Phantom 4 Pro V2 Fell out of the sky...

[sar104]

One further question - it appeared to me from that response from DJI that they have the aircraft, and therefore have the DAT file - is that correct? If they were only looking at the txt log then it's possible that they would mistake the telemetry to indicate a collision since it does not include the motor speed data or accelerometer data. That's still a bit of a stretch since the attitude data has the common propulsion loss signature, but sometimes they seem rather cursory in their analysis, and some of their first line analysts are not particularly good.

 

[Dallas Drone Guy]

Can you post the video of the actual video taken form the flight that may help a lot . /

I will check my tablet for live stream recording, but recording from the micro SD card in the Drone did not give me a good file. The other 23 video files play fine, but because this file ended with a crash without me hitting stop, the file was corrupted and will not play. I am not a tech Guru and I do not know how to mend the corrupted file to be able to view what I recorded prior to the accident. Any advice or links that would help me mend the corrupted file would be greatly appreciated. Thank you SAR!

 

[PhantomWetSuits]

I will check my tablet for live stream recording, but recording from the micro SD card in the Drone did not give me a good file. The other 23 video files play fine, but because this file ended with a crash without me hitting stop, the file was corrupted and will not play. I am not a tech Guru and I do not know how to mend the corrupted file to be able to view what I recorded prior to the accident. Any advice or links that would help me mend the corrupted file would be greatly appreciated. Thank you SAR!

That is a shame, as the video is a very telling of what happened , and DJI will sometimes ask for that with the data logs especially for fly aways or appeals .


When your Micro SD card is corrupted or damaged, you should first do a check disk error within an MS Windows chkdsk command prompt. It can help you fix the corrupted SD card file system and make the card accessible. And during the process, all your files will keep intact.

1. Plug in your SD card to your computer with a card reader.
2. Go to the start menu, type in: cmd in a search bar, hit enter and then you can see something named "cmd. exe" under a list of programs.
3. Right-click "cmd. exe" and then you will get the following command windows that allow you to fix your corrupted SD card without format.
4. Type in: chkdsk /X /f sd card letter: or chkdsk sd card letter: /f, for example "chkdsk /X /f G:" or "chkdsk h: /f".

After all the steps, Windows will check and fix the corrupted SD card file system. It usually takes several minutes. After that, if you see "Windows has made corrections to the file system" in the command window, then congratulations!

 

[sar104]

I will check my tablet for live stream recording, but recording from the micro SD card in the Drone did not give me a good file. The other 23 video files play fine, but because this file ended with a crash without me hitting stop, the file was corrupted and will not play. I am not a tech Guru and I do not know how to mend the corrupted file to be able to view what I recorded prior to the accident. Any advice or links that would help me mend the corrupted file would be greatly appreciated. Thank you SAR!

That's a common problem when the recording is not stopped properly. You can generally fix the file just by powering up any DJI aircraft with that card inserted.

 

[sar104]

That is a shame, as the video is a very telling of what happened , and DJI will sometimes ask for that with the data logs especially for fly aways or appeals .


When your Micro SD card is corrupted or damaged, you should first do a check disk error within an MS Windows chkdsk command prompt. It can help you fix the corrupted SD card file system and make the card accessible. And during the process, all your files will keep intact.

1. Plug in your SD card to your computer with a card reader.
2. Go to the start menu, type in: cmd in a search bar, hit enter and then you can see something named "cmd. exe" under a list of programs.
3. Right-click "cmd. exe" and then you will get the following command windows that allow you to fix your corrupted SD card without format.
4. Type in: chkdsk /X /f sd card letter: or chkdsk sd card letter: /f, for example "chkdsk /X /f G:" or "chkdsk h: /f".

After all the steps, Windows will check and fix the corrupted SD card file system. It usually takes several minutes. After that, if you see "Windows has made corrections to the file system" in the command window, then congratulations!

It's not a file system problem - just a single file that wasn't closed properly.

 

[PhantomWetSuits]

It's not a file system problem - just a single file that wasn't closed properly.

That is great news, as I am dying to see this video.

 

[Dallas Drone Guy]

I read the same advice on a different forum when I was searching for a fix to the corrupted file. 2 days ago I flew a totally new Mission with a different Phantom 4 Pro using the same SD card (the crashed v2.0 is currently in CA) which contained to the corruptfile. When I completed my mission my new files were perfect and viewable, but the corrupted file still would not play. Prior to the new mission, I renamed the corrupted file and it was not within the DCIM folder. Would that make a difference? Because the file still will not play. I am currently on my smartphone but tomorrow I will get on my computer and follow the above-mentioned protocol to try to mend the file.

 

[sar104]

I read the same advice on a different forum when I was searching for a fix to the corrupted file. 2 days ago I flew a totally new Mission with a different Phantom 4 Pro using the same SD card (the crashed v2.0 is currently in CA) which contained to the corruptfile. When I completed my mission my new files were perfect and viewable, but the corrupted file still would not play. Prior to the new mission, I renamed the corrupted file and it was not within the DCIM folder. Would that make a difference? Because the file still will not play. I am currently on my smartphone but tomorrow I will get on my computer and follow the above-mentioned protocol to try to mend the file.

