Unprovoked mid-flight drone shutdown

Flight - Discussion and Q&A
#1

Looking for anyone that has seen this before or could help identify the issue. Here’s the facts:

  • Three Phantom 4 drone crashes caused by mid-air motor shutdown
  • Different done, battery, and controller each time
  • Plenty of battery power remaining each time
  • Same iPad, software, and lightning cable each time
  • iPad 6th gen, 15.4.1
  • DD version 4.82.0
  • All three crashes occurred during programmed flight with no pilot interaction. One occurred during auto-landing
  • Drones did not appear to lose power, and one even signaled end-of-mission after crashing during auto-landing
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#2

Im not expert, but when I got to catch my drone during a landing in bad terrain, it knows to shut down based on the fact that it cant move. Maybe that function is getting triggered? Since it says it landed correctly, it might be along those lines?
Certainly, DJI should be able to look at your logs and have a educated guess.

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#3

Thanks, Joe. I’ve sent them to DJI with explicit request to read and analyze the encrypted onboard logs in each drone. Hopefully they can shed some light. By my thinking, it has come down to either the software (DD each time), the iPad, or somehow the lightning cable. If no one else is experiencing this lately, then it’s probably not DD.

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