3rd flight - Loss of power - It Crashed hard! What happened?

DopeDiculous · May 21, 2016

CAPTAINDRONE said:
Well this was interesting.

So here I am, a seasoned drone pilot with hundreds of hours of flying time, my own YouTube drone channel and a regular on the drone forums.

I Received my Typhoon H yesterday afternoon. I had posted on the forum that I was surprised that the battery that came with my Typhoon was fully charged. I thought the charger was mistaken but It actually was because I was able to fly for almost 20 minutes yesterday without a problem.

The only issue I had with the Typhoon H (as seen in photos I posted yesterday) was with the camera. It was placing white and blue dots across the video. I tried a camera reset and thought it was fixed. I flew today for a full 20 minutes and everything was perfect - I really love this drone! Only negative again was that my video ended up with white and blue spots.

Called Yuneec Support and they asked me to send them pictures of the problem <done>. They also mentioned to ensure I had a fast micro SD which I had, but thought I'd try other ones.

So with a fully charged battery I went for my 3rd flight. Flew the Typhoon H directly overhead and had the gimbal do a 360 at different resolutions to see if that was the problem with the camera quality.

In less than 10 mins of flight time my controller gives the low power warning. I lower the landing gear to bring it down nice and slow and suddenly it's drifting away from me.... I no longer have control of the craft. The only input working is DOWN. It seems to have insufficient power to move in any direction. It keeps drifting away so I hit RTH and it seems to work, however it does not bring the craft back to me but instead just brings it down while drifting. It's now drifting towards a house with people outside. I switch back to Angle mode to take control (nothing other than making it spin slowly in place). I switch it fully up to Smart mode (again nothing other than making it spin slowly in place). There is no wind but it continues to drift over the house and the only landing area now is a road. As I'm trying to get it to go down onto the road it suddenly does come down... like a rock! It hits the pavement on an angle and smashes into a few pieces (gimbal, camera, landing gear, arms, props).

I called back Yuneec to advise that there was another problem (the camera is now lying 10 feet away from the drone). The customer service rep at Yuneec was very helpful. I asked if others had had this problem and so far it appears I'm the only one. So this means to everyone out there... DON'T PANIC. I may be the guy who received the lemon (camera, battery, loss of control).

I've been asked to kindly put it back in it's box and ship it back to them for review.

So I had two days with the Typhoon H and other than a bad camera and loss of power it was a good two days. I have a few more drones at home, so I won't be lonely while the Typhoon H is getting analyzed and operated on. But I will miss it!

You're not the only one man. Me two! Same day I got it, all accessories, second flight. Here's my story. Looks like ya missed it.

DopeDiculous
Well... I've had a Q 4k and modded the **** out of it and the ST10+ for over a year and love it. I loved the H for about ten minutes. I calibrated it, flew it for almost 10 minutes then landed it to take more pics. I then took off again to keep enjoying the expensive *** day we've all been waiting for. Then she started drifting and even though I was in a big open field, she started drifting outta control so much that I knew I had ZERO control. I flipped the RTH switch and she just kept flying til she smashed a tree and broke two props while the Cgo said "eff this!" And broke off!
Needless to say, I'm more than pissed. It was Christmas and a nightmare within a couple hrs. It reminded me about the days, just a couple years back where people had fly-aways... we've all felt that pain. Well, I felt that pain and I'll say this... "Its F**King awful watching $1300 just give you the finger and bounce! I got her down from the tree, but as you can see, she needs help. First flight was great, not the best distance (for video) where I was flying. Yuneec stayed with that same horrible design where the 5.8Ghz antenna is stuffed into the Cgo! So effing stupid! hence why I adjusted this on my Q by remounting a better antenna on the underbelly of the Q. Much better video and huge distance increase. Especially with the Itelite antenna with boosters. As for my first flight though... If I weren't a grown man, I swear on everything, I'd be crying. The park I fly at is so saturated with interference that I barley got 1300 feet. Then after I landed and took off, it was like a QX350 with a GoPro too close to it.
It basically said "later biach" and was not only embarrassing, but costly. Back to my good ol trusty Q til I get the H fixed and back, but I'll be honest, I'm gonna be scared with it til I get at least 10+ flights with it. My first flight was just too much, too fast and too expensive. Idk why I stay in this hobby after this happening, but I will give it one more chance to be the fun hobby I like so much with my Q, but damnit this **** is getting expensive! I went all out. Backpack, batteries, sun shield, Itelite on its way... *Shrug here's the last video of her before I landed, took off and she went bonkers :-\
Its currently in route to get fixed/replaced. The gimbal and two props appear to be the only things broken. There are 6 exposed wires for the Cgo. All different colors. Probably just some micro soldering and easy remount would fix it. I'll keep y'all posted.
https://goo.gl/photos/aaGvSy6bimQZYvGJ8

n3srj · May 21, 2016

This is starting to get a bit scary......

