Fall from sky? What happened!?!

AH-1G · Aug 27, 2018

Don't get me wrong, I wasn't accusing you of pilot error, Just taking notes on these incidents.
Battery took a brutal beating there.

to say the least!
thanks for the picture.

jcommstudios · Aug 27, 2018

rdonson said:
OMG

My sentiment exactly Ron.

Ty Pilot · Aug 27, 2018

As I was reading in another thread about a Typhoon H Plus failure, I wanted to make sure about the numbers and actual events so as not to mix up the new model with the older 480s due to the fact that they are totally different systems. So just to confirm @jcommstudios your Typhoon is a standard Typhoon H (correct) while the OP's craft was a Plus? The reason I want to differentiate this is because it is likely to be different reasons for each.

jcommstudios · Aug 27, 2018

Ty Pilot said:
As I was reading in another thread about a Typhoon H Plus failure, I wanted to make sure about the numbers and actual events so as not to mix up the new model with the older 480s due to the fact that they are totally different systems. So just to confirm @jcommstudios your Typhoon is a standard Typhoon H (correct) while the OP's craft was a Plus? The reason I want to differentiate this is because it is likely to be different reasons for each.

Yes it was an H 480 standard... It was a refurbished unit I picked up just a month or so ago for a backup to my H Pro. My thought was to have a backup in case I had trouble with my other unit on a shoot. To bad it failed as the camera on the refurb. had excellent color. I have an associate that picked up one of the first US H Plus's from Yuneec direct and it flies great but the camera is a hassle. We shot part of a project with it and every time you shut down to do a battery change it starts a new folder with identical file numbers. No gimbal calibration either. They are sending him a new camera so perhaps they have made some changes already. They will get it right soon! Once the c23 is available for the H480 at a reasonable price (and working properly) I plan to pick one up. The 1 inch sensor and 60fps is enticing!

h-elsner · Aug 28, 2018

@ jcommstudios:
If you don't want to burn down your house, please keep this battery outside. Looks really frightening.

Eagle's Eye Video · Aug 28, 2018

h-elsner said:
@ jcommstudios:
If you don't want to burn down your house, please keep this battery outside. Looks really frightening.

In a bucket of salt water...

rdonson · Aug 28, 2018

h-elsner said:
@ jcommstudios:
If you don't want to burn down your house, please keep this battery outside. Looks really frightening.

Or recycle it properly at places like Home Depot

jcommstudios · Aug 28, 2018

Eagle's Eye Video said:
In a bucket of salt water...

Yep I know the drill! It is headed to a local recycle outfit that will dispose of it properly.
PS. The bucket of salt water thing is not the way to go!

AH-1G · Aug 28, 2018

jcommstudios said:
Yep I know the drill! It is headed to a local recycle outfit that will dispose of it properly.
PS. The bucket of salt water thing is not the way to go!

I find that some manufactures recommend this and environmentalist have a fit.

Salt water has worked for me. After a couple or more days, then testing with ohm meter, voltage dead ‡.

jcommstudios · Aug 28, 2018

AH-1G said:
Why?

Salt water LiPo disposal is a bad, bad idea. Sure, on the surface it seems like a good concept - after all, salt water conducts electricity, so it makes sense that dropping the battery in salt water will discharge it. But the devil is in the details and the detail, in this case, is electrolysis. You see, salt water and electricity have an amazing talent in the field of dissolving metals, including the tabs on the LiPo cells that actually conduct the electricity. And once those tabs are dissolved, no more discharge. That's the real problem - the tabs on the cell tend to dissolve before the cells are completely discharged, leaving you with the worst of both worlds - a cell that's still got a charge, and no way to discharge it.

AH-1G · Aug 28, 2018

I fully understand how electrolysis works, however there isn't enough voltage left in H batteries for this to cause the tabs to dissolve to where there is nothing left. Evidently you have done this method and found the tabs totally dissolved?

AH-1G · Aug 28, 2018

I have a 6700 mAh that has swollen, I'llput it in salt water next couple of days then dissect it carefully, and see what remains with the tabs.

Eagle's Eye Video · Aug 28, 2018

AH-1G said:
I fully understand how electrolysis works, however there isn't enough voltage left in H batteries for this to cause the tabs to dissolve to where there is nothing left. Evidently you have done this method and found the tabs totally dissolved?

Agreed... I have disposed of 3 H batteries using a salt water bath, with no issues in getting to 0.0V. As well, I question if the corrosion rate would be so high as to do this in 2-3 days... a month, maybe.

ChadCloses · Aug 28, 2018

I feel your pain. The same thing happened to me but mine fell into a pond and I couldn’t find it. Fortunately, I lived about an hour and a half from Yuneecs warehouse so I showed up with my transmitter and told them I don’t have the drone to give them. I went to Starbucks while they looked at my data. They called me when I was still in the Starbucks drive through and said when I get back a new drone will be waiting for me free of charge. Hope that makes you feel better than a shrimp dinner. Lol. Wife should have sprung for lobster. Lol

AH-1G · Aug 29, 2018

lobster with wine, mmmmmm

Manfred · Aug 29, 2018

Are these issues of falling out of the sky software/firmware related? Hope this is going to be fixed. Scared of flying it now ;-)

oliver · Aug 29, 2018

Yuneec updates are always an adventure until they disappear ...

Toophless · Aug 29, 2018

DarienR1 said:
Went to fly this morning. Did the same stuff and checks I always do. Changed the battery, and calibrated the compass. Took it up about 5 ft but realsense kicked in and it would not let me do anything, so I landed it. Picked it up by hand and walked it to the middle of parking lot. Took off again, as I normally do and flew up about 125 ft. and about 485 ft from my position. Turned it around, switched to sport mode, and flew half way back. Just as I switched to sport mode it said that it lost signal for a sec, but it seemed like it was coming home. It regained connection and stopped at my location as it normally does when you hit the return home switch. I knew something was wrong with the way it came down because it just dropped out of the sky like a brick. It normally comes down slow and careful. This was like it was going full speed straight down. It smashed the camera and the landing gear and damaged a few of the motors and plastics. Probably more damage than I can mention here but I don't wanna look at it. It hurts to look at it and I just bought it. (7/6/18) It happened so fast. My wife looked online and saw that a few people had the same problem but when she showed me the articles, most looked like the older model based on the posting date vs when the PLUS model was released. Why would it do this, and what do I do now? I think I'm still in shock...

I experienced the same problem. However I had just taken off from a boat in the San Francisco Bay, took it up to about 200 feet and out about 100 feet when it came home on its own. I was not in "HOME" mode. about 5 feet from the bow the Typhoon decided to land. It hovered about 6 inches off the water, but out of reach. Then it dropped onto the surface and sank like a rock. The last thing I saw on the controller was that it had lost contact with all GPS satellites both on the controller and the aircraft. Total loss.

Eagle's Eye Video · Aug 29, 2018

Keepin count here... is that 5 Plus' reported a catastrophic failure in the last 2-3 weeks?

DoomMeister · Aug 29, 2018

Toophless said:
I experienced the same problem. However I had just taken off from a boat in the San Francisco Bay, took it up to about 200 feet and out about 100 feet when it came home on its own. I was not in "HOME" mode. about 5 feet from the bow the Typhoon decided to land. It hovered about 6 inches off the water, but out of reach. Then it dropped onto the surface and sank like a rock. The last thing I saw on the controller was that it had lost contact with all GPS satellites both on the controller and the aircraft. Total loss.

Please refer to this thread How To Get H Plus Telemetry Files and then post those files here. We are trying to see if there is a common cause to these loss of control situations. Be sure to include all four categories for the telemetry.