DJI PV+ Flyaway - Crash - Definition (all about flyways)

[faadi80]

Hello People.
So i just crashed my DJI Phantom 2 Vision +. Before flying it the today (06/04/2014), I calibrated the phantom and than went on doing some test on it. As soon as I flew it in the air, it went off control in other words it flew away. It went really hight and all of a sudden dropped on the grass big time about 200ft away from me. When I checked it, the camera was broken from the gimbal, battery housing was cracked and was lying 30ft away from the phantom and one of the propeller was broken as well. I inserted the 2nd battery to see if this thing turns on, I was glad that it turned on but the camera is completely broken (pictures can be found on (http://www.fahadsworld.com/Drone.html)
Now the main issue is that I bought my DJI from B&H Photo, what should I do? Should I contact DJI about the repairs and warranty etc or contact B&H? A quick response will be really appreciated.
Since this is a flyaway problem what should i do? I am a semi-professional RC pilot. I am not a technical person but had numerous RC helicopters and airplanes in the past. I know how to handle RC toys and the DJI is very easy to handle but this time I don't know what happened.

I need help guys.

 

[EMCSQUAR]

Re: DJI Phantom Vision + Flyaway problem and Crash

Return it to B&H. If you contact DJI and DO get through without extended wait time, they'll just tell you to contact your dealer.

 

[Mal_PV2_Ireland]

Re: DJI Phantom Vision + Flyaway problem and Crash

Im sorry for your loss and sorry if I seem cynical of a first time poster and first time crasher again but the term flyaway is a very broadly term used. Can you give a full account of exact details of what happened. Again I'm sorry for your loss

 

[faadi80]

Re: DJI Phantom Vision + Flyaway problem and Crash

@EMCSQUAR: B&H will ask me why I am returning it? What should I tell them? and dude, thanks for the response, i really appreciate it.

@Mal_PV2_Ireland: Basically whatever I stated above, that's what happened. As soon as the Phantom left the ground, it went really high and I couldn't control it. It flew away from me about 200ft and may be about 100ft up in the sky and than fell on the grass in the golf course. I saw pieces (camera, battery, propeller) fly away from the phantom.

 

[Mal_PV2_Ireland]

Re: DJI Phantom Vision + Flyaway problem and Crash

@EMCSQUAR: B&H will ask me why I am returning it? What should I tell them? and dude, thanks for the response, i really appreciate it.

@Mal_PV2_Ireland: Basically whatever I stated above, that's what happened. As soon as the Phantom left the ground, it went really high and I couldn't control it. It flew away from me about 200ft and may be about 100ft up in the sky and than fell on the grass in the golf course. I saw pieces (camera, battery, propeller) fly away from the phantom.

Again sorry mate but I really scrutinise when someone says flyaway, and just to prepare you for other members responses. I have never heard of a phantom just flying straight up and then flying away and then especially just landing and crashing. I'm just gonna be devil's advocate because this is what dji or b&h will want to know before entertaining you. Listen dont take me up the wrong way, I can be callus and straight with my answers, its nothing personal at all but can you give us more info like how long you own it, did you get home lock, what firmware version was on your bird, what app version, did u calibrate it in open grassy areas or urban, had you checked your imu mod values before flying there is a huge list that goes on and the more info you can give the more chance that we may be able to come up with a reason why it happened. 99% of the time with full info there is an actual reason.

 

[faadi80]

Re: DJI Phantom Vision + Flyaway problem and Crash

@EMCSQUAR: B&H will ask me why I am returning it? What should I tell them? and dude, thanks for the response, i really appreciate it.

@Mal_PV2_Ireland: Basically whatever I stated above, that's what happened. As soon as the Phantom left the ground, it went really high and I couldn't control it. It flew away from me about 200ft and may be about 100ft up in the sky and than fell on the grass in the golf course. I saw pieces (camera, battery, propeller) fly away from the phantom.

Again sorry mate but I really scrutinise when someone says flyaway, and just to prepare you for other members responses. I have never heard of a phantom just flying straight up and then flying away and then especially just landing and crashing. I'm just gonna be devil's advocate because this is what dji or b&h will want to know before entertaining you. Listen dont take me up the wrong way, I can be callus and straight with my answers, its nothing personal at all but can you give us more info like how long you own it, did you get home lock, what firmware version was on your bird, what app version, did u calibrate it in open grassy areas or urban, had you checked your imu mod values before flying there is a huge list that goes on and the more info you can give the more chance that we may be able to come up with a reason why it happened. 99% of the time with full info there is an actual reason.

