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Low Battery Warning and Erratic Flight

After 8-plus hours on my H (~30 flights) I've never had it get glitchy at the 14.3-volt warning. The only glitchiness I've had to deal with is the over-agressive GPS control at low speeds.
Yes, 14.3 volts is the first low-battery threshold, and in my experience there's still a good deal of juice left after that; you just want to stay close and slow...
The H doesn't know whether the gear is up or down, so there's no issue there.

My first controller had an issue with the flight-mode switch; are you sure it's not slipping in and out of safe mode?
If you have OBS on, the H will not land if the landing gear is not down. Test it, great safety feature.
 
Personally, I have not let mine run down below 80%, but at that level, no problems. It's only the H that I've ever had a problem with running the battery too low (below 14.3). I always try to land before the first low battery warning.
Agreed, I always land by or before 14.3 myself, after reading much wiser people's words of wisdom on here. It's just frustrating that Yuneec tells you the first warning is no big deal and to just bring it closer in.
On the battery in the ST-16, I'm sure it's a bad battery because just a gimbal and compass calibration, and one 12 minute flight starting with a fully charged ST-16 brings me all the way down to 90% or less. That complaint was included in my return complaint to Yuneec, but they didn't address it after a month of having it. Kind of irritating, but I'll work it out with them when I have a little spare time.
 
This is really odd. In all the flights I've done with my TH (close to 50), I've only once or twice landed immediately after the 14.3 warning. Never a problem.

Guess I must be lucky.
 
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This is really odd. In all the flights I've done with my TH (close to 50), I've only once or twice landed immediately after the 14.3 warning. Never a problem.

Guess I must be lucky.
I've never had an issue going down to or below 14.3 either, but this H has given me a few reasons to be paranoid over the last few months so until it regains my confidence, I bring it back around at 14.5 and land at the 14.3 stage, no lower.
 
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When the warning kicks in has a lot to do with your flying style. If you are going full throttle, the battery warning will come on very soon, "BUT" let off the sticks and fly slower and the voltage will rebound and the low battery will go away. It is hard to say just what is the correct voltage to land at. You can say what is safer for "BEST"battery life. If you fly your batteries too low, you may not have enough reserve for a safe landing. What if a gust of wind blows you off your target just as you are about to touch down, do you have enough battery left to climb and try again?
For me 14.8 volts is my best be heading home voltage. (I do not fly very far out) By 14.3 volts I am on the ground, and my voltage will rebound to 14.5-14.8 volts I usually get 15-18 minutes of flight time, 10 minutes or less when I am just flying to fly. I have 3 batteries, about 30 cycles on 2 of them and close to 100 on the first, (I was bad when I first got the H and did not track my cycles) I have other RC gear as well, I have now on all my LiPo batteries put a sticker with the date I bought them on it and they are all numbered.
I personally, do not think the displayed battery voltage is all that accurate. I have measured my voltages with a Fluke meter and always have a bit more than what the ST-16 was telling me I had on the ground with the motors off.

Yes you will find many conflicting comments. But Google Lipo battery voltages, and see what the manufactures are saying, most are pretty close in their specs on low battery voltage, charge rates etc. Judge for yourself, just fly safe, don't be 3000 feet out and the battery warning chiming away like crazy, you will have a nice long walk to find where your H self landed, or fell from the sky.
 
The low battery warning popped up on my screen and I tried to bring the drone home. Sorry, I'm still new at this and apparently didn't keep a close enough eye on the battery icon, but last time I had looked it read 14.8. Anyway, the drone started dodging and dropping independently of my input, and very shortly the critical battery warning came up. After that things went haywire, messages popping up on the screen faster than I could read them while also trying to keep an eye on the drone so it didn't drop out of the sky. Which it finally did about 1/8 of a mile out as I was still trying to bring it in safely. It shot straight up to about the level of the electric poles and then stone dropped while I was lowering the landing legs, straight on the camera housing. Then it shot back up, flipped and crashed rotors down in a grassy ditch. The camera survived, I had a screen view of the crash site, and when I hiked over to retrieve the Typhoon it was still upside down, griping at me in beep code, its lights all flashing madly

I don't know how much can be attributed to this low battery/erratic maneuvering issue and how much to chalk up to pilot inexperience. This was about my 7th or 8th flight, with no trouble til now. I was enjoying the flying and the camera view so much that I probably let it get too far away for the battery time I had left, but it sure didn't seem like I'd been aloft very long at all, and there was absolutely not much time left to get the drone back home once the battery warning appeared.

