Dji Phantom gets crazy and drops always

[aroca1978]

Hello

Writing this topic because I feel desperate. Please be patient with me and try to read the whole thing. See, I got this phantom 2 as a replacement for my first phantom 2 that I lost in a fly away (including H3-3D gimbal and gopro). So I bought this one with a H3-3D gimbal too and another gopro hero 3+black. Mentioning all this for you to see I have invested a lot already on this and I am feeling really frustrated.

In my first phantom I never had a problem. I was able to fly it perfectly, completely responsive. But since I got this, it has been problematic. See, I bought it in USA, and started flying it in Florida. The only issues I had there is that I never felt this phantom as stable as the first one I had, but it was not a problem, maybe it was because I wasn't too confident since I lost my first one. Ok. Then I traveled to my country, Colombia. I live in Bogota. And since then I have not been able to to a good flight.

First thing I have noticed is that it needs a battery fully charged to be able to take off. If I do it with a battery lets say, at 70% capacity, sometimes it takes off, sometimes it just hover 3ft and goes down.

I have been able to fly it almost fine for a couple of times, but after a few minutes it becomes unstable and starts dropping. Sometimes I have been able to recover it with full throttle but most of the times I have crashed. This week, I broke the gimbal, and scratched my gopro lens, so again, more than $500 in damages.

I always calibrate compass, I always wait for GPS fix, I have done IMU basic and advanced calibration, I have tried both Phantom and Naza mode, I have tried different gain settings, and always the same.

After I broke my gimbal, I downgraded to firmware 1.8 and then upgraded to 3.04 again. The next day I tried to fly it without any load. It was a good flight. Then I added the GPS tracker, and was a good flight as well.

Yesterday I decided to put the broken gimbal and my gopro to check if the load could affect it, . It did, but it crashed again, and was there when I scratched the lens.

[youtube]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diHofapPWi0[/youtube]

Video looks unstable most of the time because gimbal is not working anymore.
Time: 1:58, it starts going crazy, dropping, but I was able to recover it.
4:03, I was descending and I loose control again. (I never descend straight but moving forward to avoid unstability).It crashes and bounces.
6:06 Another flight attempt. 6:20 Look how hard it takes off. 7:02 lost control again and it crashes.
7:34 I change battery to a fully charged one. Recalibrated compass. Kind of good flight until 11:02 when it goes completely crazy and crashes.

I have checked with other pilots, and they are able to fly it here in Bogota. I have tries in different areas. Don't understand what could it be. I am using original DJI propellers. In fact I have broken so far at least 15 to 20 propellers and that is also taking good money

Please help me, I don't know what to do. I am desperate. I just want to be able to fly my phantom.


I just upgraded to 3.06. I was in 3.04. And will let you know the results.

MainController 3.06
GPS 6.0.1.4
Receiver-2.4G 1.0.0.18
P330CB 1.0.1.32
Battery 2.0.0.0

 

[aroca1978]

Little help please... I am clueless.

 

[q8f1]

That's a real bummer. I'm a newbie too, hopefully somebody more knowledgeable will be along soon.

Are you in GPS mode? What's that big satellite thing near you? Do you have the GoPro WIFI on? Have you calibrated the controls in both the RC and P2 software? What was the K index?

Hope you sort it, best of luck, Mark

 

[JDN]

Little help please... I am clueless.

The one and only time I really crashed my P2 hard was when the gimbal was not working after I had attempted a version update to V3.04. (The update to V3.04 made by gimbal stop working, until I finally resolved it later by doing a hard reset of the gimbal.) I wanted to see if I could fly the P2, even though the gimbal was limp and non-working. It crashed immediately after lift-off. I attributed the crash to the fact the gimbal and camera 'shifted' from one side to the other after take-off and I could not compensate for the shift in weight quickly enough to keep it flying. It's like it pulled the P2 sideways without me doing anything with the controller. I lost control and it crashed.

I'm convinced a P2 should be 'balanced' at all times during flight, to keep it flying within the parameters of the Naza controller with GPS on. I'm not experienced enough to know whether you could fly it 'manually' or not, with it being unbalanced. I believe your problem is with the H3-3D not working which is causing a weight distribution issue for the P2. If the H3-3D was working perfectly, I don't believe you would have this issue. Just my two cents....

