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Powering OFF when hand catching

ByM

Joined
May 26, 2016
Messages
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Location
Warwickshire, (not very near London), England
On ocassion when there is no choice but to hand catch the H. But when this happens most of the time it refuses to cut power. Putting the left controller down or pressing the red cut motors button does not work. I understand this is a safety feature to stop you switching off in mid flight but any idea how to override this feature? The only thing you can do is phsically pull the battery out whilst the motors are running. Not ideal.

I know that many will say that it is dangerous to handcatch but sometimes there is no choice...

Any specific thoughts on how to cut the motor would be appreciated....
 
That's not right. What does your motor stop button do when it's on the ground? Can you start motors and have them idle and then shut down with the steady 3 sec hold down of the button?
 
On ocassion when there is no choice but to hand catch the H. But when this happens most of the time it refuses to cut power. Putting the left controller down or pressing the red cut motors button does not work. I understand this is a safety feature to stop you switching off in mid flight but any idea how to override this feature? The only thing you can do is phsically pull the battery out whilst the motors are running. Not ideal.

I know that many will say that it is dangerous to handcatch but sometimes there is no choice...

Any specific thoughts on how to cut the motor would be appreciated....
Not often but on occasion I hand catch and I've never had a problem killing the motors by the red button.

Like you I only had catch if I absolutely have to: very rough or sloping area and I recon I've hand caught less than a dozen times since I got my H last June. But every time I had no issues and was able to power down the motors no problem.
 
I've tried it with two different H's and spoken with Yuneec who confirmed the same. Most times if you hand catch it, the motors rev up and it tries to take off again. It must have a sensor on it somewhere that it knows it is not close to a surface perhaps? My issue was at Sea hand catching on a boat.

I have successfully hand caught it a couple of times too and powered off... it might be if you hand catch and disturb its set position... ie pulling it towards you slightly maybe?
 
I've done a kill from about a foot up that was suggested to me to resolve a crashing issue and it worked fine. I have the sim and test a lot of what I am wanting to do in there first.
 
So has anybody faced the same issues any where in the world or is it just me and Yuneec UK? If anybody wants to test it then hover and then put your hand on the landing gear and pull it over a little towards you then cut the motors??? What happens? Perhaps its a certain way that itvpicks up on so tries to fly away?
 
If it's in a stable hover and you don't pull on it in anyway it won't pull pack. A gust of wind can make it rev up sometimes.
 
The H doesn't mind be hand captured unless you move it (without corresponding stick movements) while doing so. At that point the H is going to try and get back to where it thinks it should be, and once that fight is on . . . well you have seen what happens. Let the H stabilize in a hover, grab the leg - But do NOT move it - throttle to low and hit kill switch.
 
The H doesn't mind be hand captured unless you move it (without corresponding stick movements) while doing so. At that point the H is going to try and get back to where it thinks it should be, and once that fight is on . . . well you have seen what happens. Let the H stabilize in a hover, grab the leg - But do NOT move it - throttle to low and hit kill switch.

Thanks i will try that but as the previous poster put, a gust of wind can move everything and that is probably causing the issue. Stood on a boat with nowhere to land it cant go back as it will hit the rear fins of the boat, the drone doesnt move but the boat does so you have to reach out and grab it... i think the answer may well be an emergency stop switch on the drone it's self. A very difficult one to get around....
 
Yep, Like CraigCam said; wind can do it to ya to, but if you're pulling it in, it might fight you. I've done some launches and recovery's from a boat and they can get a little dicey for sure, in those cases I just Grab on making sure I can cut and hold throttle at low while hitting the motor kill switch.

and then put your hand on the landing gear and pull it over a little towards you
 
So back to the original question..... You catch land it and for whatever reason, whether it be windy or not quite in the same place as it was when you caught it. (This will be the case on a boat all of the time as the boat moves in the sea) And at this stage you find out that it refuses to power down, what do others do? My method is whilst one person grabs hold of it for dear life as it tries to take off again and I have exhausted the control options, I very carefully hold the battery and pull it out. You can imagine this isn't easy, hence if there are no other options on the table I think I'll have to get an emergency off button installed.

