Hello all,
I'm new to this forum, and new to drones in general. I bought the phantom 3 standard the other day and I chose the phantom mainly becasue of its camera and the price.

Yesterday I got my first three flights in and I'm not sure if I was hearing things or not but it sounded like it had a slight whistle or something on the third flight and when idling one motor kind of look slike its slightly slower than the rest..

But anyways, now tto the real prroblem.. I love the camer on this thing! It's amazing! I know this drone is for taking pictures and that it's not for flying fast and menuevering and stuff but I was on my fourth flight today in between spotty rain and I was just kind of flying around the yard low (maybe 5 feet or so from the ground) still getting a good grip on the controls. Picking up a little speed but nothing major. Just going from point A to point B.

Well I was accross the yard and it was in my sight. What I couldn't tell was how close it was to a frame of a porch swing. From where I was standing it looked like I had 6 feet or so. Well long story short a blade nicked it and she went down.... It landed upside down. Blades are not broken, they are intact. I immediently held down on the left stick to shut it off and walked over. But, when I got over to it, the motors were twitching and couldn't rotate due to being upside down. So I held down again on the stick to shut it off and still would not stop.

I figured the blades would be at idle speed so i picked it up and all of a sudden it was going like full rpm!!!! First though was to look at the controller and see if a stick was stuck or something. Controller was all good. Meanwhile I'm holding on the the landing gear with one hand and I pressed the power button and held it again to shut the phantom off. It would NOT turn off!!!! I really really did not want to do this but I had to pull the battery or else the thing was going to fly away!!!! I gripped the battery without my fingers getting hit. (It was close) And I just yanked it out.

I took a few minutes to assess the situation and decided to plug the battery in and see if it still worked. This time I wasn't taking any chances of it flying away on me and I used a small piece of wood over the landing gear and a couple of C-clamps to hold it down on the table outside... lol

I fired it up and connected my phone and I think it kept saying something along the lines of calibration error..? and to re calibrate. So I took one clamp off and it said safe to fly. So I put the clamp back on and it said calibration error. So this time I took it away from the side of the house and re calibrated it. Walked back, clamped it, and I think it said error once more but then it went back to safe to fly. I think maybe the metal clamp was messing with it or maybe the side of the house, I'm not sure.

Anyways, it said safe to fly so I started the motors with my fingers crossed All was good. I started the motors, shut the off, started them, gave them a little thrust (Not enough to take off) and it was okay.

I was not able to test it in flight because it was starting to sprinkle outside.... I will have to check if it gives me calibration errors tommorow if the weather hopefully stays clear.

I guess my question is, Why was it going full speed?? And why wouldn't it shut off?? and on a side note, should I worry about the whistle/slower looking motor?
Thanks, I'm sorry for the long post but I was just a little concerned and wanted to understand this problem I had before I fly it again.

Mine's done that when it flipped and hit the ground.   It was a LOT like my husky when she doesn't want to be held, whines and fights at full speed.  heh.  Anyway, I think it's just trying to correct itself from being upside down.  

Not sure about the slower motor but my guess as to the spin up is that it's upside down and confused and trying its darndest to get turned the right way.  When it can't, it gives more power...I turned off the battery to get mine to stop.

When your phantom is upside down or on its side and you try to pick it up, the gyro in the phantom is trying to correct that movement. (since its programmed to do so) This was the reason that the motors spinned up maxed out. Never try to pick up the phantom when the motors are spinning (not even when its just standing on its landing gear) or the phantom wil try to correct its movements.

The reason the motor did not stop is because the phantom was upside down. Only when the phantom is properly landed you can turn it off by pushing the stick down. In any other case you must use the CSC (control stick combination) To see how this works check this youtube video (not mine)
Do note that the CSC is for emergency only, never do this while normal flight or the motors wil shut down!!

Be sure to read the manual before flying! There is so much important information in there.

ronday Posted at 2015-12-2 18:27
When your phantom is upside down or on its side and you try to pick it up, the gyro in the phantom i ...

