First Major Crash - Help Please:

[Freakish]

Hi peoples...

My first post here, and not a particularly happy one.

I purchased a Q500 4K about a month ago, have done dozens of flights without any incidents until yesterday. (have been very impressed)

I was heading back towards me, and starting to descend, when the Q500 seem to start to become hugely unstable and dropped like a stone, my controls seemingly did nothing and I had to watch in horror.

I'm wondering if anyone can help me try and work out what went wrong.

I have got the CSV file, and have looked in the FlightLog software, but their is so much data I'm having troubles deciphering the cause or the what/when.

The low res video from the ST10, does seem to show it was falling far too quickly, and I have now managed to repair (most) of the corrupted full 4K video, which does show the (heart breaking) moments before impact and it does look like it's dropping like a stone, it's falling far too fast for it not to be some kind of failure IMO.

I'm hoping someone can help me so I have enough to claim warranty, as I don't believe I'm at fault in anyway and would love the data + video to prove that.

The CGO3 has sheared 3 wires and has broken away from the bracket.

I will attach a .zip file with the Remote/Telemetry directories with the relevant csv file, and I will try and upload a video of the impact (13Mb) at a later stage.

If anyone could help look for any pointers within the data it would be much appreciated.

 

[Jafo]

My first thought is... How fast were you coming down ? Rabbit or Turtle mode ?
You may have seen some instability in the past if you came in hot.
Come in to hot and with the right wind conditions you might lose lift and fall a bit.
Or it could be something else....

 

[Freakish]

My first thought is... How fast were you coming down ? Rabbit or Turtle mode ?
You may have seen some instability in the past if you came in hot.
Come in to hot and with the right wind conditions you might lose lift and fall a bit.
Or it could be something else....

It was my first thought too, I was in rabbit mode at the time I believe, but I didn't think I was really descending that fast. As soon as I saw some wobble, Immediately tried to push it up, and changed to turtle mode at the same time, but it just dropped and didn't seem to respond...

I believe I than had some error on screen something like "motor error, enter five- rotor mode!" or something about 5 axis, (I was too busy watching the drone in horror, and not the screen).

There was very little wind, at least on the ground.

I'm hoping some clever people can help me decipher if it was my fault or not.

Cheers.

 

[Wingshooter]

5 Motor Error? Another one? Why is there not an explanation from Yuneec what the 5 motor thing is doing in a 4 motor Quad.

 

[Robert007]

did you have the q500 correctly compass calibrated , 5 motor message will happen on a 6 motor Hexacopter, such as typhoon h drone with s16 transmitter

 

[Wingshooter]

, 5 motor message will happen on a 6 motor Hexacopter, such as typhoon h drone with s16 transmitter

It has appeared on several Typhoon Q500's the last few months. It has been documented on this forum and the other forum. There is something screwed up when you get the 5 motor error on the Q500. Call Yuneec and send them your telemetry file. Yuneec has to know about this and I wonder why they are not addressing it.

 

[Steve Carr]

Based on the telemetry it appears something happened to either a motor, esc or a prop. Were all 4 prop hubs still attached after the crash?
In any case there was definitely a mechanical malfunction. If this is a new Q500 with low hours I would suspect an ESC failure. This is not common but it has happened to many new Q's. Generally you can smell each motor and you can pick out the one that is burnt. As it fails it causes the Q to wobble and then fall out of the sky while the other 3 motors are still running. The telemetry also shows the motors were shut down by the flight controller when it crashed, which is what it is supposed to do.

Call Yuneec and then email them the telemetry file.

 

[Wingshooter]

Telemetry does say Motor 3 shut off. Can you hook it up to the GUI and run the Motor Test?

 

[Steve Carr]

Telemetry does say Motor 3 shut off. Can you hook it up to the GUI and run the Motor Test?

Certainly, provided the bird doesn't have broken wires hanging out.

 

[Freakish]

did you have the q500 correctly compass calibrated , 5 motor message will happen on a 6 motor Hexacopter, such as typhoon h drone with s16 transmitter

Yes calibrated as per usual, started it facing north on a flat surface.... Flown in the same area near my house as always (rural areas no Wifi interference etc.

