Phantom 3 Professional Fly Away

[TYCORP]

Nice night to show off my Phantom at the family BBQ.

Calibrated. 14 Sat's All green to go.
30M away climbing slow i gave it full throttle pointing straight when it then started drifting and losing nose orientation. (in GPS auto mode) Red GPS Compass ERROR lit up.
it slowly responded irrationally and then slammed into a 45 degree told on screen and
landed in some bushes (Flight Record will be posted)

Tracked it down, cleaned it up and took it to a park to test.
enabled multi flight mode (to enable some manual input)
all functions seemed normal, no damage, Calibrated, 17 Sat's gimbal was level and balanced slow low level flights around the park were all checking ok.


As soon as I gave it full throttle it immediately again threw a red Compass error and nose was drifting.
Pressed return to home with little response other than it pointing in the wrong direction.
tried to predict and compensate the orientation it was choosing and got it swung back towards me
(All of this over a Lake!)
the return to home looked to work then it violently threw itself into another 45 degree tilt accelerting at different directions, erratic patterns then i assume it flipped over as i heard it loudly accelerate into the lake
and crash hard.

I had a P2v+ for 1 year prior and never had an of this trouble.
I would lean to a software issue as I was advised to recalibrate (cold ) the IMU, Gimbal from DJI tech support a few days prior to "resolve" a gimbal drift issue that I noticed after the latest firmware 1.9
Definitely and issue that I bet we will se more of.

If any of you are seeing compass errors more recent after 1.9 speak up!

not sure if DJI will RMA without the Drone as its in 50feet of water. (i can provide GPS if anyone wants to dive)

Credit Card company offers purchase protection for damage, theft, within 90 days. lets hope it works.
Ive already ordered a replacement but hope if it is a software issue, it can be fixed before more of this happens.

Flight Tracker Video.

updated with Director Video Cache added

full screen


First Failed flight

GPS compass errors round 1

 

[mohan]

Waiting for video..

When you had your first flight which threw the surprise why did you pick it up and fly it over a lake?

 

[Furia]

Video is listed as private. I cannot watch it.

One question. Seems that in both occasions the aircraft departed control it was just right after you did as you describle as "adding full throttle".
Was that a progressive and gradual throttle imput to the maximum possition or a full energetic imput to the throttle stops?
It cannot be casuality that an aircraft that apparently was flying correctly in hover, behaves like this twice duing the same control imput if both "adding full throtle" event were similar.

Sorry for the Phantom lose. Losing your aircraft with no clear reason is a nightmare

 

[TYCORP]

Waiting for video..

When you had your first flight which threw the surprise why did you pick it up and fly it over a lake?

To make sure it didn't fly into private property or a house.
low throttle tests in park and re-calibrations all checked.

 

[TYCORP]

Link should work now, my apologies

 

[TYCORP]

To make sure it didn't fly into private property or a house.
low throttle tests in park and re-calibrations all checked.

Check link now,

 

[TYCORP]

In hindsight I should have tested/verified manual controls better.
different from the p2v+. Im positive the IMU was to blame as with both Fly aways it seems that it "toilet bowled" then flipped.

 

[ianwood]

TBE is not IMU. TBE is compass. If it was IMU, it would most likely have simply darted off in one direction.

That is one strange video. Hard to make sense of what the hell is going on. It sure doesn't look like user input had anything to do with it. It looks like the compass got completely out of whack. What happened at the end is just bizarre.

 

[caffeinated]

I presume that video is from the second flight? Do you have the same for the initial?

 

[happydays]

Something similar happened to me with a V+ which ended up in a reservoir. Took off on its own despite valiant attempts to recover by throttling up - it dipped down at a 45 degree angle straight into the water. I emailed DJI but they never even acknowledged the email.

 

[leekiya]

How about the video of the flight, you dont need the craft for that just go into director in the pilot app and pick moments and all your flights will be there to view.

Sorry about your P3 by the way, just watched your flight record. Not good, i don't like this function the P3 has were if the compass gets any strange data it knocks it self out of GPS and into Atti. My old phantom never went out of GPS and that was without glonass lock as well. Many people are reporting the P3 going into Atti mode with compass error now, and nearly all crashes that i have known have gone into Atti around the time of the crash. This compass error and going into Atti is far to common for my liking now.

 

[manofword]

This is exactly what happened to my P2 when it crashed. It is currently at DJI repair in CA. Mine was heading down 45deg, super fast, headed for a highway. I got some altitude, it turned backwards then crashed in a marsh. Luckily I had a GPS tracker, Trackimo, on it, so I was able to recover it. I was hoping that the P3 would be more reliable.

 

[flyNfrank]

Was the controller ever calibrated?

 

[nickruss_wales]

Is P3 controller calibration necessary? I have not read this in any of the documentation that came with the aircraft..

 

[Apparition]

Is P3 controller calibration necessary? I have not read this in any of the documentation that came with the aircraft..

I've not done it, I missed it in the vast amount of pilot app features. Probably is a good idea though. Mine has flown fine.

 

[SteveAikens]

As soon as I gave it full throttle it immediately again threw a red Compass error and nose was drifting.
Pressed return to home with little response other than it pointing in the wrong direction.
tried to predict and compensate the orientation it was choosing and got it swung back towards me
(All of this over a Lake!)
the return to home looked to work then it violently threw itself into another 45 degree tilt accelerting at different directions, erratic patterns then i assume it flipped over as i heard it loudly accelerate into the lake and crash hard.

UG

Bummer to lose it. Watching the video - Did you change flight mode while it was flying? I see it goes from P-GPS to ATTI - which is pretty close to when it appears it went south on you. If you didn't, you may have some recourse with DJI based on the firmware version - which a lot of folks are having trouble with.

 

[Rockrim]

I had my first compass error pop up on my 47th flight several days ago. It seemed to fly a little weird, but was able to bring it back and recalibrate the compass. Several normal flights since then, but this makes me worried.

 

[bobomet]

I've not done it, I missed it in the vast amount of pilot app features. Probably is a good idea though. Mine has flown fine.

Please tell us where exactly the Controller Calibration function is.
I want to get that done today ....
Thanks!

 

[Turbazz]

That is very strange. Flicks through all the modes, did you initiate go home? seems absolutely confused. I really don't understand how it got into p-opti? Flying in such a open area you should have GPS lock!

something to do with interference? Or the gps chip. It's absolutely confused

 

[delirious]

Question. When or if this sort of thing happens, would it be beneficial to shift to ATTI mode and take it back home?