Those that had the Phantom go bye,bye....a few questions

[Mark P]

Well heres another story of a DJI Phantom throwing a temper tantrum for no reason and flying like someone grabbed my controller and gave it full 4:30 position on the Right sticks and full throttle as I was hovering it 20' above my head taking dusk shots of every light in the house ramping up, thankfully I didn't take it in the house like I was going to and have it fly through a priceless oil painting.

It was almost identical to SacDs video

Heres what Im searching through for over 12 hours now, 4 with three people and was out for 3 hours the night it happened hoping to see any lights at all

For those that never found theirs did you buy another one? Do you have confidence in their product enough to risk (in my case) $1200.00 every time it decides to just "do its own thing"

What other options do we have, what else is in this price range that doesn't have all the fancy GPS, IOC and other features that Im almost sure is what causes these "loss of control" by shoving too much into a small package. I only ever flew in ATTI mode just because the thing was GREAT its first 320 minutes of footage.

Im just wondering what would happen if you bought a car (cough....Toyota....cough) that all of a sudden just pulled the wheel right and went full throttle and ejected you to safety and your car drove off into the middle of the desert never to be seen. Granted this product is 5% of the cost of a car but.........

 

[TickTock]

I have one of these and it works reasonably well. The tags are very light - small as the smallest thumbdrive. I hid tags on all my kids bikes and other items that tend to go missing. It actually points you to the tag so very easy to locate. Range isn't great, but if you get within 200ft or so it picks it up and takes you the rest of the way. I didn't even think to put one on my Phantom until I read your post - I'll be doing that tonight:

http://www.loc8tor.co.uk/

Also just found this but not sure how well bluetooth will work:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/larrymagid/ ... ice-versa/

 

[Gary39]

There are a couple of articles about the phantom that show replacing their receiver with either Futaba or Spectrum. I think this could be one answer to the problem.

 

[Gary39]

Witespy also has a couple in this price range using spectrum receivers.

 

[yappy]

Hmm,

I have been flying my phantom without problems so far.

But with all these reports of lost phantoms and out of control, it's making me worry about flying.

What is causing the problems? :?: :!:

 

[Mark P]

Hmm,

I have been flying my phantom without problems so far.

But with all these reports of lost phantoms and out of control, it's making me worry about flying.

What is causing the problems? :?: :!:

My guess is it's the same as all Chinese products, workers getting paid $.25 and hour and jumping off buildings after 100 hour work weeks don't get quite a decent solder joint on the circuit board. A couple crashes, hot/cold/hot/cold, fast throttle flybys, regardless theres a pattern building amongst some, I had 320 minutes of footage, the thing flew wonderful ( best product ever in RC and I've owned hundreds since the 70s) in these minutes but as in a dozen videos the same thing happens, veers away at high throttle, gain control for 4-5 seconds, then it will rotate slightly and start in on its same veering and throttle up. I actually got mine to power off but Im not sure its because it clipped a fir tree. on my very first flight ever I had my battery cover just pop open, this is a really weak link in the design and if this happens during a flight and the battery falls out but doesn't disconnect Im not sure how this effects the compass and whatever.

You always hear " did you have wifi on your GoPro?" which people don't but even so some use the wifi on multiple flights with no problems,also theres the " did you calibrate it" well yes 10 flights ago and it always flies perfect, how do you perform a calibration when it's flying perfectly and the goes Batchit, I don't think it can carry around a laptop

 

[BadWolf]

There is also speculation on other boards that people are powering up the Phantom with the transmitter in GPS mode, and confusing the 1 green 4 fast green flashes on the LED for an okay to fly condition. This sequence of flashes means that the naza is disoriented. It's best to power up the Phantom with the transmitter in ATTI mode so that you'll get 1 yellow 4 fast green flashes on the LED if the naza is disoriented. If you're flying in GPS mode and the Phantom goes wonky the only way to recover is to switch to ATTI mode.

