So i was flying my P4 yesterday after 2 weeks being on Vaca. As always, i was testing out the different modes just to make sure everything is up to par. i was in POI mode hovering at 167ft at a revolving speed of 9mph. Once i tried to gain manual control of the aircraft, the motors freezed up thus allowing the aircraft to free fall from the sky. Im watching my controls from my flight logs over and over again and all i can gather from it is this.

i pushed my left throttle down and slightly to the right. thats when i noticed the aircraft descending at a high speed. i then paniced and released the joystick. It was still descending at a high speed. Then i tried to pushed the left stick right to at least avoid falling on any houses or people and then the RTH button to maybe send some kind of signal to come back home. Nothing worked at that point and its followed by a huge THUMP on my neighbors roof. Sure enough its completely totaled.. Has this happened to anyone recently? issues with the left stick and the RTH button possibly triggering the motors to shut off in midair? i Didnt even think that was poosible to the aircraft to shut off its motors while in midflight.

I have called DJI and created a case but from what im hearing this could be a long proccess. any comments would help me on what went wrong. or Maybe even steps to take at this point.... Thanks

Left stick down and right + RTH button is the way to shut off the motors mid-flight in an emergency.
Sounds like that's what happened, but as always, posting the flight logs will help finding out for sure.

Harbourside Posted at 2017-3-21 11:23
Left stick down and right + RTH button is the way to shut off the motors mid-flight in an emergency.
Sounds like that's what happened, but as always, posting the flight logs will help finding out for sure.

Thanks for your input. I'm still fairly new at the piloting. Has this always been a feature? or was this recently and updated control. Also, is this in the manual? i couldn't find anything on it. Thanks!

KEEF,

I do hope you didn't accidentally shut down the motors ...................... see page 53 in the manual. However, if you download your files here, there are several individuals who can view the files and determine if that is indeed what you did or if possibly something else was the issue.

Definitely want to see those log files.. That's scary man! At least it didn't fall on a car phew!

tvl Posted at 2017-3-21 12:19
KEEF,

I do hope you didn't accidentally shut down the motors ...................... see page 53 in the manual. However, if you download your files here, there are several individuals who can view the files and determine if that is indeed what you did or if possibly something else was the issue.

I would love to post the logs. Thing is, I'm still new at all this. How do i go about doing that? Screen shots? I'm able to see the the log on the app but cant figure out how to share on here.  

KEEF Posted at 2017-3-21 12:38
I would love to post the logs. Thing is, I'm still new at all this. How do i go about doing that? Screen shots? I'm able to see the the log on the app but cant figure out how to share on here.

http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/upload/

Follow the instructions and then post a link for us to look...

KEEF Posted at 2017-3-21 12:38
I would love to post the logs. Thing is, I'm still new at all this. How do i go about doing that? Screen shots? I'm able to see the the log on the app but cant figure out how to share on here.

Go to http://phantomhelp.com/logviewer/upload/ and follow the instructions to upload, then post the link in this forum. People here love to help interpret them for you.

Me too!

My Mavic Pro crashed to the ground from about 180ft when using the POI mode without any user interaction/input nor shutting off the motors!!! It can't be just a coincidence that we both were using the POI mode recently (my Mavic Pro crashed on March 17, 2017).

I posted my experience here (including the log file on HeathlyDrones.com).

Regards,
-Nick

I appreciate all the input. I will be doing this as soon as I get Home. And yes that is a coincidence that th is happened in POI mode. I'm just relieved I'm not alone in this.

KEEF Posted at 2017-3-21 11:41
Thanks for your input. I'm still fairly new at the piloting. Has this always been a feature? or was this recently and updated control. Also, is this in the manual? i couldn't find anything on it. Thanks!

Motor Shut off page 53

KEEF Posted at 2017-3-21 11:41
Thanks for your input. I'm still fairly new at the piloting. Has this always been a feature? or was this recently and updated control. Also, is this in the manual? i couldn't find anything on it. Thanks!

Judging from your 1st post I don't think your accidental left stick right + RTH caused the shutdown. Your AC was already impersonating the flying qualities of a brick and was unresponsive to the controls before you gave that rather dangerous input. There have been a few unexplained in flight shutdowns in P4s recently although most of them have been at lower altitude than yours. The logs will put more light on the situation but unfortunately I doubt if we will ever hear the full story, only DJI will know that.

bigal Posted at 2017-3-21 23:23
Motor Shut off page 53

Thank you, i really appreciate your time to post this.