It's absolutely all right and that's good that you are being straight forward.
I got the Phantom 2 vision + last week. So most probably it has the newest firmware (don't know which one though) Yes, I calibrated it before flying. As far as the IMU is concerned, I did not recalibrate that because the last 2 times when I tested the Vision + it worked just fine. But this time no idea what happened.
This is exactly what happened:
I placed the Vision + on a table outside and calibrated it. I turned the phantom on and let it ran for few seconds and then gave it a little throttle. It flew up slowly, stood still in the air for a few seconds. When I gave it a little more throttle, all of sudden, the DJI stopped responding and I lost control and it started flying away from me. I tried to control it but had no luck. It flew about 200 feet away and about 100 feet up in the sky and then dropped on the ground. Rest of the story is written above.

 

[Mako79]

Re: DJI Phantom Vision + Flyaway problem and Crash

Out of curiosity, did it fly in the direction of your LAST known HOME position?
And when it went up, was it about 20m up? Could you have set RTH on your switches and a false home lock was acquired?
Did you use cheap AA batteries?

Did you set horizontal and flight limits in your Phantom Assistance. Ie, if you set 400m max horizontal, the moment you exceed that range, it will try to fly back automatically to the home position with the 400m radius.

Prevention:
I'm no expert but...
Those who read this, try this before launching. Get the 6> satellites (duh). Don't start the motor. Pick it up by the arm so you don't cover the GPS and walk around in a figure 8. This will prevent "erroneous" false GPS lock. Place it down on a cardboard box or storage box (avoid concrete slabs with rebar or metal) and with NAZA mode activated, reset the home position manually by (left toggle switch) click IOC OFF, IOC Course Lock, repeat 5-8 times quickly and you will see the lights flash rapidly green again. So just to rephrase, left toggle, switch to UP, THEN MIDDLE about 5-8 times till you RAPID GREEN FLASHES. This locks the "new" home position. Start her up with all toggle switches up. Get her to hover in front you and do the avionics check. Redo the Click OFF, Course lock again and this will guarantee the new home position. You can do this in mid flight to lock new home positions.

Another way to check home position is locked correctly is the orienteering on your phone/display (bottom left corner). Maximise it. Now walk around the phantom or spin her around. If you are standing at the home position then if you spin her 180, then red arrow should be looking at the home position (which is you). If not, then its home position is somewhere else.

 

[faadi80]

Re: DJI Phantom Vision + Flyaway problem and Crash

Out of curiosity, did it fly in the direction of your LAST known HOME position?
And when it went up, was it about 20m up? Could you have set RTH on your switches and a false home lock was acquired?
Did you use cheap AA batteries?

Did you set horizontal and flight limits in your Phantom Assistance. Ie, if you set 400m max horizontal, the moment you exceed that range, it will try to fly back automatically to the home position with the 400m radius.

Prevention:
I'm no expert but...
Those who read this, try this before launching. Get the 6> satellites (duh). Don't start the motor. Pick it up by the arm so you don't cover the GPS and walk around in a figure 8. This will prevent "erroneous" false GPS lock. Place it down on a cardboard box or storage box (avoid concrete slabs with rebar or metal) and with NAZA mode activated, reset the home position manually by (left toggle switch) click IOC OFF, IOC Course Lock, repeat 5-8 times quickly and you will see the lights flash rapidly green again. So just to rephrase, left toggle, switch to UP, THEN MIDDLE about 5-8 times till you RAPID GREEN FLASHES. This locks the "new" home position. Start her up with all toggle switches up. Get her to hover in front you and do the avionics check. Redo the Click OFF, Course lock again and this will guarantee the new home position. You can do this in mid flight to lock new home positions.

Another way to check home position is locked correctly is the orienteering on your phone/display (bottom left corner). Maximise it. Now walk around the phantom or spin her around. If you are standing at the home position then if you spin her 180, then red arrow should be looking at the home position (which is you). If not, then its home position is somewhere else.

