Hey guys, I'm Lee. Bought a brand new Phantom 2 (not vision, so no gimbal), got to fly it around for a couple of minutes. Wanted to try RTH, it crashed. Picked it up, set it back down and rebooted it. I forgot to wait for GPS signal lock. Increased the throttle slightly and the thing shot straight up. I tried to close the throttle, but it was unresponsive. It slowly descended on an angle path behind my house. It smacked a steel transmission (electric) line pole HARD. Broke all 4 props, and busted the battery case up a bit. I disassembled the case to the battery, no noticable damage inside. The battery acts normal outside of the bird. Forget that for now, because I have a new battery for testing.

It does just as this video below, except I have no audible tones, just a click from the motors trying to engage. Actually it's two clicks. Almost sounds like relays kicking in. If I disconnect the ESCs at the plugs I still hear the clicking. I have tried disconnecting the motors in addition to the ESCs and it simply will not power on. With everything connected, no LED flash under the arms. If I disconnect this wire below, all 4 arms flash red after the instantaneous green flash. One of the three LEDs is also out(?) on one of the arms. Oh, and it will connect to the assistant long enough to read settings before shutting off, so if you need a screenshot of any of the screens, I can grab it no problem.




I have some skills when it comes to electronics, just not the best. I can solder and use a multimeter with no problem. I just don't know where to start. Thanks for the help in advance.


Demonstration

Wowser...you broke it real bad!
If if smashed that hard and the props were wasted it could be as ESC's but I am betting you fragged something else inside..as when you try to power up it shuts itself back off, could be a/or several bad/broken connections and not getting enough juice or no juice to some component such that something it cannot detect is simly saying, hey, if your not responding I am just shutting down...

Below is a link to Scematics for the ESC's
http://forum.dji.com/forum.php?m ... hematic&lang=en

And the below link might help
http://wiki.dji.com/en/index.php/Phantom_2_Vision%2B?lang=en

Good luck!

Beyond that I am of no help!

Thanks for the info. It actually kinda smashed itself It just took off on its own after I increased the throttle

I really don't think it smashed itself, do you ?
Having crashed it already, you took off again without GPS lock and it drifted into a pole, you were in control all the time, you just failed to act.
Sorry, but you have just found how steep the learning curve can be in model flying.

Yes, I do. It was unresponsive to me closing the throttle, but that's not the point.

Is there anything I could look at in the assistant to help me diagnose it?

john.doe185@gma Posted at 2015-3-6 05:30
Yes, I do. It was unresponsive to me closing the throttle, but that's not the point.

Is there anyth ...

Not if you cannot get it to stay powered up, if you could you would at least see if your IMU was whacked or something but pretty sure you have Mugambo bigger troubles....
Btw, have you ever opened the Assistan software, just curious, there is no "service or diagnose" tabs...

Yes, but it can get readings from the unit. I thought if maybe one of the readings wasn't responding correctly, it might be a clue which direction to head towards for getting replacement parts.

Is this any help?

It appears from the video You are not turning the Phantom on correctly.

Push button and let go then push and hold for 2 seconds,

Having said that your problem is far graver and I presume you must have worked out how to turn it on because you have been able to send your readings. They show you have dislodged some connections or broken the compass etc.

Regards

Guy

That's not my video, but it's doing the same thing - minus the audible tones.

Sorry for no compass reading. I still have it take apart, and it was d/c. Here is one with the compass connected.





I found this interesting. It was a hard bugger to capture, too. As soon as the unit clicks back off, the values are all just represented by -.-.-
It's reading all 0s from the battery.


Here is one with it off just for thoroughness sake

john.doe185@gma Posted at 2015-3-6 08:45
That's not my video, but it's doing the same thing - minus the audible tones.

Sorry for no compass  ...

You did mention the original battery was fubarred right,
Work your way back from the connectors to see if everything there is intact and check voltages tracing back using your good battery...battery specs are in the manual.

Northofthe49th Posted at 2015-3-6 08:49
You did mention the original battery was fubarred right,
Work your way back from the connectors to ...

Yes, and this is with the new battery.

Sounds like a plan!

Ok, so I started disconnecting the ESCs from the board and disconnected the extra cables  that go to the gimbal, etc to get down to the battery connections. Once I had all of the ESCs d/c I thought, I'll try it now. Sure enough, it powered up and stayed on! So I reconnected one at at time. Connected M1, good, M2, good, M3, good, M4 UH-OH. Powers off again. Theory for the time being is the M4 ESC has gone kaput.

I have one on order from Amazon. I now get the 4 increasing audible tones at startup. One question though, I've seen some videos where the 4 increasing tones beep, then there's 3 beeps of the same tone that immediately follow. I don't have the 3 tones (never have). What do they mean, and are they maybe only for the P1?

john.doe185@gma Posted at 2015-3-7 02:19
Ok, so I started disconnecting the ESCs from the board and disconnected the extra cables  that go to ...

The smart battery will not turn on, or will turn itself off (even in flight) when it senses a short circuit in the Phantom.  Generally, an ESC failure causes one or more of the MOSFETs to short out, and thus turns off the battery.  Disconnecting the ESC to find the one that causes the battery to turn again was the right thing to do to identify the ESC causing the short circuit.  On your suspected bad ESC, you should see some damage, burned area, etc. on one or more of the MOSFETs (the six larger ICs in a cluster).

Some ESCs seem to be quite hearty.  Others have failed with a slight interruption of the prop rotation such as brushing a small tree limb or a tip over.

Good luck restoring your Phantom.

Paul

Paul that was my first line of action, to look for charred parts, burn marks, or even pregnant capacitors. This board doesn't show ANY signs that I can see, albeit definitely bad.

Thanks for that info! Maybe it will help someone searching later. That's why I'm trying to keep this updated

That did the trick!

So good to be back in the air
Now if maybe I can get this busted battery to charge. Everything else works but that part of it.