Possessed Phantom 4 Pro

[D Greg]

Haven't gotten into the data, but last evening I took my P4P out for some fun. Some time ago I was at a friends place on a lake, and the motors wouldn't start....weird; connected, everything looked okay. Nope..it wasn't.
So last night went to the same place, but this time I placed it on a table to give it some room from the docks thinking too much metal. It started, 14 satellites, good to fly, took off, Went up about 7 meters, stopped it, looked down at my screen and it appeared normal, and with no input, away it went...not over the water, but back over my head and right toward some very large drone bashing trees! I had no control. No matter what I did with the sticks, It just kept going. I tried every input and it did not respond...still heading toward that tree! Finally...I was able to control it and took it out away from those drone destructing trees. Immediately and carefully brought it down for a catch. It was totally possessed!!!
Will take it to a very, very wide open field today and see how she flies.....
Anyone else experience a possessed drone??

 

[3rdof5]

I have a P2 thats possessed lol. If left on its own in GPS mode with the motors started it will eventually take off on its own. In ATTI mode this doesnt happen. I know this isnt helpful and unrelated to a P4 but to answer your question, yes I have a possessed drone lol.

 

[D Greg]

Ha...the demons must be taking over the drones one by one...

I wish I had the time to look into what was going on, but when a drone is headed for a huge tree trunk, I just didn't take the time.
This bird has been rock solid in the past, so maybe that is why I was so surprised. I have a P4, and a Mavic Pro, and never had problems like that.

 

[Meta4]

Anyone else experience a possessed drone??

Normally I don't like to make a guess without seeing the recorded flight data but your description suggests that your incident was probably caused by a yaw error.
Your recorded flight data would confirm if this is correct.

To save me typing out an explanation, here's one I just did in another thread:

Avoiding the rebar effect

I would like to make my takeoff and home point on a concrete portion of my driveway. Thinking of using a wooden table to distance my takeoff point from the rebar underneath. How tall should the table be? .... or is this just a wish that should not be pursued at all .... and why?

phantompilots.com

 

[D Greg]

Normally I don't like to make a guess without seeing the recorded flight data but your description suggests that your incident was probably caused by a yaw error.
Your recorded flight data would confirm if this is correct.

To save me typing out an explanation, here's one I just did in another thread:

Avoiding the rebar effect

I would like to make my takeoff and home point on a concrete portion of my driveway. Thinking of using a wooden table to distance my takeoff point from the rebar underneath. How tall should the table be? .... or is this just a wish that should not be pursued at all .... and why?

phantompilots.com

Meta4, I think you described my drones actions exactly. The dock that I launched from has steel under the Trek planks. Also a steel wall at the waters edge; lots of steel. So my 3 foot table just wasn't high enough to not be affected by all that metal. Also explains when I finally got it up and away it behaved normally. Lucky it wasn't affected again when I caught it. Guess it was high enough not to be affected. Thanks for clearing this up. Now I have to go call and cancel that Priest that was coming over for the exorcism!

 

[Starz]

So, title should read “ferroused Phantom 4Pro” ?

 

[The Flyer]

Haven't gotten into the data, but last evening I took my P4P out for some fun. Some time ago I was at a friends place on a lake, and the motors wouldn't start....weird; connected, everything looked okay. Nope..it wasn't.
So last night went to the same place, but this time I placed it on a table to give it some room from the docks thinking too much metal. It started, 14 satellites, good to fly, took off, Went up about 7 meters, stopped it, looked down at my screen and it appeared normal, and with no input, away it went...not over the water, but back over my head and right toward some very large drone bashing trees! I had no control. No matter what I did with the sticks, It just kept going. I tried every input and it did not respond...still heading toward that tree! Finally...I was able to control it and took it out away from those drone destructing trees. Immediately and carefully brought it down for a catch. It was totally possessed!!!
Will take it to a very, very wide open field today and see how she flies.....
Anyone else experience a possessed drone??

thats why I wont buy the newer ones , to much new untested programs in them , My Phantom 3 Advance has never given me a problem since i have had it

 

[Capt KO]

Good save.? Would be interesting to see that in the logs.

 

[Julius13]

I’ve had both of my P4P’s go rouge on more than one occasion. No reason. I let go of the sticks and it is like the energizer bunny, until it crashes.

 

[CR125Honda]

Take up Meta or Capt on their offer to analyze the log!
Never going to have that warm & fuzzy feeling after T/O until you get an idea of what's going on.
May be the next door neighbor's birthday party it heads towards next time.

 

[marcusrjc]

My P4P shot off once in DJI go 4 and crashed into a soft hedge. Also twice in litchi following a pano shot on returning to home. Spiralled uncontrollably at 100m. Flight logs gave false joystick input. See attached pic.
Forums report similar errors using litchI. Switching to sport mode and back is supposed to help but didn’t. Had to switch off controller in the end And trigger an automatic return to home.
My controller had started to beep on startup requiring a joystick callibration and also gave an overheat warning so I am assuming it is the controller and needs servicing.

 

[CR125Honda]

Marc. Good info and quick thinking on going to sport (sport and back) and / or off. Just guessing this has never happened to 99% of us (my hope anyway).

 

[cjc1103]

My Phantom 4 Pro was acting weirdly in an automated Hangar/Autopilot mission, yawing back and forth when it was supposed to be steady, glitching video, taking several seconds to go back to normal, and crashing the application. I finally narrowed it down to using an older iPad 2017 model. Not that old, but apparently the software just keeps getting more complex, and the minimum required controller tablet is now an iPad 2018. I'm looking to get a new iPad mini, it's less bulky then the full size iPads. Don't know about Android tablets but I've heard you can get weird glitches with those as well because it's impossible to test all the hardware/software combinations.

 

[marcusrjc]

Marc. Good info and quick thinking on going to sport (sport and back) and / or off. Just guessing this has never happened to 99% of us (my hope anyway).

I panicked the first time, hence the crash. I like to think the experience will help me deal with future issues. It is hard to think straight the first time this happens to anyone.

 

[CR125Honda]

Who knows what the correct thing to do might be?? Would be hard to turn off my controller as I watched the SOB go sailing off! Food for thought.. Insurance helps to replace but I certainly don't want to do others harm. Good post.

 

[roosta]

The dock that I launched from has steel under the Trek planks. Also a steel wall at the waters edge; lots of steel. So my 3 foot table just wasn't high enough to not be affected by all that metal. Also explains when I finally got it up and away it behaved normally.

I've seen probably 4 or 5 sepatate videos of either bizarre drone movements (and some drones lost) from pilots choosing to fly them around and under large bridges which, of course, is steel-city. The interference drives it crazy and describes what you mentioned. Glad to hear you've identified the issue

RoOSTA

 

[Meta4]

I've seen probably 4 or 5 separate videos of either bizarre drone movements (and some drones lost) from pilots choosing to fly them around and under large bridges which, of course, is steel-city.
The interference drives it crazy and describes what you mentioned.

Flying near large steel objects might cause a slight wobble if you get close enough.
But it won't cause the drone to zip off uncontrollably.

That is caused by powering on in a magnetically dirty area and having the gyro sensors initialise incorrectly.