Phantom 4 fell from sky while mapping

[TylerStone]

I have owned my phantom for almost 6th months and have used it a lot. But yesterday was the first time I have had issues with it. In college we have been learning how to map with Pix4D and I have been practicing with my drone. It is a Phantom 4 Pro V2.0. I did buy it used from Ebay back in August of last year, so I have nothing with DJI.

Halfway through a mapping mission, the motors just stopped running and the quad began to fall. Instinctually I was putting full throttle up and oddly enough the motors were spinning again and the drone started to wobble into a recover. It was falling too fast and collided with the roof then bounced off and hit the concrete. Gimbal and camera are destroyed, some motors are scuffed, all the props are toast, the main shell is cracked, an arm broke, and the landing gear is toast. The battery ejected when it hit the roof but was not terribly damaged.

Now I just need to find out what the cause of this mishap was. I followed my preflight checklist, made sure all the settings were set to as desired in the GO4 app, all firmware was up to date. Followed the instructions for Pix4Dcapture as per usual. Closed the GO4 app, opened Pix4Dcapture, opened the preloaded 2d mission, it loaded everything to the drone and did its "checklist", hit start and it did its thing. It was on its 15th picture 2nd row when it just dropped from 150ft.

I have the .DAT files and some pictures for anyone to assess. It would be helpful as I am not well versed in properly assessing this info is CSV or other forms. Thank you.

For some reason FLY177.DAT is too large to upload and its still to large when I compress it. It has a lot of the flight information in it.

*updated* here is a screenshot from FLY177.DAT. All of the motors stopped spinning but I only have one on there so it is easier to look at. I do not know why the cell voltage shot up like that a few milliseconds before the motors cut out. Power was regained right after the motors stopped and a new .DAT file (FLY178.DAT) was created but the duration was only around a second until the drone hit the roof and the battery was ejected. There is no information shown in the 178 file.

 

[milo_r]

Just curious, Tyler, have you inspected the battery and drone battery connectors for melting/charring?

 

[TylerStone]

Just curious, Tyler, have you inspected the battery and drone battery connectors for melting/charring?

Yes, there is no signs of charring or shorting on the connectors. The battery was charged 3 days before and had just began its auto discharge. I started the flight at around 75% and it was supposed to be a 4 some minute flight but the Bird was only in the air just shy of 3 minutes. I have considered the possibility that the bottom clip of the battery was maybe not seated, potentially causing the battery to disconnect. I cannot confirm or deny this theory myself. I have video evidence of the drone taking off but it is very hard to make out the bottom clip of the battery clearly. And there is the logic that the battery should have disconnected sooner during turns and sharper movements if that were the case. Moments before to when the drone fell, the drone was on a consistent path meaning there were no changes of inertia to the battery not causing it to wiggle or move. I find the possibility of the battery disconnecting unlikely but I can't deny it with certainty. The pack was also in good health, or from what I assume. No bulging on the casing or puffiness. Voltage and capacity has been consistent with low voltage deviation between the cells.

 

[Meta4]

Halfway through a mapping mission, the motors just stopped running and the quad began to fall. Instinctually I was putting full throttle up and oddly enough the motors were spinning again and the drone started to wobble into a recover. ....

Now I just need to find out what the cause of this mishap was.

It's not good news, the cause of the incident appears to have been operator confusion.

The flight data shows the drone flying at 100 ft, when at 1:20.3 the throttle was pulled down and held till 1:25.7, which brought the drone down to 48 ft.
It was pulled down again at 1:33.4 and held down for most of the descent to the crash.
There is no indication of the throttle being pushed up, only being pulled down and this was the cause of the incident.

 

[Meta4]

Now I just need to find out what the cause of this mishap was.

You can confirm the joystick inputs for any point of the flight by scrolling down and clicking on a line in this summary of your flight data:

DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

 

[TylerStone]

It's not good news, the cause of the incident appears to have been operator confusion.

