Phantom 3 PRO Crashed with "Critically Low Voltage" message

[moswissa]

This has to be some issue with either the ESC or battery. Nothing to do with how u secured your battery since the motors kept spinning.

It's cool that DJI is replacing your quad but what if you weren't lucky enough to recover it? You think they would still replace it? I doubt it. I do a lot of long distance flying but now I'm reconsidering that. Sucks

 

[dottat4]

This has to be some issue with either the ESC or battery. Nothing to do with how u secured your battery since the motors kept spinning.

It's cool that DJI is replacing your quad but what if you weren't lucky enough to recover it? You think they would still replace it? I doubt it. I do a lot of long distance flying but now I'm reconsidering that. Sucks

Yeah. This is completely rewiring me for flight too. So many what ifs entered my head after this night. My quad fell 280 feet down. The camera literally pancaked into an oblong circle. Had anything been under it of value it would have been bad.

I haven't seen any other external videos of this type of reported failure and truth be told I would still be scratching my head somewhat if my daughter hadn't filmed it.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

[jyuus]

A few weeks ago I took off with 54% battery and within 30 seconds my P3P started going drop on critical low power, but it still had 51%. I learned my lesson, I will never fly without a full charge again

It seems that a lot people reported around 50% battery level when this happened. Not sure if that's the triggering condition or just pure coincidence.

Users need to be mindful flying at not-full battery capacity, something like 50%+, you don't want to go a distance, but shouldn't have to worry about crashing just because you have only 50% juice left, if so, then just make the critical low battery alert when it reaches 50%. In other words, users can only go with info display we are presented with on screen, we can't be expected to predict and prevent potential crashes because battery info may not be telling the true condition. This cannot be a usage issue, something DJI will need to take care of, soon.

 

[jyuus]

Insane is the feeling you have when you are holding the remote while your bird is out/up a couple hundred feet and the lights go out, your remote starts beeping, and it sounds like a mad swarm of bees crash lands.

I can't even describe it folks. The part that just has me stumped is the fact the lights went out (something we can't make it do) yet the engines went wild. If I hadn't been flying it in the dark I wouldn't have caught these details.

So here is the video. Keep in mind this was shot by my daughter using her iPod. Her little friend is the kid talking about spying (he is convinced drones are a cia spy thing).

Note the lights went out, remote starts beeping. On screen showed me a very quick critical power message and boom loss of signal. Engine sounds are heard beyond this point while the lights remained off. Flight log below.

HealthyDrones.com - Innovative flight data analysis that matters

Dji for the record was pretty good about this all. I called, got a ticket opened and a return shipping label within minutes. Checked in the same day received. Never asked me more questions beyond the story and above data provided. Quad was repaired and shipped back to me and should arrive back tomorrow (one day short of three weeks). No explanation provided. In the end I'm out a set of blades and that's it. Battery was fine and was used to pull flight logs etc afterwards.

My guess is there's a programming issue with either the quad or battery firmware. The batteries have some smart hardware that includes features like hibernate. I would be curious if something like this could be at play. The lights / engine noise is what I keep coming back to as odd. Anyone can claim that a battery coming out of the bird could cause these failures, however, I read these forums and gave a good check of this before each and every flight. A battery coming loose also cannot explain lights out but engines on.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

Do you mind sharing the DJI phone number? I couldn't find one. Thanks.

 

[dottat4]

Do you mind sharing the DJI phone number? I couldn't find one. Thanks.

I am in the US and called the number on their support page. I called right when they opened.

+1 (818) 235 0789

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

[dottat4]

It seems that a lot people reported around 50% battery level when this happened. Not sure if that's the triggering condition or just pure coincidence.

Users need to be mindful flying at not-full battery capacity, something like 50%+, you don't want to go a distance, but shouldn't have to worry about crashing just because you have only 50% juice left, if so, then just make the critical low battery alert when it reaches 50%. In other words, users can only go with info display we are presented with on screen, we can't be expected to predict and prevent potential crashes because battery info may not be telling the true condition. This cannot be a usage issue, something DJI will need to take care of, soon.

And my thoughts on that are this...it should never simply stop and drop. It should auto land every time. Minimums are set already to allow for that. It should never go straight from "hey safe to fly" to a falling mass of metal and plastic.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

[jyuus]

Thanks. I'll call them Monday.

 

[dottat4]

Thanks. I'll call them Monday.

Good luck man. They really weren't difficult to deal with. Once you send it off make sure you check your spam folder. The actual check-in email came from an address that my gmail determined to be junk. They actually checked it in the same day. Also document everything you do and make copies and read their instructions three times.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

[Doolang]

This just happened to me an hour or so ago. Luckily I was able to land. Not leaving me very confident to fly this thing now. There's obviously an issue here somewhere.

 

[kontek]

This just happened to me an hour or so ago. Luckily I was able to land. Not leaving me very confident to fly this thing now. There's obviously an issue here somewhere. View attachment 34307

not sure whats going on there. Did you recently update the controller fw curious to know

Sent from my SM-G920I using Tapatalk

 

[Wibble]

How can it say critically low voltage at 42%?
There really does seem to be a pattern emerging here.
Maybe the mods will create a poll or a proper survey for this - to see which version numbers it happens to etc etc.

 

[bartold]

Mine was at 57%.

 

[jcknows0]

So glad I keep ignoring controller firmware update. I did have a weird binding problem yesterday where I had to recalibrate my controller and power cycle both to get it to bind to drone. Never happened before. Still better than electrical failure though. Haven't flown much in last few weeks, but even longer haven't done any long distance flights in awhile due to nerves.

 

[bobmyers]

This just happened to me an hour or so ago. Luckily I was able to land. Not leaving me very confident to fly this thing now. There's obviously an issue here somewhere. View attachment 34307

Did you check the cell balance on the battery telemetry screen? A low cell may produce this error.

 

[eyecon82]

Did you check the cell balance on the battery telemetry screen? A low cell may produce this error.

Could you please tell us how to go about that? To me, they just look like a bunch of cool green bars [emoji4]

Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk

 

[bobmyers]

Could you please tell us how to go about that? To me, they just look like a bunch of cool green bars [emoji4]

Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk

Anytime you get this error go to that screen and see what the voltage is on each cell as indicated by the cool green bars. They should be all relatively equal-- if one of the cells is .10 or greater lower than the others then there is a problem with the battery cell balance. In the case of the critical battery error, I would suspect to see one very low cell, maybe as much as .30 to .50 lower than the other cells. If the individual voltage on any cell close to 3.0 volts-- then don't use the battery unless you can balance the cells by recharging it.

How many flights do you have on that battery and how low do you usually fly it?

 

[bartold]

All my cells were fine. No problems on healthy drones. This was before the transmitter update, but right after the latest app update.

 

[bobmyers]

All my cells were fine. No problems on healthy drones. This was before the transmitter update, but right after the latest app update.

Put the battery in the drone, take the props off and run it down and see if you get the critical battery message. If you do, check the battery telemetry screen and see what it tells you.

How many flights do you have on that battery and how low do you usually fly it?

 

[dottat4]

This just happened to me an hour or so ago. Luckily I was able to land. Not leaving me very confident to fly this thing now. There's obviously an issue here somewhere. View attachment 34307

Yeah...good capture and lucky you got it landed. What was your battery % when you took off and how long had it been since it was charged.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

[rwakins]

Mine set about a week before I flew at 54%