Those that had the Phantom go bye,bye....a few questions

[Gary39]

I actually had an interesting conversation with someone and I think I know what happened to mine and if it's true I want $1100 back and I want it now. But before I divulge my information does someone have a link to DJI s instructions or warnings about wi-fi? And I'm not talking about wi-fi onboard the phantom but just wi-fi in general

I know what you are talking about, I read it myself somewhere re: the warning about WiFi. There is also a hint of a problem in the quickstart guide. I have been trying to find it again,when I do I'll let you know where it is .

 

[Mark P]

I actually had an interesting conversation with someone and I think I know what happened to mine and if it's true I want $1100 back and I want it now. But before I divulge my information does someone have a link to DJI s instructions or warnings about wi-fi? And I'm not talking about wi-fi onboard the phantom but just wi-fi in general

I know what you are talking about, I read it myself somewhere re: the warning about WiFi. There is also a hint of a problem in the quickstart guide. I have been trying to find it again,when I do I'll let you know where it is .

Thanks, what I found out is unbelievable if true, I'm really surprised any of them fly at all in the cities, what I was told by someone that went through extensive testing of the Phantom to see if they wanted to sell them told me something and then it all became clear exactly what caused mine to crash and burn and also explains the 4-5 seconds of control and then going bonkers after it coming to me and then BOOM off again. I cant find anything that says anything about what I'm about to report

 

[pwright]

This might be the reference you are looking for:

http://wiki2.dji-innovations.com/en/ind ... g_Problems

 

[denodan]

DJI will do nothing, there customer service is crap, they are even bad to their dealers, and forget getting a replacement very quick. DJI are only interested in selling as many as they can, the QC suck, and treat dealers bad. Don't believe me and want to know how DJI treat their dealers and replacement issues, see my threat, warning don't buy a Phantom on here.

DJI sweep problems under the carpet and don't respond as they continue to make flood the market with faulty products to make heaps of money and don't support the dealers very well, or customers. I regret buying a Phantom. The service is basically very poor if something goes wrong.

 

[Mark P]

Heres the deal, I was speaking to someone that was extensively testing the Phantom and it completely failed any and all WiFi testing and after talking to the person it all hit me like a brick so I went back to the scene of the crime and sure enough heres what I found.

First and foremost the home has 170 lights that all ramp up seamlessly via an iPhone5, this is done with a program called iRule which allows to make extensive remote controls for everything in your home ( home theater, lighting, garage doors, HVAC, everything) the way this works is the iPhone communicates via wi-fi to the Airport extreme in the case of this home and then repeats this wifi signals to airport expresses conveniently throughout the house attached to devices called GlobalCache controllers.

Remember I said I was shooting the home ramping up the lighting for a cool shot, it looks amazing when its happening. My wife was operating my iPhone about 50' behind me as to be out of the picture and I didn't want to pick up the iPhone glowing screen in the footage. I took off and got into hover position and fly slowly back and looping around the home as I had done so many times before You can see the shot in a couple of my videos) as a practice run for my shot to merge with a daytime shot. I figured I had it so I came back around and hovered about 30' in front of me placing the wife 80' from the Phantom.

I started my slow ascent and told the wife " Now!" she hit "Night time guests" lighting mode on the iPhone and the lights start to ramp up and I start my shot and about 4 seconds in it does the famous veer off at full throttle, I reposition myself for a better view since its now on its way towards large Oak trees, I tell the wife...." run to the hill by the gazebo and don't take your eyes off the Phantom " (I think my exact words were the POS) all of a sudden I gain control and drag it back around to the right and towards me thinking "Phew, lucked out there" and as it was coming towards me and descending about 200' away it did the exact same thing headed over the lush Fir forrest, I dropped throttle to zero, the Phantom did a sweeping circle in what appeared to be a 20' radius and head down and away as the motors could no longer be heard. Best guess is 550'-650' feet away, not sure if hitting firs shut it down, I shut it down or we just couldnt hear it because it was behind a fir forrest at this point. Now for the interesting part.