The flight data shows the drone flying at 100 ft, when at 1:20.3 the throttle was pulled down and held till 1:25.7, which brought the drone down to 48 ft.
It was pulled down again at 1:33.4 and held down for most of the descent to the crash.
There is no indication of the throttle being pushed up, only being pulled down and this was the cause of the incident.

This is not the case at all, you have seemed to have gotten the timeline wrong. The flight begins with me doing an initial flight to set my camera exposure for mapping then I land. And without powering the drone off I close the GO4 app and then proceed to start with Pix4Dcapture. It was during the autonomous flight at 150ft the drone fell. This timeline is consistent with the 177.DAT file which is to big to upload (I need ideas on how to upload it.) the .txt file you used only included my manual flight to set my exposure, the crash did not happen during this flight even though I was coincidentaly flying over the site of the near future crash. There is no .txt file for the crash flight since GO4 was closed so that Pix4Dcapture could do its job. If I could get the 177.DAT file to you somehow that would be great. The 178.DAT file was created right after the motors stopped based off of the time stamp. The battery was ejected upon collision with the roof and obviously there was no subsequent flight after the crash to create a new .DAT file.

 

[Meta4]

This is not the case at all, you have seemed to have gotten the timeline wrong.

No ... I just read what the .txt file showed.
Since that wasn't the crash flight, it really wasn't relevant to the incident.
Sorry .. I don't do .dat files.

 

[TylerStone]

No ... I just read what the .txt file showed.
Since that wasn't the crash flight, it really wasn't relevant to the incident.
Sorry .. I don't do .dat files.

Thank you for the input regardless. The .txt should show further inputs until the landing. That .txt is relevant to the incident as it is contained within the same power cycle as the incident. Thank you though!

 

[Billie Nelson]

I suspect a loose battery connection as you speculated. The drone flew for while, during which time the battery connection probably worked is itself loose from the normal vibration of flight. I had this exact same thing happen to my late and lamented Phantom3 Standard a while back.

The bird had just returned from a 6-mile round trip autonomous Litchi flight and applied the brakes at the final waypoint when it simply lost all electrical power and plummeted down from 160 feet AGL with predictable consequences. The drone now sits on a shelf as a static display and conversation piece. Never bothered to try and fix it. I bought a replacement on eBay and thus far haven't seen this scenario play out again.

 

[Andy9]

He said that this happened during the autonomous sequence and no fast movements or changing the heading was the case.
So it is very unlikely that the batt disconnected.

 

[Andy9]

And another thing - I would never fly with the battery which is in the sequence of auto discharge. You can't say what is exact energy the batt still has.
And the voltage is the only relevant parameter, not the percentage, or the number of green lights even. If the voltage drops I think under 3.2V per cell the drone will shut off motors even being in the air. This is a stupid algorithm that protects the battery, not the drone, but so it is.

 

[Billie Nelson]

And another thing - I would never fly with the battery which is in the sequence of auto discharge. You can't say what is exact energy the batt still has.
And the voltage is the only relevant parameter, not the percentage, or the number of green lights even. If the voltage drops I think under 3.2V per cell the drone will shut off motors even being in the air. This is a stupid algorithm that protects the battery, not the drone, but so it is.

Agreed fer sure. I always start every flight with a full 100% charge, regardless of the intended flight duration.

 

[Ooops!]

I suspect a loose battery connection as you speculated. The drone flew for while, during which time the battery connection probably worked is itself loose from the normal vibration of flight. I had this exact same thing happen to my late and lamented Phantom3 Standard a while back.

The bird had just returned from a 6-mile round trip autonomous Litchi flight and applied the brakes at the final waypoint when it simply lost all electrical power and plummeted down from 160 feet AGL with predictable consequences. The drone now sits on a shelf as a static display and conversation piece. Never bothered to try and fix it. I bought a replacement on eBay and thus far haven't seen this scenario play out again.

