Possible Firmware Bug Leads To Crash & $700 Repair (Video)

[Anon-e-mouse]

Just purchased this for $1,500 5 days ago at a local dealer here in Las Angelas. I set it out in the street, calibrated the compass, had full gps signal lock with 8 satellites and brought it up to a hover about 8ft where it suddenly drifted then took off climbing quickly and ended up hitting a tree. Fell down to the ground remaining upside down, props were spinning full speed and the unit was not responding to my remote controller inputs to power it down, just kept revving at full power until finally it just quit. Thank god the tree stopped it from going far away and possibly injuring someone on the ground. This broke the camera gimbals which cost $650-750 to replace. It should be noted that I just updated the firmware prior to this flight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhOaxPqZ9bs

 

[flyNfrank]

Re: Possible Firmware Bug Leads To Crash & $700 Repair (Vide

You didn't actually fail to also calibrate the controller to, did you?

See these kind of things happen a lot to those that don't read the manual before operating their quad. And then install a firmware update that has a lot of settings to go through prior to flight. DJI has now went as far as adding a Flight Simulator in the controller to help new owners get up to speed. I wish I had that when I bought my 1st P2V.

 

[Anon-e-mouse]

Re: Possible Firmware Bug Leads To Crash & $700 Repair (Vide

Yes I did the calibrations after the firmware update and prior to flight...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2zNT6kHoEM

 

[Meta4]

Re: Possible Firmware Bug Leads To Crash & $700 Repair (Vide

One of the biggest problems with the Phantom is that it is so easy.
It only takes 5 minutes to learn to fly it but it takes many flights (and lots of reading) to understand how it works, all the things that could go wrong and how to prevent them from being an issue.

Yes .. Must have been a firmware bug.

 

[Anon-e-mouse]

Re: Possible Firmware Bug Leads To Crash & $700 Repair (Vide

Although yes I've only had the drone for 5 days so by all means am I a new DJI pilot however I have been doing 4-6 flying missions per day (of course out of excitement for this new investment). I have a pretty good understanding on how this flys, how to handles in winds and basic obstacle avoidance. I am also a commercial pilot, granted that doesn't mean anything but just trying to convey that I'm not some 15yr old trying to showoff and push the drone beyond it's limit. I understand this isn't a toy, granted some may say this is a very expensive toy for me it was more of an investment. Anyways, whatever happened today was really saddening and upsetting, it's been bothering me all afternoon. The sudden drift (no wind condition) has never happened before, usually with that GPS lock it holds within a few feet horizontally. Then this random turn and climb into the tree, I tried to use reverse stick but nothing responded and even when it was on the ground upside down revving at full speed it did not respond to my inputs to power down.

Before I did the firmware updates you best bet I was reading online and watching YouTube videos. I know that you can brick a device by doing firmware updates wrong and I didn't want to risk that.

 

[Codacious]

Re: Possible Firmware Bug Leads To Crash & $700 Repair (Vide

It looks like you didn't have sat lock before you took off. It doesn't seem to have anything to do with the compass because it kept facing the same direction. I have only had sat drops once, and it did the same thing. It flew off in one direction with the wind. It looks like you were too busy pointing the camera strait down and didn't have time to correct the drift.

 

[saao]

Re: Possible Firmware Bug Leads To Crash & $700 Repair (Vide

Or may be it did have sat lock and you pressed record and due to gps issue it lost sat lock and started drifting...!

 

[flyNfrank]

Re: Possible Firmware Bug Leads To Crash & $700 Repair (Vide

Yes I did the calibrations after the firmware update and prior to flight...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2zNT6kHoEM

Just so you know, this video is for the Phantom 2.

 

[TeeJayN]

Re: Possible Firmware Bug Leads To Crash & $700 Repair (Vide

Just purchased this for $1,500 5 days ago at a local dealer here in Las Angelas. I set it out in the street, calibrated the compass, had full gps signal lock with 8 satellites and brought it up to a hover about 8ft where it suddenly drifted then took off climbing quickly and ended up hitting a tree. Fell down to the ground remaining upside down, props were spinning full speed and the unit was not responding to my remote controller inputs to power it down, just kept revving at full power until finally it just quit. Thank god the tree stopped it from going far away and possibly injuring someone on the ground. This broke the camera gimbals which cost $650-750 to replace. It should be noted that I just updated the firmware prior to this flight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhOaxPqZ9bs

Are you set up in the Phantom mode or the NAZA mode?

 

[smallman28]

Re: Possible Firmware Bug Leads To Crash & $700 Repair (Vide

Almost carbon copy of what happened to my mate except his went further before hitting a much bigger and higher tree.
After lots of messing we found it was the "classic" GPS loss whilst recording and it went into ATTI mode without realising.

 

[Mori55]

Re: Possible Firmware Bug Leads To Crash & $700 Repair (Vide

Why do we always get , the are you Naza mode ? Naza mode has nothing to do with this ! I'd you lose sat lock it goes in Atti mode. Learn how to fly in atti !

