Sudden Complete Power Loss

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Was flying my P2V a few hours ago and a few minutes after take off at around 84% battery on my phone screen and about 150 feet up, ALL the lights just went off... My eyes couldn't believe it... Just out the blues, all the lights just went off... The phantom started falling from the sky... No battery alerts at all... It fell inverted onto a side road... It hit nothing... The battery was still powered on but no power on the unit... One of the the prop blades tip broke and all four center caps are scraped pretty good, but other than that, you wouldn't know anything happened to it... Except, it will not power up... I tried a different battery, same thing... What ever happened up there, what ever killed the power to the unit is still in place... I just received it on Jan 2nd... Only eight days... What the f???... I've emailed B&H to initiate an RMA... Has anyone experienced a complete loss of power in mid flight without ANY warnings before?
 
semaj said:
...Just out the blues, all the lights just went off... The phantom started falling from the sky... No battery alerts at all... It fell inverted onto a side road... It hit nothing... The battery was still powered on but no power on the unit... ...you wouldn't know anything happened to it... Except, it will not power up... I tried a different battery, same thing... Has anyone experienced a complete loss of power in mid flight without ANY warnings before?
Not being able to power-up after swapping batteries would seem to rule-out the battery. And yes, similar cases have been reported but we still don't know exactly what happened. Start here:
http://www.phantompilots.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=4984&start=10#p44625

iDrone
 
Check the main power wires from the battery to the board.
One end of one of the two wires probably was not soldered well.
 
Could be a cold solder joint. Power lead not making good contact so the vibration of the flight made it loose connection all together. Unfortunately there's probably nothing you can really do to see that kind of problem before hand. Best thing we can do is log a fair number of hours in a safe grassy place to vette out the system and make sure it's running well before flying over hard or wet surfaces.
 
garygid said:
Check the main power wires from the battery to the board.
One end of one of the two wires probably was not soldered well.

I don't want to dismantle... I am sending back to B&H for a replacement...

iDrone... I did review that thread, but nothing was there regarding all power loss without any warning... I have the upgraded firmware... I have to believe that something came loose (probably a power lead) as garygid said, but that's ridiculous... I just received this thing 8 days ago... I haven't had a single issue or even rough landing... Just out the blues... NO POWER... How the hell do we fly these things knowing that this could happen... Does DJI have QC at all? I guess i'm just pissed off right now... my initial shock has passed, now its just anger...
 
BenDronePilot said:
Could be a cold solder joint. Power lead not making good contact so the vibration of the flight made it loose connection all together. Unfortunately there's probably nothing you can really do to see that kind of problem before hand. Best thing we can do is log a fair number of hours in a safe grassy place to vette out the system and make sure it's running well before flying over hard or wet surfaces.


Funny you said that... after my very first initial flight that took me over a thousand feet, I realized how lucky I was and that I needed to be more careful and Vet this thing better... That's what I have been doing... keeping it low and close... Practicing my flight skills and recovery abilities of the unit... Even this last flight was somewhat safe... I was on a football field, actually, multiple football fields butted together... the service road to get there was the hardest surface around... of course, that's where it landed... What is so ironic is I was sending this unit back for replacement due to a bad camera (soft/blurry right side)... Already had my RMA and shipping label printed out... was out for a last flight before I had to wait a week or so for my replacement... then BAM! WTF... Guess it was going back anyway... I hope DJI gets a chance to break it down and find out what happened... If its a solder issue, what safety measures can be done to alleviate this from occurring?
 
I won't make any excuses for DJI, but many manufacturing companies experience assembly issues, especially during first runs of product launch. If it's any consolation, have a look at the following thread. http://www.phantompilots.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=5576&p=42177

This is one of the most important discoveries unearthed about the Vision's assembly and points up the fact that they -do- have soldering issues that need to be addressed. I was going to suggest you don't disassemble your Vision, but I've see you already made that decision, wise choice. The folks at B&H are great, just report the facts and they'll do the rest. If you have any data, photos, or video, offer to send that to them.

iDrone
 
Threads like this scare me, Ive been wanting to take apart my phantom just because I'm curious maybe il do it just to check the solder points.
 
