Took my phantom 2 vision+ to film the boxing day dip on Dover sea front, done all the usual checks calibrated compass checked for sats had 7 had all the correct leds , started her up waited a few minites still had all correct functions fired up and up she went up up veered to the right full speed up and right took my hand off controller she should have stopped and hovered no! carried on up and to the right out into the harbour then just dived into the sea wtf was that about lost in the sea gone! next day a lady walking her dog found it washed up on the beach, it looked in remarkable condition considering it had spent 24hrs in the sea , there was no wind on this day and sombody said it could be that ships radar system could have affected the signal anyone know whether this is so? as i have filmed down there before and had no problems,( tried cleaning her up and drying her to no avail needless to say it is knackered now looking at getting another one but not sure)  

It does seem like you did everything correctly. Very sorry to hear about your lose. Salt water is terrible thing to electronics. Having been washed up on the beach and found and than returned to you is an amazing story. Trying to determine why this happened is going to be a great mystery novel. I think you did everything correctly and did not rush any steps. It is possible there was interference from the ships. Lots of radio communications and other radio activity. Was this location at a port?

momochi Posted at 2014-12-28 18:33
It does seem like you did everything correctly. Very sorry to hear about your lose. Salt water is te ...

yes it was at the port of Dover in Kent UK but i have used my phantom there a couple of times previously without a problem

guymacdonald@ip Posted at 2014-12-28 18:50
If you look on this forum you will find many similar ( very similar! ) accounts.

This is getting ve ...

hello Guy it was Phantom 2 vision plus and yes i have read other threads on the same issue and no it was not overloaded

guymacdonald@ip Posted at 2014-12-28 18:50
If you look on this forum you will find many similar ( very similar! ) accounts.

This is getting ve ...

You have brought up a great point of interest. This would be a great research project. Of course the environment will have to be taken into consideration. Not saying that all flyaways are caused by the environment but it does need to be eliminated as a possible cause. Pilot error also need to be considered. In your case that can be ruled out as a contributing factor. It would be interesting to know the results of such a study.

momochi Posted at 2014-12-28 19:02
You have brought up a great point of interest. This would be a great research project. Of course t ...

i agree but do i get another one or wait to see what DJI do feel gutted as i have enjoyed  this hobby for a few months now thought i was getting good at flying till this happened was more embarresed than anything as had all my family with me watching lol

momochi Posted at 2014-12-28 18:33
It does seem like you did everything correctly. Very sorry to hear about your lose. Salt water is te ...

had one of those stikers on it with my phone No momochi

The trouble is without any independent evidence, like a member of the public videoing the seen with both you and the phantom in shot, nobody can prove what really happened.
You can send it back to DJI and they might be able to recover some data supporting your claim, or they could just say don't fly over water like it says in the manual.
I would have thought that a major cross channel ferry port like Dover has a lot of high power radio and radar transmitters in the area.
For it to fly-off like you describe it does sound like an interference with control issue.

johnwarr@live.c Posted at 2014-12-28 19:25
The trouble is without any independent evidence, like a member of the public videoing the seen with  ...

thanks for your input john , I was not going to fly it over the water it was on the beach but it shoot off in the direction of the sea it all happened very quickly  that i was unable to do anything to stop it

eastwell1@tisca Posted at 2014-12-28 19:31
thanks for your input john , I was not going to fly it over the water it was on the beach but it s ...

i have managed to get the micro card out going to see if it works dont know whether i was actually filming at that time or not

I fly over water a lot with no problems, as I live near Poole harbour, the second largest natural harbour in the world, but I do stay way from the ferry terminus.
I must admit these full power flyaway stories are making me nervous

guymacdonald@ip Posted at 2014-12-28 19:31
eastwell1

Are you able to give us the GPS co-ordinates so we can check the location on Google Maps  ...

not sure i can do that Guy not that bloody clever lol you will be able to see Dover harbour on google maps maybe you would be able to find that one out in uk

I think the don't fly over water bit comes from the fact that water is a reflective surface for radio waves, so you can get ghost signals bouncing back to the receiver.
Not 100% sure about that, so don't shoot me....

johnwarr@live.c Posted at 2014-12-28 19:45
I think the don't fly over water bit comes from the fact that water is a reflective surface for radi ...

do DJI take any notice of these forums?

