Hi all,         happy new year to all unfortunately it hasn't been a good start to the year for me. I have had my Phantom since Christmas eve! an early present off my wife and at the time it was the best present i'd ever been given. So today I set off for what was going to be about the 11th or 12th flight of my Phantom 2 vision + V3, I can honestly say i've had no issue what so ever until this afternoon. I calibrated the machine like normal, got all green lights, I had 12 satellites locked on, my battery on take was 97% and was pushed in correctly. I had done evertything correctly. I took off as normal and my Phantom had been in the air just over 7 minutes, it was around 300 feet in the air and between 75-100 feet away from me. I had the machine hovering and I never took my eyes off it! I tried to do a very simple left turn, by that a mean a (left rotation) but the phantom didn't respond which i though very strange as its never done this before. I took my eyes of the phantom to glance at my phone screen for a split second, when i noticed it said connection lost! at that point I looked back at my phanton, the motors just CUT off completely and the machine dropped out of the sky from the height it was at directly into a 2 foot of water in the river and it landed very hard. fortunatly for me it landed a couple of feet from the riverbank and not in the middle, as the river was in flood and yes i had to cross it first because it landed on the opposite side and nearly washed me downstream.


Please, please, please help! How could this machine just power off mid-flight?


Their is nothing else I could have done to avoid this and i'm so glad when it came crashing down no one was seriouly injured.

That sucks when something like this happens, sorry for that.

Did just the motors quit or did the whole Phantom power down, did all LEDs go out too?

guymacdonald@ip Posted at 2015-1-4 06:17
Are you sure you did not shut the motors down with the remote?

I am only asking because this has ha ...

Hi Guymacdonald, I'm 100% I didn't shut down the motors! I did a simple left turn and nothing else..... And when I say left turn I mean just a simple rotation. I didn't have time to do anything, the motors just cut out

markus@egide.de Posted at 2015-1-4 06:29
That sucks when something like this happens, sorry for that.

Did just the motors quit or did the w ...

Hi Markus, it seemed like a complete power failure and the motors just packed up.

guymacdonald@ip Posted at 2015-1-4 07:03
Yes I thought that would be the case because although I have not had a problem (yet!) you only hav ...

I've emailed my supplier but cannot get hold of them until Monday thanks for your reply.

I wish I had read more on this forum before I bought this expensive piece of crap. I have not flown it yet so I am seriously considering taking it bake to Hobby Town Houston where for so reason they can't keep them in stock. Solve two problems at once.:@

Linking the Remote Controller and Receiver

A 5.8G receiver is built in to the Phantom 2 Vision+. Its link button and indicator are located on the underside of the phantom, as shown in Figure 27.
The Remote Controller and the receiver are paired before delivery. Only use this button if you have replaced your Remote Controller or receiver.

Vision+ Remote Controller 7th.jpg
Linking Procedures:
1.Power off the Remote Controller, power on the aircraft. You will see the link indicator blinking red.
2.Press the link button with a thin object and hold until the link indicator blinks yellow. Release the link button.
3.Power on the Remote Controller. Link indicator will switch off, showing that a link has been successfully established.

Link Indicator
Vision+ Remote Controller 8th.jpg

If it was only this simple

If there is not any significant external damage you may be able to salvage it.  (but if this was salt water, forget it)  Take the upper shell off, use a hair drier liberally and then put everything in a sealed container and cover it in uncooked rice. Leave it there for three or four days before attempting to turn it back on.

phildewhurst@ho Posted at 2015-1-4 07:04
Hi Markus, it seemed like a complete power failure and the motors just packed up.

try to dry your drone with the upper post,
and did all LEDs and all motors shut off suddenly at that time?

texasreiner@com Posted at 2015-1-4 09:58
I wish I had read more on this forum before I bought this expensive piece of crap. I have not flown  ...