 

[drice]

From my reading of this forum, this could well be VRS (Vortex Ring State). Vertical lift is lost because the craft descends into its own down-wash. From your video the Phantom gets unstable then rapidly descends which is what I would expect with VRS. Lifting ability is effected by air density (temperature and the high altitude of Bogota), weight, prop design, and very likely the use of prop guards. It looked like there was little if any wind to blow the disturbed air away from underneath the Phantom and this would make VRS more likely. So there are multiple conditions which contribute to VRS.

VRS is generally precipitated by a descent into the disturbed air that is too rapid for conditions. There are multiple posts regarding VRS as well as suggestions as to its recognition and avoidance.

I noticed that you take off from some type of pad on the ground. If there is any metal in this pad or it covers a metal lid, it can effect the compass and flight.

 

[d4ddyo]

there seems to bee an issue surfacing with the new firmware. Has something to do with the auto-land features and low voltage. There seems to be a bigger issue with "older" lipos. but you said you had this issue pre- 3.06. I do know that there were batterie issues pre-3.06.

 

[Kelso Kubat]

the battery issues were based on complete power loss and the craft falling out of the sky like a dead stick...
First thing i thought was VRS. its really easy to get into this and not know whats going on. practice practice practice is whats going to help.
heres some problem solving tips.
full charge on your batts ALWAYS... this goes for your TX too. you shouldn't be flying with 70% batts anyway.
use standard props. NO prop guards or CF's
wait for both rapid green sequences, then do compass cal.

don't fly it so far away and so high if you're not comfortable. small steps cost less

 

[aroca1978]

Thank you for all your replies. Finally I upgraded to 3.06, and Yeyterday I did some tests and broke the last propellers I had. Right now I am out of propellers so I won't be able to test for a couple of days.
For q8f1, that big satellite dish is an old tv satellite not in use anymore. gopro wifi is off all the time. Everything calibrated.
I am going to read more about VRS.
JDN, thanks, will see what happens if I can get the gimbal to be completely static. In fact I am going to put something static there with the same weight as the gimbal and gopro instead to test.
Here are the videos from yesterday. I tried in another park.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL ... hEXuzQKMhL
On each video I added description for payload, battery level, and results.

I was not able to test battery 1 with full payload. Need to test that to discard is a problem with battery 2. Battery 1 did well. Was able to have a pleasure flight with it. Battery 2 and payload, problems started. Please check the videos and let me know your comments.

Thank you.

 

[q8f1]

Hope you sort it.

 

[ianwood]

It's impossible to tell if the Phantom or the gimbal or both are broken here. IMU needs to be advanced calibrated after a crash. However, the crash at end is completely characteristic of a VRS stall.

 

[aroca1978]

Thank you again for the replies. I am reading about VRS and trying to learn how to avoid it.

Now... I would like to know if you have any suggestions, ideas on why my phantom is not able to take off or feels so unstable with full payload? (Gimbal h3-3d, gopro, immersion rc, iosd mini, tk102 gps tracker)

 

[Fyod]

Try taking the tracker off. I have the same setup as you and the TK102 was too much when I tested. It flew, but not well.

 

[drice]

Wikipedia lists the altitude of Bogota as 8660 feet. I think reduced lift related to the lower air density at that altitude is an issue with your payload as well as VRS. I read that DJI is releasing a new prop design to help with VRS which may help some of the issues you are having.

 

[aroca1978]

Ok, will remove it in my next flight but only for testing purposes. There must be something else to do. Don't know, better weight distribution, better motors, some way to adjust power, check something else. But there is no way I permanently take away the gps tracker when I already lost two months ago a phantom 2 + h3 3d gimbal + gopro hero 3 black in a fly away. I am open to ideas. This same unit was able to fly with all that without any issue in Florida. Why is not here? Does Bogota altitude affects so much? Why I can find in youtube a lot of people flying phantoms in snow mountains without issues and with same configuration?