Phantom 4p v2.0 Drops after reaching takeoff altitude

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Good Morning,
I use Phantom 4 Pros for work, along with 7 coworkers, and we've had or currently have about 15 total. Most of the P4p that have been taken out of service are due to stress cracks, but we've had 2 fall out of the sky in the last 3 months that happened at almost the exact same time in a flight. One of the drones (DJI5, flight log of crash below), has been in use for over a year and the other (DJI11) was brand spanking new. Both crashes happened with different pilots and hundreds of miles away.

On both crashes, the failure happened when using DroneDeploy and right when the aircraft reaches it's mapping altitude. About 1-2 sections after it turns to head to the first waypoint, it appears to lose control of a prop/motor/?? and spiral to the ground, still with power and telemetry.

This .DAT log contains one of the crashes - 2020-03-10 - DJI5 Crash - Google Drive
Would anyone mind helping to provide some insight on this log?

Thank you
 
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That makes me not want to use DroneDeploy while flying my drone. I had been looking into this software and after reading this I am hesitant.
 
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That makes me not want to use DroneDeploy while flying my drone. I had been looking into this software and after reading this I am hesitant.
I could easily put together a list of criticisms (and compliments) of Drone Deploy, but I really don't see a way to blame them for this specific issue. I have a very strong feeling that these were physical/mechanical issues that happened during a time in the flight where a lot of rapid torque and differential RPMs in the motors/props occurs (first turn/yaw and forward motion). If I'm right, it's going to happen no matter what software we were using at the time.

I just wanted confirmation so that we could fix the problem if it was a fixable problem. Instead, we started planning around the unreliability and installed ballistic parachutes.
 
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Regardless, it still makes me nervous due to the fact I recently purchased a P4P v2.0. I just passed my part 107 and want to start off with real estate, and having any malfunctions would be a disaster. I have never had any issues with the mavic or Phantom 3 standard.
 
Good Morning,
I use Phantom 4 Pros for work, along with 7 coworkers, and we've had or currently have about 15 total. Most of the P4p that have been taken out of service are due to stress cracks, but we've had 2 fall out of the sky in the last 3 months that happened at almost the exact same time in a flight. One of the drones (DJI5, flight log of crash below), has been in use for over a year and the other (DJI11) was brand spanking new. Both crashes happened with different pilots and hundreds of miles away.

On both crashes, the failure happened when using DroneDeploy and right when the aircraft reaches it's mapping altitude. About 1-2 sections after it turns to head to the first waypoint, it appears to lose control of a prop/motor/?? and spiral to the ground, still with power and telemetry.

This .DAT log contains one of the crashes - 2020-03-10 - DJI5 Crash - Google Drive
Would anyone mind helping to provide some insight on this log?

Thank you
FLY029 didn't have the kind of event you described. It took place at 2020-3-10 18:47:31 GMT. Here is the overview
1597427872696.png


FLY130 appears to have lost the left front prop. The flight took place at 2020-3-10 19:2:54 GMT here
1597428005676.png


At 54 secs the left Front was commanded at 100%, sped up and reduced it's current draw.
1597428288489.png


In addition, the P4P started to tumble forward, rolling CCW and yawing CW - all consistent with loss of propulsion on the leftFront.
1597428278696.png
 
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Regardless, it still makes me nervous due to the fact I recently purchased a P4P v2.0. I just passed my part 107 and want to start off with real estate, and having any malfunctions would be a disaster. I have never had any issues with the mavic or Phantom 3 standard.
It would make sense to be certain that the software was responsible before jumping to conclusions.
DroneDeploy is very reliable and it's most unlikely that it had anything to do with this issue.
 
Just out of curiosity, how often do you calibrate the compass and IMU? We do it after any update or certain distance away from where it was calibrated. Maybe an IMU error caused it? We use DD...there are issues with it, but never had it cause something like this
 
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FLY029 didn't have the kind of event you described. It took place at 2020-3-10 18:47:31 GMT. Here is the overview
View attachment 119704

FLY130 appears to have lost the left front prop. The flight took place at 2020-3-10 19:2:54 GMT here
View attachment 119705

At 54 secs the left Front was commanded at 100%, sped up and reduced it's current draw.
View attachment 119707

In addition, the P4P started to tumble forward, rolling CCW and yawing CW - all consistent with loss of propulsion on the leftFront.
View attachment 119706
Thank you for the summary, Bud. Consistent with the limited info I could view in the Tlog and the pilot's report from the incident. I wish there was a more apparent indicator, like excessive vibration or heat from one of the motors.
 
Thank you for the summary, Bud. Consistent with the limited info I could view in the Tlog and the pilot's report from the incident. I wish there was a more apparent indicator, like excessive vibration or heat from one of the motors.
Are you talking about a warning indicator to be used to avoid future incidents? Like noticing the motor/prop has changed vibration?
 
Are you talking about a warning indicator to be used to avoid future incidents? Like noticing the motor/prop has changed vibration?
Correct.

Other than these 2 failures, every other issue we've had is something we were aware of because we're pretty good about pre flight and post flight inspections. We had no indication that something was failing or about to fail on these 2.
 
Correct.

Other than these 2 failures, every other issue we've had is something we were aware of because we're pretty good about pre flight and post flight inspections. We had no indication that something was failing or about to fail on these 2.
Motor data could possibly give some indication of a pending blocked motor or problem with the ESC. I've seen others suppose this is possible. But, I'm unaware of anyone actually doing this.

This is definitely a broken or departed prop. I'm guessing that if there is any measurable change in vibration it's already too late. Only possibility is to catch the problem in pre-flight.

You mentioned 2 incidents but only 1 was presented here. The first flight (FLY129) didn't have a failure.
 
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An exact dara analysis of both flights can only put some light on this.
It is almost impossible that prop. issue would be the cause at both incidents at the same place unless somebody did it on purpose.
 
An exact dara analysis of both flights can only put some light on this.
It is almost impossible that prop. issue would be the cause at both incidents at the same place unless somebody did it on purpose.
This from the OP's first post.
Both crashes happened with different pilots and hundreds of miles away.
 
OK, sorry that's a big difference of course.
Don't know where I took that.
 
Just out of curiosity, how often do you calibrate the compass and IMU?
We do it after any update or certain distance away from where it was calibrated.
Frequently recalibrating the IMU and compass doesn't do anything to make your flying any safer.
With an understanding what compass calibration actually does, you wouldn't waste time doing it after travelling or updating.
Neither has any impact on compass calibration at all.
And neither compass calibration or IMU would have caused the kind of incident the data indicated.
 
My question would be in the software setup 1. How fast (speed) is the drone flying during the missions? this may not sound like a big deal, but when you are asking the aircraft to accelerate hard and decelerate just as hard to make turns could cause the motors to spin backwards. leading to prop lost and possible stress fractures in the frame near the motors from the amount of torque developing from the motors.
 
and decelerate just as hard to make turns could cause the motors to spin backwards.
Spin backwards? Really?... I didn't know that was even possible.
 
the key word is "Could" when something is moving at a good speed and needs to throttle down quickly this can happen as the motors are trying to reduce the speed (like down shifting in a car) through building torque. Without seeing the data from the flights its all theory.
 

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