Hey all,

Got my brand new Phantom 4. Was flying it for around 10 minutes or so, everything was going well, and when it was about 10 lateral feet away from me, and 80 feet up in the air, the lights suddenly went off, and it plummeted down to earth. Luckily, it fell into a tree, and the branches kind of broke the fall, but even then, the landing gear got all messed up and out of shape, battery was ejected and it broke a couple props...

Was certainly not pilot error.

The battery was around 40% when this happened. No warnings of GPS etc, clear skies etc. Lights went off and it fell out of the sky...

I hate that my BRAND new Phantom 4 has defective landing gear now.

I was recording it when this happened.

What do I do? Contact DJI customer support?


EDIT: This is my second Phantom 4 drone. I bought the first one from Apple the day it was released, later that evening I promptly sport moded it into a tree branch and suffered cosmetic damage, however the drone still perfectly worked! I was bothered by the scratches etc and Apple VERY kindly replaced it for a new P4. This P4 is the one I'm having issues with and was not physically damaged by myself. I do admit to being a noob in regards to drones. Little bit of rotten luck with the second drone. Those that think I'm lying, I do have proof of purchase of 2 drones, and DJI will see 2 separate drones activated with my account. I am careful with my electronics, the first incident was a little bit of over confidence. The second drone was in great perfect condition until it fell from the sky.

I read on the forum with people with other issues, DJI will ask for the DAT file.. How do I get that? It's 11 PM so I unfortunately cannot call DJI, but how do I go about getting that for them?

I am 100% confident that the drone suddenly dying and losing power is not my fault.

yep
defo contact them
Read up on downloading the logs for the P4, hopefully in the manual or one of the helpful DJI folk here will chime in. (Sorry I can't help there, but don't have one yet and may be different to P3)
For your own benefit you may want to upload to healthydrones.com and look at some of the flight parameters for yourself.
Sorry to hear, hope it works out

Super frustrating. I was hoping to have the drone for this weekend, you know, when I'll actually have a day off work... But I'm assuming the turn around time to get the drone repaired or replaced will take at least a week....

Could you please provide your flight account? Please try to synchronize the flight record and export the flight data. Please contact DJI technical support for data analysis and repair. What firmware did you use by the way?

Wow, that is scary, sorry man. I will get my P4 today, but I am not sure if I will have the guts to take it to the air after your (short) experience. This does not give me confidence in the tech. Lucky it fell in a tree...the alternative could be much much worse (cars, people, houses...). I will not trust the P4 before it has some hours in the air, and I will be flying far far away from anything the first few flight hours. Good luck, hope you get a replacement soon.

a.peter Posted at 2016-3-17 16:41
Super frustrating. I was hoping to have the drone for this weekend, you know, when I'll actually hav ...

Found some more info for you:
DJI Support

For P3 (yours may be similar)
Upload flight records via the DJI GO app:
a. Enter the flight record page by clicking the icon at top left.
b. Click the star-shaped icon associated with the relevant flight logs to save them to the app. Then click the cloud-shaped icon at the top right side of the screen to upload them.
c. Provide DJI with the login email account on the app.This will allow us to access your flight logs via our server.

DJI-Amy Posted at 2016-3-17 15:01
Could you please provide your flight account? Please contact DJI technical support for data analysis ...

Amy, I sent DJI an email to their support USA team, but it's 12 AM here so I don't expect to hear from anyone anytime soon. How do I get my flight data file? All I'm able to pull up from the flight record is my flight, and at the last second of recorded flight, my P4 is at 42% battery, and an elevation of 190' AGL. And boom... it just died...
Not a good first impression of DJI...

Thacyoon Posted at 2016-3-17 15:04
Wow, that is scary, sorry man. I will get my P4 today, but I am not sure if I will have the guts to  ...

Seriously... I'm glad it died NEAR me...

But what if it fell in the street and caused an accident, or fell on someone!

Crazy

Mike_fnq Posted at 2016-3-17 15:08
Found some more info for you:
DJI Support

Cool, I did this already.. Seemed to easy. Hopefully DJI is able to get whatever information they have to determine that my drone is indeed defective... I'm just bummed that I'll be without an item I spent a LOT of money on, or at least for me it's a lot of money.

DJI-Amy Posted at 2016-3-17 15:16
Can you upload the flight record and provide your flight account? So we can help you analyse it. Ab ...