Quamera Posted at 2017-3-22 00:12
Judging from your 1st post I don't think your accidental left stick right + RTH caused the shutdown. Your AC was already impersonating the flying qualities of a brick and was unresponsive to the controls before you gave that rather dangerous input. There have been a few unexplained in flight shutdowns in P4s recently although most of them have been at lower altitude than yours. The logs will put more light on the situation but unfortunately I doubt if we will ever hear the full story, only DJI will know that.

I was able to pull the logs (So i think this is it) Please let me know if that was the issue. If that was the case, i take full responsibility for accidentally shutting the motors off mid-flight. I just want to get to the bottom of this and make sure that more people are aware of this feature. Wouldn't want anyone else to make my mistake.

Link to Log:
http://phantomhelp.com/logviewer/Z13NWUB9UCXDUJW0G9KR/

Hey, Keef. I had a similar situation. I bought the P4P about a week ago at this point the day after I pulled everything out and charged the batteries and updated the firmware. I went for my first flight in beginner mode and the only thing that I changed was the RTH altitude to 120ft I believe because I was surrounded by 80ft trees. I was descending, just holding down the left stick and not touching anything else and mine stopped, everything from recording to flying, yet still had power on when it fell. I don't know what happened. DJI will receive it Monday and hopefully, I'll have an answer as to whether or not it was pilot error or Manufacturer defect (which I believe it was). I owned the Mavic before this and didn't have flying problems I was able to get a few decent videos before deciding to switch.

KEEF Posted at 2017-3-22 14:39
I was able to pull the logs (So i think this is it) Please let me know if that was the issue. If that was the case, i take full responsibility for accidentally shutting the motors off mid-flight. I just want to get to the bottom of this and make sure that more people are aware of this feature. Wouldn't want anyone else to make my mistake.

Link to Log:

Sorry to say this, but at the end of the log file, you do have the left stick full down and full right.  If you then pressed RTH while still holding the stick then it should have cut the motors and dropped out of the sky, as clearly described in the manual.   I can't tell if you did press the RTH button but from what you posted I guess that is the answer.

One thing I am puzzled by is that when you pulled the stick down, it was still in Point of Interest mode.  I haven't used POI for a while but I would expect that pulling the left stick down would cause it to descend while still circling the POI.  However the log shows that it didn't respond and remained at the existing height.  

Possibly if you were having problems regaining control from the POI and that is why you gave up and pressed RTH then you might have a case for warrantee, maybe worth getting DJI to have a look, they may at least be kind and give you a discount on repairs.

How did you attempt to exit POI mode and return to normal flying?

InThisLifeOrThe Posted at 2017-3-22 15:21
Hey, Keef. I had a similar situation. I bought the P4P about a week ago at this point the day after I pulled everything out and charged the batteries and updated the firmware. I went for my first flight in beginner mode and the only thing that I changed was the RTH altitude to 120ft I believe because I was surrounded by 80ft trees. I was descending, just holding down the left stick and not touching anything else and mine stopped, everything from recording to flying, yet still had power on when it fell. I don't know what happened. DJI will receive it Monday and hopefully, I'll have an answer as to whether or not it was pilot error or Manufacturer defect (which I believe it was). I owned the Mavic before this and didn't have flying problems I was able to get a few decent videos before deciding to switch.

I just dropped off my P4 at UPS today. So now just the waiting game. But i hope that Dji can at least see that this is an ongoing issue that pilots are having. Maybe try to ELABORATE a little bit more on this emergency shut down protocol. Thanks and please keep me updated on what happens with your case.!

KEEF Posted at 2017-3-22 17:21
I just dropped off my P4 at UPS today. So now just the waiting game. But i hope that Dji can at least see that this is an ongoing issue that pilots are having. Maybe try to ELABORATE a little bit more on this emergency shut down protocol. Thanks and please keep me updated on what happens with your case.!

Will definitely do so! Best of luck to you as well. Hopefully, it'll be a manufacturer defect for you if the RTH wasn't touched at the same time.

Nigel_ Posted at 2017-3-22 15:40
One thing I am puzzled by is that when you pulled the stick down, it was still in Point of Interest mode.  I haven't used POI for a while but I would expect that pulling the left stick down would cause it to descend while still circling the POI.  However the log shows that it didn't respond and remained at the existing height.  

Possibly if you were having problems regaining control from the POI and that is why you gave up and pressed RTH then you might have a case for warrantee, maybe worth getting DJI to have a look, they may at least be kind and give you a discount on repairs.

