Now I am really POed

[BobW55]

Had my ST-16 Fully charged.
Flew 2 batteries 1 down to first battery low warning, the other only about 10 minutes.
Brought everything home, charged up the first battery, went out to take some sunset video.
Flew around a bit and had the H hovering at about 25 feet right above me, and the battery in the ST-16 dies.
NO WARNING WHAT SO EVER just like you had removed the battery.
The H just sits there, blinking away in angle mode, no control input what so ever. I was hoping RTH would kick in and it would auto land, but NO. It does change the tail Light to RED (RTH) after time. The H just hovers away while panic sets in. Quick run in the house grab the car keys, plug the ST-16 into the USB charger in my car. After an eternity it turns back on (H is still @25' ) I get control reestablished and land the H. I was so lucky. Yuneec will be getting a phone call from me tomorrow.
1) Why NO low battery warning from the ST-16 battery? (display showed 1 bar down from full)
2) Why did the RTH function not kick in? The tail light did turn to RED.
3) When plugging the ST-16 into the Yuneec charger why does it show the battery still at 50% ?

I am not sure when the H went from Angle to RTH (according to the tail light) but it never did land. It never flew up to the 33' mark, or make any other attempt to change position. The H was less that 20 feet from my take off position.

I hope this is a one off problem, but until I receive some answers, keep an eye on your ST-16 battery.
I could have been 400' up and 1000' down range when this happened.

 

[Brandon B]

thanks for the heads-up. I've been reading the instructions and it says when you lose connection to the ST-16 it will RTH and hover over the landing area....nothing else in the instructions after that. So I'm assuming since you flew it while the H still had battery power, it would hover until it's battery gets low and then land?

 

[BobW55]

Yes I read that too, But I thought it would land.
Was too high to reach up and grab.
Do not like the idea of what may have happened when the H battery dies.

 

[Steve Carr]

The H was already home, so it's not going to do anything until the battery gets low enough to trigger auto-land. So that part is working properly. If it was a 1000' away, it would have flown back and did the same hover waiting for a control signal.
Obviously there is a problem with the controller. Could be a bad battery or a loose connection. Call Yuneec and see if they will send you another one so you can return yours in the same box.

 

[DroneClone]

Had my ST-16 Fully charged.
Flew 2 batteries 1 down to first battery low warning, the other only about 10 minutes.
Brought everything home, charged up the first battery, went out to take some sunset video.
Flew around a bit and had the H hovering at about 25 feet right above me, and the battery in the ST-16 dies.
NO WARNING WHAT SO EVER just like you had removed the battery.
The H just sits there, blinking away in angle mode, no control input what so ever. I was hoping RTH would kick in and it would auto land, but NO. It does change the tail Light to RED (RTH) after time. The H just hovers away while panic sets in. Quick run in the house grab the car keys, plug the ST-16 into the USB charger in my car. After an eternity it turns back on (H is still @25' ) I get control reestablished and land the H. I was so lucky. Yuneec will be getting a phone call from me tomorrow.
1) Why NO low battery warning from the ST-16 battery? (display showed 1 bar down from full)
2) Why did the RTH function not kick in? The tail light did turn to RED.
3) When plugging the ST-16 into the Yuneec charger why does it show the battery still at 50% ?

I am not sure when the H went from Angle to RTH (according to the tail light) but it never did land. It never flew up to the 33' mark, or make any other attempt to change position. The H was less that 20 feet from my take off position.

I hope this is a one off problem, but until I receive some answers, keep an eye on your ST-16 battery.
I could have been 400' up and 1000' down range when this happened.

Bob, please let me know what Yuneec tells you, as this was not good ! I am so glad you brought her home safely ! quick thinking to save it !

 

[CAPTAINDRONE]

Had my ST-16 Fully charged.
Flew 2 batteries 1 down to first battery low warning, the other only about 10 minutes.
Brought everything home, charged up the first battery, went out to take some sunset video.
Flew around a bit and had the H hovering at about 25 feet right above me, and the battery in the ST-16 dies.
NO WARNING WHAT SO EVER just like you had removed the battery.
The H just sits there, blinking away in angle mode, no control input what so ever. I was hoping RTH would kick in and it would auto land, but NO. It does change the tail Light to RED (RTH) after time. The H just hovers away while panic sets in. Quick run in the house grab the car keys, plug the ST-16 into the USB charger in my car. After an eternity it turns back on (H is still @25' ) I get control reestablished and land the H. I was so lucky. Yuneec will be getting a phone call from me tomorrow.
1) Why NO low battery warning from the ST-16 battery? (display showed 1 bar down from full)
2) Why did the RTH function not kick in? The tail light did turn to RED.
3) When plugging the ST-16 into the Yuneec charger why does it show the battery still at 50% ?

