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Stuck Up, Slammed Down

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I flew my 2-month-old H on a CCC route in both directions yesterday morning. That went fine until it was time to land from 250 feet up. Pulling full aft on the left stick did pretty much nothing except intermittently drop a few feet at a time and then hover. I finally switched to RTH to get it to descend. When I took over manual control in angle mode at 10-15 feet up, it seemed to respond to back pressure on the left stick. But it also refused to yaw left or right with sideways movement of that stick.

Back home, I did a joystick calibration. As it often does, J2 (yaw) was centering at abut -15% on the Hardware Monitor rather than center scale. It looked okay after calibration, so I head for an open park field for a test flight.

The first flight there revealed in less than two minutes that it was still going to ignore yaw commands. I landed, powered off the aircraft, then did another joystick calibration on the ST-16. After rebooting everything, I took off again. The same problems were evident: only intermittent yawing. And often, leftward movement of the left joystick produced more of a rise in altitude than a yaw to the left. At about 3 minutes into the test, while holding left on the left joystick, the motors all quit and the aircraft freefell about 60 feet to the dirt near second base of the ballfield. The gear was down, but that didn't save the camera from impact and separation, nor did the gear itself survive. Lots of bent and broken pieces flew everywhere.

CH0 (throttle) of telemetry shows 3-seconds of 0 for motor start, as expected. But it also shows 3 seconds of 0 for motor stop near the end, as if I had depressed and held B3, the motor start/stop button. I hadn't. Oddly, CH0 showed 0 at a handful of other places in the telemetry file, mostly at places where left movement was applied to the left joystick. But these other 0 entries for CH0 were always less than the 3 seconds of duration required to stop the motors.

I sent the telemetry file for this flight and all the others made with my H (including a few that evidently took place near Shaghai) to Yuneec last night. We'll see what they say. In the meantime, I've uploaded them here in case anyone wants to play NTSB investigator and offer an opinion as to what happened.

I replaced the divot at second base, so no harm done there. It could have been worse at one of my frequent flight locations: over water, which is why I made the move to the H from my Typhoon 4K quad.

View media item 682
--Doug
 

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Steve, it looks like you've nailed my problem. A few days ago, I was having trouble getting Watch Me mode to activate. I could get Follow Me in Smart Mode, but if I tapped to go to Watch Me, the icon would only flash briefly and then go back to Follow Me. I went out to the same park where I just had my fatal crash and created a new Model on the ST-16, since creating a new model seems to be a fix for lots of weird stuff. My new Model was based on the original "Typhoon H" Model that came installed on my ST-16. I called the new Model "Typhoon H New." Sure enough, that solved the Watch Me problem. It was back in business.

But as somebody mentioned in your Flight Failure thread, my new Model ressurected some old problems, apparently. Here are screen shots of the original model and the new one:Screenshot_2018-01-31-15-17-57.png Screenshot_2018-01-31-15-18-24.png

With the original model in use, the left joystick never drops the output to zero or below. But with the Typhoon H New, any movement toward the right extreme causes a sudden drop to -25% (maybe my telemetry is showing stick movement to the right rather than the left at the point of motor cut-off; I know when I would test whether yaw is working, I would usually go to the left and only briefly to the right.

I guess I should treat this Forum as NOTAMS, and be sure to read it first! Thanks, Steve. 'Twill be interesting to see what Yuneec has to say.

--Doug
 
But with the Typhoon H New, any movement toward the right extreme causes a sudden drop to -25%
First, you need to do a factory reset of the ST16 or you could end up with the channel settings changing again.
Second, in my post above I included information on cleaning the sticks. Your sticks need cleaned!!!! After they work smoothly in hardware monitor after you clean them, do the the calibration. Never do the calibration with erratic or dirty sticks.
 
First, you need to do a factory reset of the ST16 or you could end up with the channel settings changing again.
Second, in my post above I included information on cleaning the sticks. Your sticks need cleaned!!!! After they work smoothly in hardware monitor after you clean them, do the the calibration. Never do the calibration with erratic or dirty sticks.

Duly noted, Steve. Thanks, again!

