I thought I had a flyaway the other day. I've been reluctant to upgrade my firmware. The last time I upgraded was when fail safe was put on the right transmitter switch. It has always flown perfectly since then, until the other day.
I usually fly my first flight of each day without the Hero3 attached to make sure the Phantom is working properly, and for me to "warm up." I attached my camera for the second flight and took off.
I flew forward about 50 feet and then up to get some sunset video. When I got to the altitude I wanted, I centered the throttle, but it kept climbing. I had X and Y control, but it quickly got smaller and disappeared. I turned off the transmitter and prayed for a return. A few minutes later the timer on my phone began to chime. Crap. The battery would be dying soon.
Well, a few minutes later it came down, fast, and crash landed right side up about 25 feet from where it took off. Thankfully it hit the grass and while my gopro was stunned, it worked fine after a battery pull. The Phantom survived as well with only two blades boogered up and bent landing gear, which I straightened out.
Yesterday I cleaned it up, took it apart, and found that that case, ESCs, and main board were all ok. When I went to hook it up to the laptop, my transmitter beeped as if the throttle was not all the way down... It was. I took the transmitter apart and gently tugged on all the wires and found this one to be loose... It was actually broken from its solder joint. It goes right to the throttle stick!
I think it came loose as I was climbing and the Phantom kept climbing with the last known throttle input until I switched off the transmitter. After looking at the video, it appears to have gone into fail safe mode, but ran out of battery at the last 80 feet of descent.
Here's what I found inside the transmitter... How it worked ok for the last 30 flights or so, I have no idea! A quick solder job and everything is back to normal. QC sucks at DJI, among other things.
I usually fly my first flight of each day without the Hero3 attached to make sure the Phantom is working properly, and for me to "warm up." I attached my camera for the second flight and took off.
I flew forward about 50 feet and then up to get some sunset video. When I got to the altitude I wanted, I centered the throttle, but it kept climbing. I had X and Y control, but it quickly got smaller and disappeared. I turned off the transmitter and prayed for a return. A few minutes later the timer on my phone began to chime. Crap. The battery would be dying soon.
Well, a few minutes later it came down, fast, and crash landed right side up about 25 feet from where it took off. Thankfully it hit the grass and while my gopro was stunned, it worked fine after a battery pull. The Phantom survived as well with only two blades boogered up and bent landing gear, which I straightened out.
Yesterday I cleaned it up, took it apart, and found that that case, ESCs, and main board were all ok. When I went to hook it up to the laptop, my transmitter beeped as if the throttle was not all the way down... It was. I took the transmitter apart and gently tugged on all the wires and found this one to be loose... It was actually broken from its solder joint. It goes right to the throttle stick!
I think it came loose as I was climbing and the Phantom kept climbing with the last known throttle input until I switched off the transmitter. After looking at the video, it appears to have gone into fail safe mode, but ran out of battery at the last 80 feet of descent.
Here's what I found inside the transmitter... How it worked ok for the last 30 flights or so, I have no idea! A quick solder job and everything is back to normal. QC sucks at DJI, among other things.