P3 crash, ugh!

[flyguyphl]

I did take off under all those trees, there's a small hole there going up, but manageable. I had good gps signal the whole flight it says. Also had good radio signal the whole flight. We're not talking about a small deviation here, the thing all of a sudden banked hard to the right there and I made no control movement on the right stick. When I lost sight of it behind the trees, I pushed up on the left stick to try to get some altitude but to no avail. Maybe it crashed into the trees there where it says the compass went crazy, spinning it around.

I'm thinking I hit a big gust of wind up there once I cleared the tree line and it busted one of my props which made it lose control? The dat file conversion program says max wind gust 26 mph. Still not too crazy though. Healthy drones says max speed 56mph, but my log on the app at one point had it at 77!

 

[flyguyphl]

Here's a screen shot of the final few seconds.

 

[flyguyphl]

Think I should replace the compass module while I have it ooen?

 

[Scott7161]

I had the exact same thing happen the other night and looked at my flight logs and my P3P did the same thing - switching between ATTI and GPS modes but went totally out of control and crashed. I wasn't as lucky as you and the camera came off. I'm sending mine to DJI - and I'm just lucky nobody was hurt. Since I've been reading that other people are having the same problem, it must be a known issue at DJI.

Scott

 

[flyguyphl]

Out if curiosity, what did DJI tell you. Would they cover it under warranty? How long to get it back? Are they paying for shipping both ways?

 

[snowghost]

Mine did that early on due to compass error. It appeared to be out of control but it was due to ATTI mode and wind.

Was able to land safely due to extensive flying and practicing with the X5C.

 

[flyguyphl]

While I admit that I did lose sight of it, all I was doing was pushing up on the left stick to gain altitude. Even if it was drifting in the wind in atti mode, it still should've gained altitude. I'm starting to think it was inverted at the end and me pushing up was actually causing it to head towards the ground even faster. That would explain the 77 mph v.s. that is not normally attainable in the p3.

But then again, that 77 mph v.s. could just be an error since the altitude was generally staying the same during that time. Who knows.

 

[2fast4u]

I uploaded your log to healthydrones and see the compass showing a high turn rate at two points:

I noticed you already got the first Atti error a bit before this:

If you play back in your app, at what point did it really start to get out of control? With the first Atti error, or after the compass errors?

 

[flyguyphl]

I uploaded your log to healthydrones and see the compass showing a high turn rate at two points:
View attachment 34545
I noticed you already got the first Atti error a bit before this:
View attachment 34546
If you play back in your app, at what point did it really start to get out of control? With the first Atti error, or after the compass errors?

I actually lost control BEFORE the first atti error. I saw the aircraft bank hard right, uncommanded by me, and then a second or so later I heard my app say "atti mode". I knew something had gone terribly wrong at that point and I was in trouble. I lost sight of it quickly, my bad for flying in such a tight spot, and all I could think of to do was to try to gain altitude, but obviously to no avail.

I'm thinking maybe at those points of compass error, the aircraft first struck to top of the trees, spinning it around rapidly. Thinking this has nothing to do with compass error or atti error, and that the wild out of control attitudes put the aircraft into atti mode and back several times. I guess there's really no way of knowing. But my theory is I threw a propeller blade. I know for sure that it wasn't wind drift in atti mode - I saw the thing bank hard right uncommanded. It didn't just drift right.

 

[sharper4]

I'm surprised nobody else has said this, but given it did crash, why not just consider doing without it for a month and sending it in to DJI support. Doesn't sound like you actually did anything wrong, so likely it could be covered under warranty if something is actually wrong under there. If nothing else, they would replace your shell given the crash wasn't your fault and has cracks - no telling when they were first present.

FWIW - My compass errors that were shown on HealthyDrones ended up being a busted "main board" that DJI replaced. It just kept getting worse with every flight - erratic and finally took a hard landing one day. Been fine every since and it was covered under warranty.

 

[phantom13flyer]

I have seen this several times and almost always the pilot used the auto take off. It may or may not have anything to do with it . I personally think there's a glitch in the auto take off and for that reason I have and never will use it. Good luck repairing it and I'm glad the damage was minimal .

 

[2fast4u]

Indeed there is no way to know for sure but you should open a case and hope for the best. DJI has proven to be fairly reasonable in repairing under guarantee if it's not your fault.

 

[flyguyphl]

So I got my new shell in today and opened up the busted one to switch everything over. Everything inside looked good, except the main board support mounts on the battery tray were all busted so the main board was just floating in there, not secured. Who knows whether the crash caused that or it broke from unbalanced props (I'm pretty sure the ones I had on there were very unbalanced). Being loose would cause it to go haywire cause all the sensors. Anyway, come to find out that's not included with the shell and DJI doesn't sell them, so I tried epoxying the mounts and broken plastic back on, but as soon as I tried to screw the board back in, mounts busted right off the glue. So no go there. Found a guy on ebay who 3d prints them, so I'll give that a try. Bummed, was hoping to get back flying today. Why I didn't go to DJI. Oh well, maybe early next week.

 

[phantom13flyer]

Yeah I agree it definitely doesn't sound like your vault . I would have to send it to dji just out of principle . Good luck though sounds like you got it under control . Hopefully you'll be back up in the air soon!

 

[DAP-UAV]

Never fun when a $1300.00 toy or tool goes down. Great that it still flies.
I would replace the shell. And you might want to check that antenna on the left foreground in the last photo.

Would you mind posting the flight logs? I'm wanting to get another P3P (or P3A) but I just keep reading these same stories....Seeing the flight logs would be very helpful to many I'm sure if you didn't mind. A while back I thought that if I waited a while these issues would become far and few in-between (machine fault). All in all, these incidents probably are rare overall considering how many are out there.

