Another mysterious crash

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After about 10 days of P3P ownership, my nightmare just came true. Took off from backyard and climbed to about to 130 ft. While yawing the aircraft to level the horizon, it started spinning furiously and crashed into my neighbor's backyard. The shell is pretty beat up, propellers broke, camera flew off the gimbal into a bush, gimbal detached from the aircraft, etc.

These all happened within 50 seconds of flight time. Latest firmware and DJI Go app on iPhone 6. However, it wasn't the first time flying with the latest firmware. It looked like something malfunctioned pretty hard.

Now dealing with DJI support is going to my next nightmare. Already opened up a case with an RMA. I was told the turnaround time was 4-6 weeks.

I have the flight record from DJI Go. Unfortunately, I didn't even get a chance to start video recording yet when it fell from the sky and video cache was off. I saw FPV action right on the screen and it was so horrifying. What else can I retrieve from the aircraft before shipping to them?
 
Sorry for your trouble... that sucks :( It sounds like you had some sort of complete compass failure. What did you take off from? Had you done an IMU and compass calibration after the upgrade? Unfortunately there could be a lot of things that went wrong to cause this.... but based on the brief description the compass is my first suspect....
 
A compass issue doesn't cause out of control spinning. Nor will an IMU condition. This is all tied to a prop, motor, or ESC issue. Were all the prop hubs still on the motors?

You should pull all the flight logs from the P3 also, just so you have a record. But that's only possible if it will power on
 
Took off from my deck in my backyard. Always did it that way. Did not calibrate since there is no official recommendation from DJI to do that after an upgrade (only from people posting in forums).
 
A compass issue doesn't cause out of control spinning. Nor will an IMU condition. This is all tied to a prop, motor, or ESC issue. Were all the prop hubs still on the motors?

You should pull all the flight logs from the P3 also, just so you have a record. But that's only possible if it will power on

Really? (not being sarcastic) - I was thinking that if the Phantom was receiving no information from the compass it could cause such a spin? I guess the question would be... what does the Phantom do if it loses all compass info?

_Astronaut not accusing or blaming... just asking the question and if I didn't ask - someone else would.

As far as taking off from a deck... I have had times where that went well and times where the screws in the deck caused a compass error... but as Streve points out - compass may not be the culprit.
 
A compass issue doesn't cause out of control spinning. Nor will an IMU condition. This is all tied to a prop, motor, or ESC issue. Were all the prop hubs still on the motors?

You should pull all the flight logs from the P3 also, just so you have a record. But that's only possible if it will power on

It still turns on it I think. It makes the same beeps when I turn it on. Can you point me instructions on how to pull down flight logs? I tried connect a micro usb from the aircraft body to my computer, but it doesn't see a storage device.
 
It still turns on it I think. It makes the same beeps when I turn it on. Can you point me instructions on how to pull down flight logs? I tried connect a micro usb from the aircraft body to my computer, but it doesn't see a storage device.
Open the go app and have the P3 on. Hit the menu button.. top right corner
Then hit the drone tab.. top option
Now hit Advanced Options
Then select ENTER FLIGHT DATA MODE.
Then connect the USB cable to the micro-usb on the front
 
Really? (not being sarcastic) - I was thinking that if the Phantom was receiving no information from the compass it could cause such a spin? I guess the question would be... what does the Phantom do if it loses all compass info?

_Astronaut not accusing or blaming... just asking the question and if I didn't ask - someone else would.

As far as taking off from a deck... I have had times where that went well and times where the screws in the deck caused a compass error... but as Streve points out - compass may not be the culprit.
A compass issue shows almost always to be a ever increasing spiral. Not just spinning. And it appears that switching to ATTI mode will most always recover the failure.
 
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A compass issue shows almost always to be a ever increasing spiral. Not just spinning. And it appears that switching to ATTI mode will most always recover the failure.

good to know :) thanks....
 
A compass issue shows almost always to be a ever increasing spiral. Not just spinning. And it appears that switching to ATTI mode will most always recover the failure.

Looks like it's a no go. Although the aircraft turns on, I'm not able to connect to it via DJI Go connected to RC via USB cable. When I go to enter flight data mode, it says I had successfully enter that mode and could connect a USB cable to the aircraft. However, connecting it the computer doesn't mount a file system volume.

Also, when you say "switching to ATTI mode will most always recover the failure", do you mean that if it starts spinning in P-GPS mode, I can switch to ATTI and will be able take control again?
 
When I had a couple compass errors when I first got the P3, it switched to ATTI Mode on its own. I was curious as to whether actively switching it to ATTI Mode on the controller would do anything different in that situation. I didn't think to do it as I was busy trying to not crash.
 
Several people have saved crashes and "fly aways" by switching to ATTI mode. But as you said, frantically trying to recover doesn't always lead to time to think about whats actually happening.
 
Looks like it's a no go. Although the aircraft turns on, I'm not able to connect to it via DJI Go connected to RC via USB cable. When I go to enter flight data mode, it says I had successfully enter that mode and could connect a USB cable to the aircraft. However, connecting it the computer doesn't mount a file system volume.

Also, when you say "switching to ATTI mode will most always recover the failure", do you mean that if it starts spinning in P-GPS mode, I can switch to ATTI and will be able take control again?

upload the flightlog from your device, this is a txt file.
 
Doesn't sound like the compass at all. Violent spinning is a prop not spinning from either a prop coming off, motor stopped working, esc gone bad, bird strike.....
 
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OK I got the data from connecting to iTunes (don't remember the last I had to use iTunes). Anyway, I uploaded to HealthyDrones and everything looks ok except for the Compass info below:

advppvC.png
 

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