Well, people always say it's not IF but WHEN!!!

It finally happened!

I will pass on the logs and pictures later (here's HealthyDrones for now - I did not look at the logs yet... shaken too much!), but here's my note to DJI - and it seems that the system autocreated a case for me: 468630


This happened on March 18th, 2017, I bought it on Apr 3rd, 2016. I have been procrastinating getting coverage for an older unit.. hope the warranty really is 1 year, as I always understood!
The damage is the gimballseparating almost from the unit, and p[rops preaking, all 4... but I would not be surprised if the unit is flyable and if the gimbal is ok, since i had the antidrop kit, and it fell only about 8 ft.... then just span like crazy till i pulled the battery!


Looking for Ideas and emotional support ;) as well as explanation and help in dealing with DJI, or fixing it myself and so on....


Here's most of my email to dji:


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Hi!
Crash of Phantom 3 Advanced - hope under warranty.

I was just flying, and decided to come in atti mode from my street into the garage to land, in ATTI mode. As I was well below 4 ft above the ground and began landing, the unit took off into RTH mode (I assume) and crashed into the garage ceiling, then inverted - fell onto the ground, and I pulled the battery to stop it from spinning.
I was well within 20 meters of my takeoff location, so i did not expect RTH to go up, even if it kicked in. Also, as I was in my garage and assumed GPS would be lost, and was flying in ATTI visually, ignoring the app for the moment, I assumed there would be no up movement.

I believe I am still within warranty, as I am near a year, but not quite.

My DJI account user is gregt@post.pl, and I just synced the flight log. The last and the fatal flight was at 19:17 on March 18th, 2017, and the logs are uploaded to the DJI cloud.

I'd appreciate a quick reply, as to what to do.

Did not test the unit yet, it it possible that it's workable, without the camera, but if warranty is still possible - I'd love for you guys to help me out.

Thank you in advance!

GregT
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Amazon invoice - from Apr 3rd 2016.

Good luck....

I'm sure you'll be up and running again in no time.

Jamie, so is the warranty 1 year or not? I am beginning to see exactly what happened, but still would be nice to know if DJI can do anything for me.
I did not test the motors and everything else yet, but I have a feeling that the camera mount and ribbon cables are the only damage.. well, aside from the props, naturally....
I am really hoping that DJI will give me some info, from the logs, before asking to have it sent for eval....

Will they even go into RTH if they are in ATTI mode?  This would require GPS and I assume if you are in ATTI mode the aircraft would assume GPS is not available.  I've no experience on this one though.

Every time I've had a "crash" it has been because I am flying too near buildings and metal structures.  It causes havoc with the compass.  Flying into an open garage would be asking for trouble in my experience.  Perhaps the ascent inside the garage is due to a temperature differential from outside and the barometric pressure was different, causing the aircraft to return a false altitude?  If it fell on its top, it would spin like crazy--it is trying to right itself because it doesn't know it is on the ground.  Pulling the battery is the only way to disable it.

There aren't any warnings about RTH kicking in, but there were some motor obstruction issues at the end of the flight and power reductions.  Without proper flight logs we really can't tell anything.  You would need to share them here and post the link back on the forum.  If you want to use Healthy Drones, you need to enable the kml and csv options before sharing the link.

Do you have any photos of the damage you can upload so we can advise on the extent of the damage?

The "Low Power returning home" message is marked as at 24 m from home.

Maybe you were caught out by poor GPS accuracy?

I guess that as soon as it started to ascend you should have pulled the left stick down to hold it while you cancelled the RTH.

Sorry to see this, but accidents do happen unfortunately.

endotherm Posted at 2017-3-18 22:54
Will they even go into RTH if they are in ATTI mode?  This would require GPS and I assume if you are in ATTI mode the aircraft would assume GPS is not available.  I've no experience on this one though.

Every time I've had a "crash" it has been because I am flying too near buildings and metal structures.  It causes havoc with the compass.  Flying into an open garage would be asking for trouble in my experience.  Perhaps the ascent inside the garage is due to a temperature differential from outside and the barometric pressure was different, causing the aircraft to return a false altitude?  If it fell on its top, it would spin like crazy--it is trying to right itself because it doesn't know it is on the ground.  Pulling the battery is the only way to disable it.

GPS is always available whether in ATTI or not.  ATTI doesn't disable GPS, ATTI just ignores it until it needs it (e.g. RTH).  

