Phaedrus
Premium Pilot
H Plus Won't Lift-off
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Phaedrus
Premium Pilot
This is a close-up of the tiny potentiometer in the sticks. It's possible to spray contact cleaner in the vent hole while working the stick to get the contacts clean inside. Notice the two retaining screws that hold the pot in position. Don't try to remove those unless you plan to buy a new stick. If the pot moves under the retaining clamp you can add a tiny bit of glue at the point shown in the red circle.
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Here's an update. 
1) a live "chat" with a Yuneec tech was an exercise in frustration. The guy wasn't good at communicating clearly (even incorrectly directed me at one point and I figured out what he apparently had meant to say.). He thought "binding" was the route to go. That function didn't seem to work. (his fault or the drones?) Yet he did say, "Hmmm, that's odd that your drone won't do that." He just moved onto something else and in the end, nothing was accomplished. It was a waste of time.
2) I set-up a call with tech. This guy was good. Talked me through a RC calibration. It helped but didn't appear to totally resolve the issues. We ran over the 15 min. limit (for which I was grateful) but we didn't get to see, (while he was on the phone) if it fixed the problem by trying to lift the drone off. After he hung up, I attempted to lift off. The drone took off indeed, before I could even give the left stick a push up!
It rose a few feet and began to wander without any guidance or correction from me. I quickly sat it down and turned it off. That was scary.
In our conversation, the tech told me about the contact cleaner and how to use it. He said I might also need to redo the calibration a second time, since it was still not as exact as it should be. I asked about the RC calibration instructions should I not remember the procedure. He said there was one YouTube Yuneec H video available that was basically the same but not specific to the ST16s. He said it was similar enough that he'd send me the YouTube video and that it would walk me through it. He didn't send the video.
Later, at home, I attempted to re-calibrate it based on what I remembered, there were a lot of steps and a certain order that things needed to be done. I apparently forgot a step and messed things up to where the RC is now totally f*ucked. (My bad.)
The drone is still under warranty and he said I might need to return the controller and they might have to replace the stick mechanism. I'm sorta at my wits end. I have a case number and I think I'm just going to pursue the warranty work and be without it a few weeks, (or however long it takes.)
I had to send my first H Plus back after it dropped out of the air (for no apparent reason) on it's second flight (the first 15 mins.) and it was totaled. The telemetry info (or whatever it's called,) cleared me of any wrong-doing and the warranty paid for a replacement. This is my second H Plus and now I have this issue. To say the least, I'm a bit miffed.
I also told the tech that the drone loses connection with the controller if I fly it over a half-mile away, (There are no obstacles between me and it and the antennas are kept facing the drone.) He said it should do better than that and that he didn't know why. Part of me just wants to say to take the **** thing back and return my money. The CCC only works sometimes. I was told by someone else here it depends on how good a satellite connection you have but it needs super good sat connection, (apparently not just low green numbers between 10 and 15).
I love the smooth flight, the controller, the camera, the gimbal, the photos and videos I get, but I am about out of patience. I have over 2 grand into it at this point (includes excessories.) I'd just purchased two more Yuneec batteries and a double battery charger with all the bells and whistles.
Sorry. Just needed to vent.
1) a live "chat" with a Yuneec tech was an exercise in frustration. The guy wasn't good at communicating clearly (even incorrectly directed me at one point and I figured out what he apparently had meant to say.). He thought "binding" was the route to go. That function didn't seem to work. (his fault or the drones?) Yet he did say, "Hmmm, that's odd that your drone won't do that." He just moved onto something else and in the end, nothing was accomplished. It was a waste of time.
2) I set-up a call with tech. This guy was good. Talked me through a RC calibration. It helped but didn't appear to totally resolve the issues. We ran over the 15 min. limit (for which I was grateful) but we didn't get to see, (while he was on the phone) if it fixed the problem by trying to lift the drone off. After he hung up, I attempted to lift off. The drone took off indeed, before I could even give the left stick a push up!
It rose a few feet and began to wander without any guidance or correction from me. I quickly sat it down and turned it off. That was scary. In our conversation, the tech told me about the contact cleaner and how to use it. He said I might also need to redo the calibration a second time, since it was still not as exact as it should be. I asked about the RC calibration instructions should I not remember the procedure. He said there was one YouTube Yuneec H video available that was basically the same but not specific to the ST16s. He said it was similar enough that he'd send me the YouTube video and that it would walk me through it. He didn't send the video.
Later, at home, I attempted to re-calibrate it based on what I remembered, there were a lot of steps and a certain order that things needed to be done. I apparently forgot a step and messed things up to where the RC is now totally f*ucked. (My bad.)
