Today after a flight,  I accidentally left the controller turned on and left it on the table.  About 2.5 hours later I heard this double-beep sound and at first could not tell where it was coming from,  then I noticed it was from the controller.  I picked up the controller to turn it off, when I almost dropped it from the extreme heat.  The controller was beyond hot,  it was extreme heat,  and the two buttons hot enough to burn you.   I turned it off and it turned off normally,  and its now cooling off.

Is it normal for the controller to heat up that much when its on?

Tomorrow when its totally cool I will try to charge it and see if it performs normally and report back.

Anyone else with a similar issue.

NW

I left my controller on yesterday and put it in the case.  I got home and opened the case and saw that it was on (the green and white lights).  It was very hot also!

I would say that it was on for about 2 hours......

afponiky Posted at 2015-7-12 20:30
I left my controller on yesterday and put it in the case.  I got home and opened the case and saw th ...

I just tried this. I  turned the controller on. Four LEDs showing a full charge and the red LED showning no connection to the P3. After 5 minutes it started to do a single beep every 2 seconds. After 4 minutes it turned itself off. I tried it twice with the same result. No heat at all. I am running the latest firmware. I wonder if the behaviour isnt controlled by that firmware.
What firmware are you people with the heating issue running?

On page 5 of the safety guidelines manual (not intending to say RTFM, I just knew I saw this info, but it took me a while to find it...as it's not not in the user guide, but the safety guidelines), it states:


I also have witnessed the exact behavior as described in the manual.  So, no...your experience of a controller staying on for hours, and massively overheating is not only unsafe, it certainly isn't typical or by design.  I would contact support in regards to this issue.  As an aside, I've accidentally left my controller on multiple times after a flight, put it in my case, and didn't remember until I heard the beeping.  If your controller is not shutting off as designed, and overheating, this is a definite issue I wouldn't ignore.  You will likely forget to shut it off again at one time or another.

I've not tested this, so this is just a suggestion...  I'm curious if a possible RC control stick calibration error (or placing the controller in your case in such a way that the case is leaning on a RC control), might confuse the controller into thinking it is getting input...and hence never shutting off.  It's worth a try to do a RC calibration in the App to ensure when your sticks are centered and untouched, the controller does not believe it is getting input.  Baring that changing its behavior, I'd contact support.

Out of interests sake, I tested my controller sitting idle with something leaning on one of the control sticks.  The controller did in fact NOT beep after 5 minutes of idle, nor shut off after 10.  After removing the obstruction from the stick, 5 minutes later it started beeping, in 10, it shut off entirely.

I then followed up with an "improper" calibration of the RC control sticks such that the controller believed center point was off by 1 degree.  After this improper calibration, the idle power down failsafe did not engage after 5 minutes.  This situation can be easily identified by connecting the controller to your display device and looking at RC Calibration.  If you have any values here other then 0, it appears the power down failsafe after idle will not engage...  In this case a RC Calibration is in order.

So, either a improperly calibrated RC or an obstruction pressing on one of the RC controls during storage are two confirmed conditions that will prevent the RC from automatically beeping after idle for 5 minutes, shutting down after idle for 10 minutes.  I still don't believe the controller should get so hot it will could burn you...but that may be another issue.

PS--when I properly recalibrated my RC, I couldn't get the "finish" button to become active.  Thought I broke something in my test.  If you recalibrate your RC make sure you move all three controlle (left stick, right stick, AND gimbal wheel) in their full range of motion...or the finish button will not become active.

TAZ Posted at 2015-7-13 16:17
Out of interests sake, I tested my controller sitting idle with something leaning on one of the cont ...

Nicely done. I was going to try that but you beat me to it. Thanks for the excellent report.

TAZ Posted at 2015-7-13 16:17
Out of interests sake, I tested my controller sitting idle with something leaning on one of the cont ...

And I believe you hit this on the head!

Nice!

Thanks for the test and post.

Makes sense now because I did extend my sticks and it is touching the foam in the case.