Light crash, now H520 won't connect

[SkyVidTek]

I had a very light crash with a pine tree which caused the H520 to slowly tumble down through a few branches and lightly hit the ground with the landing gear up. No props were damaged, and the aircraft had no apparent damage at all, the camera was undamaged except for 2 of the vibration mounts were pulled out. After fixing the vibration mounts, I tried to restart the aircraft. The gear was still locked in the up position, I pressed the start button on the H520 and it light up, the camera came on, but the ST16s showed the camera image, but no connection to the aircraft. I tried several times with and without the camera, but the ST16s and aircraft wouldn't connect. I haven't yet looked at the telemetry, but that's my next step.
Any suggestions are welcome.....

 

[Steve Carr]

Did you try a manual bind? Remove the cam, turn it on, press the bind button, turn over the 520 and press the bind again. Then try the LG switch to see if the gear retracts.

 

[SkyVidTek]

Yes, tried a manual bind. The aircraft seemed to react to the bind, by bli kin lights and a minor sound from it, but still no data on the ST16s.

 

[Steve Carr]

Did the landing gear work with the switch work after a manual bind?
You won't see any telemetry data until the camera is bound.

 

[SkyVidTek]

Just got the landing gear to go down, but still no connect to drone. Camera DOES connect, but not the drone.
Will continue investigation tomorrow.....

 

[Steve Carr]

When you turn it over the lights all flash. When you manually bind they stop flashing. Is it doing that?

 

[SkyVidTek]

With E90 camera off the craft, Manual bind procedure:
On ST16s touch "manual bind"
Flip bird upside down, all lights turn yellow and rapid flash
Touch "bind" - after about 3-5 sec all lights go steady on to normal colours
Flip bird right side up....... still no connection!

 

[SkyVidTek]

Had to send my H520 to Yuneec service centre yesterday. I had a callback with a YCS tech 2 days ago and we tried a few things to get the ST16s to connect, but no luck, so they will be checking it out.

 

[arruntus]

Had to send my H520 to Yuneec service centre yesterday. I had a callback with a YCS tech 2 days ago and we tried a few things to get the ST16s to connect, but no luck, so they will be checking it out.

Let's see if they give it back to you soon and tell you what happened ?

 

[SkyVidTek]

So my H520 has been at KAV since Aug 30 and no word from either Yuneec or KAV yet.

In the meantime I decided to balance all my props for the h480 and H520.
I use the Dubro prop balancer and a modified (l onger) balance shaft. All my H480 props were generally well balanced from the factory for both blade and hubs with just a few needing a slim piece of Scotch Magic tape, and some were about perfect.

However when I balanced the H520 props, while I found that nearly all the "A" props were well balanced and only needed the tinyest bit of magic tape always on the "Yuneec" logo blade, the "B" props (silver ring) of 10 only 2 were balanced on the hub and so could also be balanced on the blades, but 8 were out of balance on the hub. When the C of G is to one side of the hub its as if the axis centre is offset at 90° to the blade axis (albeit a very small amount) and therefore difficult to balance. I do not want to alter the surfaces or leading or trailing edges of the blades, so the only alternative is to add or remove material from the hub area.
Removing material from the hub is not a good idea as it may compromise the integrity of the prop, so adding material to the light sode of the hub is the only alternative.

Any suggestions? Progressive layers of CA? Paint? ???

 

[Steve Carr]

I admire your tenacity. I'm not certain this tiny amount of imbalance on the hub will produce any vibration. However, I would suggest perhaps some clear nail polish which can be easily removed.

 

[SkyVidTek]

Tenacity = OCD?
Actually, the reason I looked into balancing all the props was that my last video with my H480 had a noticeable camera shake at times, which was different than the "jello" some people have seen, and since the dampers looked ok, thought it might be a prop imbalance. Haven't tested the balanced props on it yet, maybe this afternoon......

 

[Steve Carr]

H480 had a noticeable camera shake at times

Ah. Okay. I do balance the props but I've never been concerned about the hubs. I've seen the camera shake on both the CGO3+ and the C23 but I suspect it was wind related rather than prop imbalance. After launch while at a low hover I look for any shake in the landing gear or the camera.

 

[SkyVidTek]

I should have clarified - it was video shake watching the playback. I will post a short clip on YT shortly.

 

[SkyVidTek]

Here is the short clip showing shake....

 

[SkyVidTek]

Update on H520 Repair for unable to connect aircraft to ST16s
Aug 21 - Yuneec CS call - couldn't resolve issue
Aug 23 - H520, E90 camera and ST16s sent to KAVservice in Kansas City MO
Aug 30 - KAV sends me notice of receipt of package
Sept 5 - after I send email requesting update, KAV emails back with "waiting on a tech to look at your drone"
Sept 5 - KAV customer portal for my ticket lists status as "no activity"
Sept 30 - after phone enquiry as to repair status, KAV responds "drone is beyond repair, waiting on replacement"
Sept 30 - I send email to Yuneec CS asking for update on my ticket. I get a canned, automated email back "your drone is in the hands of the repair facility and is being repaired"
Oct 3 - KAV update "we are waiting on a replacement to be sent from Yuneec
Oct 3 - KAV customer portal for my ticket now lists status as "no activity"
Oct 10 - I have receive a scheduled call from Yuneec CS. "Yuneec CS has no knowlege of replacement units for your repair, and does not know when parts/units will be sent - sorry"
Oct 10 - KAV customer portal for my ticket now lists status as "waiting for parts"

This seemed to be a simple case of the ST16s not connecting to the H520. What is a reasonable time to expect this to be resolved?

 

[arruntus]

I'm sorry to say that the reasonable repair time has long since been exceeded. From what they tell you, it seems that Yuneec doesn't send them the parts they need and therefore they can't repair it and considering the chronology you've written to us, more than a month in receiving any part at an official technical service is unacceptable

I'm sorry, mate, I hope they fix it as soon as possible and............ I perfectly understand and share the frustration you have to feel. Good luck and please tell us how the fix develops

 

[DroneCalzone]

So my H520 has been at KAV since Aug 30 and no word from either Yuneec or KAV yet.

In the meantime I decided to balance all my props for the h480 and H520.
I use the Dubro prop balancer and a modified (l onger) balance shaft. All my H480 props were generally well balanced from the factory for both blade and hubs with just a few needing a slim piece of Scotch Magic tape, and some were about perfect.

However when I balanced the H520 props, while I found that nearly all the "A" props were well balanced and only needed the tinyest bit of magic tape always on the "Yuneec" logo blade, the "B" props (silver ring) of 10 only 2 were balanced on the hub and so could also be balanced on the blades, but 8 were out of balance on the hub. When the C of G is to one side of the hub its as if the axis centre is offset at 90° to the blade axis (albeit a very small amount) and therefore difficult to balance. I do not want to alter the surfacesView attachment 18342 or leading or trailing edges of the blades, so the only alternative is to add or remove material from the hub area.
Removing material from the hub is not a good idea as it may compromise the integrity of the prop, so adding material to the light sode of the hub is the only alternative.

Any suggestions? Progressive layers of CA? Paint? ???

I'm not sure if I understand you correctly, but if the uneven distribution of weight happens so close to the center of the rotation axis, it will not introduce that much vibration into the system. I think you shouldn't worry about this.

Also, bare in mind, that sometimes propwash and/or wind may introduce camera shaking, and there will be nothing you can do about it. From the glimpse I took on your video, it seems that the shaking appeared during descent, which might point towards propwash as the reason. On the other hand, my impression was that the descent rate was not super high, so, maybe I'm wrong. Just my 2 cents.