Opinion in telemetry data needed..Lost my drone

Andreas_40 · Mar 31, 2018

Hello community,

Unfortunately today i lost my drone..
short story ,i could not make the bird come back ..
after the distance of 500 m in a beach with a clear line of sight at around 70 meters height,
it started drifting away..
tried both angle and rth but it kept flying away .

i am attaching a link for the telemetry files that are recorded in the st10 memory
FlightLog - Google Drive
if someone can give them a look and help me understand the data and maybe recover the drone using the gps coordinates it would be much appreciated..

Andreas

DoomMeister · Mar 31, 2018

The last telemetry data shows it at an altitude of 70 meters at a voltage level of 10.4V with no current draw. Therefore in freefall. That last position was at 39.1754840,20.5478320 which you can paste into Google Maps. It was over Vrachos beach near Haris Apartments and Olympiada.

Load these .kmz files that were created from your telemetry of your last flight into Google Earth Pro to see your flight played out

Telemetry - Google Drive

Andreas_40 · Mar 31, 2018

Thank you DoomMeister

DoomMeister · Mar 31, 2018

Any luck finding your Q500? From what I saw in the data, it probably came down pretty hard.

Andreas_40 · Mar 31, 2018

no luck so far ..
what i can not understand is why it did not landed automatically ??

DoomMeister · Mar 31, 2018

I’m not sure what went on. I’ll take a look again tomorrow morning to see if I can make anymore sense of the data. The 00054.kmz was a fairly long flight, and it looked like the 00055.kmz picked up where the other left off. That data looked like the Q500 had received an RTH command but the battery was fully depleted at that point.

Did you play the kmz files in Google Earth?

Andreas_40 · Mar 31, 2018

yes i played the files in google earth..
i have two observations ..
1.the battery was fully charged but it looks like it lasted for only 10 minutes or so..
2.why it did not start to descend when the battery started to drain?
also it looks like the drone made a couple of flip rolls before it went down..is this possible?.

DoomMeister · Mar 31, 2018

If a prop got damaged from a bird strike or weakened prop it could. I’ll look again and see if any error flags showed up in the data.

I’ll get with you tomorrow.

Andreas_40 · Mar 31, 2018

thanks man for your help

DoomMeister · Apr 1, 2018

Here is a chronological synopsis of the fatal flight, most of the last half of the flight was with a very low signal level between the Q500 and the ST10. I did not see evidence of the Q doing any loops or barrel rolls in the data. I think that is an optical illusion in Google Earth.

Hope this helps!

00054.csv starts at 15:56:43

motors started at 16:04:10

Angle mode engaged at 16:04:11

liftoff at 16:04:23

at 16:05:16 radio link between Q500 and ST10 getting very weak

RTH initiated at 16:06:48 and drone turns to the right 85 degrees

RTH aborted and Angle mode resumes at 16:07:23

RTH initiated 2nd time at 16:08:05 no change in flight direction

Compass calibration warning at 16:09:48

momentary low battery warning at 16:11:02 voltage at 10.4V

low battery warning at 16:11:29 voltage at 10.5V

low battery + Compass cal warning at 16:11:35

low battery warning at 16:11:47

solid low battery warning at 16:12:23

ST10 shows drone in RTH mode from 16:08:05 until end at 16:15:18, but aircraft does not seem to respond, very low radio signal

00055.csv starts at 16:16:06 and ends at 16:16:41 still in RTH mode with low battery warning 1 and 2 and descending from 90m to 69.5m and heading for your starting position

Andreas_40 · Apr 1, 2018

What i see from the data is that the drone had a catastrophic failure to communicate after only one minute of flight ,
in a 3km sandy beach with upsolutelly NO obstacles and a crystal clear line of sight.
Dont forget also the 17 satellites that i was locking in gps

i have a couple of questions please.

1.why the drone did not landed when the voltage was critical as it supposed to?

2.Do you think that my inputs were correct or did i somehow add to the problem?

Thank you for your time ..

DoomMeister · Apr 1, 2018

The only ‘mistake’ might have been going back to angle mode after initiating RTH the first time. For some reason, the radio signal was quite weak about 1 minute into the flight. Since the radio operates at 2.4 GHz it might have encountered a lot of interference in that area. A lot of businesses with WiFi catering to beach goers.

