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Altitude and crash problem

Joined
Apr 30, 2018
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Good Morning im hoping for some direction as to what i can do next. Was flying over a lake last week taking videos of boats and skiiers. I was losing altitiude as i was flying to follow boats. Then i was flying close to shore to get some shots and began to follow a boat. Drone would not go to the right. Well i tried to stop but got to close to a tree and hit a branch. Drone then slowly went down and would not respond to go up and went rite onto the lake. Fished it out the next morning but its smoked. Would the telemetry file show me somehow that the drone malfunctioned?
Any help would be great!
Thanks
 
Oh dear, sorry for your loss. Yes, telemetry will almost certainly give you the reason if it was a technical failure rather than pilot error, but often logs can show that too. If you rename the log file xxxxx.csv.txt you can upload it here and someone will take a look for you...

What was your battery voltage at when it started losing altitude ?
 
Do not rename files, make a zip archiv. This is easier to handle for those that are willing to check the FlightLogs.
And we need the the FlightLog, not only the telemetry, means Remote, RemoteGPS and Telemetry as zip file.

br HE
 
Oh dear, sorry for your loss. Yes, telemetry will almost certainly give you the reason if it was a technical failure rather than pilot error, but often logs can show that too. If you rename the log file xxxxx.csv.txt you can upload it here and someone will take a look for you...

What was your battery voltage at when it started losing altitude ?
Hi thanks for writing back. Batt voltage unsure but probably was 1/2 way through a normal 18 minute flight time. There was no battery voltage warning yet. After i recovered the drone i noticed 1 motor was harder to turn than the rest. Do not know if this contributed to my problem bit but drone has not been flying straight always veered toward the left which was were the still motor was.
These files you requested and he found on my controller somewere yes. Sorry i have never had to look for them before.

Thanks
 
Do not rename files, make a zip archiv. This is easier to handle for those that are willing to check the FlightLogs.
And we need the the FlightLog, not only the telemetry, means Remote, RemoteGPS and Telemetry as zip file.

br HE
These files are located on the controller correct?

Good news is i was able to recover all the great video and pictures before the crash.
 
Yes, the FlightLogs are stored in the memory / file system of the ST16. It can be accessed when the ST16 is connected to PC via USB cable.

br HE
Do not rename files, make a zip archiv. This is easier to handle for those that are willing to check the FlightLogs.
And we need the the FlightLog, not only the telemetry, means Remote, RemoteGPS and Telemetry as zip file.

br HE
 

Attachments

  • Remote_00039.zip
    37.7 KB · Views: 6
  • RemoteGPS_00039.zip
    6.8 KB · Views: 3
  • Telemetry_00039.zip
    242.4 KB · Views: 7
To any that can help i upload the 3 files. I tried to view the flight log to see stick positions vs flight path but the app on the ST16 keeps crashing.
 
As far as I can see the copter did respond to all stick orders. I have cut the FlightLog to the last 4min (after the last RTH) just to see more --> log50039. Please check the attached pictures.

At 16:29:44 motor 1 was cut in 12m height. I guess this was the moment as it hits the tree. Voltage warning1 was raised shortly before the trouble starts but this should not the problem.
What we can see in telemetry is, there are two sats lost and the gps_accH gets degraded at the end.
ScreenshotSchnellanalyse_1.png
My theory is following: As you came closer to the trees (wood) the GPS signal was disturbed by reflected signals. GPS computes coordinates by runtime of the signals from sats and reflected signals take longer thus coordinates are no more accurate. Then the copter tries to hold its position but on base of coordinates that are slightly different. For the pilot this looks like self-movement of the copter and pilot tries to work against this. And, as always **** happens, the copter works against that. At the end the tree jumps in...
I lost a copter in a ruined castle this way. Walls are hard there.

br HE
 

Attachments

  • FlightLog39_figures.zip
    2.8 MB · Views: 11
As far as I can see the copter did respond to all stick orders. I have cut the FlightLog to the last 4min (after the last RTH) just to see more --> log50039. Please check the attached pictures.

At 16:29:44 motor 1 was cut in 12m height. I guess this was the moment as it hits the tree. Voltage warning1 was raised shortly before the trouble starts but this should not the problem.
What we can see in telemetry is, there are two sats lost and the gps_accH gets degraded at the end.
View attachment 10509
My theory is following: As you came closer to the trees (wood) the GPS signal was disturbed by reflected signals. GPS computes coordinates by runtime of the signals from sats and reflected signals take longer thus coordinates are no more accurate. Then the copter tries to hold its position but on base of coordinates that are slightly different. For the pilot this looks like self-movement of the copter and pilot tries to work against this. And, as always **** happens, the copter works against that. At the end the tree jumps in...
I lost a copter in a ruined castle this way. Walls are hard there.

br HE
Let me sincerely thank you for your in depth review of my "incedent" . I know when this all went down I was paying more attention to the screen rather than the actual position of the copter in relation to myself and the surroundings. I was pretty sure that I pushed the stick to the right once I saw I was so close to the shore but I also sort of froze, released the control sticks, and hoped the copter would stop before it hit anything and it did not seem to . I was briefly hidden behind a small tree that I ran around to then see it hit the tree and descend slowly into the water while still running. is there any evidence of my pushing up on the throttle just after the tree contact. I know for sure that I did that in hopes of gaining altitude just above the water. But the craft would not rise up. not sure if it lowers the output to the motors if it hits something.?
at least it was a refurbished unit I got on sale for very cheap. I wonder if its worth seeing if I can have it repaired.? I got the whole setup copter and controller new ( factory refurbished ) for 400 dollars.

another lesson learned I should probably always fly with the obstacle avoidance turned on, maybe it would have helped.

again a very sincere thank you for your time in helping me out. this is a great support group.
 
