I was just flying my Phatom, it was going great and then I landed it. I was at about 30% battery and went to take it off again just to practice some manuevers down low and all of a sudden it flies upwards really quick and into a tree. Something flashed on my phone screen like "returning to home position". It fell pretty hard on the concrete and one of the arms/motors is damaged. The camera is still operational and the gimbal seems to still be working but it appears titled to one side when powered off.
This is just my luck, it was going so well. Why did it malfunction? Did I do something wrong? Is it possible to repair or send off for repair?

Like you said, the phantom entered retur to home (yellow blinking LED's) triggered by low battery warning. The phantom will lift 20 meters (or whatever set in the assistance software) and hover, then fly over to the set homepoint, hover and then land and shut off. It's a bad thing if your under a tree at that moment.

If you would have flicked the S1 switch to ATTI mode, you would get controll back and land the phantom manually out of harms way. So it did not malfunction. If your motor is broken, you can buy a replacement, Not sure if you can sort of repair the body shell, can't tell from the pic, but you might need to replace that one to. A body shell costs approx 70 $ and a motot 15. It's not that difficult to repair yourself. There many threads on this forum to do so, also check on youtube. For example

I was at like 35% battery, I've had it in the air when it's had the low battery alarm and it didn't try returning home by itself. The warning was on the screen so briefly, I can't remember if it said returning to home or going to new home position. I definitely wish I could've had time to flip the switch but the thing shot off and I had no time to recover. I'm also thinking damage would've been avoided if I'd had prop guards on but I've heard such mixed reviews. I'm considering getting those and a landing arm extension, do those make it unstable at all or harder to land?

cayers13.email Posted at 2015-1-24 00:27
I was at like 35% battery, I've had it in the air when it's had the low battery alarm and it didn't  ...

It was returning to home. First thing it does when it enters RTH mode is ascend to the preset altitude, usually default is 66 feet.

The tilted gimbal is a result of the gimbal motor shaft getting rotated in its press-fit installation into the gimbal arm. You can manually rotate that back after pulling the back cover off the gimbal.

The "return to home" begins with a quick lift to 20 meters!, So this most probably was the return to home funktion, It just does not have obstacle avoidence and didn't know about the tree. Prop guars perhaps might have caused less damage, but apparently they make the phantom more vulnerable to VRS. I don't use them.

Longer landing gear won't  affect the stability (at least I didn't notice), but mind had another problem. After a tiny crash onto soft grass from 1,5 meters, the plastik skids snapped and the gimbal hit the ground and got destroyed. So whatever you purchase, make sure they are durable.

i hit a tree yesterday at 100ft up and without prop guards my phantom would look worse than yours.  not only did it stop damage, the thing bounced off the limbs (and this was 10+ tiny limbs it hit all at once not 'a single tree or single limb') and sat there flying just fine next to the tree.  i didnt even get a SCRATCH on the props (Even tho i could hear them hitting branches when it happened).  

as ive said before, if you fly not like a moron, it wont just simply MAKE your craft go into VRS.  ive had many flights now some in high wind and some with descents that should have been VERY VRS susceptible and have not had a VRS.

FOR NEW PILOTS, the statistical risk of having happen what did to you above (and to me yesterday) are WAY HIGHER than the chance that the prop guards would CAUSE VRS.

FOR EXPERIENCED PILOTS, i would not recommend them.  but you are obviously very new so I would use them for a while.  just my 2 cents.

why would it enter return to home mode at that point though? I wish I would've been fast enough to just catch it but them the props might've cut me up

the battery % can change faster than you think.  it is a function (calculation) based upon rotor usage, so 30% can become 25% in seconds under the right conditions (weather, load, etc).  You said 30% in your original post and 35% in your follow up reply.  Frankly, if you land with 1/3rd or less of a battery level (which I consider even 35% to qualify as), i would not take off for anything else without using a new battery as it is just too risky.  

so i think what happened is that it went down to the 25% level or whatever it is set at to trigger low battery RTH based upon what ive read above.

cayers13.email Posted at 2015-1-24 01:07
why would it enter return to home mode at that point though? I wish I would've been fast enough to j ...

Your return to home message means just that.  Your low battery triggered it, so it is going to do what it is programmed to do, go to RTH altitude straight up , fly to RTH coordinates, then land.

gnixon2015 Posted at 2015-1-24 01:11
the battery % can change faster than you think.  it is a function (calculation) based upon rotor usa ...

I guess I should've just kept it grounded. Is there any way to disable RTH on a low battery warning?

cayers13.email Posted at 2015-1-24 01:21
I guess I should've just kept it grounded. Is there any way to disable RTH on a low battery warnin ...

There is a setting in the Vision App and Vision Assist.

Yes there is.  uncheck the box.  I don't know why you would want to disable it though.

but be very careful disabling it because crashing due to low battery is a high probability if you arent certain how much battery will get used 'on the way home'.  for example, on a really cold day, my lower third of my battery seemed to decline faster than the first two thirds.  could be just my perception but i got to thinking, wow, had i reacted just 3 or 4 mins later than i did (to bring it home) i wouldnt have had enough power to make it all the way back.  the warning ensures that you do that early enough and the 'go home' aspect keeps it honest.  

so what im saying is that if you had that disabled, you wouldnt have hit the tree.  HOWEVER, you may have crashed on the way home if you didnt pay close attention to it.  both are risks that you have to weigh in deciding whether to have it on or not.