My only salvation is I know for a fact mine was flown before i got it.. i had them run it through its paces to make sure it was ok before it was shipped.. I calibrated it before i flew here.. I dunno time will tell..

Jay · May 21, 2016

I read lots of horror stories when the P3 first came out. Same with the Yuneec Q500+. I waited a few months till the initial kinks got worked out and them purchased them both! All I can say Is I love them both!!! I did have some initial problems with the Q500+ with the GPS not working correctly, but Yuneec took care of it with no problems at all. They both have Pro's and Cons but for my commercial work I use the P3P every time. I just use my Q500 for quick RE pics and for fun! I think in a few months when Yuneec gets the kinks worked out of the H it's going to be one awesome flying machine...or at least I hope because I really want one!!!

CAPTAINDRONE · May 21, 2016

PatR said:
You should allow a battery to cool after use before charging. Trying to charge a hot battery breaks down the cell structure, damaging the battery. If you're in that much of a hurry, buy a couple more batteries so one can cool while one is charging and the other is in use.

Very true... more batteries are still on order.

I'm used to the Phantom intelligent batteries. They get mildly warm after a flight. The only time they get warm is when it's hot out or left in the backpack in my car. This is what happened with the Typhoon H battery... I was flying my 2nd flight at the beach & by the time I landed, tossed the foam case in the car, then drove home it should have been plenty of time to cool down. But as I noted, it was a hot day and the inside of the car was hot, so when I tossed in the foam case containing the Typhoon, it just warmed everything up. When I was home and took everything out of the case, the battery was very warm but I was attributing it to just being in the warm car and not a battery issue. After the 3rd charge is was nice and cool at room temp.

Edward W · May 21, 2016

Well it's great to get information like this because there are clearly some issues that need fixing judging by your comments alongside those from other users. The suggestion that you're the only one who has reported any problem is a load of nonsense of course. That's their PR machine doing what they're paid to do. We've had a lot of problems with the H920 and have purposely held off on making any further purchases until they iron out the bugs. There are just too many to list but having said that we still like the aircraft. It just doesn't do what it's meant to do and flying indoors is just not an option for whatever reason. The aircraft simply goes out of control.

Edward W · May 21, 2016

Cilent1 said:
Although I'm sure both companies have their fair share of occurrences that require customer support, I would put more faith in the outfit that I know will give me the customer service that I'd expect.

So far it seems Yuneec is handling the initial reports of issues very responsibly. All I here about DJI when it comes to support is they are a PITA to deal with.

Just something else to consider if your trying to choose between the two.

That I think is very fair comment. Yuneec are good at responding. No argument about that.

CAPTAINDRONE · May 21, 2016

Chilcotin said:
If you received a fully charged battery when you opened the box, that is not right and is a definite red flag unless the battery is something special I have not heard about, which could be.
With all that you mentioned, I suspect the battery has too low C rating.
Does the ST16 show you in-flight voltage and capacity used??
If so, what were those numbers near the time of the low power warning?
Definitely worth load testing these batteries and checking internal resistance.

I thought the battery having a full charge was a false reading on the charger (the charger would not charge it, said it was full). But, I did get at least a 20 min flight out of it. Crazy, but perhaps this Typhoon had been previously used? As a demo? Or the battery tossed in was taken from a pile of fully charged ones. Or, this is what created the battery problem.

ST 16 shows the battery in volts and in a battery icon with 4 bars (like a point & shoot camera). When it hits 1 bar the low voltage alarm goes off.

On my 3rd flight is showed 4 bars. To be honest I did not read the voltage (my bad).

Someone, I hope, has made or will make a nice volt meter device (tiny in size) that you can clip onto the battery quickly to see remaining voltage. I'm not keen on carrying a volt meter around with me.

Ryan Blankenship · May 21, 2016

I had a P3 fly away that was neved found.. called DJI and they offered to sell me just the drone and camera.... at the same price as the full package 12 weeks after i first called them... i said thanks but no.... there customer support SUCKS

CAPTAINDRONE · May 21, 2016

clive long said:
Its horror stories like these that make me very nervous about flying. Sorry for your loss but I'm sure yuneec will replace it for you

Thanks. So far Yuneec has been very good about. They answer my calls or call me back within minutes. They were quick to respond to my camera defect issue. Then the loss of power/no control issue, they again were good about it.

So far Yuneec USA has been great.