Lucky for me, damage seems to be limited to one broken blade, and the camera mounting coming apart. A bundle of wires in the camera swivel was displaced but not broken, and I was able to tease them back into a protected location inside the swivel once I got the camera itself skewed back to its original position. But I'm missing one of the little plastic washers that secure the mounting pins through the bubble dampeners. I fashioned a usable substitute from the broken rotor blade. My dumb question is this: exactly how does the camera mount disconnect from the drone? I think I'd have more luck getting the washer over the pin if the mount was off the drone, better access to both top and bottom openings. There is a tab that looks like it can be depressed to unlock the gimbal to slide off the whole camera assembly. None of the videos I've seen show the camera being removed from the drone, they all start with repairing the broken rail/gimble/wiring etc. I would feel better about trying it - depressing the tab and pulling off the gimble and camera - if I knew there was no wiring or connectors or gotchas to screw up in the process. It's a tough push to even move the tab at all.

Like I said, dumb question, so basic all the videos take for granted the viewer knows how to get the camera off the drone. But I've never done it, so I'm not sure.
 
My dumb question is this: exactly how does the camera mount disconnect from the drone? I think I'd have more luck getting the washer over the pin if the mount was off the drone, better access to both top and bottom openings. There is a tab that looks like it can be depressed to unlock the gimbal to slide off the whole camera assembly.

I was at the same place you are now several months ago. Yes indeed, while pushing the tab toward the drone, gently but firmly pull the gimbal straight out away from the drone. It is on rails and slides in and out, but do it carefully. The cam and gimbal are delicate.

BTW, also remove it before a compass re-cal, makes it easier. There are 2 rows of spring electric connectors on both sides, examine them from time to time to be sure one is not stuck down. Bet you had fun getting the rubber bumpers back in place.
 
I was at the same place you are now several months ago. Yes indeed, while pushing the tab toward the drone, gently but firmly pull the gimbal straight out away from the drone. It is on rails and slides in and out, but do it carefully. The cam and gimbal are delicate.

BTW, also remove it before a compass re-cal, makes it easier. There are 2 rows of spring electric connectors on both sides, examine them from time to time to be sure one is not stuck down. Bet you had fun getting the rubber bumpers back in place.
Thank you!! Getting the bumpers back in position wasn't that bad, on of the YouTube videos had a tip on this si used dental floss wrapped around the bumper lip to pull it through. Getting the washer I fabricated back over the pinhead has been the brick wall. I appreciate this info and headed straight back to the workbench to use it. Also the tip to remove for calibration, which will be my next newbie adventure.
 
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I have the camera safely removed now, thank you again. It's a durn good thing, too, because two of the dampers had also pulled loose from the drone side of the gimbal mount, something I would not have seen or had access to repair if I'd left the camera mounted.
 
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This is the second or third topic where I have seen someone newer, (like myself) ask a question and get a ton of advice that is totally inconsistent and makes a new person feel very frustrated, with Yuneec seeming to be the problem,
To the OP, I'm curious what the battery level was on your ST-16 when you had these issues because I once, (on my second flight ever) lost control of mine when the ST-16 battery got down to 77-78%. Luckily, I had just read somewhere that someone else had that problem when they were below 80%, but was so concerned with learning the H, and overwhelmed with all the new info I had studied that I forgot until it happened, but I had to run into my garage and plug in the ST-16 to regain control and bring it in. Thankfully I was right in my back yard and still had line of sight between the ST-16 and the H when I plugged it in, and it immediately regained control. I decided to not let it go below 80% ever again, but then had it start to exhibit the same but more mellow behavior at 82% recently as I was about to land anyways. I emailed Yuneec about it, but they never answered me so I need to call them.
Not sure if that was your case or not, but I'd be interested to know if anyone else has had the problem.
To the OP, I'm curious what the battery level was on your ST-16 when you had these issues because I once, (on my second flight ever) lost control of mine when the ST-16 battery got down to 77-78%. Luckily, I had just read somewhere that someone else had that problem when they were below 80%, but was so concerned with learning the H, and overwhelmed with all the new info I had studied that I forgot until it happened, but I had to run into my garage and plug in the ST-16 to regain control and bring it in. Thankfully I was right in my back yard and still had line of sight between the ST-16 and the H when I plugged it in, and it immediately regained control. I decided to not let it go below 80% ever again, but then had it start to exhibit the same but more mellow behavior at 82% recently as I was about to land anyways. I emailed Yuneec about it, but they never answered me so I need to call them.
Not sure if that was your case or not, but I'd be interested to know if anyone else has had the problem.

