Hello everybody,

Today, I had a really scary experience that some of you seemed to also experience in the past.
I was flying my P3 Pro around me, only a few meters away from me and around 30 meters high. Prior to departure, the home point was perfectly recorded at the took off location with maximum GPS Strengh (and 16 satellites). When I reached the maximum flying distance, I got a message on the app asking me to activate the Return to Home option which I validated. However, the drone suddenly went crazy and recorded instantly a new Home Point on a road 1.2 km away from my current position (despite having a perfect GPS signal). I tried to control it but I could only control the left stick. I admit I panicked a little as I didn't understand what happened and as the drone was flying toward a very busy highway.

But the point is, the P3 set an absolutely random home point really far from me in a zone where I've never ever flown. It was really stressfull as I lost visual on it and it was really close to a highway with a lot of traffic! The drone finished its flight into a tree, 10 meters above the ground and I had to shake the tree really hard to get the drone back with little damages to the plastic shell.

The situation is an absolute shame! I read some posts on this forum with people who had this issue last year.  It appears you can still have this massive security issue on a P3 Pro bought in 2017. I'm talking about random home point near a highway! I just want to fly my drone in order to make beautiful 4K footages, not to create a massive accident on a very frequented road.

I must add this is my third Phantom 3 in a month. I first bought a Phantom 3 4K in a shop here in France but it had a camera issue so the shop sent it to your support a few days ago. But the thing is I absolutely need a drone for February so I bought a new Phantom 3 4K in the same shop. Guess what? It had the exact same camera issue. So I brought it back the day after my purchase to get my money back and swear not to buy another drone from this shop. Here is the post I wrote on this forum by the way : http://forum.dji.com/thread-80580-1-1.html

So I bought a Phantom 3 Professional on Amazon France and this is what I got today, for my very first tests! So again, this is a real shame. I thought flying a DJI Phantom will be a magical experience but it turned out to be a stressfull and very unsatisfaying one.

I hope someone at DJI can check the fly log. I just synchronized these on the cloud. The associated log is the latest one.
I will also upload the log directly here if I'm able to retrieve it from my Android tablet to my computer.

Too late now but if your Phantom was in RTH to an incorrect home point, it should be a simple matter to cancel the RTH operation by touching the red X on screen or pushing the RTH button on the controller.

To post your flight record, go to http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/
Follow the instructions to upload your flight record.
Come back and post a link to the report it provides.

welcome to the club !

same with me 2 days ago:
http://forum.dji.com/forum.php?m ... D395%26typeid%3D395

touching the red X on screen or pushing the RTH button on the controller did not work  anymore when it started to disappear !

For an unknown reason, I can't retrieve the log from my Nexus 7. So I made a video of the entire flight as seen on the DJI Go App.

Here is the video : http://62.210.81.60/phantom3/dronecrash.html

As you can see, the drone clearly defines a Home Point at my position at the beginning of the video.
The maximum distance is calculated according to this Home Point as you can see at 57 sec when the drone was 77 meters from me.
As you can see at 7:27, the drone went crazy. It recorded a new home point by itself and decided to go there instantly. As I said before, the new home point has been set 1.2 km away, in a zone where I've never flown, really close to a highway.

Also I took some photos of the damages on the drone.





I will test the drone this afternoon to see if it's still flying as I couldn't last night. It was too dark when I got it back from the tree.

Nicolas T Posted at 2017-1-22 05:28
For an unknown reason, I can't retrieve the log from my Nexus 7. So I made a video of the entire flight as seen on the DJI Go App.

Here is the video : http://62.210.81.60/phantom3/dronecrash.html

Did you also have a Max Distance limit set?
This seems to be a common factor in these jumping home point cases that are showing up today.

That video is extremely disturbing.  The only thing I can figure is it reset its homepoint to what it believed was your current location based on the reading of the GPS location of your mobile device.  But the mobile device GPS fixes are known to jump around since they are not nearly as stable or accurate as the GPS module in the AC.  So that might explain why it was reset so far away.

The real question is WHY did the homepoint reset itself?  That's a real mystery.

I wonder if there's a way to disable the GPS in your mobile device?  That would presumably keep it from happening again.  But you'd still need to figure out why your home point reset itself.  

