The H and Garage doors

[rdonson]

You're welcome!

Ron

 

[Tuna]

As others have noted, the problem could be magnetic, or it could be a combination of GPS 'shadow' (Yuneec recommend 110 degrees visible sky above the drone) and GPS reflection (this causes GPS positioning to be less accurate or completely wrong - you get a similar effect driving in high rise city blocks). You can of course check your flight logs and take a look at the GPS accuracy graph to see what it does when you go in to land, or whether you're getting any momentary compass errors (which don't show up on the controller).

If you're flying in Smart mode, remember that the same problems apply to the ST-16's GPS lock - if it gets a bad reading, it will make the Typhoon 'jump' to keep the same relative position to the controller. When you're coming into land, it's easy to stand so as to obscure both the drone and the controller from the full view of the sky they need.

The comparison with the Q500 is a little unfair - the Typhoon does a lot more with it's flight controller, so problems with signals can become more obvious. It's like upgrading to a HD TV and suddenly noticing that your TV signal is rubbish.

 

[Thomas111]

Thanks Tuna

 

[wings]

Thanks Tuna

An update. Flew today, after the landing mishap of the other day and the aircraft was perfectly normal. Even did a couple of touch and goes. This was done at a school not the driveway of course. That 110 degree view of the sky might not have been there with the big doors in the way. Wondering if that may be the culprit rather then magnetic interference??

 

[KEITH KUHN]

Looking for comments about this. Several months ago I was outside in a driveway with the H and decided to do a little hovering. I placed the H on the ground about 15 ft from a large garage door. I had often flown my Q500 there with no problems. I remember that the H seemed like it did not have good Sat lock even though I had waited and checked it carefully. Never got above 15-20 ft. Finally I decided I better land before something happened and recall the landing was a little iffy as the H was moving around no matter what I did.
Fast forward to yesterday. In a different location. Had several good flights at a school. Made sure I had a full Almanac. No problems. Decided too fly the H for the first time in my driveway. Have flown the Q there many times with no problems. After assuring I had as many Sats as possible took off and simply flew in a hover, 15-20ft, in a radius of about 50ft. 14 min go by and the H flies/hovers beautiful. Very stable. Now time to land . As I got within 1 to 2 ft of the ground I noticed the H moving around some what. Figured it was the wind. There was not much of it but enough. I was attempting to stop the side movement so I could land but all of a sudden the H started toward me at a increased speed then I had selected. It stopped and then decided to fly backwards at a faster speed. Only 1 to 2 ft above the ground. Caught me by surprise. Saw the H come down a little, about 50 ft away and catch the rear of the landing gear. Started to tip backwards as I killed the motors. Replaced 2 props. The only thing common to both incidents was that they took place near a large garage door. I now believe that the H is more sensitive to metal objects near it. I was about 10 to 15 ft from the doors. It really affected the H. Anyone else discover this? I have had 75 flights in the bird but never had a bad incident until yesterday. I had not flown near a garage door since 6 months ago at that other location until yesterday. What do you think? Thanks in advance.

I had one incident similar when I was flying over some metal roofs of a barn. But in my case the drone would not respond to any stick movements finally I got it to respond which I was very happy about. sometimes you just don't know what this hexacopter is going to do. I'm sure you didn't accidentally flip it into smart mode.

 

[KEITH KUHN]

@PatR another thing that new pilots are generally confused by is the ST16 saying "acquiring" GPS and then it goes away. They often interpret this as GPS "locked".

So after it says acquiring then it says Ready are we locked in then ?

 

[rdonson]

An update. Flew today, after the landing mishap of the other day and the aircraft was perfectly normal. Even did a couple of touch and goes. This was done at a school not the driveway of course. That 110 degree view of the sky might not have been there with the big doors in the way. Wondering if that may be the culprit rather then magnetic interference??

I'm glad you had a solid flight today.

Don't forget that radio signals bounce off steel sometimes in very unexpected ways. Your flying the H depends on radio signals. Magnetism would affect the compass and you didn't report any compass errors on the ST16. It is possible to compass errors from large steel objects as well.

 

[rdonson]

So after it says acquiring then it says Ready are we locked in then ?

What do you mean by "locked in"?

 

[KEITH KUHN]

Where GPS is concerned, time has always been your friend. Satellites acquisition in quantity is never instant, and tnhe longer we wait the additional time allows acquisition of more satellites. With GPS, the amount of time a satellite has been in view with the system is also a measure of positional accuracy.

