. It had barely been 36 hours.

 

[Adam Kontras]

Do you have video from the drone itself when this happened?

I don't. I had just shot some video (was trying to get rid of the "jello effect") and stopped recording to change some settings. However it was spinning so violently, I'm not sure that would've provided much more info. I want to get to the .txt files because I saw that site could recreate the animation in 3D. That would be pretty useful...just can't seem to get my computer to recognize my bird.