At 00min57sec your posted video  shows "Maximum Flight Distance Reached" info at only 77m distance.  (77 m equals 250 ft)
Did you set this value?
At 01min38sec your video  shows "Maximum Flight Altitude Reached" info at reaching only 43m hight.  (about 43 m equals 140 ft)
Did you set this value?
At 05min43sec your video  shows "Video Cache has stopped" info due to not enough storage space (on the App device).
Maybe the fact that your smart device got low on memory caused problems with GPS readouts?

At 07min29sec your video shows a distance jump from 7m to 1208 m and the new "Home Point" shows up overhead the road "D1084".
To me it looks as if another P3P/A operator just has turned on his RC at this place, as it is difficult to explain such a "random place" but still close by...

At 12min09sec your video shows "Motor Obstructed" info. That indicates rotor blade contact with e.g. a tree branch.

Very scary story overall. Fortunately no one (except your P3P) was hurt.
Good video of your flight record, although it would have been interesting to see your stick commands. (You can show them by pressing the RC symbol on the flight recorder playback interface).

Yes Labroides, I had the maximum distance limit set. ;)

Mark the Droner : it's an interesting theory. But I checked my moving history on Google (as it records almost everything) and I really never went to the place my drone self-designated as the home point.

Also, I've successfully flown my drone this afternoon. Despite the damages, it seemed to work well. Of course I didn't try the RTH function, I'm not sure I will ever try it to be honest. Anyway, the temperature this afternoon was 3° C and I can clearly saw soft spots on my 4K footages (as many people do when the weather is cold). I think I'm definitely unlucky with DJI drones...

Nicolas T Posted at 2017-1-22 13:15
Yes Labroides, I had the maximum distance limit set. ;)

Mark the Droner : it's an interesting theory. But I checked my moving history on Google (as it records almost everything) and I really never went to the place my drone self-designated as the home point.

If you refer to the post by Labroides #5, he mentions that this issue of resetting the home point seems to be tied to having a maximum distance set. I have never seen any point in setting a maximum distance, if the aircraft decides to go rogue, it won't take any notice of the setting anyway. Better to switch it off.

(despite having a perfect GPS signal). I tried to control it but I could only control the left stick.

That would be explained by reaching the max distance.  It won't let you fly past the max distance setting.

vr-pilot Posted at 2017-1-22 12:41
At 00min57sec your posted video  shows "Maximum Flight Distance Reached" info at only 77m distance.  (77 m equals 250 ft)
Did you set this value?
At 01min38sec your video  shows "Maximum Flight Altitude Reached" info at reaching only 43m hight.  (about 43 m equals 140 ft)

Thanks for your opinion. I will try to retrieve the full flight record from my Nexus 7 again, but I can't see these in Android File Transfer, which is weird cause I can watch those on my tablet.

Regarding your different questions:
I set Max Flight Distance at 80m and max altitude at 45m so the drone warnings were correct.
The video cache stopped because indeed, I lacked some storage space on my tablet. However the real 4K recording  on the microSD card continued until I lost signal. I think this is more a ROM issue than a RAM issue, so it shouldn't have had an impact on the GPS.
Regarding the possibility of another Phantom 3 operator in the area, I cannot say for sure. But my Phantom 3 Pro controller was connected to my tablet through USB cable, not wifi. So I don't think it's possible that an operator so far away could have controlled the drone.
As for the "Motor Obstructed" message, yes it clearly appeared when the drone crashed into the tree.

You said something very accurate though : "very scary story overall". ;)

Geebax Posted at 2017-1-22 13:40
If you refer to the post by Labroides #5, he mentions that this issue of resetting the home point seems to be tied to having a maximum distance set. I have never seen any point in setting a maximum distance, if the aircraft decides to go rogue, it won't take any notice of the setting anyway. Better to switch it off.

The point of setting a maximum distance in my case was to prevent the drone to enter a restricted flying zone (above the highway for example).
But since this strange behaviour occured, I decided to remove the distance limit as suggested by some users on various topics about Phantom 3 flying away.

Thermographer Posted at 2017-1-22 13:52
(despite having a perfect GPS signal). I tried to control it but I could only control the left stick.

That would be explained by reaching the max distance.  It won't let you fly past the max distance setting.

Yes I think it's very likely what happened. The drone suddenly thought it was far away from its home point and decided to go back there as quickly as it could. It probably disabled the gaz command thinking that no user interaction could make it go home quicker than the automatic itinerary it defined.