I am not really a technical person but I will try to answer your questions.
Yes, it did flew in the last know home position. In other simple words, I placed the table at the same spot and like the last 2 times, it took off exactly the same like it did last time.
Approximately it was about 20m up in the sky. When calibrated the Vision + I put the switch at the same spot where it was before.
No, I did not use cheap batteries. Today I put a brand new new fully charged duracell batteries.

 

[JimDE]

Re: DJI Phantom Vision + Flyaway problem and Crash

faad, I am trying to understand wha went wrong but this comment "I placed the Vision + on a table outside and calibrated it." Has me thinking as to what exactly you mean and questions about the table as well.

First question: Is this table metal or have a lot of metal in it?

You did not calibrate the vision on the table right? You picked it up and did the prescribed compass calibration procedure, correct?

 

[4wd]

Re: DJI Phantom Vision + Flyaway problem and Crash

Out of curiosity, did it fly in the direction of your LAST known HOME position?


Prevention:
I'm no expert but...
Those who read this, try this before launching. Get the 6> satellites (duh). Don't start the motor. Pick it up by the arm so you don't cover the GPS and walk around in a figure 8. This will prevent "erroneous" false GPS lock. Place it down on a cardboard box or storage box (avoid concrete slabs with rebar or metal) and with NAZA mode activated, reset the home position manually by (left toggle switch) click IOC OFF, IOC Course Lock, repeat 5-8 times quickly and you will see the lights flash rapidly green again. So just to rephrase, left toggle, switch to UP, THEN MIDDLE about 5-8 times till you RAPID GREEN FLASHES. This locks the "new" home position. Start her up with all toggle switches up. Get her to hover in front you and do the avionics check. Redo the Click OFF, Course lock again and this will guarantee the new home position. You can do this in mid flight to lock new home positions.

That is incorrect information, doing that resets course lock.
You toggle between the two lower positions to reset the home location manually.

 

[faadi80]

Re: DJI Phantom Vision + Flyaway problem and Crash

faad, I am trying to understand wha went wrong but this comment "I placed the Vision + on a table outside and calibrated it." Has me thinking as to what exactly you mean and questions about the table as well.

First question: Is this table metal or have a lot of metal in it?

You did not calibrate the vision on the table right? You picked it up and did the prescribed compass calibration procedure, correct?

OH MY GOD. That's just too much explanation. I feel like I am not and can't express myself in the right way and I am sorry about that but let me try again.

JimDE, I did the regular calibration not on the table outside (which is made of metal. I used that table for take off only because I didn't want to damage the camera by touching the grass when landing it. I thought I may mess up the gimbal if the grass keep touching the camera) but inside my living room by the kitchen on counter top like where you sit and eat, there is no metal there, just wood counter top. The calibration which is mentioned on the Quick Start Guide. It has the steps how to calibrate the compass. I also saw the same calibration method on YouTube. SO yes, i did follow the prescribed compass calibration procedure.
Rest of the story is all mentioned above. I am just frustrated and worried. I checked the camera online and its like $1000. Do you know what is my option? should I contact DJI or B&H? Will they help me or my money just went down the drain?

@Mako79 I followed the instructions and the method mentioned on the Quick Start Guide to toggle the S1 switch rapidly 5times and than rotate 360 horizontally around the center until Rear LED flight indicators turned Green and 360 vertically with nose pointing to the ground until Rear LED flight indicators resume normal blinking patterns. That's what I did. Everything looked normal but never knew that it will crash that bad

So bottom line is, what are my options. If you guys were me, what would you guys do?

Sorry guys, I am not a technical person but I do know how to fly these things. I flew the Vision + couple of times already and everything was just great until now

 

[faadi80]

Re: DJI Phantom Vision + Flyaway problem and Crash

I hope my question will be answered and I really really thank all of you for replying to my post. But I am still clueless. I don't know what to do

 

[Doono]

Re: DJI Phantom Vision + Flyaway problem and Crash

Out of curiosity, did it fly in the direction of your LAST known HOME position?