--Doug
 
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I just wanna share my experience about 12h ago when I flew my H on a rice field with burst of strong gusts maybe about 15-25kph to my estimate.

When I finished my mission, I flicked RTH. I just wanna watch it come back to me so I used the RTH. As it started descending, I flicked back to Angle coz I am used to manually landing my H. As I tried to land it, a gust of wind hit, and it stopped descending. No matter how I "pump" my left stick down, it still doesn't move down. So I tried changing my motor sensitivity from about 80% turtle to maybe about 60% rabbit. It did went down a slowly. I wasn't satisfied with that so I tried moving my right stick. Just as I moved my right stick towards me, it seemed as if it resumed the normal speed of descending again.
 
An update on my Typhoon H. Still no word from Yuneec about their review of my telemetry. Meanwhile, I liked my H well enough to order a second one. Got it from B & H Photo this past Thursday (2/15/2018). Free expedited shipping from FedEx. Like my first one, it arrived with the ST-16 switched on and battery run down. So the first step was to charge the controller. And one of the rubber dampers for the camera gimbal was popped out, so I had to pop that back in. I checked voltage on the two aircraft batteries. One was 15.4 volts, an appropriate storage voltage; the other was at 16.4, as if it had been freshly fully charged. Using that battery, I powered up the H and the ST-16. Went to About Controller to see what firmware was installed. Oddly, it showed the revision number for the AutoPilot firmware as "N/A TyphoonH" It said "N/A" for the RealSense version. Gimbal was V1.27, and Camera V3.2.34(A) C-GO3-Pro. So I called Customer Service the next morning. 49 minute phone queue, so I chose the option to have them maintain my place in the queue and call me back. They did so within that 49 minutes.

I told them about this being the second time I had received a new H with the ST-16 powered on and battery run down in the shipping box. The first came from Amazon. I also reported the fully-charged aircraft battery. The tech said, "Hmmmm."

I mentioned the popped-out gimbal damper, and he said, "Well that sometimes happens depending on how careful UPS is."

But the first thing I had to mention to him was that I could find no serial number sticker on the aircraft. He said that's happened a time or two because the factory is apparently converting some non-RealSense models, adding the RealSense module, and have covered up the serial number stickers. There's a sticker in Chinese in the location where the serail number sticker is in my first H. I read him the sticker on the box that seemed like a serial number, and he agreed it was. He registered my warranty with that number.

As for the firmware revisions, he had me reboot aircraft and controller a time or two, saying the version numbers are only read at a particular point in the boot process and may not have been detected. But results were the same. He had me check under Other Settings to see that the RealSense Module Installed" check box was checked. It was. He concluded I should be fine to test fly it.

I waited for a windless morning, and that was this morning. Took it out to the ball field where my first H shut itself off and crashed. AirMap check, pre-flight check, Angle Mode take-off, and hover at about 10 feet in Turtle Mode were fine, I started the video recording. Yaw left and yaw right were fine. Gear up worked. So I went to tilt down the camera, and discovered that neither tilt nor pan would work in any tilt or pan mode. The camera was stuck in level, dead-ahead alignment with the aircraft nose.

I tried Smart mode. The H backed away when I walked toward it, and followed me when I backed away from it, as expected. OBS Avoidance engaged as commanded, and beeped when I neared the ground. I didn't approach any other obstacles, so I'm just presuming it is functional. Toggle from Follow Me to Watch Me mode engaged, but the camera couldn't move to actually watch me. After landing in Angle Mode and re-booting the controller and the H, I flew a second similar test flight with similar results. No pan and tilt capability.

Back home, I replaced the new camera with the old, banged-up one from my first H. It initialized, but provided no video. It did, however, respond to the tilt control as it should. It wouldn't pan because crash damage has bound up the pan bearing a bit and it does not turn freely when powered off and turned by hand.

Tomorrow morning, I'll talk to Yuneec and see what they say. Stay tuned.

--Doug
 
Dang, you're certainly having more issue than anyone should. It sounds like the H you got was a return to B&H.
On the ST16, open hardware monitor and see if the camera pan and tilt controls work properly as well as the two gimbal control switches.
 
