Lost power and crashed

igor.L · Sep 5, 2017

Hello everyone,

Need an advice. I'm on holiday in Iceland and today my drone P3 Pro crushed due 'lost power'. Unfortunately it crashed into water.

On the video. At the point where I got under bridge and the drone started to go down this is where I couldn't go up and it was going down, so I decided to fly towards the rocky shore.

What to do next?
I know that if you doing everything right, I need to send it to the repair centre now. But I need it to fly for few more days if it possible of course

But before anything please help me with an advice how to get it dry and get a fly date log to understand what was a problem.
As I understand the battery that got wet should not be used in the future.

Thank for all your help and advices

sar104 · Sep 5, 2017

If you follow the instructions on the sites linked below you can get detailed information on the flight. The first method provides much more data and requires significant interpretation (freely available on this site), while the second is a more user-friendly but less-detailed look at the flight.

CsvView/DatCon

DJI Flight Log Viewer

igor.L · Sep 5, 2017

sar104 said:
If you follow the instructions on the sites linked below you can get detailed information on the flight. The first method provides much more data and requires significant interpretation (freely available on this site), while the second is a more user-friendly but less-detailed look at the flight.

CsvView/DatCon

DJI Flight Log Viewer

Thank you for your respond. One more question. It said 'Connect your device to a computer via a USB cable'. So I need to switch on my drone. It's in a 'get dry mode' for about 7 hours. Do you think it's safe to switch it on?

sar104 · Sep 5, 2017

igor.L said:
Thank you for your respond. One more question. It said 'Connect your device to a computer via a USB cable'. So I need to switch on my drone. It's in a 'get dry mode' for about 7 hours. Do you think it's safe to switch it on?

Good question. I would let it dry out before trying to power it up. Take a look at the mobile device log in the meantime.

WV. Rootman · Sep 5, 2017

My p3s was in the water for 1 1/2 hours before I could get it out. I took the gimbal apart. I put it and the battery in the dehydrator for 7 hr. Took a hair dryer to the phantom after I took it apart and dryed it out well. I put it all back together and it worked fine. The battery had not swollen and was fine in my case. As for the sd card, take it out and dry it by hand well. It should work in your computer right a way. They are said to be water proof.

sar104 · Sep 5, 2017

WV. Rootman said:
My p3s was in the water for 1 1/2 hours before I could get it out. I took the gimbal apart. I put it and the battery in the dehydrator for 7 hr. Took a hair dryer to the phantom after I took it apart and dryed it out well. I put it all back together and it worked fine. The battery had not swollen and was fine in my case. As for the sd card, take it out and dry it by hand well. It should work in your computer right a way. They are said to be water proof.

But in the context of the DAT file, note that it is not on the removable SD card - at least I think that is also true for the P3S.

Bakersfield Quad · Sep 5, 2017

Just a thought, that was an iron or steel bridge, with rock out cropping on each side. Several red flags for me.
1) Steel bridge, bad juju, compass errors common.
2) Bridge and rock both bad for GPS signals.
3) Venturi effect, water flowing through the gap, pushed air with it, as it passes the gap, the wind speeds up, then as it leave the gap, pressure drops and turbulence is likely.
I know you were aware of the dangers, I could see it in your flight path. So not chastising, but rather pointing out indicators for analyzing this flight before hand.
Hope it works well, I would let it dry a bit extra, just to be sure. Fresh water is not so bad, if you got it out in time, maybe no real damage.

igor.L · Sep 5, 2017

WV. Rootman said:
My p3s was in the water for 1 1/2 hours before I could get it out. I took the gimbal apart. I put it and the battery in the dehydrator for 7 hr. Took a hair dryer to the phantom after I took it apart and dryed it out well. I put it all back together and it worked fine. The battery had not swollen and was fine in my case. As for the sd card, take it out and dry it by hand well. It should work in your computer right a way. They are said to be water proof.

Thanks mate for the detailed respond. Could you please give more details about 'I took it apart'?
We are about to see a lot of beautiful places and you just gave me a hope that it's possible to fly again

WV. Rootman · Sep 5, 2017

sar104 said:
But in the context of the DAT file, note that it is not on the removable SD card - at least I think that is also true for the P3S.