I have noticed RTH will notify you on the screen and count down for about 10 seconds.  You can miss it.  But at the same time I think it sounds an alarm.  So crank up your volume when you fly so you can hear.  

I have been in your situation where it took off in mid flight because I failed to see the message on the screen.  A quick flick of the S1 switch down and back up will regain control and has for me avoided a collision with a Baseball Field Light Pole.  You can also hit cancel on the on screen message if you happen to see it on your device screen.

If it was at 35% or 30% then you should calibrate your batteries. Run them down to 8% or until the battery shuts off and fully charge them.

These batteries are really not much different then the smart batteries inside a MacBook and those need to be calibrated every couple of months too.  DJI recommends every 20 cycles, IIRC.

You can also turn off Auto Go Home in the Vision App settings.  But that is a safety feature and I wouldn't disable it. You can aslo set the RTH height in the same area of the App, in case you are flying in a place that has a lot of tall trees or objects...

gnixon2015 Posted at 2015-1-24 01:35
but be very careful disabling it because crashing due to low battery is a high probability if you ar ...

Something is still not right though as any go home procedure always gives 10 seconds to cancel.  If yours flashed on and off in an instant then that's wrong.

Now on my very first flight on my brand new setup, which obviously had a brand new 1st charge battery mine did the return home at 35% charge . However I got the opportunity to cancel, I always have the opportunity to cancel.

umpa, it is entirely possible that he didnt notice the screen until the last few seconds

Even if you turn off RTH on low battery there is still a land when the battery reaches critical level (15% is the default built-in value) so it won't wall out of the sky but at 15% it will land no matter what.

gnixon2015 Posted at 2015-1-24 02:27
umpa, it is entirely possible that he didnt notice the screen until the last few seconds

no that's true I was looking at the screen and it flashed up right as the drone shot upwards. it was like a split second.
I was looking at the DJI app and noticed there is an option for "low battery auto go home". It's set to off on my app, I haven't messed with any of these settings so I'm assuming that's the default. Not sure if that's separate from the drones internal settings.

then he is right, it shouldnt have done it 'that fast'

I have mine disabled at the moment. If I do enable it,  once it entrees RTH,  if I switch to ATTI & Back to GPS I can cancel the RTH & land it my self? I have my RTH set to 200' to keep from hitting a tree. I disabled it as I normally am landed by 40% as I do not want to stress the batteries.

Larry L Posted at 2015-1-25 11:35
I have mine disabled at the moment. If I do enable it,  once it entrees RTH,  if I switch to ATTI &  ...

I have usually landed by 30%.  Only one time did it get to 18% and I was within 100 feet of home point.

Just out of curiosity, did you leave it idling after you landed, and before you were going to take off again?

Or had you turned off the motors and restarted them?

If you had restarted them, was the Phantom still powered up from the previous flight, and how long did you idle before it took off?

My camera tilts when powered off as well.  If it's level when powered up, it is probably fine.

When it goes into low battery condition prior to the RTH the rear LEDs flash RED. As soon as you see this land ASAP before a RTH is triggered.

Jamie Hellmich Posted at 2015-1-25 12:06
Just out of curiosity, did you leave it idling after you landed, and before you were going to take o ...

I landed and shut the props off, I was actually going to call it quits for the day but saw I had the 30-35% battery left so a few seconds later I started it back up again. It was like right after I turned them back on it just shot straight up. No warning of anything on the screen until it was already going into the tree.

1st lesson here is never take off with less than 50% battery. That is, if you've run a mission and land with 30 or 35%, call it a day or swap out the battery.

There is no exact % at which these various triggers happen - sure, you can set them at percentages, but the NAZA has a bit of a mind of it's own and seems to do internal calcs based on various criteria - I've had a Vision+ start dropping out of the sky at 30% - probably because it was 200 feet up and it was figuring it had to get down quickly based on the speed at which the battery was being drained.

Quads with gimbals and cameras must be flown very conservatively if the pilot wants to keep the craft from hard landings, crashes, etc.

As far as practicing maneuvers, new pilots should always do this in areas with no obstacles. This is stated both in the manual and in the DJI new pilot guide - quoted:
"When starting your training, be sure you are in a very large open area. Be aware of your surroundings. Always fly in areas void of obstacles  and away from traffic and people".

I will once again post our list of hints which may help some keep their Phantoms longer...
http://www.droneflyers.com/2014/ ... m-fly-away-crashes/

To quote some of the material"
Those who actually want to keep their Phantoms in one piece will follow our own quick start guide. It goes something like this:

1. Understand the purpose and use of the Phantom 2 Vision+ (as described above in this article).

2. Become proficient in R/C piloting – especially quadcopters. Understand all facets of the hobby by both hand-on’s practice and reading online forums, etc.

3. Read and understand ALL DJI materials on your quadcopter – located at:
http://www.dji.com/product/phantom-2-vision-plus/download
Also, check out some of DJI’s official videos on youtube and vimeo.

4. When you are ready for your first flights, take your Phantom to a large open area (field, etc.) – do not fly it in your backyard, street or small clearing. Fly for at least one hour (5+ flights) with your Phantom relatively close to the ground and over a soft surface. This will make sure any of your small mistakes or problems with the setup don’t turn into BIG mistakes.