I don't know how to upload the flight log here and the video cut off at 46 feet as well I never touched anything but the down stick to land and it cut off at 64 feet. I am trying to see if this could be a manufacturer defect before it gets to DJI. Can anyone tell me how to upload some files here for everyone to review? It was my first flight everything was charged and the firmware was updated. I flew well for about a minute I came back to land and it fell at 46 feet. I had the Mavic before this and I could hold the down stick all day long and it never stopped on me. Anywho how can I upload files for review? It won't let me attach the DAT or TXT files here and like I said The video stops at 46 feet. I never stopped it so Idk what happened when I went to pick it up it was in pieces however still powered on. I am sending it in tomorrow. I feel this is ridiculous... I will be selling or returning this to BB if I can next week. I am done with DJI for awhile neither drone has been a good experience.  I have had better luck with the drone I built. It's only failed once and didn't break I have had it for years. Anywho back to the main topic how can I upload files for experienced people or DJI staff to review. I really don't feel this was my fault as I had it in the first mode it recommends and I was only touching the down stick to land it. I didn't want to fly too much today as it was my first day with the P4P I have flown the Mavic and it never just stopped on me.

Stopped*        

https://healthydrones.com/main?f ... amp;page_id=GENERAL Here is the link to my uploaded flight log. March 19th 2017 P4P.

InThisLifeOrThe Posted at 2017-3-19 20:50
https://healthydrones.com/main?flight=9ba622cfba059bdc05c77ae7fe115399&page_id=GENERAL Here is the link to my uploaded flight log. March 19th 2017 P4P.

The first thing to look into is your battery condition.
Holding the left stick down would NOT have caused any problems.

Healthydrones is next to useless for investigating incidents
(why does everyone post a HD link?)
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

Labroides Posted at 2017-3-19 21:13
The first thing to look into is your battery condition.
Holding the left stick down would NOT have caused any problems.

http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/PCRVL5ZHKNLLKUK85K8Z/

Sorry for to hear of your loss. Have you raised a ticket with DJI support. Make sure you sync your flight log to the DJI cloud.
Not looking too good when the recording just stops like that . You might need to try and extract the log file from the Phantom itself .
Looks like it was slowly descending and then someone pulled the plug.

Is it just me or is there an alarming number of P4's  supposedly just dropping from the sky? The forums and Facebook seem to be full of them.

Phantom-Paul 7 Posted at 2017-3-19 22:44
Sorry for to hear of your loss. Have you raised a ticket with DJI support. Make sure you sync your flight log to the DJI cloud.
Not looking too good when the recording just stops like that . You might need to try and extract the log file from the Phantom itself .
Looks like it was slowly descending and then someone pulled the plug.

Yes I have last night. March 19th. Like I said I flew it the same way as the mavic. I only had my hand on the down toggle trying to land it. I never touched a power button or anything. It was seriously maybe an 15 minutes after i finished charging and updating everything. The Drone just fell I never pressed stopped recording or return to home. My object was to land the aircraft and take it out of beginner mode to then take it back up and get a sunset shot. I never accomplished this as it fell in beginner mode from about 46ft I believe is the last recorded altitude. Which makes no sense for it to just fall. Anyways Ill just have to see what DJI says however, I would like others inputs as well until I get news of what they say around next week.

InThisLifeOrThe Posted at 2017-3-19 22:55
Yes I have last night. March 19th. Like I said I flew it the same way as the mavic. I only had my hand on the down toggle trying to land it. I never touched a power button or anything. It was seriously maybe an 15 minutes after i finished charging and updating everything. The Drone just fell I never pressed stopped recording or return to home. My object was to land the aircraft and take it out of beginner mode to then take it back up and get a sunset shot. I never accomplished this as it fell in beginner mode from about 46ft I believe is the last recorded altitude. Which makes no sense for it to just fall. Anyways Ill just have to see what DJI says however, I would like others inputs as well until I get news of what they say around next week.

Your initial crash assessment appears to be accurate. The bird simply fell off the radar. No explanations whatsoever. I am really curious to see what DJI comes up with this.....

