Fly Away - P3 Pro: How to Counter the DJI Response

I do not see any signs of flyaway. The input to RC sicks matches more or less the flight path even though you apply some right roll which doesn't seem to reflect in the flight path.
Im no battery expert but the batteries have an issue. I do not know what the tempature was but I think BudWalker still working on finding the ambient temp ;)
You will see the individual gauges of the Battery's 4 cells indicating their individual voltage. The fifth cell called voltage spread is the difference between lowest and highest voltage value.
The voltage spread is also indicated in the middle chart. You will note it goes upto 0.25v. Normally on a good battery, this chart should be flat or close to flat with maximum occasional variance of 0.1v
So some of your cells are toast -
On side note amps and watts look usual numbers. Only at end of flight do they spike down (strange) and then up. That makes me think that nothing stuck in your motor, bad prop or other mechanical issue.
Total voltage goes to 12 volts, battery cuts off and you crash.

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Next time you fly, avoid the FPV & use the Map instead to come back to you. Might be helpful when you really need it.

This is wisdom in those words.

We practiced fire drills in school, no? We plan what to do in tornadoes, no? We tell our kids what to do if they ever get lost, no? I, for one, practice at the range to prepare for someone breaking into my home. Why not practice emergency procedures with our copters, when we are calm and there is no emergency?

All of these things prepare us for when there IS an emergency.
 
I couldn't agree more with your last statement as well as your entire contribution to this thread. I would also add that one shouldn't rely on the solely map, consider learning to fly by determining orientation then fly manually, that's assuming your are flying VLOS. Also, whenever possible fly into the wind so that in the event of a signal disruption the wind will not be your enemy and could actually assist you since the bird will be flying with the wind rather than against it.

I am thinking if you lose FPV you lose all the indicators on the DJI go app...or you are on the verge of it. They are all signals coming back from the aircraft to the transmitter same as the video signal. I could see a point where you loose video but still have them since they require a lower bitrate, but I do not think you can count on them under those circumstances....perhaps those guys that run them out of range can comment....How much farther do you get after losing FPV and how much longer do you get GPS position and other flight data before you lose RC and it RTH....

Also, if you can't RTH I doubt you could fly it anyway except by line of sight. RTH will fail with compass or GPS issues, both of which will affect the position and direction shown on the map...

downloading the .dat file now....
 
I agree it seems to be some kind of battery issue, there is some weird surges in the current draw as well. I started comparing to part of a normal flight and found the initial voltage drop to be higher than what I have come to expect. I started looking at the average motor load and found them higher as well, then I realized with the name you must be flying in Colorado! That higher elevation would definitely increase the load required to fly! (I don't think that is related to the incident) How old was this battery and how many charges? What is the shape of your P3 (motors free and stuff)? Check the chart below, Current 2 and Voltage 2 are from the start of a normal flight, notice the voltage drops and plateaus at 15.5 V while the other one initially drops to 14.4 volts. The voltage per cell never gets below 3.7 on the normal flight while on the suspect flight it gets below 3.5V fairly quickly.

battery.png
 
I do not see any signs of flyaway. The input to RC sicks matches more or less the flight path even though you apply some right roll which doesn't seem to reflect in the flight path.
Im no battery expert but the batteries have an issue. I do not know what the tempature was but I think BudWalker still working on finding the ambient temp ;)
You will see the individual gauges of the Battery's 4 cells indicating their individual voltage. The fifth cell called voltage spread is the difference between lowest and highest voltage value.
The voltage spread is also indicated in the middle chart. You will note it goes upto 0.25v. Normally on a good battery, this chart should be flat or close to flat with maximum occasional variance of 0.1v
So some of your cells are toast -
On side note amps and watts look usual numbers. Only at end of flight do they spike down (strange) and then up. That makes me think that nothing stuck in your motor, bad prop or other mechanical issue.
Total voltage goes to 12 volts, battery cuts off and you crash.

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For more detailed information, see our cookies page.
What app is showing all the eye candy?
 
Last edited:
I agree it seems to be some kind of battery issue, there is some weird surges in the current draw as well. I started comparing to part of a normal flight and found the initial voltage drop to be higher than what I have come to expect. I started looking at the average motor load and found them higher as well, then I realized with the name you must be flying in Colorado! That higher elevation would definitely increase the load required to fly! (I don't think that is related to the incident) How old was this battery and how many charges? What is the shape of your P3 (motors free and stuff)? Check the chart below, Current 2 and Voltage 2 are from the start of a normal flight, notice the voltage drops and plateaus at 15.5 V while the other one initially drops to 14.4 volts. The voltage per cell never gets below 3.7 on the normal flight while on the suspect flight it gets below 3.5V fairly quickly.

