Prop Flew-Off , Now Only a click. Day One, Flight One.

[Okiewan]

P2V+ (v3) came in today.... getting thru the rest of the work day was tough, but took the opportunity to get everything charged-up.

Got home, read the manual AGAIN, (downloaded it a week ago to read before I purchased).

Pre-flight checks ... check
10 Sat GPS lock.
Compass Cal
S1-S2 all the way back.
Wi-fi conncected
Cam showing video
Tilt wheel works great.

Easy power, hover at 10'
rotate, tilt, power-up, power down.

4-5 minutes later, land in the same spot. Super soft touch down.
Okay, lift off, go a little higher....

SCHWING!!! prop flies off, prop lands on garage roof.

Uhh... self tightening?

Phantom has powered off.
Phantom did not lift off. But the prop did

Climb-up onto roof to get the prop. No damage, looks brand new (it is).

Spin it back on, try to power-up. Nada. battery LEDs cycle, then "Click". No startup. Remove battery, reinsert... same thing. Click and no start.


Searched and found a couple of similar stories, but they were after a crash or tip-over. In my case, I got 4 minutes of fun time, landed perfectly and then it failed.

I'm guessing ESC? I'm hoping not, I'd sure like to fly it this weekend!

Any thoughts before I start the return process and hope to get another one before the Christmas holiday where I was going to use it a LOT ?

Thanks in advance for any info!

Here's a vid trying to start it up ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZRSrog ... OWL5B-inqA

 

[hionbusa]

Your power up sequence is off.
It's double click and long hold on the second click.

Take the battery in and out couple times
Slam it in.. I know it sounds weird but the connector might be just a half millimeter apart . the battery compart ment gets better with time .

Make sure you give those props an extra snug by holding the motor with 2 fingers .

Good luck!

 

[Skynet1]

Personally, I wouldn't go any further with that unit. SEND IT BACK! You shouldn't have to dicker around with it at all.
Slamming the battery into place should not be necessary. Something caused that one motor to stop suddenly causing the prop to unwind off the shaft. If that would have occurred while in flight, you more than likely would be looking at a considerable amount of damage, and a tooth and nail fight with DJI/dealer to get some compensation. Why risk another occurrence would be my thoughts. The decision obviously is yours. Do the right thing.

 

[singapore_phantom]

Once one ESC is fried, the Phantom should no longer fire up at all. I think this is what's the case here, i.e. yes, that particular ESC is a goner. Best return it eh.

By the way, your sequence does seem a bit off. Hold that second press a little longer and see what happens.

 

[Mori55]

Send it BACK !

 

[CityZen]

Something has shorted out in it. The thing about self-tightening props is that they are also self-loosening if the motor stops for any reason.

If just one prop came off, then probably the ESC on that arm is bad. If returning the Phantom is not an option (for whatever reason), then replacing an ESC is not expensive or hard, provided you have some soldering skills.
(But I'd first verify that that ESC is the problem by disconnecting it from the main board and then seeing if the Phantom powers on again.)

 

[Damon]

Send it back. Unless you want to replace an ESC or a motor, possibly both.

 

[eyecon82]

yep, only way a prop flies off is if the motor is shut off suddenly and inertia takes over

 

[Larry L]

Where are you located? Can you contact a dji approved service center & see if they can get it back to you quicker? I don't know, just a thought.

 

[Okiewan]

Thanks for all the info everyone. Took a chance it was the esc, found one at aero hobby in Lewisville, TX... Only a 10 minute drive. Spent some time flying it this afternoon, good times.

 

[Skynet1]

Appears you were pretty much set on keeping it from the start, why bother asking for suggestions. You obviously need a quad badly, and ASAP. : )

Hopefully, you don't now jeopardize your 1yr. warranty by doing this part replacement work yourself. Maybe not.

 

[msinger]

Asking did help him out since he was able to narrow the issue down to the broken ESC

 

[Okiewan]

"why bother asking for suggestions"

So if asking for the suggestions was clearly a waste of time, why would you bother with a reply?

Indeed, the thread helped me determine the problem and allowed me to not lose two weeks of training time before I have to catch a Christmas/Ski trip that I'm committed to shoot (I'm a commercial photographer by trade, a family photographer SLAVE on the side). I decided some aerial mixed in with regular video and stills would be nice.

Anyway ... waiting on a replacement would have put a serious hurt on my ability to use the quad well enough to get some useable clips.

Hopefully that clears it up for ya Skynet1. And thanks again to those who offered useful input.