Looked like a factory-sealed box. I had already checked the hardware monitor for proper operation of the pan and tilt controls and switches. The fact that they made the tilt work on the crash-damage camera tells me the problem is likely the gimbal on the new camera, not the controller.
 
Update on Typhoon H Pro #2 with the bad pan & tilt functions. I talked to Yuneec CS yesterday morning after getting a place in the 54-minute phone queue and having them call me back. The tech walked me through a new model creation and bind to no avail. He quickly concluded the problem was indeed the camera/gimbal hardware. A few minutes later, he had an RMA for me. But he also suggested calling B & H Photo, the vendor who sold it to me, to see if they'd do an exchange. So I did, and B & H was immediately (3-minute call queue) responsive after asking if I had all the original shipping box, packing, accessories, etc. and hearing my "Yes." A few minutes later, I had their RMA and FedEx return shipping label. They offered a choice of a simple exchange, with a replacement unit shipping with 2-day expedited service ("as a courtesy") once they received my original unit, or immediate 2-day shipment of a replacement charged to my credit card with a refund upon their receipt of the original. I opted for the simple exchange. Great service from both Yuneec and B & H Photo as far as I'm concerned. Fingers are crossed hoping the replacement is fully functional.

Meanwhile, Yuneec told me they'd expedite the telemetry review of my crashed Typhoon H Pro #1. I've yet to hear definitively on that. It's been under way for three weeks.

Stay tuned.

--Doug
 
Another update: I received a new Typhoon H Pro yesterday from B & H Photo in exchange for the one with the inoperative pan & tilt functions for the camera. I call the one I got yesterday "Typhoon H #3" and the one it replaced "Typhoon H #2." Like #2, #3 arrived with a gimbal damper popped out, so I popped it back in using a wire tie threaded through the socket as a "noose." No big deal. Unlike #2, the ST-16 for #3 was switched off in the box and had a 62% charge on its battery rather than being switched on and run down. #3's ST-16 had a mushroom antenna, but there was a patch antenna in the accessory box, as well as a neckstrap. I don't think I ever opened the accessory box for #2, so it may have had them, too. Typhoon H #1, the crash victim, came with only the patch antenna and no neckstrap. #3 also had no serial number sticker on the aircraft; it was only on the box, like #2. But when I powered up the #3 controller and the aircraft, the controller was able to read all the pertinent firmware revision numbers and display them under "About Controller." #2 was unable to get the version data for the AutoPilot and RealSense®. More importantly, pan and tilt worked for the camera

My ballpark test flight field was occupied yesterday afternoon with a ballgame (don't they know I have a new drone to test?), so I had to test in my backyard. Tried Angle Mode, and Smart Mode with both Follow Me and Watch Me. They all worked fine, as did the yaw, smoothly, in both directions. Most importantly, it descended when commanded and landed smoothly in Angle Mode. Wanted to try out some Task Mode flights like Curved Cable Cam and Orbit Me today, but a front is on the way and winds were too brisk. Maybe tomorrow.

#1, my basket case, is still "Pending Telemetry Review" at Yuneec. It's been a month. I'll probably call them tomorrow to register the warranty for #3 as a replacement for #2 and ask for an RMA for #1 so I can at least get a repair estimate going. The #1 ST-16 still shows signs of a dirty or bad left joystick. It's less than 3 months old. If nothing else, I'd like to get it repaired so I can use it for Team Mode with #3.

--Doug
 
Another update: I received a new Typhoon H Pro yesterday from B & H Photo in exchange for the one with the inoperative pan & tilt functions for the camera. I call the one I got yesterday "Typhoon H #3" and the one it replaced "Typhoon H #2." Like #2, #3 arrived with a gimbal damper popped out, so I popped it back in using a wire tie threaded through the socket as a "noose." No big deal. Unlike #2, the ST-16 for #3 was switched off in the box and had a 62% charge on its battery rather than being switched on and run down. #3's ST-16 had a mushroom antenna, but there was a patch antenna in the accessory box, as well as a neckstrap. I don't think I ever opened the accessory box for #2, so it may have had them, too. Typhoon H #1, the crash victim, came with only the patch antenna and no neckstrap. #3 also had no serial number sticker on the aircraft; it was only on the box, like #2. But when I powered up the #3 controller and the aircraft, the controller was able to read all the pertinent firmware revision numbers and display them under "About Controller." #2 was unable to get the version data for the AutoPilot and RealSense[emoji768]. More importantly, pan and tilt worked for the camera