"she was went crazy on me! Banked hard right, my app started saying "atti mode", even though I never hit the switch, went out of sight, I heard the motors revving really high, all I could do instinctively was"

This is such a recurring theme. It's hard for me to believe sometimes that all these people having quite a few flights under their belts are doing something so different as to cause this in each case.

With the flight logs it could likely be determined if it was a GPS or compass fault or something else.

Question here please. I am new to drone flying, I do have a pilots license and my 333 is pending. Going to give this aerial video profession a shot. Anyway the flight logs everyone here who really seems to know their stuff are talking about. Are you talking about the flight logs I see on the DJI app, such as my flight tracked over a map with the altitude, distance, h & v speed, even flight control positions displayed? Or is there another source with more data available? If so, how exactly do I get it. I assumed the upload option on the app was just a duplicate of what I see on the display within the app. Therefore I have never tried to upload it. Trying to learn all I can, flying drones is not the same thing as flying a plane.

 

[Buzzy]

stories like this make me glad i cancelled my order for a P3

 

[afx]

Well, to be honest, you really should only do a GOOD compass calibration if you've changed location by about 100 miles or more.

Do not calibrate compass once you have successfully calibrated it before. Even you change your location for 500 miles. I have tested it by myself and didn't calibrate the compass for almost 1 year. Since that time I have travelled alot across Russia from south to north around 1000 miles and there were no crashes or flyaways.

But they will crash someday for unknown reason. And the one solution to avoid hurting anyone is to install parachute system. In general it must be installed on any flying drone, because falling 1.5kgs can cause death.

 

[ROOF55NO]

I have about 100 hours flying my P3 when it crashed today. Getting some video of fall foliage, when all of a sudden, after I cleared the tree line height, she was went crazy on me! Banked hard right, my app started saying "atti mode", even though I never hit the switch, went out of sight, I heard the motors revving really high, all I could do instinctively was just increase the pitch hoping she would get higher and I would be able to regain control, but no such luck. I heard it crash onto the street nearby, luckily I didn't hit anything or anybody.

Damage - three out of four of my carbon fiber props were broken at the hub. Found only one of the missing pieces at the scene. Two of the camera gimbal rubber supports were broken, but other two held and gimbal was still attached. Battery ejected. Shell scratched on top and lots of cracks now at the motor mounts. Not sure whether the crash caused those cracks or they were cracked before and thats what caused the crash. I never balanced my props and I'm thinking that may have been the cause? Maybe lost a blade in flight and things went downhill from there? I have no idea how hard it really hit.

Anyway, what's done is done, and am now left with what to do. It powers up fine, and I even put the old plastic props back on just to see if it would power up, all motors sounded good, so I took it up and just hovered it around a foot or two, and it seems fine. So, should I buy a new shell and replace it and fly it again? Can I trust it? Kind of shaken up now. Anything else I should do to get it flying again?

Thanks in advance for all your help out there.

>>I was upload dataflight record to HealthyDrones.com - Innovative flight data analysis that matters. Your speed DOWN to ground are "normal". Witch not are normal are you compass calibration. Several times in flight, you cominication view toggle between SAFE P-GPS and Atti-mode. Report:
A 00m 00s 0.0 ft 0 ft Mode Mode changed to GPS_Atti
B 00m 02s 0.0 ft 1 ft Mode Mode changed to AssitedTakeoff
C 00m 02s 0.0 ft 1 ft Tip Motors started
D 00m 05s 0.0 ft 2 ft Mode Mode changed to GPS_Atti
E 00m 40s 9.2 ft 9 ft Data Loss Downlink data connection lost for 1.1 seconds
F 02m 52s 114.5 ft 57 ft Mode Mode changed to Atti
G 02m 54s 119.1 ft 97 ft Mode Mode changed to GPS_Atti
H 02m 54s 120.7 ft 113 ft Mode Mode changed to Atti
I 02m 55s 130.9 ft 153 ft Mode Mode changed to GPS_Atti
J 02m 57s 136.8 ft 189 ft Mode Mode changed to Atti
K 02m 58s 141.4 ft 192 ft Mode Mode changed to GPS_Atti
L 02m 58s 143.4 ft 195 ft Mode Mode changed to Atti
M 02m 58s 146.0 ft 199 ft Mode Mode changed to GPS_Atti
N 02m 59s 146.7 ft 199 ft Mode Mode changed to Atti

Did you compass calibrate the craft?
Compass note from flight data: "
Found rate of change in the compass of 25 degrees or more per 0.1 seconds.
That's about a 90 degree turn in a third of a second, which is not normal.
This can be a result of extremly strong winds, a crash into an object or a bad compass".

Your trip have compass changes (it's your bird moving/make fast changes) are above 30.2 to 56.5 degree. The maximum "normal" are 25 degree change within 0.1 sec.

This data ended at BAD COMPASS/NOT CALIBRATED.

 

[kontek]

Do not calibrate compass once you have successfully calibrated it before. Even you change your location for 500 miles. I have tested it by myself and didn't calibrate the compass for almost 1 year. Since that time I have travelled alot across Russia from south to north around 1000 miles and there were no crashes or flyaways.

But they will crash someday for unknown reason. And the one solution to avoid hurting anyone is to install parachute system. In general it must be installed on any flying drone, because falling 1.5kgs can cause death.

That doesnt sound right 500 miles your magnetic declination will not be the same. I would not recomend this at all.

Sent from my SM-G920I using Tapatalk

 

[flyguyphl]

I did not calibrate the compass before that flight, but usually do before every flight - that's was they used to tell you to do. It was calibrated in the same immediate area.