A follow up on my close call story...Before all this, I had a bad drift problem I wrote about with the used $300 Q500 I bought. I'm also a Q newbie and tend to push the envelope in the name of learning. Love flying so much I started taking off from my tree lined driveway when I didn't have time to go to the field. Dumb and dumber.
Well, my Q has since drifted into trees (and one time a light post) for various reasons and plummeted to the ground four times. Twice on cement, twice on grass, all from around 15 ft. A fifth time, it got stuck in a tree. Had two people hold a blanket underneath like fireman and they caught it when I knocked it out of the tree (drone unharmed). Yet another time, battery voltage suddenly dropped to near nothing (battery was faulty I learned) and it flew off about 1/3 mile away. I found Q face down in the grass unharmed.
Now gimbal is broken, battery door torn off, one arm cracked (see pics). Motor on cracked arm sits lower than others. Distance registers at +30 to 40 feet before takeoff. Speed and altitude slightly fluctuate when grounded too, although they did that a bit before. It's just worse now. G-d knows what else is wrong. Remarkably, this Q still flies/responds well except for the drift. Had it out at 300ft alt/2,000 ft distance yesterday and return home functioned well, as did all movement. But it is tough to land, as it keeps drifting during landing.
You're all probably thinking "what a dope this guy is." Reading this back to myself, I agree. Do you think the gimbal is salvageable? It wasn't moving before but camera worked. I was going to do a transistor fix. The gimbal cover piece in the middle was lost in the crash. All the wires were ripped from the platform. Any other fixes that are worth the effort? Is it safe to fly? I'm doing a potentiometer clean to possibly help with the drift. Many pics are in this gallery:
View album 100
Both Doom and W have been extremely helpful with PMs as I've worked on this drone -- much thanks.
Well, my Q has since drifted into trees (and one time a light post) for various reasons and plummeted to the ground four times. Twice on cement, twice on grass, all from around 15 ft. A fifth time, it got stuck in a tree. Had two people hold a blanket underneath like fireman and they caught it when I knocked it out of the tree (drone unharmed). Yet another time, battery voltage suddenly dropped to near nothing (battery was faulty I learned) and it flew off about 1/3 mile away. I found Q face down in the grass unharmed.
Now gimbal is broken, battery door torn off, one arm cracked (see pics). Motor on cracked arm sits lower than others. Distance registers at +30 to 40 feet before takeoff. Speed and altitude slightly fluctuate when grounded too, although they did that a bit before. It's just worse now. G-d knows what else is wrong. Remarkably, this Q still flies/responds well except for the drift. Had it out at 300ft alt/2,000 ft distance yesterday and return home functioned well, as did all movement. But it is tough to land, as it keeps drifting during landing.
You're all probably thinking "what a dope this guy is." Reading this back to myself, I agree. Do you think the gimbal is salvageable? It wasn't moving before but camera worked. I was going to do a transistor fix. The gimbal cover piece in the middle was lost in the crash. All the wires were ripped from the platform. Any other fixes that are worth the effort? Is it safe to fly? I'm doing a potentiometer clean to possibly help with the drift. Many pics are in this gallery:
View album 100
Both Doom and W have been extremely helpful with PMs as I've worked on this drone -- much thanks.