My ballpark test flight field was occupied yesterday afternoon with a ballgame (don't they know I have a new drone to test?), so I had to test in my backyard. Tried Angle Mode, and Smart Mode with both Follow Me and Watch Me. They all worked fine, as did the yaw, smoothly, in both directions. Most importantly, it descended when commanded and landed smoothly in Angle Mode. Wanted to try out some Task Mode flights like Curved Cable Cam and Orbit Me today, but a front is on the way and winds were too brisk. Maybe tomorrow.

#1, my basket case, is still "Pending Telemetry Review" at Yuneec. It's been a month. I'll probably call them tomorrow to register the warranty for #3 as a replacement for #2 and ask for an RMA for #1 so I can at least get a repair estimate going. The #1 ST-16 still shows signs of a dirty or bad left joystick. It's less than 3 months old. If nothing else, I'd like to get it repaired so I can use it for Team Mode with #3.

--Doug
Hi Doug! Have you tried cleaning the pots? Like what other members suggested on this forum?
 
The #1 ST-16 still shows signs of a dirty or bad left joystick. It's less than 3 months old. If nothing else, I'd like to get it repaired so I can use it for Team Mode with #3.
hlorenzl is correct. The stick probably just needs a good soaking with the contact cleaner.
 
I had a can of compressed air handy. I gave that a shot, along with vigorous joystick exercise. That seemed to temporarily restore correct centering and full output. But the problem would reappear when the ST-16 was tipped or jostled. Might be a loose connector. In any case, Yuneec has graciously agreed to an in-warranty repair or replacement. They're 3rd-part repair facility in Missouri has had it for a few days now. I'll update you. Meanwhile, I'm happily flying the second Typhoon H Pro I bought (third if you count the one B&H Photo exchanged when #2 arrived with pan & tilt inoperative), and my older Q500 4K with no issues. My hats off to Yuneec Customer Service for ultimately handling this as in-warranty.
 
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Got my crashed-and-repaired-in-warranty Typhoon H Pro back from Yuneec's 3rd-party repair facility (Kav in Missouri) yesterday. After checking the ST-16 for any signs of dirty joysticks in Hardware Monitor, I took it out for a very brief test flight (3:45) this morning before the winds kicked up. Hover and position-hold were rock steady. I did some basic flight maneuvers in Angle mode while running the video recorder. All went well. Video was perfect. No Jell-O. Still need to test Smart mode, Watch Me, all the Task modes, and obstacle avoidance. But, at first blush, it looks like they did a great job with the repair. Here's what Kav says they did to it: REPLACED SLIP-RING, LENS COVER, FRONT/REAR BALL HOUSING, 2 ARMS W/MOTOR, 2 SHRAPNEL, REAL SENSE FAN AND HOUSING, 2 LANDING GEAR, 2 RETRACT MODULES, UPDATED. They didn't mention anything about any work on the ST-10, but they must have done something to fix the yaw axis of the left joystick. I wonder what they mean by "shrapnel."

My thanks and a Hatlo Hat Tip (for those who remember the cartoon) to Yuneec and Kav for a job well done!

--Doug
 
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Great news. When you do your first flight remember to let it sit for 13 minutes to allow time for the GPS to update.
 
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Too late, Steve. My first flight happened this morning as I said. I waited only long enough to get a healthy number of satellites indicated for both the H and the controller. I've seen that advice given often in the fora and user videos, but never in anything from Yuneec. Might be legitimate advice, but I've never had anything bad happen when I didn't wait after a substantial drone relocation.

Meanwhile, at the moment here, it's cloudy and windy and rainy. Anything but drone weather. And now I have two working H's!

--Doug
 

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