Hoping to get some help. New to flying sUAS. Have P4Pro for 2 weeks and all flights worked better than expected..... until today after an update. We help in investigations of missing persons, and a lot of our time is spent walking large area of lands and woods. Purchased P4Pro to help w/ eyes over the wooded areas. While in my back yard testing a future flight, I used follow me track mode while walking to the edge of woods. I stopped to change to normal flight, and the drone stopped briefly then did a sudden NE turn straight into a tree. Needless to say, it got caught in the smaller limbs but crashed to the ground and the upper parts of landing bars popped off. Even the battery was ejected from the unit! Would like to analyze the data to see why this happened, and what to do for repair. I'm not sure if it's DJI Go app related or not. ANY step-by-step help is greatly appreciated!
Thank u in advance

Front page of djigo app click on symbol bottom left hand corner, looks like a triangle, this will bring you to your flight logs, click on the flight in question and in the top right corner you will see cloud symbol, click on it and you can sync your flight, now dji has access to the flight, you can try get a moderator here to have a look at it for you.

You can also upload your flight log to www.phantomhelp.com and post them here, there are some good guys here who maybe able to tell you what could have occurred.

Lastly you can contact support to start you case for repair/ warranty they will email you details of procedure and what to do going forward. http://www.dji.com/support. Hope it works out for you good luck , never nice hearing about someone having a crash...

On the phantom help web home page , column on right hand side click on How-twos scroll down to retrieve flight logs and just follow instructions.

hallmark007 Posted at 2017-1-8 15:49
Front page of djigo app click on symbol bottom left hand corner, looks like a triangle, this will bring you to your flight logs, click on the flight in question and in the top right corner you will see cloud symbol, click on it and you can sync your flight, now dji has access to the flight, you can try get a moderator here to have a look at it for you.

You can also upload your flight log to www.phantomhelp.com and post them here, there are some good guys here who maybe able to tell you what could have occurred.

Hallmark,

I was about to say you are wrong, I couldn't find the page you were talking about, but as you say, it is the HOME page of DJI GO. After I hit the symbol, which is a PAPER AIRPLANE and sign in, there is a ton of information I didn't know about.

thank you so much,
Rich

hallmark007 Posted at 2017-1-8 15:49
Front page of djigo app click on symbol bottom left hand corner, looks like a triangle, this will bring you to your flight logs, click on the flight in question and in the top right corner you will see cloud symbol, click on it and you can sync your flight, now dji has access to the flight, you can try get a moderator here to have a look at it for you.

You can also upload your flight log to www.phantomhelp.com and post them here, there are some good guys here who maybe able to tell you what could have occurred.

Thank you very much for reply!!!

GH057xR7 Posted at 2017-1-8 17:04
Thank you very much for reply!!!

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 and someone here might be able to analyse it and give you an understanding of the cause of the incident.

Sorry to hear about your crash, just as mentioned, please feel free to contact our tech support to report the case.
We'll take care of your case and help you analyze the flight data.

For any of the intelligent flight modes, if you want to cancel them, there is a button to do that next to the camera shutter button at the top right of the controller. In future just hit that and it will stop whatever intelligent flight mode it is in, and go to either p-atti or p-gps mode.

DJI Natalia Posted at 2017-1-8 19:53
Sorry to hear about your crash, just as mentioned, please feel free to contact our tech support to report the case.
We'll take care of your case and help you analyze the flight data.

I did sync the flight data. I will upload here for analyzation. Hopefully w/in next two days.  Thank you again.

Labroides Posted at 2017-1-8 17:58
Go to http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/
Follow the instructions to upload your flight record.

I did as u instructed, and flight data uploaded to LogViewer.

So, do I C/P the URL to DJI support? And/Or C/P URL in this thread? Kinda cool looking at this data!! Really helpful learning all this. So i guess a crash in the beginning might not be so bad as far as learning quickly. I see the FIRST warning message is: "MOTOR OBSTRUCTED". Then a lot of GIMBAL messages.

B4 this flight, there was an update, and I did the update and restarted/rebooted app, controller, and drone. I read after an update you should do that. I looked at other flight data from other dates, and did not see ANY messages.

Again, thank you for your help in this bcuz with everything going on, you have to ELI5 to me right now!

BTW, since I did NOT read the last sentence, "DO NOT UPLOAD TO HEALTHYDRONES.COM", until I already uploaded to healthydrones, what additional mess did I get into?

Thank u again..

I am chatting w DJI support right now. I'll let y'all know how this goes.