PatR · May 21, 2016

Edward W said:
Well it's great to get information like this because there are clearly some issues that need fixing judging by your comments alongside those from other users. The suggestion that you're the only one who has reported any problem is a load of nonsense of course. That's their PR machine doing what they're paid to do. We've had a lot of problems with the H920 and have purposely held off on making any further purchases until they iron out the bugs. There are just too many to list but having said that we still like the aircraft. It just doesn't do what it's meant to do and flying indoors is just not an option for whatever reason. The aircraft simply goes out of control.

Who is "we"?

Graham · May 21, 2016

Hi Captain

! I wonder if one cell is faulty? But then, how would you check w/o a balance plug? Hope you get it sorted asap.

CAPTAINDRONE · May 21, 2016

DroneClone said:
Did you not say you also had trouble getting it to calibrate? If it would not calibrate, maybe the GPS was F'd up and lost orientation and control? Just my 2 cents . Sorry about the mishap! Hope she comes home soon Capt.

Thanks, it's all good.

Ref the compass calibration, I tried 2 times, on a beach, with my cell phone turned off, & each time I received a white light (fail). But as I noted in previous posts, the default compass setting was perfect for my region. During all my flights it flew extremely straight in any direction (not a hint of a compass issue) & it hovered perfectly in place with no drifting. I'm starting to think that when the low voltage warning hit, the power had suddenly dropped (faster than it should have) causing the GPS to possibly shut down, thus relying on internal settings.

n3srj · May 21, 2016

Well there's a few of us flying now lets see what transpires , I'm taking a big pillow and some fishing line on my next flight... Max altitude of maybe 15'...

PatR · May 21, 2016

CAPTAINDRONE said:
I thought the battery having a full charge was a false reading on the charger (the charger would not charge it, said it was full). But, I did get at least a 20 min flight out of it. Crazy, but perhaps this Typhoon had been previously used? As a demo? Or the battery tossed in was taken from a pile of fully charged ones. Or, this is what created the battery problem.

ST 16 shows the battery in volts and in a battery icon with 4 bars (like a point & shoot camera). When it hits 1 bar the low voltage alarm goes off.

On my 3rd flight is showed 4 bars. To be honest I did not read the voltage (my bad).

Someone, I hope, has made or will make a nice volt meter device (tiny in size) that you can clip onto the battery quickly to see remaining voltage. I'm not keen on carrying a volt meter around with me.

CaptainD

A couple of things about batteries, and some of the advertising going around right now.

Batteries should never be stored fully charged, it degrades the cells. They should be stored at about 60% of charge. About the worst thing someone can do to a battery is to complete a flight, re-charge the battery, and set it aside for a few weeks before using it again.

In a way that may be happening with H batteries before they are shipped since the advertising is saying the aircraft is ready to fly "out of the box" and people are doing exactly that. If the batteries were shipped fully charged several things are in play, and not all of them are related to battery flight performance. Nobody would know how long the battery had been at a full charge state, nobody would know battery cell condition. I doubt these are the highest quality cells to begin with and they are not, at this time, easy to check at the individual cell levels. I'm sure that will change in very short order as fast charge adapters hit the market the same as they have with the Chroma and Typhoon, which have external balance plugs. Something that is very, very bad is shipping a fully charged lipo. That's how fires start on airplanes, and an in flight lipo fire has proven fatal to at least one UPS flight crew.

In any event, my H will arrive next Wednesday and before I fly it I will take the time to check the flight and transmitter battery voltage, using a volt meter for the flight battery. The transmitter will be charged as necessary. If the flight battery is at full charge, or close to it, the H will go up for a 5 minute hover flight and be landed to check battery state and compare the result against the view screen value. If it's still at a usable value it will be flown again, lightly and kept close, until it draws down to a 60% state and allowed to cool for at least 30 minutes before charging again. If the battery arrives at a low charge state it will be charged before flight. What will not happen is having the battery pulled out of the box and popped into the aircraft for an immediate flight without fully checking out the system. Doing something like like would infer the user is not smarter than the drone and if they aren't smarter than the drone they should anticipate having an endless series of self induced problems.

Lipo batteries are nothing new and the RC industry has been using them for many years in many ways. How they are treated and maintained has also been well established for almost as long as they have been in use. Everyone needs to learn about their equipment and power sources in order to use them intelligently and safely. If people don't have a volt meter they need to buy one. If they don't know how to use one I'm certain that by now they know how to use Google and You Tube to find an instructional video.

CAPTAINDRONE · May 21, 2016

yufasa said:
**** Cap, very sorry to hear about the crash. Mine will be here Wednesday and I was going to fly over the river by my house, now I am thinking to put 5 or so batteries through it before flying anywhere near the river. (Still waiting on my spare batteries too)

Thanks. You're going to love it. Has such a smooth flight control.

PatR · May 21, 2016

CAPTAINDRONE said:
Thanks, it's all good.