Same dang thing happened to me! I was trying some inverted flight maneuvers with my first drone and lost track of my altitude. Guess ya might say it was caused by "a loose nut exerting random pressure on the sticks". Did manage to get the bird inverted but only after the 2nd bounce on my tile roof...

 

[ArnoldLeVine]

I lost my P4P V2 similar. I was doing a programmed flight, auto came back to change battery, I can only assume that I did not insert the 2nd battery correctly (fully clicked in on the bottom). took off, flew to a corner, and then I lost contact. Found the battery after awhile, and the next day got a call from a guy that had found the drone. Loose battery connection is what I suspect.

 

[Starz]

I lost my P4P V2 similar.

And what was the condition of yours when found?

 

[ArnoldLeVine]

Not as good as when you sold it to me. Sent it off to droneTed for repairs.

 

[baddogtwo]

I have owned my phantom for almost 6th months and have used it a lot. But yesterday was the first time I have had issues with it. In college we have been learning how to map with Pix4D and I have been practicing with my drone. It is a Phantom 4 Pro V2.0. I did buy it used from Ebay back in August of last year, so I have nothing with DJI.

Halfway through a mapping mission, the motors just stopped running and the quad began to fall. Instinctually I was putting full throttle up and oddly enough the motors were spinning again and the drone started to wobble into a recover. It was falling too fast and collided with the roof then bounced off and hit the concrete. Gimbal and camera are destroyed, some motors are scuffed, all the props are toast, the main shell is cracked, an arm broke, and the landing gear is toast. The battery ejected when it hit the roof but was not terribly damaged.

Now I just need to find out what the cause of this mishap was. I followed my preflight checklist, made sure all the settings were set to as desired in the GO4 app, all firmware was up to date. Followed the instructions for Pix4Dcapture as per usual. Closed the GO4 app, opened Pix4Dcapture, opened the preloaded 2d mission, it loaded everything to the drone and did its "checklist", hit start and it did its thing. It was on its 15th picture 2nd row when it just dropped from 150ft.

I have the .DAT files and some pictures for anyone to assess. It would be helpful as I am not well versed in properly assessing this info is CSV or other forms. Thank you.

For some reason FLY177.DAT is too large to upload and its still to large when I compress it. It has a lot of the flight information in it.

*updated* here is a screenshot from FLY177.DAT. All of the motors stopped spinning but I only have one on there so it is easier to look at. I do not know why the cell voltage shot up like that a few milliseconds before the motors cut out. Power was regained right after the motors stopped and a new .DAT file (FLY178.DAT) was created but the duration was only around a second until the drone hit the roof and the battery was ejected. There is no information shown in the 178 file.
View attachment 123768

I am not sure about the theory of the battery not being seated properly. I have flown many Dronedeploy, Litchi and Pix4Dcapture mapping missions over the past 4 years. My P4P V2.0 has never just dropped out of the sky, as you described. You mentioned that the battery's bottom clip may have not been fully engaged...I agree some times it is difficult to completely seat the battery on this drone. You have to really push it hard to get it to fully snap into place. I don't like that feature, but I love this drone. At any rate, I have not seated my battery several times but when I try and take off in what ever flight app I am using I get a warning that there is a battery issue/malfunction and will not allow me to continue. Every time, it is because that last clip did not fully seat, but with a hard push I can hear it snap into place. Now it will allow me to continue the flight.

 

[PhantomWetSuits]

That loose battery has gotten many , I made a video on just how big of a problem it was on the Phantom 4 and how we fixed it. This will give you an idea as to how easy it is for that to happen. Not saying that it is what happened .

Gear to fly in the Rain
Phantonrain.org

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[BudWalker]

I have owned my phantom for almost 6th months and have used it a lot. But yesterday was the first time I have had issues with it. In college we have been learning how to map with Pix4D and I have been practicing with my drone. It is a Phantom 4 Pro V2.0. I did buy it used from Ebay back in August of last year, so I have nothing with DJI.