I am not sure when the H went from Angle to RTH (according to the tail light) but it never did land. It never flew up to the 33' mark, or make any other attempt to change position. The H was less that 20 feet from my take off position.

I hope this is a one off problem, but until I receive some answers, keep an eye on your ST-16 battery.
I could have been 400' up and 1000' down range when this happened.

As I've said in other posts... YIKES! However, in Yuneec's defence the Typhoon H is supposed to act as it did (kind of) when it loses connection with the ST16. It is only supposed to HOVER in the last general location of known connection. It will continue to hover until the battery gets low, then it is supposed to land.

Smart thinking on your part. Odd that the ST16 didn't show a low battery on the right hand side.

 

[BobW55]

Top right side of ST-16 showed 75% battery, or 1 bar below full (I think there are 4 bars)
If it gave a warning, it was on the screen only and I never saw it.
It needs to beep vibrate or something more. At least be accurate.

 

[CAPTAINDRONE]

Top right side of ST-16 showed 75% battery, or 1 bar below full (I think there are 4 bars)
If it gave a warning, it was on the screen only and I never saw it.
It needs to beep vibrate or something more. At least be accurate.

Vibrating is OK, but it should at the least warn you at 25% or less power that your tablet needs to be recharged soon.

DEAR YUNEEC. Here is another suggestion for future upgrades. Please program the LED light that comes on when you power up the ST16 controller to change to a bright color and flash rapidly when the ST16 is at 15% power. This should get the attention of pilots to bring the drone home and recharge the ST16 (or change batteries).

Thank you

 

[Jimmylee]

I had two attempts today to test RTH, both failed, it just hovered where it lost rc signal about 500 feet out.

One time by accident flew behind a tree, another I blocked ant with tinfoil.

 

[OnTheRopes]

Had my ST-16 Fully charged.
Flew 2 batteries 1 down to first battery low warning, the other only about 10 minutes.
Brought everything home, charged up the first battery, went out to take some sunset video.
Flew around a bit and had the H hovering at about 25 feet right above me, and the battery in the ST-16 dies.
NO WARNING WHAT SO EVER just like you had removed the battery.
The H just sits there, blinking away in angle mode, no control input what so ever. I was hoping RTH would kick in and it would auto land, but NO. It does change the tail Light to RED (RTH) after time. The H just hovers away while panic sets in. Quick run in the house grab the car keys, plug the ST-16 into the USB charger in my car. After an eternity it turns back on (H is still @25' ) I get control reestablished and land the H. I was so lucky. Yuneec will be getting a phone call from me tomorrow.
1) Why NO low battery warning from the ST-16 battery? (display showed 1 bar down from full)
2) Why did the RTH function not kick in? The tail light did turn to RED.
3) When plugging the ST-16 into the Yuneec charger why does it show the battery still at 50% ?

I am not sure when the H went from Angle to RTH (according to the tail light) but it never did land. It never flew up to the 33' mark, or make any other attempt to change position. The H was less that 20 feet from my take off position.

I hope this is a one off problem, but until I receive some answers, keep an eye on your ST-16 battery.
I could have been 400' up and 1000' down range when this happened.

Certainly of concern and there should clearly be a low battery warning for the ST16. However, as others have said it would not RTH because it was right over you. If you had not been able to get some charge in the ST16 would the H not have auto landed when the battery went down?

 

[JohnL]

Top right side of ST-16 showed 75% battery, or 1 bar below full (I think there are 4 bars)
If it gave a warning, it was on the screen only and I never saw it.
It needs to beep vibrate or something more. At least be accurate.

Hey Bob. Wow, good reaction on your part! This behavior of the ST16 has all the earmarks of a bad battery cell. Do you have a way to measure IR of the battery? When LiPos have a cell that is dodgy, what often happens is the voltage curve just drops to the floor way before the cell has been discharged. Instant electronics shutdown.

 

[Pegasus]

The H was already home, so it's not going to do anything until the battery gets low enough to trigger auto-land. So that part is working properly. If it was a 1000' away, it would have flown back and did the same hover waiting for a control signal.
Obviously there is a problem with the controller. Could be a bad battery or a loose connection. Call Yuneec and see if they will send you another one so you can return yours in the same box.

