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Mini 3 Pro Fell from Sky and 204 deg F Battery

Mike107

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Mini 3 Pro fell out of the sky and broke.
My Battery was >200 degrees when I unpacked at home.

Log is here at Phantom help.
I have a screen recording but was not filming from the drone so I don't believe I have a srt file (first day not double-recording everything...drowning in GBs of mp4 files).

At time 3:11 of the screen recording I have 5 Bars and 30 Sats, with 88% battery, am ascending at about 100 yards out, intending to verify True West orientation of the aircraft for the compass test by use of distant objects.

It looks like there is some wind from ENE or so on the indicator. but not too bad on screen or visually. I had 2 FH Arc V and a Vifly on the Aircraft and it was very visible to me 100 yards distance every time I looked up. It seemed stable and I could even easily observe the slight orientation changes I made quite well.

About 4 frames into 3:12 The RC indicator goes full Red, look up and I cannot see the quad, look down and there is complete disconnect on screen. It all happens in about 1 second.

I started sky-searching methodically, see nothing, press RTH button once.
I watch and can't see the Mini 3 anywhere. I started scanning out farther from last known and see nothing.
I could not reconnect to the aircraft.

I walk down range to what I believe is the aircraft and find it upside down, gimble broken, Vifly laying nearby.
Good news is compass had been working well enough to have aided in spotting and recovery.
The Bad news is...well...

Battery:
When I got home the brand-new battery was 204 degrees F and swollen. It now sits outside in a metal can...

Drone:
The inside of the aircraft 185 degrees.
All rotors turn freely, but it is grass stained....

Any insights will be appreciated.
Any help determining if this is a warranty-covered incident and making a case will also be appreciated.

Mike
 
When and where did you purchase the drone.
Suggestion: go to DJI support and start a repair/warranty claim. Only DJI can answer about the warranty.
Just reading your comments a about swollen battery and high temperatures it would seem to be catastrophic battery failure or battery pushed away from the contacts for sudden electrical loss.
DJI repair form has space for all your comments. DJI will likely have log records.
 
It was from DJI, maybe a week ago.
The reason I asked for help is that in another thread a member was advised they should have had a review here first, and then with that expertise they may have gotten a better response from DJI.

I definitely will make a warranty claim—assuming no freak occurrences, etc.

Thanks.
 
I think your details provide about all the details one really need. The log file stops with no warning, as if there was sudden electrical loss. Battery voltages show no serious deficiencies.
DJI would be able to get more data from the onboard data files. I think some data may already be sent to DJI.
The sooner our submit the claim, the sooner you get a replacement, perhaps 10 days after sending drone back.
 
Mini 3 Pro fell out of the sky and broke.
My Battery was >200 degrees when I unpacked at home.

Log is here at Phantom help.
Your recorded flight data shows the battery temp rising during the flight from 84.6°F to 97.7°F at the end of the flight.
There's nothing suspicious about the battery temperature during the flight.
The high temperature you reported at home is likely to be due to the battery being damaged in the crash.
 
Of course, that's why I added the "may" to my comment.
 
I wasn't able to get Airdata to accept the .txt file previously, but I can today (7/25/22) please note I flew 7/24/22, but the RC was set to Use Network-provided Time and it used China, so file names show that time zone and a date of 7/25/22.

I am not sure how to make this available except as a csv renamed to txt.
Let me know if there is a better way.

I noticed a trend toward widening cell-cell variation and not too much more yet.
Anyone see anything else?
Thanks,
Mike
 

Attachments

  • Jul-24th-2022-05-10PM-Flight-Airdata.txt
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@Mike107, the compass check needs to be done before takeoff. If you were already 100 yards into the flight, a compass problem could cause a situation like the one described in this thread. Look at post #39 and #74. (Not suggesting that this was the issue in your incident,)


Good luck with the warranty claim.
 