Why would setting a max distance cause a home point setting change?  I would think with the max distance setting it would prevent the ability to go to a rogue home point outside of the range.
I have mine set for now so that if I lose visual track of the AC or it's far enough I can't really tell its heading, I can't end up sending it too much further away from me when I mean to be bringing it back to me.
Granted I do have the telemetry data to figure out heading and if it is going further away or getting closer, but I haven't gotten accoustomed to making use of that when I am getting nervous.   Prior to the P3 I've been flying Syma 5X series whare all you have is visual reference.   At least with the 5X I've learned to fly it much like a plane, using yaw to control direction whle moving forward, then noting change in position.

this guy recreated this happening 2 more times
reset home point and it was gone

DanMan32 Posted at 2017-1-22 14:44
Why would setting a max distance cause a home point setting change?  I would think with the max distance setting it would prevent the ability to go to a rogue home point outside of the range.
I have mine set for now so that if I lose visual track of the AC or it's far enough I can't really tell its heading, I can't end up sending it too much further away from me when I mean to be bringing it back to me.
Granted I do have the telemetry data to figure out heading and if it is going further away or getting closer, but I haven't gotten accoustomed to making use of that when I am getting nervous.   Prior to the P3 I've been flying Syma 5X series whare all you have is visual reference.   At least with the 5X I've learned to fly it much like a plane, using yaw to control direction whle moving forward, then noting change in position.

'Why would setting a max distance cause a home point setting change?'

No-one said it was logical, it seems that the problem only occurs if there is a distance limit set.

I know, but how one could possibly affect the other baffles me.

Nicolas T Posted at 2017-1-22 05:28
For an unknown reason, I can't retrieve the log from my Nexus 7. So I made a video of the entire flight as seen on the DJI Go App.

Here is the video : http://62.210.81.60/phantom3/dronecrash.html

Have you considered that you mobile has a faulty GPS device? The App reads GPS position from the mobile. If that's wrong, end of discussion.

There used to be a step in flight logic where IF the home point moved, you'd be asked for confirmation. Certainly, if the delta is 1.2km in 1 sec, this would show up.

DanMan32 Posted at 2017-1-22 14:44
Why would setting a max distance cause a home point setting change?  I would think with the max distance setting it would prevent the ability to go to a rogue home point outside of the range.
I have mine set for now so that if I lose visual track of the AC or it's far enough I can't really tell its heading, I can't end up sending it too much further away from me when I mean to be bringing it back to me.
Granted I do have the telemetry data to figure out heading and if it is going further away or getting closer, but I haven't gotten accoustomed to making use of that when I am getting nervous.   Prior to the P3 I've been flying Syma 5X series whare all you have is visual reference.   At least with the 5X I've learned to fly it much like a plane, using yaw to control direction whle moving forward, then noting change in position.

"Why would setting a max distance cause a home point setting change?  I would think with the max distance setting it would prevent the ability to go to a rogue home point outside of the range."

There's no proof that a max distance causes the home point to jump.
But IF the home point jumps to a point that makes the Phantom believe it is past the max distance, the Phantom then wants to get back inside the limit.
But that limit is now based on a false home point - not the launch point.
If there was no max distance set, even with a jumping home point, the Phantom could easily be flown home as long as it is in visual range.
If out of range and the pilot notices the home point issue, he could either reset the home point to a correct location and use RTH or manually fly back with the map or live view for guidance.

Mike-the-cat Posted at 2017-1-22 16:49
Have you considered that you mobile has a faulty GPS device? The App reads GPS position from the mobile. If that's wrong, end of discussion.

There used to be a step in flight logic where IF the home point moved, you'd be asked for confirmation. Certainly, if the delta is 1.2km in 1 sec, this would show up. I'm sorry but I doubt your story.

I don't doubt it.
There have been a couple of jumping home point incidents reported in the last day.
I have examined flight records which show it happening.
One flight had the HP jump 3 times.

Mark The Droner Posted at 2017-1-22 07:33
That video is extremely disturbing.  The only thing I can figure is it reset its homepoint to what it believed was your current location based on the reading of the GPS location of your mobile device.  But the mobile device GPS fixes are known to jump around since they are not nearly as stable or accurate as the GPS module in the AC.  So that might explain why it was reset so far away.

The real question is WHY did the homepoint reset itself?  That's a real mystery.

