Breeze crash/ spare parts and other questions!

[Horus]

Hello,
I had a few really good flights with the breeze since I bought it a month ago, this was my sixth flight. started the day with one full battery flight that went as smooth as can be, then changed location and changed the battery, initially I was on a concrete trail and got a "magnetic interference" warning or something like that, so I moved to the grass lawn almost 10 feet away from concrete, no warnings there, took off and next thing I know the drone is going wildly into a counterclockwise arc and in a few seconds crashed into a railing almost 25 feet away - I admit I was stunned and failed to find the emergency landing button-
anyways, the drone broke a few propellers, lost the cover on one of the landing legs and most importantly lost the under body plastic cover (fell in the lake on the other side of the fence) miraculously the drone fell on dry rocks and it seems to be working fine otherwise! another fun part: somehow I got a video of the crash through the Breeze cam!

now here are my questions:

1) what the..???! why did I loose control over the drone? no warnings? how do I avoid this happening again???!

2) Is there anything to gain trying to contact Yuneec with this problem? I have no log since I was using the controller?

3) I need advice, I looked up spare parts online and I can get the undercover for 50USD on amazon (40 on another website +shipping) but all are out of stock already! plus the landing gear and propellers we are talking around 70-80USD. now the Breeze is selling at walmart for 150USD??! do you think I should just buy another Breeze and use the old one as backup for spare parts? I really dont want to upgrade yet to a more expensive drone like the DJI or something until I get the hang of crashes like this on a "cheaper" drone... if you consider buying a 150USD drone for the second time in around a month still "cheap"?

4) any other ideas or suggestions??

Thanks y'all!

 

[DoomMeister]

If you are thinking of repairing, it is probably better to get another at Walmart for $150 and save the crashed one for parts.

My suspicion is that the compass was still being affected by the rebar in the concrete and possible the fence if it was metal. You might have been able to try an RTH (Y button) or an auto land (hold Start for 3 seconds and release). Hard to remember when flying out of control!

You say you have no flight logs yet have video of the crash. You are just the case that needs to contact Yuneec support since this should still be under warranty. Please checkout the post of Breeze flight logs in the sticky in the Breeze Discussion area to learn how to get your flight logs.

 

[Scott_in_Colorado]

I agree with DoomMeister - buy a new one from Walmart. Don't bother trying to fix it.

Perhaps Doom knows - but if the GPS locks on (takeoff), isn't that the primary stabilizing factor not the compass? I would hope the GPS keeps the drone (any drone) stationary - but this may not be the case - I have not thought about this much.

I also think if I got some sort of magnetic interference warning, I would move more than 10 feet away. If you went 50-100 feet away and flew much higher over the subject area, PERHAPS this might be OK, but don't risk a crash if you are uncertain.

There seems to be more and more posts about unexplained crashes, or falling out of the sky posts. I do believe all these Breeze's are made on a production line so they are very similar in build and reliability. This leaves me to think MOST incidences are pilot error. Let's say there have been 20 posts (just a guess) of incidence - out of some 300 users - point is, the percentage is not very high - so reliability is pretty good.

All unexplained crashes, all of a sudden, are concerning, as it could be me next.

 

[DoomMeister]

Seems most odd flyaways I’ve read about we’re accompanied by a compass warning or an IRS related takeoff failure (IRS thinks drone is on the ground with motors going full tilt and the Breeze flies up for a few seconds then the motors are turned off and it falls like a dead bird).

Another thing that can contribute to such odd behavior is flying under a canopy of trees or around areas with a lot of tall buildings. You can have a lot of satellite locks, but the signals get reflected and confuse the GPS ( like flying indoors with GPS on).

I’m hoping Horus will send his flight logs so I can take a look and see if any error flags were set and see if any flight data was recorded at all.

 

[Horus]

Thanks everyone for the input,
it was an open area with not so many trees, but as Doommeister predicted, there were concrete and a metal fence,
I assure you Scott, this was not a pilot error, there were no further warnings either after I moved away from concrete, but once the Breeze took off it went on this speedy arc on its own and i was not touching any controls:
DoomMeister: Im checking the post about sending flight logs and will send soon

P.S. I tried uploading the video here but it said unsupported format, I can email it if you think it would be helpful

Thanks again y'all

 

[DoomMeister]

Horus, do you have Google Drive or DropBox?

