The Story
Winter came to Norway, and I wanted to get some shots of it before Global Warming killed it again.
I went outside and fired up my favourite drone the Phantom 3 Professional.
Did like I usually do, after it warmed up I let it hover and tried bothe sticks for half a minute.
Then I flew for another half a minute and it decided to ditch me!
Battery showed a happy 51% and still it gave me a Critically low voltage warning followed by Landing then No signal.
searched all day till it got too dark and went home to review footage on my 150 inch home cinema.
No luck.
Contacted my Drone Pusher rcbutikken.no who tried to help by filling in the online form for me.
DJI then sent me a new form to fill in, and I did as best I could!
However, there was a snag!
They wanted to know the temperature outside during the fatal flight....
As I didnt bring a thermometer I had to guess...
Lesson for all of us: bring a thermometer if you think it is below 0c !!!
Anyway, it was snow outside but not too cold for me to bother flying so I guessed -2c.
How stupid of me!
There might still be hope for me!
I found a site with meteorological data for my city
There is a H U G E chance it was just above the magical 0c limit at which the warraty dies!


If I can prove the flight took place after 10:00 I should be in the safe zone!Edit: The log places time of flight at 11:38 which puts the temperature at 1,0c according to official municipal weather data!

Found something!
My phone puts time in both file name and properties!
It puts the flight at around 11:49

This gives the temperature 0,5c !




Wonder if this is acceptable?

Link to data from municipal meteorological data for my city:
http://www.yr.no/sted/Norge/M%C3 ... tml?dato=2015-11-22

I'll email the zendesk again and apologize for guessing 2,5c below actual temperature hoping it will result in a merry christmas for me!

Rebel Posted at 2015-12-10 21:34
If anyone "thinks it below zero" they shouldnt be flying in the first place unless theyre willing to ...

Because it has never been a problem before on any brand including DJI.
Tey even fly in -45c them selves!
And this as well as others happened above 0c  which is within acceptable range even for DJI Customer Service.

2 Phantom 2's
This fligt was in a near by village at frostbiting
temperature for like 15 mins over water no battery problems.


Winther hiking in cold weather no battery problems detected.


From long ago filming when falling slalom from a really tall mountain.
The old LiPo's left the place in far better shape than me.


Waiting for dad and had to fly even though it was cold and windy.
P2 made it just fine.


All kinds of LiPo Fun on Ice with no PowerProblems.


Hiking in the Mountains with my family and a P1.
Note the waterfall and the fact that it flew just fine for five batteries.
Those batteries are still alive today and power pipe inspection monitors all year.


Do you see why I think it is a sensor noise or algorythm problem?

I suggest that you contacted our office in Germany directly. Requirement to battery for aircraft is different to RC cars. There are many posts regarding flight tips and warnings in low temperature you can go through.

Ok panic has settled down, frustration is gone and I apologize
for getting mad at all the newbie links I'm fed in here. (I know youre trying to help)
Who knows, maybe I am a newbie at least when it comes to the Phantom 3 Pro.


I have tried my best to figure out what happened and spent countless hr's fiddling
with my logs and learning as much as possible about the tools aviable to analyze them.
Editing in my findings so far to collect it in one topic.

Click here to download The Log

Click here to open a Dropbox folder with all the relevant files.

Click here to see the flight on Flytrex.

Click here to see the flight on healtydrones

The DJI GO App displays the following data:
Flight Total Time 00 Minutes 51 Seconds
Traveled Distance 231,3 Meters
Max Height 41.7 Meters

The graph used to monitor status during flight displays
Height 41,0 Meters
Distance 199,5 Meters
Horizontal Speed 11,9 Meters per Second
Vertical Speed 12,7 Meters per Second
Remaining battery 51%
Mode Landing

Under the progress bar there were a warning
Critically low voltage, the aircraft will land now







If it kept flying along this trajectory for the remaining 51% battery it probably ended up somewhere in The Norwegian Sea.

The DJI Go Flight Log Player nor Flytrex displays the temperature data so for that we need to chack the log on healtydrones.
Last flight was well within the warranted 0-40c range.

If we look at all the flights on this battery we can see that it has never been used below 10c.