GH057xR7 Posted at 2017-1-11 09:02
I did as u instructed, and flight data uploaded to LogViewer.

So, do I C/P the URL to DJI support? And/Or C/P URL in this thread? Kinda cool looking at this data!! Really helpful learning all this. So i guess a crash in the beginning might not be so bad as far as learning quickly. I see the FIRST warning message is: "MOTOR OBSTRUCTED". Then a lot of GIMBAL messages.

Just upload to this thread ,

I wouldn't bother with healthy drones as info is not very reliable. (No harm done)

DJI Natalia Posted at 2017-1-8 19:53
Sorry to hear about your crash, just as mentioned, please feel free to contact our tech support to report the case.
We'll take care of your case and help you analyze the flight data.

Natalia, link to flight data:
Flight data link

GH057xR7 Posted at 2017-1-11 11:06
Natalia, link to flight data:
Flight data link

Natalia won't need to look at those logs as you have already synced your flight logs directly to dji, she can view them from dji cloud,
I think labroides will be able to give you some info from the logs you uploaded here.

Seriously, can't tell y'all enough how much I appreciate all this help and patience! This is start of my 3rd week w DJI drone, & I'll learn quickly, as far as 'what to do when..,' esp after this crash course n crashing. So do y'all look & analyze the data too? If so, I want to learn how to look thru flight logs to spot anomalies etc... Again, thank u.

GH057xR7 Posted at 2017-1-11 11:06
Natalia, link to flight data:
Flight data link

did you by any chance film during this flight, if so please upload.

Am I right that at 9m 28.3s you were trying to fly a POI mission 3 times, but did not move the aircraft out of the Min. Circling Radius which is 5m (16ft).

After the Motor Obstructed error at 14m 10.1s at an Altitute of 51.2ft , things start to go wrong. Did you at this point by any chance hit one of those treetops, without noticing.
6 sec later you start losing GPS, and it also goes in minus Altitude.  2 sec later it goes into ATTI mode at -23ft.

At 14m 24s you Altitude is minus 76ft when you turn and zoom out the map, you have flight points below the ground.

Do you know where about in the log it turned and hit the tree ?

After the firmware update, if you did not calibrate the compass and IMU, that is a possible cause of the issue.

Kneepuck Posted at 2017-1-11 12:32
After the firmware update, if you did not calibrate the compass and IMU, that is a possible cause of the issue.

There is no need to calibrate compass or IMU after update, unless prompted as stated in the manual, p57.

hallmark007 Posted at 2017-1-11 12:53
There is no need to calibrate compass or IMU after update, unless prompted as stated in the manual, p57.

You are absolutely right.

Don´t you ever getting tired, writing this

jetforce Posted at 2017-1-11 12:19
did you by any chance film during this flight, if so please upload.

Am I right that at 9m 28.3s you were trying to fly a POI mission 3 times, but did not move the aircraft out of the Min. Circling Radius which is 5m (16ft).

Oh yes I have video. I will look at those specific times, trim video & upload when I'm off detail. Thank u!!

Kneepuck Posted at 2017-1-11 12:32
After the firmware update, if you did not calibrate the compass and IMU, that is a possible cause of the issue.

After update, I restarted app, controller & unit. Checked the status info. I remember seeing all stats were GOOD. I do not remember if I recalibrated "just in case". Is that info located in any of the data logs?

GH057xR7 Posted at 2017-1-11 13:43
Oh yes I have video. I will look at those specific times, trim video & upload when I'm off detail. Thank u!!

it would be nice to see from begin to the end, without any editing, just upload in 720p

jetforce Posted at 2017-1-11 13:23
You are absolutely right.

Don´t you ever getting tired, writing this

I do.
But as kneepuck said, in older dji AC it used to be that you were expected to calibrate after firmware upgrade. I suppose the reason for not calibrating may have something to do with duel compass.

I had a P4 for 9 months and only ever calibrated compass twice, and I traveled around with it a lot, so for me it's a no brainer.

hallmark007 Posted at 2017-1-11 12:53
There is no need to calibrate compass or IMU after update, unless prompted as stated in the manual, p57.

I did restart/reboot the app, controller, & drone after update. B4 it's 1st flight, I read the manual & read forums, where Natalia advised doing so after a firmware update. That's why I did the restart/reboot. But I do not remember recalibrating anything bcuz stats showed all good.