Yes - you will need to put it back in that folder.

 

[Dallas Drone Guy]

I put the file inside the 100MEDIA file which is inside the DCIM folder on the microSD card. Put it in my P4P (non v2.0) and fired it up, let it run for a few minutes here on the desk. Still no mending:

I will upload to Google Drive and share a link if one of you folks think you can repair the file I'd be very grateful.
Here is the link:
DJI_0024.MP4

 

[Dallas Drone Guy]

https://drive.google.com/open?id ... C1_1r0Iu6nQ854CNiak

Here is a link to a video showing that the neighborhood in which the incident took place has no obstructions above the two-story structures.

 

[Dallas Drone Guy]

Update: I found a way to fix it and looks promising. Here is a Screenshot of what I got so far. Haven't seen the crash yet.View attachment 106264

Awesome! thanks. That's the shot alright. I basically just go up and back until disaster strikes. You can see that I am above the roof level to start and only go up from there; not sure what I could've hit!! Update from DJI - I submitted screenshots of SAR's analysis along with my own commentary and they agreed to submit for another (hopefully more thorough) analysis of the flight records. Fingers crossed that they do the right thing here. Quoted repairs that they wanted me to cover were $300 plus $170 for new battery totaling $472... let's get it down to ZERO!!

 

[sar104]

The video stops before anything happens:

Dropbox - DJI_0024-repaired.mp4

 

[Dallas Drone Guy]

The video stops before anything happens:

Dropbox - DJI_0024-repaired.mp4

That is unfortunate and strange. My memory is that the video was much longer than 12 seconds, maybe 20 or 25 seconds. I've no idea why it would end at 12 seconds. One thing I'm certain of is that video was still being sent to my monitor after the aircraft went out of control. I watched the horizon spin briefly before it said aircraft disconnected. I'll be sure to update the thread when I hear back from DJI again. I also have a thread going on the DJI Phantom forum to make very public all of my troubles, try to do everything I can to nudge them into the right direction.

 

[sar104]

That is unfortunate and strange. My memory is that the video was much longer than 12 seconds, maybe 20 or 25 seconds. I've no idea why it would end at 12 seconds. One thing I'm certain of is that video was still being sent to my monitor after the aircraft went out of control. I watched the horizon spin briefly before it said aircraft disconnected. I'll be sure to update the thread when I hear back from DJI again. I also have a thread going on the DJI Phantom forum to make very public all of my troubles, try to do everything I can to nudge them into the right direction.

Let me know if you need any additional ammunition. Back to my previous question - does DJI have the aircraft or the DAT file? Without that they may well not understand what they are looking at.

 

[Dallas Drone Guy]

Let me know if you need any additional ammunition. Back to my previous question - does DJI have the aircraft or the DAT file? Without that they may well not understand what they are looking at.

Yes. First I synced my flight logs to the cloud right after the crash. Then I pulled the DAT files from the drone. Then I sent in the destroyed drone, battery, and props. Then DJI told me that they need me to sync my flight records. Then I synced again and emailed them a link to the DAT file and attached the TXT file, and sent them a link to the corrupted video file. Then they came back with pilot error. Then I replied that I strongly disagree with the analysis and attached screenshots of the various graphs of my flight log and comments by you. Then they replied that they will review again, but I need to send them the DAT and TXT file and the video from that day. Then I sent all of those things AGAIN. That was this morning. We'll see what happens next.
And thank you for your help in this matter.

 

[Grumpy D]

I’ve been wondering why DJI Store has no P4P stock. Some are saying supplier/vendor problems. Could it be they have identified a problem and suspended production?

 

[Dallas Drone Guy]

The video stops before anything happens:

Dropbox - DJI_0024-repaired.mp4

Strange, the "Follow the yellow brick Road" guy's comments are all gone... Can you see them? Anyway, I have pulled the video cache from the tablet. It is also corrupted, but maybe would show the tumbling at the end? DJI says 2 days for data validation then another 2-5 business days for analysis :/
2018_12_01_13_00_51.mp4

 

[PhantomWetSuits]

Strange, the "Follow the yellow brick Road" guy's comments are all gone... Can you see them? Anyway, I have pulled the video cache from the tablet. It is also corrupted, but maybe would show the tumbling at the end? DJI says 2 days for data validation then another 2-5 business days for analysis :/
2018_12_01_13_00_51.mp4

That file is also corrupted, will not play in any codec.

 

[Ansia]

This video was 8 seconds long, but it goes corrupt after just 4 seconds. The video from the SD card had more information.

Dropbox - 2018_12_01_13_00_51_repaired.mp4

Edit: Interesting enough, when I repaired the video on my pc, it only showed 4 seconds, but once I uploaded it to Dropbox, it shows up to the point of the failure and the Phantom spinning out of control.

 

[PhantomWetSuits]

This video was 8 seconds long, but it goes corrupt after just 4 seconds. The video from the SD card had more information.

Dropbox - 2018_12_01_13_00_51_repaired.mp4

I was able to see the Spinning however when I attempted to edit the video the data is lost. Ugh

So that spinning is part of the puzzle, if I did not know better I would say that you lost a Prop.