Phantom 2 Catastrophic Failure after Firmware 3.06
- Thread starter Xrover
- Start date
Xrover said:
Xrover, mine just sits there is one spot in the sky even with some wind on 3:06 at +16 MD
Hope you guys can get your machines dialed it, when it works, it works well, well it doesn't it's hell :!:
Hi guys just lost my phantom 2 with H3-3D gimbal and go pro hero 3+ Black about 2 hrs ago. Took her down the beach where there's cliffs to take some video. I've been there before and had no problem so didn't do the compass calibration. It was a bit windy so I flew my phantom 2 vision first and took some photos and videos. You can tell it was windy because it was leaning to the side on gps so I flew around in Atti and it was all good. Flick the s2 to come back on Atti because on GPS it was slow and it was fighting the wind. I lost signal a few times and so I flick return home and it came back no worries. anyway after the battery was getting low I hand caught it and sent photos to my mates and took the other phantom out the case. Like I said I didn't do the compass calibration which I think was a Big mistake. I waited for GPS and it was all green so I turn on go pro got her started and flew her up. Instead of flying down the beach I saw a boat about 800 meters maybe even more and took her up fall speed towards the boat. Anyway I was about to bring her back and all of a sudden I lost sight. It was cloudy today and the wind ease off a bit which was good and sun came out. Anyway I flicked s2 on home lock and s1 on Atti and pulled trigger back on the remote. Nothing happen and I thought that was strange as it worked on the vision 10 minutes ago. I kept calm and flicked rth but nothing. Now I started to get worried as normally I can her the phantom buzzing above. I switch the remote back on gps and left the stick centered and quickly grab my binoculars. Couldn't see her so I switch my remote off hoping it will come back. Nothing. I was gonna send my vision to the direction where I flew the phantom 2 just to do an aerial shot, maybe it's just up there hovering and I can't see but I thought I better not in case I'll loose both today. Lol
Anyway I think it was partly my fault as I didn't do the compass calibration and I should have just film the waves near the beach and not go chasing for boats. Lol.
Looks like I might try and buy the walkera tali h500 Rtf in carbon black. But yea today was an expensive day but at least I had fun doing it. Yea both phantom had the latest firmware. I flew both yesterday with no problem. I've had maybe at least 60 flights with both phantom with no problem. Didn't do anything different to today. I think one just wanted to go home back to china. Lol
Regards, Rey
Anyway I think it was partly my fault as I didn't do the compass calibration and I should have just film the waves near the beach and not go chasing for boats. Lol.
Looks like I might try and buy the walkera tali h500 Rtf in carbon black. But yea today was an expensive day but at least I had fun doing it. Yea both phantom had the latest firmware. I flew both yesterday with no problem. I've had maybe at least 60 flights with both phantom with no problem. Didn't do anything different to today. I think one just wanted to go home back to china. Lol
Regards, Rey
Given mine and others bad experience with 3.06 (this thread is to page 13), I would advise those who have not had issues, downgrade before they do experience unexplained behaviour.
As Kelly (wkf94025) said he spoke too soon when declaring 3.06 OK.
If this was an aircraft and its construction was covered by aviation authorities it would be grounded. DJI need to pull their heads out the sand and gather some credible data about this firmware.
My concern is that someone is going to be seriously injured by this fault that causes the P2V to suddenly fly into the ground. Flyaways are unpredictable and whilst not good are just that, they fly away. This fault drops/dives the P2V onto or into what you are focussed upon. The chances of injury/damage to those on the ground are increased.
Kelly's wife is correct... a P2V out of control at a wedding would attract global media attention. Our hobby would be seriously damaged and give justification to the 'ban them' brigade.
I'm not typically an over-cautious individual ,but having experienced this twice with 3.06.... it's scary.
I'm back on 3.04 and waiting for the wind to subside so that I can retest and start flying again.
As Kelly (wkf94025) said he spoke too soon when declaring 3.06 OK.
If this was an aircraft and its construction was covered by aviation authorities it would be grounded. DJI need to pull their heads out the sand and gather some credible data about this firmware.
My concern is that someone is going to be seriously injured by this fault that causes the P2V to suddenly fly into the ground. Flyaways are unpredictable and whilst not good are just that, they fly away. This fault drops/dives the P2V onto or into what you are focussed upon. The chances of injury/damage to those on the ground are increased.
