P2 Midair shutdown and crash

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Hello my name is Bruce I'm new to the board. I'm located in Clearwater FL.

I have a Phantom 2 that was given to me by a friend. (He stepped up to a Mavic). My Friend was uncomfortable flying it so It had been sitting for some time. I got it up and flying OK. Two of the three batteries were very good (15 minutes flight time) . The P2 has a H3-3D Gimbal on it, mini iOSD, and Fatshark FPV and Attitude FPV goggles.

Last week I started it up took off and realized I didn't hit the record button on the GoPro. I Broought it into a hover about 6' off the ground when it suddenly shut down, rolled to the left and crashed. I did a CSC after it hit the ground. I looked it over and everything looked OK. Turned the battery on and off It started up fine and flew around great. No problems.

Yesterday I took it out for another flight. Took of fine, let it hover around a bit. Moved it to a new spot. hovered a bit. Tried setting a new home position (first time trying it) that worked OK. I put on my FPV goggles and climbed straight up to about 200'. Again let it hover a moment while adjusting the FPV goggles. I was kinda looking around at the FPV OSD display when I heard the motors stop, I saw the drone start to roll to the left and begin to tumble. I took off the goggles to see where it was and what it was going to crash into, (hopefully not hit something or someone) when I saw it falling like a rock and then crash onto the street. Luckily it didn't hit anything.

The upper and lower cases are busted as is one landing gear and the battery was badly damaged but still on. The gimbal looks OK but I'm not 100% sure.

My question is has anyone else had this problem? Is it a known problem? I strongly doubt it is a battery shutting down due to overload or something since the FPV and iOSD were still transmitting. Unfortunately I didn't think to try restarting the motors since I was more worried about it crashing into someones house or car.


I can repair the crash damage to the case easily enough, but unless I can find a cause, I'm not going to bother.

BTW this P2 did the same thing to my friend that gave it to me a few years ago. He sent it back to DJI and they rebuilt it and sent it back to him.

I'll post pics later.

Thank you
 
Hello my name is Bruce I'm new to the board. I'm located in Clearwater FL.

I have a Phantom 2 that was given to me by a friend. (He stepped up to a Mavic). My Friend was uncomfortable flying it so It had been sitting for some time. I got it up and flying OK. Two of the three batteries were very good (15 minutes flight time) . The P2 has a H3-3D Gimbal on it, mini iOSD, and Fatshark FPV and Attitude FPV goggles.

Last week I started it up took off and realized I didn't hit the record button on the GoPro. I Broought it into a hover about 6' off the ground when it suddenly shut down, rolled to the left and crashed. I did a CSC after it hit the ground. I looked it over and everything looked OK. Turned the battery on and off It started up fine and flew around great. No problems.

Yesterday I took it out for another flight. Took of fine, let it hover around a bit. Moved it to a new spot. hovered a bit. Tried setting a new home position (first time trying it) that worked OK. I put on my FPV goggles and climbed straight up to about 200'. Again let it hover a moment while adjusting the FPV goggles. I was kinda looking around at the FPV OSD display when I heard the motors stop, I saw the drone start to roll to the left and begin to tumble. I took off the goggles to see where it was and what it was going to crash into, (hopefully not hit something or someone) when I saw it falling like a rock and then crash onto the street. Luckily it didn't hit anything.

The upper and lower cases are busted as is one landing gear and the battery was badly damaged but still on. The gimbal looks OK but I'm not 100% sure.

My question is has anyone else had this problem? Is it a known problem? I strongly doubt it is a battery shutting down due to overload or something since the FPV and iOSD were still transmitting. Unfortunately I didn't think to try restarting the motors since I was more worried about it crashing into someones house or car.


I can repair the crash damage to the case easily enough, but unless I can find a cause, I'm not going to bother.

BTW this P2 did the same thing to my friend that gave it to me a few years ago. He sent it back to DJI and they rebuilt it and sent it back to him.

I'll post pics later.

Thank you

Your friend didn't store the batteries properly and the end results were that it lost power while in flight. So if you decide to go ahead with the repairs replace those batteries. If you live in the states OEM batteries cost $129.00 but you can use aftermarket for $54.31 on eBay.
11.1V 5400mAH Battery For DJI Phantom 2 Vision+ LCD Power Display Quadcopter UB | eBay

Don't feel bad as you are not the only one to have this problem as it has been a hard learning lesson for many buying or receiving hand me down used equipment.
 
Your friend didn't store the batteries properly and the end results were that it lost power while in flight. So if you decide to go ahead with the repairs replace those batteries. If you live in the states OEM batteries cost $129.00 but you can use aftermarket for $54.31 on eBay.
11.1V 5400mAH Battery For DJI Phantom 2 Vision+ LCD Power Display Quadcopter UB | eBay

Don't feel bad as you are not the only one to have this problem as it has been a hard learning lesson for many buying or receiving hand me down used equipment.

I ended up getting new batteries for a very similar problem last week. Jason is correct.
 
Any other possible causes for this besides the batteries?

The reason I ask is the batteries were stored properly. The older ones he had were swollen and no good. Two were rather new. I cycled them all the way down and charged them. The DJI software said they had 99% life. I had flown them regularly and consistently got 15 minute flights. The first shut down in flight was in the first 30 seconds. Then I restarted the drone and flew 15 minutes. The shutdown with the crash was still sending FPV after the motors shut down.
 
My batteries displayed as good, but still had the same result, crashing. I could power back up also.

Are you getting any led flashing before it crashes?
 
Any other possible causes for this besides the batteries?

The reason I ask is the batteries were stored properly. The older ones he had were swollen and no good. Two were rather new. I cycled them all the way down and charged them. The DJI software said they had 99% life. I had flown them regularly and consistently got 15 minute flights. The first shut down in flight was in the first 30 seconds. Then I restarted the drone and flew 15 minutes. The shutdown with the crash was still sending FPV after the motors shut down.

Just because the camera was still recording after you shut down the motors that is normal and even after you power down the battery the camera will keep recording you just will not see it on the monitor.

Taking batteries down to say 8% then charging them back up to 100% does not mean the batteries will hold up if they were not stored properly in the first place. Too many are buying or receiving used P2 with batteries that were not stored at 50% and checked every few months to see that they haven't discharged below say 15 percent. Look aftermarket are reasonably priced and if I were you I'd buy a couple.

I would also find a safer place to fly than on the street but of course, you can still damage the quad if the batteries fail.
 
Tore the drone down the other day. Not worth the costs to fix. Besides the cases and landing gear, one motor is trashed, the battery smashed, esc board broken, gimbal is bent, power distribution board is broken....

No lights blinked before shut down, fpv and OSD signal feed was not lost. I get the gopro is seperate, unfortunately I was not recording cause that would have made an epic crash video. Picked up a P3 Pro.

Thank you
 

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