This is not my lucky day. A few days I bought the Phantom 3 Professional in Montpellier in the Apple store and now it crashed. It suddenly dropped out of the sky because the engine shut down. It dropped about 40 meters and started the engines again close to the ground but tool late. Camera gimbel broken and casing harmed. I can't fly it now.

Here is the route I took and other data from healthydrones:
http://healthydrones.com/main?share=MTQyMg

Looking in the log file it seems that after 150 second the camera stopped recording (based on the .MOV file). At 157.989 seconds the latest update from the drone was sent. At 158.897 seconds the RC downlink drops from 100% to 0%. It looked like the drone somehow stoppped working for a short time (a reboot or battery failure?).

When it crashed on the ground the I ejected the battery and the drone was off. When a little later we started it the gimbel engine got hot and we switched it off again.

I used the autopilot app on the iPhone to fly the drone based on the Cruising template: keep the drone camera focused on a subject while moving around the subject.

Enclosed is the log file from autopilot.

Anyone an idea on what happened?

Looking at logs now

Mode changed to joystick?

[RCG]Balthazar Posted at 2016-1-2 23:15
Mode changed to joystick?

I think that is what autopilot does?

after about 2:36 the file goes on but is not real anymore since the drone has crashed. About 40 seconds later I connected the battery for a short time and than some info is shown again but than the drown was immobile.

Did you diliberately switch to ATTI mode ?    If so, why?
You started the flight at 81% battery correct?
GPS seems to be in order.

Compass readings seem to be ok

Cessna172 Posted at 2016-1-2 23:26
Did you diliberately switch to ATTI mode ?    If so, why?

No, but that was after the crash. It crashed at 158 seconds I think. The data at the end is because I started it for a short moment to see what happened but the gimbal got hot.

Seems to me you lost power for some reason at 40m altitude.
I don't see anything else that indicates a problem.
I don't see any sudden movements on your part.   That would back up the sudden power loss theory.
You can't send input commands if the power is dead.

GPS seemed ok
Compass seemed ok
battery seemed ok

Someone else may be much better at assessing the logs though.  But I would contact DJI on this one.

REMEMBER!
Have seen this done before:
- In order to start the motors both gimbals have to be moved down/inward or outward BUT! the same maneuver turns OFF the motors. If while in flight you give the command of descend/rudder and pitch/yaw can cause the motors to be turned OFF.

Dacon Productio Posted at 2016-1-3 03:06
REMEMBER!
Have seen this done before:
- In order to start the motors both gimbals have to be moved d ...

But looking at the numbers for rudder movement there was no strong movement so the CSC can not have happened. Also, the video already stopped before.

Cessna172 Posted at 2016-1-2 23:26
Did you diliberately switch to ATTI mode ?    If so, why?
You started the flight at 81% battery corr ...

81% is the RC battery. The drone battery started with 98%.

Cessna172 Posted at 2016-1-2 23:37
Seems to me you lost power for some reason at 40m altitude.
I don't see anything else that indicates ...

I will contact DJI, Maybe they can see more on the internal log on the Phantom.

Cessna172 Posted at 2016-1-2 23:26
Did you diliberately switch to ATTI mode ?    If so, why?
You started the flight at 81% battery corr ...

When I look at the numbers for battery at healthy drones it says that he battery could fly for 250 minutes ... This seems to say that the battery reading was wrong all the time or maybe the flight was too short to really say something precise?

martijn.kriens Posted at 2016-1-3 09:02
When I look at the numbers for battery at healthy drones it says that he battery could fly for 250 ...

I think that is because the readings at the end were wrong in the log. At the crash the latest reading was 97% but when I switched on the drone to check after the crash the reading was 88% so I think the 97% was wrong.

I can also see that my other flights all have the cell1 at 50% minor deviations (between green and orange) while all other cells stay at 0%

Dacon Productio Posted at 2016-1-3 13:06
REMEMBER!
Have seen this done before:
- In order to start the motors both gimbals have to be moved d ...

"Have seen this done before:
- In order to start the motors both gimbals have to be moved down/inward or outward BUT! the same maneuver turns OFF the motors. If while in flight you give the command of descend/rudder and pitch/yaw can cause the motors to be turned OFF."

You need to learn to fly a Phantom and read the manual.
Because you have no idea what you are talking about.

martijn.kriens Posted at 2016-1-2 23:30
No, but that was after the crash. It crashed at 158 seconds I think. The data at the end is becaus ...

