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Battery Failure / Crash / Repair Shop

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I haven't had the Typhoon H long, had a couple of minor issues with gimbal and landing gear, Was able to straighten those issues out with very little problem. Made a few flights did really well. I bought it used but in nice condition from a friend.Got 4 batteries with it. Late afternoon before last, I had just cycled all the batteries through the charger, all charged fine. I put one of the batteries in that I had not flown with before, when all booted up, showed 16.4 volts. Launched it to about 50', raised landing gear, then went to 115', flew it straight away for about 1500', got low battery warning, started it back, then it fell out of the sky, total flight time under one minute. Has anyone else had this happen ? Also, is there a reputable drone repair shop in the Waco or Fort Worth area. I'm located right in between. It flew awesome with the other 3 batteries, no issues.
 
I haven't had the Typhoon H long, had a couple of minor issues with gimbal and landing gear, Was able to straighten those issues out with very little problem. Made a few flights did really well. I bought it used but in nice condition from a friend.Got 4 batteries with it. Late afternoon before last, I had just cycled all the batteries through the charger, all charged fine. I put one of the batteries in that I had not flown with before, when all booted up, showed 16.4 volts. Launched it to about 50', raised landing gear, then went to 115', flew it straight away for about 1500', got low battery warning, started it back, then it fell out of the sky, total flight time under one minute. Has anyone else had this happen ? Also, is there a reputable drone repair shop in the Waco or Fort Worth area. I'm located right in between. It flew awesome with the other 3 batteries, no issues.
SDBA, the only thing a can suspect is that the battery latch wasn't locked as it should be.Did you hear the real "CLICK"? Let somebody check your telemetry.
 
Absolutely. It's still latched in. Only showing about 8 volts . "Check my telemetry", not sure what you mean.
 
"Check my telemetry", not sure what you mean.
You can upload your flight logs, which include telemetry data, to the forum for review. Not sure there is much question in your case, since the battery is still installed and showing low voltage. Sounds pretty much like a battery failure. But if you want confirmation of the issue, refer to Attachment 56 ( Typhoon H Flight Log Retrieval ) of the document attached to "Way To Fix Drones project" for instructions to upload the files.
 
Appreciate that. Still way new to this stuff. Wasn't aware I could do that. I wasn't recording video at the time, fortunately, I was watching the camera and had a pretty good idea where it went down. Was able to drive right to it. I lost contact before it started down. Lucky, I guess that when I tried to fly it back, it didn't start back or it would have gone down in heavy brush and I might not have found it.
 
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That sounds to me like a battery with a serious issue in one of its cells, because if the whole pack was evenly discharged down to 16.4 then you shouldn't have got a low battery warning, meaning that if you did get one it suggests a single cell is failing, or at least discharging way faster than all the others, which to all practical purposes is the same thing.

But important lessons can be learned here about dealing with untested battery packs.

1. If something is meant to be charged to 16.8v and shows as 16.4v when first inserted in craft, that is the first warning that something is wrong, and means that if you do decide to continue the flight AT ALL on that pack, that you should be supremely cautious while you test it.

2. When a battery is under test - NEVER fly it 1500 ft away or very high off the ground at all ! Keep it very close to the ground for the whole flight, and very close to you so you can monitor what the battery is doing and take immediate remedial action to save the craft if the battery starts doing something you are not expecting. Perhaps without greater experience you couldn't know that your eyes should have been pretty much glued to that battery voltage meter so you could land the craft as soon as you noticed something was amiss about the way voltage was dropping.

3. If you think there is any chance at all that power may fail to your craft (like when testing an unknown battery), do not raise landing gear, and even consider removing the expensive camera before you take off for that test flight, so you minimise your losses and damage if the worst does happen.

4. Get a tracker for your drone so you can find it much more easily if it ever goes down or loses power. I like the Loc8tor ones personally, which are not too expensive, very small and light and easy to attach to the craft, and work well to within a range of about 200 m.
 
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That sounds to me like a battery with a serious issue in one of its cells, because if the whole pack was evenly discharged down to 16.4 then you shouldn't have got a low battery warning, meaning that if you did get one it suggests a single cell is failing, or at least discharging way faster than all the others, which to all practical purposes is the same thing.

But important lessons can be learned here about dealing with untested battery packs.

1. If something is meant to be charged to 16.8v and shows as 16.4v when first inserted in craft, that is the first warning that something is wrong, and means that if you do decide to continue the flight AT ALL on that pack, that you should be supremely cautious while you test it.

2. When a battery is under test - NEVER fly it 1500 ft away or very high off the ground at all ! Keep it very close to the ground for the whole flight, and very close to you so you can monitor what the battery is doing and take immediate remedial action to save the craft if the battery starts doing something you are not expecting. Perhaps without greater experience you couldn't know that your eyes should have been pretty much glued to that battery voltage meter so you could land the craft as soon as you noticed something was amiss about the way voltage was dropping.

3. If you think there is any chance at all that power may fail to your craft (like when testing an unknown battery), do not raise landing gear, and even consider removing the expensive camera before you take off for that test flight, so you minimise your losses and damage if the worst does happen.

