Phantom 3 Pro Catastrophic Battery Failure

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I'm sad to say I'm now the owner of a salvaged P3pro that crashed into a lake in Maine. I was able to borrow a boat and fish it out of the lake.

What upsets me is the battery failed at 58% I did contact DJI and they are only giving me a 30% discount on another new P3pro.

Here is the crash.

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Here is the flight right before I changed to my second battery.

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I feel empty not having the ability to just go flying. I'm still waiting on the 30% discount from DJI to email me the link to purchase the new unit, but I may have to call them on Monday to try in speed up the process.
 
Sorry to see it. Just one small piece of advice for the future, although it doesn't help you now, although it's defending automatically if you'd pushed up on the throttle 100% you can actually make it maintain or clime in altitude for a little while. Probably enough to have gotten it back. Sorry again.
 
All is not lost, my friend. As you crashed into fresh water, if you salvaged the unit, there may be a chance you can get it going again.

Search the threads and google for people who have done the same and how they recovered. Some put in rice to absorb all the moisture others had other ideas but they all had varying degrees of success.
 
Critical low voltage error, about 20 charges, no deep discharge, not starting with a full battery?
 
All is not lost, my friend. As you crashed into fresh water, if you salvaged the unit, there may be a chance you can get it going again.

Search the threads and google for people who have done the same and how they recovered. Some put in rice to absorb all the moisture others had other ideas but they all had varying degrees of success.
Yep. I had a phantom 1 go to the bottom of a pool. Took it out. Let it dry and it flew fine until I did another stupid thing. ;-)
 
Another takeoff with a battery not fully charged and... another crash !
I would never takeoff with less than 90% power. If I have to land after a few seconds or minutes (assuming I started with a fully charged battery) I put a fresh battery before taking off again.
 
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Another takeoff with a battery not fully charged and... another crash !
I would never takeoff with less than 90% power. If I have to land after a few seconds or minutes (assuming I started with a fully charged battery) I put a fresh battery before taking off again.

I understand you have to do this, but I think it something DJI needs to fix. Why should you have to use a new battery every time you land? A lot of people use these to for small budget filmmaking. You're got to film a shot for 5-10 minutes, bring it down and reset the shot and shoot it again. After each take your battery may be drained by only 10%. So why use 7 batteries when you could just use one? I guess the alternative would be to bring it close to the ground and let it hover for 5 minutes while you setup for the next shot. This should be addressed in the next firmware update. The ability to land between batteries!


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Another takeoff with a battery not fully charged and... another crash !
I would never takeoff with less than 90% power. If I have to land after a few seconds or minutes (assuming I started with a fully charged battery) I put a fresh battery before taking off again.
Thats absolutely insane. I have over 300 flights now, and my batteries have a cumulative 72 charges. There is no logic or documentation to back this crazy habit!
 
Getting airborne with the battery not 100% is not the issue. Many of us do it. The problem in this case appears to be battery failure. It could have happened a number of ways but won't be triggered by less than 100% on takeoff.
 
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What upsets me is the battery failed at 58% I did contact DJI and they are only giving me a 30% discount on another new P3pro.

Are you required to purchase a complete kit with controller, etc or will they allow you to purchase only the aircraft?
 
Thats absolutely insane. I have over 300 flights now, and my batteries have a cumulative 72 charges. There is no logic or documentation to back this crazy habit!
Insane ? Probably but this is a fact : there is a lot of bad stories on several forum and a lot of them shows us the battery was not fully charged before take off.
 
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Anything over 50% is good to go in my opinion!
Make this test :
- Take off with a 100% battery and drain it till 60%
- Note the 4 cells voltage
- Let the battery off for 30 minutes
- Then power on the quad and check the cell voltage : it is now higher !

I'm not an expert at all but this indicates the battery has not the same behavior.
I prefer to be safe than sorry so if I have to land after only a few minutes of flight and want to takeoff again, I put my second fresh battery (They are always charged just before flying)
 
Insane ? Probably but this is a fact : there is a lot of bad stories on several forum and a lot of them shows us the battery was not fully charged before take off.
It happening a few times doesnt make it a fact. Its makes it interesting. What makes it fact is if its repeatable.. Which is is not. I fly all of my batteries auto land. And most of my flights are done for app and FW testing. So all of my batteries get dozens of power cycles and potentially as many as a dozen flights on one charge. I have had a critical battery voltage alert before, but a power cycle eliminated it. Never could reproduce it, and never saw it happen again. The only fact here is that it happened. Its cause, actions to prevent it, and solutions for bypassing it are all up in the air.
 
Insane ? Probably but this is a fact : there is a lot of bad stories on several forum and a lot of them shows us the battery was not fully charged before take off.
Hmmm don't get on the bandwagon on this idea. It's senseless and the blame lies elsewhere.
 
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Getting airborne with the battery not 100% is not the issue. Many of us do it. The problem in this case appears to be battery failure. It could have happened a number of ways but won't be triggered by less than 100% on takeoff.
A lot of crash due to power failure reported on forum have almost all the same starting point : a battery far from a full charge !
 

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