InThisLifeOrThe Posted at 2017-3-19 21:20
http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/PCRVL5ZHKNLLKUK85K8Z/

According to your log your are 100% correct, your Phantom fell out of the sky. Its an open and shut case and DJI will send you a new one BUT it would be really interesting to know WHY. I don't know whether DJI doesn't want to tell us or if they don't bother to find out so can't tell us but despite the fact that these random catastrophic faults only affect a tiny fraction of all Phantoms it still doesn't exactly inspire confidence in the AC (or the OP).

PKPhantom Posted at 2017-3-19 23:16
Your initial crash assessment appears to be accurate. The bird simply fell off the radar. No explanations whatsoever. I am really curious to see what DJI comes up with this.....

Thank you. I will be sure to come back and update you all with what DJI Tells me hopefully sometime next Wednesday or Thursday!

Quamera Posted at 2017-3-19 23:33
According to your log your are 100% correct, your Phantom fell out of the sky. Its an open and shut case and DJI will send you a new one BUT it would be really interesting to know WHY. I don't know whether DJI doesn't want to tell us or if they don't bother to find out so can't tell us but despite the fact that these random catastrophic faults only affect a tiny fraction of all Phantoms it still doesn't exactly inspire confidence in the AC (or the OP).

Thank you. I will be sure to come back and update you all with what DJI Tells me, hopefully sometime next Wednesday or Thursday!  I have been told that they just fall out of the sky for the third time since I had this crash around 9 hours ago. It's crazy, I buy the only one in my area and it has this problem.

Quamera Posted at 2017-3-19 23:33
According to your log your are 100% correct, your Phantom fell out of the sky. Its an open and shut case and DJI will send you a new one BUT it would be really interesting to know WHY. I don't know whether DJI doesn't want to tell us or if they don't bother to find out so can't tell us but despite the fact that these random catastrophic faults only affect a tiny fraction of all Phantoms it still doesn't exactly inspire confidence in the AC (or the OP).

"Its an open and shut case "
Do you know exactly what failed then?  I think that until the logs are analysed by DJI who can see all the data it is an unexplained crash and fingers should be crossed for a replacement under warrantee.

There have been a very small number of P4 and P4P fall out of the sky on their first few flights and most do get replaced under warrantee when there is no evidence of pilot error.  The log for this one looks a little different to me but it does look like there was an altitude measurement problem.

I hope that you didn't have a gimbal guard or something else fitted underneath the aircraft?

It is scary to read this forum how many problems do dji drones have. After reading these topics I don't want to fly with my bird, cause they are falling for no reason, how should I know if I not be next? :/

paukstis91 Posted at 2017-3-20 00:46
It is scary to read this forum how many problems do dji drones have. After reading these topics I don't want to fly with my bird, cause they are falling for no reason, how should I know if I not be next? :/

You are quite correct, you should take your aircraft back to where you bought it and ask for a refund. All DJI aircraft fall out of the sky for no reason, all 1 Million plus of them no matter where they are in the world, so it is an unacceptable risk to fly one.

paukstis91 Posted at 2017-3-20 00:46
It is scary to read this forum how many problems do dji drones have. After reading these topics I don't want to fly with my bird, cause they are falling for no reason, how should I know if I not be next? :/

The few P4 and P4P that do fall are almost always in their first few flights, you should treat these first flights as test flights since they appear to get insufficient testing at the factory.  Not surprising that flight testing a consumer drone is left to the consumer, it keeps the price low for us.

They are not falling for no reason, I'm sure DJI are attempting to work out why for each one, keeping records, fixing the issues with firmware updates when possible and ensuring that the P5 will be immune to similar faults.  The P4 is certainly a lot more reliable than the P3, we have not heard about propellers flying off mid-air except for very early ones which had an issue they fixed, there are also a lot less battery issues.

Once you have made a few flights then you can stop worrying and enjoy it.  Although you should always remember that it is an aircraft that doesn't have redundant motors, propellers, battery, etc. so on every flight you should always consider the safety situation, should something go wrong.

