I really screwed up this time. I think my battery cable came undone at 200 feet. Luckily I always fly it over my own house when I get to high altitude. It came crashing down on my own deck... Little pieces everywhere. Just a reminder of how dangerous these big drones can be. It came down fast!
Was it totally unpowered as it fell, no sounds? Those xt60/90 plugs can be a bit dodgy, I used to fasten electrical tape around them before each flight so they couldn’t slip apart, which some of them felt like they could easily. I later found the blue EC3/5 connectors were more sturdy.
I listened to the onboard GoPro footage over and over and it appears to have just turned off. I am pretty sure the connector disconnected. Like an idiot, I did not put it on all the way because this one was extremely hard to pry off if I did. I am about 90% sure it was my fault. An expensive lesson TimeWise, but I think I am going to be able to salvage the controller, receiver, transmitter, pmu, and iOS Mini. It appeared to have crashed on its landing gear because the deck was unharmed. The GPS disc was still standing.
I do remember the power connectors always being something to worry about when I used to build my own stuff, it's why the consumer stuff like Phantoms etc have put a lot of effort into making the battery connection solid and, as far as possible, fool proof. I do remember those yellow XTs being either too loose so they slip apart, or very tight so it was a real struggle to push them together. In fact, it's all coming back to me now. I had a home build that took two batteries. One of the connections was very tight, and one was loose so I put electrical tape on that one each flight. I remember the tight connection being as much of a pain disconnecting because I was always worried that I was pulling so hard it might suddenly jerk apart and pull the wires away from the power board or loosen the solder joints or something.