Hi Guys -

First post but absolutley not a newbie to this hobby. Today I was doing some flying in San Diego did my pre-flight calibration of the compass as I just returned back from LA, waited for satilites, waited for home point to record and off I went on a fully charged battery initally in GPS mode. I flipped over to ATTI and within 2 minutes I lost FPV signal. I tried switching channels however I could no longer visually see my quad flying and had snow (NOT ACTUAL SNOW, A lost connection) on my fpv monitor. I ended up trying to initiate fail-safe and RTH but never saw my phantom.

I walked around for about 20 minutes and a grounds keeper had my distroyed and mangled phantom. It was non stop beeping. Never heard that before?

The GoPro was salvagable but nothing else really made the fall.

When I got home I reviewed the footage and sure enough it seems the battery gave out mid-flight as the power to the gimbal let loose and you could no longer hear props during the rapid desent.

Any idea what happened here?
Glad I have an Inspire 1 on order but was pretty bummed today.

Thank you,

Scott

just had this happen to me today first flight after new firm where up date? any ideas this thing is 3 days old and it just broke my go pro wtf

You had snow on your monitor, therefore I assume it was snowing in flight?  Directions say not to fly in rain or snow.  Something may have shorted out?  How many sats did you have on takeoff?

You answered your own question Scott when you said you had snow on your monitor.  Look at where the cooling vents are on the top of the arms.  Snow was blown in the vents and melted on the ESC's and probably shorted the complete system.  Electronic equipment does not like any form of water.  

i think he means static on the screen of his fpv:@:@:@:@

brother.4.email Posted at 2015-1-20 17:42
i think he means static on the screen of his fpv

You can read minds?  OUTSTANDING!

Gerry1124 Posted at 2015-1-20 17:56
You can read minds?  OUTSTANDING!

no I said i think he means .....not he means. meaning I'm guessing he was not that dumb to be flying in snow. snow meaning the screen was fuzzy and looked like snow so he switched to fail safe. chill out buddy

brother.4.email Posted at 2015-1-20 18:11
no I said i think he means .....not he means. meaning I'm guessing he was not that dumb to be flyi ...

It's just your guess as to what he meant.  What he said was snow, not static.

My money is on snow,( from the sky).

Environment issues & not the Phantom .... hate to hear that.
be careful with the Inspire 1...

Hmmm, It doesn't snow much in San Diego - best weather in the USA.....just saying. He's talking static.

Snow on the screen means analog noise, some say ants etc.. At least in germany this is very common or i should say it was common since the analog TV era is gone

Thanks for the non-helpful replies to my "snow" reference. We all know what I meant guys lol. I lost signal because my quad fell from the sky.

Back to my post, any ideas?

kjkisatsky.emai Posted at 2015-1-20 17:12
You had snow on your monitor, therefore I assume it was snowing in flight?  Directions say not to fl ...

It wasn't literally snowing. I meant I lost signal.

guymacdonald.em Posted at 2015-1-20 19:02
Please put them out of their misery (and me) .....Snow or Static?

Regards

Static as in I lost signal because my quad fell from the sky.

Gerry1124 Posted at 2015-1-20 17:56
You can read minds?  OUTSTANDING!

Considering he is in San Diego...  ummm yeah...  not actually snow.   

LIPHANTOM Posted at 2015-1-21 00:05
Considering he is in San Diego...  ummm yeah...  not actually snow.

Some call it snow and some call it static, depending on where you're from.  Snow has been seen in southern Texas before.

I've read several posts about Batteries dying prematurely. Also, dirty battery contacts can cause failures. How many cycles on the battery?

Gerry1124 Posted at 2015-1-21 00:08
Some call it snow and some call it static, depending on where you're from.  Snow has been seen in  ...

the last time it snowed there was probably 50 years ago.   Either way,  he confirmed it was snow on his screen.  Static.

knowonecares Posted at 2015-1-21 00:08
I've read several posts about Batteries dying prematurely. Also, dirty battery contacts can cause fa ...

DJI Battery not aftermarket. less than 10 cycles.

scooterlam Posted at 2015-1-21 00:58
DJI Battery not aftermarket. less than 10 cycles.

How do you charge the batteries?  Multicharger or one at a time?   Car charger?

if you want to discus the weather start a another thread, the man is wanting help

LIPHANTOM Posted at 2015-1-21 02:03
How do you charge the batteries?  Multicharger or one at a time?   Car charger?

Single factory DJI charger through a normal 110 outlet. Battery still shows nearly a full charge but like I said in my original post from the video the gimbal gave out and props stopped mid-air.

bobibobr.email Posted at 2015-1-21 02:24
if you want to discus the weather start a another thread, the man is wanting help

Thank you!

It has to be tested if the phantom will fall from the sky if the two pins loose connection during flight. Some earlier manuals from DJI claim it will land itself but im not sure. Luckily this happend always before the phantom was in the air in my case

scooterlam Posted at 2015-1-21 02:42
Single factory DJI charger through a normal 110 outlet. Battery still shows nearly a full charge b ...

