St. Paddy's Day Crash! Phantom Dropped from Sky!

[TuT]

I'm of the opinion that the ESCs and battery are not capable of providing enough power to the new motors. They have tried to fudge things with software but the components being used were never originally designed to handle these extra loads.

I'm kinda glad I got jipped and received a Vision+ V2

 

[johnp44]

Hi,

Did you find the missing prop? If so, was it near where it crashed? I have read a couple posts about dropped from the sky crashes that also had one prop missing.
If it isn't near where the Phantom finally rested that would be a clue as to what is happening. Possibly if a motor were to lock up it might be able to cause the prop to spin off the shaft.
I know that the little e-clip that holds the motor shaft in the motor bearings has been known to come off and lock up the motor and/or even separate entirely from the motor itself.
I'm going to try to figure out a way to non destruct test locking up a motor and see what happens. I bet it can under the right condition cause the prop to actually spin itself off the shaft.
Of course falling from the sky and counter rotating the prop could do it too. But the motor losing power and stopping suddenly might loosen it enough for that to happen more easily.

I would have to see a schematic of the ESC to check if it is possible for the ESC to possibly put reverse voltage to the motor. Not very likely but I would like to check anyway.

Sorry for your loss, I hope DJI does the right thing for you.

P.S. Last question, was the missing prop a black or a silver?

 

[Lgibson100]

I would really like to know what that software is for future issues.
I had some close calls.
Thanks

 

[prostreetcamaro]

I hate to say this but I am glad mine is boxed up and going back to bhphoto tomorrow morning for a refund. I decided to keep the Q500 instead. Really sorry to hear about another one dropping like a rock. I know a few Q500's have dropped but not nearly to the extent of the phantoms and yuneec is being top notch about repairs. Where are you located? I am in howard county md if you would ever like to try my bird out.

I fly Howard County all the time Girlfriend lives over by State Police Barracks (Rt1 and 175). I just flew over Lake Elkhorn (Near Cradlerock and Snowden River) yesterday evening (Glad it didn't fall yesterday while over the lake). I also fly at Meadowbrook Park and Rockburn Branck Park by the school.

I'd love to check out the Q500 sometime. Ive been flying my quads around there with frozen fingers for months. I was glad to finally see some warm weather and then this.

I live right off 97 just above the head of triadelphia reservoir. So far I have only flown here at my house. We have a 3 month old so getting out to fly other places is tricky right now. Here is my hood from the typhoon. Q500 Typhoon: https://youtu.be/M8vQyzhcyWU

 

[jflyer3]

djsyd, I know how you feel! In my case, after 50 trouble-free flights my P2 with 2.0 ESCs suddenly fell like a rock in mid-flight. I was 50 meters above the ocean at the time and lost my Phantom to the unforgiving waters. Captured the fall on video and documented it in this thread.

http://www.phantompilots.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=35375

Too bad your video doesn't show the final seconds. Nevertheless see if you can work a deal with DJI on a replacement.

 

[dysan911]

Is the 2.0 ESC's only in the V3's?

 

[happydays]

I would just like to point out that the fact that it was St Patrick's Day would have absolutely no bearing on the fact that a crash happened.

:mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

 

[djsydvicious]

I would just like to point out that the fact that it was St Patrick's Day would have absolutely no bearing on the fact that a crash happened.

:mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

I concur... Just like the Valentine's Day Massacre had no bearing on the fact that some folk got shot up with holes like Swiss Cheese! [emoji12]

 

[djsydvicious]

Is the 2.0 ESC's only in the V3's?

I think they are definitely on the first batch in production.

 

[DBS]

https://youtu.be/huWZ_S3uPFM

Here is the video. You can fast forward to the end where you'll see it just stops as if it completely stopped recording.

Typically when you repair a corrupt video that wasn't ended properly, you lose up to 10 seconds of the end of the video...

You said you saw more than that on your fpv screen so you must have had power up until that point...

You lost one prop... this was another ESC malfunction that slammed one motor to a quick halt and spun the prop off... I guarantee it.

