Another DJI FLYAWAY STORY...

[TOONOGRAPHYENT]

Hello All,

I am just sharing a story that may or may not be helpful to some people. Feel free to comment and leave advice.

In early February my girlfriend purchased me a DJI phantom quadcopter for my birthday because she knew that videography tools come in handy for my trade. So upon her purchasing that, I also purchased some upgrades like the carbon fiber props, extended landing gear, a gimbal. etc. For the most part since the day I opened it from the box, IT WORKED WONDERFUL! High, far, and smooth flying . For the first month and a half I flew without fear and took it almost anywhere. With 40+ flights on the machine the last thing I'd expect was a flyaway.

Well unfortunately 2 weeks ago I had my first flyaway experience with no prevail. I took a complete loss and lost the DJI, GOPRO BLACK, GIMBAL, and everything that was on it. What makes matters worse is that I was un able to find it and no one replied to the number written on it. I made sure to list reward on it if found. To this day I check daily on craigslist and ebay to see if I see a similar one for sale at a dirt cheap price (since they have no wires or receiver) But nothing… not to mention a week later it rained for 3 days soo hard back to back that I know at this point even if it is found its ruined.

So to save a long story of how I coped with my sadness lol. The same day before nightfall after losing the first one I ordered a second one. I had already invested much time and energy into the experience of getting a hang of aerial videography that I did not want to give up soo soon. So I ordered another DJI phantom from the same distributer that my girlfriend originally ordered mines from (B&H Photo in NY) I also replaced my GOPRO BLACK with a BLACK 3+, and got another gimbal. Now here is where the story starts to not make sense.

To be honest after receiving the new one in the box, it took me a while to gain the courage to send it back up in the air. About 2 days ago I gave it a test flight but decided to keep it low just encase something like that happened again… luckily I did because within seconds of sending it up…about 100 feet in the air it lost signal and was uncontrollable. The light went from green to yellow in mid air. Then back to green and then back to yellow. Now this is after I had already waited for the continuously blinking green light, to then calibrated it, and took off. I made sure to wait and do all the proper procedures before take off like I would do with my old one and nope. No luck… I was lucky enough that it didn't fly away from 100 feet and I would of lost another $1000+. So it gradually worked its way back down until we could grab it. That was on the FIRST FLIGHT out of the BOX!!!

So I thought to my self man this thing has to be messed up but before I ship it back I have to make sure…(I am one to not quit. lol) So as stupid as it may sound… I changed the battery, re calibrated it, and sent it back up in the air. Within seconds the same thing happens but this time I kept it under 50 feet. This time around I had a bit more control but it was not as accurate as it should be. The remote seemed to not respond as well. So I called it quits there after 2 flights. The next day I decided to give it one more shot before I contacted the company. So I went to a huggge park with open grass field and figure no place better then to try it then there.I did all the proper steps before sending it up… It flew for about 3 minutes with no issues, so I decided to go higher, probably 200-300 feet. It was over the trees and high enough to still be seen… but it lost signal and the light in the back started blinking yellow again. At that point I had NO CONTROL. I nearly lost it emotionally lol I did not want to panic so I tried to hold the stick down to bring it down. no luck… it just slowly on its own hovered its way down enough till where we could grab it and I shut it off.

So at that point I knew it was a out of the box failure. Today I contacted B&H and explained the situation on how this one was acting funny and the one my girl got me flew away… With no questions asked they issued me a RMA number and are going to exchange it. That is the good news… BUTTTTT. My fear is what are the odds of the 3rd one being flawed in some way? That would be the shittiest luck ever. Im thinking of buying a tracking device (those $40 ones they have on ebay) or something similar because if it flies away again I don't want to lose out. I am just fearful that the tracking device gps might interfere with the NAZA???lol.

But the point I am trying to make here is something could potentially be wrong with the batches that are going out. So with this 3rd one I am going to slowwwwwwwwly send it up, preferably someplace with trees so if it loses signal and flyaway again at least I can probably run it into a tree and save it. lol. Id rather have a broken device then no device :lol: But if this 3rd one fails I think I am going to have to look into other companies (( Sucks because I was really confident in the company and felt safe flying. Now I am a nervous wreck.