Prevention:
I'm no expert but...
Those who read this, try this before launching. Get the 6> satellites (duh). Don't start the motor. Pick it up by the arm so you don't cover the GPS and walk around in a figure 8. This will prevent "erroneous" false GPS lock. Place it down on a cardboard box or storage box (avoid concrete slabs with rebar or metal) and with NAZA mode activated, reset the home position manually by (left toggle switch) click IOC OFF, IOC Course Lock, repeat 5-8 times quickly and you will see the lights flash rapidly green again. So just to rephrase, left toggle, switch to UP, THEN MIDDLE about 5-8 times till you RAPID GREEN FLASHES. This locks the "new" home position. Start her up with all toggle switches up. Get her to hover in front you and do the avionics check. Redo the Click OFF, Course lock again and this will guarantee the new home position. You can do this in mid flight to lock new home positions.

That is incorrect information, doing that resets course lock.
You toggle between the two lower positions to reset the home location manually.

 

[faadi80]

Re: DJI Phantom Vision + Flyaway problem and Crash

I didn't touch the S2 at all. I moved up and down the S1 only.

 

[Dirty Bird]

Re: DJI Phantom Vision + Flyaway problem and Crash

I did the regular calibration not on the table outside (which is made of metal. I used that table for take off only

Sorry about the damage to your Vision+, but we may have just discovered the reason for your Phantom's odd behavior. Is the metal table from which you launched comprised of ferrous metal? Will a magnet stick to it? If so, launching from the metal table may have thrown your compass off. Also, if I recall correctly, you mentioned in an earlier post that you powered on the aircraft, waited a few seconds, started the motors, and took off. Did you have a satellite lock and flashing green-only from the rear lights?

 

[faadi80]

Re: DJI Phantom Vision + Flyaway problem and Crash

I did the regular calibration not on the table outside (which is made of metal. I used that table for take off only

Sorry about the damage to your Vision+, but we may have just discovered the reason for your Phantom's odd behavior. Is the metal table from which you launched comprised of ferrous metal? Will a magnet stick to it? If so, launching from the metal table may have thrown your compass off. Also, if I recall correctly, you mentioned in an earlier post that you powered on the aircraft, waited a few seconds, started the motors, and took off. Did you have a satellite lock and flashing green-only from the rear lights?

Thanks for your reply. You know what, I don't remember and to be honest, after the calibration on the kitchen top where you eat I thought that was it. Also I am not sure if a magnet will stick to that table. I used the same table last couple of times and it worked just fine, in fact great. I loved flying this thing.

So what do you say... will DJI or B&H help me?

 

[Dirty Bird]

Re: DJI Phantom Vision + Flyaway problem and Crash

Thanks for your reply. You know what, I don't remember and to be honest, after the calibration on the kitchen top where you eat I thought that was it. Also I am not sure if a magnet will stick to that table. I used the same table last couple of times and it worked just fine, in fact great. I loved flying this thing.

So what do you say... will DJI or B&H help me?

I'm not sure? I would try B&H first. I don't think I'd mention the part about the metal table or not being sure if you had a lock before launching.

 

[JamesD]

Re: DJI Phantom Vision + Flyaway problem and Crash

Awful Story. Short of not believing this at all... (Why wouldn't you call DJI or B&H as soon as it happened?)

But, because I believe people are mostly honest and not just story tellers...

I still don't think the compass was calibrated correctly. I've never used a table to calibrate. Wood, metal, or otherwise!

A couple of seconds before taking off? I usually need at least 20-30 before all lights say "OKAY"

Even if the compass, GPS, HL, or anything else was improperly set, a simple "throttle up" would have at least sent her skyward, no?

So after careful investigation, I've concluded that I think the pilot was holding the transmitter upside down.



Jimmy

 

[Mal_PV2_Ireland]

Re: DJI Phantom Vision + Flyaway problem and Crash

Ah now Jimmy come on, we're trying to help this guy out. That's just not fair. Look I kind of agree it was down to the compass going haywire and possibly bad calibration but thats too late now. Dont even bother getting in touch with dji, you're only slim hope is getting in touch with b&h. You might have a slim chance of recourse with them. Read through all the other stories about "flyaways" and familiarise yourself with them.

 

[pawnmeister]

Re: DJI Phantom Vision + Flyaway problem and Crash

so...the obvious questions...semi-professional RC pilot? not detail oriented?