As for GPS checks, we only have satellite counts between aircraft and controller to go by unless connected to the GUI, which is not something we can do when preparing to fly. Our only other means is to let the system tell us it is “happy” through the white flashing light indication with the light color associated with the flight mode.

For those with less experience, never fly with less than 10 satellites showing for both the aircraft and the controller. This is especially relevant when using Smart or RTH modes.

The props or Motors on my typhoon H wont even start unless it has 11 satellites

 

[rdonson]

I've never encountered that. Are you in Smart Mode?

What Does Time to First Fix (TTFF) Mean?

 

[rdonson]

BTW you can look at your telemetry data to see how long it takes for the H to achieve TTFF. For me, if I've kept the almanac up to date, its usually less than a minute.

My preflight takes longer than that so I've never encountered any resistance to starting the motors.

 

[FlushVision]

So after it says acquiring then it says Ready are we locked in then ?

Satellites are never 'Locked in'. You may loose a number of satellites 'seen' by the aircraft and it's possible that you may loose ALL satellites seen in the course of a flight so they are never locked in.

 

[PatR]

@PatR another thing that new pilots are generally confused by is the ST16 saying "acquiring" GPS and then it goes away. They often interpret this as GPS "locked".

This is so true. “Acquiring” is a process every GPS equipped system goes through after the power up, self check process is completed. The use of the word “Lock” to describe GPS status is absolutely wrong as we have no lock on any satellite and very little interference is needed to interrupt GPS signal. We can have good signal with adequate satellite quantity and time in view to have good positional resolution, but never a “lock”. The use of the wrong terminology implies the user may not be up to speed with how a system works and their terminology may well have lulled them into having a false sense of security.

I’ll close this out with something applicable to all forms of aviation. Flying anything is always impacted by considerable planning for counter measures to offset things that can go wrong. As good as technology is, at times it can and does fail. Always have a back up plan for when it does.

 

[wings]

Yes like having a belt and suspenders.

 

[JulesTEO]

I doubt a garage door would throw off the compass enough to cause erratic flight; most likely GPS related (faulty gps module perhaps?)

Just last week I flew my H indoors at a warehouse completely surrounded by steel elements (columns, racks, ceiling structure and equipment, such as man lift cranes) at times very close to them.

I just disabled GPS (did not perform an additional compass calibration inside the building) and the H flew like a charm.

Here's a bit of the footage:

I would say: don't fear steel.

Greetings!

 

[KEITH KUHN]

Hi Jules how are you.
when you had your GPS disabled did the Drone drift at all indoors ?

 

[JulesTEO]

Hi Jules how are you.
when you had your GPS disabled did the Drone drift at all indoors ?

Hi Keith, I'm doing great thanks.

Yes, as it would be expected, it drifted very much after releasing the right stick; it is a big craft and it has a lot of inertia. Landing was particularly tricky because of the ground effect.

Greetings!

 

[KEITH KUHN]

Hi Keith, I'm doing great thanks.

Yes, as it would be expected, it drifted very much after releasing the right stick; it is a big craft and it has a lot of inertia. Landing was particularly tricky because of the ground effect.

Greetings!

I only flew mine once without GPS and it sure was a handful for me. it was outside I guess the wind was taking Here There and Everywhere so I had to really keep track of it.
I don't think I will ever do that again.
It was darn scary for me. Have a good one buddy Keith

 

[rdonson]

I doubt a garage door would throw off the compass enough to cause erratic flight; most likely GPS related (faulty gps module perhaps?)

Just last week I flew my H indoors at a warehouse completely surrounded by steel elements (columns, racks, ceiling structure and equipment, such as man lift cranes) at times very close to them.

I just disabled GPS (did not perform an additional compass calibration inside the building) and the H flew like a charm.

Here's a bit of the footage:

I would say: don't fear steel.

Greetings!

Hello Jules!

I’m glad to hear you’re doing well.

I think many of the pilots in this thread lack your level of flying skills especially with GPS turned off. IMHO they should be cautious of steel until they are more skilled *and* have developed your skills for repairing the H as well.

 

[KEITH KUHN]

Hello Teo!

I’m glad to hear you’re doing well.

I think many of the pilots in this thread lack your level of flying skills especially with GPS turned off. IMHO they should be cautious of steel until they are more skilled *and* have developed your skills for repairing the H as well.

Jewels really does have some good skills