Not sure where my St16 battery level was at the time but guessing it was above 80% because I always charged it to 100% with every charge of the aircraft battery. Since then I've run the St16 battery down as low of 35% with no issues.

Since my original post, I've routinely run my aircraft battery to 14.3v with no further problems and thinking that what I experienced before was pilot error. The more I fly my bird the more confident I'm becoming with its reliability.
 
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Not sure where my St16 battery level was at the time but guessing it was above 80% because I always charged it to 100% with every charge of the aircraft battery. Since then I've run the St16 battery down as low of 35% with no issues.

Since my original post, I've routinely run my aircraft battery to 14.3v with no further problems and thinking that what I experienced before was pilot error. The more I fly my bird the more confident I'm becoming with its reliability.
Great! Self healing is the best issue to have with anything. I'm glad to hear the problem is solved and you're getting air time. If it's not doing it anymore, it may have been pilot error, but at least it wasn't, 1. A serious issue, and 2. A bad habit that you didn't know you were doing or keep doing. Either can drive you mad, not knowing. Happy flying.
 
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The low battery warning popped up on my screen and I tried to bring the drone home. Sorry, I'm still new at this and apparently didn't keep a close enough eye on the battery icon, but last time I had looked it read 14.8. Anyway, the drone started dodging and dropping independently of my input, and very shortly the critical battery warning came up. After that things went haywire, messages popping up on the screen faster than I could read them while also trying to keep an eye on the drone so it didn't drop out of the sky. Which it finally did about 1/8 of a mile out as I was still trying to bring it in safely. It shot straight up to about the level of the electric poles and then stone dropped while I was lowering the landing legs, straight on the camera housing. Then it shot back up, flipped and crashed rotors down in a grassy ditch. The camera survived, I had a screen view of the crash site, and when I hiked over to retrieve the Typhoon it was still upside down, griping at me in beep code, its lights all flashing madly

I don't know how much can be attributed to this low battery/erratic maneuvering issue and how much to chalk up to pilot inexperience. This was about my 7th or 8th flight, with no trouble til now. I was enjoying the flying and the camera view so much that I probably let it get too far away for the battery time I had left, but it sure didn't seem like I'd been aloft very long at all, and there was absolutely not much time left to get the drone back home once the battery warning appeared.

Lucky for me, damage seems to be limited to one broken blade, and the camera mounting coming apart. A bundle of wires in the camera swivel was displaced but not broken, and I was able to tease them back into a protected location inside the swivel once I got the camera itself skewed back to its original position. But I'm missing one of the little plastic washers that secure the mounting pins through the bubble dampeners. I fashioned a usable substitute from the broken rotor blade. My dumb question is this: exactly how does the camera mount disconnect from the drone? I think I'd have more luck getting the washer over the pin if the mount was off the drone, better access to both top and bottom openings. There is a tab that looks like it can be depressed to unlock the gimbal to slide off the whole camera assembly. None of the videos I've seen show the camera being removed from the drone, they all start with repairing the broken rail/gimble/wiring etc. I would feel better about trying it - depressing the tab and pulling off the gimble and camera - if I knew there was no wiring or connectors or gotchas to screw up in the process. It's a tough push to even move the tab at all.

Like I said, dumb question, so basic all the videos take for granted the viewer knows how to get the camera off the drone. But I've never done it, so I'm not sure.
It may feel like a dumb question but with nerves high after a crash, I would be hesitant to pull on that thing too, without being darn sure that was correct. Bet it would have felt like an even dumber question if you didn't ask and did more damage than the crash did because you did it wrong. ;) The questions that feel dumb keep you from actually being dumb. And can I just say, I want your luck. I can't believe it walked away from that crash with only superficial wounds.
On a related note, I would call Yuneec and see if they have you send it in, or at least walk you through the telemetry to see if it's got a compass/gps issue that may require and new compass card, etc. You obviously already have it, but goodluck and let us know.
 
