P4P Obsidian has a new home underwater

Schnauzergeek · Feb 11, 2018

I was flying my 2-month old Phantom 4 Pro Obsidian from a boat just off the coast of Southern California (about 400 yds from shore), hovering approx 24 ft above the water attempting to shoot some marine mammals.
My first problem came about when pressing the video camera button and it only stayed on for 2 seconds then shut off. I attempted to use video mode numerous times with the same result. This had never happened to me before and I had even reformatted my 64GB card before takeoff. The next issue has me seriously second-guessing myself when trying to avoid a curious seagull, I descended slightly and moved to the right when all of a sudden I lost power and my new P4P Obsidian dropped out of the sky into the beautiful blue Pacific Ocean and rapidly sank 40 ft to the bottom, never to be recovered. My last evasive move didn’t seem any more drastic than at any other time I had flown but the only conclusion I can make is that I moved my left joystick too far down and inadvertently stopped the motor. What other reason could have caused it to just drop out of the sky other than human error? I was only 20 yards away with my controller.

alokbhargava · Feb 11, 2018

Left stick fully down stops the motors only if AC can’t further move down for 3 seconds. This doesn’t seem to be your case.

Just_nick · Feb 11, 2018

If your battery was improperly secure, it shifting enough to lose contact=dead drone=falling out of the sky.

Tomas Wangen · Feb 11, 2018

Just_nick said:
If your battery was improperly secure, it shifting enough to lose contact=dead drone=falling out of the sky.

Something which seems to be happening with a uncomfortable frequency lately; is this the fourth or fifth case in a few weeks?

Sorry about your drone, op

Just_nick · Feb 11, 2018

Tomas Wangen said:
Something which seems to be happening with a uncomfortable frequency lately; is this the fourth or fifth case in a few weeks?

Sorry about your drone, op

Yes, there have definitely been quite a few. Which isn't all that surprising, considering how it never gives great feedback for when you insert the battery. It's not like the P3, where it was very much obvious.

designjb · Feb 11, 2018

Aw, man, that really sucks. Sorry to hear that.

Did you have insurance?

Were you using an OEM or 3rd party battery? I'm curious about the battery as I have read that some third party batteries can sometimes not 'seat' very well after inserted and fall out. Scary.

sar104 · Feb 11, 2018

To avoid all the speculation, you could post the .txt flight log. It may not give a definitive answer, but it will rule out some certain other causes if it was a battery disconnect.

John Locke · Feb 11, 2018

What does your cached video show? Did you see a Seagull hit the craft VLOS, or were you immersed in FPV view?

I'm thinking I better buy some farmers insurance. 50% of my flights are over water.

Schnauzergeek · Feb 11, 2018

designjb said:
Aw, man, that really sucks. Sorry to hear that.

Did you have insurance?

Were you using an OEM or 3rd party battery? I'm curious about the battery as I have read that some third party batteries can sometimes not 'seat' very well after inserted and fall out. Scary.

No insurance. Used Genuine DJI battery (black Obsidian)

Schnauzergeek · Feb 11, 2018

John Locke said:
What does your cached video show? Did you see a Seagull hit the craft VLOS, or were you immersed in FPV view?

I'm thinking I better buy some farmers insurance. 50% of my flights are over water.

The Phantom was no more than 20 yards from the boat. No FPV goggles were used, was viewing with naked eye 90% of the time. Rarely looked down at the monitor. The cached video shows nothing but ocean below. Prior to getting the last 20 seconds of video, I was only able to get the camera to operate for two seconds before the camera stopped. Repeatedly pressed the video button in an effort to get it to record longer than 2 seconds. Not sure if the camera was rolling before the drone lost power. The seagull came close but never contacted the drone.

svjobeth · Feb 11, 2018

Sorry to hear about this.

Interested in hearing results (or conclusions) of your findings; I will be flying my P4P+ over water a lot in the future...

Schnauzergeek · Feb 12, 2018

svjobeth said:
Sorry to hear about this.

Interested in hearing results (or conclusions) of your findings; I will be flying my P4P+ over water a lot in the future...

I have flown my regular Phantom 4 over water many times and never had any problems like I had that day with my P4P Obsidian. The attached photo is a typical shot that I usually take in Southern California. Never any problems over 100 ft in the air but the problems usually occur at low altitudes over water (30 ft or lower) and from a boat which usually has radio equipment.

svjobeth · Feb 12, 2018

Schnauzergeek said:
I have flown my regular Phantom 4 over water many times and never had any problems like I had that day with my P4P Obsidian. The attached photo is a typical shot that I usually take in Southern California. Never any problems over 100 ft in the air but the problems usually occur at low altitudes over water (30 ft or lower) and from a boat which usually has radio equipment.View attachment 94938

Interesting - I'm curious if you've determined if it's interference from VHF or SSB/SSB-SC transceivers? We have VHF transceivers aboard, but not SSB as we opted for SAT TELCOM for long distance communications. I have to be honest and say that in all of my pre-planning for flights from the boat, I hadn't considered radio transmission interference as a possible issue...and it make sense.

ftttu · Feb 12, 2018

In this video, Case said his P4PObsidian went swimming also, but he didn't explain why or I just didn't catch the reason. Probably due to the Bermuda Triangle...

Schnauzergeek · Feb 12, 2018

ftttu said:
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In this video, Case said his P4PObsidian went swimming also, but he didn't explain why or I just didn't catch the reason. Probably due to the Bermuda Triangle...

He said he was flying too close to the water and it did somersaults probably due to catching an edge.

Schnauzergeek · Feb 12, 2018

sar104 said:
To avoid all the speculation, you could post the .txt flight log. It may not give a definitive answer, but it will rule out some certain other causes if it was a battery disconnect.

How do I access the .txt flight log?

sar104 · Feb 13, 2018

Schnauzergeek said:
How do I access the .txt flight log?

Follow the instructions here: DJI Flight Log Viewer

PhantomWetSuits · Feb 14, 2018

I am thinking , it was not the battery despite the number of incidents that have occurred, , it is more likely that the motors shut off in the panic of trying to avoid the birds, and the formatting of the SD card did not take. Descending and holding the stick down is tricky if going sideways if you might have been holding the stick in the downward corner.

BarryWilson · Feb 17, 2018

I know I'm just stating the obvious but ALWAYS do your Flight Safety Check before you launch. It's even an FAA Requirement. That being said I too have a Phantom 4 Pro and I've noticed when inserting the battery it sometimes stops leaving a small gap and needs that extra push to seat the battery all the way. I'm talking about barely more than a hairline separation. So I give it an extra push and tug to see if it locked in and check to make sure the hairline separation is gone.

I enjoy reading these posts because the lessons learned by others can be entered into my knowledge base. The lesson learned here is the first sign of trouble return the aircraft to a safe landing area until you resolve the issue. Being over water even adds more reason to recover and investigate at the first sign of trouble.

As I read your post it was going through my mind one of the mammals you were photographing came out of the water and snatched your aircraft. Would have made for a great ending had it been caught on video!

JamesT1950 · Feb 17, 2018

PhantomWetSuits said:
I am thinking , it was not the battery despite the number of incidents that have occurred, , it is more likely that the motors shut off in the panic of trying to avoid the birds, and the formatting of the SD card did not take. Descending and holding the stick down is tricky if going sideways if you might have been holding the stick in the downward corner.

View attachment 95073

Even so, it would take holding both sticks in and downward to stop the motors. Just holding one stick downward and in won't do it by itself