Phantom 3 malfunction and crash (flight record video)

Serpent · May 23, 2015

Wonder what a small drone parachute would weigh that could be activated at a press of a button.

Adam Kontras · May 23, 2015

Serpent said:
Wonder what a small drone parachute would weigh that could be activated at a press of a button.

If you could kill the motors pretty fast it would be nice... Otherwise that would be a mess....

DrChris · May 23, 2015

Adam, Thanks so much for posting the video with your stick movements. This kind of transparency is really helpful to all of us.

There have been lots of threads with comments about 'user error'. I'm not sure that I find any solace in another user making a mistake and crashing his phantom (nor do I mean to imply that you did). If someone crashed his phantom because of 'user error', there is suddenly an opportunity for all of us to learn from what happened so that doesn't happen to us. From the handful of threads about crashes that do seem to be user error (i.e. bad calibration, etc), I've learned a lot.

I don't feel that I need to justify my purchase by anything other than the immense enjoyment that I've already experienced with my Phantom. I hope it lasts a long time and that I don't make a huge mistake and crash it into something (like the mighty Mississippi river)! But if I crash mine tomorrow, I'll likely buy another.

Again, thanks for the great Vegas videos. I hope you figure out what happened to your bird and that you get a replacement. Please keep us updated!

Chris

Adam Kontras · May 23, 2015

DrChris said:
Adam, Thanks so much for posting the video with your stick movements. This kind of transparency is really helpful to all of us.

There have been lots of threads with comments about 'user error'. I'm not sure that I find any solace in another user making a mistake and crashing his phantom (nor do I mean to imply that you did). If someone crashed his phantom because of 'user error', there is suddenly an opportunity for all of us to learn from what happened so that doesn't happen to us. From the handful of threads about crashes that do seem to be user error (i.e. bad calibration, etc), I've learned a lot.

I don't feel that I need to justify my purchase by anything other than the immense enjoyment that I've already experienced with my Phantom. I hope it lasts a long time and that I don't make a huge mistake and crash it into something (like the mighty Mississippi river)! But if I crash mine tomorrow, I'll likely buy another.

Again, thanks for the great Vegas videos. I hope you figure out what happened to your bird and that you get a replacement. Please keep us updated!

Chris

The only user-error I can profess is that the same issue that was causing the "jello" in the videos, may have been what inevitably got worse and worse. Was it a balance issue? Was it a calibration issue? I have done the compass calibration often (last did it Wednesday), I did the IMU calibration as well. But I flew it 4 or 5 times since that including that ridiculous Bellagio fountains footage. It performed beautifully. My only issue was during the day, the "jello" issue was really bad. I decided to put it up this morning to see if it had anything to do with the ISO or FPS settings. I purposely did nothing even remotely difficult as it was just a test.

By the way - I got the .txt file off from the ifunbox app (thanks for that suggestion) so where should I upload it to get the 3D version?!?!

infusopharm · May 23, 2015

Is there a chance that the 100% left stick movement downward for 3 seconds killed the motors?

isopro · May 23, 2015

Adam Kontras said:
I'll instant message you my address and I'll give you the co-ordinates. Please don't make it public (street names, etc)

1 out of 4 motor failures could ABSOLUTELY let the aircraft spin out of control and at 90 feet high, it could certainly continue to travel. However, all the readings after it freaked out are obviously not accurate. The GPS is going in and out - it says it's final resting spot is -56 feet. Myself and all my neighbors watched it spin, rock and generally freak out. Was it trying to right itself? Surely it was. It didn't just stop spinning and drop, it was freaking out. Something happened and clearly it was to one arm of the copter which caused it to spin.

Listen, I know I'm a little defensive here and some of you guys are indeed trying to figure out what happened because it's scary to think this can happen without any user error. I will try to be as unemotional as possible when talking about this, but if you're trolling to make it look like my fault because you want to feel better about your purchase, you're kidding yourselves. This effects ALL of us.

(And for the love of GOD, stop acting like any movement of the stick where it hits the side of the controller is worthy of a CRASH. As a guy only interested in video production, 99% of my movements are in the 5-10% range for the slowest possible movements, but you can absolutely go up and down --when over a hundred feet in the air-- at 100% movement on the sticks without issue)

I'm just giving you the theory that DJI might use/interpret, when they look at this data, also it is sadly in the advantage of a corporation to interpret in a monetary profitable way...
Better be a simple user like me getting you ready for this then dealing directly with DJI unprepared...

But send me the address/coordinates and if you can link the file with exact gps coordinates and data somewhere i will compare and check, because if there's nothing at this location then it will be easy to proove it is a hardware failure, else DJI might think it is a pilot error from orientation(aircraft facing you) causing an impact...

isopro · May 23, 2015

infusopharm said:
Is there a chance that the 100% left stick movement downward for 3 seconds killed the motors?

No 100% stick movement don't kill motors and having 4 motor stop at 90 feet = 100% drop with no lateral movement..

Adam Kontras · May 23, 2015

infusopharm said:
Is there a chance that the 100% left stick movement downward for 3 seconds killed the motors?