@Mike107, the compass check needs to be done before takeoff. If you were already 100 yards into the flight, a compass problem could cause a situation like the one described in this thread. Look at post #39 and #74. (Not suggesting that this was the issue in your incident,)


Good luck with the warranty claim.
That is a very interesting and relevant thread. Thank you. I'd like to get more in depth and understand what happened. Wind was intermittently a feature of the flight environment that day, but I am not sure of what influence it had other than intermittent increased power demand. I'm not sure yet what is the best approach.

I'm sorry if I didn't tell the story correctly. You're probably aware of the compass dysfunctions in the M3P and the updates addressing it. I had noticed that although compass performance for both my drones was greatly improved and functional, there was still variation in the quality of the compass performance from flight to flight. Errors I continued to see were predominantly heading of the RC and an "off-set" error. (The controller frequently showed me standing to the side when in fact directly behind or was aligned as the drone-HomePoint-me--even if drone and RC both had correct and parallel headings indicated.)

I had quoted an excellent thread on how detected magnetic readings get converted to True and was testing a theory that the variation in compass performance I was currently seeing had to do with the quality of GPS and interference at power on. I tested at home--where I think there may be influences from high voltage wires, trees, sky occlusion from buildings, and went then to test in a wide-open place.

On this Crash flight I think compass performance was very close to spot on but wasn't sure about offset. I was going up to get a far-off fix, then was coming back down to check. I was just about up to height (I think I had stopped elevating or was about to) when I went down.
 
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Your recorded flight data shows the battery temp rising during the flight from 84.6°F to 97.7°F at the end of the flight.
There's nothing suspicious about the battery temperature during the flight.
The high temperature you reported at home is likely to be due to the battery being damaged in the crash.
That is possible. I do remember the craft and battery being noticeably warmer than I expected, but not alarmingly so. I have been carrying an infrared temp checker in my bag and periodically was checking controller temps (one gets over 130) and rarely the drone or battery. I didn't check at the equipment at that time.

I did notice a growing trend of cell-cell variation leading up to the loss of power/connection.
I'm not sure how to investigate in more detail yet.

Thanks.
I appreciate your looking and will accept any additional input.
Mike
 
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Infrared thermometer only measures an external temperature which may be from other factors, not the internal temperature which matters;. On the other hand I think a bulging battery is significant, but the battery could have been damaged in impact. DJI is likely the only place to get a definitive answer.
 
Infrared thermometer only measures an external temperature which may be from other factors, not the internal temperature which matters;. On the other hand I think a bulging battery is significant, but the battery could have been damaged in impact. DJI is likely the only place to get a definitive answer.
Could the internal temp ever be less than external?
 
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If uploaded the .txt log file to your own AirData account you could see a graph of the battery amp draw up to the time of disconnect.
 
@Mike107, the compass check needs to be done before takeoff. If you were already 100 yards into the flight, a compass problem could cause a situation like the one described in this thread. Look at post #39 and #74. (Not suggesting that this was the issue in your incident,)


Good luck with the warranty claim.
MC--Thanks again for the input. I upgraded the Airdata (free premium feature--thanks!), as a result of your input.
I think it is a great investment. Wish I'd done it sooner.

Wind was 7.4 Avg with 8.9 gusts.
 
Not that would make a different, what were the winds in the altitude profile. That's always interesting just a s a matter of understanding winds for future.
 
If uploaded the .txt log file to your own AirData account you could see a graph of the battery amp draw up to the time of disconnect.
Thanks, FLDave. See anything?
Cell Deviation Crash.PNGAmp Deviation Crash Vertical KML.PNG
 
Not that would make a different, what were the winds in the altitude profile. That's always interesting just a s a matter of understanding winds for future.
Interesting that it doesn't show any higher altitude.
Wind By Altitude Crash.PNG
 
My own opinion is nothing alarming with voltage decreasing. For the Amps I'm not clear on position but I guess the straight vertical line on the image the straight high speed portion of the flight where it's using higher current; nothing surprising.
I don't know if you figured it out but on the amps page you click on the data specific to the flight or the flight specific data. Just interesting and not likely to add any relevant information in this case.
 
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