Sounds like the battery was not the failure.   How bad is the damage?  Can you power it up?  Have you opened it and inspected?

You have to forgive Gerry he's been covered in the stuff.  I interpretated his "snow" as static also.

watch out gunny or they will come after you for posting off topic.  frankly, if people around here were willing to discuss ideas to help me with a problem (like lots of you do, particularly gerry, drone, mac, gunny, and several others), i would look past a few off topic replies within the thread.  is it really so freaking hard to skip past a side comment or two, i mean after all, these people who are around here are spending time reading your posts and offering thoughts and they arent getting paid for it.  being an asshat to them is not going to make them want to participate in your threads.  

if you have adhd and simply cannot muster the focus it takes to get through one or two mildly off topic and not totally derailing posts, im sorry to hear of your condition and hope meds help.

as for the dozen or more posts ive made (and the names of guys above that have helped me many times), feel free to have side commentaries in my threads, as i appreciate your time more than i am upset by the 15 secs it takes me to read your off topic post and move to the next reply....

gnixon2015 Posted at 2015-1-21 03:23
watch out gunny or they will come after you for posting off topic.  frankly, if people around here w ...

I'll let them figure it out.

guymacdonald Posted at 2015-1-21 05:05
I think the one's that thought you were wrong thinking static (not snow) owe you an apology?

Rega ...

Why ? It's a fair question .

Just woke up.  Hah!  Look what I started!  Seriously though, this time of year here in NJ, I thought you meant literally snow on the screen.

I have never lost connection yet, but in these days of digital devices, rarely does one see 'snow' on the screen, which makes me wonder if there was not a burst of emf interference or something similar which caused the whole thing to shut down.  Any possibility of high-power transmitters of some type nearby where you were flying?   Maybe somebody who has lost a connection before can indicate whether or not this is a normal condition when a connection is lost.  But for something to manifest itself in both the Phantom dropping AND the way the display looks leads me to think some sort of interference was as play.

Mine pooped out as well, mid-flight after a perfect, and identical, programmed flight minutes earlier. The camera simply stopped recording and the DWV2+ dropped from the sky with only its forward momentum. Here is the video clip at Google Docs.

Also, the left rear lights on that arm were all out from the beginning. Delivered 1/8, used first time 1/14 or 15, failed the same day. Off now for a three-four week repair cycle. Lots of fun but sure wish we'd had it longer before this sudden death. Has flown perfectly since but the dealer said it probably has an electronic speed control failure. Today, before boxing it up, the unit flew perfectly again through a battery fatigue test, and returned to start point perfectly, so the GPS isn't faulty.

Mine died too, with sudden video recording stopped mid-flight and the unit dropping from the sky with only its forward momentum. Dealer suggested electronic speed control? Only had it since 1/8, dropped on 1/14. It has flown perfectly since, however I've only trusted manual controls.
BTW, second DJI Phantom I've owned. Love them!

LIPHANTOM Posted at 2015-1-21 03:10
Sounds like the battery was not the failure.   How bad is the damage?  Can you power it up?  Have  ...

It Powers up, Continuously Beeps and Blinks Red from the 2 front Arms

Maybe I'm getting paranoid, but read this......my post at the bottom:
http://forum.dji.com/forum.php?m ... age%3D1&lang=en

DJI tweeted out that video and the guy is a well known GP and DJI user and reviewer. He demos a battery with almost 90% falling out of the sky after less than a minute.

droneflyers.com Posted at 2015-1-21 09:32
Maybe I'm getting paranoid, but read this......my post at the bottom:
http://forum.dji.com/forum.php ...

Wow thanks for posting. This seems to be exactly what happened to me even the rapid blinking red lights could be seen at the end of the footage when you can see the groundskeeper pick up the phantom. Checked my batteries just now and they are all 90-100% life remaining (all LED constant on)

I've e-mailed DJI but no reply yet. This is absurd and a HUGE safety concern.

goncalo Posted at 2015-1-22 08:30
Humm, by your report and looking at the video I can only assume a few things : either the battery  ...

can you test the cells of the battery ? press and hold the button ( with the battery off ) until it flashes the light and then see if the green bars are all solid ( all cells ok ) or any of them ( green bars ) flash - the number of green bars flashing = bad cell.

That is incorrect, pressing and holding the battery button will tell you the "life of the battery" left, not a bad cell.  

goncalo Posted at 2015-1-22 08:30
Humm, by your report and looking at the video I can only assume a few things : either the battery  ...

I do a complete pre-flight check before every flight. Battery was inserted fully. I checked battery life by holding down for 5 seconds and all lights are green. These are DJI factory batteries with less than 12-15 cycles each on them.

Hi, sorry for the loss.
Does the video from Gopro still readable?  you can send to after-sells email for further support
support@dji.com;   us.support@dji.com;   support.europe@dji.com