GH057xR7 Posted at 2017-1-11 14:00
I did restart/reboot the app, controller, & drone after update. B4 it's 1st flight, I read the manual & read forums, where Natalia advised doing so after a firmware update. That's why I did the restart/reboot. But I do not remember recalibrating anything bcuz stats showed all good.

you will get a warning if you need to calibrate.

as hallmark said, if not, you are good to go.

PS. did you fully charge your battery before your flight ? Because it only shows 95%

jetforce Posted at 2017-1-11 13:54
it would be nice to see from begin to the end, without any editing, just upload in 720p

Oh my, it's awfully boring as I was doing a practice flight. My spotter said while I was in process of changing modes, the drone was hovering waiting on me, and it took off in SE direction from spotter's viewpoint, and hit the tree. If it weren't for the tree, I think it would have kept going bcuz the tree did not stop it from going n2 "weedeater" mode. Or I guess tree trimming mode. It's a horrible memory. But when I'm off detail, I'll post entire video. I don't know if I can watch. Sad ending.

GH057xR7 Posted at 2017-1-11 14:16
Oh my, it's awfully boring as I was doing a practice flight. My spotter said while I was in process of changing modes, the drone was hovering waiting on me, and it took off in SE direction from spotter's viewpoint, and hit the tree. If it weren't for the tree, I think it would have kept going bcuz the tree did not stop it from going n2 "weedeater" mode. Or I guess tree trimming mode. It's a horrible memory. But when I'm off detail, I'll post entire video. I don't know if I can watch. Sad ending.

give it a go.

The biggest problem I see in the flight data is the choice of location for follow-me flight.
There are trees everywhere and no large open areas between them.
An environment with obstacles all around is far from an ideal one to fly in manual control and even worse for something like follow-me.
At the time of the crash, the Phantom's height was only 52 feet which may have been good for seeing the target but  it's not enough to keep the Phantom clear of the trees.

The crash account you gave says:
"I used follow me track mode while walking to the edge of woods. I stopped to change to normal flight, and the drone stopped briefly then did a sudden NE turn straight into a tree".


Follow-me was engaged at 12:41 with the battery at 45%.
This would have been close to the back of the house.
The flight log doesn't show Follow-me being disengaged and the flight mode is shown as Follow-me right up to the crash at 14:10 (39% battery).
The northeast change of direction is clearly shown.
The Phantom moved in this direction for a distance of 70 ft at speeds of around 2.0-2.5 mph, briefly touching 3mph at one point.
This took about 30 seconds.

The motor obstructed warning is the crash, the props have hit tree branches at this point.
The other warnings following are generated by the Phantom tumbling downwards.

The reason the Phantom moved off in this direction is unclear.
The Phantom was moving slowly and never zoomed away toward a distant point.
My best guess is that the GPS location it was getting from your phone/tablet was imprecise and wandering?
Down low it may have had a poor sky view and satellites may have been blocked by trees.
The location gave little room for error and the inevitable happened.

The situation could have been saved most easily by pushing the left stick to make the Phantom climb above tree height.
But it would have been best avoided altogether by choosing a location clear of obstacles to fly.

Kneepuck Posted at 2017-1-11 12:32
After the firmware update, if you did not calibrate the compass and IMU, that is a possible cause of the issue.

Not at all.
Recalibration of compass and IMU has never been necessary after a firmware update.
It's not in the manual and has never been an official recommendation from DJI.
This has always been a forum myth.

jetforce Posted at 2017-1-11 14:07
you will get a warning if you need to calibrate.

as hallmark said, if not, you are good to go.

Oh yes! I have my checklist, and it was fully charged. I should prob say that particular battery, from the day i unpackaged it, had one contact NOT like the others. The contact is not evenly spaced, tho slightly off, as the others. That battery is my only Intelligent Flight high capacity flight battery. The other 4 are not high capacity. I attributed the difference due to that. I need to look at all logs now bcuz the 4 I uploaded haven't ever shown more than 95-97%.

Labroides Posted at 2017-1-11 14:26
The biggest problem I see in the flight data is the choice of location for follow-me flight.
There are trees everywhere and no large open areas between them.
An environment with obstacles all around is far from an ideal one to fly in manual control and even worse for something like follow-me.

Good job..

Labroides Posted at 2017-1-11 14:26
The biggest problem I see in the flight data is the choice of location for follow-me flight.
There are trees everywhere and no large open areas between them.
An environment with obstacles all around is far from an ideal one to fly in manual control and even worse for something like follow-me.