No, I've risen and lowered for more than 3 seconds nearly every single flight. In fact if you watch my vegas video, the money "paris" shot is going down at 100% and moving the gimbal up every so slightly - maybe 20%- to create the effect for over 30 seconds. DJI already implements a "gimped" descent so it's not very fast...

BarryM · May 23, 2015

Adam Kontras said:
No, I've risen and lowered for more than 3 seconds nearly every single flight. In fact if you watch my vegas video, the money "paris" shot is going down at 100% and moving the gimbal up every so slightly - maybe 20%- to create the effect for over 30 seconds. DJI already implements a "gimped" descent so it's not very fast...

Adam you mentioned trying to cure a jello problem...and trying various settings, so presumably the camera was recording at the time? If so, can't you remove the SD card from the camera and play back the video on your PC? At the end of each days flying I remove the card and download the footage for the memory value even if it's nothing extraordinary. And apologies if I missed something that covers my comment. Hope it gets sorted soon.

isopro · May 23, 2015

I looked at google map street view for the address you gave me, and light poles are other side of the streets and there is nothing in 50 feet that could cause impact in that area, hopefully DJI take this into consideration ! I wonder if they have data for each motor in the log file.
I wish you get a replacement...

Adam Kontras · May 23, 2015

BarryM said:
Adam you mentioned trying to cure a jello problem...and trying various settings, so presumably the camera was recording at the time? If so, can't you remove the SD card from the camera and play back the video on your PC? At the end of each days flying I remove the card and download the footage for the memory value even if it's nothing extraordinary. And apologies if I missed something that covers my comment. Hope it gets sorted soon.

I had stopped the video to make some changes to the settings to try and test what was causing the jello... the neighbors started watching and I figured I'd bring it down so they could get a better look. WONDERFUL TIMING. They think I'm insane.

Adam Kontras · May 23, 2015

isopro said:
I looked at google map street view for the address you gave me, and light poles are other side of the streets and there is nothing in 50 feet that could cause impact in that area, hopefully DJI take this into consideration ! I wonder if they have data for each motor in the log file.
I wish you get a replacement...

Thank you for saying that. I have honestly no doubt that they or Advexure will take care of this. I've documented everything, been public with everything, been open to all questions... I want to know what happened just as much as I want a replacement. And if by some change they refund my money, but DONT have an answer as to what the malfunction was? I don't think I'm buying another unit. This was INCREDIBLY dangerous. I don't care where you are (neighborhood, field, lake), there should never be a sudden issue this violent.

TacAir42 · May 23, 2015

FYI OP: My first P3P did something very similar at 42' AGL. 5th flight of the day and I was in a hover rotating slightly to get a picture of the house, no obstacles when it looks like a motor gave or something and crashed hard. One motor won't run but the other three do. I sent it back last week.

isopro · May 23, 2015

TacAir42 said:
FYI OP: My first P3P did something very similar at 42' AGL. 5th flight of the day and I was in a hover rotating slightly to get a picture of the house, no obstacles when it looks like a motor gave or something and crashed hard. One motor won't run but the other three do. I sent it back last week.

Did they say they would replace/repair ?

Adam Kontras · May 23, 2015

isopro said:
Did they say they would replace/repair ?

Talk about leaving us hanging... LOL

gary Guzzardo · May 24, 2015

Sorry to here about this , I feel your pain , it happen to me 2 weeks after I bought my phantom 2 , I didn't even bother with DJI , I just fixed mine New shell , New esc. A real Pain
good luck to ya ..

isopro · May 24, 2015

gary Guzzardo said:
Sorry to here about this , I feel your pain , it happen to me 2 weeks after I bought my phantom 2 , I didn't even bother with DJI , I just fixed mine New shell , New esc. A real Pain
good luck to ya ..

Sadly the new ESC are included in the boards, i hope the fail rate is really really low because it is way more expensive to change a ESC then a complete Board.

snowghost · May 24, 2015

Yes it is scary that something like that can happen. Just like the shrapnel auto airbags and the like. Thank goodness for the flight logs, it can only help to improve things. It's also a reminder to not fly over little kids and dogs.

isopro · May 24, 2015

snowghost said:
Yes it is scary that something like that can happen. Just like the shrapnel auto airbags and the like. Thank goodness for the flight logs, it can only help to improve things. It's also a reminder to not fly over little kids and dogs.

It is really important to use the CSC emergency in case of lost of control, because the aircraft can travel a long distance before crashing on peoples and or property, by using CRC we control the decent location and this can avoid damage ! If i loose control the first thing to do in my list is stop all motors when it is not over something or someone.

_007 · May 24, 2015

isopro said:
It is really important to use the CSC emergency in case of lost of control, because the aircraft can travel a long distance before crashing on peoples and or property, by using CRC we control the decent location and this can avoid damage ! If i loose control the first thing to do in my list is stop all motors when it is not over something or someone.

excuse the ignorance. Bond used to have someone who managed his high tech gadgets... Sadly he passed. Is this CRC you speak of accomplished when you pull the sticks together to the bottom middle and hold?