Your "home point" does not and is not set by you mobile device.  It is set in the A/C prior to take off.
You can fly the drone w/out a mobile device .  
I don't know why the home point would change I never myself had that happen.

It happen to me and it is scary to say the list  so good luck getting DJI on board to help i will take AGES so be prepared to get older by the day
You will get something like this
Sorry about this could you please Bla bla bla
No real explanation given   they dont even know  

It's clearly not my fault and the drone was damaged. The drone being brand new, DJI must definitely repair it. I need it in February but I will contact the support as soon as I get back in order to get it repair. I'm not sure DJI takes the issue seriously but when you set a distance limit at 80 meters, it's not to see you drone going full speed in the direction of the highway ! A fatal crash could have occured !

Nicolas T Posted at 2017-1-22 05:28
For an unknown reason, I can't retrieve the log from my Nexus 7. So I made a video of the entire flight as seen on the DJI Go App.

Here is the video : http://62.210.81.60/phantom3/dronecrash.html

Can you attach the Phantom to a computer via the front USB port and retrieve the flight data from the aircraft instead?  The copy retained on the aircraft is generally more complete than that found on your mobile device as it doesn't suffer from interruptions in telemetry downlink.

Geebax Posted at 2017-1-22 15:26
'Why would setting a max distance cause a home point setting change?'

No-one said it was logical, it seems that the problem only occurs if there is a distance limit set.

Mine does the same without a max distance set. Found it was DJI Go App for Android V3.1.2  Mine even shows my position a being long distance from where I am.
Try older version of App. 3.1.0 and it works OK.
Dave

DaveH_au Posted at 2017-1-23 02:29
Mine does the same without a max distance set. Found it was DJI Go App for Android V3.1.2  Mine even shows my position a being long distance from where I am.
Try older version of App. 3.1.0 and it works OK.
Dave

I'm curious, do you also use a Nexus 7 ?

Nicolas, just to verify, your APP account is the same one you used for forum?
If no, please PM me your APP account and the exact time it happened, I will inform our engineers to analyze the data and let you know the analysis result.
Sorry for the inconvenience caused.

DaveH_au Posted at 2017-1-23 02:29
Mine does the same without a max distance set. Found it was DJI Go App for Android V3.1.2  Mine even shows my position a being long distance from where I am.
Try older version of App. 3.1.0 and it works OK.
Dave

If that's the case with yours, it's something different.
In the jumping homepoint cases the Phantom's position is reported correctly the whole time.
Please upload flight data if you want to find out what your situation really is.
Otherwise stop saying  your's is the same, because it isn't.

Nicolas T Posted at 2017-1-22 13:15
Yes Labroides, I had the maximum distance limit set. ;)

Mark the Droner : it's an interesting theory. But I checked my moving history on Google (as it records almost everything) and I really never went to the place my drone self-designated as the home point.

I think you misunderstood my post.  Maybe this explains better:  

DJI Natalia Posted at 2017-1-23 04:06
Nicolas, just to verify, your APP account is the same one you used for forum?
If no, please PM me your APP account and the exact time it happened, I will inform our engineers to analyze the data and let you know the analysis result.
Sorry for the inconvenience caused.

Thanks to all the people who want to help and understand what exactly happened. I will upload the DAT file tonight (GMT +1 here).

Natalia > Yes, I use the same account on the forum and on the DJI Go App. Let me know as soon as your engineers find the reason of this major issue.
PS : the log they must analyze is the last recorded on January 21th.

Bfd300 Posted at 2017-1-22 17:17
Your "home point" does not and is not set by you mobile device.  It is set in the A/C prior to take off.
You can fly the drone w/out a mobile device .  
I don't know why the home point would change I never myself had that happen.

Your first sentence is incorrect.  There is an option that allows homepoint to be reset at the mobile device's current GPS location.  And if the mobile device's GPS location is in error, that will cause problems.  Please read your manual.  

So we have to wonder if that didn't happen in error.  

I've flown my drone dozens of times with no mobile device.

I don't know why the home point would change either.  I've never had it happen either.  

But the OP's video shows it did change for him.  

Nicolas T Posted at 2017-1-23 02:56
I'm curious, do you also use a Nexus 7 ?

Nicolas, No, I do not. I use either an I7 apple or a 7" Android Tablet, Mostly the tab for a bigger screen.
Regards
Dave.

