I have been using this phantom 3 pro for about 5 months without a single issue and this morning I was sending it up to grab a quick shot of the front a building from the air. Everything was green and I had about 60% battery. I used the automated take off it came up and hovered at about a meter same as always so sent it it up looking at it visually. Once it was at about 30something feet I looke down to my iPad and a fraction of a second later the camara feed went black and the status at the top of the screen went from green to red. And I heard it hit the pavement. I walked around this truck it landed on the other side of and found it shattered on the pavement.
I re-inserted the battery and it was still saying about 58 percent. Anyone ever heard of anything like this happening and will DJI cover this and what is the typical turn around time?

I

I wonder if it is possible that the proximity, perhaps at takeoff, of the truck you walked around could have caused a compass problem? It seems a common factor in many of the crashes and flyaways is a takeoff near large metal objects.

Butch

daviskw2004 Posted at 2015-11-9 00:55
I wonder if it is possible that the proximity, perhaps at takeoff, of the truck you walked around co ...

Even if that was the case that should have perhaps cause a drift or control issue I can't think of it simply just falling falling out of the sky as if it just shut off. As I said the camer feed and everything just went dead and then it fell from the sky at around approx 35' from the ground wich was about 29' above the truck and was at least 30-40' from any object.

calmasacow@gmai Posted at 2015-11-8 11:24
Even if that was the case that should have perhaps cause a drift or control issue I can't think of ...

You may get a better idea by uploading your data to Healthydrone and checking the results... There was a recent flight i believe with a compass error and low satellite count that fooled the drone into thinking its correct GPS location was 30 feet below the ground... and this of course resulted in a plummet from altitude ... May be worth a check.

Butch

I have seen a number of posts where this happened and the common denominator seems to be low battery voltage.  Exact symptoms you described.

Kneepuck Posted at 2015-11-9 02:05
I have seen a number of posts where this happened and the common denominator seems to be low battery ...

Put the battery back in after gathering up the parts and it still read 54%

Also the wasn't like it got out of whack the feed totally died and the props stopped mid air. Like it just shut off. Just glad it was real high and over people.

daviskw2004 Posted at 2015-11-9 04:29
You may get a better idea by uploading your data to Healthydrone and checking the results... There ...

"There was a recent flight i believe with a compass error and low satellite count that fooled the drone into thinking its correct GPS location was 30 feet below the ground... and this of course resulted in a plummet from altitude"

This makes no sense.
A compass error has nothing to do with altitude.
The Phantom does not get altitude data from GPS
The Phantom doesn't know the terrain where you fly so even if its altitude data shows negative altitude (ie you have flown below your start point), that does not make the Phantom crash

The battery percentage does not speak for the voltage from each cell... I have also had compass errors from flying over my truck but never a sudden drop, just wobbly and pretty much like flying in ATTI. Hard to trouble shoot this without flight records and some more details I think. Keep us posted on what dji says or does. If you as a pilot did no wrong I'd sure hope they cover you 100% good luck

Without flight records it is hard to shout on this one...
No video and red does not mean a lot.
Was your controller still showing green?

Did you take off with a partly charged battery ?

I really hope they will cover it but the manual does state to always start a flight with your battery's at 100%.

was all of the props on when it crashed?

I had the same happen to me on Saturday. Been flying since May and this is the first problem I've ever had. I flew for a bit and then landed it with about 70% battery. Turned it off for about 10 minutes and then turned it back on. I took off and ascended to about 150 feet and it literally turned off in mid air. Phone screen went black, controller went red "disconnected", and the quad dropped out of the sky. I was over some fairly high grass/brush so the fall wasn't TOO bad. Broke 3 props and the main gimbal arm appears to be bent. I plan to call DJI tomorrow. I'll try to keep this thread updated. Please let us know how your support call went.

bestfhorn1@aol. Posted at 2015-11-9 00:07
I had the same happen to me on Saturday. Been flying since May and this is the first problem I've ev ...

All of these instances sound like a complete electrical shutdown/failure......kinda like when you turn on your remote, mobile device and P3 and then when it's just sitting there with the camera on you turn off the battery on the P3.  You get loss of signal, camera view goes black and the remote connection light goes red.
I have been trying to recreate this scenario in my work shop for the last week....with batteries in various states of charge, partial charge and discharge.  I've even run the batteries down to 70, 60, 50 and even 40%.......let them sit for a week and used them under partial load.
The only thing I cannot recreate  is the full load of a rapid flight......while I have put the batteries under some load......I am not willing to risk taking the P3 up to 200 feet at full power with a depleted battery to see the result.
I usually fly with fully charged batteries, but I admit I have flown with batteries at 70% a day or two later and have had no issues.
This is very puzzling !

I can't answer your question, but the following may help clarify some things: in my experience with the red No Signal message, the app always asks me if I want to land the aircraft, and I have to click yes or no. I still have control of the bird.  In case of Disconnect (grey bar message) I am still able to control the bird. I hope you can straighten what happened.

the same happened to me, looks like a frequent malfunction these days.

AK Eagle Posted at 2015-11-9 02:31
I really hope they will cover it but the manual does state to always start a flight with your batter ...

Yep, People need to stop flying partly charged packs,

I posted this on the RCG Recently

BATTERY WARNING.

I keep an eye across multiple forums as do many others, recently I have noticed that multiple craft have been lost when it's been flown from a partly charged battery.

The behaviour tends to be that either the craft with suddenly give battery warnings even though the level still shows fine or the level will suddenly drop massively, the result of this is the craft enters auto landing and this can't be stopped, people have been able to control decent speed and position as you can normally in critical landing but if the craft is our at distance or over water then it's end game.

Simple rule is

DO NOT fly a partly charged pack.

ONLY fly a fresh fully charged battery.

If it was charged over 24 hours before flight I would partly discharge then fully charge again before pushing any distance.

Regularly calibrate you battery, (every 20 cycles)


DJI state to only fly a fully charged battery.

To be clear i am not saying this is a bug or fault but it's a characteristic of the battery's behaviour on both the the Phantom 3 and Inspire1

Fly safe folks and keep those birds coming home

Mad_Angler1 Posted at 2015-11-9 16:04
Yep, People need to stop flying partly charged packs,

I posted this on the RCG Recently

Yes, Totally agree with everything you said.  If you fly with partially charged battery (especially from previous day) you are asking for trouble.  Don't  take the chance.  The is risk it too great.  I have seen this same story over and over again.

I had the exact same problem. My phone sounded "landing" at 80ft and enter its auto landing routine. By 70ft it went into free fall. My camera is destroyed. I am pissed that i s

Phantom 3 battery