GPS Signal lost / Crash landing

DarkWhiteChocolate · Jul 29, 2016

Well this is the 2nd time now where I have had a major issue with loosing GPS. I have been VERY lucky that I have not lost my H yet...

Take off conditions were good, shortly after I start to travel, I let go of the sticks and it started to fly away. At this time I get the GPS signal lost warning... I then tried to enable it again but it started flying away again.

I turned GPS off and flew it to the best place for a clean landing with no GPS, as I touched down it flipped over...

Somehow I lost the memory card (don't know if it fell out, or if I misplaced it after the crash) but I was able to get the video off the ST16. (I made a really cool video with text explaining everything in real time from the 720p video I had but I cannot get Shotcut to export correctly, so you are stuck with the raw video)

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Brandon Lowe · Jul 29, 2016

Were you having a hard time controlling it at landing? Did it still want to fly off on it's own?

Peter a · Jul 29, 2016

Well that proves the debate about being able to control your craft without gps , and the debate about getting a cheap craft to learn on fight first .
If you didn't have a clue how to control it without the helping hand of gps you may not have got it back.

Steve Carr · Jul 29, 2016

If you are losing GPS you need to contact Yuneec. It won't fix itself so you will continue to have a problem.

DarkWhiteChocolate · Jul 29, 2016

Brandon Lowe said:
Were you having a hard time controlling it at landing? Did it still want to fly off on it's own?

When it was coming in for the landing, every slight breeze would push it around... After watching the "flightlogparser" on the ST16, I was using the right stick in the opposite direction of travel when it touched down, it was trying to drift away (not fly away)

I had 2 options:
GPS ON- it would fly away at a high rate of speed to the south east
GPS OFF- it would slowly drift away with the wind, very hard to hover in one spot

DarkWhiteChocolate · Jul 29, 2016

Steve Carr said:
If you are losing GPS you need to contact Yuneec. It won't fix itself so you will continue to have a problem.

I have had this issue happen one time before... both times I was in a hurry and waited until I had only 6 Sats on the ST16. If I wait until I have more, there is never an issue...

how many satellites should I have on the ST16 before I take off? I know that there is no way to "recover" because I tried 3x to enable GPS, all 3 times it starts to fly away...

I'm just thankful that it did not do any major damage, I just chipped 2 props

Dragonflyerthom · Jul 29, 2016

Peter a said:
Well that proves the debate about being able to control your craft without gps , and the debate about getting a cheap craft to learn on fight first .
If you didn't have a clue how to control it without the helping hand of gps you may not have got it back.

Peter you answered your own statements. It is better to learn on a cheap auv.

Rayray · Jul 29, 2016

I think the ST16 needs 5-6 Sats min. But, the bird GPS, or lack of, was the problem with it not hovering in no-stick position. How many Sats did the bird have at take-off? Mine usually has 12+. Keep it in Turtle when you test it more.

Brandon Lowe · Jul 29, 2016

With that much drifting did you try to calibrate the gyro?

DarkWhiteChocolate · Jul 29, 2016

Dragonflyerthom said:
Peter you answered your own statements. It is better to learn on a cheap auv.

I have been flying for years, this is not my first drone or R/C by any means, This would have been my 157th flight over the last 2 months with my Typhoon H. I got my H back with no damage.

Dragon, I don't think I need to learn on a "cheap auv" I need MY $1400 UAV to not fly away on its own when it has 17 satellites locked and my controller has 6 locked.

I'm not as concerned about the crash or the flying when the GPS is off, it was just a tip-over. I'm concerned as to why it started racing SE at full speed when I was not touching the controller in a "fly away"...

DarkWhiteChocolate · Jul 29, 2016

Rayray said:
I think the ST16 needs 5-6 Sats min. But, the bird GPS, or lack of, was the problem with it not hovering in no-stick position. How many Sats did the bird have at take-off? Mine usually has 12+. Keep it in Turtle when you test it more.

ST16 had 6
H had 17

I had calibrated it earlier that day (2 flights before, same location, with in 2 hours) gyro, compass and gimble

I flew it today after a calibration and had no issues. I used POI without incident. I will try to call Yuneec today or monday

abinder · Jul 29, 2016

DarkWhiteChocolate said:
I have been flying for years, this is not my first drone or R/C by any means, This would have been my 157th flight over the last 2 months with my Typhoon H. I got my H back with no damage.

Dragon, I don't think I need to learn on a "cheap auv" I need MY $1400 UAV to not fly away on its own when it has 17 satellites locked and my controller has 6 locked.

I'm not as concerned about the crash or the flying when the GPS is off, it was just a tip-over. I'm concerned as to why it started racing SE at full speed when I was not touching the controller in a "fly away"...

Something has to be wrong with your ST16 if the H has 17 satellites locked and the ST16 shows only 6 locked.

I'd never fly using GPS with less than 12 locked on both.

Definitely flipped over because it was moving forward when the gear touched.

I would suggest you try hovering without GPS assist.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

DarkWhiteChocolate · Jul 29, 2016

abinder said:
Something has to be wrong with your ST16 if the H has 17 satellites locked and the ST16 shows only 6 locked.

I'd never fly using GPS with less than 12 locked on both.

Definitely flipped over because it was moving forward when the gear touched.

I would suggest you try hovering without GPS assist.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I think you are right, I usually wait for more Sats but could not get more than 6 until after takeoff and i was out of the trees more. The "flightlogparser" is very interesting to watch, it says that I go 90° off of where I really was flying and cuts in an out where I was having GPS issues.

I could not get it to hover in one spot near the end after I descend to 3' it starts to move forward in the direction it had been when it was flying away. I was trying to fly the opposite direction and decided to just get it down before it got moving fast again. I could have gone up again and waited until things smoothed out but I didn't think I would get another opportunity as clean.

Again, I'm not worried about the crash as much as I am the loosing GPS after take off and "fly away" happening.

kyle925 · Jul 29, 2016

Sorry this happened to you but this is the perfect scenario on why manual over ride needs to be accessible. Thanks Yuneec for listening and included in the recent firmware upgrade.