Thanks! I'am new with drones, and I only had couple of hours of flight with my bird. I just want to be sure that my drone will do what it is made for - to fly, but not to fall. You know it is scary to read these kind o posts for an inexperienced pilot

"I hope that you didn't have a gimbal guard or something else fitted underneath the aircraft?"

Hi the question above is very important and it may explain the crash. If that is not the case then I believe that DJI will replace it after examine the flight logs from the AC. If in any case a gimbal guard is shown on the vision positioning cameras below the Ac then...... probably they will refuse replacement.

paukstis91 Posted at 2017-3-20 01:15
Thanks! I'am new with drones, and I only had couple of hours of flight with my bird. I just want to be sure that my drone will do what it is made for - to fly, but not to fall. You know it is scary to read these kind o posts for an inexperienced pilot

It is good to be scared, it is normally the people who don't get scared that run into trouble!

Remember that if DJI sell 1,000,000 drones and only one fails, it is quite likely to be reported here.  If there was a big problem with them failing then we would see a lot more posts here than we are doing.

Quamera Posted at 2017-3-19 23:33
According to your log your are 100% correct, your Phantom fell out of the sky. Its an open and shut case and DJI will send you a new one BUT it would be really interesting to know WHY. I don't know whether DJI doesn't want to tell us or if they don't bother to find out so can't tell us but despite the fact that these random catastrophic faults only affect a tiny fraction of all Phantoms it still doesn't exactly inspire confidence in the AC (or the OP).

A new one?  Won't he get a refurbished one?  

Mark The Droner Posted at 2017-3-20 02:00
A new one?  Won't he get a refurbished one?

It sounds as if the paint is barely dry on his AC, usually if they are brand new DJI replace it with a new one but he maybe unlucky, they do say they are allowed to give you a refurbished one. I have a refurbished P4 and IMHO it is every bit as good as a new one.

Yes I've heard good things about the reburbished

paukstis91 Posted at 2017-3-20 00:46
It is scary to read this forum how many problems do dji drones have. After reading these topics I don't want to fly with my bird, cause they are falling for no reason, how should I know if I not be next? :/

Any air craft manned or unmanned can suffer a catastrophic failure and plummet to earth. That's why it's important to try minimise the risks by proper pre flight checks (no matter how great the sunset is right this very second)  not flying directly over people , and not exceeding your own skill level.

DJI make great aircraft but the current models are on the cutting edge at bargain prices , there is bound to be hicups it's up to us as pilots to make sure we remember what could happen if it falls out of the sky.
If we waited for them to be fully tested and bug free they would be out dated before they hit the shelves.

Fly safe and enjoy.

Nigel_ Posted at 2017-3-20 00:24
"Its an open and shut case "
Do you know exactly what failed then?  I think that until the logs are analysed by DJI who can see all the data it is an unexplained crash and fingers should be crossed for a replacement under warrantee.

"The log for this one looks a little different to me but it does look like there was an altitude measurement problem."

What can you see that makes you say that?

Labroides Posted at 2017-3-20 03:48
What can you see that makes you say that?

If you compare the altitude column with the vertical velocity column then although the altitude manages to descend at 2m/s the vertical velocity can't get above 1.6m/s and the real vertical velocity should have been about 3m/s (unless beginner mode is slower?).  At slower vertical speeds they match.  

Also it seemed that the throttle was not held fully down, although for the last 3 seconds it was close to full down so I guess it is possible that it decided that it had landed and turned the motors off.  

Unfortunately we can't separately see the outputs of the barometer, ultrasonic sensors and anything else that affects the altitude & vertical speed reading that we can see (VPS?, accelerometers, etc), so it is hard to know what is actually going on.  DJI will be able to see what happened.

I suspect that there is a good reason the Inspire has 2 barometers!

Nigel_ Posted at 2017-3-20 04:17
If you compare the altitude column with the vertical velocity column then although the altitude manages to descend at 2m/s the vertical velocity can't get above 1.6m/s and the real vertical velocity should have been about 3m/s (unless beginner mode is slower?).  At slower vertical speeds they match.  