Un fuc*ing believable! (sorry for me swearing)
That this bird did not crash is 100% luck!!!!

I've just opened my P2V because I want to be sure everything was okay and discovered than one of the wires (the shield ground) from the main board to the ESC (for M4) was loose.
It was only touching the board cause of pressure from the plastic tie wrap!!

PLEASE. Do not think that your P2V is okay! I thought the same!
Also note that I have never crashed the P2V, and that I did not have any problems with it!

I URGE everyone to open the P2V and check the connections before the next flight.

Here is a howto on opening the P2V: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLgwyoJvqM8

Video of the problem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkQX4vULlZ0
 
Yup, your video shows the problem precisely, just as Aerial Pro's discovered. Both ends of the coaxial cable should be inspected, the end going to the ESC board and the end going to the Main board. If the lead moves, it -must- be reflowed. The printed pad needs to be scuffed & reflowed to confirm it takes, then the lead can be reflowed back onto the pad. Keep in mind this product is RoHS compliant so the factory will have used lead-free solder with its higher melting point. You can reflow rosin core but you've got to melt the lead free first. BTW your disassembly instructional vid is excellent.

iDrone
 
This should be a stickied.. Something like this should be the first thing to check!!! i think i've read a lot of posts about sudden power loss and pv2 dropping like rocks... moderators, pls sticky this post!
 
Damm.. Can anyone repair that issue themselves? I have never soldered and wonder how to get off that big chunk of "metal" before resoldering?
 
I'm good at soldering, so I've just soldered it back on (used a 18 watt Antex soldering iron with a small tip).

If you have never soldered, than I suggest to not do it yourself!
 
semaj said:
BenDronePilot said:
Could be a cold solder joint. Power lead not making good contact so the vibration of the flight made it loose connection all together. Unfortunately there's probably nothing you can really do to see that kind of problem before hand. Best thing we can do is log a fair number of hours in a safe grassy place to vette out the system and make sure it's running well before flying over hard or wet surfaces.


Funny you said that... after my very first initial flight that took me over a thousand feet, I realized how lucky I was and that I needed to be more careful and Vet this thing better... That's what I have been doing... keeping it low and close... Practicing my flight skills and recovery abilities of the unit... Even this last flight was somewhat safe... I was on a football field, actually, multiple football fields butted together... the service road to get there was the hardest surface around... of course, that's where it landed... What is so ironic is I was sending this unit back for replacement due to a bad camera (soft/blurry right side)... Already had my RMA and shipping label printed out... was out for a last flight before I had to wait a week or so for my replacement... then BAM! WTF... Guess it was going back anyway... I hope DJI gets a chance to break it down and find out what happened... If its a solder issue, what safety measures can be done to alleviate this from occurring?

The only thing you can do as far as preventative maintenance to avoid this particular problem from happening would void your warranty most likely and require you have some soldering skills. Usually just reheating the solder with your soldering iron is sufficient to fix a cold solder joint problem. Since cold solder joints are not always immediately obvious just by looking at them, your best bet is to redo them all. And as an additional preventative step, if you have any crashes, or once a year, to redo all the solder joints again in the same way to reinforce the connections. And once every few months checking the internal connector plugs to make sure nothing is shaking loose. And once a month to check that all the screws on your Phantom are snug, especially the ones attaching your motors.
 
I opened mine just a few moments ago and everything seems to be rock solid. Quite a few solder points inside (about 50?). So if everything is fine now, how high is the possibility of a wire getting loose? I thought soldering is the way to go in places with high vibrations?

Edit: BTW is this the reason for the sudden power loss issues or might that be a software issue? I guess no one knows..
 
I imagine quite a few of us are going to be opening up our Phantom. I will be having a look at mine before it flies again. I think I will also take a few photos just so I have a reference images if ever I need to repair anything. I am going to brush up my soldering skills so that I can undertake this type of repair if necessary. Practice makes perfect.

The more I think about this problem the more I think this is likely to be at the core of most fly aways and sudden plummets from the sky.
 
You guys with Visions & Phantom2s should be looking at those battery contacts. I suspect that battery is the center of most of the newer gen issues.
 

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