Oh that hurts looking at that again. For testing purposes, I chose this area bcuz it's most like the areas we might be flying in or I should say over. I've used that same path flying normal mode in previous tests with good GPS signals bcuz trees aren't full, leaves fell during cold WX. I did engage follow me, for my first time, when I was closer to the house. And I did not get to disengage from follow me bcuz it did fly off b4 my spotter could say a word. It went from hovering to mach X speed w/out a warning from app or anything. The open field I spoke of is east of that point from a test flight days b4.  That isn't shown in this log. Ur correct, conditions are NOT best for follow me where I was, and I should have disengaged follow me b4 that point. My flights prior to this were good, navigating around the area. Some areas we look are swamped, and I am really wanting to use drone for that. Alligators and snakes aren't my best friends. Prior test flights I went over the trees 1-2 acres w my spotter and it worked beautifully! I like your descriptive analysis of that flight! This brings me closer to what we won't be able to do, but also, why.

Labroides Posted at 2017-1-11 14:26
The biggest problem I see in the flight data is the choice of location for follow-me flight.
There are trees everywhere and no large open areas between them.
An environment with obstacles all around is far from an ideal one to fly in manual control and even worse for something like follow-me.

Sherlock Labroides strikes again, nice done

But it would still be interesting to see what was filmed.

I never had a moments problem with my P4 Pro till I did the up date.  Now the tablet goes totally black with no notice, just black!  I restarted the tablet and all was still working.  Happened twice during the same flight before I stopped.

Nightjumper Posted at 2017-1-11 19:59
I never had a moments problem with my P4 Pro till I did the up date.  Now the tablet goes totally black with no notice, just black!  I restarted the tablet and all was still working.  Happened twice during the same flight before I stopped.

This thread isn't about the update from today even though the title says so, it was started 3 days ago.

hallmark007 Posted at 2017-1-11 12:53
There is no need to calibrate compass or IMU after update, unless prompted as stated in the manual, p57.

Couldn't agree more! too many people calibrating IMU straight out of box!?! baffles me, you are more likely to wreck your drone doing that.

And there is no need to do IMU calibration after update, only do IMU calibration if something is already wrong and the app is telling you. there is an IMU status in the App, it will tell you if something is off with the IMU.

DJI have been saying this for years

I've seen this situation happened to me multiple times when I'm using a follow me mode. Once you activate it, it will sometimes tilt to one side and if you're new to drone you don't know what too do and will likely crashed on something. Just switch to sports mode then back to P mode.

jetforce Posted at 2017-1-11 15:42
Sherlock Labroides strikes again, nice done

But it would still be interesting to see what was filmed.

I'm going to do that this weekend. Have some reports to finish first.

Some people really dislike healthydrones, because they do not think it gives much valid data.. it certainly is not as detailed as some options, but it's a good start.. anyhow, hope that the investigation goes well and u get somewhere. As for DJI, they have the logs if you synced trough the dji app. So if u open a case they can get at the data...  Hope you get to the bottom of it....I had a simmilar issue when i tested follow me, and because of that i do not truyst follow me mode based on gps to my hpone.. phones/tablets do not always do as well on gps as one would like.. sometimes wifi or cell triangulation is used to "enhance" location.. well.. enhance is not the right word....
I did not think that p4 uses gps for follow me, i was under iumpression it does it optically via the camera, but maybe that's a selectable option.... it is CRUCIAL to know how to cancel such flight mode and take over immediately... I was luckier than you.....
I hope someone can figure WHY it changed direction, but I bet it has to do with location approximation of some sort...

Scary!

Phantomski Posted at 2017-1-12 20:56
Some people really dislike healthydrones, because they do not think it gives much valid data.. it certainly is not as detailed as some options, but it's a good start.. anyhow, hope that the investigation goes well and u get somewhere. As for DJI, they have the logs if you synced trough the dji app. So if u open a case they can get at the data...  Hope you get to the bottom of it....I had a simmilar issue when i tested follow me, and because of that i do not truyst follow me mode based on gps to my hpone.. phones/tablets do not always do as well on gps as one would like.. sometimes wifi or cell triangulation is used to "enhance" location.. well.. enhance is not the right word....
I did not think that p4 uses gps for follow me, i was under iumpression it does it optically via the camera, but maybe that's a selectable option.... it is CRUCIAL to know how to cancel such flight mode and take over immediately... I was luckier than you.....
I hope someone can figure WHY it changed direction, but I bet it has to do with location approximation of some sort...

When a P4 follows the subject optically, it is called Active Track, Follow Me is the same as the P3, it follows the RC unit by reading its position via the phone or tablet attached to it, and uses the GPS coordinates obtained.