Now I understand the "Fly Away"

[RiverRunner]

You must be faster than a cat with your reaction times. Factor the time for an alarm to occur, recognize the problem, initiate a change in state function, all while attempting to regain visual contact with the bird, and a few seconds are lost. The H was in a tree only seconds after the warning initiated. The speed it was moving indicated GPS was also not functioning. I'm good, but not as good as you.


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I have had several flyaways with DJI Phantom and NAZA controllers. Only in one case, I was able to switch in time to save it from crashing. When your aircraft starts going away at full speed, you tend to keep your fingers on the sticks and try to steer it back or away from obstacles. It is hard to let go of the stick and find the right menu and command on the screen. This means you have to look away from the bird and may lose sight of it. Once you have switched out of GPS mode, there is no automatic braking, so it will drift a long ways before stopping. If you can still see it, you may have trouble determining orientation. You can't trust the green arrow on the screen. It may not even show when GPS is off.

 

[whitelaw]

You must be faster than a cat with your reaction times. Factor the time for an alarm to occur, recognize the problem, initiate a change in state function, all while attempting to regain visual contact with the bird, and a few seconds are lost. The H was in a tree only seconds after the warning initiated. The speed it was moving indicated GPS was also not functioning. I'm good, but not as good as you.

Because of this experience I tend to agree with RR. Looking down to the screen to tap an icon and then activate a slider is both distracting and two slow. It needs to be on a switch or button function that one can become accustomed to,


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In a perfect world, yes, we would look down at our ST16 and calmly turn the GPS off. Factor in an emergency situation, and just realizing the H is in a fly away state, and all bets are off. Before you know it, the S--T has hit the fan, or as is in this case the H has hit the tree.

 

[Vegasrobbi]

I got around to taking apart my H. I have one exposed antenna adjacent to the retract motor, actually touching it. The other antenna wraps around the battery and attaches to the side of the frame with double sided tape and is beneath the shell. This does not seem optimum so I purchased the external kit from Carolina Dronz. I don't know if the Pro H's have the retract issue with external antenna's or even if this mod will help I've never had an issue with range.

I replaced the arm clip with a new one, it looks like Yuneec is using a new clipmaterial as the original one was copper colored and the new one is more steel or tin looking.

When assembled I'm going to power it up and cycle the retracts several times, not exactly sure how yet.

 

[skydivindronepilot]

When assembled I'm going to power it up and cycle the retracts several times, not exactly sure how yet.

If you place the H upside down you can extend and retract the struts without the motors running

 

[Vegasrobbi]

If you place the H upside down you can extend and retract the struts without the motors running

Right however my goal is to work the retracts with the motors running, not just armed but flying. Then I can try and duplicate the motor shutdown/flyaway while safely tethered.

 

[PatR]

An antenna touching a retract motor is radio noise just waiting for the motor to energize. That was one helluva find! Motors make a whole lotta noise and lacking a pretty strong filter I don't know of to many receivers that could make the signal separation without help from tuned shielding.

 

[Graham]

This could explain why some of us get camera disconnects on leg movement. However, I haven't had one for sometime, so I wonder if perhaps the updates are compensating in some way.

 

[Windluv]

Pat,

Sorry to hear about your fly-away. Fingers crossed, I have been flying almost 6 months without any issues. It would bother me as well getting back out there thinking this bird could come down on someone or damage property.

Very glad to hear you are planning on another H. I still get the most bang-for-the-buck from mine in terms of flying and quality film.

A year ago I flew a 650 sized quad into a try about the same height. I could see it but could not event attempt the climb on pine with the initial branches 15 feet up. Went to Homedepo and purchased several 6' pvc pipes with coupling to allow me to transport a 54' long pole to the field and managed to knock the drone down.

Second, a couple rules learned as a motocrosser : if in doubt gas it, and hesitate and die. As applied to flying these drones when in trouble I will hit throttle immediately (as it seems you did) and then without hesitation I will punch RTH if I do not get orientation or visualization; that has always got me a few seconds or more to get back on track. With the H, after RTH I flip on the Intel OBS to try to not hit the cliff between me and the bird.

In actuality it is more about practice flying, practice recovery in normal flight, practice recovery in bad situations (by putting yourself in one). Practice enough to let the training and trust to kick in. If it still fails, your conscience is clean. I am still working on this as it is hard to just practice when heading for an hour with the busy schedules we all have.

 

[PatR]

Having to re-send tell files to Yuneec. Yahoo won't transmit anything over 25mb and even zipped the complete FlightLog folder from my ST-16 is at 28mb. Rather than break it up and possibly arouse suspicion it all went into Dropbox as a shared folder for Yuneec.

Current plans are to get the camera back together and set up the carcass on a box to see what state the system comes up in. Primary purpose is to check the state of the camera. If it functions well that will add a bit more support to obtaining another H. Having three cameras and two ST-16's has some advantages.