Right where I regained control of the Phantom 3 different peoples cell phones pick up the Homes wi-fi signal, right where I lost control for the second time.........you guess it, this is where our phone lose/connect to wifi. This is all to easy to check because of tree and 3 rail fence so basically what I'm seeing is an iPhone sending a signal to a home router 100' away from the phantom causes the dreaded "see ya mode" once the Phantom leaves the home routers response area you gain control and once it come back across the homes Wi-Fi " bubble" it repeats the error..

The reason we never saw the glitch around the house before is because we were always flying and the iPhones were well within the routers range meaning no communication between the devices. This would also explain at least Sac D's experience , it appeared he was at a baseball field with residential homes very close, someone within range communicated with a router via a smartphone or other device that the Phantom picks up, and the person I talked to said the TX/RX of the Phantom is uber sensitive to wifi and failed multiple testings

 

[Eik]

So to summarize this Mark, the TX/RX of the phantom is to blame, and ppl "should" be safe if they replace those two components.

 

[Mark P]

So to summarize this Mark, the TX/RX of the phantom is to blame, and ppl "should" be safe if they replace those two components.

Lets just say I was talking to a guy today about Phantom alternatives and he recommended one you can hang any amount of wi-fi off it you want, he was sent a Phantom to check out as a distributor and it failed so bad he finally quit testing because it was failing with everything. Anything that flies with a "real" TX/RX ( Spektrum/Futaba) should be fine but remember DJI has already moved their compass one time down to the lowest point on the landing gear and the guy I was talking too says after his testing, he doubts they can move it far enough away to completely correct " issues"

 

[Mark P]

To be perfectly honest I thought the Phantom was the greatest thing since sliced cheese and ranted about how great it was as far as having friends purchasing one from my raving about how awesome they are but if they can infact be flow off full throttle because of an iPhone or a Router 100'-200' away, someones going to get hurt or killed. Lets hope Im wrong but I'm telling you 3 coincidences in a 2 minute flight......... I need to go to the casino

 

[Eik]

I've gotten myself a Futaba 8FG and a F450 frame kit.. just moved all the phantom electronics to the f450 and replaced the RX.

Hoping to test fly it tomorrow

 

[Sac D]

This is all crazy stuff. There should be a reasonable expectation that these things would be reliable and safe, unless flown irresponsibly. And after investing $1k in everything, I doubt too many people are intentionally operating foolishly. And now that the incidents are adding up, DJI needs to step up and figure out a fix.
Going back to the automotive analogy, they should initiate a recall of all Phantoms sold prior to whenever they make a correction in production, and let their dealers know what to do to remedy this. I suspected the problem with my original Phantom was the TX, and based on your discoveries it could be the TX and/or the RX. If so, DLJ should provide replacement hardware for the dealers to install. Or, by request, the customer could swap out the offending piece with the new one.

 

[BadWolf]

This is alFAA'szy stuff. There should be a reasonable expectation that these things would be reliable and safe, unless flown irresponsibly. And after investing $1k in everything, I doubt too many people are intentionally operating foolishly. And now that the incidents are adding up, DJI needs to step up and figure out a fix.
Going back to the automotive analogy, they should initiate a recall of all Phantoms sold prior to whenever they make a correction in production, and let their dealers know what to do to remedy this. I suspected the problem with my original Phantom was the TX, and based on your discoveries it could be the TX and/or the RX. If so, DLJ should provide replacement hardware for the dealers to install. Or, by request, the customer could swap out the offending piece with the new one.

Operating outside of the FAA's - Model Aircraft Operating Standard AC 91-57 is considered irresponsible. Dji will say they're not responsible for the owners not following this standard.

 

[Sac D]

This is alFAA'szy stuff. There should be a reasonable expectation that these things would be reliable and safe, unless flown irresponsibly. And after investing $1k in everything, I doubt too many people are intentionally operating foolishly. And now that the incidents are adding up, DJI needs to step up and figure out a fix.
Going back to the automotive analogy, they should initiate a recall of all Phantoms sold prior to whenever they make a correction in production, and let their dealers know what to do to remedy this. I suspected the problem with my original Phantom was the TX, and based on your discoveries it could be the TX and/or the RX. If so, DLJ should provide replacement hardware for the dealers to install. Or, by request, the customer could swap out the offending piece with the new one.