The drone is still under warranty and he said I might need to return the controller and they might have to replace the stick mechanism. I'm sorta at my wits end. I have a case number and I think I'm just going to pursue the warranty work and be without it a few weeks, (or however long it takes.)
I had to send my first H Plus back after it dropped out of the air (for no apparent reason) on it's second flight (the first 15 mins.) and it was totaled. The telemetry info (or whatever it's called,) cleared me of any wrong-doing and the warranty paid for a replacement. This is my second H Plus and now I have this issue. To say the least, I'm a bit miffed.
I also told the tech that the drone loses connection with the controller if I fly it over a half-mile away, (There are no obstacles between me and it and the antennas are kept facing the drone.) He said it should do better than that and that he didn't know why. Part of me just wants to say to take the **** thing back and return my money. The CCC only works sometimes. I was told by someone else here it depends on how good a satellite connection you have but it needs super good sat connection, (apparently not just low green numbers between 10 and 15).
I love the smooth flight, the controller, the camera, the gimbal, the photos and videos I get, but I am about out of patience. I have over 2 grand into it at this point (includes excessories.) I'd just purchased two more Yuneec batteries and a double battery charger with all the bells and whistles.
Sorry. Just needed to vent.
I hear and appreciate your frustration. Do you have the ability to use your cell phone to video the calibration procedure you are using? That may help us to help you.
Can you provide a better description of what the ST16 is doing or not doing at this point?
Can you provide a better description of what the ST16 is doing or not doing at this point?
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If I can confidently tell you that I can get you flying by tomorrow, would you believe me?
My number is in my website, feel free to call or we can chat here. But before we will proceed, I only ask that you put your frustrations in check, because we will reset all of your parameters and patience is key.
It’s 1pm here in California and I will be home at 6pm. This will give you time to relax, and go over your ST16s menu, make sure that you know how to navigate your way around the RC.
I asked you once if what build your are on, but you kept giving me the “Version”
*** Post a photo of your version RC and AC, then post a photo of your build. ***
Based from what I’m reading, your problem is somewhat simple to solve, it’s just a matter of understanding how things work, and the YUNEEC system is quite simple and easy to understand once you understand.
We will start by downgrading, mapping your RC and calibrating. If it’s mechanical, I will leave things up to you and Yuneec to replace a certain part.
Let me know if you wish to proceed.
My number is in my website, feel free to call or we can chat here. But before we will proceed, I only ask that you put your frustrations in check, because we will reset all of your parameters and patience is key.
It’s 1pm here in California and I will be home at 6pm. This will give you time to relax, and go over your ST16s menu, make sure that you know how to navigate your way around the RC.
I asked you once if what build your are on, but you kept giving me the “Version”
*** Post a photo of your version RC and AC, then post a photo of your build. ***
Based from what I’m reading, your problem is somewhat simple to solve, it’s just a matter of understanding how things work, and the YUNEEC system is quite simple and easy to understand once you understand.
We will start by downgrading, mapping your RC and calibrating. If it’s mechanical, I will leave things up to you and Yuneec to replace a certain part.
Let me know if you wish to proceed.
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Unfortunately we've seen this over and over on this forum for years. A pot gets a little oxidation and causes an inoperative control output. This is confirmed by seeing the inoperative control in the RC monitor. At this point the problem is a physical one that requires cleaning or replacement - nothing else will do. There is no parameter or button or software manipulation that will fix the problem.
The Hardware Monitor is to show that when a stick is moved - the signal output correlates - it is a diagnostic tool to show that the manipulation of physical switches, sliders and sticks are being properly transformed into the electric signals that control the craft and camera. Nothing downstream of that problem will conceal, mask or otherwise fix it. You cannot re calibrate an inoperative control whose output is hampered as the result will be worsened.
I had to take my ST-16S apart a few months ago to clean a pot and while it was a bit of a pain, it was very straight forward and more over - it worked. My advise is to first either replace or clean the faulty stick. Second, when it is performing correctly; take RPR up on his offer. You'll be in the air and as good as new in the shortest route possible with the least frustration.
To be Clear do not attempt to do those two things out of order - the stick outputs MUST work first, then the rest will fall in place. Good Luck.
The Hardware Monitor is to show that when a stick is moved - the signal output correlates - it is a diagnostic tool to show that the manipulation of physical switches, sliders and sticks are being properly transformed into the electric signals that control the craft and camera. Nothing downstream of that problem will conceal, mask or otherwise fix it. You cannot re calibrate an inoperative control whose output is hampered as the result will be worsened.
I had to take my ST-16S apart a few months ago to clean a pot and while it was a bit of a pain, it was very straight forward and more over - it worked. My advise is to first either replace or clean the faulty stick. Second, when it is performing correctly; take RPR up on his offer. You'll be in the air and as good as new in the shortest route possible with the least frustration.
