Hi I have a 3 week old Phantom V+ v3. First 3 flights were all good over a two week period. Crashed on 4th flight. Had done all the pre-flight checks (as you do being new, quite paranoid getting it right) , wifi extender, tx, then phantom. Let it settle for a while and then do compass calibration. Turn on app, check sats are good and radar is all as should be. Take off, fly for a good 6-7 mins, no more than 150ft altitude and less then 100ft distance at all times and no issues. Battery gets to around 40% so bring it closer and hover 10ft above the ground and 10ft away from me, at this point the sticks are all mid way no input on them.
Then all of a sudden it takes a rapid dive to the right flipping over. Hits the ground on its back, was able to then throttle back and shut it down. Two prop guards broke and one prop. Luckily gimbal was not damaged. I did get a 'battery communication error' message on the app but now put that down to the battery ejecting slightly on impact.
So have not flown it since. Have re-calibrated the IMU, tx etc. Had an error 27 on the app for a while, which seems to have now gone away after repeatedly calibrating the compass. So all seems ok and good to go again.
However I thought I would just test the motors before taking it for a flight. Firstly without the props and could certainly tell they were moving from idle to full throttle at certain points of the test. Decided to put the props on, to see if that made any difference, which it hasn't. When I throttle up and then down, the motors remain steady for for seconds and then rapidly speed up (i'm holding it down on a table 3ft off the ground outside). I have left it idle for a few minutes and motors constantly revs high, I have to constanly throttle down to reduce motor speed.
I am really reluctant to fly now, which is a shame as I had gone to great lengths training myself with a Syma X5C watching as many videos as humanly possible. Yes I am a newbie, so it could be me but I have checked, doubled checked and triple checked everything I do.
If anyone has any feedback would really appreciate it.
Cheers

(i'm holding it down on a table 3ft off the ground outside).

Cross your fingers that it is not broke afterall!!!??

I did similar hold down test to see how much weight my p2v+ could lift - and had very similar throttle response!  My unit was/is fine....

I think you may be getting those results by holding it down while throttling up/down.  You are confusing the MCU not letting it lift..

Try using a string/rope so it can rise - give it say 10ft so it can do its thing for you but rope will prevent fly off....  

Hope it proves your unit is ok!

yorlik Posted at 2015-4-8 22:22
Cross your fingers that it is not broke afterall!!!??

I did similar hold down test to see how muc ...

Hi , yes rope was my next test ! :-)
Can't believe I'm actually have to resort to this type of testing.
Wish I could download a flight log.

Definitely could be something wrong - BUT, given all the videos and reading you did in an effort to avoid problems...I'm wondering if you came across the many warnings and posts regarding the behavior of the Phantom when the battery is at 40% or below?

Specifically, many of us look at 50% as the bottom line and look to land the bird once we hit that level - and hopefully before it gets under 40%.

I can't give you exact behavior - that depends on many settings - but lots of strange things can happen when the battery gets to 40% and below. These included automatic RTH (which goes wonky if the home point is not set right), wobbling, etc.

I'm not saying this was all that was wrong - but you asked for feedback so if you do get it running properly again, heed this warning.

If you are in stock "Phantom" Mode, I would suggest landing before 40%
If you are in NAZA mode and have carefully checked all the automatic RTH settings both in the app and in the battery and quad (it seems there is more than one setting - strange!), then maybe you can run down to 40% if you are nearby, switch to ATTI mode and run for another 5-10% before landing.

Never takeoff or start a new mission when you are below 45-50%.

These are my rules for my own flying  and IMHO.

droneflyers.com Posted at 2015-4-8 22:47
Definitely could be something wrong - BUT, given all the videos and reading you did in an effort to  ...

Thanks for the input, much appreciated.
I was in Phantom mode and was aware of the 40% rule but have gone below that previously on one occasion but no problems......
But hence bringing it in at 40% on this flight. Was actually about to land, so I am thinking throttling down and letting it hover the controller speeds up the motors for some reason? As in my post crash testing.
Surprised it survived such a high speed impact actually.
Will certainly bring back on 50% now once I get my confidence back.

There are some other reports of similar behavior - this "shooting up and away" and since yours and others are from people who knew the basics.....it seems like a bug somewhere!

But a "bug" can be something as simple as weird settings in the app (combo of things) or in the assistant.

I am concerned about that "Auto return to home" setting - of which there are multiples. That's just one guess.

I thought I could outsmart the battery myself - so the other day I brought it down at about 40% and then flew it for a while within 10 feet of myself - just following it down a path with the Quad leading the way. Suddenly it went wonky, shot up and crashed into a tree - fell down and flipped over (no damage). It was before of the auto RTH.  I've learned that lesson!

IMHO, RTH is responsible for losing more quads than it is for saving them! But that may just be my opinion because I always fly in places where I can recover the machine manually.

andy.murden@gma Posted at 2015-4-8 22:57
Thanks for the input, much appreciated.
I was in Phantom mode and was aware of the 40% rule but ha ...

If you had impact hard enough to eject the battery - even partially - I would open the shell and make sure everything is secure inside regardless of the motors spinning or not - all connections tight, all wires connected and not stressed, etc.

droneflyers.com Posted at 2015-4-8 23:07
There are some other reports of similar behavior - this "shooting up and away" and since yours and o ...

Interesting that happened to you.
Will review all the settings once and check all as should be.
I fly in a wide open space and is soft grass, so another fall would limit damage I hope.
Will not deter me :-)

nrgwise Posted at 2015-4-8 23:10
If you had impact hard enough to eject the battery - even partially - I would open the shell and m ...

Hi , I have opened up and checked all is good.
Did check the ESC version while there too. They are 2.1 so don't suspect it is the 2.0 issue.
Trying to eliminate everything I can think of.
Cheers

remember too in your next testing, if you do it w/o rope (as you should next) that CTC does shut motors off even if flying (away).....

andy.murden@gma Posted at 2015-4-8 23:26
Hi , I have opened up and checked all is good.
Did check the ESC version while there too. They are ...

I fly in MAZA-M and weather permitting I always fly well below 40% and when I hit 20% and RTH engages I give a quick flip of S1 to ATTI a back then bring it in on my own, last night I went into RTH but wanted one more pict of a sunset, switch flip, up 350' and brought her down at 11%...never an issue though I know a bit of a risk...I love the rush! And I never bought this to be paranoid or with the fact that a 40% battery was nearly empty...I rarely look at my battery percentage unless I go into a low battery enabled RTH..As a rule, I fly by the minutes remaining and it has been accurate and totally reliable for me..100%!
With 80 full batteries through this thing I could count on one hand the number of times I have landed with less than 25% battery left!!

All that said, are you flying in Phantom or NAZA-M?
Which phone/tablet iOS or Android?
Are you running the DJI app or 3rd party?

Northofthe49th Posted at 2015-4-9 08:07
I fly in MAZA-M and weather permitting I always fly well below 40% and when I hit 20% and RTH enga ...

I am in Phantom mode using the official android app on a Samsung S5.
All firmware is updated to latest.

Did do a 'rope' test and seems ok apart from a slight drift and wobble when trying to hover bu that could be due to the rope being attached.

Will test again today.

Not sure if I should convert to Naza-M as it give me some options.
But not sure I could have switched to anything on my crash, 10ft off the ground and literally smashed to the ground in 2 seconds, no time to react.