Halfway through a mapping mission, the motors just stopped running and the quad began to fall. Instinctually I was putting full throttle up and oddly enough the motors were spinning again and the drone started to wobble into a recover. It was falling too fast and collided with the roof then bounced off and hit the concrete. Gimbal and camera are destroyed, some motors are scuffed, all the props are toast, the main shell is cracked, an arm broke, and the landing gear is toast. The battery ejected when it hit the roof but was not terribly damaged.

Now I just need to find out what the cause of this mishap was. I followed my preflight checklist, made sure all the settings were set to as desired in the GO4 app, all firmware was up to date. Followed the instructions for Pix4Dcapture as per usual. Closed the GO4 app, opened Pix4Dcapture, opened the preloaded 2d mission, it loaded everything to the drone and did its "checklist", hit start and it did its thing. It was on its 15th picture 2nd row when it just dropped from 150ft.

I have the .DAT files and some pictures for anyone to assess. It would be helpful as I am not well versed in properly assessing this info is CSV or other forms. Thank you.

For some reason FLY177.DAT is too large to upload and its still to large when I compress it. It has a lot of the flight information in it.

*updated* here is a screenshot from FLY177.DAT. All of the motors stopped spinning but I only have one on there so it is easier to look at. I do not know why the cell voltage shot up like that a few milliseconds before the motors cut out. Power was regained right after the motors stopped and a new .DAT file (FLY178.DAT) was created but the duration was only around a second until the drone hit the roof and the battery was ejected. There is no information shown in the 178 file.
View attachment 123768

Looking at FLY178.DAT I'm reminded of a P4 incident where a mid-flight reboot occurred. Can you use a public sharing site such as Dropbox or GoogleDrive to provide FLY177.DAT.

There were no indications in either the .txt or FLY178.DAT that the battery state of charge was the problem

 

[JulianMemorial]

I have owned my phantom for almost 6th months and have used it a lot. But yesterday was the first time I have had issues with it. In college we have been learning how to map with Pix4D and I have been practicing with my drone. It is a Phantom 4 Pro V2.0. I did buy it used from Ebay back in August of last year, so I have nothing with DJI.

Halfway through a mapping mission, the motors just stopped running and the quad began to fall. Instinctually I was putting full throttle up and oddly enough the motors were spinning again and the drone started to wobble into a recover. It was falling too fast and collided with the roof then bounced off and hit the concrete. Gimbal and camera are destroyed, some motors are scuffed, all the props are toast, the main shell is cracked, an arm broke, and the landing gear is toast. The battery ejected when it hit the roof but was not terribly damaged.

Now I just need to find out what the cause of this mishap was. I followed my preflight checklist, made sure all the settings were set to as desired in the GO4 app, all firmware was up to date. Followed the instructions for Pix4Dcapture as per usual. Closed the GO4 app, opened Pix4Dcapture, opened the preloaded 2d mission, it loaded everything to the drone and did its "checklist", hit start and it did its thing. It was on its 15th picture 2nd row when it just dropped from 150ft.

I have the .DAT files and some pictures for anyone to assess. It would be helpful as I am not well versed in properly assessing this info is CSV or other forms. Thank you.

For some reason FLY177.DAT is too large to upload and its still to large when I compress it. It has a lot of the flight information in it.

*updated* here is a screenshot from FLY177.DAT. All of the motors stopped spinning but I only have one on there so it is easier to look at. I do not know why the cell voltage shot up like that a few milliseconds before the motors cut out. Power was regained right after the motors stopped and a new .DAT file (FLY178.DAT) was created but the duration was only around a second until the drone hit the roof and the battery was ejected. There is no information shown in the 178 file.
View attachment 123768

I can't help you with the tech but just was going to say my condolences. That must have been gut-wrenching!