To be Clear do not attempt to do those two things out of order - the stick outputs MUST work first, then the rest will fall in place. Good Luck.
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You guys are doing your best to help me and I appreciate that. Thank each and every one of you. 
I'm concerned about opening up and working on the innards of the controller when the drone is still covered under warranty for repair or replace. If I mess something up it will void the warranty, I'm pretty sure. I'm a left-brained, 68 year old guy who is not particularly tech savvy (I don't know a pot in my controller from one in my kitchen), a guy who had no clue drone ownership was going to be this challenging. Yes, I admit to probably being naïve. Maybe what I'm experiencing with this "beast" is not uncommon and perhaps most folks who fly these tend to have the technical skills to do the work themselves or are young enough to grasp new concepts easily.
At this point the controls are useless, nothing works after my own failed efforts at RC calibration. I suppose I have nothing to lose to try again and working with the app to calibrate seems to be okay, provided you do it right and it works for you. I had no problems with coaching and clear communication from the Yuneec tech but the procedure was just long enough and sequence sensitive that I didn't retain everything I needed to succeed. I should have known better than to try it again on my own under the circumstances. I don't know that I "harmed" anything but I did succeed in making things worse. (sigh)
The tech on the phone, did not, at any time, recommend opening up the controller in part because of warranty issues (I'm certain) and in part because they've learned from experience that amateurs getting in there cause more problems than they solve. I suspect I'm the latter type. It's like some people have the "know how" to fix their cars, while most of us would rather just take it to the shop and get it done right, even if it costs money. I'm jealous that some of you have the ability to "get under the hood," do your own work and save yourselves time and money. I don't think I'm that type.
Now, if you'd like me to teach you how to read music or sing or direct a choir. I'm your guy.
RPR I appreciate your generous offer. I saw there's a long YouTube video that claims it'll show me how to do the reset and I considered it but I thought I'd only be opening a proverbial "can of worms" and risking my warranty. I don't doubt your expertise one bit. I know there's a lot of crap on YT too.
I'm just a hobbyist. I don't have a commercial license. I wanted to see what the birds see, have my own little helicopter, take beautiful photos (I am a pretty good photographer) and fun videos. I didn't realize I was also going to have to be a "grease monkey" (in a manner of speaking.) As my H + sits here I'm not losing any money (that is, until the warranty expires) and it's not like I'm missing a ton of opportunities.
I will say I've been impressed with the drone community here and I'm grateful for the responses and advice. I'm still leaning towards sending it in for warranty work. I don't lose any money, I don't screw anything up and I've got the time.
If you all think these sort of issues (of one type or another) is going to be an ongoing thing, and knowing my warranty expires July 14 of this summer, then it might be best for me to consider getting a new hobby.
Thanks.
JT
I'm concerned about opening up and working on the innards of the controller when the drone is still covered under warranty for repair or replace. If I mess something up it will void the warranty, I'm pretty sure. I'm a left-brained, 68 year old guy who is not particularly tech savvy (I don't know a pot in my controller from one in my kitchen), a guy who had no clue drone ownership was going to be this challenging. Yes, I admit to probably being naïve. Maybe what I'm experiencing with this "beast" is not uncommon and perhaps most folks who fly these tend to have the technical skills to do the work themselves or are young enough to grasp new concepts easily.
At this point the controls are useless, nothing works after my own failed efforts at RC calibration. I suppose I have nothing to lose to try again and working with the app to calibrate seems to be okay, provided you do it right and it works for you. I had no problems with coaching and clear communication from the Yuneec tech but the procedure was just long enough and sequence sensitive that I didn't retain everything I needed to succeed. I should have known better than to try it again on my own under the circumstances. I don't know that I "harmed" anything but I did succeed in making things worse. (sigh)
The tech on the phone, did not, at any time, recommend opening up the controller in part because of warranty issues (I'm certain) and in part because they've learned from experience that amateurs getting in there cause more problems than they solve. I suspect I'm the latter type.
It's like some people have the "know how" to fix their cars, while most of us would rather just take it to the shop and get it done right, even if it costs money. I'm jealous that some of you have the ability to "get under the hood," do your own work and save yourselves time and money. I don't think I'm that type. Now, if you'd like me to teach you how to read music or sing or direct a choir. I'm your guy.
RPR I appreciate your generous offer. I saw there's a long YouTube video that claims it'll show me how to do the reset and I considered it but I thought I'd only be opening a proverbial "can of worms" and risking my warranty. I don't doubt your expertise one bit. I know there's a lot of crap on YT too.
