Almost brand new Phantom 2 v2 crash - motor stopped mid-flight

Joined
Sep 12, 2015
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Age
42
Hello Phantom users (I'm sorry for my English - it's not my native language...)

In March 2014 I bought Phantom 2. Did more than 160 flights - no problem, no crash (but two close-calls on manual mode - my faults)! One month ago I sold this Phantom 2 and bought Phantom 2 v2 (new version with upgraded motors and lipo battery with indicator in controller). I did 10 flights and everything was fine until today...

During flight (8 minute, 55% battery left) on 60 meters my Phantom suddenly rotated by about 60-70 degrees (I saw this on my FPV screen) and half second later came back to normal, horizontal position but felt about 10 meters. I knew there is something wrong so I started flying back but 5 seconds later Phantom rotated again and tipped over - then I have lost signal on my FPV display.

Fortunately I found Phantom lying on the ground BUT with only 3 props and without any cracks on it's shell, battery was lying about 3 meters from quad. Camera was also fine! I couldn't find 4-th prop so I thought that engine stopped mid-flight for half-second and prop flew off. It seemed it was motor or esc failure or bad soldering on main or esc board.

I checked every solder on esc and main board and it looked fine BUT when I turned on my Phantom - one prop just flew off because one engine stopped. Check my video:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

So now I know that my crash was caused by motor or esc failure and I am VERY lucky because it didn't fell on tree, car, people, roof etc... and I know that we CANNOT TRUST Phantom. It can just fell randomly, damage cars and harm people. So I have to consider flying this toy because I don't want to go to jail because I killed somebody...

And... something else. One week ago I noticed strange Phantom behavior - during flight it suddenly rotated by about 45 degrees but I thought it was a wind gust or VRS - no ... it was first sign of motor / esc failure...

What to do now? Should I give it back to my seller?
 
Yes..I would go back to your dealer for a warranty replacement or repair. At least you have some video to back you up.

Fortunately my dealer is about 10 km from my home so I will go there on tuesday....
... but I FOUND what caused crash and what makes motor stop! When I took off top part of my phantom's shell - engines worked perfectly but when I put on this shell - one of engines stopped working because... this motor touches top shell (see attachment).

I read many stories about phantom crashes but I've never heard about top shell touching motor...
 

Attachments

  • motor_failure.jpg
    motor_failure.jpg
    85 KB · Views: 413
had same thing happened to my phantom v2 last week. I had over 200 flights, and on sunday, 10 minutes into the flight esc burned down mid flight and it crashed into the lake. Thanks god drone wasnt over people or cars. Ive lost all trust in this drone now. IT IS NOT 100% safe as it may at any moment turn it self off midflight and fall like a rock!
 
had same thing happened to my phantom v2 last week. I had over 200 flights, and on sunday, 10 minutes into the flight esc burned down mid flight and it crashed into the lake. Thanks god drone wasnt over people or cars. Ive lost all trust in this drone now. IT IS NOT 100% safe as it may at any moment turn it self off midflight and fall like a rock!

You are correct... they are NOT 100% safe... they never will be.
It's not made to standard aircraft safety specs.. so it's going to crash, either due to hardware failure or operator error.

It's just a matter of when... so fly it like it's made of egg shells and that the battery is full of dodgy Irish Leprechauns that will go on strike at any moment!!
 
Machines can fail.Dji phantom is a high quality product.Take care of it,check the basics before every flight and enjoy flying with this piece of art.
 
had same thing happened to my phantom v2 last week. I had over 200 flights, and on sunday, 10 minutes into the flight esc burned down mid flight and it crashed into the lake. Thanks god drone wasnt over people or cars. Ive lost all trust in this drone now. IT IS NOT 100% safe as it may at any moment turn it self off midflight and fall like a rock!
I wonder if these are the v1 ESCs or the v2 ESCs that are dying? Did the ESC say v2 on it?
 
I am on my second Phantom 2 and had an experience that was similar. I watched the phantom suddenly tumble out of the air as if I hit something but there was nothing around. I just figured that there was some sand in the motor or that some small bird flew into it.

Did you do any modifications to it like changing the ESC?
 

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
143,066
Messages
1,467,358
Members
104,936
Latest member
hirehackers