I have read all sorts of reports… users who have flew for 1 year straight with no problems what so ever… then you have the cases when people fly out of the box and they flyaway the same day. So I may or may not fall under both cases. lol. I did fly the first one for a while with no issues… I flew that bad boy in windy weather, night, daytime, foggy weather and it always came back with no problem. The day it flew away it was SUNNY and there was NO WIND. which doesn't make sense. Then the days I flew the new one the weather was great on both days and still… no luck. It kept losing reception. Soooooo. Hopefully when number 3 comes in I am blessed ….I hope lol.



Hope this could be helpful to some people who feel alone in the flyaway situation.


Ps. My grammar sucked so please excuse my spelling and grammatical errors. :mrgreen:

 

[ericdes]

Hi, can you answer yes or no to these questions? This will help to understand.

First phantom:
Did you plug in the Phantom in the assistant software?
Did you ever do an advanced IMU calibration in the software?
Did you ever look at the compass numbers in the software?
Did you ever do a compass calibration before flight?
Did you ever get 2 fast sequences of green strobe LEDS prior to liftoff?
Did you liftoff with a constant flashing green led only?


Was the gopro on?
Was the gopro on WIFI?

Second Phantom:
Did you plug in the Phantom in the assistant software?
Did you ever do an advanced IMU calibration in the software?
Did you ever look at the compass numbers in the software?
Did you ever do a compass calibration before flight?
Did you ever get 2 fast sequences of green strobe LEDS prior to liftoff?
Did you liftoff with a constant flashing green led only??

Was the gopro on?
Was the gopro on WIFI?

Were all these flyaways at the same location?

 

[ianwood]

That's a big post yet there isn't much there for anyone to help you figure it out. You need to tell us the details. We don't even know if it's a P1 or P2 or what? What was on it? What steps did you take when it happened? In detail. Where was it? What was in the area? You could have really bad luck but more likely that you're doing something wrong. We need to sift through all the details to figure out what that is.

 

[TOONOGRAPHYENT]

Hi, can you answer yes or no to these questions? This will help to understand.

First phantom:
Did you plug in the Phantom in the assistant software?
Did you ever do an advanced IMU calibration in the software?
Did you ever look at the compass numbers in the software?
Did you ever do a compass calibration before flight?
Did you ever get 2 fast sequences of green strobe LEDS prior to liftoff?
Did you liftoff with a constant flashing green led only?


Was the gopro on?
Was the gopro on WIFI?

Second Phantom:
Did you plug in the Phantom in the assistant software?
Did you ever do an advanced IMU calibration in the software?
Did you ever look at the compass numbers in the software?
Did you ever do a compass calibration before flight?
Did you ever get 2 fast sequences of green strobe LEDS prior to liftoff?
Did you liftoff with a constant flashing green led only??

Was the gopro on?
Was the gopro on WIFI?

Were all these flyaways at the same location?

Firstly, Thank both of you for your patience, fast, prompt response and understanding! I appreciate it alot... I am going to try to answer both in 1 comment.

First phantom:

Did you plug in the Phantom in the assistant software?
No...Out of the box the first time... no. I thought it would fly fine. Which it did for a while. When the gimbal came in I had to them plug it into the software in order to turn on the remote pitch function and set up the numbers to the pitch feature. But even after doing that it flew wonderful.

Did you ever do an advanced IMU calibration in the software?
No

Did you ever look at the compass numbers in the software?
No

Did you ever do a compass calibration before flight?

Yes... Wait until after warm up when it blinks green fast and continuously. Then flip the switch 10 times... It will then turn yellow, Then you keep the front pointed forward and do a 360 rotation left until it turns green. Then point the front down with the light up and do the same 360 rotation until you see the constant green. Sit it on the floor... No reds, no yellows, just green so to me that meant take off lol.

Did you ever get 2 fast sequences of green strobe LEDS prior to liftoff?
Yes I believe so , thats what I was just explaining.

Did you liftoff with a constant flashing green led only?
Yes lift off was green all the way until it turned yellow and lost signal in mid air.


Was the gopro on?
Yes the gopro was on

Was the gopro on WIFI?
No the wifi was no on because they run on the same signal and will interfere.

No the flya ways were not at the same location...



Second Phantom:
Did you plug in the Phantom in the assistant software? Yes to set up the gimbal with the pitch feature (This time I waited to fly until the gimbal was setup. So the first flight with the 2nd one was with a gimbal. The first flight with the first one was without gimbal.)
Did you ever do an advanced IMU calibration in the software? No
Did you ever look at the compass numbers in the software? No
Did you ever do a compass calibration before flight? Yes... I made sure it was green and fully calibrated before flying. Do not leave on yellow, Defiantly don't leave on red. Green is a go.