I believe they do, however, because of the number of members and postings, DJI does not and most likely are unable to respond to every posting. That would require 24 hours of monitoring the forum and a full time job just to respond. I do feel DJI takes a lot of our postings into consideration. I have seen them respond to many.

In the mean time? what i ask myself, what a shame no one has an answer,all these so called proffesors and experienced people,  £1,500 quid up the swanney no insults meant, the £1,500 i refer to are for all the extras i have purchsed on the way including the P2V+

Well you were the only one there at the time, what do you think happened ?
And some good news, a new V+ V3 with extra battery is only £940 from Buzzflyer with free next day delivery.

Could your Phantom have lost its Sat connection?
If the Phantom lost its sat connection this could cause it to veer off course. I have been with my surveyor on several occasions when he was setting up his GPS controlled station. He told me that if the defense department was working on the system it could take as much as 1 hour to get multi-sat connection needed to get the accuracy he needed. These Nav sats have been put up by different governments and I am not sure which nav sat signals the Phantom uses. When you launched the craft, you said that you had 7 sats which is the minimum required. What if it lost 2 or 3 sats? Could it still fly or would it be able to hoover when you took your hands off the controls?

Without GPS lock, the phantom switches to ATTI, it still flies the same way as before, in no wind it will hover in place just the same when you let go of the controls.

Hi, eastwell,
Sorry for your loss
DJI has keep trying the best to design a robust reliable product for different range of people. However, due to various and unpredictable circumstance, we still have a lot to improve if our customer could provide the situations and issues you met.
Could you contact our service specialist? If the video in you SD card is repaired, it will be appreciated if the video is attached.
Here's the email address and you can refer to the nearest region:
support@dji.com;   us.support@dji.com;     support.europe@dji.com
Thanks.

DJI-Dboy Posted at 2014-12-29 13:02
Hi, eastwell,
Sorry for your loss
DJI has keep trying the best to design a robust reliable product ...

Hi Dji-Dboy
Thanks for your response, unfortunatly was unable to get any video footage of my phantoms mysterious actions,I managed to retrieve the sd card but there is no video i dont think i was filming at the time i was just getting her ready.

eastwell1@tisca Posted at 2014-12-29 13:57
Hi Dji-Dboy
Thanks for your response, unfortunatly was unable to get any video footage of my phant ...

can you tell me if a ships radar would affect the signal the ship would have been over a mile away from my position

eastwell1@tisca Posted at 2014-12-29 14:06
can you tell me if a ships radar would affect the signal the ship would have been over a mile away ...

I have a friend that flies and gets video of ocean going ships passing on the St. Lawrence river here in Northern New York. He gets closer to them than I would and the radar doesn't seem to bother him at all.

Gerry1124 Posted at 2014-12-29 14:09
I have a friend that flies and gets video of ocean going ships passing on the St. Lawrence river h ...

Thanks for that Gerry i didnt think it would as i have filmed there twice before and not had a problem

guymacdonald@ip Posted at 2014-12-28 19:37
Do we know what the Phantom can carry before it is overloaded?

Regards

mine was just the factory version no extras Guy

eastwell1@tisca Posted at 2014-12-29 14:06
can you tell me if a ships radar would affect the signal the ship would have been over a mile away ...

Hi, Eastwell,
it is hard to judge the EMC interference through limited environment information that you encountered.
The radar's power and electromagnetic wave frequency is unknown. Our GPS, compass and IMU contain MEMS / Hall devices that may be malfunctioning when they suffer a EMC shock in relative frequency or high power.

DJI-Dboy Posted at 2014-12-29 16:22
Hi, Eastwell,
it is hard to judge the EMC interference through limited environment information tha ...

Thanks for that Dji-Dboy i have contacted dji support europe as you asked and awaiting there response would be nice if we could find out what went wrong as it does seem that there have been quite a few of these strange flyaways,i did not think it would have been a ships radar as i have flown and filmed in that area 2or3 times before without any problems hope we find a sulution as it has made me very unsure as to what to do now many thanks again for your concern, by the way the weather was fine clear day with no wind 4%c temp a little overcast a nice winters day as we in uk say lol

raysmitheclipse Posted at 2014-12-29 08:44
Could your Phantom have lost its Sat connection?
If the Phantom lost its sat connection this could c ...

