P3 turned off and fell from the sky

OR keep the bin file on the sd card (as DJI recommends)

If you leave the .bin file at the root then every time you power up your drone even if it up to date it will run through an update sequence, not finding anything to update, and will not initialize for flight. This has been my experience. As my new batteries were purchased I moved to proper .bin back to the root of my card and ran through the upgrade sequence and the log files show after a 5-10 minute wait that the battery was upgraded. If the .bin is left on the card then on power up 5 minutes of beeping occurs and it goes to green. Log shows not elements were upgraded.
 
Just to let everyone know I got a hold of someone with the repair department and they got back to me very quickly and let me know that they're going to go ahead and take care of the problem under warranty ...

Good news indeed ... thumbs up! Good to remind everybody again ...
Update the firmware to the latest version before you fly or at least get off that dreadful 1.5.3 version.

Funny enough, DJI sent me a marketing/spam email today with a link to the post and video tooting the virtues of v.1.5.3 ... go figure!
 
If you leave the .bin file at the root then every time you power up your drone even if it up to date it will run through an update sequence, not finding anything to update, and will not initialize for flight. This has been my experience. As my new batteries were purchased I moved to proper .bin back to the root of my card and ran through the upgrade sequence and the log files show after a 5-10 minute wait that the battery was upgraded. If the .bin is left on the card then on power up 5 minutes of beeping occurs and it goes to green. Log shows not elements were upgraded.

Personally, I never suffer this process on start up?

(& my batteries didn't even take 5mins to update when required)

The IMU warming up is the only process I wait for during this time of the year
 
jaked_902, your logs show the following:

- You took off with a battery that was only 58% charged.
- At takeoff, the battery voltage was 15.35V (about 3.83V per cell).
- When the battery shut off, the voltage was 11.95V (about 2.98V per cell).

The battery will auto shut off when the voltage drops below 3V per cell. That is by design to prevent the battery from damaging itself. See more details here.

Since you climbed at such a rapid pace, it caused the voltage to drop to a very low level since your Phantom was drawing a lot of power to achieve that feat. You would have been fine if you had taken off with a fully charged battery.
Thanks for this explanation i never knew that. Sometimes when I climb at a rapid rate I see the voltage drops and turns yellow.
 
Got my P3P today (1/12/2016) , paid Drone World $49 to install updates before they shipped it. When I go to the "About" on DJI GO app, it tells me I have 2.4.3 App version, 1.5.30+ on the aircraft and 1.5.70 on the R/C. I am getting a "Battery requires upgrade" notice on the overall status screen. Should I upgrade to 1.6.4? Obviously, I'm new at this, so I'm hesitating to do anything at the moment as the bird flew as I thought it would/should with no issues.
 
Yes, 1.5 has major battery issues. You should go to 1.6, but leave the app alone.
Each battery will need to be updated as part of the firmware upgrade. After upgrading the aircraft, you will power off, swap battery, reboot and let that battery upgrade. Once you get a solid green light on then gimbal LED you will know the upgrade finished successfully.

Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app
 
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Yes, 1.5 has major battery issues. You should go to 1.6, but leave the app alone.
Each battery will need to be updated as part of the firmware upgrade. After upgrading the aircraft, you will power off, swap battery, reboot and let that battery upgrade. Once you get a solid green light on then gimbal LED you will know the upgrade finished successfully.

Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app
Thanks Pilot51. Keep in mind again, I'm brand new to this. So I put the SD card in the QC, turn it on and let it do it's thing for 25-30 minutes, check that it's successful and change the batteries out to upgrade both. Now what about the R/C? Do I put the same card in the R/C and turn it on and let it update? You're help is most appreciated.
 
So I put the SD card in the QC, turn it on and let it do it's thing for 25-30 minutes, check that it's successful and change the batteries out to upgrade both. Now what about the R/C? Do I put the same card in the R/C and turn it on and let it update?
It's best to install the firmware like this.
 
It's best to install the firmware like this.
I followed the directions. Step 10 went like this: A/C powered up, the status light blinked for about 5 seconds, gimbal moved around, lights under the A/C flashed, heard the D_DD once, status light went to solid green, lights under the wings blink yellow. Never saw a alternating red/green status light at all. Does that mean the latest software is on there now?
 
Does that mean the latest software is on there now?
It sounds like your Phantom did not try to install the firmware. You can confirm by looking at the TXT file generated on your memory card.

Which firmware versions are displayed in the "About" section of the DJI GO app?

DJI-GO-About.jpg
 
Thanks Pilot51. Keep in mind again, I'm brand new to this. So I put the SD card in the QC, turn it on and let it do it's thing for 25-30 minutes, check that it's successful and change the batteries out to upgrade both. Now what about the R/C? Do I put the same card in the R/C and turn it on and let it update? You're help is most appreciated.
I followed the directions. Step 10 went like this: A/C powered up, the status light blinked for about 5 seconds, gimbal moved around, lights under the A/C flashed, heard the D_DD once, status light went to solid green, lights under the wings blink yellow. Never saw a alternating red/green status light at all. Does that mean the latest software is on there now?
 
It sounds like your Phantom did not try to install the firmware. You can confirm by looking at the TXT file generated on your memory card.

Which firmware versions are displayed in the "About" section of the DJI GO app?

View attachment 40396
OK, may have figured it out. What started this is that I was getting a message that said the battery needed an upgrade. I have two batteries. When I put battery "A" in, no status message, A/C version is 1.6.40, we're good to go. When I put battery "B" in, A/C version is 1.5.30+ and I get a "Battery needs upgrade" message. I changed the bin file location on the SD card, put the SD card back in with battery B in the A/C. Turned the A/C on and blinking red and green status light appeared, got the the Morse code for about 1 minute. Then I got the D_DD tone, solid green status light. TXT file says success. Now both batteries give the same version 1.6.40+ and no messages. I think I got it to work.

Now the next question, should the R/C version be 1.6.40+ too? It shows it to be version 1.5.70. "msinger", I do appreciate your help very much!
 
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I still have the bin file from 1.6 on my sd card and haven't had an issue on start up. Don't want to take it off because I will be getting another battery soon and will have to update it anyway.
 
So, last night I flew this P3 Pro, successfully for a full battery, landed and swapped batteries, took off again, and about 4 or 5 seconds in, it went completely dark, no LED, and fell from the sky.

It fell straight down. I slammed the left stick up as soon as it began falling, and although I couldn't see lights come back on, I heard the rotors begin spinning again before it slammed into my neighbour's roof. Needless to say, it's trashed, camera is in multiple pieces, casing broken multiple places.

Everything is (was) relatively new, under 2 dozen flights, batteries were charged the night before. Here is the flight data:

Dropbox - P3 Data and Logs

Will DJI repair / replace this if shown not to be user error? Thanks!



I think it's more usual than we think... My P2 felt from the sky without any reason. I had 2 burned Esc boards 2 months ago and had it flying again. This time it just shut off and felt vertically into a parked car...
It was not a windy day, it had no obstacle, just shut off during flight. It happens so fast that you just don't have time to do anything...
The battery was 70%...
 

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