Crashed my P2V+ V2 yesterday, I flying up in a mountainous region. South facing slope.  Very steep, heavily wooded. Had 8 Satellites at take off, good home lock. Had 70% battery, gained Sat's to 10 as I moved up the mountain slowly. Prior to going up to my intended video project I stopped at a hover at about 350ft. above the home point. Probably about 150ft above ground level. Adjusted my camera pitch on my tablet, started my video, looked up at my Phantom hovering perfectly, and suddenly it was like the power just turned off instantly! My Phantom simply plummeted down through the tree canopy and onto the Forrest floor. I was stunned!  Upon recovery, noticed one blade off completely, blade wasn't damaged at all. The battery had popped out, presumably on impact. Other than the antenna and compass wire loosened, it appears it completely survived the crash.  It flys and everything in the Assistant seems to look fine.   In reviewing the video, expecting to see the spiraling towards the tree canopy and impact as I've seen in other videos, I noted no video sequence at all  of the falling and crashing. It just stops/turns off. Again like the Phantom totally lost power instantly?  The first thing I thought about was possibly my battery not being seated correctly but I am very careful about that and am very careful about making sure they're seated tightly before eacvh flight.  I'm pretty confident it wasn't that.


I updated to V3.12 the day it came out.  Flown several times without error.  Some of the forums are saying this is a V3.12 issue??  I am now somewhat afraid to fly for fear my Phantom might fall in a bad spot.


Any thoughts?


Brad

It's not a 3.12 issue.  To many people, including me have put, or is putting the 3.12 through some thorough testing.  Did you get any video at all when you said you turned it on?

I did get video, good quality, just turned off

csiami Posted at 2015-3-20 23:56
I did get video, good quality, just turned off

So you lost everything at the same time?  

As far as I can tell everything simply turned off completely and it simply plummeted.  Just like you flipped a switch.

I'm feeling very fortunate it fell on a forest floor covered in pine needles which must have helped break the impact a bit.  I'm worried this might happen again in a much less forgiving spot.  I'm amazed after falling about 150ft. being thrashed through the tree branches and impacting it wasn't a total loss.  I guess these Phantoms are fairly durable anyways.

csiami Posted at 2015-3-21 00:01
As far as I can tell everything simply turned off completely and it simply plummeted.  Just like you ...

Was the battery still intact, or was that destroyed?

Battery is still intact and functioning correctly as far as I can tell.

csiami Posted at 2015-3-21 00:06
Battery is still intact and functioning correctly as far as I can tell.

If you can still turn on the battery, it sounds like you might have had a total breakdown in the power distribution system within the  Phantom.

That sounds worrisome,  it checks out perfectly on the Assistant and still flies normally.  I think I'm going to take it out and Hover it over a grass area at a low level.  Maybe if I go through five or six batteries, I might see if it does it again.

csiami Posted at 2015-3-21 00:13
That sounds worrisome,  it checks out perfectly on the Assistant and still flies normally.  I think  ...

Just fly low for a few flights.

Didn't someone else post a similar occurrence the other day

http://forum.dji.com/forum.php?m ... age%3D1&lang=en

I've just flown for the first time with 3.12 and I noticed that the quad seemed very unstable and shakes, I'll upload the video later

Glad to hear it sounds to have survived..just speculating, my gut tells me a bad battery connection and it was "maybe" not seated 100%..and wiggled loose enough to turn it hard off completely and instantly, motors hard stop and the motor working hardest is likely the one the prop came off.
Were any of the lock tabs on the battery broke off? as you mentioned the battery had popped out presumably on impact and with it's fall broken somewhat by tree branches etc. it does not seem the impact was too great.  

I took my Phantom out today to a farm field where its tilled and soft.  Cycled through 5 batteries to include the one that was in it when I had the failure.  I put it through its paces at low level.  Let it hover through one complete battery.  Did two short Ground Station flights and some still shots and video, everything seems fine.  I'm happy all seems ok, but still worried.  Maybe I didn't get the battery in tight enough, although I'm really careful about that.  Guess I'll see if I have another failure.  Fingers are crossed  

csiami Posted at 2015-3-21 07:50
I took my Phantom out today to a farm field where its tilled and soft.  Cycled through 5 batteries t ...

Csiami,
Thanks for sharing and glad to hear it went well, I have had two instances of what seemed to be low voltage errors where the Reds on the Phantom were flashing right as I powered it up, one on 3.08 and one on 3.12, I did not think of marking the battery until the second time it occured and has not occured since so not sure if it was battery specific...either way, when it happened I shut off the Phantom, I popped out the battery, reinserted and flew with no issues...I can also say about two weeks ago I was ready to fly and as I leant over to turn on the Phantom I noticed the battery did not appear to be fully seated, sure enough I heard a click as I pressed further..it was wierd cause I was absolutely certain I had heard the click when I put the battery in while in the house...No harm double checking and happy flying...

http://forum.dji.com/forum.php?m ... nserted&lang=en