I don't see any MC settings in the DJI App. I'm able to go to the "Me" section and "Flight Records" and I synced to the Cloud, but I'm not seeing what you're telling me to do.

I'm not sure about sharing my flight account on a public forum... Can I get your email so I can email you my account name?

Also, I'm in camera mode, and I'm seeing "Enter Flight Log Data Mode"

DJI-Amy Posted at 2016-3-17 15:39
Never mind, I can check your account at the server. Click on 'enter flight log data mode' and conne ...

I'm not seeing a flight log data mode! That's what I'm trying to say

Download DJI Assistant 2 and you can access the logs that way

a.peter Posted at 2016-3-17 15:44
I'm not seeing a flight log data mode! That's what I'm trying to say

I am really sorry, you can export it using the DJI Assistant software. Please check the picture below.

Mad_Angler1 Posted at 2016-3-17 15:49
Download DJI Assistant 2 and you can access the logs that way

Oh yea?

I have the Application downloaded now, I have my Phantom 4 turned and plugged into my USB of my computer and what do I do next? Nothing happened within the program, and theres no way to save logs...

I feel like this product, it's support, and it's support options were rushed. So annoying. The tech support is telling me to do something that doesn't exist, and the user manual isn't helpful at all. It says to plug the drone into my "PC" and use the DJI Go App.. The DJI Go app is not made for PC... I'm not seeing any software for the phantom 4. It's all through the app apparently.

If you want to find out what happened for yourself, go to http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/
Follow the instructions to upload your flight record and paste a link to the analysis here.
Someone should be able to make sense of it for you.

a.peter Posted at 2016-3-17 15:56
Oh yea?

I have the Application downloaded now, I have my Phantom 4 turned and plugged into my USB ...

http://www.dji.com/product/phantom-4/info
DJI Assistant 2 v1.0.1

I have a Mac... Is there anyway to get this information from the drone onto a Mac.... This program only has a .exe.

a.peter Posted at 2016-3-17 16:04
I have a Mac... Is there anyway to get this information from the drone onto a Mac.... This program o ...

I am sorry, there is only exe version right now, the mac version will be available soon. Could you borrow one and export tha data?

Ok, so I managed to get the flight log txt file through iTunes and uploaded it to phantomhelp.com

http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/SA42P4CONMYSOTWE9JL6/

a.peter Posted at 2016-3-17 16:12
Ok, so I managed to get the flight log txt file through iTunes and uploaded it to phantomhelp.com

h ...

That's the flight record in the mobile device and what we need is the fly log, I've checked your flight record, we need the fly log files, it's in the aircraft, and you need to export it to PC using assistant software.

Funny that an item that is currently exclusive to Apple, there isn't software that exists for Apple computers yet... I'll see if I can borrow my roommates PC

OK, SOOOOOOOOOOOO, I downloaded DJI Assistant 2 onto my friend's PC.

I plugged the drone into the PC. The PC detected the drone and had Phantom 4 listed.

I then went to "Flight Record". Initially there weren't any flights listed. So I hit the refresh button. It refreshed in circles for about 10 minutes and didn't pull anything up.

I've tried everything within my power, nothing has worked and I believe I've exhausted all options from the user side.

Very frustrated, very annoyed. I've stayed up way too late, work in the morning, spent a lot of money on a drone that fell from the sky without rhyme or reason, and no closer to discovering why. The support for this product is awful. I understand it's brand new, but a lot of support options don't seem well thought out... Boo.

a.peter Posted at 2016-3-17 16:40
OK, SOOOOOOOOOOOO, I downloaded DJI Assistant 2 onto my friend's PC.

I plugged the drone into the P ...

I am really sorry, have you turned on the aircraft? We've tested the software, it should work, unless the crash caused a hardware problem. If you can't export it, please contact DJI support and send it back for repair.  Please try to restart he aircraft and the software. Try to connect again, log in the account and check if it can detect the firmware version of the aircraft.

a.peter Posted at 2016-3-17 19:12
Ok, so I managed to get the flight log txt file through iTunes and uploaded it to phantomhelp.com

h ...

Unfortunately there's nothing to go on with that flight record.
It just stops with the Phantom 192 feet up in the air and all indications looking normal.
Is there another record that accounts for the flight from 192 feet to where things stopped?

ps .. for someone that had their first flight (and crash) yesterday, you're not flying in a suitable area for learning to handle the Phantom.
And sending it out of sight 1100 feet away over a residential area on your second day, still without proper training flights in a large open area seems like you're asking for trouble.

labroides@yahoo Posted at 2016-3-17 17:34
Unfortunately there's nothing to go on with that flight record.
It just stops with the Phantom 192  ...