Yeah it DEFINITELY did not respond to any of my commands while trying to regain control of it. and from what i remembered, it started descending at a high speed and i tried to push the RTH assuming it'd come back my way. Ii believe i just tried manually lowering the craft (with no intent to exit POI mode). I couldn't honestly say i didn't push both Downright AND the RTH button at the same time. I'm hoping they can tell me i didn't and they can repair it.

"i pushed my left throttle down and slightly to the right. thats when i noticed the aircraft descending at a high speed. i then paniced and released the joystick. It was still descending at a high speed. Then i tried to pushed the left stick right to at least avoid falling on any houses or people and then the RTH button to maybe send some kind of signal to come back home. "

What we can see in the flight data is that for the last minute your Phantom was flying a nice stable POI and maintaining and altitude of 169 feet.
Looking at the joystick input we see that the rudder was at 1684 and the throttle was at 364 for the last 3 seconds.  .. that is, the left stick was in the 4 o"clock position.
We can't see the RTH activation details but if you pressed RTH while holding the left stick at 4'oclock, that will shut the motors down just as described in the manual.

The flight record shows no indication that "it started descending at a high speed" and it was still orbiting at 169 feet when you pulled back on the left stick..

Labroides Posted at 2017-3-22 18:38
"i pushed my left throttle down and slightly to the right. thats when i noticed the aircraft descending at a high speed. i then paniced and released the joystick. It was still descending at a high speed. Then i tried to pushed the left stick right to at least avoid falling on any houses or people and then the RTH button to maybe send some kind of signal to come back home. "

What we can see in the flight data is that for the last minute your Phantom was flying a nice stable POI and maintaining and altitude of 169 feet.

"The flight record shows no indication that "it started descending at a high speed" and it was still orbiting at 169 feet when you pulled back on the left stick.."

It's been stuck at that height for half the flight, never responding to a throttle down, not just in POI mode but also normal P-GPS mode. It was working up to the point that Sport mode was exited.  Don't know if it didn't respond to the throttle or if the height measurement is wrong and so we wouldn't see a fall?

One other odd thing is that right at the end of the flight, the Roll value goes to 35 degrees for no apparent reason, it is still in POI mode and it isn't obviously windy so I see no reason for it to roll to 35 degrees.

There does appear to be something wrong with the aircraft.

My guess is that the log stopped and it fell from the sky before RTH was pressed.  If so then we no way of knowing what state the sticks were in when RTH was pressed and it is irrelevant anyway.

I think it is going to need the aircraft log to work out what actually happened.

Labroides Posted at 2017-3-22 18:38
"i pushed my left throttle down and slightly to the right. thats when i noticed the aircraft descending at a high speed. i then paniced and released the joystick. It was still descending at a high speed. Then i tried to pushed the left stick right to at least avoid falling on any houses or people and then the RTH button to maybe send some kind of signal to come back home. "

What we can see in the flight data is that for the last minute your Phantom was flying a nice stable POI and maintaining and altitude of 169 feet.

Appreciate your input! At this point I'm just waiting for my P4 to get to them. Hopefully they're able to see if the RTH button was pushed along with the throttle down/right. I will take full responsibility if that was the case.

Nigel_ Posted at 2017-3-23 00:57
"The flight record shows no indication that "it started descending at a high speed" and it was still orbiting at 169 feet when you pulled back on the left stick.."

It's been stuck at that height for half the flight, never responding to a throttle down, not just in POI mode but also normal P-GPS mode. It was working up to the point that Sport mode was exited.  Don't know if it didn't respond to the throttle or if the height measurement is wrong and so we wouldn't see a fall?

So glad that i was able to speak my concerns to this forum. You guys really helped shine light on this issue being new to all this. like i said, its just a waiting game at this point. i will be updating this as soon as i get the word. Hoping that Dji will have mercy on me and future pilots that may come across this situation again.

I had this same issue as well, I had my P4A in a POI orbit of about 2 MPH and an alt of 125 feet. I had it recording a private family function. My dad said he heard the drone and then he said it sounded like  the ,Otis just stopped. When I went back and looked I was about 10 min in and all communication with me stopped. I did not touch any sticks or anything. So today after ensureing no damage to the drone and recalling all the sensors I flew it on a fresh battery and sure enough it did it again. Only this time it was durning a return to home function. The AC was starting the process when I lost everything and that was it. I noticed the flight data from yesterday it showed that the battery was at a full charge and providing power, but for some reason the motors just stopped. Both times I had this issue was with an automated process and there was no input on the sticks from me at all. This AC is not even two months old and after this today it has trashed the drone and there was no pilot error in this as it was out over an open wheat field when it happened.