P3advanced fell to death

RobVson · Sep 24, 2015

My beloved Spizzbittle crashed to earth yesterday and I implore your help, advice, skepticism or anything else that will help me fix my friend. I took my phantom up for the second flight in the same spot that day. Flights were approximately 8 hours apart. I did a thorough flight check, had a full battery,(which was securely clicked in), had 0 obstacles in my flight path (which was totally vertical), and felt comfortable as I have learned to trust this awesome beast. I throttled up, that was the only toggle used, and at 48ft, the lights turned off and my drone plummeted to the ground causing extreme damage. I am at a loss. I bought it off Amazon and have contacted the dealer via email no response yet. I have contacted DJI and they responded with a email saying that my process had been initiated. Anybody? Any input would really help. I am at a complete loss

El Diablo · Sep 25, 2015

Rob,
First, sorry for your loss.
You will likely get much input but be prepared to answer some questions with details.
Please include some more technical details such as: firmware version of quad and RC controller, tablet or phone used, did the app crash?, did you calibrate compass?, firmware for both quad and RC to same level, props still on?, battery still in?, flight mode at start, how many GPS sats,

Meta4 · Sep 25, 2015

Bad luck Rob, from the sound of it no-one here will be able to shed much light on a probable cause.
Something stopped working - but what it was is hard to say.
Go here: Tech Support | DJI
and click on the blue P3 tech support icon on the right of the screen.
Have a chat with the folks there and they should point you in the right direction.
They will be able to extract data from the "black box recorder" and take it from there.

RobVson · Sep 25, 2015

El Diablo said:
Rob,
First, sorry for your loss.
You will likely get much input but be prepared to answer some questions with details.
Please include some more technical details such as: firmware version of quad and RC controller, tablet or phone used, did the app crash?, did you calibrate compass?, firmware for both quad and RC to same level, props still on?, battery still in?, flight mode at start, how many GPS sats,

Updated firmware on controller, quad and pilot app version 1.3.2 prior to quad and pilot app 1.4. Fully updated and yes, I was just confused as you as to why my quad updated but my remote didn't. I was happy when they finally put that announcement up several days later that the controller was not part of the update. I have a note 5 from Samsung that I was using at the time of the crash. It works quite well. I have also used in Apple iPhone 6 plus prior to that. My propellers were intact when it crashed. My battery and camera were violently ripped off upon impact. I know that several people have had problems with fully clicking their battery in, that is not my case. You can see that by the ripped plastic from the locking tabs as my battery got yanked out by the force of impact. I had green lights and at least 10 satellites active upon takeoff. I have never taken my drone off unless it is in GPS mode. I have never once hit the home button. The app did not crash, the flight video data just went black.

RobVson · Sep 25, 2015

It was dark out and I literally saw the lights turn off and the drone stopped making noise. It was only 50 feet above me. It turned quiet and dark and fell to the ground hitting a rock and landing in a puddle of mud.

RobVson · Sep 25, 2015

I bought it off Amazon and have spoken to the seller. He has linked me up with DJI California.

Bcook01 · Sep 25, 2015

I would suspect the battery. I had a similar experience with one of my batteries. I cycled it three times after the failure and problem seemed to clear. luckily I had been in a 5 ft hover and ended up with limited damage. I periodically hover thru a complete battery to verify if it is good. I have also had a battery that drained within three minutes (started flashing red) yet showed full charge when
flight was initiated.

snowghost · Sep 25, 2015

Bcook01 said:
I would suspect the battery. I had a similar experience with one of my batteries. I cycled it three times after the failure and problem seemed to clear. luckily I had been in a 5 ft hover and ended up with limited damage. I periodically hover thru a complete battery to verify if it is good. I have also had a battery that drained within three minutes (started flashing red) yet showed full charge when
flight was initiated.

Did you run the logs from those flights through healthydrones.com?