Crashed my DJI Phantom 3 Std

  

Started flight with fresh/new battery at 100% and flew for around 10-12 minutes without an issue.  During the normal GPS flight I was out almost 1500 ft and up to 400 ft altitude.  I manually returned to near my Home landing area and engaged the auto land feature on the app.  When the aircraft was around 100 ft altitude, I lost signal (gray screen on camera feed) and got a warning: Electromagnetic Interference.  At that point, I had no aircraft control and saw the drone in almost free-fall descent. The rotors were spinning and it was doing a four-corner waffle maneuver and pitching wildly on its way down, easily +/- 30° from horizontal.  I quickly tried to disengage the auto land and tried a panic stick at full ascent.  Nothing worked, no response and the craft crashed on grass.   Busted my rotor protectors and the add-on landing gear but the main craft and my carbon fiber rotors were all good.

  

  

Overall it was a mild crash with minimal damage, but I still wonder what the #$%@& happened?  The only thing in the area that could have caused the interference is an LED electronic message board. I was about 20 feet away and 80 – 100 feet above this sign when the EMI warning triggered and lost all control.  No overhead wires in the area; 100+ successful flights prior to this.  have not flown it since the crash.

  

  

Anyone have similar experience? Suggestions?  TIA…

https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/     Go to this link, follow directions sand come back here to post the link.  The flight log may can tell you more.

Thanks for the direction.  I was able to see the details but it is even more confusing.  At 13 minutes into the flight, while in RTH mode, 13min 2.7sec - altitude reading crossed thru zero into a negative range.  At this point, I know I was at least 80 feet above ground.  Then at 13min 3.5sec it shows several frames of Speed Error.  Then at 13min 4.7sec it also adds the Magnetic Field Interference to the existing speed error.
there are not any error messages from 13min 5.5sec to 13min 9.8sec when the recording ends.  That is about how long it took to crash land, maybe 4 or 5 seconds.

sorry, my bad when I said EMI.  I thought the error used the word Electromagnetic, but it was simply Magnetic Interference.  I had between 6 and 13 satellites thru the entire flight log.

Cra$$$h Posted at 6-25 13:02
Thanks for the direction.  I was able to see the details but it is even more confusing.  At 13 minutes into the flight, while in RTH mode, 13min 2.7sec - altitude reading crossed thru zero into a negative range.  At this point, I know I was at least 80 feet above ground.  Then at 13min 3.5sec it shows several frames of Speed Error.  Then at 13min 4.7sec it also adds the Magnetic Field Interference to the existing speed error.
there are not any error messages from 13min 5.5sec to 13min 9.8sec when the recording ends.  That is about how long it took to crash land, maybe 4 or 5 seconds.

Why not provide a link to the flight record so the rest of us can look at the details?

Cra$$$h Posted at 6-25 13:02
Thanks for the direction.  I was able to see the details but it is even more confusing.  At 13 minutes into the flight, while in RTH mode, 13min 2.7sec - altitude reading crossed thru zero into a negative range.  At this point, I know I was at least 80 feet above ground.  Then at 13min 3.5sec it shows several frames of Speed Error.  Then at 13min 4.7sec it also adds the Magnetic Field Interference to the existing speed error.
there are not any error messages from 13min 5.5sec to 13min 9.8sec when the recording ends.  That is about how long it took to crash land, maybe 4 or 5 seconds.

Post a link to the report Phantomhelp showed you so others can see the data.

Labroides Posted at 6-25 15:01
Post a link to the report Phantomhelp showed you so others can see the data.

We live in a wireless world and in urban areas, you're flying through a sea of wireless signals.  When you turn on a wireless device, including your Phantom, it searches for an unused channel to establish the link to your controller.  As you fly away, that channel may suddenly be used by something else.  The Phantom detects that another signal is on "your channel" and informs with the interference error message.  Immediately bring your drone closer to you (away from the wifi interference).  If you continue on, that 2nd signal can become stronger than your signal, leaving you with no control.  Most home wifi is fairly low power; stores use higher power for their cash registers and things; things like LED message boards are usually controlled by something some distance away, using a very strong wifi link.  I suspect that LED message board strong wireless link may have been your culprit.  Glad your damage was minimal.  Next time you get an interference alert, bring your drone closer to you as soon as you can to get away from the interfering source.  I can't explain why it went into an emergency "land now" mode, however, unless the interference was very, very strong effecting the onboard flight computer.  As others have said, post your flight log.  Some of us have more experience than others decoding the messages and flight parameters.  Hope you get back into the air soon.

Was the aircraft modified in any way?  Or was it straight stock?  

If you posted a link of your log after being processed by Phantomhelp.com, you would likely get some good advice from experienced members of this forum.  Please see post #2.