Powering it back up should result in a new log.The battery temp stays put for almost a minute though


Which cant be correct unless you crashed on to a ballon



Yea you should probably Start a ticket

[RCG]Balthazar Posted at 2016-1-3 11:33
Powering it back up should result in a new log.The battery temp stays put for almost a minute thoug ...

almost 2 minutes, you are right that that is strange.

Sent an email to support.eu@dji.com with a link to this discussion. Hope they react soon!

martijn.kriens Posted at 2016-1-4 21:28
almost 2 minutes, you are right that that is strange.

Sent an email to  with a link to this discu ...

Please remember to attach your flight data (.DAT file) to your email and request a data analysis .

DJI-Patrick Posted at 2016-1-5 03:20
Please remember to attach your flight data (.DAT file) to your email and request a data analysis . ...

I did sent in all information to EU support but have not had a reply from them.

martijn.kriens Posted at 2016-1-6 15:19
I did sent in all information to EU support but have not had a reply from them.

Please give me your ticket number so I can help you with that .

DJI-Patrick Posted at 2016-1-6 08:47
Please give me your ticket number so I can help you with that .

That would be nice!

I think this is the ticket number: 147201 (it was in between some Chinese characters)

martijn.kriens Posted at 2016-1-6 11:59
That would be nice!

I think this is the ticket number: 147201 (it was in between some Chinese cha ...

And this is the video from the last flight. The drone flew still a bit further after this video stopped, about past the tree you see on the lower right corner.

martijn.kriens Posted at 2016-1-6 18:59
That would be nice!

I think this is the ticket number: 147201 (it was in between some Chinese cha ...

Hi , I've reported your case to Netherland support center . You'll get a reply soon .

DJI-Patrick Posted at 2016-1-7 02:57
Hi , I've reported your case to Netherland support center . You'll get a reply soon .

I downloaded the dat files fromt the drone. The flight that crashed is in this file (converted to csv by flylog.info):https://www.dropbox.com/s/7j8e5v6pogc4bni/fly30.xlsx?dl=0

From 78.955 seconds no information from the battery changes anymore (voltage, watts, current, temp) so it is clear the intelligence on the battery went dead even though the drone still flew until 185.775 seconds. I suppose at that moment the battery restarted or something like that and lost power to the drone.

Strange by the way that the time starts at 32.4 seconds in the file? Flight time of 185 -32 = 153 is correct for the flight. So maybe the 32 seconds is the startup on the ground?

martijn.kriens Posted at 2016-1-10 12:42
I downloaded the dat files fromt the drone. The flight that crashed is in this file (converted to  ...

Thanks for sharing this!
Awesome amount of data for us geeks to chew
Good Luck on getting it fixed!

I looked at that dat file and although I do not know how read most of it since I'm a newbie to drones I did notice that the batteries seemed to go dead about 3 maybe 4 times before the crash then come back to life. Is this normal battery procedure to go to 0v then turn back on or is this maybe a bad battery?

thumb Posted at 2016-1-10 14:02
I looked at that dat file and although I do not know how read most of it since I'm a newbie to drone ...

where do you see zero? Maybe because I mixed decimal signs ( , or . ). I reloaded and now it recognises all as normal decimal/thousands signs.

martijn.kriens Posted at 2016-1-10 07:24
where do you see zero? Maybe because I mixed decimal signs ( , or . ). I reloaded and now it recog ...

I can't find it now, maybe I got my columns mixed up. If I see it again I'll let you know. Sorry

Good luck Martijn with fixing and flying again. Greeting from the Netherlands

SHamers Posted at 2016-1-10 18:54
Good luck Martijn with fixing and flying again. Greeting from the Netherlands

I hope so, it was fun while it lasted! ;-) It did make me realise that a drone is a dangerous piece of equipment not to be treated lightly!

This is really unbelievable. This is the respons I got back from DJI support:

The R&D deparment has been analyzing your data with the following conclusion:
conlusion the costumer used a third party autopilot app. RMA charge
With a Third party app we cannot assure the safety while flying.
I'm sorry for this outcome.
So DJI makes a SDK avaiable for third parties to develop applications but when something happens that is clearly a malfunction from the battery in the drone they refuse to repair the drone under guarantee....