I'm just a hobbyist. I don't have a commercial license. I wanted to see what the birds see, have my own little helicopter, take beautiful photos (I am a pretty good photographer) and fun videos. I didn't realize I was also going to have to be a "grease monkey" (in a manner of speaking.) As my H + sits here I'm not losing any money (that is, until the warranty expires) and it's not like I'm missing a ton of opportunities.
I will say I've been impressed with the drone community here and I'm grateful for the responses and advice. I'm still leaning towards sending it in for warranty work. I don't lose any money, I don't screw anything up and I've got the time.
If you all think these sort of issues (of one type or another) is going to be an ongoing thing, and knowing my warranty expires July 14 of this summer, then it might be best for me to consider getting a new hobby.
Thanks.
JT
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JT, if the Yuneec tech was going to have you calibrate the sticks before fixing the problem it would not have mattered whether you missed a step or not. Calibrating that faulty stick is like trying to fix an out of balance tire on one side of your car by 'carefully' unbalancing the one on the opposite side so as to cancel out the vibrations. It won't work.
If you lived near by I would be happy to drive over and do this repair for you as I understand it can be intimidating. I hate that your experience with the first Plus and now this one has drained some of your enthusiasm, but I understand how you feel. These machines are getting so complicated that to operate them we have to take on new duties that may not suit us. Like you, the thought of voiding my warranty when I opened my ST-16S up did cross my mind but through reading this forum and gaining knowledge from it - I felt confident in doing so.
Like you I am not originally a very 'techy' guy in the sense of; going into a controller and unplugging things and then dousing them with some sort of cleaner shot out of a can - that just sounds wrong.
But the other thing I have learned on the is forum is what can be expected in terms of service from Yuneec. While there are times they have shined, there are times they they haven't. There are things they do well and some things they don't do well, and one of those is - fix things. They replace things more times than not. Its a lot cheaper to teach a budding tech to replace something rather than teach them the theory about how everything works.
A dirty pot is one of those things that a Tech at Yuneec has missed on many occasions only to have the customer do a dis-approving write up on it here which; is why many of us plead with a new owner in these threads to please clean the sticks first to save a lot of time. It doesn't help that no where in the instructions or the 'official' manual do they warn of this scenario. It is sort of one of those things that perhaps at the factory they never witness because it takes a while for this problem to occur.
If you lived near by I would be happy to drive over and do this repair for you as I understand it can be intimidating. I hate that your experience with the first Plus and now this one has drained some of your enthusiasm, but I understand how you feel. These machines are getting so complicated that to operate them we have to take on new duties that may not suit us. Like you, the thought of voiding my warranty when I opened my ST-16S up did cross my mind but through reading this forum and gaining knowledge from it - I felt confident in doing so.
Like you I am not originally a very 'techy' guy in the sense of; going into a controller and unplugging things and then dousing them with some sort of cleaner shot out of a can - that just sounds wrong.
But the other thing I have learned on the is forum is what can be expected in terms of service from Yuneec. While there are times they have shined, there are times they they haven't. There are things they do well and some things they don't do well, and one of those is - fix things. They replace things more times than not. Its a lot cheaper to teach a budding tech to replace something rather than teach them the theory about how everything works. A dirty pot is one of those things that a Tech at Yuneec has missed on many occasions only to have the customer do a dis-approving write up on it here which; is why many of us plead with a new owner in these threads to please clean the sticks first to save a lot of time. It doesn't help that no where in the instructions or the 'official' manual do they warn of this scenario. It is sort of one of those things that perhaps at the factory they never witness because it takes a while for this problem to occur.
If Yuneec would go to the optical readers on the sticks (like on many better RC controllers) they could almost totally eliminate this problem (can still get oxidation in connectors, but rarely).
Phaedrus
Premium Pilot
I'm fairy active in the RC hobby world and m a factory sponsored pilot for Futaba USA. To the best of my knowledge there are very few RC units that are not using physical pots. There are 1 or 2 that use Hall sensors, but they are not in widespread use.
Years ago I worked for a leading RC company (Pro-Line Electronics). We built a prototype transmitter using strain gauges on the sticks. Worked well, but felt very weird. Lack of physical feed back was un-nerving. Which RC units are you speaking of that use optical readers instead of pots?
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I have submitted a repair request and already received permission and the information necessary to return the controller for repair under warranty. The good news is that it will be getting repaired (or replaced) in Ray Town MO, which is only a three hour drive from where I live. Hopefully that will reduce the time it takes to get it back. I am impressed with the quick response to my request. We'll see what the turn around time is. Fingers crossed.
Thanks again to those who gave input.
Thanks again to those who gave input.
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This is where I received an entire new replacement H + package from (in the past) and in a timely manner. However, if this is about repairing the part as opposed to sending me a new controller, then you may be right. Rest assured I'll pester them. I hope you're wrong. I appreciate the heads up.
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