NM_Quad Posted at 6-25 15:23
We live in a wireless world and in urban areas, you're flying through a sea of wireless signals.  When you turn on a wireless device, including your Phantom, it searches for an unused channel to establish the link to your controller.  As you fly away, that channel may suddenly be used by something else.  The Phantom detects that another signal is on "your channel" and informs with the interference error message.  Immediately bring your drone closer to you (away from the wifi interference).  If you continue on, that 2nd signal can become stronger than your signal, leaving you with no control.  Most home wifi is fairly low power; stores use higher power for their cash registers and things; things like LED message boards are usually controlled by something some distance away, using a very strong wifi link.  I suspect that LED message board strong wireless link may have been your culprit.  Glad your damage was minimal.  Next time you get an interference alert, bring your drone closer to you as soon as you can to get away from the interfering source.  I can't explain why it went into an emergency "land now" mode, however, unless the interference was very, very strong effecting the onboard flight computer.  As others have said, post your flight log.  Some of us have more experience than others decoding the messages and flight parameters.  Hope you get back into the air soon.

He later clarified that the message was about magnetic interference, not radio interference. And when the aircraft or RC unit detects other signals on the band in use, the two devices negotiate another channel to switch to, without creating a warning. Only when all available channels are in use does the system bring up a warning.

Sorry and thank you.  I'm new to this and also a little illiterate on all the cool features that are available.  The log is posted below.  After I dug in a little deeper, I realized the problems started at least 10 seconds before I noticed anything was wrong and before the warning.  You will see on the Google Map section of the log that my aircraft starting doing 360s and veering way off course in the middle of the Auto Land mode.   Please review and see for yourself.  I would greatly appreciate any input from the experienced flyers - what should I check before I try to fly again?  maybe send the aircraft info DJI for a tune up?

Here is the flight log:
https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/KFEAH8NVFQ8ZGX7M1NVE/

Mark The Droner Posted at 6-25 17:40
Was the aircraft modified in any way?  Or was it straight stock?  

If you posted a link of your log after being processed by Phantomhelp.com, you would likely get some good advice from experienced members of this forum.  Please see post #2.

Straight stock.  I finally posted a link to the map and log.  here's another copy
https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/KFEAH8NVFQ8ZGX7M1NVE/

Cra$$$h Posted at 6-26 09:38
Straight stock.  I finally posted a link to the map and log.  here's another copy
https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/KFEAH8NVFQ8ZGX7M1NVE/

You didn't have prop guards installed?

If not, my guess is a prop was loose.  

Mark The Droner Posted at 6-26 12:14
You didn't have prop guards installed?

If not, my guess is a prop was loose.

I tried to edit my post about being all stock.  The craft is completely stock internally- no motor mods, no programming mods, etc.  I did not think about the added prop guards, the added/extended landing gear and also the aftermarket carbon fiber props.

I guess technically that is not "stock" but I am used to motorsports and was not thinking of the add-ons.

As far as the props coming loose, I have always just spun them on lightly finger tight.  They auto tighten under torque so I'm not sure how they could ever come loose?

Stock means out of the box.  If you added prop guards and extended landing gear, I believe that was your problem.  Those things were the first thing that came to mind when I read your OP.  My Phantom did the same exact thing when I had the exact same gear.  Shoot ahead to the 6:30 mark and take a look.

Thanks Mark.  I can believe that was a likely cause based on your video.  If I had been recording my landing, that is what I expect my video would look like.

I suppose I will continue to fly with the prop guards because I have made dozens of previous flights without any problems.  Just caught an unlucky break I guess.  

Cra$$$h Posted at 6-27 07:25
Thanks Mark.  I can believe that was a likely cause based on your video.  If I had been recording my landing, that is what I expect my video would look like.

I suppose I will continue to fly with the prop guards because I have made dozens of previous flights without any problems.  Just caught an unlucky break I guess.

I had flown mine twice before without a problem, although it was sluggish.  The prop guards alone make the Phantom sluggish, and I think most everybody knows about that which is one of the reasons most don't fly with prop guards.  But I don't believe the problem in your crash and my crash was just the prop guards.  I believe the problem was the prop guards coupled with the extended landing gear.  I think VRS is what initiated the problem.  And I believe the landing gear interferes with the prop wash which is what initiated the side to side rocking motion, and once it starts, the FC is not engineered to correct it due to the added weight combined with the awkward weighted extension of the landing gear.  The extended landing gear acted like a swinging pendulum which the FC couldn't deal with.  For me, attempting to fly out of the VRS didn't work because the AC was too busy trying to correct the rocking motion.  So down it went.  

Good luck.

Cra$$$h Posted at 6-27 07:25
Thanks Mark.  I can believe that was a likely cause based on your video.  If I had been recording my landing, that is what I expect my video would look like.

I suppose I will continue to fly with the prop guards because I have made dozens of previous flights without any problems.  Just caught an unlucky break I guess.

The P3 series had a design change to prevent VRS.
Lumbering your drone with the propguards and landing gear has defeated DJI's design changes and made your drone vulnerable to VRS (without adding any real benefits).
It's ironic when the things you added for "safety" are actually endangering the drone.

Hello and good day TIA. I am sorry to know what happened to your previous flight with your DJI Phantom 3 Standard. Since there was a crash that happened on your DJI Phantom 3 Standard. I would recommend you contact our support team for further help at https://www.dji.com/support?site=brandsite&from=nav . We have the professional team who would do their best to fix the issue and then the corresponding resolution would be provided. Please note that the repair cost will depend on the warranty period of the said drone; otherwise, valid charges will apply. Thank for understanding and for your support.