View attachment 41099
This from the config log
10646 : [ 4480] => g_raw.battery_info.design_capacity_0
10658 : [ 4286] => g_raw.battery_info.full_charge_capacity_0
10670 : [ 4286] => g_raw.battery_info.remaining_capacity_0
10682 : [ 16830] => g_raw.battery_info.pack_voltage_0
10694 : [ 64486] => g_raw.battery_info.current_0
10706 : [ 100] => g_raw.battery_info.life_percentage_0
10718 : [ 100] => g_raw.battery_info.capacity_percentage_0
10730 : [ 16] => g_raw.battery_info.temperature_0
10742 : [ 15] => g_raw.battery_info.cycle_count_0
10754 : [ 670] => g_raw.battery_info.serial_number_0
10766 : [ 4180] => g_raw.battery_info.cell_voltage[0]_0
10778 : [ 4200] => g_raw.battery_info.cell_voltage[1]_0
10790 : [ 4218] => g_raw.battery_info.cell_voltage[2]_0
10802 : [ 4231] => g_raw.battery_info.cell_voltage[3]_0
10814 : [ 0] => g_raw.battery_info.cell_voltage[4]_0
10826 : [ 32768] => g_raw.battery_info.cell_voltage[5]_0
10838 : [ 64830] => g_raw.battery_info.average_current_0
10850 : [ 0] => g_raw.battery_info.right_0
10862 : [ 0] => g_raw.battery_info.error_count_0
10874 : [ 0] => g_raw.battery_info.n_discharge_times_0
10886 : [ 16967] => g_real.status.main_battery_voltage_0
10898 : [ 11300] => g_real.config_status.voltage_temp_for_calibrate_0
10910 : [ 0] => g_real.config_status.voltage_calibrate_state_0
 
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Try posting about this on the DJI forum with your ticket number. One of the mods may escalate your ticket.
 
I'm not sure that a bad compass would mean the P3 could not successfully RTH. In theory a GPS point logged as the Home Point before takeoff should be enough. RTH should be able to return the P3 to that exact GPS point without having to return nose first.

I'm not saying this is how DJi implemented RTH as we all know the P3 does indeed point it's nose first to the home point before proceeding back. I just think it's silly the P3 needs compass for RTH.
 
How many cycles did you have on your battery? I realize that for every thread where something happens, there are hundreds/thousands of successful flights.

It still scares me though. If I spend $1000+ on a drone, to have it fail with no fault of my own in the first few months would CRUSH me. I could deal with it if I were at fault (I will take all precautions to avoid).

I know I may get some grief for saying this, but I wish yuneec (or even 3dr) had something equivalent to lightbridge....
 
We seem to be getting picky here and when my signal is lost, I get the warning; image signal low or something to that effect. Rather than try to figure it out exactly what happened based on the terminology spoken by the OP versus his memory of what happened, best we take his word for it and wish him less panic in the future. One thing he did right here is to open it up for discussion. I learn a lot just from listening. Experience is our best teacher in the drone school of hard knocks.

I get what you are saying but in this instance those words ARE very specific and mean exactly what he says.

Both CONNECTION LOST and VIDEOSIGNAL lost are real app messages.
Both have an exact meaning.
When video is lost , full control of aircraft is still working.
If LOS not much issue.
if FPV and out of sight. maybe problem.

words do have meaning
and when trouble shooting they can make the difference

good luck and have fun flying!
 
I get what you are saying but in this instance those words ARE very specific and mean exactly what he says.

Both CONNECTION LOST and VIDEOSIGNAL lost are real app messages.
Both have an exact meaning.
When video is lost , full control of aircraft is still working.
If LOS not much issue.
if FPV and out of sight. maybe problem.

words do have meaning
and when trouble shooting they can make the difference

good luck and have fun flying!

I would agree with you. However, my point was that in the original conversation between all those attempting to help, nobody seemed to know what exactly he said or the app said. That is why trying to pin it down was pointless at that point. Thanks and you have a good flight too.
 
I had a definite Fly Away with my P3 Pro on December 13. I have retained the video (from the cloud) and it shows the copter flying with no issues, no obstructions in the area, copter was heading NNW at 20 MPH, then a display of "No Signal". I immediately switched from Course Lock to GPS only, and activated Return to Home,... No change. I jumped in my vehicle and headed towards where I knew the copter last was (it was still beeping from RTH), but no change. The video shows no errors in flight, just a loss in signal, It could have kept flying.

I submitted the customer form and video to DJI, and they responded stating that the copter lost signal, that it must be due to external interference and offered a discount on a new unit. I need to know how to counter that statement. My best comeback is that if the copter loses signal (for what ever reason) it is suppose to Return to Home.

Any suggestions are appreciated here.

Kevin

Hey there. I just read what happened to your phantom 3 pro. I live in NYC and was flying it down in North Carolina a few days ago, my phantom did the same exact thing, "lost signal" and literally disappeared. What was the outcome from you dji claim? Any advice? I just submitted a ticket/survey to have them look all the info over. I don't have high hopes... Thanks, Stephan
 
OP said he experienced "No Signal" which means he lost "Video Signal" & not "Connection Lost" Meaning he could have still brought it back to him. However, in the "Connection Lost" in that case the craft would have initiated RTH on it's own.
Finally, a voice of reason.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app
 
Hey there. I just read what happened to your phantom 3 pro. I live in NYC and was flying it down in North Carolina a few days ago, my phantom did the same exact thing, "lost signal" and literally disappeared
Have you worked out what happened?
Did you find your Phantom?
If you are wanting to deal with DJI, it would be to your advantage to have some understanding of what went wrong and the knowledge is useful to all Phantom Pilots to prevent similar occurrences.

Go to https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/
Follow the instructions to upload your flight record. the experienced people here will probably be able to analyse it and give you an understanding of the cause of the incident and perhaps point you to a likely area to search for the Phantom.
 
2 things. 1, if you still had control, and just no video, and you were using course lock, holding down the right stick should have brought the copter back to you. 2, another option would be to shut off the controller. RTH should have initiated in 3 seconds.
 

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