A different kind of crash

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I've been flying my P2V for 6 months and have never had anything like this. This afternoon, during an otherwise uneventful, compass-calibrated, GPS locked flight of my P2V, with the copter at 175 ft altitude and approximately 200 feet away, with an unobstructed line of sight view, i suddenly lost camera signal, and telemetry, but had flight control; then 5 seconds later the aircraft dropped tumbling from the sky into a dense forest. It is lost & I really doubt we'll ever find it.

1) What happened?
2) this has really made me think about safety. If it had fallen on someone, it could have been a problem.
 
More details please! Which version? 3.04? Battery issues?

You need to find it and look inside, could be bad solder connections, bad connection at battery slide in, etc., etc....

I too have been flying for 6 months, about 200+ flights, just installed v3.04 and she just does not handle like the rock-solid she was before to update.
 
I was running the Nov 2013 version 1.05 and had been in no rush to update given the issues reported by others.
No battery issues.
I would love to find the bird but I don't know if we will have that luck -- it went down in a really dense thicket which is impossible to penetrate without a machete.
What are the odds DJI will respond to my inquiry?
 
Sounds to me like this calls for a rescue mission. Do you happen to know anyone in your area with an aerial setup? That could fly over the area where you lost it and try to spot it from above?

You would almost think that it would be somewhat on top of all the thick brush if it was that dense.

Also this is on prime example why i havent updated yet. But if it was a faulty soldering point then this is important too because it gives us more statistics on just how bad they are. Plus if you can retrieve it, you could send it in and have them fix the issues. A bad as i hate to say that.
 
Aerial rescue was what I'm thinking too. Dare I spend another bill to buy a PV2+ just to find my P2V??
Is the P2V+ proving to be more solid?
 
I recovered my P2V copter, but not before it had been rained upon.
Visible damage: blades chipped; camera detached and three (brown, red, orange) camera connection wires severed.
A bit of moisture in the underbody red & green light covers.

The copter powers up and receives input from the transmitter. The camera/wifi unit can broadcast a video signal.

So I am left wondering a) what happened to cause the crash described in the OP? (Sudden loss of telemetry and video; followed about 5 seconds later by dropping like a stone)
b) what should I do regarding repair? (7 months from purchase via Amazon). I would be glad for any good advice.

DJI completely unresponsive to emails. Calls to DJI for support go into a call holding queue for a while, then they say "high call volume, try again later" and disconnect.
 
A1962 said:
I recovered my P2V copter, but not before it had been rained upon.
Visible damage: blades chipped; camera detached and three (brown, red, orange) camera connection wires severed.
A bit of moisture in the underbody red & green light covers.

The copter powers up and receives input from the transmitter. The camera/wifi unit can broadcast a video signal.

So I am left wondering a) what happened to cause the crash described in the OP? (Sudden loss of telemetry and video; followed about 5 seconds later by dropping like a stone)
b) what should I do regarding repair? (7 months from purchase via Amazon). I would be glad for any good advice.

DJI completely unresponsive to emails. Calls to DJI for support go into a call holding queue for a while, then they say "high call volume, try again later" and disconnect.

The cause of crash seems obvious, power outage. Battery dead is a possible reason. Can you tell us how old is the battery ? how many charges have been put on it?
 
A1962 said:
I've been flying my P2V for 6 months and have never had anything like this. This afternoon, during an otherwise uneventful, compass-calibrated, GPS locked flight of my P2V, with the copter at 175 ft altitude and approximately 200 feet away, with an unobstructed line of sight view, i suddenly lost camera signal, and telemetry, but had flight control; then 5 seconds later the aircraft dropped tumbling from the sky into a dense forest. It is lost & I really doubt we'll ever find it.

1) What happened?
2) this has really made me think about safety. If it had fallen on someone, it could have been a problem.

My suggestion would be to get a friend with a Phantom to fly over the area, either with video, or taking pics at 5 sec intervals. If you mark out the area using Google Maps and cover it methodically, you should at least be able to find your quad's location. From there you can ascertain if a rescue, either from the air, with a bigger multi rotor, and a hook on the end of a line, or from the ground, is feasible. Hope you get it back.

Cheers
Paul
 
were you in NAZA mode and if so, you are aware that in NAZA there are 4 CSC modes (not just 1) arent you? Is it possible that you may have accidentally hit one of the CSC modes and shut it down accidentally?
 
A1962 said:
I've been flying my P2V for 6 months and have never had anything like this. This afternoon, during an otherwise uneventful, compass-calibrated, GPS locked flight of my P2V, with the copter at 175 ft altitude and approximately 200 feet away, with an unobstructed line of sight view, i suddenly lost camera signal, and telemetry, but had flight control; then 5 seconds later the aircraft dropped tumbling from the sky into a dense forest. It is lost & I really doubt we'll ever find it.

1) What happened?
2) this has really made me think about safety. If it had fallen on someone, it could have been a problem.

I experienced the exact same thing on sunday, 100 meters away, 50 meters up, 11 satellites, unobstructed line of sight. Taking photos (dng). Then tumbled out of the sky. Landed in high grass. NO damage to the craft, but powered off. Turned it on again, flew ok, but with some drift. Have you tried the "find my phantom" option under settings? It remembers the Phantoms last known GPS coordinates, so you should be able to open the dji app now, and it will still show the last time the phantom sent GPS to the app.
 
Thanks for all the ideas.

To recap, the flight was uneventful and in a familiar location. The crash sequence is what was puzzling. First i lost video and telemetry. I was in a sticks neutral hover, clear line of sight, about 200 ft away. The craft hovered for several seconds --long enough for me to recognize the telemetry feed loss, and to think "hey that's weird, I guess I'd better come home" -- at least 5 seconds hovering. *Then* it dropped from the sky like a rock. I did not execute any CSC (combo stick command).

I eventually recovered my P2V copter, but not before it had been rained upon.
Autopsy report:
Visible damage: blades chipped; camera detached and three (brown, red, orange) camera connection wires severed.
A bit of moisture in the underbody red & green light covers.
The copter powers up and receives input from the transmitter. The camera/wifi unit *can* broadcast a video signal.

To me, the question is what failure mode can cause the wifi signal to go out, but leave the motors running, then a few seconds later stop the engines? I was thinking about Electromagnetic Interference maybe?

The battery is 6 months old, with less than 50 cycles. And it still has plenty of power even after a couple nights in the rain.

The other question for the community is whom to call for repair? I must have tried DJI ten times on the phone, and three emails; can't get through, and no answer. Has anyone got a particularly good repair service recommendation?
 

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