Hi all,

I had today a very curious incident. I started my DJI Phantom 3 Professional with about 70% power in the battery. Weather conditions where good, no wind, open field, temperature was around 6 degree celcius. The drone operated to this point without incident.

But after drone has ascended for about 6-7 meters, the power supply just cut off. The drone fell down like a rock. Got mainly destroyed. The battery still had a charge of around 50%.
The batteries are not necessarily old and where bought 6 months ago, and only used a few times.

I don't know if this is a one thing off, what exactly went wrong ( need to sent it in ), but just as a heads-up. Such things happen and could cause severe problems.

Cheers,

Feel so sorry about that crash  . Please contact support center and upload the flight record for analysis .

This is not an isolated incident, there are quite a few reports of exactly the same thing happening, look through the forum.

Thanks a lot for the answers. Found some posts concerning that, but thought it might not hurt to bring it up again.

Damn, this is not good.
Could you please inform us as you solve this issue. Don't want to think if this happens when flying higher... :S

Sorry for your crash but this issue has been widely discussed in all forums. The battery should be freshly charged otherwise the automatic discharge kicks. How long your battery was stored?
I always charge my batteries the day before or same day.

To be very honest these glitches and the fact that they're not addresed by DJI are making me lose confidence in the product and am seriously considering cancelling my order. I *do not* have $1.2k to spare/throw in the trashcan.

What firmware versions are you on?
Update the DAT file  of the last flight to Dropbox and I will have the data anylized Monday.

This may be a stupid question but any chance you made it go in to csc?

haj778 Posted at 2015-12-25 23:18
This may be a stupid question but any chance you made it go in to csc?

That is not stupid question .

This just happened to me. I was flying in a temperature of about 29 degrees Fahrenheit, my first flight in about 2 months. I charged my batteries two days earlier in anticipation of my Christmas trip and was showing a friend my Phantom 3 Pro. I did not have any internet connections, but I did get communication with the DJI Go app. It took longer than usual for the drone to warm-up, not unexpected (about one minute). After calibration and safe to fly, I started up the drone and did a low altitude circle and test of the camera and a hover, all at about 5-8 feet. I then started an increase in altitude, like I have many times. At about 70 or 80 feet (I was watching the drone and not the screen) all power shut off (lights all quit) and the drone dropped. We both thought about trying to catch it, but logic prevailed and the drone crashed to the ground. Sickening. The camera was destroyed as well as the props and the drone body was damaged. I tried starting the drone with the battery again and it started up, but there was no reason to continue further. I've always feared a crash from pilot error, or a runaway, but this was unexpected and shatters my confidence in the product, which I love. Let me know if you have any luck with DJI. I've been flying this drone since June, 2015.

There are no stupid questions.
He said it happened when ascending and that rules out the csc command.

As DJI Ken Asked please what FW were you on

DJI-Ken Posted at 2015-12-25 14:50
What firmware versions are you on?
Update the DAT file  of the last flight to Dropbox and I will hav ...

Mine is 1.05.0030   and my batteries were charged 2 days before flight. Can you direct me to a U.S.A. repair contact.   

[This just happened to me. I was flying in a temperature of about 29 degrees Fahrenheit, my first flight in about 2 months. I charged my batteries two days earlier in anticipation of my Christmas trip and was showing a friend my Phantom 3 Pro. I did not have any internet connections, but I did get communication with the DJI Go app. It took longer than usual for the drone to warm-up, not unexpected (about one minute). After calibration and safe to fly, I started up the drone and did a low altitude circle and test of the camera and a hover, all at about 5-8 feet. I then started an increase in altitude, like I have many times. At about 90 feet (I was watching the drone and not the screen) all power shut off (lights all quit) and the drone dropped. We both thought about trying to catch it, but logic prevailed and the drone crashed to the ground. Sickening. The camera was destroyed as well as the props and the drone body was damaged. I tried starting the drone with the battery again and it started up, but there was no reason to continue further. I've always feared a crash from pilot error, or a runaway, but this was unexpected and shatters my confidence in the product, which I love. Let me know if you have any luck with DJI. I've been flying this drone since June, 2015.]

