Drone Randomly Crashed

[mreed777]

Hey guys, new to the forum. Had my H Plus for a few years now and it's always been reliable. This weekend, however, I took the drone to Tennessee to get some aerial shots of the house we just bought there. I flew it once in the morning and then again in the afternoon. The second flight I was standing in front of the house and flew it around the backside. I couldn't see the drone at this point, but it was about 50 feet up and about 300 feet from me. I had it in a hover and was adjusting the camera when all of a sudden the video feed froze and I heard a thump. I walked around back and found the drone upside down with some considerable damage. The camera looks like it's salvageable, but the body covers and frame will need to be replaced, along with a landing gear. No broken props thankfully. I tried reviewing the footage but the crash video doesn't load at all. I thought I read somewhere on this forum that the flight data can be deciphered to maybe get an idea what happened since I wasn't able to see the drone from where I was standing.

For whatever it's worth, I did notice the drone kept wanting to climb on the morning flight. Not sure if it's related.

The drone seemed fine right before the crash. Also worth noting there wasn't an obstacle within 1000 feet of the drone where it was hovering at.

 

[WTFDproject]

The attached PDF describes the Flight Log Retrieval for the HPlus ST16S.

The camera video probably did not close properly when the power was lost. Put the card back in the camera, start a recording and then stop it. If the current drone/camera damage won't support it, use some other video recording device.

Considering the time of year, it won't take long for the discussion of bird strikes to come up. Especially if there were any bushes/trees or other nesting opportunities nearby.

 

[h-elsner]

I do not exacly know where, but somewhere the video until the stream was frozen should stored on the ST16 (in lower quality). It may show us some interesting for diagnosis in connection with the flight logs.

 

[Stephen1988]

Hey guys, new to the forum. Had my H Plus for a few years now and it's always been reliable. This weekend, however, I took the drone to Tennessee to get some aerial shots of the house we just bought there. I flew it once in the morning and then again in the afternoon. The second flight I was standing in front of the house and flew it around the backside. I couldn't see the drone at this point, but it was about 50 feet up and about 300 feet from me. I had it in a hover and was adjusting the camera when all of a sudden the video feed froze and I heard a thump. I walked around back and found the drone upside down with some considerable damage. The camera looks like it's salvageable, but the body covers and frame will need to be replaced, along with a landing gear. No broken props thankfully. I tried reviewing the footage but the crash video doesn't load at all. I thought I read somewhere on this forum that the flight data can be deciphered to maybe get an idea what happened since I wasn't able to see the drone from where I was standing.

For whatever it's worth, I did notice the drone kept wanting to climb on the morning flight. Not sure if it's related.

The drone seemed fine right before the crash. Also worth noting there wasn't an obstacle within 1000 feet of the drone where it was hovering at.

Have u checked to see were the battery contacts clean, the 2 outer pins

 

[mreed777]

I do not exacly know where, but somewhere the video until the stream was frozen should stored on the ST16 (in lower quality). It may show us some interesting for diagnosis in connection with the flight logs.

I was able to find that.

It's in the gallery once you close the drone app. Unfortunately, the video just stops and you can't really tell anything... I didn't see the drone shake or anything like it had been impacted by anything.

 

[Stephen1988]

I was able to find that.

It's in the gallery once you close the drone app. Unfortunately, the video just stops and you can't really tell anything... I didn't see the drone shake or anything like it had been impacted
I have plenty of parts if u decide to repair

 

[WTFDproject]

... I didn't see the drone shake or anything like it had been impacted by anything.

Sounds like the Flight Log review is your best chance at understanding the event. Post it here and we can take a look at it

 

[mreed777]

The attached PDF describes the Flight Log Retrieval for the HPlus ST16S.

The camera video probably did not close properly when the power was lost. Put the card back in the camera, start a recording and then stop it. If the current drone/camera damage won't support it, use some other video recording device.

Considering the time of year, it won't take long for the discussion of bird strikes to come up. Especially if there were any bushes/trees or other nesting opportunities nearby.

Thanks! I'll attach it and see if anyone here can come up with something. The video saved on the ST16 but it wasn't much help. The recording just stopped and there wasn't any indication of impact or anything.

Sounds like the Flight Log review is your best chance at understanding the event. Post it here and we can take a look at it

Here ya go, thanks!

 

[h-elsner]

The telemetry and MAVlink ends abruptly in around 5m elevation. No error messages or other indications so far until the last data set. For me this looks like a total power loss.
When I check the battery my check programs says the battery is waste.

And this is a good example that a check of the telemetry with such tools can avoid total losses.
When we look at the voltage chart, we can see 3 voltage drops. The first one, I don't know why; the second when the drone accelerates/climbs and the third shortly before the crash during higher speed at already low voltage. I thin the fourth and final we can't see any more because the flight controller was already powered off.


Zoom in the last two voltage drops:


Finally, I think the battery was too low at the end.

 

[mreed777]

The telemetry and MAVlink ends abruptly in around 5m elevation. No error messages or other indications so far until the last data set. For me this looks like a total power loss.
When I check the battery my check programs says the battery is waste.
View attachment 33431
And this is a good example that a check of the telemetry with such tools can avoid total losses.
When we look at the voltage chart, we can see 3 voltage drops. The first one, I don't know why; the second when the drone accelerates/climbs and the third shortly before the crash during higher speed at already low voltage. I thin the fourth and final we can't see any more because the flight controller was already powered off.
View attachment 33430

Zoom in the last two voltage drops:
View attachment 33432

Finally, I think the battery was too low at the end.

Interesting. The battery was showing full, or close to full when I took off, and I never got any low voltage warnings, even when climbing. I made a fairly abrupt skid to get around the side of the house but afterwards I was just letting it list to the right as I adjusted the camera , and that’s when I lost the feed. That battery was my newest one too…

 

[h-elsner]

The battery shows 16.4V without power demands (4.1V per cell), looks like fully charged. The voltage breaks down to 15.6V when motors starts (armed) and then during idle goes up to 16.3V again. After take of it goes down to ~15,5V and drained very fast (2min) to 15V (around 50% remaining capacity). This is not normal.
The problem is that the voltages breaks down too fast if power is consumed. I think one of the cells is dead which has influence of the overall battery performance.

 

[h-elsner]

I see a lot of relatively short flights where the voltage goes down to around 14V fast. Saying the battery is good, the problem may also be bad contacts in battery or drone or a cold soldering at the battery connection on the main board.
In the very beginning at the first flight on your logs from 2021-11-05 a LiHV battery is empty after 7min flight? This is strange.

 

[Sheepdog]

In the UK, current regs state always to keep the drone in line of sight. Might have helped in your case. Would have seen if hit or just went down.