Phantom 3 Pro Catastrophic Battery Failure

Im saying that a preflight on a real aircraft is performed prior to the initial flight of the day. The checklist is pretty long. In a UH60 it is estimated to take an hour+. After the initial flight the checklist prior to subsequent flights is only estimated to take 5 minutes. In commercial aircraft.. a 777 as an example... take over an hour for 5 people. The check prior to subsequent takeoffs is only a few minutes. ALL preflights include a check that sufficient fuel is present for the flight planned. NOT that the tanks are full.

Unless the manufacturer specifies that the tanks have to be full-- which in this case DJI specifies or recommends that the batteries be charged fully. This is a no brainer for any rc aircraft that depends on lipo battery power for the fuel source as any experienced rc modeler will tell you.
 
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Unless the manufacturer specifies that the tanks have to be full-- which in this case DJI specifies or recommends that the batteries be charged fully. This is a no brainer for any rc aircraft that depends on lipo battery power for the fuel source as any experienced rc modeler will tell you.
That is NOT what DJI is implying in the book. It would be absolutely stupid to tell us something like that. And LiPo batteries have no history of issues flying not fully charged.
 
Can you not use your aircraft? Mine sank in freshwater lake/creek. I fished her out, and after thorough drying, she was fully operational. 5 months later, she flies without any issues.
 
Make this test :
- Take off with a 100% battery and drain it till 60%
- Note the 4 cells voltage
- Let the battery off for 30 minutes
- Then power on the quad and check the cell voltage : it is now higher !

I'm not an expert at all but this indicates the battery has not the same behavior.
I prefer to be safe than sorry so if I have to land after only a few minutes of flight and want to takeoff again, I put my second fresh battery (They are always charged just before flying)
All batteries will recover slightly after taking them off load. This is normal battery behavior.
 
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Not running with a fully topped off battery shouldn't be a problem. If it says 58%, then it should have enough to fly for at least 10 minutes or so. I don't go fill up my car when it's at half a tank just to run to the grocery store. This almost seems like the voltage or current sensor is out of wack on those batteries.
 
That is NOT what DJI is implying in the book. It would be absolutely stupid to tell us something like that. And LiPo batteries have no history of issues flying not fully charged.
Maybe not with other makes and models. Are all other aircraft were referring to here loaded with tech like the phantom 3? Just a question. I think there are more factors here that need to be considered. Most of us with experience in rc hobbies have not owned such a high tech device that flew before. My bet is we had airlons and rudders to move and that was it.
 

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Maybe not with other makes and models. Are all other aircraft were referring to here loaded with tech like the phantom 3? Just a question. I think there are more factors here that need to be considered. Most of us with experience in rc hobbies have not owned such a high tech device that flew before. My bet is we had airlons and rudders to move and that was it.
True.. to a degree. There is no documentation anywhere, on any drone on the market, much less any other flying hobbyist product that flies, that states not to fly multiple flights on a single charge. Not in any wording!
 
I'm amazed that some think that take off with less that 100% battery can cause a catastrophic battery failure. Really! Come on back down to earth and go see a fortune teller. Those believers will surely take heed of the tea leaf patterns in the cup too. Weird how some subscribe to the BS instead of using the mind.
 
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Mine crashed last week at 75% battery 39 seconds into the flight came down from 160 feet.
Could you please upload the .DAT file for this flight to flylog.info I'd be interested to see if the accelerometer data shows anything. It might if the cause was a bird strike. If you let me know the name of the file then I could arrange to catch it and take a look.
 
well! i am new in this but The best to do in new fly i thing is fly Safe And closer with a new battery change And Then wen u know is Safe! go
 
I never use anything other than Auto Take off and never had any problems with this.
That's good. It may just be a coincidence but for me I've heard way too many similar stories so I will never use the auto takeoff. Plus its just as easy to push up on the stick as it is to push the auto takeoff button.
 
Battery failure -- may have be caused by battery not being seated all the way and locked. Happened to me except I was low altitude and was able to get it on the ground -- a 1 mm separation in the small pins contacting the battery will result in total power failure to the motors. Several posts on the forum regarding this issue. Unfortunately, some of the batteries are hard to push all the way in without extra effort. Maybe that was your issue. You should be able to tell from the flight data when you download it.

Having just completed a shell replacement the hardest part besides separating the shells was the power module.Getting it two contact correctly with the battery was a pain in the *** and not only that the module is held by two pissy *** screws.It's a point of failure that DJI need to address urgently.In there efforts to design there own proprietary battery to prevent anyone using a standard lipo they have inadvertently created a major design flaw.
dji-ph3-p4.jpg
 
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That's good. It may just be a coincidence but for me I've heard way too many similar stories so I will never use the auto takeoff. Plus its just as easy to push up on the stick as it is to push the auto takeoff button.
The problem is with new pilots that want to take off all gentle and wind up scared and slam back to the ground. Or lift up barely and VPS cant stabilize fast enough so they go a bit out of control. Personally, I think Auto Takeoff is there for an example for new pilots. There is no proof that it leads to drifting of out of control flight. Only unverifiable coincidence.
 
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Another takeoff with a battery not fully charged and... another crash !
I would never takeoff with less than 90% power. If I have to land after a few seconds or minutes (assuming I started with a fully charged battery) I put a fresh battery before taking off again.

This happened to me. I had 208 flights with no issues and always took off with a 100% battery. The only time I took off with a 44% battery I had a crash about 1 minute after. I'll never do that again.
 
This happened to me. I had 208 flights with no issues and always took off with a 100% battery. The only time I took off with a 44% battery I had a crash about 1 minute after. I'll never do that again.
What about landing without turning the drone off? Simply touching the ground make the battery unstable? I'm not positioned one way or another in this nonsense argument. I just want to know what is safe.


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