Did you ever get 2 fast sequences of green strobe LEDS prior to liftoff?
Again I am not sure the different between 2 green vs 1 green set of continuously flashing lights. but it was green after calibration.

Did you liftoff with a constant flashing green led only?? Yes I lifted off on green.

Was the gopro on?
Yes I was recording

Was the gopro on WIFI?
No because it interferes

Were all these flyaways at the same location?

No the 2 times the 2nd quadcopter lost response was at 2 completely different locations.



By the looks of it from the questions above I missed something lol. Feel free to explain and give details on how to properly do it so that I can avoid this stuff.

Thanks again for writing me!

 

[TOONOGRAPHYENT]

That's a big post yet there isn't much there for anyone to help you figure it out. You need to tell us the details. We don't even know if it's a P1 or P2 or what? What was on it? What steps did you take when it happened? In detail. Where was it? What was in the area? You could have really bad luck but more likely that you're doing something wrong. We need to sift through all the details to figure out what that is.

Sorry for the late reply... It is a P1

 

[uncommongrafx]

My question:
How did you calibrate: you in the center or the phantom as the center?

I believe my fly-away had to do with me as the center.

All those old videos that show that chicken dance should be purged from the net!

 

[TOONOGRAPHYENT]

TLDR.

Succinct = good.

Work on that.

Im sorry I don't quite understand what you are saying? What is Succinct? Also what is TLDR?

 

[thongbong]

Put a hold on that P1. Put in another 200 and get the P2. I hear a significant amount of P1.1.1 horror stories on this forum. Not sure what it is but it's plenty. Something has to be wrong with them.

 

[TOONOGRAPHYENT]

TLDR.

Succinct = good.

Work on that.

Im sorry I don't quite understand what you are saying? What is Succinct? Also what is TLDR?

Is Google broken in your village?

Not sure what villages have to do with the subject matter... but if this makes you feel any better

suc·cinct
sə(k)ˈsiNG(k)t/
adjective
1.
(esp. of something written or spoken) briefly and clearly expressed.

Sorry that it was too much for you to read. I tend to like to story tell. Hence, "Another DJi FLYAWAY STORY" I could of just kept the details real vague and simple but for the people that care to know the whole scenario I figured it'll help. Despite your sarcastic comment thanks for the reply. I appreciate all comments and advice. Constructive critism is helpful... :twisted: :mrgreen:

 

[TOONOGRAPHYENT]

Put a hold on that P1. Put in another 200 and get the P2. I hear a significant amount of P1.1.1 horror stories on this forum. Not sure what it is but it's plenty. Something has to be wrong with them.

Thanks for the advice. That sucks to hear... another $200 on top of the rest of the loss would suck lol Would you think one of those GPS tracking devices would work? If it flew away would that actually work... Would it interfere? Not sure...Let me know. Thanks for the positive advice.

 

[TOONOGRAPHYENT]

Put a hold on that P1. Put in another 200 and get the P2. I hear a significant amount of P1.1.1 horror stories on this forum. Not sure what it is but it's plenty. Something has to be wrong with them.

Pilot error.

Signed,

P1 (not P1.1.1) guy with hundreds of successful flights.

p.s. If the OP is able to get a P2 for an extra $200 he should go that route if he can't swing a P2 with three axis zenmuse.

Thanks for your thoughts... Yea I know there are many successful people like you who have flown many times. I thought I fell in that category for about 2 months of great flights. lol. But unfortunately I was wrong. Not to mention the day of the flyaway it was great weather with no wind. The 1st one maybe, the second one... not so sure... but whatever the case is thanks for the comment!

 

[TOONOGRAPHYENT]

Sorry that it was too much for you to read. I tend to like to story tell. Hence, "Another DJi FLYAWAY STORY" I could of just kept the details real vague and simple but for the people that care to know the whole scenario I figured it'll help. Despite your sarcastic comment thanks for the reply. I appreciate all comments and advice. Constructive critism is helpful... :twisted: :mrgreen:

You were anything but succinct, hence the TLDR.

Details are good. Details buried within monster superfluous paragraphs are not good.