I can understand when something goes wrong because of the app that this is not the responsibility of DJI but in this case it is a malfunction of the hardware, three days after buying the drone. For everybody a big reason to stay away from DJI. My next drone will not be a DJI drone...

Wow, DJI really do look for any loophole to avoid responsibility in warranty cases.  I am a potential customer, and have DJI high on my list of potential drones.  But I have seen enough of these threads where DJI refuses to take responsibility for their faulty product, and will certainly hold that against DJI when my purchase decision is made (in 2-3 months).

pfalcon Posted at 2016-1-13 19:53
Wow, DJI really do look for any loophole to avoid responsibility in warranty cases.  I am a potentia ...

I received a reply from Autoflightcontrol (the producer of the autopilot app) with a mail forwarded from DJI:
From: Ryan.Tong <ryan.tong@dji.com>
Subject: Re: URGENT: Re: Autopilot
Date: September 23, 2015 at 7:53:14 PM CDT
To: Jim McAndrew <jim@autoflightlogic.com>

Hi Jim,

I’ve forwarded everything over to Social, and they should be able to get the posts up soon. Also forwarded the updates to the web team for the DJI Developer site showcase.

Simply flying a DJI aircraft using a third party app doesn’t void the warranty. However, if the pilot crashes or causes damage that is not due to mechanical failure, then it’s their responsibility to cover at least some if not all of the estimated repair cost.

- Ryan

So it is clear they should accept warranty even though using another app (from Internet I can find Ryan Tong as being responsible for partnerships with organisations like app builders. But as say: it does not feel good that they try to wriggle from under their responsibility.

martijn.kriens Posted at 2016-1-14 00:25
This is really unbelievable. This is the respons I got back from DJI support:

The R&D deparment has ...

Sorry , can you clarify this - costumer used a third party autopilot app - did you use de APP DJI pilot or Go

to fly your phantom ?  and what  firmware are you now  ?

Thanks

jmesq32 Posted at 2016-1-13 23:46
Sorry , can you clarify this - costumer used a third party autopilot app - did you use de APP DJI  ...

Latest firmware for everything. I used the Autopilot app from Autoflightlogic (that uses the JDI SDK to talk to the drone). When using this this is a replacement for the DJI GO app.

DJI-Patrick Posted at 2016-1-7 02:57
Hi , I've reported your case to Netherland support center . You'll get a reply soon .

Hello Patrick,

I do not know if you have seen this thread:
http://forum.dji.com/forum.php?m ... D240%26typeid%3D240

Support just dismisses the warranty because a third party app is used even though the email from Ryan Tong from DJI shows that this is not he case. My support is handled by NL but I can not call NL, only Germany. And Germany has only little contact I understand with Netherlands support. I feel a little sent from the pillar to the post in this. Can you help here?

martijn.kriens Posted at 2016-1-14 17:16
Hello Patrick,

I do not know if you have seen this thread:

Hi , Martijn
We'll investigate your issue .

Dacon Productio Posted at 2016-1-3 12:06
REMEMBER!
Have seen this done before:
- In order to start the motors both gimbals have to be moved d ...

For the life of me I dont understand why the motors on-of switch is on the same sticks you fly with , an inexperienced flyer has a little panic because it did some weird thing he over reacts flicking the sticks around and boom it drops outa the sky , it just seems to me its like your teaching a 200lb guy line dancing inside a minefield .

Why not have the motors on-off its own RC button

martijn.kriens Posted at 2016-1-6 04:02
And this is the video from the last flight. The drone flew still a bit further after this video st ...

At time 01:29 into the video, I see some part of the drone coming into view at the lower left.  I cannot identify the part.  However, it does not see right to me.  The rotation, pitch, yaw, etc. of the drone at that time marker would not typically bring any part of the drone into view.  Sometimes with acceleration or deceleration you can see the tips of the propellers or propeller guard.  But, I have never seen anything like that come into view on my Phantom 3 Pro.  Disregard this message if you know what that was, and if it was expected.  I would sure like to know.

DJI-Patrick Posted at 2016-1-14 10:48
Hi , Martijn
We'll investigate your issue .

thanks Patrick

martijn.kriens Posted at 2016-1-14 16:35
Latest firmware for everything. I used the Autopilot app from Autoflightlogic (that uses the JDI S ...

Ok , thanks for info , as my concern as this is a APP supported by dji , the should repair your aircraft under warranty , hope you solve your problem soon and back to the air.  It seams to me that this is a typical Battery failure.