Yes, we've analysed the flight record of him, and can't detect the reason so I ask for the flight log data, but something went wrong with his software, I've tried my best to help him. I hope he can export his log data tomorrow.

"battery was ejected and it broke a couple props"

The battery is very difficult to take out of the craft, at least on my P4 : I have to apply a lot of force to take it out.
Falling from 80ft in a tree shouldn't be so hard. I wonder why the battery was ejected...

Was the battery not pushed in all the way !? That could explain many things.  

Ulysse Posted at 2016-3-17 22:00
"battery was ejected and it broke a couple props"

The battery is very difficult to take out of the  ...

"Falling from 80ft in a tree shouldn't be so hard. I wonder why the battery was ejected..."

It's very common for crashed Phantoms to lose their batteries because the case deforms on impact releasing the locking mechanism..

Wow, just following this thread is so very interesting!  Lots of drama.  Mine comes in today, I'm staying tuned to this situation for sure.  

labroides@yahoo Posted at 2016-3-17 12:35
"Falling from 80ft in a tree shouldn't be so hard. I wonder why the battery was ejected..."

It's  ...

I know but the P4 battery has been designed to avoid battery ejection (at least during flight if the battery has been correctly fitted).
Considering how hard it is to take it out it seems strange it has been ejected while hiting branches.

Anyway, I'll put mine in the air for the first time this afternoon and this makes me a little bit anxious

I really hope I am lucky and never have my Phantom experience a problem not of my doing, because it would be so frustrating to read the people who 100% of the time insist on inferring pilot error because a DJI product could never, ever have a problem.  If the battery failed he must not have put it in properly.  Even though it lost power right over him, he was "asking for trouble" by flying it 100 feet away (despite that having absolutely nothing to do with what happened), etc.
Hang in there -- fro all these people who feel the reflexive need to be defensive about DJI and condescending about perfect piloting, there are plenty hear who feel your pain.

I was wondering who was gonna be the first to crash

Michael M Posted at 2016-3-17 22:12
I was wondering who was gonna be the first to crash

Michael,
It is yet to be determined if he crashed or if the bird did as he described and fell from the sky...Will have to see what they come back with after the analysis, hopefully the OP will share the details with us either way.....

Couple things. The battery did not eject while falling through the tree, it ejected upon hitting the ground. The Drone was at 200 feet above ground when it lost power, was in open air, and was again, about 10-15 lateral feet in front of me, but about 200 feet AGL. Placing the battery is not rocket science. It either works or it doesn't. I would say however, that the battery was pretty tough to get seated properly, and once it "clicked in" I noticed there was the TINIEST gap between the bottom of the battery and the plastic housing.

One moment I'm flying it, the next moment the lights have gone off, and its plummeting to earth, and thankfully landing in some branches to slow the decent.

Before this, I had one other flight, where I had flown it for about 10-12 minutes with no issues. I did a RTH command, it came back from where I took it off, and on this second trip, is when it fell from the sky. If it was my fault, i.e. I hit something, I wouldn't be as upset about this as I am.

Perhaps this crash you posted about two days ago caused more damage than originally thought?

http://forum.dji.com/forum.php?m ... D368%26typeid%3D368

http://forum.dji.com/forum.php?m ... &fromuid=256032

gamette Posted at 2016-3-17 23:44
Perhaps this crash you posted about two days ago caused more damage than originally thought?

http:/ ...

Thank you for posting.

This is your words from another crash of your new P4.

Hey, bought my first drone ever. A phantom 4. After a pretty epic fail of a first flight, where can I find vids on how to effectively control it? Crashed it pretty hard first time. Did a landing but it didnt wanna go down... Crazy.
haha, the story gets worse.... i charged up my phantom for another round of flying. went to a parking lot.. flew for about 20 minutes and literally, in my last minute of flying, i do a little banking turn in s mode, and clip a tree just barely and it crashes down to the pavement, battery ejects, props break, plastic is scratched and one of my shell arms is dented... it seems to still be flyable and the camera wasn't damaged at all.... so basically just the shell damage. am i screwed? i was being very cautious during the flying, but maybe got a little cocky during the last minute..

Tsk, tsk. Expensive lesson.