Hi Ray i have been flying her for quite a few mths now and like your friend would not attempt to take off without GPS lock everything i done is exactly what the book says everything was fine  all batterys were fully charged the minute i pushed the toggle forward to lift her off the ground and this was done very gently increasing the speed gradually she just shot off in full throttle upwards then veering sharply to the right  at that moment i realized i was not in control this all happened within seconds i then released the control she should of hovered but she just kept going  300mtrs out she just nosed dived into the sea,was this a massive malfunction or not i do not know it was all so quick and i think you will find 5 is the min sats you need to get a lock i do not think it was pilot error

eastwell1@tisca Posted at 2014-12-29 19:39
Hi Ray i have been flying her for quite a few mths now and like your friend would not attempt to ta ...

You need 6 sats minimum to get a GPS lock and to loch home point.

I fly in NAZA and it will not stop flashing RED until 7 Sats are locked, also the app sat icon will not turn Blue until 6 or more have been locked.
Most of my flights are with between 9 and 12 sats locked, so if the phantom loses 1 or 2 in flight I have enough back up.

But having said all that GPS lock or not, it will not fly away at full power.

eastwell1@tisca Posted at 2014-12-28 20:52
do DJI take any notice of these forums?

yes, dji have a presence on here

guymacdonald@ip Posted at 2014-12-28 19:37
Do we know what the Phantom can carry before it is overloaded?

Regards

1242g.
you will find all this info on the DJI wiki pages....

momochi Posted at 2014-12-28 20:56
I believe they do, however, because of the number of members and postings, DJI does not and most lik ...

the threads are monitored 24/7 but so are others so impossible for DJI to respond to all posts.

johnwarr@live.c Posted at 2014-12-29 04:21
Well you were the only one there at the time, what do you think happened ?
And some good news, a new ...

John looking at a lot of the other threads regarding similar incidents like mine i am thinking it might well be a software problem like a virus or similar these units rely heavily on computer updates etc, might be worth a look at ,do they have an anti virus built into there system?

Gerry1124 Posted at 2014-12-29 20:02
You need 6 sats minimum to get a GPS lock and to loch home point.

thanks Gerry

Sorry for your accident. Yes, it looks like your quad commited suicide, indeed

With all these flyaway reports, I'd like to get an answer from DJI on this question: what is the latest software do if once of sudden, during the flight, the GPS readings start giving an incorrect position B of the quad (let's say 10-20 meters away from its real position A) even if 6 or more satellites are in range? Will try to move the quad to decrease the distance between those 2 positions - B and A?

I don't really think these flyaways are caused by RC interference but some software issue... The RC technology is not new and I doubt that signal interference is to blame in these cases (especially due to the large range for vision+ models and the fact that the communication is digital). Also, with true RC interference a switch to ATTI mode shouldn't solve the issue...

Eastwell1,
Thanks for your reply. Since you were in GPS mode, what happens if the Phantom loses it's GPS signal? Does it automatically switch to Manual or the ATTI mode or what? If it stays in GPS mode and has lost it's GPS signal what is it programed by DJI to do? It very well could be a bug in the firmware or a mechanical failure. Before, I bought my Phantom I was advised to fly some small quadcopters to learn how to manually fly them. I had three and one had an motor that was failing. When one of the motors failed it would veer off and crash. That still does not explain how it speeded itself up unless this the way it was trying to automatically compensate for the loss of motor. Does anyone have experience with what happens when a motor fails in a Phantom flying in GPS mode? This is an interesting thread, but I am very sorry that you lost your Phantom.

raysmitheclipse Posted at 2014-12-31 03:07
Eastwell1,
Thanks for your reply. Since you were in GPS mode, what happens if the Phantom loses it's ...

Hi ray it should switch to ATTI but this obviously did not happen as it just kept going the controls did not respond at all

Eastwell1,Unless a motor failed, there seems to be a problem in the code. We still did not hear from anyone as to what happens if one of the motor fails while the craft is flying in either GPS or ATTI mode. I bet DJI can answer this question. Maybe you should ask DJI a support question and see how they respond. It would hard for them to admit that they have a code problem in the firmware.

raysmitheclipse Posted at 2014-12-31 12:20
Eastwell1,Unless a motor failed, there seems to be a problem in the code. We still did not hear from ...

  Hi Ray       have not heard back from DJI yet still awaiting a response, maybe because of holidays will keep you all updated on that