Kind of looks like the built-in balance charger does not allways balance the battery.
In addition the deviations varies between cell 1 and cell 4, at times even within the same flight!
So again, firmware, sensor or battery problem?

DJI.Terry Posted at 2015-12-14 14:13
I suggest that you contacted our office in Germany directly. Requirement to battery for aircraft is  ...

Hi again Terry and sorry for all the frustration I've displayed in the forums.
I have watched many tutorials, videos and Forum Topics trying to understand the problem.
And even if you do not believe in my expertise in RC as well as in Polar Conditions there are
others with even more decades of experience than me having the same issues.

I'm spending most of my Christmas vacation trying to learn as much as I can about the intelligent
battery, the logs and the tools aviable to me in order to understand the poor performance of my P3P.
What I really should do is spend time with my family and friends in the real world but cant afford that.

You seem to have addressed a few of the issues via firmware updates and I salute you for that!

All my logs have been uploaded to DJI from the Go App, to Flytrex and to Healtydrones for analysis.
I will keep on working hard on this for as long as it takes, at least till the Germans or any one else
from DJI comes up with a solution for me.

For me it looks like either the battery failed and caused a crash or sensors failed causing it to keep on flying for half the battery.

Thank you for helping!

[RCG]Balthazar Posted at 2015-12-29 23:38
Hi again Terry and sorry for all the frustration I've displayed in the forums.
I have watched many ...

For what it's worth mate, your posts always seem balanced and objective to me.

mike.wildlight Posted at 2015-12-29 21:12
For what it's worth mate, your posts always seem balanced and objective to me.

Yea thanks, I try my best to behave
Trying not to hijack other topics and to not make people mad even though it's tempting to ignite the angry ones
Now that I've calmed down myself I've edited out some of the worst stuff because that really isn't me.

As I am not the only one having experienced this problem
some other cases will need to be asessed.
Great article on phantompilots.com

So here are some links to forum posts, youtube videos and other relevant stuff.
I'll edit in new links as I find them for safe keeping.
Out of pure loyalty to the Phantoms and the company that makes them
this will not be posted anywhere but here and in a private section of my own forum for safe keeping.


After all, I am only trying to get some help and maybe even solving this problem for the future


This Forum
Critical Voltage crash 10 minute into the flight in Switzerland

Signal lost 29s into the flight at a distance of 238m and height 89m

P3A voltage error 65% Battery in Australia

Two P3's in Colorado 28% and 40%

Critical power message battery at 47% in Canada

critically low voltage - the aircraft will land now warning on a few occasions (with varying levels of charge, sometimes soon after fully charged, and never below the 30% low battery warning level) Norway

55% battery remaining get a critical low battery warning and P3A

40-50% battery charge "Critically Low Battery Voltage in Ukraine
critically low voltage warning when the battery still have 58%

Critically low voltage warning at 53%  Netherland

[RCG]Balthazar Posted at 2015-12-30 16:53
As I am not the only one having experienced this problem
some other cases will need to be asessed.
G ...

Add my 24 december christmas  flight.
After 2 min of flying i got "battery error" few seconds later "no signal" and in the sea it went
A week earlier i got "critically low voltage, will land"

[RCG]Balthazar Posted at 2015-12-30 16:53
As I am not the only one having experienced this problem
some other cases will need to be asessed.
G ...

Add my 24 december christmas  flight.
After 2 min of flying i got "battery error" few seconds later "no signal" and in the sea it went
A week earlier i got "critically low voltage, will land"

marten Posted at 2015-12-30 23:03
Add my 24 december christmas  flight.
After 2 min of flying i got "battery error" few seconds later ...

Will do, but need more info if you want me to have a look at it.
The Log from your Go App would rock

marten Posted at 2015-12-30 16:03
Add my 24 december christmas  flight.
After 2 min of flying i got "battery error" few seconds later ...

Was the  battery snapped in all the way?  I had that happen one time , lucky I was only 10 feet away and landed  I had a battery error as well .  Im not saying this happened to you, but it did happen to me.

Cheers donnie

Donnie Posted at 2016-1-4 21:35
Was the  battery snapped in all the way?  I had that happen one time , lucky I was only 10 feet aw ...

I controlled the battery before flight since going on the sea i always double check all and calibrate the compass etc.