Circle of Death

[Mortalis]

OMG!

My second flight,
Having issues with the transmitter connecting to the camera yet I can see video and take video but the gimbal does not rotate or swivel up or down.
Take it up to about 20 feet,
Fly around a bit, she is quite a bit more nimble than my Q5004K kind of took me by surprise,
Pressed the video button and started recording,
Started to Yaw to take a panaramic and after I completed one revolution and stopped she started to drift a bit almost like she was dizzy.
Started to bring her back to land cause she was acting a little strange, drifting this way and that and when I would give the controls some movement to try to correct the drift she would jerk and then not go where I wanted her to
Decided to land and then it started.........OMG
The circle of death. I started to panic. I cant land her when she was doing that. After about 2 - 3 mionutes trying to get her to calm down I was finally able to minimize the circular drift and got her on the ground.
Shut her down and decided this was enough for today until I can figure out why the circular drift.

 

[Burntpixel]

Try recalibrating your compass.

 

[Atomic08]

Same thing with mine...
I have a total of less than 7 minutes flight time with my new H...
Practicing take offs and landings, happened each time I tried to land...
Very erratic....
Didn't respond to controls ( Angle Mode, OA Off ) 15-17 SATS
When landing, hits hard and flips over.
Did calibrations to Compass and Accelerometer
Talked to Yuneec Support a number of times and they RMA'd it.
Didn't have the H for 48 hrs !
Support said they have had a few with the same problem.

 

[Dragonflyerthom]

Hummmm. Sounds not good. Always angel mode and OA off. Double , triple check. Then check again..lots of hovering two three batteries be safe my friends and have fun

 

[Mortalis]

Hummmm. Sounds not good. Always angel mode and OA off. Double , triple check. Then check again..lots of hovering two three batteries be safe my friends and have fun

Angle Mode = Yes, always (for now)
OA = Off yes
Lots of Hovering = 5 months experience with 4 battereis Q5004K

Going to recal compass and acceleromator when I get home from work.
The camera not calibrating correctly worries me but not as much as the circular drift.

 

[Mortalis]

Try recalibrating your compass.

Yep......once I get home from work.

 

[Mortalis]

Plus, I'm gonna do the updates. Hopefully after doing all that my issues will be gone.

 

[Steve Carr]

The accelerometer calibration is extremely important. Make sure it's on a very level surface and doesn't get moved while it boots up and during the calibration. Also pick a level launch spot to take off.

 

[gregreh]

Not that it will necessarily help but before I flew my H, I did all firmware updates and all calibrations and I;ve not had any flight problems (touch wood, famous last words) Hope you get it sorted. I can imagine the panic I would feel if something similar happened.

 

[CAPTAINDRONE]

If you received your Typhoon H and calibrated the compass, then this is what can occur. It's caused by a misaligned compass which affects the IMU (the IMU is attempting to correct the compass issue hence the circle of death).

 

[Dragonflyerthom]

I'm going to agree with ya on this Captain.

 

[Mortalis]

If you received your Typhoon H and calibrated the compass, then this is what can occur. It's caused by a misaligned compass which affects the IMU (the IMU is attempting to correct the compass issue hence the circle of death).

Yes, I calibrated the compass but I performed the calibration with props installed. This made it awkward to easily spin the unit on the arms.

 

[Luckyleaf]

Circle of death ! ?.. Hello Sorry I'm new to this forum and just purchased a H on Monday , it hasn't been flown yet hopefully tomorrow. I've seen some footage where the calibration wasn't done and it flew fine ... So I am wondering if I need to calibrate or not. I have only one battery atm with another 3 on order coming next week or so I am told, so I'm hoping my first experience will not include any flipping on landing ! Obs off and in angle

 

[DroneClone]

OMG!

My second flight,
Having issues with the transmitter connecting to the camera yet I can see video and take video but the gimbal does not rotate or swivel up or down.
Take it up to about 20 feet,
Fly around a bit, she is quite a bit more nimble than my Q5004K kind of took me by surprise,
Pressed the video button and started recording,
Started to Yaw to take a panaramic and after I completed one revolution and stopped she started to drift a bit almost like she was dizzy.
Started to bring her back to land cause she was acting a little strange, drifting this way and that and when I would give the controls some movement to try to correct the drift she would jerk and then not go where I wanted her to
Decided to land and then it started.........OMG
The circle of death. I started to panic. I cant land her when she was doing that. After about 2 - 3 mionutes trying to get her to calm down I was finally able to minimize the circular drift and got her on the ground.
Shut her down and decided this was enough for today until I can figure out why the circular drift.