Were all 4 prop hubs still attached after the crash?

Yes two were broken, but were still attached. (I'm amazed the other two were completely in tact) Pity the camera wasn't as lucky.

Call Yuneec and then email them the telemetry file.

This is part of the problem... I'm in Australia, and the people listed as the service agent on the warranty card replied and said they no longer service them.... They gave me a number of a new service agent who is 2500kms away, and will likely cost me a bit of money to send the entire aluminium case all that way.... So I wanted to check with you guys to make sure that this isn't anything that I may have done, before talking to the service agent.... I don't know how good they are and what there knowledge of the Yuneec stuff is (sounds like they haven't been the agent for long).

So not sure how smoothly all of this warranty stuff will go, compared to you guys that deal with Yuneec directly in the USA.

Down here everybody buys DJI, so I don't know anyone else with a Yuneec.

Telemetry does say Motor 3 shut off. Can you hook it up to the GUI and run the Motor Test?

I will do it this afternoon...... I have the software loaded already, and will dig the cable out and check it out.

The body itself is in surprisingly good condition, it was really only the CGO3 that is damaged physically ( + two snapped props).

(I had a quick sniff, and cannot smell any burnt smell on the engines) But will check with the software and report back...

Much appreciate all of the replies and suggestions.

 

[Steve Carr]

Yes calibrated as per usual, started it facing north on a flat surface.... Flown in the same area near my house as always (rural areas no Wifi interference etc.


Yes two were broken, but were still attached. (I'm amazed the other two were completely in tact) Pity the camera wasn't as lucky.


This is part of the problem... I'm in Australia, and the people listed as the service agent on the warranty card replied and said they no longer service them.... They gave me a number of a new service agent who is 2500kms away, and will likely cost me a bit of money to send the entire aluminium case all that way.... So I wanted to check with you guys to make sure that this isn't anything that I may have done, before talking to the service agent.... I don't know how good they are and what there knowledge of the Yuneec stuff is (sounds like they haven't been the agent for long).

So not sure how smoothly all of this warranty stuff will go, compared to you guys that deal with Yuneec directly in the USA.

Down here everybody buys DJI, so I don't know anyone else with a Yuneec.


I will do it this afternoon...... I have the software loaded already, and will dig the cable out and check it out.

The body itself is in surprisingly good condition, it was really only the CGO3 that is damaged physically ( + two snapped props).

(I had a quick sniff, and cannot smell any burnt smell on the engines) But will check with the software and report back...

Much appreciate all of the replies and suggestions.

Since all 4 props were in place it certainly makes a motor/ESC failure more likely.
By all means let us know what happens with the GUI motor test. If you want a closer inspection, it's an easy matter to remove the led covers under each motor. Then you can carefully pry out the ESC to inspect each for heat damage.

 

[Freakish]

Since all 4 props were in place it certainly makes a motor/ESC failure more likely.
By all means let us know what happens with the GUI motor test. If you want a closer inspection, it's an easy matter to remove the led covers under each motor. Then you can carefully pry out the ESC to inspect each for heat damage.

I have checked in the GUI, and everything came up as working as expected....
Initially one motor kind of started and stopped momentarily, before continuing as normal.... I couldn't get it to repeat the pause... I can't be sure I just didn't hold the mouse down or something.

Engine 2 has a slightly different noise when spinning them up to the other 3, seems like more vibration coming through the body when spinning that engine, but they all spun and worked..

This is actually a little disappointing, because I have now lost a bit of confidence in the Q500, and at least if the motor was stuffed, It would explain why it dropped like a stone.

In the meantime, I will contact the service agent, and possibly email Yuneec in the USA the CSV to see if they can shed some light on the subject.

I will also try and find a host to upload the last few seconds of the video..

I appreciate everyones help.....

 

[Steve Carr]

I have checked in the GUI, and everything came up as working as expected....
Initially one motor kind of started and stopped momentarily, before continuing as normal.... I couldn't get it to repeat the pause... I can't be sure I just didn't hold the mouse down or something.