It may feel like a dumb question but with nerves high after a crash, I would be hesitant to pull on that thing too, without being darn sure that was correct. Bet it would have felt like an even dumber question if you didn't ask and did more damage than the crash did because you did it wrong. ;) The questions that feel dumb keep you from actually being dumb. And can I just say, I want your luck. I can't believe it walked away from that crash with only superficial wounds.
On a related note, I would call Yuneec and see if they have you send it in, or at least walk you through the telemetry to see if it's got a compass/gps issue that may require and new compass card, etc. You obviously already have it, but goodluck and let us know.
Thank you for that advice! I was pretty full of myself for a couple days there after I researched on this site and made my own repairs (even my own parts) to my Typhoon. I fabricated a washer for the pin on the gimbal mount, out of the remaining half of the broken rotor, used jewelry snips to nip me out a round blank that I smoothed to size with an emery board. Then I grabbed a Dremel to drill out a hole for the pin head. I used dental floss to tease the ends of the rubber dampers back through the holes they had pulled free of. Then I recalibrated everything (something I hadn't done at all yet!), took 'er out and it flew fine. The camera pans and swivels properly, too. I was **** proud of myself! My Dad was a private pilot who built 5 separate experimental and vintage aircraft from total scratch, and I think he would have been tickled with his little girl, too!

BUT, now that you mention the GPS/compass maybe having issues, I noticed a unusual telemetry the other day when I was running though yet more Typhoon help videos, this one on all the functions available on the ST16. I had the drone turned on but not started while I browsed through the camera settings, and I noticed that the telemetry readouts were never zeroed out. The ground speed readout showed .0x-.xxmph, altitude bounced around in a couple-foot range, etc., all while the drone was perfectly immobile on my floor. There wasn't any earthquake activity I noticed to be causing fluctuations in the location data like that. (Please excuse me if my newbie terminology is inaccurate but you get the idea.) I chalked it up to maybe its little head was still spinning from the crash, rattled its rocks so to speak. Sounds like checking with Yuneec about that faulty data might be worthwhile, then?
 
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As the OP I want to chime in on another recent experience. I'm 1-1/2 weeks into my second H. The first developed a landing gear failure after 3 weeks and Best Buy exchanged it for a new unit. I updated the firmware on the new unit and did all the calibrations and for the most part it has flown predictably.

This evening, while photographing an amazing sunset I bought the bird home with 14.8 volts left. Instead of landing, I let it hover over my landing area until it hit the 14.3V low battery warning. Prior to 14.3v it was was rock solid until 14.3v and then it was drifting all over the place making it difficult to land. I flew again and did the same test and the second time it was rock solid all the way down.

At this point I have more questions than answers about this issue but at least I know what to expect .....sometimes.
 
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Jester,

I'll only say that I've been flying RC since I was 20 years old. I've never stopped and I'm 65 now. First glow fueled engines, then gas fueled, which, along with several pilot's certificates, propelled me into a real UAV career which includes advanced auto pilot systems. Toss is aero and ground vehicle RC electrics since that energy source was introduced in the 70's. Multirotors for going on 4 years, including designing and scratch building heavy lifters with take off weights exceeding 25lbs and lift capacities triple that. To sum it up, I probably do know more about our flight and power systems with our toy aircraft than most of the hobby tech support people you have dealt with. That may rub you the wrong way but it's quite likely true.

I offer advice at no charge and it's up to you to establish how much you want to value it, or even bother to make use of it. Whatever you fly belongs to you and what happens to them is on you. Any advice I offer is is based on a conservative standard because my personal and professional experience has shown that using anything out to maximum capability always reduces reliability and longevity. Both of those establish the extended cost of our activities.

Fly safe and have fun.
 
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The Typhoon H manual says to land the craft immediately if at any time the aircraft battery voltage is below 14.1V. I have flown mine down to this limit and the second battery warning with no control issues.
 
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Jester,

I'll only say that I've been flying RC since I was 20 years old. I've never stopped and I'm 65 now. First glow fueled engines, then gas fueled, which, along with several pilot's certificates, propelled me into a real UAV career which includes advanced auto pilot systems. Toss is aero and ground vehicle RC electrics since that energy source was introduced in the 70's. Multirotors for going on 4 years, including designing and scratch building heavy lifters with take off weights exceeding 25lbs and lift capacities triple that. To sum it up, I probably do know more about our flight and power systems with our toy aircraft than most of the hobby tech support people you have dealt with. That may rub you the wrong way but it's quite likely true.

I offer advice at no charge and it's up to you to establish how much you want to value it, or even bother to make use of it. Whatever you fly belongs to you and what happens to them is on you. Any advice I offer is is based on a conservative standard because my personal and professional experience has shown that using anything out to maximum capability always reduces reliability and longevity. Both of those establish the extended cost of our activities.