Ref the compass calibration, I tried 2 times, on a beach, with my cell phone turned off, & each time I received a white light (fail). But as I noted in previous posts, the default compass setting was perfect for my region. During all my flights it flew extremely straight in any direction (not a hint of a compass issue) & it hovered perfectly in place with no drifting. I'm starting to think that when the low voltage warning hit, the power had suddenly dropped (faster than it should have) causing the GPS to possibly shut down, thus relying on internal settings.

Was the aircraft facing North when the calibration process was initiated? That has been a standard requirement with Yuneec's Typhoons and Chroma models. The calibration will not "take" if it was not facing north when you started. Once correctly calibrated it should not require re-calibration unless and until the system states it's again needed. Most GPS systems function on about a 3v input so unless you really bottomed the battery, with cell voltage below 3v, it's highly doubtful the GPS shut down.

CAPTAINDRONE · May 21, 2016

PatR said:
CaptainD

A couple of things about batteries, and some of the advertising going around right now.

Batteries should never be stored fully charged, it degrades the cells. They should be stored at about 60% of charge. About the worst thing someone can do to a battery is to complete a flight, re-charge the battery, and set it aside for a few weeks before using it again.

In a way that may be happening with H batteries before they are shipped since the advertising is saying the aircraft is ready to fly "out of the box" and people are doing exactly that. If the batteries were shipped fully charged several things are in play, and not all of them are related to battery flight performance. Nobody would know how long the battery had been at a full charge state, nobody would know battery cell condition. I doubt these are the highest quality cells to begin with and they are not, at this time, easy to check at the individual cell levels. I'm sure that will change in very short order as fast charge adapters hit the market the same as they have with the Chroma and Typhoon, which have external balance plugs. Something that is very, very bad is shipping a fully charged lipo. That's how fires start on airplanes, and an in flight lipo fire has proven fatal to at least one UPS flight crew.

In any event, my H will arrive next Wednesday and before I fly it I will take the time to check the flight and transmitter battery voltage, using a volt meter for the flight battery. The transmitter will be charged as necessary. If the flight battery is at full charge, or close to it, the H will go up for a 5 minute hover flight and be landed to check battery state and compare the result against the view screen value. If it's still at a usable value it will be flown again, lightly and kept close, until it draws down to a 60% state and allowed to cool for at least 30 minutes before charging again. If the battery arrives at a low charge state it will be charged before flight. What will not happen is having the battery pulled out of the box and popped into the aircraft for an immediate flight without fully checking out the system. Doing something like like would infer the user is not smarter than the drone and if they aren't smarter than the drone they should anticipate having an endless series of self induced problems.

Lop batteries are nothing new and the RC industry has been using them for many years in many ways. How they are treated and maintained has also been well established for almost as long as they have been in use. Everyone needs to learn about their equipment and power sources in order to use them intelligently and safely. If people don't have a volt meter they need to buy one. If they don't know how to use one I'm certain that by now they know how to use Google and You Tube to find an instructional video.

Pat,

From what you say, I should have been more suspect of a potential problem looming with having received a battery in a fully charged state. I will watch for this in future. Good info for everyone who will soon receive their drones & extra batteries.

CAPTAINDRONE · May 21, 2016

PatR said:
Was the aircraft facing North when the calibration process was initiated? That has been a standard requirement with Yuneec's Typhoons and Chroma models. The calibration will not "take" if it was not facing north when you started. Once correctly calibrated it should not require re-calibration unless and until the system states it's again needed. Most GPS systems function on about a 3v input so unless you really bottomed the battery, with cell voltage below 3v, it's highly doubtful the GPS shut down.

Battery was fully charged when I tried it. I had also read about the facing north item on another forum before trying it. The calibration would not take. It had no effect on flight as it just defaulted to the factory pre-set which was perfect for my neck of the woods.

PatR · May 21, 2016

CaptainD,

I have a great many years of RC experience and have been building my own camera ships, from quads to coaxial 8's, for the last three. Lipos, from small to 22k mA, have been part of all that. Last year I bought a Chroma to have a small and easy to use quad that could be tossed in the front seat of the car and always ready to fly without having to perform a lot of pre-flight set up work first. That Chroma was my first exposure to Yuneec's product line and thus far, after a great many flights up and down the west coast, it has functioned perfectly. Of interest is the Chroma uses most, if not all, of the Typhoon 4k functionality, just as the H has been set up to use much of the same. Some of what I am seeing in various posts referencing the new H indicate that some may lack important system or product knowledge that will be extremely helpful for them to be successful in operating what appears to be a very nice camera rig. If I can help those that need it to have fun and fly safe I'll do so anywhere I can.

HarveyC · May 21, 2016

None of the 4 batteries I've received (including 2 received with H units) have arrived fully charged. I forget the voltage reading I checked them with my multimeter but each required something like an hour charging before being fully charged.