Engine 2 has a slightly different noise when spinning them up to the other 3, seems like more vibration coming through the body when spinning that engine, but they all spun and worked..

This is actually a little disappointing, because I have now lost a bit of confidence in the Q500, and at least if the motor was stuffed, It would explain why it dropped like a stone.

In the meantime, I will contact the service agent, and possibly email Yuneec in the USA the CSV to see if they can shed some light on the subject.

I will also try and find a host to upload the last few seconds of the video..

I appreciate everyones help.....

Well that is a huge surprise. I would've bet money on a bad circuit based on your description and the telemetry. Only thing left on the circuits is the wiring and you'll have to remove the bottom LED's to check that. Another thing to check on the motors is shaft end play and any play sideways. You could also give the bird the bounce test while running the motors.

 

[wishie]

This error happened to me today... I happened to be filming with my Canon EOS 7D on the ground, for take-off..

I am *really* annoyed, and don't understand why a quadcopter has *anything* to do with 5 or 6 rotor messages.. To me, this looks like a firmware bug, and I will be expecting my Q500 to be repaired for free. I know of other Q500 owners with the same issue, all on firmware v1.07.

 

[Wingshooter]

@wishie - Wow that is dramatic.

Questions:

1. How long ago did you purchase your Bird?

2. How many flights before this crash video did you have?

 

[Wingshooter]

What is the downloaded firmware file date stamp and file name for those that this has happened to?

Trying to see if there is a pattern. I downloaded and installed my Firmware 1.07 in December of 2015 (right after I bought the Q500) and this was way before the Ty[hoon H (6 motor) Quad was even announced. What I am getting out is maybe Yuneec made a modification to the Firmware 1.07 file for the Q500 and some of us have a different version than others.

 

[Steve Carr]

This error happened to me today... I happened to be filming with my Canon EOS 7D on the ground, for take-off..

I am *really* annoyed, and don't understand why a quadcopter has *anything* to do with 5 or 6 rotor messages.. To me, this looks like a firmware bug, and I will be expecting my Q500 to be repaired for free. I know of other Q500 owners with the same issue, all on firmware v1.07.

I suspect the message is simply a warning that an error was detected in one of the motors or ESC's. A close inspection of the telemetry files will confirm the error if you had a sd card installed under the battery on the ST10. I would guess the most likely problem is an ESC failure which caused the crash.

 

[Glen]

Hi peoples...

My first post here, and not a particularly happy one.

I purchased a Q500 4K about a month ago, have done dozens of flights without any incidents until yesterday. (have been very impressed)

I was heading back towards me, and starting to descend, when the Q500 seem to start to become hugely unstable and dropped like a stone, my controls seemingly did nothing and I had to watch in horror.

I'm wondering if anyone can help me try and work out what went wrong.

I have got the CSV file, and have looked in the FlightLog software, but their is so much data I'm having troubles deciphering the cause or the what/when.

The low res video from the ST10, does seem to show it was falling far too quickly, and I have now managed to repair (most) of the corrupted full 4K video, which does show the (heart breaking) moments before impact and it does look like it's dropping like a stone, it's falling far too fast for it not to be some kind of failure IMO.

I'm hoping someone can help me so I have enough to claim warranty, as I don't believe I'm at fault in anyway and would love the data + video to prove that.

The CGO3 has sheared 3 wires and has broken away from the bracket.

I will attach a .zip file with the Remote/Telemetry directories with the relevant csv file, and I will try and upload a video of the impact (13Mb) at a later stage.

If anyone could help look for any pointers within the data it would be much appreciated.

 

[Glen]

I also crashed sounds very similar to how you described your my friend. My screens turns red featuring warning signal, and it descends so fast, There no controlling the craft.This was actually my second the first was a flyaway but somehow it landed with no damage. This last one tore my camera off and broke a landing skid, I replaced and now for some strange reason it wont take off not even idle with blades moving., Nothing visually seems wrong,

Any ideas , Please share ? I m going to try and re-calibrate maybe since crash everything is screwed up, Please Advise