Firmware v3.04 reviews

[Rubik]

The H's lost comm protocol has always been to return to the last known position of the 16, drop gear, hover, and wait in hover until comm link is recovered, and to land upon low battery if link remains lost. This is not a firmware defect, but a lost comm design feature. That you regained control after turning the transmitter back on demonstrated that it functioned normally. A safer way to perform this test is to put the 16 in Pad mode, which terminates the telemetry/flight control link. To resume link just exit Pad mode to avoid booting up the 16 again.

Thanks, Pat. I had that experience yesterday. When I lost video link, the screen went to Systems Settings to show that the camera link was lost. RTH brought the TH back overhead and lowered the landing gear but stayed up there, hovering. It wasn't until I figured to Return to the flight control screen that I regained control and landed, without video of course. I was worried that it would run down the battery before landing. Whew!
I have 2 questions:
1. Is there some way to regain video link in this situation while flying? I had to rebind the camera to ST16 after landing. I can't imagine that can be done while it's in the air. Can't do the 45-deg tilt to enter bind mode.
2. My video didn't just glitch, it lost communication completely and without warning. I had been hovering some distance out and up, doing a gimbal pan and just adjusted the exposure to get a better view of Mt. Rainier in the distance. Bam, Systems Settings screen. I was a long way from civilization and not as far out as I have been previously with a reliable connection. There was nothing between me and the aircraft (VLOS). Could the trees on either side of me have somehow caused the loss of video connection?

 

[PatR]

I don't know if this works for everyone, but I never do the tipping thing when binding. I just go into system settings, hit refresh to locate the file(s), go into Team mode to find the aircraft/AP if it doesn't show up, hit refresh again, select both camera and the aircraft, and hit bind. The H is always blinking fast yellow/orange during the bind process and it always exits the yellow flashing mode when I exit the Settings function. So might you be able to bind the camera while airborne? It may be possible, and also may be dangerous to try it. Personally, I don't have warm and fuzzies thinking about trying to bind anything while it's in the air. I would not try it without doing a test with the H tethered to something in case it decided to run away. I would certainly not try binding the aircraft to the 16 while airborne, ever.

Can trees cause loss of video? Absolutely if the radio path between the H and the ST-16 become interrupted by tall trees. Because we can see the H does not mean the ST-16 and the H are effectively communicating when clear path between them becomes occluded. What is a clear path between the H and our eyes may not be a clear path between the H and the 16 since the 16 is always lower than our eyes, plus we have the manner the antennas are oriented to consider. Complete loss of video is frequently caused by a physically interrupted signal. Once the video is completely lot the camera will have to go though another boot/connection process again when the video link is regained.

As for the Systems Setting screen popping up, I suspect that's happening for the same reason I ended up in Pad mode by accident way back when, and learning first hand how the lost comm protocol worked in the process. In my case I too was adjusting camera settings and accidentally bumped a fingertip on the Pad control button. As I was unfamiliar with the system at the time I didn't read the warning screen that popped up and blindly hit the "Yes" button that put the 16 in Pad mode. Instant Oh Chit, but it rose to default RTH height, came back to about where the 16 had been, and hovered until I figured out what I had done and exited Pad mode. Link was reacquired as soon as the flight mode screen came back up. Could you be doing similar with the System Settings button??

 

[Rubik]

Thanks Pat for your well considered response. It's reassuring to hear how others handle issues.

The camera link was definitely lost as was displayed on the Systems Settings screen. So, I don't think that I did it with an accidental touch.

Below is a picture I extracted from the video at about the time the link was lost. I'm standing on the road in the gap between the trees in the lower right corner of the picture.


Turns out the solar K-factor was climbing rapidly yesterday evening and today. I wonder if that could have been the cause.

Anyway, if this happens again, I will switch to RTH and get back to the flight control screen a soon as possible. So, if the video link recovers, I can continue my flight plan.