Operating outside of the FAA's - Model Aircraft Operating Standard AC 91-57 is considered irresponsible. Dji will say they're not responsible for the owners not following this standard.

Driving a car over 100 MPH on public roads is irresponsible too, and the auto makers have said they are not responsible for that... well, until so many Toyotas had documented cases of stuck accelerator pedals that they finally had to step up and do something about it. One of the more notable instances leading to fatalities involved the cousins of my friend, so I know that story well.

 

[Mark P]

This is alFAA'szy stuff. There should be a reasonable expectation that these things would be reliable and safe, unless flown irresponsibly. And after investing $1k in everything, I doubt too many people are intentionally operating foolishly. And now that the incidents are adding up, DJI needs to step up and figure out a fix.
Going back to the automotive analogy, they should initiate a recall of all Phantoms sold prior to whenever they make a correction in production, and let their dealers know what to do to remedy this. I suspected the problem with my original Phantom was the TX, and based on your discoveries it could be the TX and/or the RX. If so, DLJ should provide replacement hardware for the dealers to install. Or, by request, the customer could swap out the offending piece with the new one.

Operating outside of the FAA's - Model Aircraft Operating Standard AC 91-57 is considered irresponsible. Dji will say they're not responsible for the owners not following this standard.

I agree which is why I want DJI to send me a check for $1150.00 for strictly following FAA's - Model Aircraft Operating Standard AC 91-57 as I have always done including following the AMA which I have been a member of for decades, here's their code which maybe DJI should read before selling aircraft that can become unstable within 200' of a smartphone and/or wireless router. AMA https://www.modelaircraft.org/files/105.pdf

After one of these Phantoms zoom off and kill a pregnant women, I'm pretty sure any lawyer will have a heyday with DJI trying to back out and use the FAA's-MAOS when they fill the internet with promotional videos of them flying over hundreds of people in an enclosed building right before they zoom out the door and zip up and down the Vegas strip. Not only are they responsible, they are selling their product with demonstrations breaking every code ever established by any RC enthusiasts standards.

If they would send me my $1150.00 I would even be so kind as to not send them a bill for $60 hr.- 34 hours of searching for their dysfunctional product before their Lipos short out in the rain or drop below 3 amps and burn down a Five Million dollar re-prod Douglas Fir forrest

 

[Sac D]

I want DJI to send me a check for $1150.00 for strictly following FAA's - Model Aircraft Operating Standard AC 91-57 as I have always done including following the AMA which I have been a member of for decades, here's their code which maybe DJI should read before selling aircraft that can become unstable within 200' of a smartphone and/or wireless router.
AMA https://www.modelaircraft.org/files/105.pdf

After one of these Phantoms zoom off and kill a pregnant women, I'm pretty sure any lawyer will have a heyday with DJI trying to back out and use the FAA's-MAOS when they fill the internet with promotional videos of them flying over hundreds of people in an enclosed building right before they zoom out the door and zip up and down the Vegas strip. Not only are they responsible, they are selling their product with demonstrations breaking every code ever established by any RC enthusiasts standards.

If they would send me my $1150.00 I would even be so kind as to not send them a bill for $60 hr.- 34 hours of searching for their dysfunctional product before their Lipos short out in the rain or drop below 3 amps and burn down a Five Million dollar re-prod Douglas Fir forrest

Better stay away from http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1774685 - a lot of those guys are taking DJI's stance of ignoring that there is a problem. I'm thinking that fanboy attitude will change after they plunk down 7 or 8 hundred more on a DJI Gimbal and have the whole contraption zoom off to points unknown. That's a hard way to learn though.

