rdonson
Premium Pilot
If the solar storm was the cause. There’s just as good a chance that the GPS unit in the TH 480 simply isn’t as good as others on the market.
The good news is that an original replacement can be had for $40
Another thought.......
- Thread starter Ghostnotes
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If the solar storm was the cause. There’s just as good a chance that the GPS unit in the TH 480 simply isn’t as good as others on the market.
The good news is that an original replacement can be had for $40
The Comcast situation is probably directly related to the solar storm, you betcha. These things are not real predictable as far as their effect, but we know when they occur. Satellites are quite vulnerable as their protection from the earth's magnetic field is diminished. Satellites get no protection from the atmosphere of course. Anything involving satellite transmission will be the most affected by solar storms.
PatR
Premium Pilot
Ron,
Your fly away was very similar to mine and I have a theory why they occur. I also have another thought about the GPS lost warning as I don't believe that is the only thing that occurs during a true fly away event. My guess is the GPS warning is only a portion of the problem, where a total and complete loss of communications, which encompasses the loss of GPS occurs. This is something that became evident in high level sUAS operations when a GPS warning was what was all that was being indicated when in fact a full system comm loss was taking place, which caused loss of ability to control UAS direction of flight or determine the position of the UAS. Those systems were programmed to self destruct after a programmed period of isolation so it took awhile to figure it out. It may well be the 480 warning system is not designed in a way that would display the full extent of the failures taking place when an actual fly away occurs, and the telemetry may not have enough depth to display it all.
If flying in a GPS assisted mode, which includes Angle, when GPS and telemetry radio are both lost the H has nothing telling it where to go or what to do. It could not return to the last known position of the ST-16 as it would have nothing to reference fro that position. if such a signal loss was accompanied by something that initiated a power surge the H would zoom off like a bat out of ****.
I've flown during a lot of high kP index conditions and never had a problem. With us flying LOS and low level the index may not be all that much of an issue.
rdonson
Premium Pilot
Pat,
Thanks so much for your response. Yes, I was in Angle mode. I can't explain why comms would have been lost as I was within 100' of the drone and could have hit it with a baseball throw if it was still. Perhaps a component failure in the TH480? That would be nasty and I wouldn't know where to begin. BTW this was the TH480 I picked up in Dec 2017. I still have the other one although it needs some TLC at the moment.
The next step in the saga is recovering my TH480. While it was in the tree last night it was nowhere to be found today. We had high winds and perhaps someone picked it up from the ground. I'm printing LOST signs now and will go back to the park and to the homeowners whose tree captured it was tomorrow.
Thanks so much for your response. Yes, I was in Angle mode. I can't explain why comms would have been lost as I was within 100' of the drone and could have hit it with a baseball throw if it was still. Perhaps a component failure in the TH480? That would be nasty and I wouldn't know where to begin. BTW this was the TH480 I picked up in Dec 2017. I still have the other one although it needs some TLC at the moment.
The next step in the saga is recovering my TH480. While it was in the tree last night it was nowhere to be found today. We had high winds and perhaps someone picked it up from the ground. I'm printing LOST signs now and will go back to the park and to the homeowners whose tree captured it was tomorrow.
Ron, Dang that’s not nice, return to find bird missing! Hope you get an honest “Finder”, but since it’s gone it’s a pretty good indicator it won’t be good news. Hope it turns up!
That brings up a thought, has anyone used one of the trackers, some GPS, Cell, some RF. Of course in this situation, the tracker would be removed and left at the tree.
Good Luck!
That brings up a thought, has anyone used one of the trackers, some GPS, Cell, some RF. Of course in this situation, the tracker would be removed and left at the tree.
Good Luck!
That's a double whammy to loose it twice. Did you have any ID on the belly?
If you care to upload the telemetry I would be happy to review it. Error code 32 is a compass error. It's hard to know if the GPS or the compass caused the problem. If you plug in the telemetry to a flight graphics web site, it will show the path of the H. If the path is precisely the path it took, the GPS was not faulty. It could only cause a problem if it suddenly indicated it was in a new location. If that's the case then you have to look at the compass heading. Was there a sudden change in heading that was false? Then you have to look at the remote GPS to see if the ST16 had a sudden change in location. While the H uses GPS (US) and GLONASS (Russian) sats, I believe the ST may only use GPS.