 

[Skynet1]

For the most part I responded to your OP in an effort to be helpful, as I thought you may have simply wanted to use any suggestions offered to help you decide if the issue may be something minor in nature eg. possible (loose wire connection etc.) or something more substantial which may require replacement parts. Further, my understanding was that the model was a brand new unit which you recently acquired, and that any input received was to help you decide if returning the model would best serve your interest. This from your OP quote " any thoughts before I start the return process and hope to get another before the Christmas holiday". Btw, asking for suggestions as a means to narrowing down possible issues and ascertaining your next plan of action can be very helpful to some. Enjoy your new model, hopefully the incident will not reoccur in the future, as I do not intend to respond further, OKIEWAN.

 

[rbhamilton]

Thanks for all the info everyone. Took a chance it was the esc, found one at aero hobby in Lewisville, TX... Only a 10 minute drive. Spent some time flying it this afternoon, good times.

Sadly with shipping, customs, duty and long long long delays getting RMA's and getting your drone looked at, fixed and back again it's often easier to just fix it yourself and take it as a cost of doing business with DJI. You made a good call by posting here for confirmation and then fixing it yourself.

 

[tsopin]

My story, about the same, just that, it sunk, into lake, 10 meter from my, right in front of my eye!!

I lost my fist P2V+, V2 version, due to my stupidity, fine, I should have not flew duing cloudy days, where rain came unexpected. Without hesitation, I bought another one, as I have plan, for video shots. It was the P2V+ V3 version.

Day 1, tried 4 batteries, all good, noticed during the last flight, I left it hovering after took off, did some adjustment, saw it was decending, fast and unexpected, so I boosted it up to bring it up, the later flight was smooth, and good.

Day 2, I took it to my favorite lake, circling around the lake for 10 minutes, no issue, then bring it up to 130 meters, slowly, and decent slowly, no issue, 13 minutes of fly already, good enough, time to go home.

SLowly headed back to my, at about 10 meters away, 6 meters high, two props flew-off, what I hear was the increasing high pitch of moters, and then straight down, into the water!

Believe it, at sight, I can not even breath!! what the heck ws just happened!!! I just lost a three days old new machine... how fast can the money burned, in vain!?

I contacted DJI, and local dealer, DJI did not respond at all! local dealer said, well, the user should aware of th risk, and play at your own risk.

I agree, we all responsible for our acts, if it was due to miss use of the remote, bad control, hit, drop, and went too high, but for brand new one, in three days, due to unknown techncal issue, during a calm and sunny morning, they should take some responsibilities, anyway, they simply show me, THEY DON'T CARE!

I sold out all my parts, and cleaed out all the stuff, I would rather donate the money to charity, then to waste on them. I am out of this filed, permanently.

This is my story, very bad one. I hope my, the others, are just few people with bad luck. But I also hope, DJI learn somehting from this, and take some actions, so no more sad stories.

 

[Okiewan]

Wow, bad story, sorry to hear about that... what are the odds of two esc's going at the same time on a brand new Phantom 2 ?

I can tell ya that after roughly 12 flights since fixing mine with the new esc, it's been good. I'm still very afraid to take it any distance or height, not completely confident with my solder job for one! I'm going to take it to the local Heli pro and have him go over it and clean-up / strengthen to solder points and anything else he can find.

I feel VERY lucky the P2V+ was on the ground when the prop flew off!

 

[PsychopathRC]

He was a little slow on the sequence. But I did see the lights flicker. Glad its working now!

 

[Larry L]

Just fyi, you can get a full warranty through square trade for $260.00 dollars. It is a full 3 year warranty & will cover everything. The only thing you need to do is have it started within 30 days of purchase. For the cost of this instrument, I felt it is a pretty good idea.
tsopin, I would not give up. If you are flying and a motor quits & spins off a prop & causes a crash. They can probably tell if it is a electronic failure. I would be very upset especially if it was brand new.

 

[Conquistador]

Just fyi, you can get a full warranty through square trade for $260.00 dollars. It is a full 3 year warranty & will cover everything. The only thing you need to do is have it started within 30 days of purchase. For the cost of this instrument, I felt it is a pretty good idea.
tsopin, I would not give up. If you are flying and a motor quits & spins off a prop & causes a crash. They can probably tell if it is a electronic failure. I would be very upset especially if it was brand new.

Great idea Larry. I did not think of getting square trade insurance when I bought mine on ebay. I see you are in central TX while I live in Denison at the Red River.