Sudden crash

[Chris Vedeler]

I was doing some gentle maneuvers and practice flying this morning when my P3P suddenly threw off a motor and crashed to the ground from about 30 feet. I was in a hover and the motor ripped itself off! I can't believe this! I have flown my P3P for months and have done hard maneuvers and long distance flights and never had a problem. Now, when flying super conservative and easy the thing literally self destructs in mid-air while hovering.

The motor was totally torn off. The camera is broken into two pieces.

I wasn't filming at the time. Is there a flight log? Will DJI cover this under warranty?

 

[Altanore]

Certainly should be covered as stress fractures have been noted around the motor mounts. Every P3 seems to be developing it. That sucks!

 

[Mal_PV2_Ireland]

That's mad, I have never seen anything like that before. Are there any stress cracks under the other motors? I'd be seriously hoping Dji would cover that under warranty

 

[SENC]

Wow! Sorry to see that, chris!

 

[III% Streve]

The twisted all to hell motor wires are pretty good proof of the motor flying off. Don't see how DJI could not cover that!

 

[prostreetcamaro]

The very reason I run the strong arm kits on all my P3P's. I have had 3 and ALL of them have developed the stress cracks. Sold 1, 1 flew away and was found by a farmer and being replaced currently by squaretrade and will be here tomorrow (new so no cracks yet! but the one that flew away had cracks) and my other one is from release day. All 3 developed cracks.

 

[Jeff48920]

Now that is the scariest thing I have ever seen. Did you notice any stress cracks around the screws prior to the flight.
consider uploading your flight log to HealthyDrones.com, you may be able to see something there.

 

[Chris Vedeler]

I didn't notice anything, but I also hadn't looked in a while. It was flying just fine up until the end. One thing that did seem a little off was that it was having a harder time keeping a solid hover. I thought it was the slight wind this morning and didn't think anything of it.

I wasn't taking video and so I don't have a flight log. At least that I know of. Is there a flight log independent of the ones made when taking video?

 

[Altanore]

I didn't notice anything, but I also hadn't looked in a while. It was flying just fine up until the end. One thing that did seem a little off was that it was having a harder time keeping a solid hover. I thought it was the slight wind this morning and didn't think anything of it.

I wasn't taking video and so I don't have a flight log. At least that I know of. Is there a flight log independent of the ones made when taking video?

The Phantom has what you'd call a "black box" which is always recording a flight log whether you are taking video or not. You can retrieve it via the USB port covered by a rubber flap.

 

[nhoover]

Yes the flight log (.txt file on the mobile device) is independent of any use of the camera. There are plenty of threads detailing how to find the file on Android or iOS and then how to interpret it. What I would do first is maybe upload it to healthydrones.com - that parses the .txt file directly. Those pictures look terrible I've fixed several tiny cracks on mine with bondic, but yours was catastrophic.

 

[Chris Vedeler]

Here is the flight log. HealthyDrones does not show any issues that I can see.

 

[Chris Vedeler]

Looking closely how the motors are attached, I would say this is a serious design flaw. The plastic is very thin right at the point of contact with the motor mounts.

 

[leekiya]

What firmware were you on out of interest.

 

[Jeff48920]

Just checked out your flight on HD and looked at the sensor page. Check out compass shows ridiculous amount of turns prior to crash (motor let go?). Also on the controls page it looks like you had a harder time turning one way from the other. This could also indicate a motor issue.

 

[Chris Vedeler]

What firmware were you on out of interest.

1.4.0001

 

[Chris Vedeler]

Just checked out your flight on HD and looked at the sensor page. Check out compass shows ridiculous amount of turns prior to crash (motor let go?). Also on the controls page it looks like you had a harder time turning one way from the other. This could also indicate a motor issue.

Makes sense. The motor actually came off in flight. It spun like a top until it hit the ground.

 

[Tony Perry]

The damage pictures and the problem you are describing seem to be consistent with the motor coming loose in flight. I really hope DJI fixes this for you at their expense.

 

[leekiya]

1.4.0001

I only asked because before reading this i was reading the release notes of 1.4 which stated the motors came active during the update, i wondered why this was and if they was going to be a change to how the motors rev or something.

 

[StevenQX]

1.4.0001

The today's update? Changelog talk about some changes in the motors...faulty frame or fw issues?

 

[StevenQX]

I only asked because before reading this i was reading the release notes of 1.4 which stated the motors came active during the update, i wondered why this was and if they was going to be a change to how the motors rev or something.

I thought the same!