 

[Nathan Carter]

Re: Possible Firmware Bug Leads To Crash & $700 Repair (Vide

Could this be a case of an annoyed neighbor. Phantoms are so well known now, all it takes is an app install from the App Store, he connects to your phantoms wifi network and starts a ground station mission into a tree :-/

 

[smallman28]

Re: Possible Firmware Bug Leads To Crash & $700 Repair (Vide

Could this be a case of an annoyed neighbor. Phantoms are so well known now, all it takes is an app install from the App Store, he connects to your phantoms wifi network and starts a ground station mission into a tree :-/

No cause once you connect no one else can connect to it.

 

[Nathan Carter]

Re: Possible Firmware Bug Leads To Crash & $700 Repair (Vide

No cause once you connect no one else can connect to it.

I don't think that is true. You only don't get the video from the camera because the camera does not allow more than one connection. Telemetry and everything else works just fine!

 

[smallman28]

Re: Possible Firmware Bug Leads To Crash & $700 Repair (Vide

No cause once you connect no one else can connect to it.

I don't think that is true. You only don't get the video from the camera because the camera does not allow more than one connection. Telemetry and everything else works just fine!

Maybe but you cant crash the quad from the app :mrgreen:

 

[Nathan Carter]

Re: Possible Firmware Bug Leads To Crash & $700 Repair (Vide

Maybe but you cant crash the quad from the app :mrgreen:

Let's assume a position of the "hacker" neighbor. He sees the guy testing the phantom in the street, he goes in the App Store installs the DJI's VISION app and connects to the guy's phantom wifi, now he plots the route in the ground station that either goes directly into an obstacle or even behind one(a house for example) so that the owner will loose control signal reception and can't regain control by flickng the S1 switch(If he even remembers to do it in the panic that will arise).
The hacker can easily crash your phantom or even steal it(by directing it behind some house at low altitude and hand catching it).

Now there are even worse scenarios. There is that modified android app that allows you to set ground station mission with even faster speeds! And what about the hacker changing your phantom's wifi configuration. Easily done, he logs in into OpenWRT that is on the phantom, changes the network name and enables wifi encryption. Aparently there is no way you can revert these settings. He can virtually render your phantom useless.

Anybody even without special knowledge can do that since there is a third party app on the App Store also that does that(Vision+ Utility, by KA YUE MAK), or someone with a bit of linux/wifi router knowledge could do it manually over ssh.

I suggest to everybody flying in urban environments, enable WiFi encryption on your Phantom. There are guides for that on this forum.

 

[smallman28]

Re: Possible Firmware Bug Leads To Crash & $700 Repair (Vide

Maybe but you cant crash the quad from the app :mrgreen:

Let's assume a position of the "hacker" neighbor. He sees the guy testing the phantom in the street, he goes in the App Store installs the DJI's VISION app and connects to the guy's phantom wifi, now he plots the route in the ground station that either goes directly into an obstacle or even behind one(a house for example) so that the owner will loose control signal reception and can't regain control by flickng the S1 switch(If he even remembers to do it in the panic that will arise).
The hacker can easily crash your phantom or even steal it(by directing it behind some house at low altitude and hand catching it).

Now there are even worse scenarios. There is that modified android app that allows you to set ground station mission with even faster speeds! And what about the hacker changing your phantom's wifi configuration. Easily done, he logs in into OpenWRT that is on the phantom, changes the network name and enables wifi encryption. Aparently there is no way you can revert these settings. He can virtually render your phantom useless.

Anybody even without special knowledge can do that since there is a third party app on the App Store also that does that(Vision+ Utility, by KA YUE MAK), or someone with a bit of inux/wifi router knowledge could do it manually over ssh.

I suggest to everybody flying in urban environments, enable WiFi encryption on your Phantom. There are guides for that on this forum.

Blimey,there will be a conspiracy theory next that the government is making them crash.
I think that is beyond the skill and ability of most average neighbours.
Most people who see my Phantom have no idea what it is and who makes it never mind "hacking" any Wifi signal coming from it

 

[Nathan Carter]

Re: Possible Firmware Bug Leads To Crash & $700 Repair (Vide

I think that is beyond the skill and ability of most average neighbours.

I agree! 99.999% times you will get away with it, until some(unethical) kid decides to have some fun with you :-/

 

[Jstic]

Re: Possible Firmware Bug Leads To Crash & $700 Repair (Vide

No cause once you connect no one else can connect to it.

I don't think that is true. You only don't get the video from the camera because the camera does not allow more than one connection. Telemetry and everything else works just fine!

It is absolutely true. Take your phantom out and connect with a tablet, then try and connect with your phone while connected to tablet. You CANNOT get the connection. I know because I have tried on multiple occasions. I mean come on, DJI may not be on top of everything with their products, but this is a no brainer.

 

[Phantomdee]

Re: Possible Firmware Bug Leads To Crash & $700 Repair (Vide

Watched the video, it does look like you have momentary lost GPS and its floated into the tree... I did however have a very strange thing happen when i was flying off a metal promenade - The phantom had just taken off and i was just about to run checks at 4 meters high, when it flew off side ways at full speed for more than 50 m before returning automatically to the same spot... Pretty scary only missed a building by quickly thrusting up...... The only thing i noticed different from a flight i had done minutes before was that the compass needed a good few takes before it said it was ok!