Bad Motor Causes Crash On First Flight

[m20b_pilot]

Well, I can't begin to say how upset I am. Took my H out to a family reunion and couldn't wait to fly it for the first time. Took off and was blown away right from the get go with how stable and responsive it was. I couldn't believe how great it was! I had it up around 40 feet hovering as I tested the various camera settings when I noticed the unit started becoming unstable. Up until this point it had been rock solid steady. I had been flying for less than 10 minutes when it started going crazy and drifting all over the place. It was all I could do not to crash the thing into some tress that were around. Long story short, I got the thing down low and tried to land in some grass and I couldn't keep it steady enough. The thing was flying backwards when it hit the ground from about 6" about the ground. It broke 2 props and the camera separated from the gimbal board. Fortunately the wires didn't break, the rubber grommets just came loose. I was in shock and pretty mad and upset. I then decided to take the props off and start the motors to see what the problem was. In idle, everything seemed fine. As soon as I moved the throttle up like I was taking off and the motors sped up, I immediately heard the bad motor. It sounded terrible. The controller started shaking and advising of a bad motor and to land immediately. On a side note, I was unable to get the motors to stop when I was testing it without the props. Pressing the red START/STOP button did nothing. I had to just reach under and turn the thing off.

I called Yuneec this morning and they said to send it back for repair. I should have asked, but I'm assuming this will be covered under warranty, even though it crashed. Also, I'm kicking myself because I forgot an SD card, so I removed the one I had in the controller to use in the camera and now there is no telemetry data to back up my claims.

Sure is disappointing!

 

[Ryan Blankenship]

You cant run the motors with the props off... it will always give you an error...

Yuneec will take care of you... they havent turned into DJI yet.

 

[Gyro108]

You always get the bad motor message if you fire up the H without props on, so it may not be due to a bad motor. Best to let Yuneec take a look at it though, They will help you out.

 

[Milt]

Well, I can't begin to say how upset I am. Took my H out to a family reunion and couldn't wait to fly it for the first time. Took off and was blown away right from the get go with how stable and responsive it was. I couldn't believe how great it was! I had it up around 40 feet hovering as I tested the various camera settings when I noticed the unit started becoming unstable. Up until this point it had been rock solid steady. I had been flying for less than 10 minutes when it started going crazy and drifting all over the place. It was all I could do not to crash the thing into some tress that were around. Long story short, I got the thing down low and tried to land in some grass and I couldn't keep it steady enough. The thing was flying backwards when it hit the ground from about 6" about the ground. It broke 2 props and the camera separated from the gimbal board. Fortunately the wires didn't break, the rubber grommets just came loose. I was in shock and pretty mad and upset. I then decided to take the props off and start the motors to see what the problem was. In idle, everything seemed fine. As soon as I moved the throttle up like I was taking off and the motors sped up, I immediately heard the bad motor. It sounded terrible. The controller started shaking and advising of a bad motor and to land immediately. On a side note, I was unable to get the motors to stop when I was testing it without the props. Pressing the red START/STOP button did nothing. I had to just reach under and turn the thing off.

I called Yuneec this morning and they said to send it back for repair. I should have asked, but I'm assuming this will be covered under warranty, even though it crashed. Also, I'm kicking myself because I forgot an SD card, so I removed the one I had in the controller to use in the camera and now there is no telemetry data to back up my claims.

Sure is disappointing!

I am not sure what happened when you were flying , but when I first received my H I had it on the floor in the house with props off
and thought I would just try the motors. Started them up and it was good all of them turning. Now I wanted to hear them rev up,
so I gave it some throttle, right away I heard a sound the motors, and the same warning came on for me. I shut
it down and found in the forum somewhere that you can't rev the engines with the props off.
Any way I took it out side and put the props on and it has worked ever since. Thought I hade a bad motor too.
Hope you get it fixed ok, and read all you can about this new H and read all there is
to learn by other peoples mistakes and findings about what works best in this Forum..

 

[Reensze]

Well, I can't begin to say how upset I am. Took my H out to a family reunion and couldn't wait to fly it for the first time. Took off and was blown away right from the get go with how stable and responsive it was. I couldn't believe how great it was! I had it up around 40 feet hovering as I tested the various camera settings when I noticed the unit started becoming unstable. Up until this point it had been rock solid steady. I had been flying for less than 10 minutes when it started going crazy and drifting all over the place. It was all I could do not to crash the thing into some tress that were around. Long story short, I got the thing down low and tried to land in some grass and I couldn't keep it steady enough. The thing was flying backwards when it hit the ground from about 6" about the ground. It broke 2 props and the camera separated from the gimbal board. Fortunately the wires didn't break, the rubber grommets just came loose. I was in shock and pretty mad and upset. I then decided to take the props off and start the motors to see what the problem was. In idle, everything seemed fine. As soon as I moved the throttle up like I was taking off and the motors sped up, I immediately heard the bad motor. It sounded terrible. The controller started shaking and advising of a bad motor and to land immediately. On a side note, I was unable to get the motors to stop when I was testing it without the props. Pressing the red START/STOP button did nothing. I had to just reach under and turn the thing off.

