Phantom + No control Twice

[clipshot62]

I'm a new user to this forum. Sorry this is long - but here's my story - (will try to do cliffnotes ver) Purchased a new Vision+ and found this
forum. After reading for a day or two got worried about crashing and damaging the cam/gimble so took "dirtybird"'s suggestion
and bought an FC40 to learn how to fly. After about a week - felt comfortable enough to try the vision+. At lift off it went up 2 feet then
shot off to the right crashing into my neighbors yard and planter. (this unit was purchased from China) I found a local dealer in S. FLA (Maniacs)
These guys are amazing. They trouble shot the unit and said it was DOA - problems with the main board and cam/gimble too. They even contacted DJI for
me and are helping me get a replacement. I was so impressed that I bought another vision+ from them.

Now about this unit - 1st flight was great. 2nd flt decided to test Ground station. Put in way points on a cached map and hit go. The unit tired to slowly lift off and ran into the neighbors house trying to gain altitude (no damage). I took off again - got up in the air and after 2 min - then hit go. Phantom started its route. After a few minutes i couldn't see it anymore and got scared. Waited a few more minutes then turned off the controller. Waited a few more and then saw it heading back at about 200 ft up Whew! it worked v cool. GS trip starts at 2:10.
See video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmOu-toM2GI

Next decided to fly it at a RC park to practice. 1st flt 7-8 min with no problems. 2nd flt - flying for about 2 min - Conditions were a bit windy. Flew Backwards over a tree and the unit was like it lost power - went straight down and crashed even though I was pushing the up lever. - Unit was not damaged as I installed a gimble protector on the base. Props were ok too. (I was flying with prop guards.)
See video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=us_qj0DLBrA

Next day I tried a corp shoot at a Dairy Queen. I own a video company and plan on using the phantom+ for these types of shots primarily. (Shots that you cant get any other way.) Front of Bldg, front sign, etc. Anyway, the same thing happened after flying for over 5 minutes. (Crash at 5:21) Conditions were very hot, windy and I was in a parking lot. Went around the building to shoot the drive thru and the same thing happened - the phantom went straight down from about 30 feet and crashed into the parking lot even though I was pushing on the up lever. (I was flying with prop guards.) This one damaged one prop guard and two props but the unit-camera and gimble were fine.
See video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7N0KaMxARqQ

I took the phantom+ back to the dealer who tried to duplicate the flight conditions and Flt time. They flew it behind their store almost 10 min with everything working fine. The tech said he has never seen it but heard that this condition may have been caused by a battery possible loosing power at 50%. He suggested that I go home recharge the battery (the one that I had used at DQ) and fly it in my front yard with soft grass and try to duplicate what happened - which I did.
I flew it down to 30% battery when the warning came on and landed no problems.

My issue is safety - I certainly do not want to fly this over people or water now, as I don't want it crashing into anything. I'm leaving for a nine day motorcycle trip to the NW next week starting in Idaho Falls and up into Canada. The scenery is supposed to be amazing and I'm planning to take the phantom + - It fits just fine in my tour pack. I'm more than a little hesitant about flights over the edges on mountains, water and any place else it may do this again.

I read the post regarding "Lost control while hovering, crashed and broke gimbal" and there were some interesting theories including VRS or Vortex Ring State. This sounded alot like what happened here - but not sure! Any help or suggestions on what this is and how to stop it is greatly appreciated.

 

[nintendrone64]

Sounds like your Phantom has the auto-land enabled to a battery power set to high OR
your battery is literally defective. This is NOT normal of any Phantom to do, and the tech I know says DJI has fixed the auto-land problem anyway (so to rule that out, but I wrote it anyway).

I would contact your dealer who sold you the battery and switch it out to see if it happens again.

 

[CmB]

On the first incident where had you put your first waypoint. If the waypoint was a distance away it needs quite a lot of space to get up to the set height.
Not sure about the second incident but the third may be a case of VRS. Unfortunately quite a few people state that the prop guards do not help.

 

[Mal_PV2_Ireland]

Prop guards and vortex ring state go hand in hand. Prop guards have been shown to be a massive contributory factor. Th waypoints crash was just because you dont how it works yet, you need to experiment in a wide open area with no trees or buildings so you can see what way the phantom goes to waypoint 1 and then what way it ascends and descends between points. First crash could have been a defective unit which I'd say is a slim chance compared to maybe you were in Atti mode by mistake and it blew off without you understanding why. You seem to mention wind a lot. You really need to be learning on calmer days away from buildings and trees.

 

[clipshot62]

Thank so much for the helpful advice. Im planning to be extra careful on the next few flts and document every thing used. particularly the batteries (I hv 4 which are now numbered) and prob best to ditch the prop guards

 

[Prawlin]

Thanks for documenting all this so well. I have had my P2V+ for a few weeks now and no such issues! YET! Flown maybe 10 battery charges, on several outings. At one point I went up to about 650 ft!
It is clearly very disconcerting to hear your story and other similar ones. I have a set of prop guards, but not tried them yet. Am now increasingly considering throwing them straight into the trash unused!

Please could you report back to this thread your findings after further tests. I am particularly interested to hear if flying without the prop guards appears to have solved your problems.

Good luck!

Peter.

 

[Prawlin]

PS. when you remove the prop guards, please remember to replace the long screws (supplied with the guards) with the shorter original ones. Failure to do this could easily result in ruined motor coil windings! The motor screw holes are bottomless!

PPS. I noticed in one if your vids that you had the transmitter antenna folded right down flat horizontally. For best distance range, it is important to angle it so it points vertically as you hold the tranny. This will ensure vertical polarisation of the radiated signal so it matches correctly the vertical polarisation of the receiving antennas on the bird. I don't think this is anything to do with your reported control loss, as you were so close by but certainly worth remembering, especially so on any long range flights you may be planning.