Crash from a compass error and loss gps

[DroneChris83]

I ordered a Phantom 3 advanced several months ago and just got around to flying it. I have flown it less than 10+ times but up until this point had no issues over the last week of flying. I have flown from the same site every time and have recalibrated compass at the beginning of each day. This evening I went out for a flight and notice I forgot to put my SD card in so I brought it back landed and put SD card in. A couple minutes later I went for another flight, everything seemed fine. Then all of sudden I got an error message "Warning: Compass Error. Exit P-GPS mode". When this error hit it was only 330 ft from me and 90 feet off the ground. It started to drift away from me and I managed to get it to come down but seemed to be extremely sluggish and not responding to inputs. Unfortunealyt it hit a tree on the way down flipped over and slammed into the ground. While upside down the motors continued to run even after I was pushing down on the stick, if you look at the blades it completely ground the tops off. Additionally, upon impact, the camera popped off the gimbal and it looks like the frame separated on one of the arms. Is this something DJI will fix given the thing malfunctioned?

Thanks

 

[sar104]

Sounds like it went into ATTI mode for some reason - the compass error message is too generic to know exactly why. After that it seems like you were not familiar with flying in ATTI - hence thinking it felt sluggish and having trouble landing it.

If the original error actually was a hardware malfunction then DJI might well fix or replace it for you. If it was environmental or if you had a poor compass calibration (you should not do those unless prompted by the software) then they may say that it was still flying fine in ATTI mode, and that it was down to pilot error that you crashed it.

You can probably figure out which it was from the DAT flight log or post it here for analysis.

 

[DroneChris83]

How do I get my flight log? I can view it in the app but not sure how to download it onto PC.

 

[sar104]

This webpage describes how to get the DAT file, which is the log that contains the magnetometer data necessary to figure out compass errors.

 

[Meta4]

How do I get my flight log? I can view it in the app but not sure how to download it onto PC.

Or you could use the .txt file which is saved in the app.
Go to DJI Flight Log Viewer
Follow the instructions there to upload your flight record from your phone or tablet.
Come back and post a link to the report it provides

 

[Numone]

I had a very similar occurrence once, but I was able to bring the AC back and land it. I moved 10 feet away and flew without a problem and, some 200 odd flights later, I've never had a compass issue again. It'll be interesting to see what the txt log shows, but it appears perhaps the compass got spooked by something magnetic when you landed to put the SD Card in the camera.

 

[hutch]

I always get compass errors doesn't make the drone crash only panicking does

 

[Meta4]

I always get compass errors doesn't make the drone crash only panicking does

Always getting compass errors is not at all normal.
What are you doing that might cause compass errors?

 

[Mordor]

I had a esc failure on a new P3A, due, i believe, old app...
Anyway....receive a new one....

Contact DJI and update your logs on the phone.

 

[DroneChris83]

I tried to use Airdata but it seems the file is too large to upload.

 

[DroneChris83]

Nevermind I figured it out.

 

[Steve7777]

Nevermind I figured it out.

So no further explanation apart from that? Well... thanks...

So, having started this thread and having asked for for help, that's all we get?

I would hope that you would at least do the members here the courtesy of explaining what the problem was now you've worked it out, even if was down to your own 'stupidity' (which we all suffer from sometimes).

Thus others can learn and hopefully not have the same happen to them... That's what this forum is all about, IMHO..

 

[DroneChris83]

It looks like the errors for nongpscause included "Compass Error Large" and "Yaw Error LArge". Additionally my GPS Health went all the way down to 0. What else am I looking for?

 

[DroneChris83]

So no further explanation apart from that? Well... thanks...

So, having started this thread and having asked for for help, that's all we get?

I would hope that you would at least do the members here the courtesy of explaining what the problem was now you've worked it out, even if was down to your own 'stupidity' (which we all suffer from sometimes).

Thus others can learn and hopefully not have the same happen to them... That's what this forum is all about, IMHO..

The |I figured it out| was in response to the file being too large to upload. Sorry for the confusion. Still have issues with drone and crash...

 

[Steve7777]

OK - sorry - I apologise to you - I thought that was you signing off entirely from the thread... never to be seen again...

(It 'appens...) ...

 

[Oso]

It looks like the errors for nongpscause included "Compass Error Large" and "Yaw Error LArge". Additionally my GPS Health went all the way down to 0. What else am I looking for?

The easiest and most effective way to get valuable feedback on your flight is to follow what @Meta4 requested on Sunday in this post.

 

[Steve7777]

The easiest and most effective way to get valuable feedback on your flight is to follow what @Meta4 requested on Sunday in this post.

Aha - I wondered who would re-suggest this solution, Oso - I should have guessed it would be you...

That's the best way forward, for sure...

 

[DroneChris83]

Maybe I will try again later. The site is giving me an Internal Server Error right now.

 

[BillT2780]

I am new to form sites but have had this happen on two different P3P, the first P3P I thought I did something wrong. On the second P3P I thought about both incidents and realized that I let the battery get to low for drone to function properly, think the motors stopped or slowed down on one side of drone. I have since sold one drone, disclosed what had happened to person I sold it to, but still have the other drone. It flies fine, I was flying drones down to 12% on batteries before I would return home, drones were with in 100 feet of me learning to operate drones, I was at low altitudes, under 100 feet. I have since started bringing drones back at 30% but I am flying as far as drone can go away from me before signal starts to drop. I only have abou 1200 hours of flight time so I am still learning operate drone and hoping to get my FAA license.

 

[Henry Matias]

Sounds like it went into ATTI mode for some reason - the compass error message is too generic to know exactly why. After that it seems like you were not familiar with flying in ATTI - hence thinking it felt sluggish and having trouble landing it.

If the original error actually was a hardware malfunction then DJI might well fix or replace it for you. If it was environmental or if you had a poor compass calibration (you should not do those unless prompted by the software) then they may say that it was still flying fine in ATTI mode, and that it was down to pilot error that you crashed it.

You can probably figure out which it was from the DAT flight log or post it here for analysis.

I know that the P4 Pro plus just had an firmware upgrade recently like 2-3 weeks ago for a compass calibration issue.
Also a abnormal sound in a chached video etc,
I had the same thing happen to me with mine straight up with green ok to fly......auto takeoff precision option and after flying for 1 minute or less it desingaged from P mode to Atti on its own. This was its first flight out of the box after firmware upgrade. Even though I had experience thank God with doing Atti flying with my previous Regular P4, I thought It was a goner. I had trees 50 feet behind me and yes of course the light breeze was heading in that direction and the Drone drifted in that direction and my extinct was to climb full blast and it just cleared the top of the trees but now out of sight and heading for the busy city. I looked down at the monitor and there it was compass error GPS disconnected and I watched the video of it drifting away and took then control of flying it Atti mode with the toggle switch still in P mode. It was a white nuckle flight back, packed it in the box and off it went to California and as we speak I'm firmware upgrading a brand new Bird mailed back spanking New from China still sealed delivered label to California then repackedged to Torinto Canada
I warned them a repair unit was out of the question it had to be new or refund me! They listened. Also in between the 14 days sending it out and receiving this one a firmware was released to fix exactly the problems were all discussing