I also landed it in a field yesterday and as it landed it flipped on it's side and started to try and cut the crop! At no stage would it shut off on the remote. Just kept going and going until one of the rotors hit the ground and it beeped and went in to 5 motor mode at which stage it would close down. IMO the ST16 should have a control own it to shut down full stop end of story, no smartness, just shut it down if you tell it to.... maybe by holding two buttons at once for safety. Something I will forward on to Yuneec who are fairly responsive when it comes to listening.
 
Grab one leg, throttle down, grab the other leg and tip it upside down. That will stop it.

Also make sure you drop the landing gear above 3 m altitude.
 
OK, two things to check - first make sure your kill switch is operating correctly. Go to Settings -> Hardware settings and check that the button responds when you press it - it should turn on and stay on until you release.

Second, how long are you holding the kill switch for? You have to hold it down for a number of seconds before the H will power down. During that time, if the altimeter thinks the position has changed, it may rev up again. The generally agreed best practise is to hold the throttle down at the same time as holding the kill switch, and don't let go of either until the H has stopped.

The kill switch is exactly that - hold it down and it kills the Typhoon, whatever it is doing. *However* it doesn't do it instantly, or it would be far too easy to accidentally bring the drone down.

I hand catch most of the time and don't have a problem with it stopping, though occasionally it can fight back briefly. The fact that the motors rev up doesn't stop it from stopping so long as you keep the kill switch pressed long enough. I wouldn't recommend anyone try this on a boat until they've had a few goes on predictable dry land. Remember those blades can inflict a LOT of damage, so if your boat pitches you up into the H, you could really be hurt.
 
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This sounds like your H does not know it's on the ground hence the tip over. What concerns me in your experience is why the kill switch is not doing it's job. As Tuna pointed out it's main job is to stop the motors after a steady 3 second hold. I've seen similar tales here that appear resolved after good St calibrations as a stick giving input when it should be neutral makes a safe landing impossible potentially. But the motors should go to idle the moment it's on the ground as it knows it now no longer airborne. When you hand catch properly your hand imitates the level ground and the H accepts it's fine and stable and should idle down on it's own and shut down easily with no fight.
One thing maybe someone here can shed some light on is the hidden barometric calibration we can't do. The H is a grown up version of the Blade line and my years of crashing and rebuilding QX350s and Chromas taught me a lot about the motherboards and components. I own a Q500 also and now two TH s. The components on same parts are identical like the often misunderstood compass board. On the 350 and Chroma, there was a barometric calibration that you could not really do but they provided the sequence of radio moves needed to put it into this calibration. It was a "factory" only adjustment.
Between the accelerometer and the barometer is how those quads knew they were close to the ground ( the slow down in descent when about 4' above landing spot) and touch down to idle motors. On a RTH, it's fully automatic and they sometimes would lift of a bit and move around to find a more level spot to finally settle in. RTH should give you a full hands of landing with proper descent, slow down, gentle touchdown, motors idle, motors stop. If your RTH does not behave this way then your H is confused in possible GPS location but most likely needs full calibration on the ST sticks and switches and the accelerometer.
The easiest test is with the H on level ground and motors started and you hit RTH it should just shut off. Next, try a short flight and a RTH where it's dealing with altitude. If you see it coming down fast and not slowing down as it gets closer to the ground you have to go back to angle quickly and go up and regain new hover for manual landing.
 
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What I see disconcerting about this whole discussion is attempts of tricky "at sea" landings (hand catch) when it has not been established that landings "on land" are without adventure.

First recommendation is to never even think of taking the H back out on a boat until landings are safe and reliably accomplished on the hard pack. Only then should an attempts at hand catching resume, and practiced until proficient. (Again, on land.)

If the maneuver cannot be accomplished on land, no way am I going to trust a slice and dice machine while rockin' and rollin'.

Then again, could be just me.

Jeff
 
I have made many hand catches with the H and not had any problems. As some of the others have said, get it into a stable hover just above head height, gently wrap hand around landing leg and then hit the kill switch. I do not try to throttle down when hand catching as this tend to cause movement of the H, just hit the kill switch and it will settle into your grip. Important not to have any movement of the H between first contact and the 3 second kill switch time.
 
Perhaps the root of the problem is in thinking a quick press of the arming button kills the motors. It doesn't work that way, it has to be pressed and held down until the motors stop.
 
The key is a loose grip. The H will settle into your hand. It's probably the safest and easiest of my birds to catch.
 

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