Kelly's wife is correct... a P2V out of control at a wedding would attract global media attention. Our hobby would be seriously damaged and give justification to the 'ban them' brigade.
I'm not typically an over-cautious individual ,but having experienced this twice with 3.06.... it's scary.
I'm back on 3.04 and waiting for the wind to subside so that I can retest and start flying again.
As my wife just pointed out, thank God this didn't happen during the wedding I filmed on Saturday, with almost 200 people immediately on either side of the flight path.
Yeah, amazed you would risk something like that.....
Yeah, amazed you would risk something like that.....
I fly my Phantom daily, over 80 miles logged on flytrex. All seemed normal, albeit slow decent, and the P2 entered a non-responsive state and started a slow decent. I flipped the P2 switch and regained control, flew for another 10 minutes and went home. After reading these posts I have decided a stay grounded until a fix is release. Flying the P2 was plenty of fun on older firmware, I don't like to slow decent or the decreased speed.
Can someone post a link or knock up a quick procedure on how we downgrade back to 3.04 thankyou.
Hi captain-ken,
Usual caveats re 'at your own risk' etc. but this is my understanding as to how to downgrade.
Just run the previous version of the DJI Phantom 2 (Vision) Assistant. That would be version 3.0. You will have used 3.2 to upgrade.
This will show an 'update' to 3.04. Perform the update and it will revert to 3.04.
You should then do an advanced IMU calibration. It may be worth turning off the Phantom for 20 mins and letting it cool down before undertaking the advanced IMU calibration. I know that there is a bug that warns it's too hot (ignore) whenever you attempt the calibration but it does seem to work quicker and more reliably with a cool copter.
Then plug your RC into the PC and run the DJI RC System assistant and do a calibration of your joysticks.
You are then set to go but don't forget to do a compass calibration at your take-off point.
Take it easy. Fast take-off and then let it hover at around 10-15' for a minute or so. Watch out for drift and satellite links holding OK.
I always do this first test run over a ripe corn field or similar as it is far more forgiving than tarmac etc.
If you are running a Vision then the latest Android app seems to work OK albeit with some 'new' (3.06) data missing.
Hope this helps.
If anyone spots a mistake in this , please post and I will amend this posting.
Usual caveats re 'at your own risk' etc. but this is my understanding as to how to downgrade.
Just run the previous version of the DJI Phantom 2 (Vision) Assistant. That would be version 3.0. You will have used 3.2 to upgrade.
This will show an 'update' to 3.04. Perform the update and it will revert to 3.04.
You should then do an advanced IMU calibration. It may be worth turning off the Phantom for 20 mins and letting it cool down before undertaking the advanced IMU calibration. I know that there is a bug that warns it's too hot (ignore) whenever you attempt the calibration but it does seem to work quicker and more reliably with a cool copter.
Then plug your RC into the PC and run the DJI RC System assistant and do a calibration of your joysticks.
You are then set to go but don't forget to do a compass calibration at your take-off point.
Take it easy. Fast take-off and then let it hover at around 10-15' for a minute or so. Watch out for drift and satellite links holding OK.
I always do this first test run over a ripe corn field or similar as it is far more forgiving than tarmac etc.
If you are running a Vision then the latest Android app seems to work OK albeit with some 'new' (3.06) data missing.
Hope this helps.
If anyone spots a mistake in this , please post and I will amend this posting.
.Thanks Harry,
I have edited my post as I realised the same. Thanks for clarification.
This thread seems to be the best of the two forums for 3.06 issues.
Laurie
I have edited my post as I realised the same. Thanks for clarification.
This thread seems to be the best of the two forums for 3.06 issues.
Laurie
ianwood
Taco Wrangler
Kelly, can you share the video? Your incident sounds very different than xrover's and has more of a classic flyaway nature to it. Despite happening on the latest firmware, it is hard to conclude that these incidents happened because of the firmware.
There are some issues related to these incidents that are not specific to 3.06:
I would consider these to be the most likely suspects at this point.
There are some issues related to these incidents that are not specific to 3.06:
- Battery voltage dips and causes premature auto-land for some batteries.