 

[djsydvicious]

https://youtu.be/huWZ_S3uPFM

Here is the video. You can fast forward to the end where you'll see it just stops as if it completely stopped recording.

Typically when you repair a corrupt video that wasn't ended properly, you lose up to 10 seconds of the end of the video...

You said you saw more than that on your fpv screen so you must have had power up until that point...

You lost one prop... this was another ESC malfunction that slammed one motor to a quick halt and spun the prop off... I guarantee it.

I used this method below to fix it. I was under the impression this method wouldn't chop anything like what happens when you put it back in the Quad. Perhaps you are correct.

http://slydiman.me/eng/mmedia/recover_mp4.htm

I really think that is what happened. I just hate I didn't have my screen recorder on.

So, when DJI gets the Quad, I hope when they test it, the problem is duplicated.

 

[djsydvicious]

Never found the prop. It was a silver one.

Hi,

Did you find the missing prop? If so, was it near where it crashed? I have read a couple posts about dropped from the sky crashes that also had one prop missing.
If it isn't near where the Phantom finally rested that would be a clue as to what is happening. Possibly if a motor were to lock up it might be able to cause the prop to spin off the shaft.
I know that the little e-clip that holds the motor shaft in the motor bearings has been known to come off and lock up the motor and/or even separate entirely from the motor itself.
I'm going to try to figure out a way to non destruct test locking up a motor and see what happens. I bet it can under the right condition cause the prop to actually spin itself off the shaft.
Of course falling from the sky and counter rotating the prop could do it too. But the motor losing power and stopping suddenly might loosen it enough for that to happen more easily.

I would have to see a schematic of the ESC to check if it is possible for the ESC to possibly put reverse voltage to the motor. Not very likely but I would like to check anyway.

Sorry for your loss, I hope DJI does the right thing for you.

P.S. Last question, was the missing prop a black or a silver?

 

[jshull0]

Sounds pretty similar as to what just happened to me a few days ago. Bird just died midfligh after 3 min.

I didn't think of checking motor leads, phantom is tore apart anyway I'll look at my leads on the motors.

 

[CyberCitizen]

Google djifix.exe

Run that on the video file, should repair it. I actually keep it on my SD Card just in case.

Then post the video file & dashware log file and we can have a look and see what occurred.

 

[djsydvicious]

Just an update to this incident/scenario.

I shipped my bird to DJI (USA) via UPS on March 18th.
UPS Tracking shows they received it on Marc 24th.
Received an email that it was checked into system on April 2.
Received email that it has been repaired on April 27th.
Received email wth FedEx Tracking Info on April 28th.
Schduled deliver date is Monday, May 4th, 2015.

I pray that nobody has to endure this long drawn out process for a product that was only 2 months old.

After mastering the use of my Phantom, this long wait to get it back has sucked out my enthusiasm to fly Quadcopters.

During the wait, The weather finally changed to where I no longer had to stand in cold and fly with frozen fingers. Also, my FlyTrex arrived while waitng. On top of that, the Phantom 3 was announced. I will admit, the media hype and Announcemnt event sucked me in to buying a Phantom 3 from B&H when they started taking pre-orders. I was actually pumped again to fly theses things.

Now that more time has lapsed an my P2V+ v3.0 is on its way back, I'm having moments of clarity. When I look at the money pumped into my unit (Bag, Batteries, etc.), I'm thinking about canceling my P3 order (I ordered th3 4K version).

I'm thinking I will just wait and let them iron the kinks out and drop the price and maybe get one later.

The phone rep said they replaced my ESCs and Motors and Camera and Gimbal and more. So, I do feel somewhat comfortable about my soon to be delivered unit.

Anybody else lose their flight enthusiasm after experiencing a bird drop from the sky as the result of faulty build quality?

 

[djsydvicious]

I received my Phantom and it flies fine. New ESCs and motors... I guess I'm good as new.

I have a Flytrex mounted. So, I'm keeping an eye on things.

Only drawback is they upgraded me to version 3.12 therefore, I can no longer fly at home. I have to drive about 30 minutes from home to fly note as a result of some fool landing his at The White House.