I was more concerned about losing my other videos on my 64gig. I was answering the posters request. The poster wanted to know what to do so he can keep flying. I was just stating what happened in my case and what I did to resolve my problems.

WV. Rootman · Sep 5, 2017

igor.L said:
Thanks mate for the detailed respond. Could you please give more details about 'I took it apart'?
We are about to see a lot of beautiful places and you just gave me a hope that it's possible to fly again

I took the gimbal apart and the top off the the drone so that everything would dry out well. A hair dryer may work. As long as you dry well and not fry! If the weather is cold, put it safely by a heater.

igor.L · Sep 5, 2017

guys, one more question. before I will get it dry and get DAT file. I have charged the battery with the car charger, could it be a reason?

WV. Rootman · Sep 5, 2017

I just watched your video. It really seems like a clear case of your compass getting messed up by the iron in the bridge. It makes the drone hard to handle and it will fly away on its own. It happened to me once. Re calibrate and all should be well.

igor.L · Sep 5, 2017

WV. Rootman said:
I just watched your video. It really seems like a clear case of your compass getting messed up by the iron in the bridge. It makes the drone hard to handle and it will fly away on its own. It happened to me once. Re calibrate and all should be well.

Iron bridge even on this distance? Man I need to read this forum more often as I had no idea. Silly

WV. Rootman · Sep 5, 2017

20 feet above the metal roof of the house and mine went crazy.

sar104 · Sep 5, 2017

igor.L said:
guys, one more question. before I will get it dry and get DAT file. I have charged the battery with the car charger, could it be a reason?

Not the reason. A charged battery is a charged battery.

Meta4 · Sep 5, 2017

igor.L said:
Thank you for your respond. One more question. It said 'Connect your device to a computer via a USB cable'. So I need to switch on my drone. It's in a 'get dry mode' for about 7 hours. Do you think it's safe to switch it on?

Don't worry at all about getting the .dat file from your Phantom.
You don't need it.
You can easily get the flight data from the app in your phone or tablet.

Go to DJI Flight Log Viewer
Follow the instructions to upload your flight record.
Come back and post a link to the report it provides and someone here might be able to analyse it and give you an understanding of the cause of the incident.

Meta4 · Sep 5, 2017

WV. Rootman said:
I just watched your video. It really seems like a clear case of your compass getting messed up by the iron in the bridge. It makes the drone hard to handle and it will fly away on its own. It happened to me once. Re calibrate and all should be well.

Flying close to a lot of steel may cause the compass to give spurious data and affect flight when close to the steel.
BUT there is no need to recalibrate anything.
Simply flying away from the magnetic influence solves the problem.
If you were to recalibrate the compass within the steel's magnetic field ... that could cause a real problem.

sar104 · Sep 5, 2017

Meta4 said:
Don't worry at all about getting anything from your Phantom.
You can easily get the flight data from the app in your phone or tablet.

Go to DJI Flight Log Viewer
Follow the instructions to upload your flight record.
Come back and post a link to the report it provides and someone here might be able to analyse it and give you an understanding of the cause of the incident.

I'd caveat that by saying that the log file lacks the raw sensor and motor data which are definitive in some cases, such as motor failure or prop loss.

Meta4 · Sep 5, 2017

igor.L said:
Need an advice. I'm on holiday in Iceland and today my drone P3 Pro crushed due 'lost power'. Unfortunately it crashed into water.

On the video. At the point where I got under bridge and the drone started to go down this is where I couldn't go up and it was going down, so I decided to fly towards the rocky shore

Looking at the video, I'm not sure the bridge had anything to do with the issue..
The flight data will tell for sure but it appears that you lost GPS due to being in the confined area between the narrow canyon.
Without GPS, the Phantom has no horizontal position holding ability and drifts with the wind which can be disorienting.

Numone · Sep 6, 2017

Given you were flying the AC below you (but the antennas still seem to vertical?) and flying left to right, are you completely sure that as you lost sight of the AC as it passed under the bridge, you didn't just get disorientated and lost control? I've flown once with the AC below me and I suddenly found my brain, and thereby my fingers, frying a little!