Wow thanks for the explanation!!! I just thought there was one "off" and it was the left stick down... But now I know..

Rebel, I guess I could have but I wasn't sure if it was bad to run the motors without the blades..

Othan1, Yeah it sure does try it's darndest! I was holding on for dear life! haha I mean, if I were to have let go, would it have turned the right way and stabilized? or would it have just flown off into the horizon?? lol!

You need to understand the basics of how these things work.  The quad is designed to stay LEVEL.  If you tilt it, the low leg(s) will increase power, trying to raise that corner.  This is the basis of the entire system.  While it is idling on the ground, trying raising one corner 1/4 inch and see what happens.  Then try a different corner, etc.   You might want to get something like an X4 to play with so you can learn the basics of flying and what causes it to happen.  Do you even know that they motors don't all turn the same speed very often?  Do you know that they also don't turn the same direction?  Learn the basics, before you get hurt, hurt someone else, or damage your nice new "toy" (I hate calling them that).

Okay. I know its designed to stay level. I know they don't all turn the same direction. And I know that they don't operate at the same speed WHILE flying. I did NOT know that the thing goes FULL POWER to correct itself. I thought it was malfunctioning! I did NOT know that I couldn't manually shut it off via the battery if I needed too. I'm pretty sure I didn't see those when reading the manual of my new "toy".

you need to press the battery button once , then press and hold the button a second time for it to shut off.

Total Posted at 2015-12-3 07:39
you need to press the battery button once , then press and hold the button a second time for it to s ...

Yeah I have flown it a few times, and when finished, I shut it off normally without a problem. Press once, then hold. But when it was going full speed, it wasn't having any of that. I tried twice! I didn't know what else to do...

xboxmaniac7@gma Posted at 2015-12-3 07:33
Okay. I know its designed to stay level. I know they don't all turn the same direction. And I know t ...

The speed changes in the rotors is what allows it to be steered - it also changes speed on the necessary motors when you fly it faster.

If you crash, either on the ground or in a tree/bush, etc., you can stop the motors more quickly with the CSC - Coordinated Stick Movement, i.e., moving both joysticks to the inside-down position (it's in the manual).

The manual (even the latest version) still has a boo-boo in there. The manual shows two ways to stop the motors - holding the left stick (throttle) all the way down for a few seconds. They also show the CSC as a method to stopping the motors. DO NOT USE THAT TECHNIQUE FOR A NORMAL LANDING! Doing so virtually ensures you'll flip it over.

For a normal landing, the left-stick down is just fine. It's even fine for a "hand-catch landing." But, if your craft crashes or lands sideways or upside down, the CSC maneuver with the sticks will stop the motors very quickly.

And (it's been asked and answered dozens of times here) when landing, pulling down on the left stick all the way will NOT make your Phantom fall out of the sky. However, when you're aloft, the CSC maneuver WILL make your Phantom fall out of the sky!

The manual leaves a lot to be desired, but there *are* a lot of parts of it worth reading - sometimes more than just once! There are also a number of "introductory" videos from DJI that are worth watching - again, some of them are worth watching more than once.

Have fun.

Art - N4PJ
Leesburg, FL
da-di-dah

aburkefl@gmail. Posted at 2015-12-3 08:10
The speed changes in the rotors is what allows it to be steered - it also changes speed on the nec ...

Okay, thank you. I think I will pull the props off and start it like in the video posted above and try the CSC just to get the idea of it in case something happens in the future. Thanks

Once again someone didn't read the manual...  Would any of you get into a real copter and fly blindly? Just cuz your not sitting in it don't mean it can't hurt someone or even yourself..  Bet you would think you read the manual then so you could do more than watch it fly into someone or something...  Good luck to ya. Hope you decide to read a little before your next flight

Mark97564 Posted at 2015-12-3 14:13
Once again someone didn't read the manual...  Would any of you get into a real copter and fly blindl ...

Yeah Maybe. I think I could. I mean I never read the manual to my pickup truck. Or any car ever. Or anything at all. Pilot a real helicopter? Piece of cake.