Just wanted to give you an update on this incident. I contacted DJI, filled out their "RTHF Survey" form, and sent them the URL to the
youtube video of my Phantom falling into the ocean.
Their first response was:
"First, we want to remind you that the remote connection our Phantoms use can be interfered with by outside sources as per FCC law. Flying near any large amounts of concrete, steel, powerlines, wifi technology, and other man-made sources can affect the behavior of the aircraft. Also, calibrating the compass over or near any of these objects or material can cause issues in flight. This is a general reminder and may not necessarily apply to your situation.
We would like to offer you 30% off a new purchase of a Phantom 2 + H3-3D + iOSD mini for $719.60"
Clearly this was a form letter response. I asked them to please review the video link I sent them. I also mentioned that this was one of the early V2.0 Phantom's with ESC v2's that had a history of sudden failures.
"After reviewing the survey and watching the link to the video provided, it seems that there were some precautions and steps you could have taken to prevent this. I have put some follow up questions below to help figure out what happened:
- Were you flying in Atti or GPS mode?
- Where, and how did you mount the iOSD?
- What 3rd party hardware was attached to the unit at the time, and where, and how were they installed?
The reason i ask, is it appears that there was noise on your monitor, seconds prior to the incident, indicating some type of electromagnetic pulse, or interference.
Nothing that has to do with the motors, or ESC's would make the video glitch like that."
I answered their 3 questions and noted that the video glitches were typical of those I see when I'm 1 km out or my antenna is not pointed directly at the Phantom.
I also noted that in the movie you can see the video signal and battery level are all working perfectly even as the Phantom is falling from 50 meters down to 4 meters. This indicated that the wiring had not shorted out. The last iOSD height on the video is 4 meters, right before impact.
Lastly, I asked them what "precautions and steps" would have prevented this failure. This was their response:
"Thank for contacting DJI Support
After going to my superiors to fight for you a better deal, I was able to get them to agree to an offer of 50% off a new purchase of a Phantom 2 + H3-3D + iOSD mini for $514.00. This is our final offer."
Nothing about the "precautions and steps", but they did give me a 50% off offer on a new one. I figured that was about as good an offer of support as I would get from them so I took them up on it. I mailed them my old transmitter (they paid for s/h), paid the price, and they sent me a new P2 w/zenmuse H3-3D.
So after buying a new transmitter, GoPro H3+ (used), and Flytrex, I'm back in the air. But my days of flying 3 km over the ocean are behind me. After losing two P2s in the drink, I just don't have the trust in the platform that I had before. I still love flying the thing but now I'm a much more cautious PhantomPilot.