I'm not going to open this H up. I'll let Yuneec do that. If I buy or sent another the new one will get opened up to check 2.4 antenna locations, which would get slightly relocated if needed. I've built and flown too many other systems to allow an antenna or GPS cable to be located at or near a source of noise generation. You can't even route a GPS antenna cable close to primary power wires because of noise feedback through the power wires from motors and ESC's.

Robbi,

Thanks for discovering the antenna location. As one with the original version of the H I recognized going in if there were bugs it had potential for problems. That pretty much goes for anyone that gets a first release. What you found may well be the primary cause of a lot of compass error issues and go far in preventing future issues.

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[CraigCam]

Sorry to hear about your problem Pat. I don't think that temp should cause a problem. I asked tech support what the temp limit was and they said 14 F, so I figured I'd push it and flew at 6F over Lake Superior and the only thing it affected was my flight time. I was going to try and fly this morning , right now the air temp is -25F and the wind chill is -35 to -40 or to F....in cold. After hearing of your problem I think I'm going back to bed insted. I don't know what it would do to my battery. Could it be a combo of temp and humidty in your area?

Pat...sorry for your fly away. It sucks to feel helpless and no longer the pilot. I like the St 16 reboot but I'd like to add perhaps another tip. I recently purchased a Breeze and when you calibrate it's compass it works way better when you rotate slow. Yesterday, I was flying my H for a sunrise and to discharge batteries as I'm going away for the holidays. It was windy and gusty and for sure a lot of work was going into holding position. My experience has been after more than ten minutes of holding a shot hover in winds, any stick input would start a beginning of movement heading towards toilet bowl. This was pretty predictable prior to last warranty repair.
I have not seen it lately fortunately but also been mostly up in calm winds. Yesterday, I did see a bit of drift towards the end of battery one in its last 3rd of voltage. I landed and was waiting to fly again when light got a bit better so decided to calibrate compass. I always remove camera to make flipping easier but this time did the flipping super slow. The calibration actually seemed to move quicker between points. So maybe this is important?
For what it's worth I don't trust any drone to behave well after half power and even little ones stop responding to sticks and control as voltage drops. The LiPo we use coupled with a very sketchy (obviously) control system can have sudden and unexpected catastrophic results despite your best skills and preparations. I trust my H for a good ten minutes of solid performance and trusty shots. After that I always bring it back near me and sometimes just be done.

I hope to read how you retrieved it. Good luck.


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[PatR]

Neighbor climbed the tree. I have the world's best neighbors. Yesterday I got home and found the driveway plowed clear of snow. The day before there was so much I couldn't get traction.


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[Vegasrobbi]

Finished the antenna mod. They are still close to the retract servos but not touching and extending well below the body shell.

GPS is well shielded:


Down-link module(I think that is what it is called) is double side taped on. There are wires soldered on at the bottom without a connector so you have to disconnect at the other end:


You must remove this board to gain access to the connector:



Here's the module, note the antenna wires are wrapped around the board under the shrink wrap:


The board with the new antenna's installed. The one facing down will loop around and stay on the side with the board:


I reinstalled the original heat shrink with a piece of clear tape:


I routed the antenna wires as far away from the retracts as I could:


Antenna mounts installed:


Ready to go. I might hover it above a pillow for a battery or two without the gimbal attached while working the retracts up and down.

 

[RiverRunner]

Let us know how well this works. I my modify mine now that the warranty is up.

 

[SoCalDroner]

That nice work! I have the pro where the antennae are outside but they are not removable. If this works well, it might be worth the time to modify even the pro...

 

[Tecneek]

How good are you at climbing trees? 46' up is a bit of a stretch for a 64 year old guy. It's nested itself pretty well.


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Have a young buck throw a line around a branch and just shake it down.

 

[PatR]

Not seeing a lot of response from Yuneec after sending a copy of the dated purchase receipt. However, being in the last few days before Christmas their staffing levels could be low.


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[LooseSid]

Hi Pat,
Glad you got your H back. I've been reading your posts for a while now, on here and on that other forum, and it's a joy as they are always so informative and well balanced.
I hope Yuneec recognise what a great ambassador you are for them and replace your machine free of charge!!

 

[PatR]

Thank you, but there could be some debate about the balanced part. My hope is Yuneec uses this experience to focus on product improvement. They don't have a warranty obligation at this point but some customer good will would certainly be appreciated.


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[PatR]

Update;

Yuneec agrees it was a fly away and has offered to make repairs. It does not get much better than that.


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[JCFlippen]

Update;

Yuneec agrees it was a fly away and has offered to make repairs. It does not get much better than that.


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Excellent news. I bought mine back when you were enthusing and Burntpixel baled out. Must get my HDMI out (lack of) fixed on the ST16 though after christmas.