So, the only explanation I could understand would be:
1. A sudden difference in the GPS location between the H and the ST16.
2. A sudden drastic change in apparent compass heading that confuses the Flight Controller.
These fly-aways aren't new but they are somewhat rare. And they occur with every GPS copter including DJI. The P2 had a history of this and it was always blamed on the compass. There are instances of the H taking off where there was sufficient time for the pilot to react. In those cases, the left stick still had some function and those pilots who were able to climb high enough were able to buy enough time to disable GPS. In other cases the pilot used max descent to drive the H into the ground.
rdonson
Premium Pilot
Thanks, Steve. Yes, the TH480 was festooned with my FAA UAS ID and my name and phone number (thanks to UAV Stickers and my Brother labeler ).
I have noticed in the past that sometimes the number of GPS sats on the ST16 left side might read 16 and a lesser number in the upper right hand corner, which I think might be what the TH480 was reporting to the ST16. That's never been clear to me as that's not clearly stated in any manual.
Here's the telemetry.
I have noticed in the past that sometimes the number of GPS sats on the ST16 left side might read 16 and a lesser number in the upper right hand corner, which I think might be what the TH480 was reporting to the ST16. That's never been clear to me as that's not clearly stated in any manual.
Here's the telemetry.
PatR
Premium Pilot
Steve,
The DJI fly away issues go back at least as far as the Wookong FC, where using GPS assisted flight modes could experience uncontrollable fly away’s. Many, including myself, using the Wookong FC for commercial applications would only fly using Attitude mode as it minimized fly away potential. Much later, external research discovered there was potential code conflict between the compass and GPS that extended to later FC designs. As many GPS and compass manufactures likely use the same coding base it’s possible errors in the associated code extend across numerous GPS and compass components made by different manufacturers and incorporated across various brands.
The DJI fly away issues go back at least as far as the Wookong FC, where using GPS assisted flight modes could experience uncontrollable fly away’s. Many, including myself, using the Wookong FC for commercial applications would only fly using Attitude mode as it minimized fly away potential. Much later, external research discovered there was potential code conflict between the compass and GPS that extended to later FC designs. As many GPS and compass manufactures likely use the same coding base it’s possible errors in the associated code extend across numerous GPS and compass components made by different manufacturers and incorporated across various brands.
rdonson
Premium Pilot
For those interested.... I got a text this morning that a person found my drone. As soon as the person finishes their meetings they'll contact me and I'll inquire about reclaiming it.
So far my favorites words of the day are: "I found your drone"
So far my favorites words of the day are: "I found your drone"
I had my spark fly away from same place i took off from 20 times before , it was 25ft up and magnetic interference . it flew to the same spot it did once before ,1st time i got it back, but 2nd time i flew there , hovered for about a min then flew 1.5 miles away. lost complete signal from remote . i tracked it from the find my drone app , it was ft from where the app said it was.
Sorry to hear about your flyaway
My H suddenly had a compass warning before flight the other day.
It has 20 short flights on it so I didn’t want to chance anything
The compass was never calibrated but it seems to be right on the money when I compared readings on st16 and compass. Did the calibration yesterday and was hesitating to climb higher than 40 feet but it seems to be fine
There should be a way to quickly stop gps
**** rdonson you need to go buy a lottery ticket
You have got to be due for good luck!
Happy someone honest contacted you!
Good luck
rdonson
Premium Pilot
I've been working on the telemetry for about 90 min. I will need the RemoteGPS_00037.csv file.
rdonson
Premium Pilot
It will take you awhile to digest this information. I have truncated the telemetry to show only the most significant events of this flight. Remove the .txt to open with Excel.
rdonson
Premium Pilot
I want to thank everyone for their good wishes in the recovery of my drone. It paid off.
I've got my TH 480 back!!!!
I met the gentleman that found it a little bit ago. He was near the tree Friday morning with his kids and said it was on a low branch and he reached up and got it. It was originally up about 50' in the pine tree. He got my phone number and name from stickers on the TH480 not all the signs I put up.
Amazingly the only physical damage I can see is one busted prop and some pine sap. Even got lucky as the pine sap was only a couple of globs on the camera shell and on the ND filter. I've lived long enough in the south to know how to deal with pine sap.
Next up is to go through all the normal tests and checks for flight worthiness.
Again....thanks to everyone for the good wishes
I've got my TH 480 back!!!!
I met the gentleman that found it a little bit ago. He was near the tree Friday morning with his kids and said it was on a low branch and he reached up and got it. It was originally up about 50' in the pine tree. He got my phone number and name from stickers on the TH480 not all the signs I put up.
Amazingly the only physical damage I can see is one busted prop and some pine sap. Even got lucky as the pine sap was only a couple of globs on the camera shell and on the ND filter. I've lived long enough in the south to know how to deal with pine sap.
Next up is to go through all the normal tests and checks for flight worthiness.
Again....thanks to everyone for the good wishes
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