 

[Sac D]

Mark, your account does match what happened with mine, except mine went left instead of right. And mine had performed this stunt 4 or 5 times previously, over a total of maybe 50 flights. No wifi conflict, extensive pre-flight checks, etc. I hope you can find it in those woods. Remember it may have gone a greater distance than you may think... expand the search area a bit if that's possible.

Oh, and before I forget... all those threads about flight times and battery life... mine took place on a freshly charged 2250mAh battery, but it was pretty much drained after 3 minutes. That's what happens at full throttle against the wind!

 

[Mark P]

Mark, your account does match what happened with mine, except mine went left instead of right. And mine had performed this stunt 4 or 5 times previously, over a total of maybe 50 flights. No wifi conflict, extensive pre-flight checks, etc. I hope you can find it in those woods. Remember it may have gone a greater distance than you may think... expand the search area a bit if that's possible.

Oh, and before I forget... all those threads about flight times and battery life... mine took place on a freshly charged 2250mAh battery, but it was pretty much drained after 3 minutes. That's what happens at full throttle against the wind!

If I could find the camera, our videos would probably match perfectly except I got mine to shut down. or a fir tree did. Mine was sort of facing me and flew backwards and to the left at afairly rapid rate, I gained control for about 4-5 seconds and got it right and towards me slightly when it took off away and left again.

When I gained control I should have buried it into the ground

 

[Sac D]

When I gained control I should have buried it into the ground

That's what I did on the last attempt I made to fly mine after it was recovered from it's week along the banks of the river.

I haven't heard anything back from the dealer, they were gonna disassemble it in order to see if they could determine the problem. Or they may just use it for spare parts. I wouldn't trust that NAZA at all though. I'm not so sure now that I trust the one in my new Phantom either, but I haven't even flown it yet because we are still having some nasty wind gusts here.

 

[Sac D]

I'm wondering if it truly is the Phantom TX that is causing all of these similar out of control experiences and the resulting mishaps. I don't recall seeing anyone report this kind of thing after swapping out to a Spektrum, Futaba, or another standard TX.

Of course, just trying to watch for and recall what gets posted on forums isn't a very scientific approach to evaluating this.

 

[Mark P]

When I gained control I should have buried it into the ground

That's what I did on the last attempt I made to fly mine after it was recovered from it's week along the banks of the river.

I haven't heard anything back from the dealer, they were gonna disassemble it in order to see if they could determine the problem. Or they may just use it for spare parts. I wouldn't trust that NAZA at all though. I'm not so sure now that I trust the one in my new Phantom either, but I haven't even flown it yet because we are still having some nasty wind gusts here.

wait so you sent yours in for evaluation by DJI? If so, How long ago?

My guess is no matter what they find, they will never admit it publicly that there is a flaw, Ive read well over 20 of these events that are identical to ours, and how many people that own these even get on the internet at all to post about it. When I was considering buying one I researched it ad saw on DJIs Facebook page a person warning people not to buy it because they just fly off into space for no reason, several other replied with the same thing happened to them and now I can't find that post ( obviously it was 2 weeks ago)

There is something obviously wrong with some (or maybe all) of them and it's going to take 2000 of them to drop out of the sky and ruffle feathers before. I know something bugged out on mine for certain because I had flown mine in 20+ mph winds and could put it anywhere I wanted, whenever I wanted. Insteadof all that fancy IOC and GPS auto land that has worked for like 5 people maybe put in a nice GPS location device

 

[Mark P]

I'm wondering if it truly is the Phantom TX that is causing all of these similar out of control experiences and the resulting mishaps. I don't recall seeing anyone report this kind of thing after swapping out to a Spektrum, Futaba, or another standard TX.

Of course, just trying to watch for and recall what gets posted on forums isn't a very scientific approach to evaluating this.