Its understandable that you prefer not to read. Hence your TOO LONG DIDNT READ... Luckily the others who did reply, read it and replied with useful questions. No hard feelings

 

[flyshasta]

Heads up ! Ugh, another reincarnation of justsomelittleguy troll.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Ksc]

there was a lot to read here and I didn't read past the first paragraph. One thing that I suggest is to go to DJI.com and read the manual. There is a lot of really good info. You may even read something that explains why you had these issues. There is a very good chance it is pilot related.

 

[TOONOGRAPHYENT]

Heads up ! Ugh, another reincarnation of justsomelittleguy troll.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks its ok... lol I see that alot of people dont like to read today. Next time I will simplify it

 

[ericdes]

Ok, now I know that it isn't required to plug it in the software and do calibrations but this is one complicated piece of equipment. When I got mine the first thing I did with it is to calibrate the compass.

After that I plugged it in and did an IMU calibration, which it told me that it needed. Did basic and advanced.
Looked at the compass settings, MOD was at 2200... It should be much closer to around 1600. Mind you after I originally did calibrate the compass it started to flash green.... But it's at 2200, way farther then I am comfortable with.

So I degaussed the compass. Now it sits at 1612 or so. Did an IMU calibration again.
I do the plug in and check routine every week.

What did I learn? Ready to fly was not really ready to fly, EVEN IF IT WAS FLASHING GREEN. It's telling me it can fly but the numbers are telling me DON'T FLY.

 

[TOONOGRAPHYENT]

Ok, now I know that it isn't required to plug it in the software and do calibrations but this is one complicated piece of equipment. When I got mine the first thing I did with it is to calibrate the compass.

After that I plugged it in and did an IMU calibration, which it told me that it needed. Did basic and advanced.
Looked at the compass settings, MOD was at 2200... It should be much closer to around 1600. Mind you after I originally did calibrate the compass it started to flash green.... But it's at 2200, way farther then I am comfortable with.

So I degaussed the compass. Now it sits at 1612 or so. Did an IMU calibration again.
I do the plug in and check routine every week.

What did I learn? Ready to fly was not really ready to fly, EVEN IF IT WAS FLASHING GREEN. It's telling me it can fly but the numbers are telling me DON'T FLY.

See now thats a CLEAR FUDGING ANSWER! Thanks for replying with some useful info. lol. It makes sense... So your saying that those numbers 2200, and 1612, in the DJI software calibrate the range? or The flying sensitivity? Makes sense I just want to get a better grasp on it.

So is there a specific setting that it works best? Is 1600 all across the board or is it based on user preference? How does that work? Because like I said with my first one I flew far, high and long without any issues out of the box until after about a month and a half when the fly away happened. The second one new out of the box acted funny which surprised me. So if your saying something needs to be adjusted in the software I want to do that asap when the new one comes in. Also checking it every week may be smart too... thanks for the tip!

 

[kyle925]

I'm curious what your compass reading is in the assistant, and if your numbers are in specs of what is recommended. Also, I would suggest to keep a log of your numbers/readings in the assistant to keep track of it. It may come in handy as proof ( base readings ) that you did everything by the book and in spec. I took a video of my base reading just incase i need proof for a return.

 

[EMCSQUAR]

Toon, what you want to make a habit of is occassionally run assistant software ADVANCE Calibration maybe weekly. I do it anytime I make changes or notice an abnormal behavior - light sequence, wobbly flight... The #s they're referring to is compass #s in advance calibration - ideally 1200 - 1600 is preferred.
Another thing I picked up on in your initial post was your compass "dance" routine. You were waiting for green lights then doing the spins? You should do the spins first then wait for green lights. If you move it after the green flashes (marking home location) then do compass routine - your literally resetting it and flying with no home location. Might explain your flyaways.

 

[TOONOGRAPHYENT]

I'm curious what your compass reading is in the assistant, and if your numbers are in specs of what is recommended. Also, I would suggest to keep a log of your numbers/readings in the assistant to keep track of it. It may come in handy as proof ( base readings ) that you did everything by the book and in spec. I took a video of my base reading just incase i need proof for a return.

Thanks man... Actually this one is boxed and ready to get shipped back in the morning but when the new one comes in next week I am going to want to set up all the numbers the way thats recommended. Do you know a video link that shows how to do it? Or any forum links that give accurate info...Your help is greatly appreciated! Ill tune back in tomorrow morning... Got work in the a.m. but hopefully I can get some good info on here by the morning. Thanks!