 

[cornerstore]

Not sure you have seen this DJI Twitter update that was removed shortly after posting. Fortunately somebody got a screen shot on the Facebook page (link below). I'd keep plugging away at DJI. I think the problem is now obvious. Its now a matter of what DJI are going to do about it

http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/DJIGuys

 

[BadWolf]

I agree which is why I want DJI to send me a check for $1150.00 for strictly following FAA's - Model Aircraft Operating Standard AC 91-57 as I have always done including following the AMA which I have been a member of for decades, here's their code which maybe DJI should read before selling aircraft that can become unstable within 200' of a smartphone and/or wireless router. AMA https://www.modelaircraft.org/files/105.pdf

After one of these Phantoms zoom off and kill a pregnant women, I'm pretty sure any lawyer will have a heyday with DJI trying to back out and use the FAA's-MAOS when they fill the internet with promotional videos of them flying over hundreds of people in an enclosed building right before they zoom out the door and zip up and down the Vegas strip. Not only are they responsible, they are selling their product with demonstrations breaking every code ever established by any RC enthusiasts standards.

If they would send me my $1150.00 I would even be so kind as to not send them a bill for $60 hr.- 34 hours of searching for their dysfunctional product before their Lipos short out in the rain or drop below 3 amps and burn down a Five Million dollar re-prod Douglas Fir forrest

200' of distance from a router may not be enough. I was reading on another board about a wifi system transmitting 750' and causing crashes with Futaba and Spektrum systems. There are places that use high power wifi, stadiums, convention centers, factories, etc. Those that are flying through the cities should be aware of this issue. In your case I can understand why you want your money back. I live in a rural area so a Futaba or a Spektrum system may work for me.

This is from the Dji Phantom Wiki page.
6. Try to avoid interference between the remote control transmitter and other wireless equipment.
http://wiki.dji-innovations.com/en/inde ... recautions

Yeah, right. How on Earth are we supposed to know where this wireless equipment could be.

 

[Sac D]

I was wondering about that, if Phantoms with different TX were having this problem or not.
I may pursue that as not only an improvement, but a possible life saver as well.

 

[Mark P]

Not sure you have seen this DJI Twitter update that was removed shortly after posting. Fortunately somebody got a screen shot. I'd keep plugging away at DJI. I think the problem is now obvious. Its now a matter of what DJI are going to do about it

You're F'ing kidding me right??? This has to be a photoshop. where did you find this?

 

[cornerstore]

It was on Phantom flyers Facebook page.

 

[jdawson]

First off that tweet was FAKE. I and over 500 other people follow DJI on twitter. If that tweet existed someone would have replied or re-tweeted it and they can't delete them. Also that is not a picture of Facebook on an iPhone it is a picture of twitter on an iPhone. So that example posted above was not taken from Facebook. (You may have seen someone post that picture on Facebook but the picture itself is a fake Twitter post.)

As for the theory and a potentially good theory on the WIFI issue of the phantom. That is based on the GoPro issue that DJI has agreed exists. You need to understand better why the WiFI issue exists with the GoPro.

First off as you know WiFI frequencies are all playing in the 2.4 GHZ spectrum so it is possible that we are looking at an issue here. That said the ability to cause interference has a great deal to do with proximity and the differences of having a transmitter one inch away from a receiving antenna vs a few feet is a HUGE difference.

The GoPro is transmitting WiFi within inches of the Phantoms receiving antenna taped to one of the legs. Even that is NOT an issue until you get your phantom more then 100' feet away... At some point after 100' feet the signal from your radio to the Phantom becomes weaker then the interference signal from the GoPro and if your lucky at this the phantom may do a Return to home or some other crazy thing.

My guess... Is that a home that has that much complex lighting has a very strong magnetic interference. Walk around it with a old fashion compass. Just walk around lots of places with an old Compass and you will see that power lines and many things cause compass problems. The GPS mode of all quads require good compass signals that don't often exist in urban environments.

People have been flying lots of RC and lots of Quads in urban environments for many years but only in the past few months since the Phantom have people been flying a unit that has a GPS mode in an urban environment. My advise to everyone who flys in urban environments is use ATTI mode and don't expect that a fail safe return to home on any device will work in an urban environment.