I am too, it feels like a hunk of junk compared to my other 15 transmitters including the cheesy Spektrums that come with a $200 plane. I have a couple high dollar Spektrums I was planning on swapping with since I only flew ATTI anyway, just a couple days to late. Has anyone heard of DJI replacing one of these flyoffs ? It's pretty sad when you have video shot 20 minutes before the thing goes whacky that shows it doing graceful aerobatics flying through tree branches because it's so stable and 20 minutes later ....its gone. If they don't want to replace it, maybe send a representative out to climb through the poison oak for 2 days looking for it. The more time I spend in that forrest the more ticked off I become. I took some aerials with my iPhone on one of my planes today and swore we saw it twice in the video and both times it was dead moss covered broken branches. We're having pretty strong winds so shooting video is a little shaky as well

 

[Gizmo3000]

My guess is no matter what they find, they will never admit it publicly that there is a flaw, Ive read well over 20 of these events that are identical to ours, and how many people that own these even get on the internet at all to post about it.

I highly doubt they'll do anything unless someone eventually gets hurt.
plus they're too busy focused on selling new Phantoms unfortunately.

Even if the company had good intentions and tried to address the issue, they'd have a tough time because they have no way of determining how much environmental and/or possible pilot error was involved with these occurrences.

But when you think about it, it's pretty whacked that one of their fixes involves smacking the NAZA on the side!@#

 

[cornerstore]

This is a worry. If it flies off out of control, whose it to say someone isnt going to get seriously hurt when it finally comes crashing down!

Im really surprised that DJI arent responding to this issue. At the very least they should be letting us know through forums like this that they are looking at trying to find the cause.

Perhaps this thread has to get a bit longer. Surely somebody from DJI reads them!

Jamie

 

[Mark P]

This is a worry. If it flies off out of control, whose it to say someone isnt going to get seriously hurt when it finally comes crashing down!

Im really surprised that DJI arent responding to this issue. At the very least they should be letting us know through forums like this that they are looking at trying to find the cause.

Perhaps this thread has to get a bit longer. Surely somebody from DJI reads them!

Jamie

Nobody from DJI comes here, the guy I bought mine from said he's sold hundreds of them and not one person has complained about an out of control fly-off. Not only that but he said he never heard of one on the internet at all......heck I saw 20 of them the first 15 minutes I found out about the Phantom.

Im sure DJI is too busy at NAB selling their stuff. I do feel a company should do something when a person can provide 320 minutes of video showing they know when a RC product is in control and taking sweeping circular shots keeping an object centered from 20' away to over 300' up and circling around framing things perfectly in the frame and then coming down and flying within inches of objects, that they know when their product loses all control and just flys away from them. I really hope I find mine with the camera intact. I have super slow flybys of my Bass pond right before dusk with the Bass jumping out of the water. I felt so good I went up to take the dusk shots of all 170 lights ramping up as I circled the house and BOOM......see ya

 

[Sac D]

[so you sent yours in for evaluation by DJI?

No, I sent it back to the dealer I bought it from.

Meanwhile, I ordered another, which I finally flew today. It handled perfectly. But I am still a nervous wreck because it could take off without warning at any moment.

I agree with your comments about DJI, I'm sure they downplay any feedback that they get about Flyaways... then can attribute it to noobs not following the directions, etc... but it's hard to deny there is a problem when it happens over and over to experienced pilots who are alert to issues.

 

[Eik]

Considering the amount on Naza-M's on the flamewheel series and other multirotors, I doubt the problem lies there (Never heard of fly aways with those), which leaves a possible phantom bug with the tx/rx or interference. (which also seems unlikely watching Sac D's clip of the fly away.)

 

[Gary39]

Has anyone heard anything at all from dji about this problem ? I have quite a few flights on mine now and getting nervous about all these failures. I don't use a camera on mine yet and probably wont until the problems are solved. None of it seems to point to any one thimg in particular. I haven't heard of any problems with other quads using naza, but then I haven't followed them. If they have no problems then perhaps that cheap rec. they use in the Phantom is to blame ?

 

[Mark P]

I actually had an interesting conversation with someone and I think I know what happened to mine and if it's true I want $1100 back and I want it now. But before I divulge my information does someone have a link to DJI s instructions or warnings about wi-fi? And I'm not talking about wi-fi onboard the phantom but just wi-fi in general