I am being told I do not have the same problem. But if you are on android and look at the bottom of the screen it shows your distance from the AC. Tell me if in App 3.1.2 it shows your position a few metres from AC or a long way from it.

Labroides Posted at 2017-1-23 04:11
If that's the case with yours, it's something different.
In the jumping homepoint cases the Phantom's position is reported correctly the whole time.
Please upload flight data if you want to find out what your situation really is.

Where did I say the Phantom position was incorrect.
I was saying what is on the screen of the App is incorrect.
The home point is set at take off. The position of me (the RC) shifted to 192m away on the map while I was beside the AC and it had only got 0.3 off the ground.

I can not see why this is not related to the home point shifting from your location.

My flight went well and logs will not show anything abnormal as there was not a problem during flight. I did not use RTH and I did not loose signal.

All I wanted to do was warn others to check their home point is  correct in the latest Android App.
If all good on theirs, then enjoy, if incorrect like mine, an RTH is used be aware the craft may not return.

I will refrain from further comments on the subject.
Regards
Dave

Mark The Droner Posted at 2017-1-23 05:58
Your first sentence is incorrect.  There is an option that allows homepoint to be reset at the mobile device's current GPS location.  And if the mobile device's GPS location is in error, that will cause problems.  Please read your manual.  

So we have to wonder if that didn't happen in error.  

We re not talking bout the dynamic home point. We re talking initial home point which is not set to the mobile device.   

Still wondering why the hp would change mid flight. Is this really only happening to the standard?

DJI Natalia Posted at 2017-1-23 04:06
Nicolas, just to verify, your APP account is the same one you used for forum?
If no, please PM me your APP account and the exact time it happened, I will inform our engineers to analyze the data and let you know the analysis result.
Sorry for the inconvenience caused.

I just uploaded on my server the dat files which, I think, are related to the crash. I don't know for sure as I'm unable to decrypt these. That's why I uploaded a batch. The FLY013.dat seems to be of interest (I use a tool online to get a preview of my dat files and this one clearly has the moment when the drone end up in the tree).

Here are the files : http://62.210.81.60/phantom3/datfiles.zip

Bfd300 Posted at 2017-1-23 10:47
We re not talking bout the dynamic home point. We re talking initial home point which is not set to the mobile device.   

Still wondering why the hp would change mid flight. Is this really only happening to the standard?

No we're not.  We're talking about the reset home point.  You say it changed.  Reset / changed.  Same thing.  See his video.  

I understand what you were saying but you are not understanding what I am saying what I am saying is home point is not set by the tablet phone iPad whatever it is setb by the aircraft prior to flight A mobile device is not needed to fly the phantom once you have green flashing lights  after turning on the aircraft and the controller inset into P - GPS mode.  Although you were not here it because there is no mobile device be home plate has been set .   What  seesms what is making me believe it's a FW or app problem and it seems to be the new app if you do some searching in this forum there is another post about the app it's the app showing an incorrect home point prior to take off as in your video.  That's why you hear that voice on point has been set please check it on the map

Nicolas T Posted at 2017-1-23 12:04
I just uploaded on my server the dat files which, I think, are related to the crash. I don't know for sure as I'm unable to decrypt these. That's why I uploaded a batch. The FLY013.dat seems to be of interest (I use a tool online to get a preview of my dat files and this one clearly has the moment when the drone end up in the tree).

Here are the files : http://62.210.81.60/phantom3/datfiles.zip

Thanks, I've passed all files you provided to our engineers for a further evaluation, it will take some time to get the analysis result, we'll get back to you once it's done.

DJI Natalia Posted at 2017-1-24 01:07
Thanks, I've passed all files you provided to our engineers for a further evaluation, it will take some time to get the analysis result, we'll get back to you once it's done.

Thanks Natalia.
Let us know when your engineers have the results. I think I'm not the only one waiting for their verdict. ;)

Hello from France !

Exactly that I experimented last saturday.
DJIGo asked me to update the home point, and like a moron, I did not check where his supposed position was located, I accepted...
I continued my fly and did a RTH....
My drone flyed away toward the west...
By chance, I have found it next day by checking the log, I have found where his home point was located, it was near some houses at 1.2 km west-north-west. I went close these houses, and I rang the bell, at the third house, the guy had got my drone !
Incredible but real !
He won a very good bottle of Champagne Tsarine "premier cru".