If I were you, I’d try contacting the European Customer Support for Yuneec in Germany. They can also read the Status fields in the flight log. It is a bit table where conditions are true or false (1 or 0) and most of it is speculation as Yuneec does not release that information. They should be able to shed some light on why it behaved the way it did.

The behavior is strange, in that the second RTH did not seem to take the Q500back to the last known position of the ST10, and secondly why it didn’t seem to be initiating the landing sequence at the low battery warning. If this aircraft is still under warranty, you should definitely call Customer Support.

Andreas_40 · Apr 2, 2018

Thank you for your valuable help..
regarding the wifi interference ,i dont think that this is the case cause at that time of year 90 percent of the bars are closed
The drone is still under warranty so i am gonna send an email and see how it will goes with the support..

DrNewcenstein · Apr 3, 2018

If RTH was initiated a 2nd time with no change in flight direction, it's possible it found a new "home" position, and was heading for that. This could have been a signal hijack. Lots of idiots on YouTube telling how to do it.

If you have the unit registered with an Aviation Administration, you should be able to post the registration data locally and ask if anyone found it. Chances are there's a guy in that area who found it. Or it might be stuck on a rooftop. Or it may have crashed through a window and the police are looking for you. Or it may have crashed through a window at a crack house and drug dealers are looking for you. Or it may have crashed through a window and injured a government official, and the police are after you.
Or it may have landed in a garbage truck on the way to the landfill/incinerator, in which case the LiPo battery will violently explode, and the police will be looking for you.

Good luck.

Andreas_40 · Apr 4, 2018

sorry to disappoint you but it just crashed in the sea....

DrNewcenstein · Apr 4, 2018

Hey, at least you don't have cops or drug dealers after you, so that's some good news.

DoomMeister · Apr 4, 2018

Any luck on recovering your aircraft?

What has Yuneec Customer Support said about the flight data?

Andreas_40 · Apr 4, 2018

unfortunately the drone fell in the water ..no sign of it..
regarding the customer support they dont even bother examining the data since there is no drone recovery..
on there own words "Just the flight logs at itself is no evidence to claim a warranty case."

Just to clarify that my main concern about the whole incident is that someone could have really hurt..
so i just want their official opinion on what went wrong based on the actual flight data in order to trust their products again..

instead i am getting a joke RMA ..

"Hello,
My name is Andreas Motsios and i have purchased a q500 4k in december 2017
from Germany.
Two days ago i experienced a catastrophic lost of communication which resulted
in crashing my q500 4k drone.
The drone never returned back after i issued an rth command.
I am attaching a link with the flight log data for you to check what went wrong
FlightLog - Google Drive

since the drone is still in warranty i would like for you to replace it,
Please check the data and let me know how we proceed

Regards,
Andreas "

"Dear Mr.Motsios,
thank you for your email.
We are sorry to hear that you have a problem with your Yuneec product and apologize for any inconvenience.
To claim a warranty case, it is necessary to deliver the hole set such is drone, remote control, camera and flight logs.
Just the flight logs at itself is no evidence to claim a warranty case.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen / Best Regards
Ihr / Your Yuneec Service Team
Yuneec Europe GmbH
Nikolaus-Otto-Strasse 4
24568 Kaltenkirchen
Germany

Andreas Motsios to Yuneec

" i want you to examine the flight log data and give me your results on what went wrong..
is this so difficult to do?? "

"Dear Mr.Motsios,
this can only be done if a service case will be send in for a technical inspection.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen / Best Regards
Ihr / Your Yuneec Service Team
Yuneec Europe GmbH
Nikolaus-Otto-Strasse 4
24568 Kaltenkirchen
Germany

DoomMeister · Apr 4, 2018

Sounds as if you need to open a support case either by phone or using the customer portal on their website. Seems as if Customer Support is a night or day proposition with Yuneec. They are either very good or horribly awful, you seldom seem to see a middle ground with them.

Hoping that by opening a support case, you can get them to at least analyze the flight data.

Best of luck Andreas!

Andreas_40 · Apr 4, 2018

i dont think i am gonna bother any more man..
if i need ten emails to just have my flight data checked ,imagine for replacing my bird !!!
What i know though are the terms of the warranty they send me when i bought the drone
and there is no such term inside.

so i will have an attorney specialized in internet law to help me out..
Just for the fun of it..

Ps. what they could not provide in 3 days of exchanging e-mails you did it in 2 hours.
thanks DoomMeister ...