If you were dealing with Yuneec in Germany no amount of emails or phone calls would get them to send a replacement prior to them receiving the faulty item. In my case it was my battery charger - they wouldn't even sell me one. No matter the name - they all had a Chinese accent.

 

[Dragonflyerthom]

Just because they speak your language doesn't mean they understand you.

 

[BobW55]

John,
I'll have to dig out my meter. I'd like to know if there is more than just one cell in the battery. It only has one connector, but a huge battery. We all have paid more attention to the flight batteries, we neglected the ST-16 uses a LiPo as well. I charged it up to it read 100% and gave it 5 minutes more. I played with it in PAD mode till I got it down to 74% Took about an hour to drop 25%, but then I think it shuts the radios off when in PAD mode. ( I did have WiFi connected) Will have to hook up my RF meter and see if that is true. Going to turn it on again today and see how low it goes before it shuts down. Yuneec really needs to put a percentage meter on it not just a bar graph, along with a better low battery warning. At least the H did what it was suppose to do. I even tried to hook the landing gear with an umbrella but she was too high.

Sent an Email to Yuneec this morning, I will let you know what they advise.

 

[BobW55]

Follow up,
Turned on ST-16 this morning, In PAD MODE indicated 75% charge, Got down to 73% and just shut off. Would not power back up.
Measured battery voltage = 3.31 volts Resistance = 9.59 Meg ohms. (not sure if that is good)
No damage or swelling can be seen on the battery pack.

 

[JohnL]

John,
I'll have to dig out my meter. I'd like to know if there is more than just one cell in the battery. It only has one connector, but a huge battery. We all have paid more attention to the flight batteries, we neglected the ST-16 uses a LiPo as well. I charged it up to it read 100% and gave it 5 minutes more. I played with it in PAD mode till I got it down to 74% Took about an hour to drop 25%, but then I think it shuts the radios off when in PAD mode. ( I did have WiFi connected) Will have to hook up my RF meter and see if that is true. Going to turn it on again today and see how low it goes before it shuts down. Yuneec really needs to put a percentage meter on it not just a bar graph, along with a better low battery warning. Sent an Email to Yuneec this morning, I will let you know what they advise.

Hey Bob. The battery in the ST16 is a 3.6V Li-ion battery (just one cell). You can't check IR very well with just a multimeter, you have to do it with one of the better chargers that has this function (my iCharger 406 for example, can do this really easy). I assumed you had a better charger at home than just the stock POS provided by Yuneec. No? Too bad if this does turn out to be the battery. Isn't Li-ion supposed to be less fragile than Li-polymer?

At least the H did what it was suppose to do. I even tried to hook the landing gear with an umbrella but she was too high.

That must have been a funny picture. Any video of that?

 

[JohnL]

Follow up,
Turned on ST-16 this morning, In PAD MODE indicated 75% charge, Got down to 73% and just shut off. Would not power back up.
Measured battery voltage = 3.31 volts Resistance = 9.59 Meg ohms. (not sure if that is good)
No damage or swelling can be seen on the battery pack.

How did you measure the IR? What procedure did you use? Don't you mean 9.59 milliohm?

Edit: Anyway it seems you've got a bad battery just from the fact the Tx shut down at 73%

 

[glider]

I never understood Yuneec's RTH philosophy. The pilot should have the choice of how the craft reacts to a lost RC connection, including RTH altitude (broken record I know). There should be options for failsafe commands. One would think with a new more advanced model, that being the H, Yuneec would have improved greatly on the FC side.

I will say the landing sequence is more stable and consistent compared to the Q500, but to just sit there and hover is lazy programming IMO.

 

[BobW55]

I don't have a good charger YET!
Waiting to see what comes to market. I want something that will balance charge and discharges with good audible warning when complete. I have been watching the threads where everyone is making up something. Thought about adapting the Yuneec charging base with an external charger. I like the drop it in part, but also would like to charge more than 1 at a time.
As far as the ST-16 goes, one part of the label would lead you to think it is a Lithium Ion, and the rest of the label makes you think it is a Lithium Polymer.

 

[JohnL]

I don't have a good charger YET!
Waiting to see what comes to market. I want something that will balance charge and discharges with good audible warning when complete. I have been watching the threads where everyone is making up something. Thought about adapting the Yuneec charging base with an external charger. I like the drop it in part, but also would like to charge more than 1 at a time.
As far as the ST-16 goes, one part of the label would lead you to think it is a Lithium Ion, and the rest of the label makes you think it is a Lithium Polymer.

Hey you know I just went back and read the small print on the label. I think you're right in that it is a LiPo.