- The Phantom descends un-commanded (or loses power all together) and does not ascend when commanded. We don't know the cause for this but I think the most likely suspect is again the battery.
- The classic style flyaway (Phantom bolts in one direction) can have a couple of common causes: compass error (magnetization or defect), IMU error (calibration or initialization), GPS module defect, hardware fault (ESC or motor issues).
I would consider these to be the most likely suspects at this point.
Ian,
I can upload the crash video tonight. Agree with your comments, but having owned ~6 Phantoms now, experienced many of the various failure modes you listed, and flown several times a week for about a year, I have a very strong suspicion 3.06 is the culprit here. You be the judge once I get the video up. Note that this P2 and H3-3D and accessories had been flying just fine several times a week on 3.04 since early April, including dozens of flights on the site of the crash. The setup was new in box in early April, and had never been crashed. The only change between the fatal outing yesterday and ~50+ prior flights on the exact same hardware is 3.06 versus 3.04. And the departure behavior is so indicative of a flight controller than suddenly decides it should be somewhere else.
Regarding the wedding risk comment by Verticalvue, the filming was done with the full awareness, consent, request of the wedding couple and wedding planner. Groom is a P2 and P2V+ owner. Obviously that doesn't mean every guest signed a release of liability, but this wasn't a rogue "hey won't this be funny" type of stunt.
Kelly
I can upload the crash video tonight. Agree with your comments, but having owned ~6 Phantoms now, experienced many of the various failure modes you listed, and flown several times a week for about a year, I have a very strong suspicion 3.06 is the culprit here. You be the judge once I get the video up. Note that this P2 and H3-3D and accessories had been flying just fine several times a week on 3.04 since early April, including dozens of flights on the site of the crash. The setup was new in box in early April, and had never been crashed. The only change between the fatal outing yesterday and ~50+ prior flights on the exact same hardware is 3.06 versus 3.04. And the departure behavior is so indicative of a flight controller than suddenly decides it should be somewhere else.
Regarding the wedding risk comment by Verticalvue, the filming was done with the full awareness, consent, request of the wedding couple and wedding planner. Groom is a P2 and P2V+ owner. Obviously that doesn't mean every guest signed a release of liability, but this wasn't a rogue "hey won't this be funny" type of stunt.
Kelly
Upgraded one of our Phantom 2s to the new 3.06 and it flies horribly slow. We use them to chase boats and we generally go 25-30mph. This guy won't do 20 and the reaction time is terrible. Downgraded as said a few posts prior to the previous 3.04 and it didn't help. Any other tips?
It sounds like it auto-landed because of low battery for sure.
You didn't try to toggle your S1 switch up and down? That would have definitely worked if it was auto-landing...
:x
You didn't try to toggle your S1 switch up and down? That would have definitely worked if it was auto-landing...
:x
I just received an email response from Jack at DJI SALES. His response to the claim I filed and form I filled out. By the way, Their questionare is titled " Questionaire about Flyaway-DJI" What does this tell you..
Anyway. I was offered a 30% discount on the purchase of a new Phantom 2.
Are you kidding me?
Anyway. I was offered a 30% discount on the purchase of a new Phantom 2.
Are you kidding me?
Xrover said:
No, because 98% of crashes are user error.
You want them to just refund all your money after you technically were flying it and crashed it?
You didn't answer my questions either.
I'd take the 30% off while you have the chance.
Fun fact: I've had a Vision and Vision+, my Vision since December. Not only did I fly it in a mall for the first 3 months as a job, I did not fly it with GPS mode on. I always upgrade to the most recent firmware and I have never experienced a single problem that so many folks on here claim to have. It's not DJI's fault that you're not reading the manual.
I take my craft over water when I want to, and I never have to worry about it just "dropping from the sky" because that doesn't "just happen". Sorry, mate.
\: *world's smallest violin plays"
I take my craft over water when I want to, and I never have to worry about it just "dropping from the sky" because that doesn't "just happen". Sorry, mate.
\: *world's smallest violin plays"
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nintendrone64 said:
So what would you do if your otherwise well functioning battery suddenly showed symptoms of a bad cell, began auto land sequence, and stopped responding to your throttle command? Your thoughts regarding S1 reset works in many situations, but won't help if a defective battery can't handle the load.
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