I called Yuneec this morning and they said to send it back for repair. I should have asked, but I'm assuming this will be covered under warranty, even though it crashed. Also, I'm kicking myself because I forgot an SD card, so I removed the one I had in the controller to use in the camera and now there is no telemetry data to back up my claims.

Sure is disappointing!

You don't need sd card for retrieving your telemetry date; it's inside your ST 16, watch this to help you out:

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[Paladin]

When it started going all crazy were you hovering it close to you and maybe you accidentally put the ST16 into Smart mode? You cannot use smart mode unless it is far enough away from you. If you are too close it will try to get away from you.

Just asking that maybe this was user error? Not getting on you, we all make mistakes believe me, just proposing the question.

 

[m20b_pilot]

I didn't know about running the motors without props. Thanks for the heads up on that. When others ran the motors without props, did one of the motors make a grinding noise and you could feel it in the arm?

You don't need sd card for retrieving your telemetry date; it's inside your ST 16, watch this to help you out:

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Thanks so much for this info! I was able to get the file off the st-16. Thanks!

When it started going all crazy were you hovering it close to you and maybe you accidentally put the ST16 into Smart mode? You cannot use smart mode unless it is far enough away from you. If you are too close it will try to get away from you.

Just asking that maybe this was user error? Not getting on you, we all make mistakes believe me, just proposing the question.

That's a good question. I am 100% sure I wasn't in Smart mode though. I almost crashed my Q500 4K last week by taking off in Smart mode, so I was very aware of that with this. I verified that I was in Angle before I took off and even made to not to bump the switch when I raised the landing gear. When it started acting crazy, I even looked down to verify the mode it was in and that collision avoidance was off and I again verified this after the crash.

I uploaded my telemetry data here: Telemetry_00009.csv Anyone able to tell what the problem was by looking at that?

 

[QuadBart]

Did you download the latest firmware? Do a compass calibration? Accelerometer calibration?

 

[glider]

The solar K-Index was up to 6 yesterday.

 

[m20b_pilot]

Did you download the latest firmware? Do a compass calibration? Accelerometer calibration?

I didn't download the latest firmware. I probably should have.

I did do a compass calibration. It took the calibration just fine and it was responding properly for the first 10min or so. I didn't do the accelerometer calibration though.

I wonder if the K-index could have caused some problems with it?

 

[Ahab]

When it started going all crazy were you hovering it close to you and maybe you accidentally put the ST16 into Smart mode? You cannot use smart mode unless it is far enough away from you. If you are too close it will try to get away from you.

Just asking that maybe this was user error? Not getting on you, we all make mistakes believe me, just proposing the question.

I've tested this several times on my H. It will not do anything crazy if I take off in smart mode inside the circle. It will take off normally and hover. It will however, only respond to control inputs take it further away from me until it gets outside the circle.

 

[Paladin]

I've tested this several times on my H. It will not do anything crazy if I take off in smart mode inside the circle. It will take off normally and hover. It will however, only respond to control inputs take it further away from me until it gets outside the circle.

Great to know, thanks for the information. I have not had the chance to really test anything yet myself so rely on others experiences more than anything.

 

[m20b_pilot]

So I called Yuneec again today and told them that I don't think it was a motor issue, but a toilet bowl effect. The tech asked if I calibrated the compass AND accelerometer. I told him that I only did the compass. He said that if I wanted, I should try to calibrate both and that might fix the problem. He also said that if I wasn't comfortable doing that, I could just send it back to them. He assured me that either way, it would be covered under warranty. I'm thinking of going to a park this evening or tomorrow and recalibrating both the compass and accelerometer and seeing how it does.

 

[Ahab]

Great to know, thanks for the information. I have not had the chance to really test anything yet myself so rely on others experiences more than anything.

I recommend you try it the first time in a nice open area so you can be sure of your behavior. I can only speak for my own experiences but it seems unlikely that there would be a change this early in the game. Possibly with firmware I suppose. I updated mine when I got it but haven't looked for anything newer in the last few weeks.

 

[m20b_pilot]

Well, not going to try it. I put the rubber dampners back in the gimbal mount and went to reattach the camera when the plastic rail on the camera that holds it to the H broke. I have pretty much had it at this point and want to return this thing. You spend this much money on something and I've had nothing but trouble. And I wanted to use the H for commercial aerial photography. I'm so mad and disappointed right now.

EDIT: I have a big photo shoot that I'm doing tomorrow that I won't get to use the H on and it's incredibly frustrating!

 

[Greg Parker]

Who

Well, not going to try it. I put the rubber dampners back in the gimbal mount and went to reattach the camera when the plastic rail on the camera that holds it to the H broke. I have pretty much had it at this point and want to return this thing. You spend this much money on something and I've had nothing but trouble. And I wanted to use the H for commercial aerial photography. I'm so mad and disappointed right now.

EDIT: I have a big photo shoot that I'm doing tomorrow that I won't get to use the H on and it's incredibly frustrating!

Who did you buy it from? Return as defective, why wait for H to fix it and send it back. Who pays the return shipping?

 

[m20b_pilot]

Good point, maybe I should just return it. I bought it from Terrestrialimaging.com. Yuneec did say they would pay for shipping to their repair facility. At this point, I think I would prefer a different unit all together.