New partially Log created for deeper analysis:
Ausschneiden Dauer = 00:14,993
From 2018-07-19 16:29:35 to 2018-07-19 16:29:50, duration 00:00:14,993s

And here are the last 14s. Throttle up is visible, but too late. Sorry to say.
Last_sec.png
Are you sure that the H is no more working if it is dry? Do not switch on if moisture is still there. MOSFETs don't like this. I would wait some days and try again. A good approch is to use a labratory power supply which can limit the current. Electronics without camera and stopped motors needs omly around 200mA to power up. A little bit more to beep.

br HE
 
New partially Log created for deeper analysis:
Ausschneiden Dauer = 00:14,993
From 2018-07-19 16:29:35 to 2018-07-19 16:29:50, duration 00:00:14,993s

And here are the last 14s. Throttle up is visible, but too late. Sorry to say.
View attachment 10523
Are you sure that the H is no more working if it is dry? Do not switch on if moisture is still there. MOSFETs don't like this. I would wait some days and try again. A good approch is to use a labratory power supply which can limit the current. Electronics without camera and stopped motors needs omly around 200mA to power up. A little bit more to beep.

br HE
So i shook all the water out of it after getting it out of the lake. Then placed in the direct sun for most of the day. It was a good dry and breezy day. Anyway about 4 pm i put in a battery and immediately something began to smoke. Pulled battery. There is a small circuit board just below the battery connections that looks to he damaged. I cant find a parts diagram on line to see what it might be or if i can get a replacement for that and try again. Im also assuming that motor 1 is bad as it spins hard now.
 
What program are you using to decipher telemetry files?

Windows64bit: http://h-elsner.mooo.com/downloads/q500log2kml_en.zip
LINUX 64bit: http://h-elsner.mooo.com/downloads/q500log2kml_en.tar.gz
User manual: http://h-elsner.mooo.com/mydat/Q500log2kml_en.pdf

It is called q500log2kml because originally it was made to convert Q500 telemetry for GoogleEarth. Then it growed up and now it's more dedicated to analyse FlightLogs for Yuneec copters (including Breeze but except H520) and Blade Chroma / 350QX too.

br HE
 
So i shook all the water out of it after getting it out of the lake. Then placed in the direct sun for most of the day. It was a good dry and breezy day. Anyway about 4 pm i put in a battery and immediately something began to smoke. Pulled battery. There is a small circuit board just below the battery connections that looks to he damaged. I cant find a parts diagram on line to see what it might be or if i can get a replacement for that and try again. Im also assuming that motor 1 is bad as it spins hard now.
might be a long shot but is brushless motor , most motor windings are coated . you might get lucky and with a little contact cleaned and some lite oil clear it up .
 
might be a long shot but is brushless motor , most motor windings are coated . you might get lucky and with a little contact cleaned and some lite oil clear it up .
Thanks maybe. I contacted Yuneec today and will put in a repair request and see what they say. Im most concerned with whatever smoked when i applied battery power. Also wonder if the camera is junk. I would think its ruined but unsure. Lets see what Yuneec says.

Thanks for the reply.!
 
Good Morning im hoping for some direction as to what i can do next. Was flying over a lake last week taking videos of boats and skiiers. I was losing altitiude as i was flying to follow boats. Then i was flying close to shore to get some shots and began to follow a boat. Drone would not go to the right. Well i tried to stop but got to close to a tree and hit a branch. Drone then slowly went down and would not respond to go up and went rite onto the lake. Fished it out the next morning but its smoked. Would the telemetry file show me somehow that the drone malfunctioned?
Any help would be great!
Thanks
Very sorry to hear about your accident. I hope Yuneec takes good care of you.
However, unexpected control responses can be due to a compass error. If this is a new location for flying and some distance from your previous flying location, a compass calibration may be required. GPS and compass work together to decide how to respond to your control inputs. Also, if the bird was powered up near a large metal object, such as buried rebar, railroad tracks, metal bridge, car body, etc. the compass could be confused. I almost lost mine due to that mistake.
 
Very sorry to hear about your accident. I hope Yuneec takes good care of you.
However, unexpected control responses can be due to a compass error. If this is a new location for flying and some distance from your previous flying location, a compass calibration may be required. GPS and compass work together to decide how to respond to your control inputs. Also, if the bird was powered up near a large metal object, such as buried rebar, railroad tracks, metal bridge, car body, etc. the compass could be confused. I almost lost mine due to that mistake.
Thanks for the info. I did do a compass calibration before my first flight in the area. I powered up the H for the first time on a wooden dock about 2 feet above the lake i was flying around. Seems this would be okay but as you know the owners manual is pretty limited.
I put in a repair request but seems to be stuck in their system. I have gotten no reply. I may have to just buy a new one. Love the H and definitely want another one if i cant get this one fixed.
 

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