I have updated/synced flight info and it shows the joystick (left) all the way up with 96% battery.

Question, you said you hadn't flown your Phantom in 2 months but your on 1.5.0030. That was released Nov 25th so it had to be less than 2 months since you flew or you updated before but never test flew it.
Anyways, if you update the DAT file to Dropbox and post the link here i can have it looked at to see why it crashed.

I have firmware 1.05 and it was a Phantom 3 Pro.

True the batteries I had charged a few days earlier and there were not full, as I stated that. Though I would think that 70% would have been sufficient to do a little test start.

None the less, the fact that there is a involuntary "discharge" of batteries when not charged right before the operation is worrying. As on longer hiking trips you can't always charge the batteries. I know that charging is a workaround, but then this issue should be WIDELY documented ( if not printed on the drone and batteries ) as it doesn't come naturally to someone to think of that when you are used to work with battery driven devices that normally don't "discharge" on 70%. I understand that drones are a delicate pieces of equipment and that the tech is not perfect, but as far as I can see it was not a CSC command.

Here is the flight record as txt : http://we.tl/f0YXG5vtLD

I sent in all the details to DJI, lest see what they come up with.

DJI-Ken Posted at 2015-12-28 13:40
Question, you said you hadn't flown your Phantom in 2 months but your on 1.5.0030. That was released ...

Upon looking at my flight logs, I did fly it the end of November so I was wrong on the last time I flew it. I am not familiar with what dat files to upload or where to find them. Would they be on my sd card or in the internal memory of the drone? Also, while I have dropbox, I don't use it but am sure I can figure out how to share the file.

mmortmr Posted at 2015-12-29 15:13
Upon looking at my flight logs, I did fly it the end of November so I was wrong on the last time I ...

Also, does this fall under the warranty if it is not pilot error?

mmortmr Posted at 2015-12-30 06:14
Also, does this fall under the warranty if it is not pilot error?

You said you sent everything into DJi so I'm guessing you already have a RMA number.
To get the DAT files you power up the aircraft, controller, app. Go into MC settings, then Advanced settings, then enter flight data mode, connect the Phantom to your home computer via USB post (on the aircraft, not the gimbal)
You'll hear the Phantom beeping and it won't stop until all the flight records are copied onto your computer.Only upload the last flight with th issue to Dropbox.

DJI-Ken Posted at 2015-12-28 13:40
Question, you said you hadn't flown your Phantom in 2 months but your on 1.5.0030. That was released ...

Unfortunately, the P3 Pro is too damaged and does not connect to my computer through the usb port. I was able to sync my flight logs through the DJI Go app but that is it. Is there a way to export the log from the tablet device?

mmortmr Posted at 2015-12-30 06:45
Unfortunately, the P3 Pro is too damaged and does not connect to my computer through the usb port. ...

No problem, they can still read your flight data, you need to open a ticket and reference that you uploaded to the DJI server
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.

mmortmr Posted at 2015-12-30 06:45
Unfortunately, the P3 Pro is too damaged and does not connect to my computer through the usb port. ...

since he is even damaged, open it and take out the SD card which is in the central plate below the same

So I was in touch with the support and tried to get the flight records to them, but so far the whole process seems to have stalled.

Same happens to me fw version 1.05 less than wk old bird (p3p. ) what I thought was full charged showed 50% at crash. Waiting to get checked in by Dji support

This issue can be prevented by pre-warming your battery and always starting a flight with a full charge.  Since you started the flight at 70%, I wonder if you had an earlier flight and then left the battery in the cooler temps . . . long enough to cool the core temp of the cells.  It known that partially charged cold batteries can exhibit a sudden drop in voltage.