Fly safe and have fun.
I'm not sure what this is referring to, as I don't think I criticized your advice. Forgive me though, I'm only 2 sips into my first cup of coffee so I'm not ready to go back through this thread to reread the posts, but I value all advice. 20 years or not, if you or anyone else puts your experience on here, I am going to read it, value it, and if it applies to me, use it. In fact, I believe it was a post or two of yours that had me start landing by 14.3 instead of using that as my time to, "start bringing the H closer" as Yuneec's video says to. I know that it was your posts that I read while trying to learn lipo's and chargers. If I made a comment that sounded like I was shunning your advice, I apologize and don't think I meant to. I can tell you that you thinking you may know more than many tech support people, doesn't rub me the wrong way at all, as I too have 20 years experience at something...dealing with tech support people. ;)
I'm not bashing Yuneec, or even all tech support people, but I think we all know, many were handed a tech manual, during their orientation week, with pretty generic step by step procedures, like asking if your PC is plugged in when you called about something you clearly had to have your PC on for, to notice the problem you called on. A good tech only gets good with experience, just like you and I with what we do. My guess is you have more RC years than most tech people have had birthdays. I may not always agree with your approach when people ask for advice on here, but that's because I feel that anyone's new question may help me with something I haven't had happen yet, and didn't even know a term to search for yet, so when they don't go back and search before they ask, I'm glad, because it brought it to the forefront today, saving me from going to look for the topic they ask about, and I feel that what a forum is for...asking in their own words, and getting up to date answers. I know that their lack of searching first has irritated you many times in the past and that's just a difference between you and I. Your experience however, I don't question. In fact, I believe I've even told you how much I value it in a PM, and I would urge anyone to take your advice. In closing, if I came across somewhere as being contrary to some advice you had given it was most likely me just stating a different experience I had with an issue and not a rebuttal to your advice. More than likely though, it was me making a joke or being a smart-a$$, but what sounds funny in my head sometimes doesn't come across with my Legendary charm and wit ;) as well in text, missing tone of voice and facial expressions.
 
As the OP I want to chime in on another recent experience. I'm 1-1/2 weeks into my second H. The first developed a landing gear failure after 3 weeks and Best Buy exchanged it for a new unit. I updated the firmware on the new unit and did all the calibrations and for the most part it has flown predictably.

This evening, while photographing an amazing sunset I bought the bird home with 14.8 volts left. Instead of landing, I let it hover over my landing area until it hit the 14.3V low battery warning. Prior to 14.3v it was was rock solid until 14.3v and then it was drifting all over the place making it difficult to land. I flew again and did the same test and the second time it was rock solid all the way down.

At this point I have more questions than answers about this issue but at least I know what to expect .....sometimes.
Well, since Yuneec's own video's say that 14.3 is safe to start bringing it closer and just to land at 14.1, they should cover you if it's ever an issue.
Just deny you wrote the post above stating that you knew this already, if they ever say they saw you post this... Darn kids get on the computer and type the craziest stuff. ;)
Just kidding. Hopefully it was just a one time quirky glitch and not a true problem you'll have to worry about each time you fly.
 
Jester,

Forgive me but I was responding to a post a page or three back. I admit I did not review pages after that point.

Despite what are at times "somewhat" sarcastic or cynical posts, I do like and want to help people avoid making some of the mistakes I have. I have a lot of them to reference;). For general informational purposes, and not directed at or to you, the posts that irritate me usually come from people that clearly didn't read the instructions that come with the H, look at the videos and docs on the SD card, or review information at the Yuneec website. More often than not the same post describes how the bricked the H or 16, crashed at take off or landing, experienced toilet bowling, or can't make the camera work. They also often mention how their system didn't need calibration. They usually make it a point to blame the product or the manufacturer.

For people that fit those profiles I offer the following; although Yuneec documentation does bot state what will or could happen if they fail to read and follow provided and available documentation, taking the time to review the stuff before the first flight and additional review while gaining experience will largely prevent the problems they write about, saving them repair time and money.

To you Jester, I also offer an apology in return. I have my bad days too and at times can irritate. I've never been politically correct as I believe it leaves too much room for people to find a way to avoid responsibility. Sometimes an irritating post is intentional;), sometimes not, but I think you and I got off on the wrong foot awhile back. Hopefully we're good to go.
 

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