Phantom crashed on it's own

[bluecreative]

Hey guys, I had a rough day flying today. My screen said that the phantom needs compass calibration, so I calibrated it twice and it failed both times. I tried it a third time and it said that it was successful, and everything was green and ready to fly.

I got it in the air, it seemed fine hovering like normal, and then all of a sudden it took off hard to the left and was like someone was pushing the stick all the way to the left. It was going away quite quickly but I managed to gain control of it and get it back closer to me and in a hover. It seemed ok then, but all of a sudden it started to do it again so i was going to try and land, and then it took off hard left again and lost altitude quickly and crashed right into a field.

Thankfully it had snow in it and it seems to be ok. I fired up the rotors and one of the motors faltered for a second, but then it started working fine again and i can't get it to falter anymore.

I'm a little hesitant to go and fly it again after that happened.

I had a 7 mph wind, temp was 30, and I had 9 satellites. Any ideas what could've happened?

 

[birddogg]

Hi, i have had a similar issue here in nashville after more than fifty non eventful flights. No crash occured other than a hard landing and one broken prop. I had just flown in another area about five miles away near massive amounts of concrete, no compass dance since the first one, when i recived the P2V,another non event flight .Then I get home to run the battery down below eight percent. I get a bad calibration warning for the first time so i try again and it gets a succsesful calibration. So i take off and stay below ten meters for about two mins. I ascend to about eighty meters and the P2V starts flying like its skating on ice and being repelled by a magnet at the same time. Almost like it was being pushed around by magnets of the same polarity.Always wanting to move from its current location. I quickly landed fighting this flight characteristic the whole way down.

The next time i get a bad calibration warning i will take that as a warning not to fly and to check inside the software tool for any anomalies before trying again. This is a reason i always have my laptop with me anyways, might as well use it.

better luck!
Jay "birddogg" Warren

 

[Pull_Up]

There has been some big solar activity over recent days with magnetic storms forecast.

From http://www.spaceweather.com :

Geomagnetic Storms:
Probabilities for significant disturbances in Earth's magnetic field are given for three activity levels: active, minor storm, severe storm

Updated at: 2014 Jan 09 2200 UTC

Mid-latitudes 0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 20 % 45 %
MINOR 30 % 10 %
SEVERE 50 % 01 %

High latitudes 0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 05 % 10 %
MINOR 15 % 30 %
SEVERE 85 % 50 %

 

[LandYachtMedia]

Right now (starting Thursday) we are in the middle of a geomagnetic storm triggered by a group of sunspots that erupted on Tuesday. Not a good time to be flying the Phantom in GPS mode.

http://www.noaa.gov/features/01_economi ... her_3.html

 

[bluecreative]

Wow that's crazy! I'll have to keep an eye on that page before i fly from now on. I talked to someone else that day that was running a combine and he said his GPS wouldn't even work in there, so there must have been some pretty bad interference there that day. I'm glad it happened where it had a soft landing and not in a crowded place with cement anyway!

 

[LeoS]

This sounds like the cold solder joint issue.

The same motor fails intermittently and gravity\angle affects its activity. If that was the case, that one motor stopped working mid-flight, so your Phantom banked hard toward its side and fails to hold altitude.

 

[bluecreative]

This sounds like the cold solder joint issue.

The same motor fails intermittently and gravity\angle affects its activity. If that was the case, that one motor stopped working mid-flight, so your Phantom banked hard toward its side and fails to hold altitude.

Could be...but I'm hoping that it was just the magnetic interference with the GPS. I"m going to wait a few days for that solar storm to settle down and then try flying again in a wide open space and see how it handles. I've only had it up a dozen times or so, so i'm hoping it's not the motor.

 

[LeoS]

This sounds like the cold solder joint issue.

The same motor fails intermittently and gravity\angle affects its activity. If that was the case, that one motor stopped working mid-flight, so your Phantom banked hard toward its side and fails to hold altitude.

Could be...but I'm hoping that it was just the magnetic interference with the GPS. I"m going to wait a few days for that solar storm to settle down and then try flying again in a wide open space and see how it handles. I've only had it up a dozen times or so, so i'm hoping it's not the motor.

I kinda doubt GPS failure tugs on the phantom in the same direction a few times, also that it makes a motor 'sputter'...

While you wait for the weather, I think you should open up the Phantom and inspect the ESC solder joints.

 

[bluecreative]

This sounds like the cold solder joint issue.

The same motor fails intermittently and gravity\angle affects its activity. If that was the case, that one motor stopped working mid-flight, so your Phantom banked hard toward its side and fails to hold altitude.

Could be...but I'm hoping that it was just the magnetic interference with the GPS. I"m going to wait a few days for that solar storm to settle down and then try flying again in a wide open space and see how it handles. I've only had it up a dozen times or so, so i'm hoping it's not the motor.

I kinda doubt GPS failure tugs on the phantom in the same direction a few times, also that it makes a motor 'sputter'...

While you wait for the weather, I think you should open up the Phantom and inspect the ESC solder joints.

Ok will do. Thanks! I wonder what would cause that to come loose, especially since I've never crashed it before that.

 

[LeoS]

If a single motor cuts out intermittently the Phantom will flip, not bank hard towards the side.

Ah alright... what would cause this then?

Ok will do. Thanks! I wonder what would cause that to come loose, especially since I've never crashed it before that.

Despite my wrong diagnosis, you might stills want to look the cold solder joint issue:

http://phantompilots.com/viewtopic.php? ... 148#p46042

 

[bluecreative]

If a single motor cuts out intermittently the Phantom will flip, not bank hard towards the side.

Ah alright... what would cause this then?

Ok will do. Thanks! I wonder what would cause that to come loose, especially since I've never crashed it before that.

Despite my wrong diagnosis, you might stills want to look the cold solder joint issue:

http://phantompilots.com/viewtopic.php? ... 148#p46042

I will check it out to make sure, but if you see the link about the solar magnetic storm, it says that it would disrupt GPS communications, and the farmer that was running the combine ( i was trying to get footage of him harvesting) said that his GPS was acting weird and not working right that day either. So I can only assume that it was interference with the GPS system.

 

[LeoS]

I will check it out to make sure, but if you see the link about the solar magnetic storm, it says that it would disrupt GPS communications, and the farmer that was running the combine ( i was trying to get footage of him harvesting) said that his GPS was acting weird and not working right that day either. So I can only assume that it was interference with the GPS system.

Yeah, there were a few threads about that advisory last week starting last wed-thuds.. I didn't pay attention to how long it'll last, since I've no planned flights til next weekend.

But I thought gps interference from natural occurrence would yield a more random behaviour from the Phantom (unlike pulling in same direction every time it happens). Anyway, take care :mrgreen:

 

[bluecreative]

Yeah I hear ya! You too, thanks for your replies, I will check on the soldering joints anyway. It's good to open it up and have a look under the hood anyway!