Phantom RTK - Propellers stop mid flight

[RamJam]

After completing an rtk photogramity flight and returning to home point. (15min flight)

The propellers on my phantom RTK shut off randomly and abruptly. The drone dropped straight down like a rock smashing on top of my truck. (flight log 1 attached). Damage to the frame, gimbal and camera. I was in disbelief of what just happened. Thinking that I might have accidentally stopped the propellers somehow while descending. I was able to start the drone again and launch again, hovering for a few seconds over the ground, when the same thing happened again. (flight log 2 attached) Have any others experienced this?

The batteries had just been cycled about a week prior and this one came off the charger just before flight.

Flight logs are attached. If someone might be able to point out some abnormalities.


Thanks,
Reece

 

[RodPad]

Welcome to the Forum.

What Phantom are you flying?

Be best if check out this link.

Phantom Crash & Flyaway Assistance

phantompilots.com

I downloaded one of the files, but have not copy pasted to @msinger site.

DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help

Upload and view flight logs from your DJI drones

www.phantomhelp.com

Rod ..

 

[RamJam]

Phantom 4 RTK

 

[BudWalker]

After completing an rtk photogramity flight and returning to home point. (15min flight)

The propellers on my phantom RTK shut off randomly and abruptly. The drone dropped straight down like a rock smashing on top of my truck. (flight log 1 attached). Damage to the frame, gimbal and camera. I was in disbelief of what just happened. Thinking that I might have accidentally stopped the propellers somehow while descending. I was able to start the drone again and launch again, hovering for a few seconds over the ground, when the same thing happened again. (flight log 2 attached) Have any others experienced this?

The batteries had just been cycled about a week prior and this one came off the charger just before flight.

Flight logs are attached. If someone might be able to point out some abnormalities.


Thanks,
Reece

Looks like a problem with the right front motor. At time 1094 secs the P4 began to tumble. Rolling CW, pitching down end over end and yawing CCW. All consistent with right front reduced propulsion. The P4 also began it's uncommanded descent.

Then at time 1096.5 the eventLog shows that a motor was blocked.

The foregoing is a pretty good guess. Additional confidence could be gained by looking at the .DAT log file.

 

[Fabian Sylvester]

After completing an rtk photogramity flight and returning to home point. (15min flight)

The propellers on my phantom RTK shut off randomly and abruptly. The drone dropped straight down like a rock smashing on top of my truck. (flight log 1 attached). Damage to the frame, gimbal and camera. I was in disbelief of what just happened. Thinking that I might have accidentally stopped the propellers somehow while descending. I was able to start the drone again and launch again, hovering for a few seconds over the ground, when the same thing happened again. (flight log 2 attached) Have any others experienced this?

The batteries had just been cycled about a week prior and this one came off the charger just before flight.

Flight logs are attached. If someone might be able to point out some abnormalities.


Thanks,
Reece

Good afternoon.
I've experienced this twice with my P3 4K, which turned out to be a faulty battery (which 'seemed' to be healthy).
See my following post:

Phantom 4 - Sudden crash

Hello, fellow pilots! Here is a sad story for you: I took out my Phantom 4 for the first time in four months, due to the cold winter we have here in Sweden. I planned to make a short run to check for any updates and the condition of the batteries. The weather was still cold at 3°C (37°F)...

phantompilots.com

 

[BudWalker]

Good afternoon.
I've experienced this twice with my P3 4K, which turned out to be a faulty battery (which 'seemed' to be healthy).
See my following post:

Phantom 4 - Sudden crash

Hello, fellow pilots! Here is a sad story for you: I took out my Phantom 4 for the first time in four months, due to the cold winter we have here in Sweden. I planned to make a short run to check for any updates and the condition of the batteries. The weather was still cold at 3°C (37°F)...

phantompilots.com

Had a brief look at that incident. Seems in that incident there was clear evidence of high cell voltage deviation. That didn't happen in this incident.

 

[Starz]

Prop failure??

 

[RamJam]

I am working on getting the .dat files off the drone. The "DJI assistant 2 for phantom" is admistator protected program. So I'll see if i can get them with my personal computer lol.

There didnt seem to be anthing wrong with the props after it crashed.

 

[RamJam]

Looks like a problem with the right front motor. At time 1094 secs the P4 began to tumble. Rolling CW, pitching down end over end and yawing CCW. All consistent with right front reduced propulsion. The P4 also began it's uncommanded descent.
View attachment 125826

Then at time 1096.5 the eventLog shows that a motor was blocked.