4. Get a tracker for your drone so you can find it much more easily if it ever goes down or loses power. I like the Loc8tor ones personally, which are not too expensive, very small and light and easy to attach to the craft, and work well to within a range of about 200 m.
200 meters isn't much at all, and at a little over $100 bucks, i believe you could find your drone w/o that thing ?
 
200 meters isn't much at all, and at a little over $100 bucks, i believe you could find your drone w/o that thing ?

I agree, but a) unless you are flying out of sight (which you arguably shouldn't be with a TH anyway) then you nearly always can get yourself to within 200m of where a craft went down by eyesight alone and b) No, if it goes down in a huge field of long meadow grass or corn / wheat for example, you can be 3 m from it and still not see it !

I have had specifically these circumstances when I lost my old TBS Discovery due to an IMU error with my Naza controller, and could have walked in that cornfield for 3 days straight without finding the drone had I not had a tracker that led me straight to it...
 
Hi there
When ever i get the red warning on the controller I always turn off videoing and I have always got the drone home near to me.

It usually gives you 2 red warnings to let you know.

I would either A land it if its over a fields etc or B if you have the drone insight just land it asap.
A bit of a walk is no harm compared to new landing gear or even a new camera ?.
 
I agree, but a) unless you are flying out of sight (which you arguably shouldn't be with a TH anyway) then you nearly always can get yourself to within 200m of where a craft went down by eyesight alone and b) No, if it goes down in a huge field of long meadow grass or corn / wheat for example, you can be 3 m from it and still not see it !

I have had specifically these circumstances when I lost my old TBS Discovery due to an IMU error with my Naza controller, and could have walked in that cornfield for 3 days straight without finding the drone had I not had a tracker that led me straight to it...
Yes now that I looked at those references that you brought to light I see your point ? I live in New England where those rarely exist, but flying over the forest I still have sight at 2800' until I look down at my controller, then its RTH ?
 
AeroJ,

If the system was still sending telemetry when it went down the last known position of the drone will be displayed as coordinates on the ST-16. Those thinking about it won’t turn off the ST-16 until after writing those coordinates down. Those that don’t think about it and shut down the ST-16 without noting coordinates can recover those coordinates from the telemetry files. They will be the last drone coordinates in the file.

Plug the coordinates into Google Earth and go pick up your drone. It really does work.
 
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AeroJ,

If the system was still sending telemetry when it went down the last known position of the drone will be displayed as coordinates on the ST-16. Those thinking about it won’t turn off the ST-16 until after writing those coordinates down. Those that don’t think about it and shut down the ST-16 without noting coordinates can recover those coordinates from the telemetry files. They will be the last drone coordinates in the file.

Plug the coordinates into Google Earth and go pick up your drone. It really does work.

Hi Pat, yes I am aware of that thanks, and perhaps a tracker is not needed so much these days, or with the TH specifically. But I can imagine a situation where I am in some remote field in the middle of nowhere, with zero phone or internet coverage, which does happen, even in the modern age, and then I'd find it extra comforting to be able to find my craft there and then even without it... likewise, what if the ST-16 had lost power for some reason, which caused the crash (say as the TH was RTH-ing, and maybe hit an obstacle on the way back) - a tracker could help there also, so I guess I am thinking of it more as a small double-redundancy thing rather than as a vital part of a typical recovery...
 
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I haven't had the Typhoon H long, had a couple of minor issues with gimbal and landing gear, Was able to straighten those issues out with very little problem. Made a few flights did really well. I bought it used but in nice condition from a friend.Got 4 batteries with it. Late afternoon before last, I had just cycled all the batteries through the charger, all charged fine. I put one of the batteries in that I had not flown with before, when all booted up, showed 16.4 volts. Launched it to about 50', raised landing gear, then went to 115', flew it straight away for about 1500', got low battery warning, started it back, then it fell out of the sky, total flight time under one minute. Has anyone else had this happen ? Also, is there a reputable drone repair shop in the Waco or Fort Worth area. I'm located right in between. It flew awesome with the other 3 batteries, no issues.
16.4v on what would otherwise seem to be a fully charged battery should have been a red flag indicating that something isn't right with the battery. Anything less than 16.6v should be seen as a warning.
 
I haven't had the Typhoon H long, had a couple of minor issues with gimbal and landing gear, Was able to straighten those issues out with very little problem. Made a few flights did really well. I bought it used but in nice condition from a friend.Got 4 batteries with it. Late afternoon before last, I had just cycled all the batteries through the charger, all charged fine. I put one of the batteries in that I had not flown with before, when all booted up, showed 16.4 volts. Launched it to about 50', raised landing gear, then went to 115', flew it straight away for about 1500', got low battery warning, started it back, then it fell out of the sky, total flight time under one minute. Has anyone else had this happen ? Also, is there a reputable drone repair shop in the Waco or Fort Worth area. I'm located right in between. It flew awesome with the other 3 batteries, no issues.
Mine didnt fall from the sky but one battery iflew less than a minute and itwanted to autoland on my neighbors roof. It was a close call. Now the other battery wont fly for 2 mins and I just replaced the S16 battery. Good thing I checked in here before putting it in the air again. The Typhoon H is an expensive hobby and not for the weak or timmid. Good Luck too ya
 

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