The AC went up because it thought it was 78 ft from home point per the log.  

Damn! I finally looked at the logs, and sure enough i was NOT within 60ft of take off! Would be if I did my usual takeoff from the middle of the cul-de-sac, as I usually do.. but no.. not this time! I really should have watched the damned app and cancel RTH due to low battery! Total mental handicap has developed for me!

Well, the drone flies, here's a log from a flight today - http://healthydrones.com/main?share=WNXvrg - voltage and amps look happy, gps is ok, compass is ok, RTH works fine - so no issues there... The gimbal is not working... it moves but not responding to commands nor registering at all. With all the other stats being happy, i think there was no internal damage at all.

What happened is that when gimbal detached, the pins got pulled from the plugs, so all I did was put them back ion.. perhaps I have put them in backwards, meaning not pin 1 to pin1....
Perhaps I'll pull the pins again, and insert them in the reverse order. My assumption on pin order may be wrong. The gimbal blinks red, and sort of jumps around a bit while flying. Stationery seems ok.

In the meantime I am kicking myself for a totally idiotic mistake unbecoming of a DJI flyer with almost year of experience, and an RC enthusiast of many years....
This just proves thew point, that unless it's a serious failure, it's usually some stupid mistake on the pilot's side! RTH in a garage, of all damned things!

Open to any suggestions for troubleshooting and fixing. But, at this point it's only the camera, and a very bruised ego...

Pics below (please, do not laugh too friggin much! )

We are alive! After replacing the mounting plate for the camera, and the cable between the VPS and Gimbal, everything works! I really expected the main cable from the drone to the gimbal to be broken, but I am NOT bummed that I did not have to open the shell! That is just fine by me!
Anyhow, flew 1 battery in the dark tonight, everything in the logs looks happy. Will do bunch of testing over the weekend, and certainly will be damned careful about RTH.. well, paranoid.. since I was sort of careful for nearly a year.
Cheers!

Great news.  Glad you got sorted.

Phantomski Posted at 2017-3-24 19:15
We are alive! After replacing the mounting plate for the camera, and the cable between the VPS and Gimbal, everything works! I really expected the main cable from the drone to the gimbal to be broken, but I am NOT bummed that I did not have to open the shell! That is just fine by me!
Anyhow, flew 1 battery in the dark tonight, everything in the logs looks happy. Will do bunch of testing over the weekend, and certainly will be damned careful about RTH.. well, paranoid.. since I was sort of careful for nearly a year.
Cheers!

Aloha Phantomski,

     Great news!  Take it slow and steady.  Double check your repairs, especially after each flight.  Good to hear you are up and running again!

Aloha and Drone On!

Phantomski Posted at 2017-3-24 19:15
We are alive! After replacing the mounting plate for the camera, and the cable between the VPS and Gimbal, everything works! I really expected the main cable from the drone to the gimbal to be broken, but I am NOT bummed that I did not have to open the shell! That is just fine by me!
Anyhow, flew 1 battery in the dark tonight, everything in the logs looks happy. Will do bunch of testing over the weekend, and certainly will be damned careful about RTH.. well, paranoid.. since I was sort of careful for nearly a year.
Cheers!

Next time, try to land in front of garage, not IN it ;) HAVE YOU EVER seen chopper landing straight into hangar? ;)

Thanks for sharing your experience through your whole ordeal.  Very educational..
Glad you are back in the air.

So happy for you,  Flying into the garage, not the best move,eh
It is surprising what these birds can handle, glad you up & flying!

You were saying? ;)

Get yourself a wheeled landing pad so that you can land outside, much safer for both getting in and out of the garage:




Next question - what to tow it with...

ok, so now i need a platform, an rc vehicle to tow it, and a p3 pro to spot from the air.. sounds like my whole family needs to learn RC...

Phantomski Posted at 2017-3-25 20:18
ok, so now i need a platform, an rc vehicle to tow it, and a p3 pro to spot from the air.. sounds like my whole family needs to learn RC...

You are also going to have to upgrade to a P4-Pro with it's " Precision Landing" feature so that you can use a reasonably sized trolley platform and a reasonably sized RC tractor unit

Nigel_ Posted at 2017-3-26 00:52
You are also going to have to upgrade to a P4-Pro with it's " Precision Landing" feature so that you can use a reasonably sized trolley platform and a reasonably sized RC tractor unit

r u saying i cannot precision land with my great skills on a p3?!!!! ;)