Also it seemed that the throttle was not held fully down, although for the last 3 seconds it was close to full down so I guess it is possible that it decided that it had landed and turned the motors off.  

"If you compare the altitude column with the vertical velocity column then although the altitude manages to descend at 2m/s the vertical velocity can't get above 1.6m/s"

At what time is this?  I can't find a mismatch.

"Also it seemed that the throttle was not held fully down, although for the last 3 seconds it was close to full down so I guess it is possible that it decided that it had landed and turned the motors off"

This is not possible.  If the Phantom is still descending the flight control can't decide that it has landed.
If it could, we'd all have crashed long ago.

At any time did you alter your max height for beginner mode?   When you put your battery in did you feel like it was seeded comfortably?

As I pointed out in another post,  some of the new batteries don't seed as well as other ones.  I was told this is not an issue, maybe it's not (I still think it is).  Lots of possibilities here,  but I have a feeling the battery disengaged from the body completely for one reason or another.   You lost all power in it's entirety at once.  If this was something gradual, there would be many more major error messages and even if it thought you were landing at 40+ feet, you would still get an error message once the drone hit the ground (such as a gimbal error message).  Is the drone still in tact and can you see if the battery seeds well in the the battery holder?  Just a thought.

Labroides Posted at 2017-3-20 05:09
This is not possible.  If the Phantom is still descending the flight control can't decide that it has landed.
If it could, we'd all have crashed long ago.

If that was true then there would have been zero problems with having gimbal guards fitted to the P4!

Hi IsThisLifeOrThe!

Just as information to you, I too had a similar incident on Feb 11th of this year.  My crash involved a P4, not a P4P. Although DJI probably didn't share all crash information with me, I was provided with the following:

1- There was an ultrasonic sensor malfunction
2- There was also a height detection error as well

It would be very interesting to see if your incident has the same failures

Nigel_ Posted at 2017-3-20 05:26
If that was true then there would have been zero problems with having gimbal guards fitted to the P4!

You are talking about two different things.
You would need to know a gimbal guard was fitted before there's any point discussing that.
And where do you see a mismatch between speed and altitude?

Nigel_ Posted at 2017-3-20 00:24
"Its an open and shut case "
Do you know exactly what failed then?  I think that until the logs are analysed by DJI who can see all the data it is an unexplained crash and fingers should be crossed for a replacement under warrantee.

No the gimbal guard and everything was off. I left the beginner altitude at  98 ft (30 meters?) The return to home altitude was changed to 120 ft since I was around 80-90 foot trees and I was afraid if something went wrong That it wouldn't clear Otherwise everything seemed 100%. The drone seemed to be on the whole time. It was on and running when it hit the ground. I see no reason for there to have been a battery issue but that's just me.

lefgrter Posted at 2017-3-20 01:30
"I hope that you didn't have a gimbal guard or something else fitted underneath the aircraft?"

Hi the question above is very important and it may explain the crash. If that is not the case then I believe that DJI will replace it after examine the flight logs from the AC. If in any case a gimbal guard is shown on the vision positioning cameras below the Ac then...... probably they will refuse replacement.

Gimbal guard and the styrofoam piece behind it were off. The gimbal calibrated just fine and was filming what I wanted it too without a problem for the first minute before falling. I am new to the phantom series but I am not new to drones. I have flown one I built and the Mavic before switching. I'm not saying I am perfect but after spending $1300 I definitely wasn't careless ( in my opinion ) especially since this is part of how I get income. Hopefully, I won't have an issue.

tvl Posted at 2017-3-20 05:56
Hi IsThisLifeOrThe!

Just as information to you, I too had a similar incident on Feb 11th of this year.  My crash involved a P4, not a P4P. Although DJI probably didn't share all crash information with me, I was provided with the following:

Did they replace yours no charge or did you end up having to use a DJI Care Refresh?

InThisLifeOrThe Posted at 2017-3-20 06:08
No the gimbal guard and everything was off. I left the beginner altitude at  98 ft (30 meters?) The return to home altitude was changed to 120 ft since I was around 80-90 foot trees and I was afraid if something went wrong That it wouldn't clear Otherwise everything seemed 100%. The drone seemed to be on the whole time. It was on and running when it hit the ground. I see no reason for there to have been a battery issue but that's just me.