Were you in Smart Mode ? or the circle of death followed you like the Grim Reaper into the Angle mode?

 

[Mortalis]

Ok, my nomenclature of 'Circle of Death' was incorrect as I have seen it used to describe the Safe Mode radius around the controller while in Safe Mode. That is not what I was referring to. I was in Angle mode.
My situation was that the H while in the air in Angle mode was drifting in ever increasing circles. When I tried to land it it was moving sideways so fast it would have tipped over upon contact with the ground.

Update:
I updated the firmware on the H and the only thing that updated was the gimbal. That update seemed to fix my issue of the gimbal being unresponsive to any transmitter input. So, that's fixed.

I recalibrated my accelerometer and compass once I got home and was able to place the bird on a known level surface without the propellors installed to interfere.
I flew her for 10 - 12 minutes or so and she acted as one would expect. No drifting and no unwarranted circles.

Everything appears to be working as planned now.

@Luckyleaf,
I would recommend you perform at least a compass calibration before trying to fly. It only should be required to be done once as long as you dont travel to far (I think most say 50 -100 miles from the point of calibration).
Tip.....Do the compass calibration without the propellors installed. It just makes twisting the H easier without getting your arms all tangled in the props.

 

[DroneClone]

Ok, my nomenclature of 'Circle of Death' was incorrect as I have seen it used to describe the Safe Mode radius around the controller while in Safe Mode. That is not what I was referring to. I was in Angle mode.
My situation was that the H while in the air in Angle mode was drifting in ever increasing circles. When I tried to land it it was moving sideways so fast it would have tipped over upon contact with the ground.

Update:
I updated the firmware on the H and the only thing that updated was the gimbal. That update seemed to fix my issue of the gimbal being unresponsive to any transmitter input. So, that's fixed.

I recalibrated my accelerometer and compass once I got home and was able to place the bird on a known level surface without the propellors installed to interfere.
I flew her for 10 - 12 minutes or so and she acted as one would expect. No drifting and no unwarranted circles.

Everything appears to be working as planned now.

@Luckyleaf,
I would recommend you perform at least a compass calibration before trying to fly. It only should be required to be done once as long as you dont travel to far (I think most say 50 -100 miles from the point of calibration).
Tip.....Do the compass calibration without the propellors installed. It just makes twisting the H easier without getting your arms all tangled in the props.

So very glad to hear you got it squared away ! I felt it might have been the accelerometer calibration, as your symptoms are exactly what a needed calibration on accerlorometer does! Glad for you ! and Fly safely my Friend !

 

[glider]

Good that you figured it out, but I wonder how many pilots check the solar K-Index before flying.

 

[DroneClone]

Good that you figured it out, but I wonder how many pilots check the solar K-Index before flying.

Every time I fly ! On :
UAV Forecast

 

[Mortalis]

Every time I fly ! On :
UAV Forecast

Same here. I live by UAV Forecast

 

[Luckyleaf]

Ok, my nomenclature of 'Circle of Death' was incorrect as I have seen it used to describe the Safe Mode radius around the controller while in Safe Mode. That is not what I was referring to. I was in Angle mode.
My situation was that the H while in the air in Angle mode was drifting in ever increasing circles. When I tried to land it it was moving sideways so fast it would have tipped over upon contact with the ground.

Update:
I updated the firmware on the H and the only thing that updated was the gimbal. That update seemed to fix my issue of the gimbal being unresponsive to any transmitter input. So, that's fixed.

I recalibrated my accelerometer and compass once I got home and was able to place the bird on a known level surface without the propellors installed to interfere.
I flew her for 10 - 12 minutes or so and she acted as one would expect. No drifting and no unwarranted circles.

Everything appears to be working as planned now.

@Luckyleaf,
I would recommend you perform at least a compass calibration before trying to fly. It only should be required to be done once as long as you dont travel to far (I think most say 50 -100 miles from the point of calibration).
Tip.....Do the compass calibration without the propellors installed. It just makes twisting the H easier without getting your arms all tangled in the props.

I did the compass calibration and first flight today, I stayed in the pilot mode throughout ... Lost my video link half way through probably because mushroom antenna was pointing downwards but I was in an open area by the coast got some good footage for first go, even though it cut short maybe because I lost link ! Who knows I way too busy looking up in the sky ... awesome .... Can't wait for my extra batteries to come next week !