TH plus fell out of the sky

[DoomMeister]

So far every case of this that has been posted to the forum, Yuneec has replaced the unit.

There has been speculation of poor solder on the contacts that connect with the battery, but if it got hot enough to melt the solder and lose power it would not magically reconnect when it cooled and there would be melted plastic around the contacts.

Other threads Yuneec replaced the unit as they suspected a faulty flight controller or power distribution module. It is hard to say for sure. Most times it is just a failure to latch the battery properly. If inserted slowly you can hear a click as the contacts start to engage and a second louder click as the battery latch engages fully.

I think Yuneec has stood by the Plus users quite admirably so far. All the cases I know of on the forum have been resolved. Hopefully this continues to be the case.

 

[Fred Garvin]

........... If inserted slowly you can hear a click as the contacts start to engage and a second louder click as the battery latch engages fully...........

This ^^^^^

It’s a mandatory check for me, every flight.

 

[SmokinAmerican]

"They say the cause of the crash was the battery came out or loss of power. "
There are still some H PLUS who have fallen like yours without a rational explanation.
I do not think that all accidents were caused by a poorly locked battery (the system is well designed).
I do not think that the battery is discharging instantly without giving a sign of weakness.
The goal is to have confidence in his drone. It is not worth it to have 6 propellers if the power is cut without knowing the reason.
If we do not know the reason, we have the right to worry.

I agree 100% with you on this comment. I can tell you one thing I am very nervous to put it back up.

 

[oliver]

I agree 100% with you on this comment. I can tell you one thing I am very nervous to put it back up.

I understand your nervousness, confidence on the reliability of flights is essential. When you get your new gear, start by flying not too high and empty some batteries by gradually increasing the speeds of evolution.
some questions:
would you have visually inspected the battery that was in place, especially at the connectors?
Was she bloated?
Did you put another battery in the T PLUS to check if the electronics was still operational?
Have you tried starting the PLUS with the battery that was in place during the accident?
thank you

 

[SmokinAmerican]

I understand your nervousness, confidence on the reliability of flights is essential. When you get your new gear, start by flying not too high and empty some batteries by gradually increasing the speeds of evolution.
some questions:
would you have visually inspected the battery that was in place, especially at the connectors?
Was she bloated?
Did you put another battery in the T PLUS to check if the electronics was still operational?
Have you tried starting the PLUS with the battery that was in place during the accident?
thank you

No, the battery was in good shape and was at 100% charge at the start of the flight. It was showing 30% when I turned on the return to home switch. On the screen, it showed the drone turned around to come back and then froze. After the drone was found the mount for the camera is pushed into the cavity where the battery goes to the battery cannot go back in. See pictures. Now I am waiting for the replacement drone and the one that crashed is unable to be flyable.

 

[oliver]

"On the screen, it showed the drone turned around to come back and then froze"
So you saw on your screen that the T PLUS went upside down and nothing?
It does not look like a loss of power, but a sudden loss of control of the drone. I have already met this one time on another drone model, without being a Yuneec.

 

[SmokinAmerican]

"On the screen, it showed the drone turned around to come back and then froze"
So you saw on your screen that the T PLUS went upside down and nothing?
It does not look like a loss of power, but a sudden loss of control of the drone. I have already met this one time on another drone model, without being a Yuneec.

No, the drone was right side up. From the way of the damage, it also looks like it came down camera first. In the flight log, there was a couple of times where the power went from 14 to 2 volts. It shows this on the first battery and also on the second battery. I am thinking it might have been the wiring connection?

 

[oliver]

No, the drone was right side up. From the way of the damage, it also looks like it came down camera first. In the flight log, there was a couple of times where the power went from 14 to 2 volts. It shows this on the first battery and also on the second battery. I am thinking it might have been the wiring connection?

my understanding of English is not very good.
And you did not get an alert on the radio that the battery was low? No messages ? No vibrations?

 

[Rubik]

In the flight log, there was a couple of times where the power went from 14 to 2 volts. It shows this on the first battery and also on the second battery. I am thinking it might have been the wiring connection?

Sorry to hear about your incident and glad to hear Yuneec is taking care of you.
As is usually the case, the most likely explanation is the simplest one (Occam's Razor). Since you are pretty confident that the battery was properly inserted and locked, the next simplest explanation is a bad wiring connection somewhere in the power supply circuit.
Now, to get your confidence back with your new unit. Perhaps you could manually shake the TH+ while running the diagnostics (without props) or while idling before takeoff. Check the log files for momentary power losses. Or, run down a couple of batteries while hovering close to the ground without the camera attached. Any other suggestions folks?

 

[nhanchi1003]

No, the battery was in good shape and was at 100% charge at the start of the flight. It was showing 30% when I turned on the return to home switch. On the screen, it showed the drone turned around to come back and then froze. After the drone was found the mount for the camera is pushed into the cavity where the battery goes to the battery cannot go back in. See pictures. Now I am waiting for the replacement drone and the one that crashed is unable to be flyable.

In this case if the drone was not able to retrieve, then there is no way to find out the reason why it fell, right?

 

[SmokinAmerican]

In this case if the drone was not able to retrieve, then there is no way to find out the reason why it fell, right?

I was able to retrieve the drone a day later. Some people in the area I was flying found it the next day and knew who flew that kind of drone. We were able to download the fight information from the drone itself and send it to Yuneec, they said it was power loss that caused the crash.

 

[SmokinAmerican]

my understanding of English is not very good.
And you did not get an alert on the radio that the battery was low? No messages ? No vibrations?

That is the strange part. The log shows 30% left of the battery. No warnings in the log files, and no indication on the screen. Just turned and fell out of the sky.

 

[oliver]

That is the strange part. The log shows 30% left of the battery. No warnings in the log files, and no indication on the screen. Just turned and fell out of the sky.

it is difficult to know

 

[NorWiscPilot]

That is the strange part. The log shows 30% left of the battery. No warnings in the log files, and no indication on the screen. Just turned and fell out of the sky.

Smokin’,

Have you gone into your ST16s to verify the threshold for low battery warnings? If set to less than 30%, it could explain why you did not get any warnings prior to the incident.

Just something to check in and effort to explain some of what you experienced.

Jeff

 

[Phaedrus]

I was able to retrieve the drone a day later. Some people in the area I was flying found it the next day and knew who flew that kind of drone. We were able to download the fight information from the drone itself and send it to Yuneec, they said it was power loss that caused the crash.

When you retrieved it was the battery firmly and fully seated?

 

[JackMTaco]

Smokin’,

Have you gone into your ST16s to verify the threshold for low battery warnings? If set to less than 30%, it could explain why you did not get any warnings prior to the incident.

Just something to check in and effort to explain some of what you experienced.

Jeff

You can do that?

 

[NorWiscPilot]

You can do that?

If memory serves, can do so for the H520/ST16s. Can only hope the H Plus/ST16s interface will allow for modifying the threshold settings.

Someone with a Plus will need to chime in.

Jeff

 

[nhanchi1003]

I was able to retrieve the drone a day later. Some people in the area I was flying found it the next day and knew who flew that kind of drone. We were able to download the fight information from the drone itself and send it to Yuneec, they said it was power loss that caused the crash.

How do we download the flight info from the drone? Please show me. TIA.

 

[SmokinAmerican]

You can do that?

It was the factory settings at 25% for the low warning. At times I have flown to bellow that to see if the automatic return to home works and to get to know what the warnings were like for the controller.

 

[SmokinAmerican]

When you retrieved it was the battery firmly and fully seated?

No, the battery was outside of the drone because when it came down it looks like it hit a fence camera first and pushed the whole gimble housing into the body where the battery goes.