The gimbal guard being discussed isn't the thing that holds the camera but an accessory brace that can be fitted between the landing gear and under the camera.
It's possible for these to partially block the downward facing sensors.

There's nothing suspicious in your flight data, no obvious indication and the usual suspects don't seem to be at play.
Good luck with DJI.

Labroides Posted at 2017-3-20 06:32
The gimbal guard being discussed isn't the thing that holds the camera but an accessory brace that can be fitted between the landing gear and under the camera.
It's possible for these to partially block the downward facing sensors.

Oh ok I gotcha, Ya I didn't have any accessories to add on so everything was off even the stickers on the sensors. Thank you for the input, definitely looking forward to seeing what DJI has to say. I was going to send it overnight or 3 day but the prices is crazy.

If yo can Dropbox the .DAT file and provide the Dropbox link I'll take a look at your incident.

InThisLifeOrThe Posted at 2017-3-20 06:08
No the gimbal guard and everything was off. I left the beginner altitude at  98 ft (30 meters?) The return to home altitude was changed to 120 ft since I was around 80-90 foot trees and I was afraid if something went wrong That it wouldn't clear Otherwise everything seemed 100%. The drone seemed to be on the whole time. It was on and running when it hit the ground. I see no reason for there to have been a battery issue but that's just me.

If it was still on and connected to the controller with the DJI Go app showing data/video then I think for the log to have ended the aircraft must have decided to end the flight - it seems very likely it thought it had landed as in tvl's crash and DJI will almost certainly replace it under warrantee at no cost to you.  There is no evidence of a crash or pilot error that I can see, a problem with the ultrasonic sensors seems quite likely.

In common with tvl's crash, you had just passed 50ft, I suspect you only made it a second further because you hadn't been holding the throttle full down for long enough to power off at 50.0ft.

Nigel_ Posted at 2017-3-20 06:59
If it was still on and connected to the controller with the DJI Go app showing data/video then I think for the log to have ended the aircraft must have decided to end the flight - it seems very likely it thought it had landed as in tvl's crash and DJI will almost certainly replace it under warrantee at no cost to you.  There is no evidence of a crash or pilot error that I can see, a problem with the ultrasonic sensors seems quite likely.

In common with tvl's crash, you had just passed 50m, I suspect you only made it a second further because you hadn't been holding the throttle full down for long enough to power off at 50.0m.

But even holding the throttle all the way directly down shouldn't have shut it off correct?

BudWalker Posted at 2017-3-20 06:56
If yo can Dropbox the .DAT file and provide the Dropbox link I'll take a look at your incident.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/p8zq2p ... 2019_25_30.dat?dl=0 Let me know if that works for you please!

InThisLifeOrThe Posted at 2017-3-20 07:07
But even holding the throttle all the way directly down shouldn't have shut it off correct?

Correct, it shouldn't have shut off until it had stopped descending, either because it was on the ground or because you had hand caught it.   If the ultrasonic sensors give an incorrect reading then it can decide that it has landed incorrectly and shut off mid air, it appears that in the current firmware the ultrasonic sensors may only become active below 50m altitude.

InThisLifeOrThe Posted at 2017-3-19 22:55
Yes I have last night. March 19th. Like I said I flew it the same way as the mavic. I only had my hand on the down toggle trying to land it. I never touched a power button or anything. It was seriously maybe an 15 minutes after i finished charging and updating everything. The Drone just fell I never pressed stopped recording or return to home. My object was to land the aircraft and take it out of beginner mode to then take it back up and get a sunset shot. I never accomplished this as it fell in beginner mode from about 46ft I believe is the last recorded altitude. Which makes no sense for it to just fall. Anyways Ill just have to see what DJI says however, I would like others inputs as well until I get news of what they say around next week.

is it possible the battery vibrated slightly out of contact.
sometimes these batteries take a pretty good push to actually "lock" inplace.

at least that would explain the fall and sudden video stop!

good luck!