Hi Texasreiner, thanks for your reply. I'd spent the last few months looking at these different products, searching the Internet, reading reviews and also watching all the videos. I thought for what I needed the phantom 2 v3 was going to be the way forward for me, I'm currently in my final year at university studying photography and I thought this would be perfect for my final major project. I was hoping to create aerial photographs of my town and the landmarks in it. Unfortunately now I'm unable to pursue this project as I no longer have a working camera for aerial work, also after witnessing my phantom 'fail' mid-flight, I've lost all confidence in the Dji Phantom.

gil@wk.net Posted at 2015-1-4 14:05
If there is not any significant external damage you may be able to salvage it.  (but if this was sal ...

Hi Gil, thanks for your reply, their doesn't seem to be much visual damage to the external apart from the props, when I retreived the phantom from the river it had two solid Amber lights on when it was submerged, and the red on the battery was lit up.

DJI-Dboy Posted at 2015-1-4 16:35
try to dry your drone with the upper post,
and did all LEDs and all motors shut off suddenly at t ...

Hi Dji-Dboy, thank for your reply, it seemed like everything went off like a complete cut off of power, when I managed to get across the river to retreive it, it had a single red light on the battery and two solid amber lights on while submerge.

phildewhurst@ho Posted at 2015-1-4 17:21
Hi Texasreiner, thanks for your reply. I'd spent the last few months looking at these different pr ...

Hi again, so I've taken the top off like suggested and covered  it with rice, on doing this I've noticed a little silver box inside covered in holes with four screws in, the weird thing is this has been dented somehow as there is a small indentation on the box but nothing to show this externally.

gil@wk.net Posted at 2015-1-4 14:05
If there is not any significant external damage you may be able to salvage it.  (but if this was sal ...

And a small crack on the battery.

I'd be very wary of the battery, especially if it shows any signs of swelling.  That could be a fire just waiting to happen so you should put the battery in a separate box, preferable metal, so if it does flame on it will minimize any damage.

The silver box is the video transmitter and a small dent may be nothing.  You're just going to have to have some patience and wait for a couple of days to allow the rice to draw out all the moisture before you ever think of powering it on again.

In recognition of your angst I've made an offering to the Spirit of the Phantom in the form of a propeller released aloft to the four winds with an appropriate accompanying chant: "Don't go into the trees!  Don't go into the trees..."

I did a post on battery not inserted fully which can be overlooked.http://forum.dji.com/forum.php?m ... amp;page=1#pid24564

gil@wk.net Posted at 2015-1-5 06:18
I'd be very wary of the battery, especially if it shows any signs of swelling.  That could be a fire ...

When you made the offer to the "Spirit of the Phantom"  did you also play this as it disappears into the clouds?

Day of Wrath?  Nah, too somber.  I would probably go more for http://youtu.be/GUEZCxBcM78

gil@wk.net Posted at 2015-1-5 06:18
I'd be very wary of the battery, especially if it shows any signs of swelling.  That could be a fire ...

Hi Gil, thank you very much yes the batteries are in a metal tin in the shed. Cheers for the prop launch haha

tonyphantom147@ Posted at 2015-1-5 07:15
I did a post on battery not inserted fully which can be overlooked.http://forum.dji.com/forum.php?mo ...

Hi Tony,
Thanks for the reply yes I doubled checked my battery was inserted correctly as always

tonyphantom147@ Posted at 2015-1-5 07:15
I did a post on battery not inserted fully which can be overlooked.http://forum.dji.com/forum.php?mo ...

My battery was still fully in when I retreived it.

texasreiner@com Posted at 2015-1-4 09:58
I wish I had read more on this forum before I bought this expensive piece of crap. I have not flown  ...

Like anything, there is the odd bad Apple, we mostly only hear the doom and gloom on the forum. Reading the posts, my feeling is, problems occur in this order.
1. Human error
2. Software/firmware
3. Electrical/electronic
4. Environmental
5. Lack of maintenance
6. Crazy fools

phildewhurst@ho Posted at 2015-1-4 06:32
Hi Guymacdonald, I'm 100% I didn't shut down the motors! I did a simple left turn and nothing else ...

http://youtu.be/itBK9kn6CxY

Here the same, simple left turn and full shut off..