View attachment 125827

The foregoing is a pretty good guess. Additional confidence could be gained by looking at the .DAT log file.wo

Looks like a problem with the right front motor. At time 1094 secs the P4 began to tumble. Rolling CW, pitching down end over end and yawing CCW. All consistent with right front reduced propulsion. The P4 also began it's uncommanded descent.
View attachment 125826

Then at time 1096.5 the eventLog shows that a motor was blocked.

View attachment 125827

The foregoing is a pretty good guess. Additional confidence could be gained by looking at the .DAT log file.

Would the .dat file you are looking for be the ones drag and dropped from the drone? or the one downloaded out of "log export"?


Thanks,

Recece

 

[BudWalker]

Would the .dat file you are looking for be the ones drag and dropped from the drone? or the one downloaded out of "log export"?


Thanks,

Recece

Take a look at
How to retrieve a V3 .DAT File from the AC
which describes the retrieval method based on an older DJI Assistant 2. You probably will need to use the newer version, DJI Assistant 2 for Phantom. If you can mount the P4 disk drive the .DAT you want is FLY210.DAT. If you can't mount it you'll have to use the first option (create a compressed file). In the older Assistant 2 version the "Data Upload" option was used.

 

[RamJam]

sorry for the delay,

.DAT should be attached now.

 

[RodPad]

sorry for the delay,

.DAT should be attached now.

Attached?
I think those are large files.

Should be on Gdrive, Onedrive, Drobbox, etc.

Rod ..

 

[RamJam]

Attached?
I think those are large files.

Should be on Gdrive, Onedrive, Drobbox, etc.

Rod ..

Correct

WeTransfer Link below

WeTransfer - Send Large Files & Share Photos Online - Up to 2GB Free

WeTransfer is the simplest way to send your files around the world

we.tl

Thanks,

Reece

 

[RodPad]

Sorry, maybe somebody else is familiar with that system.

I'm not going to click on anything, unless it is a download of your dat files.

Rod ..

 

[RodPad]

Do have a Dropbox account, or a google email, etc..
Google is the easiest but of coarse they also own YouTube.
I will check in tomorrow

Rod ..

@BudWalker

 

[BudWalker]

Correct

WeTransfer Link below

WeTransfer - Send Large Files & Share Photos Online - Up to 2GB Free

WeTransfer is the simplest way to send your files around the world

we.tl

Thanks,

Reece

I'm still looking at FLY210.DAT (the first flight). But, FLY212.DAT looks like the software crashed at time 7.375 secs when the P4PRTK was at 4.6 m above take off. Looks like it had travelled 2.6 m from launch site. Is there anything more you can say about the second flight?

 

[RamJam]

Do have a Dropbox account, or a google email, etc..
Google is the easiest but of coarse they also own YouTube.
I will check in tomorrow

Rod ..

@BudWalker

Drop box link below

DJI RTK

Shared with Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

thanks,

reece

 

[RamJam]

I'm still looking at FLY210.DAT (the first flight). But, FLY212.DAT looks like the software crashed at time 7.375 secs when the P4PRTK was at 4.6 m above take off. Looks like it had travelled 2.6 m from launch site. Is there anything more you can say about the second flight?

I only did this second flight to confirm that the drones propellers stopped on their own and no controler input was done while it happened. And that was comfirmed.

Another thing that I just noticed with the battery (attached photo). The connection seams to have melted. This could also be due to the fact that the gimble ribbon cable was damaged from the crash and in the process of retreving the flight data, the cable was shorting out and smoking. I do think this drone can still fly, but I also think its a total right off, i wouldnt trust it in the sky anymore. Time to upgdage to the the Mavic 3E I guess

Alos, this is the second P4 RTK drone that we have had. The first one was sent back under DJI refresh as we kept getting a "Cannot takeoff. Ensure the aircraft battery is properly connected" warning.

Thanks,

Reece

 

[BudWalker]

I only did this second flight to confirm that the drones propellers stopped on their own and no controler input was done while it happened. And that was comfirmed.

Another thing that I just noticed with the battery (attached photo). The connection seams to have melted. This could also be due to the fact that the gimble ribbon cable was damaged from the crash and in the process of retreving the flight data, the cable was shorting out and smoking. I do think this drone can still fly, but I also think its a total right off, i wouldnt trust it in the sky anymore. Time to upgdage to the the Mavic 3E I guess

Alos, this is the second P4 RTK drone that we have had. The first one was sent back under DJI refresh as we kept getting a "Cannot takeoff. Ensure the aircraft battery is properly connected" warning.

Thanks,

Reece

That's probably best. I can't really determine the cause. E.g. at the end where motorSpeeds go to 0 the voltage at the motors shows 0.0. That shouldn't happen. Normally, the motor voltages will be close to the battery voltage. I don't know what would cause that...