Check the Conversation (PM) I started with you.

 

[Scott_in_Colorado]

Thanks Horus. So if it was not pilot error (you heeded the warning you got - not actual flight pilot error) and a calibration was done before the flight (after the magnetic interference warning) and still the Breeze took off on a speedy arc we are all in for surprises like this at some point. This is a scary thought.

You did get an indication something was wrong as you saw a magnetic interference warning. My only point is that you should have moved away more than ten feet. Because the warning did not pop up again ten feet away does not mean the interference was not still present back where you started.

Here’s what we know: 1) you received a magnetic warning. 2) you moved away 10’ - did not see the warning again ( I’ll assume you recalibrated after the warning??). 3) you tried to fly at the new location 10’ away and the Breeze crashed.

What I take from this is: if I get a magnetic warning of some kind I’m moving far away - way more than 10’.

 

[Horus]

HI Scott,
thanks for the analysis, I did not recalibrate after the first warning, so I think the take home messages as you said are:
1) move far far away from interference
2) calibrate compass
3) keep you hand on the emergency landing button
4) pray to all the gods you can think of!
(Horus himself was a god but that didn't save this drone!!

 

[Jeff@W]

Hello,
I had a few really good flights with the breeze since I bought it a month ago, this was my sixth flight. started the day with one full battery flight that went as smooth as can be, then changed location and changed the battery, initially I was on a concrete trail and got a "magnetic interference" warning or something like that, so I moved to the grass lawn almost 10 feet away from concrete, no warnings there, took off and next thing I know the drone is going wildly into a counterclockwise arc and in a few seconds crashed into a railing almost 25 feet away - I admit I was stunned and failed to find the emergency landing button-
anyways, the drone broke a few propellers, lost the cover on one of the landing legs and most importantly lost the under body plastic cover (fell in the lake on the other side of the fence) miraculously the drone fell on dry rocks and it seems to be working fine otherwise! another fun part: somehow I got a video of the crash through the Breeze cam!

now here are my questions:

1) what the..???! why did I loose control over the drone? no warnings? how do I avoid this happening again???!

2) Is there anything to gain trying to contact Yuneec with this problem? I have no log since I was using the controller?

3) I need advice, I looked up spare parts online and I can get the undercover for 50USD on amazon (40 on another website +shipping) but all are out of stock already! plus the landing gear and propellers we are talking around 70-80USD. now the Breeze is selling at walmart for 150USD??! do you think I should just buy another Breeze and use the old one as backup for spare parts? I really dont want to upgrade yet to a more expensive drone like the DJI or something until I get the hang of crashes like this on a "cheaper" drone... if you consider buying a 150USD drone for the second time in around a month still "cheap"?

4) any other ideas or suggestions??

Thanks y'all!

That’s exactly what I did! The crash forgiveness plan is 90USD so might as well get a new one which not only gives you spare parts, but an extra battery, controller, and charger! I had a catastrophic episode similar to yours, read about it in my reply to Scott in Colorado.

 

[Horus]

Hello,
Just to follow up and conclude this thread, I contacted Yuneec and was advised to start a repair request, return the drone for inspection and then a decision on wether its covered under warranty or not will be made. the return process was easy, I did not hear from Yuneec for around 3 weeks and then I was notified they did the repairs and the drone "now passed all their testing", it was all charge free and they sent the drone back (ground shipping not flying.. the irony!!)
they exchanged the damaged parts (propellers, landing gear and body cover, AND also changed the motherboard... no diagnosis was given, no explanation of what the problem was or what test results showed.
I was able to go for a test flight yesterday. it went well, I calibrated the compass and took off, hovered at 4 feet for a while, initially there was a slow forward drift but that somehow self corrected in a few seconds. all other controls worked fine and I had a more or less satisfactory flight.
Now my to my chagrin, one of my batteries is not charging anymore! I’ve read the threads about how to work around that but I’m not that techie, I am contacting Yuneec for repair request and I’ll see if they will replace the battery.
Again I flew with the controller (my preferred method, and I did not find any log of that flight..
I don't know what all this means.. I would just say stick to safety precautions as mentioned above, contact Yuneec for a repair any time you have trouble?? and good luck!